CallTalk™ Radio
169 episodes - English - Latest episode: 18 days ago - ★★★★★ - 7 ratingsCallTalk is the first on-line radio show specifically about Call Centers. BenchmarkPortal brings this show to listeners with no vendor sponsorship so the content is completely neutral. If you have a topic you would like us to cover, send it to [email protected]
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Episodes
How to Turn Rookie Contact Center Hires into All-Stars
April 10, 2024 17:00 - 32 minutes - 14.4 MBMany contact center leaders struggle to get new hires up to speed, and AI will continue forcing human agents to tackle increasingly difficult sales and support scenarios. Adam Levin joins us today to discuss how to empower workers around the globe with new coaching and training tools, rather than replace them. Guest: Adam Levin, Adam is an expert in contact center coaching. He is the Founder and CEO of Reddy, coaching software that trains new sales and support hires in half the t...
Getting Really Good at WFH and Hybrid Work | Guest: Michele Rowan
March 27, 2024 18:00 - 34 minutes - 15.6 MBRemote and hybrid work are not new to contact centers, but getting really good at it on scale and for the long haul, is quite new. How are organizations retaining best talent once hired, and how are they bringing people into culture folds quickly, while building excitement about these employment opportunities? How do leaders emit the energy and ethos of the organization while clearly laying out expectations and holding people accountable? How are contact center organizations adding more fl...
Replacing Surveys with Sentiment Arc: What I learned from analyzing 29,000 calls
March 06, 2024 18:00 - 31 minutes - 13.9 MBCustomer service surveys are no longer effective. Response rates are low, customers are tired of endless requests, and it’s becoming more difficult to get actionable data. A new technique called sentiment analysis analyzes the conversations you’re already having with customers so you don’t have to pester them with survey requests. This technique can reveal immediately actionable insights, including trends you might miss with a traditional survey. Guest Jeff Toister: Jeff's first cust...
Getting the Most out of AI & Automation for Quality Assurance in Contact Centers
January 24, 2024 18:00 - 27 minutes - 11.9 MBChad Tatton brings tremendous experience in using quality assurance to improve customer satisfaction, efficiency, effectiveness, time to proficiency, and sales in the contact center. During this conversation with host Bruce Belfiore, Chad will relay his experiences in helping organizations identify the right blend of people, processes, and automation to achieve improved outcomes. Chad will include some “out of the box” approaches to automation and AI implementations of QA. He will also talk ...
Generative AI Best Practices for your Contact Center Transformation
October 27, 2023 17:00 - 31 minutes - 13.9 MBSummary: This episode of CallTalk will focus on explaining the different types of Generative AI, as well as best practices to follow in selecting an LLM (Large Language Model). The discussion will help you understand what you should know, and helpy you identify the right LLM for your business. Important areas will include picking the right use cases, and the elements you should consider (cost, latency, hallucination, etc.) before pinning down your roadmap. Guest: Jimmy Padia Founder, CEO &...
Everything You Want to Know About AI and Contact Centers, But Were Afraid to Ask
April 12, 2023 17:00 - 34 minutes - 15.3 MBArtificial Intelligence (AI) and Chat GPT are invading the minds of contact center managers around the world. But what will they mean for you and your operation? Join Bruce Belfiore and AI futurist Mark Coudray for a CallTalk episode that confronts AI and its implications for contact centers headon. Mark will share his experience and thoughts in an episode all managers should hear - - to be prepared. About Mark Coudray: Recognized as a premier thought leader & practical strate...
Hiring CSRs: Latest on Security Screening and Drug Testing
April 05, 2023 17:00 - 28 minutes - 12.5 MBFrom medical marijuana to recreational marijuana, to when you can test, how you can test and what you can test, the laws vary by jurisdiction, so be extremely careful if you are a multi-state employer who is using a one size fits all drug testing process. I suspect this area will see an increase in litigation as the laws continue to change or are unclear and employers struggle to keep up. There are 51 pending bills at state legislatures related to testing for Marijuana.
