|
|
|
|
|
5/7/13
|
Social Media in the City of Greensboro: Embracing
New Channels
Mary
Jutte, City of Greensboro - Contact Center Manager
Learn how the City of
Greensboro was introduced to social media (kicking and
screaming), but has learned to embrace it as a tool to
enhance transparency, reach a broader audience, and humanize
government interactions.
The City provides
citizen service and support using Facebook, LinkedIn,
YouTube, Twitter, Chat, eService and other applications.
Posted on the website contact center page - this is
how to offer extraordinary customer service:
Top Five Reasons to Call 373-CITY
1) Real people!
Every call is answered by a friendly, knowledgeable person.
2) Flexibility! Customers can call, walk in,
e-mail, or chat online with a staff person.
3)
Answers! Callers get help right away, often with no transfer
necessary.
4) Experience! The Contact Center has
answered more than one million calls. It's easy!
373- CITY is easy to remember and even easier to use!
Meet the
Speaker
Mary has been the Contact Center Manager in Greensboro since
2003. She worked in the private sector as a Contact Center
Manager since 1993 and prior to that, she was in IT
Management serving the contact center and
fulfillment/distribution industry.
Mary is a
graduate of Bowling Green University in Ohio, is married to
the best man on earth, and has two grown sons and a lovely
daughter-in-law.
Download Slides - PDF file
Download recorded
session
|
4/2/13
|
Motivation, Focus and Impact - Engaging Your People to
Perform Under Pressure
Dan Diamond, MD
No slides were used
Download recorded session
|
11/13/12
 |
The Challenges of Setting up a Contact Center in
the Pentagon and the Cultural Challenges
Valerie Brown, Department of
Defense
Valerie Brown, a Senior Management Analyst, in the
Department of Defense at the Pentagon, is going to do a
live interview with me (Ivy) on November 13th, 2012, to
share insights into this environment.
This tele-seminar is a complimentary call on culture and
building a contact center at the Pentagon that you won't
want to miss.
Valerie was a speaker at the Government Customer Support
Conference, delivering a presentation on "Creating a
Positive Culture Shift". She literally knocked it out of
the park. She is one of the industry experts on the
topic of culture shifting.
M eet
the Speaker
Valerie Brown is a program manager responsible for
several programs at the Washington Headquarters Services
(WHS). She began her career with the Department of
Defense more than 20 years ago. In January 1997, Valerie
took a position as a management analyst with the WHS
where she has championed many new initiatives for
organizational change and improvements. These efforts
include strategic planning, organizational development
and transformation initiatives, improved communication
techniques and management workshops.
Currently, she is leading a team to accomplish the
implementation of the WHS Corporate Reset, the agency's
strategic plan. The updated plan focuses on delivering
premier integrated services through increased
efficiencies. Also, she is serving as the lead for the
agency's Enterprise Customer Support (ECS) Initiative.
In this role she manages two teams.
The ECS consists of identifying and validating
requirements, conducting focus groups and initial
implementation. Valerie's innate ability to communicate
resulted in her selection with the Sierra Vista Herald,
Sierra Vista, Arizona as business reporter where she
interviewed business owners and prominent leaders in the
community.
Prior to this position, she worked as a management
analyst at Fort Detrick, Frederick, Maryland. In this
position, she worked extensively with manpower
requirements and commercial activities studies in
addition to program management. Significant among her
achievements was participating on the team responsible
for the multi-million dollar program to plan and build
the installation's first commissary. Valerie served five
years in the United States Army as a commissioned
officer; resigning as a Captain to spend time with and
raise her family..wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pentagon
|
10/2/12
 |
How to Stay COOL When Things Heat UP!
Jan McLaughlin,
Your Communication
Connection
Have you noticed? We can’t
change other people, we can only change ourselves.
But, by altering our actions and reactions we CAN
influence the response we get from others.
