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In This Issue

Sharing

Speaker Highlight

Job Openings

Quotes

Sign up for our newsletter

Event Information

The 9th Annual Signature Customer Service and Support Professionals Conference
(a.k.a. Help Desk Professionals Conference and Expo)

Sign up now to be guaranteed one of
only 350 seats.


Complimentary
Tele-seminar with Eric Rabinowitz

August 7th, 2007

"Why You Need Service Level Management"

Mark Your Calendar for 2008 GCSC

The 7th Annual Government Customer Support Conference and Expo

April 28-30, 2008
Alexandria, VA

Call 425-398-9292 and sign up now to
SAVE $400

Taking speaker and partner submissions now.

2007 CSSPC
EVENT SPONSORS

Association of Support Professionals

Call Center School

ContactCenterWorld

CRMAdvocate

CRMXchange

Customer Service Group

DEMA Education

Driva Solutions

Government Customer Support Community of Practice

ICMI

Neighborhood and Worldwide Contact Center Professionals

NTRglobal

Pathworks Software

Help Desk Northwest

SCInc

Telework Coalition

Third Sky, Inc.

TMC

Unicor

VoIP Institute

 

HTHTS Home Page  |  Our Services  Conferences and Events  |  The Free Stuff

 

If there was a job for a "professional conference attendee" I would be the first in line. This month I went to one of my favorite events, the National Speakers Association Conference and Expo.  The educational opportunity was beyond description.  Every single session was loaded with phenomenal information and material that will contribute to changing my life personally and professionally. 

The speakers were so engaging that they could be speaking on one topic and three to four different ideas would come to mind.  I filled an entire spiral notebook from cover to cover with notes.  Simon T. Bailey was one of the excellent speakers who presented.  You may enjoy his CD and Book on "Brilliant Service is the Bottom Line."

I got to thinking - what was it about this experience that was so incredible? The answer is the "Quest for Knowledge".  The hunger and passion to learn is a driving force to realize personal growth and find success.  When knowledge is presented in a manner that is most conducive for your individual learning style the experience becomes more effective and rewarding.  You can realize achievement and personal fulfillment at different levels under these circumstances.

I love listening to an engaging speaker. It is incredibly stimulating.  I also love to read. Combining two learning styles; 1) watching (visual) an engaging speaker's body motion, facial expressions and 2) hearing (auditory) their words and voice intonation combined together make a perfect learning environment for me.  It is helpful to be sitting with others during these discussions because then you have someone who is hearing the same information to review the ideas with.

It is valuable to understand your best learning style. In the quest for knowledge, having the information delivered in the manner that is right for you will ensure a greater experience and higher data retention.  There are four dimensions to learning; perception, input, processing, and understanding. Visit this site to understand How to Figure Out Your Learning Style.

Woody Allen tells us that “80% of success is showing up”.  Success is not just showing up but showing up ready to learn, being fully present and engaged.

The environment is key to your learning success also. For instance, it is hard for me to attend large venues because it is uncomfortable to be around lots of people at once.  Too much distraction and noise makes it hard to focus. I'm very introverted so I often look for private areas to re-energize when there are big crowds.  When people are talking in a theatre during a movie I want to scream at them to stop talking.  I get distracted and therefore am no longer fully engaged in the movie.

In your quest for knowledge we invite you to attend our events that have been designed to be small, intimate and offer an environment to comfortably meet others and form deeper relationships, while addressing different learning styles.

When you come to any event we produce, we want you to fill pages with notes, form relationships with people who will contribute to your future success and have a memorable experience that will change your life personally and professionally forever.

The NSA events have been powerful learning and influential experiences for me.  The inspiration from these events is one of the reasons why we have been able to deliver our own conferences that rival other similar events inside and outside our industry. The speakers connect with and engage the audience, are experts in their field, and the environment is conducive to learning. 

These resources are very useful for looking at learning styles, and stimulating the mind further.  I think you will find the sites useful to visit.

There is no substitute for knowing people in your industry or in your market. These people will become your resource and you will become theirs. Active networking furthers your ability to succeed in your quest for knowledge.