Bringing Texting to Life in your Call Center
March 15, 2023 17:00 - 32 minutes - 28.5 MBAnswering services have been around for 100 years. But times are changing, and today, customers want to text companies. Businesses are text-enabling their business lines every day. But often, they’re too busy to respond to customers themselves. Join Bruce Belfiore as he interviews Gary Pudles about how easy it is to make your business “textable,” as well as being the first answering provider with on-demand live agents to respond to texts and chats when companies can’t. With Guest Gary Pud...
Future of Hiring: Innovative Approaches for Recruiting & Retaining Top Agents
February 08, 2023 18:00 - 28 minutes - 12.4 MBHiring agents has become more difficult and managers are looking for new ideas and approaches to increase success. Join Bruce Belfiore as he interviews Ravin Shah about today's market for contact center agents - and how to win with top candidates using a structured, speedy methodology. Ravin Shah is the Founder & CEO of Hellohire, a software platform that helps contact centers hire the best agents faster, while reducing recruiting time and costs. Ravin is a serial tech entrepreneur on a...
Maximizing the Human in the Call Center
January 04, 2023 18:00 - 34 minutes - 15.2 MBJoin Bruce Belfiore for the first CallTalk episode of 2023, with the theme "Maximizing the Human in the Call Center". He will be interviewing Nicholas MacDonald, director of Customer Experience at C-Lect Consulting. Nicholas will draw from a career in contact center leadership at Machias Savings Bank in Maine, where he put employee culture first, fostering employee engagement and teamwork that empowered his colleagues to provide excellent customer experiences. He is a believer in the power...
How Great Frontline Support Creates Great Agents - "How To" Tips
November 02, 2022 18:00 - 32 minutes - 14.4 MBJoin Bruce Belfiore as he interviews industry veteran Mark Brody about getting your center "unstuck" by supporting your front line agents - - and making them stars. Providing the right technology, training and leadership, combined with dedication to data-driven decision making will smooth the path to better performance. You will take away insights into CX, AX, VOC from an expert in contact center transformation." - - or something like that Guest: Mark Brody Mark Brody has worked for an...
Mindfulness Experience: Moving from Toxic to Terrific...
September 30, 2022 17:00 - 33 minutes - 15 MBThis episode of CallTalk will have Keith Fiveson talk to Bruce Belfiore about boosting your customer experience and employee engagement using leadership techniques he has developed over a lifetime of experience. Use these techniques to empower greater resilience and create positive experiences using breathwork approaches based on science. CallTalk is a monthly internet radio program for the customer service industry featuring the most innovative managers and thought leaders in the custo...
Managing Work-At-Home Agents
August 31, 2022 17:00 - 33 minutes - 15.1 MBManaging work-at-home agents has moved from pandemic emergency mode to representing a long-term challenge for most contact center managers. This episode of CallTalk will focus on tips and best practices that you can use immediately to improve performance. Bruce Belfiore interviews Marcia Presberry and Shannon Smith of National General for a half hour of valuable insights.
When YOU Need the Coaching Agents and Managers Need Coaches to Succeed
July 22, 2022 21:00 - 35 minutes - 16 MBWe have dedicated courses and CallTalk episodes on coaching for agents - an important topic indeed. However, contact center managers need coaching as well - - coaching that may go beyond the training curricula that are in the market. Tune in to this episode of CallTalk for some real insights on how you, as a manager, can benefit from coaching. Guest: Mitchell Levy | Author, Speaker, Global Credibility Expert Global Credibility Expert Mitchell Levy is a 2x TEDx speaker and international ...
Managing Contact Centers Takes Credibility: Hear how to build it best
November 16, 2021 22:00 - 34 minutes - 15.5 MBA place For Professionals Who Want to Be Seen as Credible The keys to success and happiness in the global village are credibility and relationships. Since technology has enabled us to connect with more people, how we live and do business can easily be seen. Thus, presenting ourselves as credibly as we can allows others to want to get to know, like, and trust us. Credibility Nation is The go-to community to learn/grow your credibility with the "right" people on a similar journe...