As a customer service or support professional, our
overriding intent is to maintain a positive relationship
with our customers—and receive a positive response from
them. It’s
essential that we maintain our cool—even if the customer
loses theirs! Why is this so difficult?
As Seth Godin
says, “It’s our lizard brain. Your lizard brain is here
to stay and your job is to figure out how to quiet it
and ignore it.“
You’ll discover techniques to help you reduce your
stress level by learning to coexist with life’s
difficult people. After this seminar, you’ll know how
to:
-
Employ the four essential factors in communication
and avoid getting pulled away from your original,
positive intent
-
Explore how your tone of voice can escalate the
situation or calm an upset customer
-
Review the three keys to active listening—essential
to reducing defensiveness
-
Isolate techniques to help you become less of a
target for negative behaviors
Meet the Speaker
Jan M.
McLaughlin, CSP is an expert
in communication—spoken, written and visual.
She helps people discover how to positively
influence the responses they receive whether they’re:
-
Leading a team or working with peers
-
Motivating or giving feedback to staff
-
Serving clients, customers, co-workers or patients
Known for her sense of humor, Jan’s programs are loaded
with practical information you can put to use
immediately. She has earned the Certified Speaking
Professional (CSP) designation—the speaking profession’s
international measure of speaking experience and skill.
Fewer than 10% of the 5,200 members of the Global
Federation of Speakers earn this designation.
Download
Handout - PDF file
Download Slides - PDF file
|
9/11/12
|
"Employee
Excellence! Define it!
Acquire it! Keep it!"
Kim Leifsen,
Business Insight Technologies
After working for a couple “Best Companies To Work For”
and a few “not so best,” Kim realized that helping
companies create an environment where top performing
employees want to work is her passion.
From her
recruiting assistant work in an internationally
respected investment and wealth management firm to
starting and leading a Human Resources department in a
locally owned and operated distributorship, Kim has
gained the knowledge and expertise to help you analyze
current systems and employees for effectiveness and
create new employee management programs to go from “good
to great”.
By helping you to attract and hire "Best in Class"
employees, and create an environment where employees
want to work and can be productive, Kim will assist you
in creating a highly successful organization that ranks
as a “Best Company To Work For”. Top performing
employees will be looking for you; you won’t need to
look for them!
Kim will add tools and techniques to your hiring process
that will transform it from an art to a science so you
can
predictably hire top performing people
every
time. Results? Substantially reduce your turnover and
exponentially increase your productivity.
A graduate of the Pacific
Lutheran University School of Business, Kim’s work and
leadership experience includes companies like The Frank
Russell Company, Almond & Associates (Executive Search
Consultants), and City Beverages/Olympic Eagle
(Budweiser Distributor). She has successfully consulted
with companies like Precor, Moss Adams, Burkhart Dental,
Isernio Foods, Brighton Jones and National Financial
Partners, to name a few.
Download Slides - PDF file
|
7/10/12
 |
"Shop Talk"
Facilitator: Ivy Meadors,
High Tech High Touch Solutions, Inc.
Grab your
lunch, or a snack, and join us for a "Shop
Talk" (aka Mastermind) tele-seminar
session. These are some of the most favored sessions at
our conferences. The in-person Shop Talk meetings we
have held, outside of our conferences, have filled up in
a matter of 3 hours. I thought it would be fun for
everyone to participate in a facilitated,
interactive "Shop Talk" session on a tele-seminar.
Details to
join this one hour, complimentary tele-seminar will be
emailed to you when you register. Again, there is
no cost to participate but there are
only 100 lines available, so be sure to
register early.
If you have
a question you would like answered, or a topic you would
like to hear more about, please send a quick note to me
at Ivy@hthts.com.
We will try to get as many questions answered, and
topics covered that are requested, that can be discussed
in 60 minutes. If this goes really good, we will do
another one to answer the outstanding questions.
Please plan
to share answers and ask questions, on this live
interactive call. This could be one of the most useful
hours you have spent on a tele-seminar, in a long time,
or at least one of the more entertaining.
