Call Center Conference Sessions

Session 104: Achieving Results with Performance Management Tools

Tuesday, June 15, 2010 11:00 AM - 12:15 PM
Level: All

There are a host of performance management tools available that promise tremendous benefit to the contact center, but sorting through the options – not to mention implementation considerations – can be daunting. This enlightening session will provide an overview of the various tools available, insight into the evaluation and implementation considerations, and tips on fitting a performance management project into your existing infrastructure. Hear about the cost savings, customer experience improvements and revenue benefits Chase Card Services has achieved by implementing these tools, including how using performance management to put a successful “operational” First Call Resolution metric in place at the agent level has significantly reduced repeat calls and improved the customer experience.

Elaine Weeks-Trueblood

Chase Card Services
SVP & Director of Business Operations

Elaine Weeks-Trueblood, SVP and Director of Business Operations at Chase Card Services, manages teams responsible for customer and operations impact analysis, customer experience and business readiness. She joined Bank One Credit Card Services (acquired by JPMorgan Chase in 2003) in a marketing strategy role in 1998. In 2000, Ms. Weeks moved to Credit Card Operations to manage an Analytical team responsible for helping the business understand and improve customer experience and opportunities to improve operating efficiency.

Prior to joining Chase, Ms. Weeks worked with Fleet Financial for 15 years, where she was a senior vice president responsible for credit-related marketing functions, including new product development, new account acquisitions and partner marketing. Elaine holds a Bachelor’s degree from Colby College and a Master’s degree from Fairfield University.

Session 204: Driving Change at the Executive Level with Speech Analytics

Tuesday, June 15, 2010 2:15 PM - 3:30 PM
Level: Intermediate

As quality migrates from traditional recording and monitoring, many organizations have taken the next step by using speech analytics to eliminate calls once and for all, and improve their customer experience. Learn how Bell Canada has done exactly that, and gain a real understanding of how speech analytics works and what options are in the market today. Hear case study examples of how leading financial institutions have used speech analytics to tactically improve on strategic imperatives, and drive change at the executive level. Gain new insight into the way this powerful tool can help you embrace the voice of the customer and truly move your customer experience forward.

Erika Van Noort

Bell Canada
Director, Call Centre Best Practices

Erika Van Noort is the Executive Director of the Contact Center Management Consulting Practice at Bell. She has many years of contact center experience, with a focus on strategic planning to improve the customer experience. Erika and her team specialize in identifying and piloting contact center best practices within Bell Canada, along with consulting in the areas of people, process, analytics, strategy and technology. Prior to joining Bell Canada, Erika was VP, Customer Experience, for the Customer Care & Services Forum (CCSF).

Session 304: Disney Reservations Center "Surprises and Delights" Guests with Chat (Case Study)

Tuesday, June 15, 2010 3:45 PM - 5:00 PM
Level: All

Come learn how the Disney Reservation Center took Live Chat from a “proof of concept” in 2006 to its present day application in their call center. You will see how the tool not only adds “surprise and delight” to their valued guests’ vacation booking process, but also increases conversion and revenue in the process! You’ll hear how Disney utilizes technology to proactively invite their Guests to chat, learn best practices used by their agents, and understand the metrics used to determine success.

Cal Almaguer

Disney Reservation Center
Director, Sales and Service

Cal joined the Disney Reservation Center in October 2006 as Director Sales and Service. He and his team provide leadership for the Disney Reservation Centers in Orlando and Tampa in the areas of Consumer and Travel Agent Sales, Guest Services, Air Operations, Documents, Wholesale, GDS, Training Delivery, and Cast Recognition.

A member of the Disney Cruise Line Opening Team, Cal joined the Disney Cruise Line® in 1997 as Manager of National Accounts and Corporate Incentive Sales. Soon after the launch of the Disney Magic® and Disney Wonder®, he took on a variety of sales roles and oversaw the growth of the Disney Cruise Line Onboard Sales Program, as well as the development of travel agency segmentation and Disney's EarMarked Program. Cal was also part of the Worldwide Consumer Direct Sales organization, which provided strategic ticket sales direction for theme park gates and concierge desks at the Walt Disney World® Resort.

Cal joined Disney from Norwegian Cruise Line where he was an executive responsible for national accounts in the U.S. and retail accounts in Canada. He also worked for Windstar Cruises as Manager of Sales Development.

Cal holds a Master's degree in Business Administration from Florida International University, as well as a BS in Chemistry and a BA in History from the University of Miami. A native of Cienfuegos, Cuba, Cal lives in Orlando with his wife, Getty, and their daughters Sarah and Megan. His passion for baseball and golf was joined by a keen interest in soccer and support for his daughter's sport. This led him to earn a coaching license and many years of personal involvement in the sport. The Almaguer Family volunteers at Give Kids the World Village, and enjoys traveling the world mostly via cruise ship.