I hope you found this issue of eSharings enjoyable and useful. May you discover your own learning style and actively engage in your quest for knowledge.

 

Warmly,

Ivy Meadors
High Tech High Touch Solutions, Inc.

www.ivymeadors.com or www.hthts.com

Office: 425-398-9292

 

P.S. At the bottom of this newsletter is a series of quotes on learning.


Introducing Pathworks, the first f ree help desk solution on Web 2.0.

  • Feature-rich - meets your everyday help desk needs
  • Innovative - goes beyond the basics with industry-leading advances
  • Integrated - supports help desk agents and end users in a single, time-saving solution
  • Web-based - enables hassle-free deployment and care-free maintenance
  • F ree - absolutely f ree when used for internal technical support

To give Pathworks a try, go to www.pathworkssoftware.com/helpdesk.

Be sure to tell them you heard about the product in eSharings.


Complimentary Tele-seminar with Eric Rabinowitz

August 7th, 2007

"Why You Need Service Level Management"

 

CSSPC Speaker Highlight: Lou Hunnebeck (top)

ITIL Workshop: Communicate or Fail - Designing a Successful ITSM Training and Communications Program

Lou Hunnebeck, Third Sky, Inc.

Communications and training are the keys to succeeding at ITSM programs – everybody says so. The problem is no one explains how to actually do it. This session will provide the details you’ve missed. We will begin with an overview of best practices for communications and training and then we’ll discuss the specific elements to include in your plan to make it comprehensive and effective. While the principles discussed in this session specifically reference ITSM programs, they are widely applicable to any improvement initiative.

Participants in this session will:

  • Learn the importance of having a plan in the first place.

  • Learn why training is a form of communication and should be treated as such.

  • Learn how to construct your training and communications plan.

  • Learn how to ensure the plan aligns with your implementation goals.

  • Learn pitfalls to avoid.

Take Away:

Participants will leave with sample templates for key components of an effective communications plan.

Meet the Speaker:

An IT Service Manager with over 20 years of experience in service industries, Ms. Hunnebeck is currently Third Sky Inc.’s VP of ITSM Vision & Strategy. Ms. Hunnebeck’s passion for improving how we do what we do has led her to IT Service Management from a background of process consulting, training and Help Desk/Service Management systems consulting. Ms. Hunnebeck has led global teams in best practice and methodology design and her theatre background makes her a dynamic speaker and instructor.

Click to View the Detailed Program


The 9th Annual Signature Customer Service and Support Professionals Conference a.k.a. Help Desk Professionals Conference and Expo

ATTENTION: Contact center, customer service, call center, service desk and help desk professionals – do you want to be a part of a professional community that receives outstanding educational opportunities year after year, advances your leadership skills and provides tons of opportunities to network with your peers in a small and intimate setting? Then you cannot afford to miss this conference.  Join us at the event that keeps on delivering even after it's over.

  • When: October 22-24, 2007

  • Where:  Phoenix Arizona at the incredible Pointe South Mountain Resort

  • Speakers:  Look who's speaking at the event this year:

Mikki Williams, CSP - one of the top motivational speakers, back by popular demand

Patrick Bultema, The Bultema Company, also back by popular demand and delivering fresh new material on the State of the Industry

Bill Price, Driva Solutions - The Best Service is No Service

Dave Stockwell, REI - Will show you how to build a Help Desk for low to no budget,  live at the show, in a hands-on lab.

Daryl Covey, NEXRAD - Government Best Practices

Karl Kleinbeck, How Washington Mutual successfully uses eLearning

Brandon Caudle, Delta Dental case study - Inside the Delta Dental Support Center

Susan Wick, Alaska Airlines - How they are going to use work at home reps

Brenda Iniguez , Pink Elephant - What Does a Communication and Awareness Plan Look Like

JJ Lauderbaugh, Lauderbaugh and Associates - How to De-stress Your Service and Support Group for Greater Productivity

Eric Rabinowitz, Dema Education - Process Olympics back by special request due to popularity and educational value

Kory Smith, Seitel Lees & Associates - Apollo 13: An ITSM Simulation Workshop. See and experience ITIL Best Practices in Action

Randy Celaya - Financial Strategies for the Service and Support Manager

Todd Haley and Christophe Zajpt from Honeywell shares “Planning and Implementing ITIL and Six Sigma in a Global Environment”

Madeline Svendsen, SCInc. - Understanding Behavioral Styles

Ivy Meadors, Communications from the boardroom to the platform pre-conference, and mentoring and coaching to change lives forever

--->> And loads of cases studies, plus many more excellent speakers, too many to list here.