We look
forward to "Talking Shop" with you.
Sign up for this
complimentary tele-seminar to get the call-in number and
access code.
(We're testing a free sign-up tool. The form doesn't
look professional since we can't change it in the trial
copy. Don't worry, it's safe to use to opt-in for the
session. Write down the call-in number and access code.
It only appears once.)
Meet
the Facilitator
With over
thirty years of experience, in customer service and
technical support, Ivy Meadors has developed a platform
of excellence upon four pillars; the psychology of
leadership, customer service as the lifeblood of
businesses, multi-faceted communication techniques, and
progressive deployment of specialized technologies.
Ivy Meadors, founder and CEO of
High Tech High Touch
Solutions, and the
Customer Service and Support
Professionals (CSSP) organizations, shares
her knowledge through speaking, consulting, coaching and
mentoring; contributing to people's growth personally
and professionally in business and in life. Her dynamic
and charismatic imprint has been felt among Fortune 50
to Fortune 500 corporations, U.S. Government agencies,
Universities and non-profit agencies worldwide. |
6/5/12
 |
"Performance Coaching: The Missing Link to Agent
Effectiveness"
Connie Smith, Clarity Health
ServicesDid you know
that companies who have implemented coaching programs
are 50% more likely to have lower turnover, achieve 27%
greater profitability and have 56% higher customer
loyalty? Coaching has become one of the most important
drivers of agent effectiveness within the contact center
yet many have not allocated the time or resource to
develop and implement a well thought out program.
An effective coaching program
is not as simple as selecting someone to conduct
side-by-side sessions to discuss "done well's" and "do
betters." There is much more to it then that. A coaching
program should be a daily routine that is welcomed by
all and is integrated into the lifecycle of your contact
center. You've developed a training program, implemented
a quality monitoring program, now it's time for you to
focus on the missing link to agent effectiveness, a
performance coaching program.
Come to this session and learn:
-
The guiding principles that every coaching program must
own.
- How to turn statistical transactions into
human interactions.
- Best practices in coaching to
quality monitors, metrics and behaviors.
- How to
get to the root of performance issues - Is it because
they can't, won't or don't know how.
Meet the Speaker
Connie Smith has been involved
with service center operations in various roles for more
than 20 years. She leveraged her cumulative experience
running multi-channel global contact centers and became
an industry subject matter expert and consultant working
with world-class centers such as Southwest Airlines,
Safeco, Staples, Microsoft, Nordstrom, Nike, Best
Western, Nationwide, Oakley and Alaska Airlines.
During the course of her
career, she has written over 50 articles and white
papers and has spoken to over 100 audiences worldwide
including such conferences as Call Center Demo, BAI
Smart Tactics, Call Center Summit, Contact Center
Strategy Forum, Quality Assurance Training Connection,
Call Center Network Group, New Brunswick Customer
Contact Center Industry Association, International
Association of Reservation Executives, Incoming Call
Center Management, International Quality and
Productivity Center and National Conference on
Operations and Fulfillment offering her practical
experience as a contact center leader and consultant.
Today, Connie is currently the
VP of Service Operations for Clarity Health Services, a
secure, Web-based service that simplifies and
streamlines care coordination while maintaining privacy,
quality, and cost-effectiveness. It's also a catalyst
for accountable care across the community.
Download Slides - PDF file |
5/8/12
 |
"Unleash Your Leadership Potential: Seven Tips to Become
an Exceptional Leader"
Doug Bear,
Kitsap County
Leadership
is the only ship that doesn't pull into a safe port
during the storm. This session provides seven tips to
help you captain your ship, and ensure safe passage
through the storm of high expectations and economic
challenges.
You'll learn
strategies and techniques that improve your skills,
empower your crew, and unleash the exceptional leader
that lives in each of us. Come aboard for an exciting
voyage to success!
-
Learn why getting out of your office may be the best thing you've ever done.
