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A refreshing change - no vendors of products or services are invited to speak and sell you anything. This conference is void of sales pitches by speakers!!
(Conf Day 1) Jun 9 | (Conf Day 2) Jun 10 | (Conf Day 3) Jun 11 | (Conf Day 4) Jun 12
| 8:00 AM |
Welcome |
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| 8:15 AM |
Community Spirit Best Practices - Case Studies
Raising your profile and doing great things for the community is a major drive for many organisations. Balancing the needs of the contact center, the community and corporation can be a challenge yet the rewards are amazing. Hear from these organizations - each has a different story to tell and share.
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Center Size: 2381
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 (United States) Rosemarie Donzanti, Senior Vice President, CVS Caremark
CVS Caremark is the only fully integrated pharmacy health care company in the United States with over 2300 Customer Care Reps. Hear how their Customer Care colleagues are so highly engaged with their community. Hear how they impact their community across the five states (seven cities). Find out about their “A Million Ways We Care” Campaign. Learn how Colleagues are now able to measure the true impact of their volunteer efforts. Each Customer Care site has a Community Team of colleagues who help coordinate site volunteer outreach activities. They have an amazing team that strives to improve the quality of human life in all that they do. CVS Customer Care has proven they do make a difference in their communities!
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Center Size: 400
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(United States) Executive Assistant and Marketing Associate, Inktel Direct
Through iCares (i.e. “Inktel Cares”) initiative, Inktel Direct gives life to their philosophy of corporate citizenship. An outsourcer with over 400 agents, the company actively partners with charitable organizations, they pride themselves in a commitment to the community. Find out how they nurture the growth of the next generation of local leaders by partnering with local high schools and matching them with outstanding mentors of the Inktel team. These “at risk” kids get the opportunity to work at Inktel and see firsthand what corporate life is all about. Hear about their participation with Hands on Miami and how partnerships with organizations like St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital raise much needed funds. | |
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Center Size: 195
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 (Canada) Patrick Cerullo, Director, Call Centre Operations, Shepellfgi
Shepell·fgi provides health and productivity solutions to employees and employers in Canada, the U.S. and globally. With 215 contact center staff, the community benefits from their contact centre in two key ways. Firstly, they have collected and contributed tangible items to support our community and individuals. Secondly, the community benefits from their contact centre through the funds they raise and donate to charities and organizations that support various causes in our community. Hear how they engage staff, what information information and education they gather on the organizations and how they share how their contribution will make a difference in the community. | |
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Center Size: 1200
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(United States) Whirlpool Customer eXperience Center
Whirlpool Corporation is a manufacturer and marketer of major home appliances. They have 1300 agents in their center. Since the inception of the center in 1967, it has been increasingly engaged with community involvement. As the operation has expanded in size and number of locations, it has proudly become involved with numerous organizations and causes in both the United States and Canada. Hear how their community involvement has had an extremely positive impact on employee morale and this is reflected in their performance on the job. The contact center has a large percentage of employees who work with a number of organizations including United Way, Habitat for Humanity, Boys & Girls Club, as well as Emergency Homeless Shelters and “food drives”. | |
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| 9:15 AM |
Panel session on Community Spirit Best Practices
We invited these additional 'community spirit' focussed centers to share their knowledge and skills in an interactive knowledge sharing session - each will share their top 5 tips for how to get involved, managing your priorities, how to engage staff and more.
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Center Size: 200
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(Canada) Julie ROBERT, Care Centre Team Lead, Accenture
With over 200 agents at the Contact Centre in British Columbia, Accenture employees are passionate about their communities and are putting a creative spin on fundraising. This creativity has encouraged employee’s friends, families and colleagues to improve their communities through small acts that collectively make an impact. During the year every contact centre employee participated in some fundraising activity and it has become a part of their culture to support our community. Find out about their contact centre S.W.A.T team and how they get involved in a diverse range of activities. Hear how corporate citizenship programs diminishes barriers and makes it easier to relate to one another internally.
