First Contact: Stories of the Call Center

Welcome to the newest episode of First Contact: Stories of the Call Center! In this episode, we're joined by none other than Dan Greenwell, the CEO of Customer Dynamics. With over three decades of business experience in executive roles, Dan has a wealth of insights and knowledge to share. His company, Customer Dynamics, is a leading force in creating innovative, cost-effective, and user-friendly c...

Get ready to dive into the newest episode of our podcast, where we had an engaging and insightful conversation with the brilliant Jim Iyoob, Chief Customer Officer at Etech Global Services. 🎙️ Jim is at the helm of a company that is known for its outstanding customer engagement solutions, including contact center services, customer support, sales, and technical support. With years of hands-on expe...

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another exhilarating episode of our podcast! Today, we're diving deep into the world of contact centers, brand protection, and the remote revolution with a true industry expert. Get ready to be blown away by the insights and knowledge of Eric Sims, Cofounder & CEO of Leading Edge Connections, America's #1 fully remote outsourced contact center. Not only is Eric an...

Are you ready to learn the latest and greatest customer empowerment strategies from a seasoned industry expert? In this episode, we have a special guest who shares their secrets to success in contact center management and remote work optimization.   Rob Bayer, president of Anomaly Squared is an executive with more than 25 years of contact center experience. He is responsible for the overall strate...

Attention all podcast listeners! Get ready to step up your customer strategy game because we have a treat for you! Our guest today is none other than Brad Cleveland, the global authority on customer strategy and management. With over 45 states and 60 countries under his belt, Brad has worked with top service leaders such as Apple, American Express, and USAA, and has even advised governments worldw...

Here we are, at the end of another fascinating season grounded in knowledge and inspiration. This is episode 10 of First Contact Podcast, where we’re diving deep into workforce management in contact centers with one of the most prolific women speakers of this type of enterprise solution, the Contact Center Whisperer and expert – Juanita Coley. Juanita is the CEO and founder of Solid Rock Consultin...

Join us for a new episode with Hemanth Gorur, Vice President of Consulting Services at CGI - a company providing information technology and business process services. Hemanth started his career with CGI as a developer in India in 2001 and has worked in various roles within CGI focusing exclusively on the banking industry. It was great conversation around Hemanth’s story and the journey through CGI...

In this episode, we're joined by the founder of Value Ad and the creator of Bestpair, Kevin Daly for a practical and earnest discussion on data-driven results and a magical mix of client, product, and agent. With a diverse and complex set of roles in his background, Kevin has combined his experience in sales management and insurance to create a data service that is benefiting the performance of co...

Welcome to a new episode, where we’ll dive deep into the world of B2B sales with sales expert Jeremy Chen, who helps B2B technology companies perfect their sales teams go-to-market strategy. In this episode, he is dropping some real knowledge on the intricates part of sales management, the structure of a perfect cold call and the mindset behind it, why telemarketing is still alive and the future o...

Customer service is one of our favorite topics to tackle in this show, but having Bob Furniss over for this special episode was truly something. For almost 40 years in the industry, Bob Furniss is known as the renowned customer service and experience expert, and his mission will always be driving customer success by designing effective service and support strategies for his clients. This is episod...

It was a joy to have Colin Taylor, the CX expert, on our show for an awe-inspiring and upbeat discussion on customer journey, employee satisfaction, self-service and much more! Leading The Taylor Reach Group to success in call center and management consulting for almost 20 years, Taylor is the CEO & CCO (Chief Chaos Officer) and one of Canada’s leading contact/call center pioneers, leaders and inf...

Jon Arnold is a widely followed analyst and thought leader with a strong presence in the media and a focus on communication technologies, unified communications, AI, contact centers and more! We recently talked to Jon about a mindset shift and newfound expectations in adopting new tools and technologies, megatrends, and his favorite piano songs! This is Season 3, Episode 4 of First Contact: Storie...

Today we’re joined by a veteran of the contact center industry, a training expert, CEO, author, and podcaster himself - you might know him as the Contact Center Coach - Michael Tamer.  Michael started in the entry levels of the call center, gained more than 40 years of experience in the industry and is a visionary who was at the forefront of contact center quality monitoring software development....