-
Understand the importance of setting a good example.
-
Improve performance and build team unity through
delegation
-
Raise the bar and be surprised by the results
-
Discover why what you say may not be as important as
what you hear
Meet the Speaker
Doug
Bear
is the Public Communications Manager for Kitsap County,
Washington. He created the County's first call center in
1994, and is managing the expansion to a full-service
3-1-1 center in Kitsap County. His leadership experience
includes the U. S. Navy, serving as an elected official,
serving on various Boards and Committees, directing
theatrical productions and leading community groups and
fund raising activities.
Download Slides - PDF file
|
4/3/12
 |
"Actionable Survey
Programs"
Fred Van Bennekom, Great Brook
Consulting
The goal of
most any feedback research program is to gather data
that will be used to drive some action. This holds true
for surveys, which seem so simple. However, collecting
good, truly actionable survey information requires
accuracy, validity, achieved through good program design
and execution.
Accuracy
requires surveying a sufficient number and properly
selecting sample of respondents so that the results
truly represent the overall group. Validity demands a
properly designed survey instrument so that every
respondent interprets each question the same way.
Without both of these attributes, the survey results
will not be reliable which may lead to flawed business
decisions.
Actionable
data also means that the collected data support the
business objectives of the survey program.The survey
instrument design - and design process - is critical
here.
This
presentation will explain these critical concepts and
outline how to achieve them through a rigorous survey
development process. The session will first outline
attributes of a well designed survey instrument.
Different
forms of question construction, such as free-form,
multiple choice, and rating scales, will be covered
along with the proper sequencing of questions.
Particular emphasis will be placed upon the proper
phrasing of questions. Response rate requirements for
different levels of accuracy will be described, and some
techniques for increasing the response rate will be
discussed.
Meet the Speaker
Fred Van
Bennekom founded Great Brook to apply the lessons he
learned from his research and past experience in
customer support to help organizations collect and apply
customer feedback. Great Brook
advises clients along with conducting workshops on
Design for Supportability and survey practices.
Fred
authored Customer Surveying: A Guidebook for Service
Managers and co-authored Problem Prevention Through
Design for Supportability: Gaining Competitive Advantage
from Customer Support.
Additionally, Fred teaches operations management
in Northeastern University's Executive MBA and at Babson
College.
Download Slides - PDF file |
3/6/12
 |
"Tips for
Engaging Contact Center Remote Workers "
Sara Starbuck, Horizon Air
According to a Stanford University study, "Does Working
from Home Work?," the evidence from a corporate
experiment, released January 2012; found a "12% increase
in performance from home-working, of which 8.5% is from
working more minutes per shift (fewer breaks and
sick-days) and 3.5% from higher performance per minute
(quieter working environment). Home workers also
reported substantially higher work satisfaction and
psychological attitude scores, and their job attrition
rates fell by 50%."
With approximately 75% of the Horizon Air contact center
agents working from home or in remote locations, it is
essential to keep them engaged and feeling like a part
of the group. With "the office" expanded to multiple
locations, how do we keep the feeling of an intimate
work environment?
Join Sara on this tele-seminar to learn how Horizon Air
engages their employees to realize the success of a
remote contact center and effect positive customer
relations. You will learn how to keep your remote
employees engaged and increase your quality of service.
Benefits of Attending
-
Discover how to reap the rewards of engaged
remote workers through increased productivity and
improved customer service.
-
Learn ways to maximize the short amount of time you
spend with remote agents.
-
Understand how to avoid some of the most common
pitfalls when working with remote workers.
Meet the Speaker
Sara Starbuck exercises her fifteen years of
customer service experience at Horizon Air, in
her role as the Call Center Operations
Supervisor.
Her wealth of knowledge coupled with her
experience as an Operations Supervisor, arms
Sara with the tools to oversee a team of 40
agents and only five percent physically work in
the office. Offsite agents work at home, or in
one of Horizon's out-stations.
