Working Smarter: Presented by Calabrio

Calabrio recently released a report on the State of the Contact Center, where we surveyed 250 consumers and contact center managers to understand where the contact center sits in their minds and ours.  Listen in as Dave and Shep discuss some of the key insights revealed and some things your contact center can do to close the gap.

Dave Hoekstra is joined by Kathy Sobus of ConvergeOne to discuss how employee engagement can help create Brand Guardians for your contact center, quiet quitting, and the statistics presented in the latest State of the Contact Center report released by Calabrio.  Be sure to read the blog from Kathy and Calabrio at https://www.calabrio.com/wfo/workforce-management/how-to-create-support-brand-guardia...

How is music from David Bowie, Steely Dan and the Who related to the contact center? Find out by joining Dave Hoekstra and Zack Taylor from Cisco to learn how the contact center overcomes current challenges they face in the contact center.

Ashley is a major reason that Alliant Energy has paved the way in the US using preference-based scheduling with Calabrio WFM. Listen to hear about their implementation process, agent feedback and challenges they have overcome to ultimately decrease attrition and maintain agent wellbeing!

Juanita Coley has had a long and productive career in call centers and workforce management, and we are here to talk about it all!  Listen to find out her "why" in what she does, how she empowers herself and others to succeed, and in general has a lot of fun doing it.  With her extensive experience in workforce management, Juanita and Dave definitely have a conversation for the ages!

Dave speaks to Sandrine Asseraf, Group Managing Director of Webhelp, about how reimagining CX goes beyond just a few quick changes.  The pandemic forced us all to think about CX differently, so how does a huge organization like Webhelp go about keeping their clients happy while moving thousands of agents home?  The answer is Webhelp Anywhere, a philosophy that takes the holistic customer into acco...

Dave talks to Tim Wittenburg and Craig Zweyber from Calabrio about how to ensure data security is always given the proper respect.  Tim and Craig discuss simple best practices to secure data, avoid breaches, and how Calabrio strives to keep our customer's data secure.

Join Dave Hoekstra, Product Evangelist at Calabrio as he talks to Kunal Rahalkar, Founder and CEO of Datagamz about how employee engagement can dramatically impact overall CX.  Topics include "How to find the best agent", how to incorporate performance testing vs. Performance Management, and and engaging discussion about how different regions of the world refer to the names of fruit. 

Technology is not always the answer, so we should be focusing more on the people instead of the tech. Join us for an engaging discussion around our spend in technology solutions, and why CX should always be about the people and not the money. Take a different perspective on your organization's customer journey with Calabrio and Clare!

Does your organization understand PCI compliance?  Are you PCI compliant?  Join Dave and Darren Gill of PCI Pal as they discuss what PCI means, how to be PCI compliant, and what potential liability your organization may have if you aren't meeting the PCI standards.  

Welcome to Calabrio's Working Smarter Podcast!

Rapid, transformative change swept the contact center over the last two years. Our State of the Contact Center Reports from 2020 and 2021 chronicled the shifts we’re all familiar with by now: the acceleration of flexible work models and cloud-powered operations, along with the overall surging investment in technologies that enable the agility to respond to whatever comes next. But, what about the...

In this episode, Dave talks with Katie Martell about how Contact Centers and Marketing Departments can not only get along, but help each other accomplish their goals.  Dave and Katie talk about: 1. How can the marketing department and customer service co-exist? 2. What is the fundamental role of marketing? 3. How has our understanding of the voice of the customer changed over the last 10 years? 4....

Vicki Herrell is the Executive Director of SWPP (Society of Workforce Planning Professionals) and QATC (Quality Assurance and Training Connection) and her goal is to help WFM and QM professionals grow and network.  Join Dave as he talks to Vicki about the history of the organizations, how the events help call center pros expand their knowledge set, and have some fun at the same time! qatc.org swpp...

Cummins uses a unique forecasting method in Calabrio ONE that deserves some attention, so Dave talks with John Weippert about how to forecast for non-traditional interactions.  Cummins is able to save their customers huge amounts of money in providing a proactive service to their operations, and we are excited to hear all about it!

Kate Brouse from NTI joins Dave Hoekstra to discuss the mission and history of NTI, an organization started to help disabled individuals find Call Center and remote working jobs.   For more information, visit nticentral.org or stop by calabrio.com!

Join us for an in-depth look at how contact center agents and employees struggle with mental health, stress and emotional issues.  We discuss strategies on how to prevent issues, how to deal with them when they happen, and how to promote the long term mental health of employees in a stress-inducing field.

For those looking for a true understanding of how to use Analytics within their contact center to drive results this is the podcast for you!  Daneece Sheldon is the Quality Supervisor for Radial and in this episode she walks us through, step-by-step, her process for utilizing her analytics toolkit to improve their customer service and add value for their clients.  If you currently have an analytic...

In this episode we are joined by Jim Burdick, Workforce Manager for Priority Health.  We focus our discussion on Workforce Management principles so this episode will be especially useful for those who focus on WFM.  We discuss overall WFM strategy, dealing with complex routing scenarios, WFM metrics, and we discuss a day in the life of a Workforce Planner in a complex healthcare environment.

In this episode we sit down with Brandon Caudle and Kenny Butler to discuss agent engagement strategies in the contact center.  These two gentlemen have a wealth of experience in the contact center and offer some greats insights and real-world tips on ways to engage your agents in a meaningful way in order to drive the best customer service possible.

We are excited to be kicking off season 2 of the Working Smarter podcast by sitting down with Paul Stockford, founder and Chief Analyst at Saddletree Research.  Paul is one of the the leading voices in the Contact Center world and in this episode he shares some of his insights into potential disruptors to the marketplace.  From the new generations entering the workforce to emerging technologies, P...

Our first in a series of episodes recorded at Calabrio's C3 2019 Conference from San Antonio.  Our first guest in this series is Shep Hyken, our keynote speaker at the kickoff of the conference.  Shep is the Chief Amazement Officer at Shepard Presentations, an award winning keynote speaker and New York times and Wall Street Journal best selling business author.  As one of the leading experts in th...

In this episode we sit down with Caryn Yurkstas, Senior WFM Analyst for Paychex.  Caryn started out as an agent in the Paychex contact center and has used this experience to bring new and innovative WFM processes into her organization.  She is well-respected in the contact center industry and was nominated for SWPP's WFM Professional of the Year in 2019.  In this episode we discuss the logistics a...

In this episode we discuss Customer Journey Mapping with Jim Tincher from Heart of the Customer.  Jim is passionate about Customer Journey Mapping and helping his clients understand their customers more intimately allowing them to deliver a better customer experience.  Join us as we discuss what your organization can do with a comprehensive Customer Journey Mapping exercise and the long-term value...

In this episode we are joined by Nicole Price, the Customer Experience Manager at Radial.  Nicole has an undeniable passion for the Contact Center industry and working to ensure the best possible experience for each and every client.  We talk about Nicole's history and what brought her to the industry before delving into her focus on achieving "The Effortless Experience" within her organization. ...