How to Guarantee an Amazing Customer Experience
October 13, 2021 17:00 - 34 minutes - 15.3 MBAn experience guarantee goes beyond merely warrantying a product against defects. It encompasses the entire customer journey to promise an experience that never falls short of expectations. Customer loyalty skyrockets when people trust your brand, product, or service. That trust is earned not by the occasionally wow moment, but by being remarkably consistent. …And that’s why we wanted to talk more about how to guarantee an amazing customer experience, and we have brought in an expert on the...
Management Challenges in an At-Home Work Environment
September 29, 2021 17:00 - 32 minutes - 14.6 MBThe pandemic has intensified many of the challenges facing contact center managers. Join Bruce Belfiore as he interviews Bob Kobek of Mobius SVP for a lively episode of CallTalk centered on issues of worker recruitment and attrition and other remote management challenges in this new age of at-home workforces. Guest: Robert Kobek | CustomerCount Prior to forming Mobius Vendor Partners in October of 1999, Mr. Kobek spent more than 30 years in the direct marketing industry and government...
How Text Messages can help Generate, Nurture, and Convert Leads.
August 18, 2021 17:00 - 31 minutes - 14 MBCustomer service allows for limited face-to-face or physical interaction, making it challenging to provide genuine support and lead generation. Instead, people are focusing on virtual interactions to continue driving growth. On this episode, Bruce will talk with Todd Fisher, CEO and co-founder of CallTrackingMetrics about how companies can leverage text messages for customer service use and help generate leads, nurture and convert leads. Text message marketing holds massive potential for lea...
Service Level Solutions: Stories of Success with Targeted Process Improvement
July 29, 2021 17:00 - 31 minutes - 13.8 MBJoin us for a conversation with industry practitioner Patrick Ebrahimian on the processes that impact access and availability of contact center agents. He shares proven ways to improve service levels and the customer experience using creative lean methodologies. You will love his football-themed playbook that transformed his center's performance. Guest: Patrick Ebrahimian is the Director of Transformation at UnitedLex, driving transformation throughout the entire legal ecosystem. He is a ...
Key Takeaways on Hiring Insights in 2021
June 16, 2021 17:00 - 30 minutes - 13.4 MBWe had a great conversation. With so much going on across all industries with regard to post-COVID operations, changing laws affecting marijuana and criminal justice reform, and employer lawsuits, Ms. Lipnic offered a refreshing perspective on the issues that affect us all.We had a great conversation. With so much going on across all industries with regard to post-COVID operations, changing laws affecting marijuana and criminal justice reform, and employer lawsuits, Ms. Lipnic offered a refre...
Leveraging Workforce Management Best Practices to Optimize Your Contact Center
May 26, 2021 17:00 - 32 minutes - 14.3 MBEfficient agents not only make the contact center run smoother, but they create a better experience for your customers. We sat down with Matt Duncan from CommunityWFM to discuss how leveraging some of the best practices in workforce management improves agent efficiency and impacts the bottom line. In this session we plan to cover four major areas of workforce management. Shrinkage Management (or overhead agent costs)Agent Skill Set ManagementMaking Changes for the Sake of ChangeThe Need for ...
The Surprising Value of Accurate Language Screening in Contact Centers
March 29, 2021 17:00 - 34 minutes - 15.2 MBOperating a contact center efficiently and profitably is not an easy task due to balancing so many challenges—high employee turnover usually being at the top of that list. Not only is it expensive to hire, but it is also not cheap to train and onboard. The average contact center turnover rate is between 30-45%, which means they hire for the same seat every year or two. In contact centers with bilingual agents, yet another element of expense and complication is added—hiring based on language p...
Silver Lining to the Covid-19 Cloud: Accommodations for Disabilities
February 10, 2021 18:00 - 32 minutes - 28.5 MBCovid-19 has had a terrible impact on people and economies around the globe. But it has facilitated accomodation of at-home work for the disability community. Guest Kate Brouse of nonprofit NTI helps disabled Americans and veterans open employment doors. She outlines how today's environment has allowed NTI's services to disabled Americans to double. Discover how. you can leverage this willing and dedicated workforce in your business. Guest Bio: Kate Brouse is a disability advocate for ...