You have just got to see the rest of this program!

Register before September 20th to save $100.


Job Openings  (top)

Director of Member Care for Classmates.com in Renton, Washington

The Director of Member Care achieves success by ensuring leadership, profitability, quality, customer satisfaction, process optimization relative to all points of the customer-facing interaction and customer retention. This position exists to ensure Classmates delivers effective first-rate proactive customer service and a high degree of customer satisfaction. The position is responsible to staff, lead, hire/fire, schedule, model, motivate, budget, forecast, develop, analyze and organize so that customer, employees and key company stakeholders’ needs and wants are met.

Details: jobs-untd.icims.com/untd_jobs/jobs/candidate/job.jsp?jobid=3318&mode=view

Contact Betty Franks, Sr. Manager, Member Education & Advocacy at betty.franks@classmates.com and tell her you read about the position in eSharings.

Recruiters: Do not contact.  Only qualified candidates need apply.

 

Customer Service Center Manager for Coinstar in Bellevue, WA

The Customer Service Center Manager leads a team of 24 agents in an inbound contact center located in Bellevue. We are open 7 days a week, 5am – 9pm. The customers are both store partners who need help fixing our machines and end-users who have questions on how to process their coins, our fees, programs etc. We also handle calls for the entertainment vending part of our business. It’s a great opportunity for someone who wants to make their mark in developing traditional call center processes for the group.

Qualified people should contact Erin Daly, Sr. Recruiter at 425.943.8125. Be sure they mention that they saw the listing on eSharings.

Recruiters: Do not contact.  Only qualified candidates need apply.

 

IT Service Desk Technician at the Port of Seattle

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS: Partner with a team of service desk technicians to monitor services. Provide initial incident support with a goal of 80% of calls resolved on first contact. Perform some first-level fix work, such as restarting services and rebooting unresponsive user PCs. Open and process trouble tickets, send email updates, contact end users, and transfer tickets to second-level support teams around the Port. Monitor incident alerts from various points. Provide first-level call support for PC and server-based system issues. Receive and respond to all customer inquiries leading to a service request or incident trouble ticket. Report any and all unresolved customer issues immediately to the service desk lead.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, ABILITIES, OTHER WORK CHARACTERISTICS: Must have working knowledge of corporate application systems. Experience with ticketing tools and desktop operating systems, including Windows XP and 2000. Strong communication, problem solving, and organization skills. The ability to identify and resolve questions independently, as well as in a team environment. Demonstrated ability in delivering high level customer service.

For more information and to apply, please see http://www.portseattle.org/about/employment/currentopenings.shtml.


High Tech High Touch Solutions Leads the Way Again

The first company in the Service and Support Industry to bring a conference to your place.

"Conference on the Road"     "Summit at Your Place"     "Retreat Onsite"
"Mini-Conference Onsite"     "All Day Brown Bag Conference"

Ivor Meadors (yes, this is my brother) and Lisa Prendergast, on our team at High Tech High Touch Solutions were reaching out to our customers to invite them to attend our conference.  They found that people do not always have training budgets or there is no travel allowed outside of the state.  They came up with the idea of bringing a mini-conference to them. Tele-seminars, eLearning, self-paced training all have value but there is nothing like having it live and in person.

Three of our customers have decided to pursue this discussion further and two have already determined rough dates, only pending their team's schedules. One company is flying in people from other departments to their corporate headquarters for the session.

This model offers not only education onsite but also exposes your entire team to the same information that gets everyone on the same page. We will customize the mini-conference to address the exact subjects your organization is interested in.