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Center Size: 209
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(United States) Donna McTavish, Senior HR Administration Consultant, New York Life
Through our corporate Volunteers for LIFE (VFL) program, the center is actively involved in donations collecting various in-kind items such as school supplies, canned food, and holiday gifts, as well as disaster relief. We also are extremely involved in various volunteering projects, where we spearhead specific projects such as painting a home for a low income elderly in the community and a park beautification. In addition, we participate in the annual United Way Campaign and other fundraising efforts for various non-profit agencies. We also participate in the company wide event of Global Day of Service where projects were coordinated, facilitated and supported by contact center employees. | |
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Center Size: 5000
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(United States) David Wylie, Corporate Communications Manager, Precision Response Corp. (PRC)
Since the Company was established in 1982, the spirit of Corporate Citizenry has been strong at PRC through “PRC Pros- People Reaching Out.” In 2005, PRC decided to upgrade its community outreach program with a new name, PRC Community Care. This group has developed a greater vision as to how PRC can better support the communities where we live and work. PRC Community Care is successful because of the participation and generosity of the frontline employees, and support from the company’s leadership. We see this program as a way to be a good neighbor, and as a way to have a positive impact on people’s lives and our employees find it extremely fulfilling. | |
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Center Size: 1400
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(United States) Laura Camastro, Marketing Coordinator, Virtual-Agent Services
Morale is at an all time high when the team participates in community activities. With centers in small rural areas, the bond among employees and with their community is very strong. The company is always refreshing and reinventing our efforts to make activities enjoyable and beneficial. For example, last spring our center hosted a fund raiser for the local animal shelter. The person to make the largest donation was granted the opportunity throw a whipped cream pie into their manager’s face (with the manager’s full cooperation of course). The activity was so successful, that they repeated it the next time the company president made a visit. They not only raised even more money than the previous campaign, but also were able to truly enjoy the experience of throwing a pie in someone’s face (the president’s no less!). | |
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We will also have senior executives from the following centers on hand to share their community experiences with delegates - these companies will be presented with a Highly Commended Award for excellence
 |  |  |  | ACCENT Marketing
| Credit Protection Association, LP
| Midwest Contact Center
| StarTek
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|  | Virgin Mobile Canada
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| 9:45 AM |
Morning Break |
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| 10:15 AM |
Contact Center Best Practices - Case Studies(51 - 249 Agents)
Managing a medium sized contact center is what these award winners will talk about. Each has a unique perspective and story on what they do and how. Find out about their specific challenges and opportunities as the best from Asia, Europe and the Americas share ideas.
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Center Size: 215
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(United States) Jerry Hennessy, Director, Customer Service, DHL Express
The Customer Contact Center was established in 1989 and the objective was to develop a centralized national call center to handle inbound customer calls. Before the call center was established customers contacted field offices. The field contact model was inefficient with opportunity to improve cost and quality. The contact center is a key differentiator. The strategic role of customer service is centered on expertise and provisioning specialized information surrounding documentation, customs and commodities. Competitively, DHL Express stands out as the expert international provider capable of crossing borders amongst 220 countries. The center houses 215 agents. | |
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Center Size: 160
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(Canada) Phil Taylor, ING Direct
The first center was established in 1997. ING Direct are a virtual bank therefore having a contact centre was a necessary requirement to promote accesability to it's customers whenever they needed us 24/7. One of ING Direct's fundamental beliefs is to work hard and play hard. The centre has numerous events in the 168 agent call center to show employees of their appreciations. From providing food, drinks and snacks during busy periods and holidays to formal events to recognize employees for their hard work. The strategy is to support the corporate objectives. The call center goals and 3 year vision are closely aligned with the overall goals of the organization which is to deliver a best inclass client experience. This type of service ultimatley leads to revenue generation and finally a positive impact on shareholder value. | |
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Center Size: 200
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(United States) Beth Newton, Director Quality Assurance and Continuous Improvement, MassMutual
The first call center was established in 1982 in an effort to centralize support services. Subsequently, additional call centers, modeled after the original, were added to support each business unit. MassMutual is a leading mutual life insurance company that is run for the benefit of its members and participating policyholders. With whole life insurance as its foundation, MassMutual provides products to help meet the financial needs of clients, such as life insurance, disability income insurance, long term care insurance, retirement/401(k) plan services, and annuities. The call centers with over 280 agents, partner together to maximize efficiencies, share best practices, and collaborate. Sharing telephony and technology expenses for better cost and efficiency. MassMutual has specialized customer service representatives dedicated to each specific line of business. The call centers represented are Retirement Services Participant Information Center and Retirement Specialist Group, Life, Annuities, Disability Income, MMLISI, Concierge.