Knowledge Management in the Contact Center
January 06, 2021 18:00 - 35 minutes - 31.4 MBKnowledge management is foundational the effectiveness of the modern contact center. Metrics from cost per contact and handle time require agents to rapidly find the information they need, and customer satisfaction demands that agents have complete and accurate answers in every situation. Even agent satisfaction is impacted by how a center manages knowledge because their job becomes easier when information is readily accessible and intuitively organized. Guest: Burgoyne Hughes Burg has over...
How 2021 Looks for Contact Centers?
December 09, 2020 18:00 - 32 minutes - 29.3 MBThe contact center world has been pushed ahead 4 to 5 years in 1 year in terms of technology, because of COVID. The rate of adoption of existing tech just exploded. What’s next? What does 2021 bring? Guest: Steve Bederman | President and CEO | NobelBiz Steve Bederman is a published author, accomplished leader, and a highly regarded Contact Center industry innovator. With a phenomenal journey throughout his career, his expertise in corporate restructuring and strategic growth brought ...
Digital CX in Consumer Utilities
November 11, 2020 18:00 - 35 minutes - 31.2 MBDigital CX is meant to provide a more effortless customer experience across multiple engagement channels. As the channels customers can use to interact with us multiply, customers demand a personalized, consistently positive customer experience as they navigate their engagement. Companies subsequently have developed increasingly complex CX strategies, and these strategies need to empower the contact center agent with smart tools to support traditional voice, live chat and email channels while...
CX + EX = Success
October 14, 2020 17:00 - 35 minutes - 31.3 MBIf you are measuring your customer experience and not measuring your employee experience you are missing a great opportunity to discover the gaps in critical issues like customer loyalty and employee loyalty. As the saying goes, if you don’t measure, you cant manage.
Emerging Best Practices for Recruiting and Training in the New Normal
September 23, 2020 17:00 - 38 minutes - 34.4 MBRecruitment, Hiring and Training techniques during the Pandemic- the traditional models of in person recruitment and training are not feasible during COVID pandemic how can you successfully hire and train CSR in a street to seat manner
Pivoting from Office to Remote – Making it Work
August 05, 2020 17:00 - 32 minutes - 28.5 MB…And that’s why we wanted to talk more about the shift to remote contact centers, and we have brought in an expert on the topic for you, Fabrice Martin, CPO at Clarabridge. Welcome to the show Fabrice. Guest: Fabrice Martin, CPO at Clarabridge Fabrice is responsible for the vision, roadmap and go-to-market strategy for the Clarabridge CX Suite of products. He brings more than two decades of experience launching new products and business applications focused on solving large, complex anal...
Customer Experience & Your Company’s Human Brand in 2020 | Guest: Craig Binkley
July 22, 2020 17:30 - 38 minutes - 34 MB2020 has created an intense focus for companies to reconsider their relationship with customers and how they serve them. The vision and promise of good Customer Experience often talks about creating“wows” with customers at scale. Yet many of the tech stack tools and operating metrics that dominate the industry discussion can detract from the fundamental human interaction that drives those positive customer responses. And many companies have yet to create true Customer Experience capabiliti...
Contact Center Technology: Embrace It – Leverage It – Promote It!
June 17, 2020 17:00 - 39 minutes - 34.8 MBAre you implementing new contact center technology? Join us as we discuss tips and benefits on how to embrace the technology to transform the customer, employee and business experience by leveraging it within and beyond your department while promoting the benefits, results and successes throughout your organization.
How A.I. is Transforming Contact Centers & Saving You Money
May 13, 2020 17:00 - 33 minutes - 30 MBAre you struggling with scaling cll capacity in this time of pandemic? Could you leverage artificial intelligence to make your calls smarter? This episode of CallTalk will provide tips and insights on how to properly assess AI for your center's needs, keep the call flows going, and make you a hero to your CFO by reducing costs. This will include definitions of AI and examples of implementations. Guest: Tim McLain A passionate technologist at heart with more than 25 years of marketing exp...