Sara also leads the Call Center trainers and is
responsible for the quality assurance program.
Her degree in Communications from the University
of Washington, affords her the tools to come up
with innovative ways to keep employees engaged,
even when they work outside the walls of the
Call Center.
Sara serves on the board of the Customer Service
and Support Professionals (CSSP). In 2011, she
delivered the informative speech about engaging
remote workers at the Annual Signature CSSP
Conference in Chicago.
Download
one page handout - PDF file
OR
two page handout - PDF file
(same content) |
2/7/12
 |
"From Widget to
Worth: 5 Steps to Building a Legacy (not just a
Business)"
Donavon Roberson,
Director of Service Innovations at
Oobe
Throughout history businesses have been built around
the “widget”; design the widget, sell the widget, build
the business, and then sell the business in order to
have the good life. Today businesses and business
leaders are considering the idea of lasting worth to be
more valuable than the widget itself. Discover how to
creating a business of worth and lasting value through
the power house of service innovations.
Benefits
of Attending:
·
Understand the History of Business in America; where we
have been and we are going.
·
Discover the 5 Dimensions of
the business world of today
·
Hear personal stories and
insights from a thought leader in the world of service
strategies and innovations
·
Catch a vision for what your
business could be and dream of ways to make that a
reality
·
Realize where your business
and service model is successful and where it may need to
improve
Meet the Speaker
Donavon is the Director of Service Innovations for OOBE
Inc., a uniform company that focuses on design and
fulfillment for several nationally recognized brands
ranging from airline to food service industries. His
role is to develop cutting edge methods of service
through customer service, employee engagement and vendor
relations.
Prior to his role with OOBE, Donavon was a member of the
Zappos Family as the Culture Evangelist and Operations
Manager for Zappos Insights. In this role Donavon had
the opportunity to share with hundreds of businesses how
to create a business focused on service and culture, a
role that uniquely prepared him for the “hands on”
endeavor ahead of him with OOBE.
Download Slides - PDF file |
1/10/12
 |
"Building a Unified
Voice of the Customer: Beyond the Contact and Survey
Reports"
John Goodman,
Vice-Chair and Co-founder of Tarp
Most organizations view their Voice of the Customer
(VOC) as either their surveys or their customer
complaints. The problem is that every data source has
biases and blind spots. Often times, surveys, like
looking in the rearview mirror, only address a
customer's past experience, they do not allow you to
address things as they happen.
A
unified VOC uses operational data and employee input in
addition to surveys and customer contacts. Mr. Goodman
will provide best practices on what makes an effective
VOC and how to address some of the organizational and
political challenges you will face in building one.
Benefits of Attending:
·
Learn how to become the effective leader of the VOC
·
Enhance the customer experience with a unified VOC
·
Understand the eight key attributes of an effective VOC process
that produces more actionable, timely and compelling
recommendations
·
Create the economic imperative for action by estimating
the word of mouth, revenue, cost and risk implications
of better service and quality
Meet the Speaker:
John Goodman Vice Chairman
36 Years of Experience Co-founded TARP in 1971.
Education: BS in Chemical Engineering from Carnegie
Mellon University; MBA from Harvard Graduate School of
Business Administration. Expertise: Mr. Goodman is
considered one of the founding members of the customer
experience industry. He has led the evolution of
customer service from a cost center for answering
consumer questions and complaints to a vital resource
that helps organizations improve both operations and
revenue. Widely regarded as a thought leader in the
industry,
Mr. Goodman has managed more
than 800 separate customer service studies for major
organizations (including TARP's White House-sponsored
evaluation of complaint handling practices in government
and business and benchmark studies of the use of
toll-free service numbers by major corporations, among
others). Mr. Goodman has assisted the USDA, USPS,
several agencies of the Intelligence Community, FDA,
FAA, FDCI, Federal Reserve and Office of the Comptroller
of the Currency in complaint handling in customer
service.