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Center Size: 120
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(United States) LaRonda Taylor, Care Center Manager, Zurich North America
The Zurich Claims Care Center was first established in 1997. During the 13 year existence the center has changed and expanded significantly. Initially primarily an intake center for customers, the center has now expanded to become more sophisticated using skills based routing. With approx 120 agents, the confluence of dedicated systems and people, working synergistically to deliver Zurich's HelpPoint philosophy of "Being There When It Matters" consistently to each and every Zurich customer and client on a global level. | |
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We will also have senior executives from the following mid sized contact centers on hand to share their operational knowledge with delegates - these companies will be presented with a Highly Commended Award for excellence in their contact center
 |  | | First American
| Global Payments Inc.
| Shepellfgi
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| 11:15 AM |
Contact Center Support Professional - Workforce Planning Best Practices - Case Studies
We all value the skills of workforce planners - maybe you do your own on a simple spreadsheet. hear from the best as they share their knowledge and ideas in this interactive panel session. You will go away with at least 5 top tips from each presenter
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Center Size: 160
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(Canada) Paul Guzman, Resource Analyst, ING Direct
ING Direct's goal is to have a contact center that is second to none. Engaged employees are a big part of this picture. ING Direct are committed to creating an atmosphere that is conducive to providing employees with a great place to work. The most important part of Paul's role is ensuring the most ideal balance for an associate’s work and personal life. The magnitude of an organization’s ability to succeed is largely based on the service provided by its’ front line staff. Excellent service is key in retaining and acquiring clients. Associates that a very content with their workplace are simply more productive and likely to provide exceptional service, which translates into satisfied clients. | |
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Center Size: 75
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(United States) Jennifer Lamoreux, Workforce Management Analyst, Midwest Contact Center
Jen is a Workforce Management Analyst. She is responsible for or contributes to completing weekly schedules for seven call centers with a combined 270 agents. The scheduling duties include approving time off and recommendations for overtime, reduction of hours or shift changes to provide appropriate coverage. Also included in the weekly duties is the trending for prediction of weekly forecast of volume and AHT. She is tasked with completing ‘what if’ schedules as needed and making recommendations for hiring additional staffing. Jen started her call center career as an agent taking inbound customer service calls. She was an agent for 5 years before becoming a lead within a special accounts area servicing high volume sales. She eventually became a supervisor of that area. She has also supported the call center as a real time analyst to maintain service levels and coached employees with adherence and resolution of customer issues. | |
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Center Size: 1200
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(United States) Walt Kelly, Senior Manager, Workforce Management, Whirlpool Customer eXperience Center
Walt is the Manager, North American Region Workforce Management. He is responsible for Capacity management for 4 sites and 1300 agents that comprise the virtual contact center enterprise. His role is to make certain the correct number of agents with the appropriate skills are at the right place and time when customers choose to reach out to the company for information or assistance. He also supports, nurtures and develops an 18 person virtual WFM department that is located across 4 sites and provides real time agent performance optimization, forecasting/scheduling, and capacity analysis/reporting. | |
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| 12:00 PM |
Lunch and workshop on measuring and monitoring performance |
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| 1:00 PM |
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| 1:15 PM |
Contact Center Trainer Best Practices - Case Studies
Got the right agents with the right technology in the right environment. Miss out training and your results - customer satisfaction, sales will not be as great as they could. add into the mix the best training and you have a winning formula. These world class trainers will share their secrets with you and will give you great ideas whether you run an internal training team or outsource it - these professionals will help you improve what you do.