Busting the Barriers to Success: Your Center and Back Office Functions
April 15, 2020 17:00 - 34 minutes - 30.9 MBAgents complain they can’t find customer data because the software is out of date. Managers take too much time to finish weekly reports. BI software is out of date and not capturing the right analytics. If these things sound familiar, you will want to join our discussion on the next CallTalk podcast. Our guest Nancy Munro, CEO of Verbal Transactions will speak about the importance of aligning back office functionality to improve customer service and ensure you’re managing to the right metrics...
MANAGING WITH COVID-19 | BenchmarkPortal's Virtual Town Hall
April 03, 2020 17:00 - 1 hour - 54.4 MBJoin us for a free, fact-filled session on what you can do to manage your center through the Coronavirus pandemic. Information you can really usePanelists representing large, medium and small contact centersFocus on new insights, not same old platitudes Forty-five minutes of meaty discussion and storytelling from managers who are on the front lines managing through this crisis right now. No sponsors, no vendors, no commercials. Just great information and tips on how to manage through t...
Let’s Clear the Smoke: Drug Testing, Background Screening, and COVID-19
March 18, 2020 17:00 - 31 minutes - 28.2 MBJoin Christine Cunneen, CEO of Hire Image, a nationally accredited background screening company, as she shares helpful information about the latest drug testing and background screening trends facing call centers. Learn what is happening with marijuana legislation across the country, the latest drug testing developments, and other state and local updates affecting the industry in 2020. Guest: Christine Cunneen | Hire Image As CEO of Hire Image LLC, Christine Cunneen sets the company’s v...
SPECIAL CALLTALK: Coronavirus & Contact Center Management
March 12, 2020 17:00 - 34 minutes - 30.9 MBGuest Dr. Charles Fenzi and our host, Bruce Belfiore, author of Coronavirus and your Call Center: Don’t Panic – Plan and Prepare, which focuses on how to show true management leadership in the face of this crisis. This special episode of CallTalk™ is dedicated to providing you information and advice that will make you better able to display, and develop, your management skills in a time of Coronavirus. Learn ways to protect your most precious assets - - your colleagues - - while serving you...
Living Wage vs. Market Wage: Pros, Cons, Whys & Hows for Contact Center Manager
February 26, 2020 18:00 - 36 minutes - 32.3 MBJoin Bruce Belfiore as he talks with Mike Dershowitz about the market and corporate forces that push us to offer compensation based on market conditions, and about the human and political elements that push toward offering “living wage” compensation. Mike will build on concepts he first shared with us during his previous appearance on CallTalk (“Fair Trade Outsourcing: Ethical and Profitable”) and will unpack the many issues surrounding the living wage issue. He will draw on his experiences...
Hidden Obstacles to Outstanding Contact Center Service
October 31, 2019 17:00 - 38 minutes - 34.4 MBAre you endlessly trying to get agents to improve their customer service? There might be a culprit you’ve never considered. Discover hidden and counterintuitive obstacles that hurt agent performance. You’ll learn: Why rewards and games often makes service quality worseHow wall boards can increase your queuesWhat secret your agents know that can immediately improve service Guest Jeff Toister Jeff Toister is a best selling author who has written three customer service books, including Gett...
Agent Performance and Quality Training
July 31, 2019 17:00 - 33 minutes - 30.2 MBEver have a bad experience with a contact center agent? Why do you think this happened? One answer may be poor training or poor coaching – either way these situations can be avoided. Join us for our next discussion to hear Nancy Munro share tips and advice on how contact centers can build better and more effective training programs. Guest: Nancy Munro, CEO of Verbal Transactions, has over 28 years in helping organizations implement and deploy voice enablement solutions. Nancy has worked ...