Richard Blank, outsourcing industry leader and the CEO of Costa Rica's Call Center, joins our podcast for an exciting new episode. Christian and Richard discuss what makes a successful phone call, strong corporate culture and leadership, owning engagement through retro gaming, to name a few themes.  Tune in on a new story, one of many twists and turns, while Richard is taking us along his fascinat...

Well, well, well, if it’s not the first episode from season three of the First Contact: Stories of a Call Center podcast! We have the pleasure of kicking off this new journey with one of the most widely-known individuals in the ARM landscape. Harry Strausser III is a well-respected voice of the collection industry and a certified ACA instructor, educator, and speaker. Join us in this talk on self-...

Whew, what a wild ride it's been for our show this year. This month, we're ending on a high as you've come to expect. We've got Michael Ferree here to chat with Christian about a topic that's been eluding our show for a surprising amount of time considering we're all about contact centers. Of course, we're talking about Lead Generation. Michael is an industry connoisseur, leading two major events...

A frank discussion between two seasoned salespeople? A hard look at the concept of persuasion and how to use it for sales? A genuine connection about providing people value through the act of selling? Episode 9 of First Contact, Stories of the Call Center is all of those things and more! Join Christian as he delves deep into the core of sales in a brilliant discussion with Jason Cutter, podcaster...

Workforce management is not typically a topic we cover on our show, but this month we've got Daryl Gonos here with us to make that right. He's the Founder & CEO of Community, a modern workforce management solution specifically tailored to omnichannel  call centers, currently in use by some of the biggest names in the space. With over 40 years of experience, Daryl talks to Christian about all the s...

This month on First Contact: Stories of the Call Center - Christian is joined by a topmost expert in the field of call center benchmarking, training and certification - Bruce Belfiore. Bruce prides himself in being a man of many experiences, having dual nationality - US and Italian, having been both COO and CFO of different companies, and having hosted the CallTalk Podcast for over 12 years - ther...

As the youngest guest we've had on the podcast so far, Marc Bernstein comes into the discussion with Christian with appropriately fresh and exciting ideas. He's the CEO of Balto, a company that's basically synonymous with bleeding edge tech. Launched 3 years ago, they now present themselves to the contact center world as the no. 1 real time guidance for contact centers. In this episode, he explain...

This month on First Contact, we're talking to a prodigy of call center migration, with many successful operations under his belt and a wealth of fascinating cross-industry experiences. Frank Wassenbergh is the CCaaS Practice Leader and Managing Partner of Cloudlinx, a CCaaS Advisory group dedicated to securing effective and well-though-out migrations for their clients. In this recording, Christian...

How has the contact center world weathered the covid storm from a tech standpoint? For insights on this topic, this month we're joined by Fred Stacey - an expert in contact centers, CCaaS, consultancy, and contact center outsourcing.  As the Co-Founder and General Manager of Cloud Call Center Search, a company that specializes in guiding clients to select the best call center solutions for their n...

This episode we had an absolutely brilliant talk with the most influential person in CX over the past 10 years or more: none other than Colin Shaw. We talked to Colin about his many achievements: from his many books to being named in the top 150 LinkedIn influencers, to his company Beyond Philosophy being named Leading Consultancy by Financial Times 3 years in a row. Christian was on fire this epi...

One type of entrepreneur we've never featured on or show, but which is very common within the contact center space, is the serial entrepreneur. Gary Pudles, CEO of AnswerNet, has spent a lifetime taking businesses from the rocky contact center path towards the streamlined road to success. Gary's been around the block a few times and many regard him as the topmost authority within the acquisition s...

Welcome to Season 2! As for our first season, we begin with Steve Bederman, CEO of NobelBiz and Executive Producer of the show you're listening to. He joins Christian Montes to talk about the first season, what his expectations were and how they were surpassed. He also has a few surprises for fans of his writing - so be sure to listen closely for hints about his future endeavors. Above all, the di...