His research has quantified the impact of word of mouth
and "word of mouse," as well as the bottom-line impact
of consumer education. Mr. Goodman is a frequent speaker
on topics such as quantifying the impact of customer
service, creating an effective Voice of the Customer
system, and how to best increase customer satisfaction.
Download Slides - PDF file |
11/1/11
 |
"Providing
Quality Solutions at the Speed of Conversation"
Pete McGarahan, McGarahan and Associates
To a customer nothing matters
more than getting their question answered, request
fulfilled or issue resolved correctly in a timely
matter. Enabling the contact or support center to meet
this expectation requires good practice and process
integration with the support tools. To help meet and
exceed customer's expectations, the solution, answers
and procedures must be provided to the service
representative on the frontline while on the call, chat
or having an email conversation.
A service leader must work to
increase the organization's engagement, excitement and
adoption of knowledge. Knowledge Management (KM)
should be a high priority item for any contact or
support center providing products, services or support
to customers. When it comes to KM, adoption and use lead
to measurable results and create investment value for
time and money spent to create and maintain the quality
of knowledge and shared.
We will discuss some basic and
powerful concepts of Knowledge Management in a constancy
and support center. They are creating a process for the
focus on the adding, using, flagging and fixing of
solutions, knowledge articles and procedures. The
measurable value created by the discipline of following
this process is in the adoption, satisfaction and end
result.
This session is targeted to
teach you:
-
Creating a simplistic process for Knowledge
Management that facilities the end-result of a first
contact resolution by presenting the service
representative with quality solutions, answers and
procedures during their initial contact with the
customer.
-
Creating a KM Adoption strategy that details
purpose, tactics, practices and measurements of
success.
-
Creating realistic roles and responsibilities around
the KM Initiative.
Meet the Speaker:
Pete's passion for customer
service led the Taco Bell support organization to
achieve the Help Desk Institute Team Excellence Award in
1995. IT Support News named him one of the "Top 25
Professionals in the Service and Support Industry" in
1999.
Support professionals voted
McGarahan "The Legend of the Year" in 2002 and again in
2004 at the Help Desk Professionals conference for his
endless energy, mentoring and leadership coaching. As a
practitioner, product manager and support industry
analyst and expert, McGarahan has left his service
signature on the support industry / community.
Peter McGarahan is the founder
and president of McGarahan & Associates. Peter offers 27
years of IT and Business experience in optimizing and
aligning the service and support organizations of the
Fortune 1000 to deliver value against business
objectives. His thought leadership has influenced the
maturity and image of the service and support industry.
Download Slides - PDF file
|
10/5/11
|
"New York City 311:
Customer Service in Changing Times"
Saadia Chaudhry, Call Center Director New York City 311
Over the past two years, economic realities across the
country have forced private sector and municipalities to
cut costs. The impact of budget pressures on city
services and 311 in particular will be covered in this
session.
Effective customer relations management can be
challenging when customer demands are ever-evolving,
especially in the country's largest government
call-center. Key technologies, however, when applied
proactively can enable any organization to adapt to
changing needs and budgets. This session will also focus
on the relationship between technology and customer
service operations, and offers insight into overcoming
obstacles and best technology practices.
Benefits of Attending:
·
Learn how NYC 311 used technology to solve budget
challenges
·
Avoid common customer service pitfalls
·
Apply cost saving techniques to your organization
Meet the Speaker:
Saadia Chaudhry directs the largest municipal customer
service operation in North America, the New York City
311 Customer Service Center. She is responsible for
ensuring 8 million residents, millions of commuters and
visitors, and thousands of businesses have easy and
direct access to information, services, and assistance
provided by the City of New York. An experienced
professional in consumer marketing, operations,
training, quality assurance, sales and technology, Ms.
Chaudhry oversees a staff of over 350 operating 24/7 and
responding to the needs and demands of the city that
never sleeps.
Access
slides - PDF file
|
|
|