Incentives, Gamification and Engagement - a new take
June 19, 2019 17:00 - 36 minutes - 32.5 MBGamification and Engagement have been used in contact centers for some time now and so far, the results have been… mixed. Why do some Gamification and Engagement programs work so well for some organizations, and fall flat for others? Fresh out of the military and religious service, Elijah stumbled upon Snowfly, a leading gamification-based incentive, engagement, and analytics company, that did things differently. It’s a company that focused on people and understood and leveraged human psycho...
Contact Center Associations: Leveraging Information and Networking
May 22, 2019 17:00 - 31 minutes - 28.4 MBContact center industry associations can contribute a lot to the success of your center and your career. However, many managers don't consider joining or, if they do, fail to make the most of their investment. We have brought in an expert who has seen this from both sides, and can tell you how to make the most of the opportunities that associations offer.
Conversational Virtual Agents: Advantages and Caveats
April 10, 2019 17:00 - 33 minutes - 30.1 MB"Conversational Virtual Agent (sometimes known as chatbots) are all the rage. There has been an explosion, with easily accessed and low-priced conversational frameworks from the likes of Amazon and Google. However, while it’s easy to put together a bad conversational application, developing and deploying one that actually provides a useful service for everyone involved is a different matter. Join this show to hear about the different channels on which virtual agents can act, how their knowl...
Customer Care in a “Transhuman Era”
March 20, 2019 17:00 - 33 minutes - 29.3 MBTechnology is impacting every aspect of our lives from home shopping, home deliveries, video streaming, voice activated home hubs, to kids paying to watch their favorite gamers … well play Video Games. Technology developments in Customer Care world are also developing at a dizzying pace and the increased use of live chat, SMS, Social Channels and Chat Bots in customer care are staggering)
Drama, The Poison of Customer Service
February 06, 2019 18:00 - 36 minutes - 32.9 MBThe Call Center industry can be full of drama that can be a poison to the customer experience, employee satisfaction, agent retention and your overall center performance. In this episode, we will learn how to identify different types of drama and discuss things you can do right now to overcome the negativity associated with drama.
Changing the way collection agencies are viewed by being Ridiculously Nice!
January 23, 2019 18:00 - 33 minutes - 30.1 MBHas the collections industry taken a few black eyes through the years? Yet, your specific company was not at fault? Does your company get “stereotyped” unfairly Our guest today, owns a collection agency that is intent on changing the way collection agencies are viewed - - by being ridiculously nice. Not just nice, ridiculously nice. Today, we are going to talk to CEO of Americollect, Kenlyn T. Gretz who will explain how to change the way collection agencies are viewed by being ridicul...
Turning Your Contact Center into a Profit Center by Leveraging Chat
December 21, 2018 18:00 - 42 minutes - 38.3 MBContact centers are under increasing pressure to become profit centers and leverage new channels of engaging customers. Live chat is growing in use--especially among millennial customers--and chat communications can be optimized using machine learning in order to improve engagement, reduce cost and grow sales.
Workforce Management: New Insights From a Seasoned Veteran
November 20, 2018 18:00 - 37 minutes - 33.6 MBWorkforce Management is both science and art. Hear the voice of experience as Rick Lee, Workforce Manager for Convergys, is interviewed by host Bruce Belfiore on his WFM best practices tips. Practitioners who are looking for a deeper level of WFM insight should join this episode.
Highlights from Call Center Campus
October 31, 2018 17:00 - 42 minutes - 37.7 MBHighlights from Call Center Campus - Everything You Need To Know
Digital Workforce, Keeping Automation Real
September 12, 2018 17:00 - 34 minutes - 30.6 MBNowadays you hear a lot of companies who are doing ‘something’ with Automation (RPA) or Artificial Intelligence (AI), however what is the real story behind it, is it truly as easy as the vendors pitch it or does it require effort?
The power of an effective feedback loop
August 08, 2018 17:00 - 38 minutes - 34.5 MBInformation feedback is the lifeblood of continuous improvement for contact centers. However, most centers don't employ a structured approach to originating, processing and acting on feedback. In this session, guest Pam Wilson explains the 4 stages required for a feedback loop to have full efficacy. We will discuss the four stages and Pam will share how she has seen them best implemented in call center settings.