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Center Size: 225
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(United States) Shondra Webster, Knowledge Transfer Coordinator, Advanced TeleSolutions
Shondra has been with the company for five years. She began as an agent herself, so she's aware of what is required of agents and the day to day challenges they face. Shondra worked as a trainer for approximately three years, and was promoted to Knowledge Transfer Coordinator eight months ago. The company is very proud of the development of their Knowledge Transfer Department and the fact that it serves as the primary source for employee communication--from new hire training to daily updates. Shondra leads this department and commented that the company culture has empowered her to develop the training and communication function into the dynamic program we have today. | |
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Center Size: 400
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(Canada) Chris Thompson, Nutty Professor, Virgin Mobile Canada
The dynamic and fluid nature of a Telecom Contact Centre means training plans are constantly in motion. Ensuring thorough training isn't sacrificed in the interest of call service level agreements can be challenging. Chris has trained from a lap top, trained from 8 and 1/2 by 11 sheets of paper, trained outside, trained from memory, trained a 5 day course in 1 day, trained folks that have never owned a cell phone, trained folks that could disable a cell phone with their eyes closed, trained the eager, trained the uninterested and many times, even trained himself. | |
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Center Size: 1200
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(United States) January Immer, Senior Manager, Organization Development, Whirlpool Customer eXperience Center
The call center we operate is primarily service and post purchase experience oriented. However, we do have a large internal sales team which handles employee purchase accounts and VIP partners. In addition, we support a sales group which handles pre-purchase questions from consumers to assist the customer in the selection of their appliance and a purchase if the consumer opts to buy direct. In 2009, training was approached by the business and a new instruction method was requested which would promote product knowledge and introduce new sales techniques to the agents. Training introduced a new method into the environment based on chunking knowledge and called it “product chunking | |
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| 2:30 PM |
Incentive Scheme Best Practices - Case Studies
We identified some of the best practices in the industry. These companies will share their lessons and some great ideas to help you improve quality and performance in your center.
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Center Size: 200
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(United States) Sean McLeod, Manager, First American
The Contact Center is an inbound and outbound customer service center providing real estate information services to Fortune 500 in the financial and real estate markets. Hear how, after introducing the incentive plan, the average center quality improved by 8 percent, reaching an all time high in the 4th quarter of 2009 (time of entry into the awards). In addition to improving, quality and other service metrics, it also greatly improved the overall moral of the center by giving associates fair and obtainable incentives and recognition for their efforts. Today the program is a popular topic of conversation and has instilled a greater sense of accomplishment for their employees. | |
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Center Size: 75
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(United States) Cory Gallagher, Director of Customer Service, Midwest Contact Center
Midwest Contact Center provides inbound and outbound services to handle sales, technical support, order taking and service calls. Their Incentive Scheme was implemented to provide recognition for their Brand Care Experts as they focus on increasing sales with each contact. Hear how when they first implemented the Incentive Scheme in May 2009, the closure rate was averaging 1.5 percent. Within one month it had increased to 2% and within 2 months to 3.5%. They are currently averaging 9% for a closure rate. This amounts to approximately $30,000 a month in increased sales. | |
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Center Size: 7
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(United States) Scott McDaniel, CEO, SurveyGizmo
The Contact Center provides training and support for customers of a sophisticated and sometimes complex online software service. Hear about the scheme and how employees love the profit sharing program for reasons other than just the cold, hard cash. It's transparent so all employees know at a glance roughly what to expect in their next paycheck. It rewards retention as well as new business since a lost existing customer is just as painful, perhaps more so, than a lost new customer. Third, it serves as a natural break on hiring too far ahead of growth. Finally, it is a terrific recruiting tool, particularly in this economy. | |
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| 3:00 PM |
Afternoon Break |
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| 3:30 PM |
Customer Service Agent Best Practices - Case Studies
Undoubtedly the most important asset in the contact center is the agent. We all struggle with them at times, however they make or break our relationships with customers. We have brought the best from the region to share their ideas and opinions. Find out what world class agents like and dislike, find out what makes them tick. You will want these type of agents in your center - find out what traits they have that you can build into your hiring process.
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Center Size: 200
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(Canada) Serena Ton, Customer Service Representative, Accenture
Serena has been working in the Accenture contact centre since 2004 as a customer service representative and more recently as a correspondence representative, handling written email, fax, and mail from customers. One of the main challenge she had to overcome when she started working as a customer service representative in the care centre was language - a native of Thailand, she was not fully fluent in the English speaking language when she started in my role. Always going beyond her day to day work to provide excellent customer service, serene always tries to exceed expectations for her core duties and give a 110% to any project that she is involved in. | |
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Center Size: 180
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(United States) Heather Dolan, Process Support Representative, Global Payments Inc.
