First Contact: Stories of the Call Center

Contact Center Excellence, Brand Slaughtering and Remote Revolution: Eric Sims

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 outsourcing guru, but he's also the host of the groundbreaking podcast Preventing Brand$laughter, where he dishes out invaluable advice to businesses looking to protect their brand from self-inflicted sabotage.In this episode, we'll explore the challenges and triumphs of remote contact center operations, dig into the critical role of data security and compliance, and get a firsthand look at the strategies that drive success in this ever-evolving space. Prepare to be inspired and enlightened as we embark on this incredible journey with the one and only Eric Sims! So grab your headphones, sit back, and let's get started!

Empowering Your Customers Strategies for Success in Contact Centers: Rob Bayer

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 strategy and direction of Anomaly Squared, which provides call center services for 20+ mortgage groups with an emphasis on speed to lead and driving high contact rates.
Get ready to dive deep into the world of omnichannel communication and learn how to anticipate your customer's every need. This is a must-listen episode for anyone looking to stay ahead of the game in the fast-paced world of customer service.
 
Don't miss out on this exciting opportunity to learn from one of the best!

Beyond Transactional: Taking Customer Service to the Next Level: Brad Cleveland

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 worldwide.In this episode, Brad will take us on a journey to uncover the value opportunity of customer experience, and guide us through the new era of CX, personalization, and the most essential metrics. His mission is to help organizations thrive in the ever-evolving customer experience landscape, and he's here to share his expertise with us. So, prepare to be inspired and take notes as Brad Cleveland joins us on the show! Don't miss this exciting episode. Tune in now!

Leading the Change for Women in Tech: Juanita Coley

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 Consulting, a WFM consulting firm. When she’s not busy winning the 2022 “Most Influential Technology Advisors”, she’s constantly on a mission to normalize women in tech and leadership roles and make a positive, purposeful impact.
Join us for a talk on the power of workforce management, the gap in technology, jargon in IT and much more!

Building solutions to solve problems within the business ecosystem: Hemanth Gorur

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’s evolution, seeing that their core values have stayed the same: addressing the ‘so what’ factor and only building solutions to solve problems. Christian and Hemanth also talked about the ecosystem and holistic approach to realizing that the industry, the customer, or even a pandemic has forced change both into how you can do and scale things faster – from a compliance standpoint, all the way to the customer journey.

Performance-driven contact centers and data modeling: Kevin Daly

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 companies all around.
Join us and learn more about the goals and proper use of data modeling, how to leverage data and fight agent attrition in contact centers, Kevin's leadership advice, and much more!

Reasons Why Telemarketing and Cold Calling are Still Worth it: Jeremy Chen

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 of outbound calling.

Embracing Mistakes and Putting People First, a CX Approach: Bob Furniss

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 episode 6, Season 3 from First Contact: Stories of the Call Center, join us on this journey of service mentality, AI, digital front doors and a lesson on living!

Employee Satisfaction and a 360 View on Contact Centers, with Colin Taylor

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 influencers. a joy indeed

Digital Transformation and Future of Work for Contact Centers: Jon Arnold

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: Stories of the Call Center!