Session 404: Contact Center Virtualization and Centralization

Wednesday, June 16, 2010 11:00 AM - 12:15 PM
Level: Beginner

The advent of IP telephony has enabled businesses to consolidate, centralize and virtualize contact center telecommunications functions. Virtualization increases customer service quality through improved agent efficiencies, enhanced customer experiences, improved time to response, better first call resolution, more consistent experiences, and shorter queue times. Virtualization with intelligent contact routing improves customer satisfaction and brand awareness through the perception of only one contact center with one entry and one brand. This session will examine the benefits and “how-to’s” of utilizing a converged voice and data infrastructure, which allows you to reduce expenses, streamline communications, more efficiently distribute and manage resources, and provide enhanced customer services.

Robert Lamb

AT&T Consulting Solutions, Inc.
Manager of Systems Integration

Robert Lamb is the Director and Practice Lead for AT&T Consulting’s (formerly Callisma) Contact Center practice, which provides consulting services regarding customer contact analysis, contact center technology and application development. Robert provides contact center thought leadership and support in transforming contact center systems and solutions for AT&T and it’s most significant customers.

Robert specializes in applying convergence technology to the design of virtualized contact centers to optimize the customer experience. He has developed and delivered business strategy consulting for implementing virtual contact centers and optimizing enterprise-wide performance of the contact center specifically to meet the client’s business needs. In addition, he holds technical certifications for designing, implementing, integrating and developing applications for Internet Protocol (IP) and traditional Time Division Multiplex (TDM) telephony and contact center technologies for ACD, IVR, CTI and multi-channel contact support for Cisco, Avaya, Nortel and Genesys.

Robert Lamb has 23+ years of experience in the strategy, design and development of optimized contact centers around the globe. He has consulted to over 1,400 customers and created contact center architectures which have been implemented for over 150 clients globally. Robert’s consulting client list includes organizations such as AT&T, GEICO, DISH Network, Ford Motor Company, Best Buy, General Motors, Lexmark, US Army and Air Force Exchange Service, Cancer Treatment Centers of America, Dow Jones & Co., Esurance, Qatar Telephone, International Hotels Group, Travelocity, West Interactive, Trinity Health Care, Zurich Financial Services, Recall Inc., CareCore National, Cardinal Health, Discover Financial Services, State Street Financial Services, CVS Pharmacy, Farmer’s Insurance and the US Dept. of State.

Robert has received multiple industry recognitions and corporate achievement awards including AT&T’s President’s Club and is a member of several contact center industry and philanthropy organizations. He is also a member of AT&T’s Speaker’s Bureau and regularly presents at industry conferences and trade shows.

Session 504: How Allstate Uses Speech Analytics to Reduce Costs & Improve Caller Satisfaction (Case Study)

Wednesday, June 16, 2010 2:15 PM - 3:30 PM
Level: Intermediate

Speech analytics is one of the fastest growing technologies in the contact center, but many companies that are purchasing and implementing it haven’t planned effectively for how to use it on a day-to-day basis – and therefore do not maximize its power to reduce costs and improve caller satisfaction. In this session, Allstate Financial will share how they have created an organizational model and process around speech analytics to feed valuable insight from customers into business decisions. Learn how Allstate identifies the true reasons for spikes in call volume, diagnoses anomalies in the call volume, and targets problems with first call resolution, holds, customer retention, transfers and billing systems. You’ll gain a better understanding of what speech analytics can do, what processes and resources are required to do it, and how features such as call categorization and root cause analysis actually work in the real world.

Stephanie Claycomb

Allstate
Business Project Manager

Stephanie Claycomb has been with Allstate Insurance Company for over 13 years and has held multiple Customer Service and Leadership positions. Most recently she has been the Business Project Manager for the Allstate Financial Contact Center and over the last several years was instrumental in implementing new strategic technologies such as 100% call recording and caller feedback. Now with our technologies in place Stephanie's focus is on using the tools to reduce cost and improve customer satisfaction in the Contact Center.

Session 604: Alternative Sourcing Strategies: Can I Dance on this Cloud?

Wednesday, June 16, 2010 3:45 PM - 5:00 PM
Level: All

Have you heard the buzz about hosted solutions, Software as a Service and Cloud Computing, and wondered if your center should be looking at these alternative sourcing solutions for your next technology need? If so, you won’t want to miss the insights and experience this diverse panel has to share on what they did, why, how it went, what lessons they learned and keys to success they can share. There is no better way to learn about - and avoid the pitfalls of - new technology options than to hear from those who have gone before you.

Lori Bocklund

Strategic Contact, Inc.
President

Lori Bocklund is President of Strategic Contact, an independent consulting firm focused on helping companies optimize the strategic value of their customer contact technology and operations. Strategic Contact helps companies succeed through projects that develop and execute plans tied to business goals, such as VoIP migration planning, outsourcing evaluations, technology requirements and selection, technology strategies, and project management and implementation. Lori Bocklund is a recognized industry leader in contact center strategy, technology, and operations. During her 20 years in the call center industry, 15 of them as a consultant, she has acquired an understanding of a broad spectrum of systems, applications, and operational environments. She shares her knowledge and experience through speaking engagements, articles, a two-day call center technology course delivered through ICMI, and the book she co-authored, Call Center Technology Demystified (Call Center Press). Attendees of Lori's seminars and courses appreciate her enthusiasm, energy, and humor. She has a great ability to use her technical and industry knowledge, along with her excellent communication skills, to make today's complex technology environment more readily understood. Lori has a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from South Dakota State University and an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from The George Washington University.