Heather Dolan has 3 years experience working with a contact center that provides inbound/outbound support and related back office second level support for external and internal customers. She lives up to the team’s Mission Statement and Values, as well as the company’s by providing one-call resolution and ensuring that any issue that’s asked of me and my teammates is given my total commitment to resolve any technical matter. | |
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Center Size: 200
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(United States) Danielle Baker, Customer Service Representative, MassMutual
Danielle's employment with MassMutual for the last year and a half has been her only contact center experience. She has been in customer service for a long time, but this has been a new experience for her. She loves being at other end of the line to help customers solve their problems and answer their questions. Her motto is "Treat others like you want to be treated”. If she call's a contact center, she expects the person that she is calling is there to help her. If they have the power and / or ability to solve her problem, she expects them to. Because this is what she expects when she picks up the phone, it is what she offers customers whose call she answers. | |
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Center Size: 7
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(United States) Sarah Jennings, Customer Service Representative, SurveyGizmo
This organization did not start with anyone with a background with contact center experience. The ideology behind this customer support center is to provide high touch, personal, solutions and results. Sarah has worked in customer service in the insurance industry, but not technology. Nonetheless, she received a WOW! (perfect rating from a customer) on just her second day on the job. This has become a regular occurrence and the company feels so lucky to have her on the team. | |
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We will also be recognizing the following Highly Commended award winners
| | | Aaron Donner, Senior Analyst II, Global Payments Inc.
| Roxanne Flowers, Brand Care Specialist, Midwest Contact Center
| Brittany Morris, Mid Market Account Service Representative., StarTek
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| 4:30 PM |
Panel session on Customer Service Agent Best Practices
We invited these additional Customer Service Agents to share their knowledge and skills in an interactive knowledge sharing session - each will share their top 5 tips for managing, motivating and developing best in class Customer Service Agents.
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Center Size: 33
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(Canada) Susan Doman, Client Representative Repair, Bell Aliant
Hear from Susan and her main personal goal which is to provide excellent customer service, and to go above and beyond to build relationships, and customer loyalty with every interaction. Remain focused on the tasks at hand and present herself in a professional manner. | |
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Center Size: 200
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(United States) Peter Morin, Customer Service Representative, MassMutual
Peter knows he is providing excellent customer service as a result of the feedback he receives from both participants that he assists and his mangers. One of the biggest reasons he enjoys his job is because of the satisfaction he experiences when he knows he has made someone’s day by providing excellent customer service. He enjoys educating people on the benefits of saving for retirement and by helping others solve problems or issues that may arise. | |
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Center Size: 209
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(United States) Joseph Waller, Service Associate III, New York Life
Josephs's dedication and commitment are evident as he has starred and co-written the production skits for the annual Customer Service Kickoff event in each of the last 5 years. He takes great pride in his work and his drive, determination, passion and the satisfaction he gets from helping others, motivates him to perform. His actions and achievements are proof that he always give 100% to my job. | |
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Center Size: 400
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(Canada) Michelle Hong, Customer Service Representative, Virgin Mobile Canada
Michelle's goals are to be a positive influence on her peers, a great example of an engaged team member and someone who others view as a valuable contributor to the call centre. She tries to lead by example and she also appreciates the advice from her peers and leaders. For her, KPIs are important as a way to track her progress, however she truly feels that her customer’s positive feedback on her calls provides the best possible measure of her personal success. | |
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We will also be recognizing the following Highly Commended award winners
| | | Aaron Donner, Senior Analyst II, Global Payments Inc.
| Roxanne Flowers, Brand Care Specialist, Midwest Contact Center
| Brittany Morris, Mid Market Account Service Representative., StarTek
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| 5:00 PM |
Closing Remarks |
(Conf Day 1) Jun 9 | (Conf Day 2) Jun 10 | (Conf Day 3) Jun 11 | (Conf Day 4) Jun 12
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