How much does this all cost? It simply depends on how many speakers and how many days.  We will review with you and give you a price that is very affordable and an investment with a high return on investment.  Remember you can send as many people as you like.  If you need the same sessions repeated because everyone can't be out of the service and support centers at the same time, we will do that too.

Lisa Prendergast will be happy to discuss details and pricing. Call 425-398-9292 or email lisa@hthts.com

Here's the conference-at-your-site model:

  • We will customize and deliver a one or two day mini-conference at your place.  Only want to do a half-day session - we can do that too.

  • You determine the topics you want to have presented.  We will arrange to bring the appropriate speakers to your site who can cover the topics you identify.  We have expert speaker contacts from ten years working in the conference world in our industry.

  • You can have as many people you want to attend for one price for the entire event.  This model makes it easy to manage the budget for training costs.

  • You provide the food and the site.

  • All venues will be customized to meet your exact requirements.

  • Have your executive do the keynote or closing session for big impact.  You may want to have your Service Desk or Contact Center Manager present a session.  Ivy, a professional facilitator and moderator can lead a discussion with your agents or reps on the panel or your management team.

    We can work any of these or other options into the program creating a venue your company's team members will never forget.

  • Our mini-conferences do not need to only focus on service desks and contact centers.  We can address leadership, customer service, motivation, hiring and firing strategies, communications across generations, and other similar topics that other business units will also benefit from attending.  We can cover specific technology topics and process methodologies like ITIL, Six Sigma, Change Management, etc.  We will only commit to deliver what we can do to guarantee a superior learning experience. (i.e. For instance, we don't teach accounting though we might be able to tell you who does.)

Example Agenda:

8:00 - 9:00 - Keynote

9:00 - 10:00 - Session 1

10:00 - 10:15 - Break

10:15 - 11:15 - Session 2

11:15 - 12:00 - Session 3

12:00 - 1:00 - Lunch

1:00 - 2:00 - Session 4 / Workshop Part A

2:00 - 3:00 - Session 5 / Workshop Part B

3:00 - 3:15 - Break

3:!5 - 4:15 - Session 6

4:!5 - 5:00 - Closing session

Session options:

  • Gently facilitated discussions

  • Workshops

  • Session presentations

  • Hands-on training sessions

  • Keynotes

  • Panel discussions


Quotes to inspire in the Quest for Knowledge  (top)

"Driven by a desire to acquire new knowledge, Europeans of the Renaissance looked to ancient Roman and Greek ideas for inspiration. The Quest for Knowledge resulted in the emergence of the individual who, for the first time in history, sought happiness, achievement and personal fulfillment."  Source: www.renaissanceconnection.org/knowledge.php

“The only difference between where you are now, and where you’ll be next year, are the books you read and the people you meet.”  - Charlie "Tremendous" Jones

"To see life from the perspective of intuition is to have vision. To see life from the perspective of intuition is to see life from the perspective of wholeness. It is to understand that life is basically one and that we are part of life. While the intellect can only see the details, intuition sees the whole. To see life from the perspective of intuition is like looking at life from the summit of the mountain, whereas seeing life only from the perspective of intellect is like looking at life from the foot of the mountain. Through learning to listen to our intuition, we learn to be in contact with the Whole."
-Swami Dhyan Giten

I'm not afraid of storms, for I'm learning to sail my ship.
- Louisa May Alcott

"Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at 20 or 80. Anyone who keeps learning stays young."
- Henry Ford

Visit this site for many more excellent and inspiration quotes on learning: www.quoteland.com/search.asp


L-IMITED T-IME O-FFER to download Ivy's personal list of 750 incredible weblinks ($79 value) for no charge is ending August 15th.  Update your profile or join our secure list to get access to this invaluable resource.

Share the resources with others: Will you forward this newsletter to someone else and encourage them to subscribe to our secure, never sold or shared readership? We really appreciate your help to grow our community.


SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION (top)


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Note:  eSharings will contain links to sites on the Internet, which are owned and operated by third parties.  High Tech High Touch Solutions, Inc. is not responsible for the content of any such third-party site.

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