Brad Devine

Philips Healthcare
Sr. Manager of Service Support

Bradley (Brad) Devine is the Sr. Manager for Interventional X-Ray Service Support at the Philips Healthcare Customer Care Solutions Center (CCSC) located in Alpharetta Georgia. Brad was the project manager responsible for leading the team which coordinated a very successful implementation of Communications as a Service (CaaS) in a hosted environment. He has been at the Philips CCSC for 4 ½ years in his current role and was the recipient of the Philips Gold Pinnacle Award this year for his leadership in 2009. In his most recent role, prior to joining Philips Healthcare fulltime, he led the development of a national service organization for a specialty equipment distributor and clinical service provider. This included the implementation of a new Customer Contact support structure with direct dispatch features to field service using cellular technology. Brad’s 30+ years experience in the medical equipment service industry encompasses a combination of United States Air Force Biomedical and Department of Defense Imaging Equipment Acceptance Inspector assignments, and private sector strategic service development, implementation and management. His experience and knowledge encompasses service operations management, customer service support and customer relationship management in the medical industry. Brad graduated Summa Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Science in Technical Management, achieving a 3.90 GPA on a 4.0 scale, from DeVry University.

Roger Dunbar

Dell

Elizabeth Cholawsky

Citrix Online

As VP for products and services at Citrix Online, Elizabeth Cholawsky has inspired the company to adopt a strong customer-centric focus that penetrates all aspects of the business. Her vision is to provide simpler ways to deliver remote access and collaboration services to drive the highest levels of product excellence and customer satisfaction. Under Cholawsky’s leadership, Citrix Online has become the third largest SaaS vendor in the world, with its award-winning suite of services that include GoToMyPC, GoToAssist, GoToMeeting, GoToWebinar, GoToTraining, GoToManage and GoView.

Prior to joining Citrix Online in 2007, Cholawsky held senior executive-level positions spanning product management, marketing, customer service and business analysis. She was Senior Vice President, Consumer Experience and Product at Move, Inc., the Internet's largest real estate Internet site, where she was instrumental in driving their highly successful corporate strategy focused on the customer experience. As Vice President of Marketing for ValueClick, Inc., she led a cross-division corporate marketing and message strategy and prior to this she was Senior VP of Marketing and Product Development at Commission Junction. She holds a Ph.D. in political science and statistics from the University of Minnesota and a B.A. in government and statistics from Franklin and Marshall College.

Session 606: Best Practices in Multi Channel Contact Center Management (Case Study)

Wednesday, June 16, 2010 3:45 PM - 5:00 PM
Level: Intermediate

Providing consistently superior customer service across multiple channels can be challenging – and no one knows this more than CEZ. As the largest power company in central Europe, their customer care operation serves 3.5 million customers throughout the Czech Republic from two contact centers and 24 retail branches, as well as 59 contract partners. In this session CEZ will share the best practices that earned them the 2009 CCF Award for the “Best Multi-Channel Contact Center in Europe”. You’ll hear details of how they successfully integrated their call centers and branch operations. Learn how, through a combination of multi channel routing implementation, strong company culture, and an effective communication plan during the integration, CEZ was able to increase productivity, quality and customer satisfaction.

Milena Linhartova

ČEZ Zákaznické služby s.r.o.
Exectutive Head, Customer Care Director

Milena Linhartova started her career in international hotel and gastronomy industry where grew into director position and gained the sensitivity for excellent service orientation. 10 years in mobile telecommunication industry working in cross functional senior management and leadership positions have formed her into strong leader with broad understanding of different areas of the business. Very important experience for Milena certainly was being member of start up team of small company with ambitious goal. The goal was to become key player in mobile telecommunication industry in Czech Republic in only 5 years. Milena helped to make this happen (Cesky Mobil – today Vodafone Czech Republic). Milena has brought her 12 years experience in customer service field into CEZ, the biggest utility company in central Europe. In 2 years merged retail and customer care into one department leveraging multichannel technology with customer needs, integrated branch offices with call centers into one contact center. This major change and extreme focus on internal culture development her team rocket staring in the customer satisfaction, performance and employee satisfaction helped to deliver unique and consistent experience in all touch points. Today she is leading team of 600 people providing excellent service to CEZ customers in the Czech Republic. The team has achieved great success on European customer service field by winning European Contact Centre Award 2009 as the best multichannel contact center. Milena is member of Contact Center World group, where she actively participates in industry benchmarking, articles and strategy visions.