Main Conference Sessions: Wednesday, June 16, 2010

1:45 What's The Future Of Labor In Call Centers?

Someone, somewhere must answer the phone and offer your customers timely and accurate information. But labor sources are more complex than ever. As you fill critical agent roles, labor options are shifting beyond the traditional in-house seat to the popular athome agent model, self-service technologies (no agents at all!), and various combinations of off-shore & domestic live operators.

• What are the key drivers for selecting the labor mix that will best support consistent business results?
• How do you implement call routing and/or cloud routing to get the right customer to the right agent in a captive or outsourced environment

Our panelists will explore the impact of call center labor options, discuss trends that will likely evolve based on future labor choices, and anticipate some of the outcomes.

Moderator:

Tim Searcy
CEO
American Teleservices Association

Panelists:

Karen Vaughn
VP Vendor Management
Guthy-Renker LLC

Michael Eubanks
General Counsel & Senior Vice President
AEGON Direct Marketing Services

1:45 Maintaining Efficient Business Operations

NCO’s client case study will focus on how to improve your efficiency and productivity by discovering strategies to plan your business utilizing proven processes and tools. Hear about software tools that can deliver successful results, including our Why Customers Call model, Insite Reporting capabilities, and Systems Integrator technology. Find out how to structure your staff with flexibility, involve them in their own success, and align employee development with your strategic company goals. The presentation will focus on these key points:

• Tools that can be utilized to identify and solve efficiency opportunities with involvement of the employees
• Processes that have effectively streamlined business operations and enhanced resource proficiency

Vania Lively
Vice President – Business Development
NCO Customer Management

Maureen Triolo
Director, Outsourcing
AT&T

1:45 Standards And Improve The Customer Experience

In an effort to streamline work and reduce waste, MassMutual Financial Services has embarked on 2 Lean Six Sigma Projects. Find out how the company is holding employees accountable to high standards and giving them the opportunity to excel.

• Lean 6 Sigma for Average Handle Time – Discover how handle time went from 560 seconds to a sustained 440 seconds, with improved quality scores
• Lean 6 Sigma Black Belt on 1st Contact Resolution
• “The Year of the Customer Service Rep” initiative – career pathing and providing additional incentives for employee loyalty
• Find out how to set high standards and hold onto top performers as the market rebounds and job opportunities open up.

Gordon Pullan
Assistant Vice President, Participant
Information Center MassMutual Financial Services

2:35 Inspire Employee Happiness And Engagement To Wow Your Customers

Zappos.com, a leader in online apparel and footwear sales, was named to FORTUNE Magazine’s Annual “100 Best Companies to Work For” list, ranking #15 on the 2010 list. In this session, you’ll find out how company culture continues to fuel its success and growth to annual sales of one billion dollars.

• Changing the mindset to empower agents while removing fear of poor performance
• Focusing on employee happiness to create an optimal customer experience
• Shaping your culture with core values that are utilized inside and outside the office

While the call center environment is often structured and based on efficiency, learn techniques to avoid this from being an anchor. Inspire people to stretch their minds, think outside the box, and take risks in your pursuit of a great customer experience.

Maura Sullivan
Customer Loyalty Manager
Zappos.com

2:35 Improving Call Center Performance Through Digital Signage

This panel will address how communication of real-time data along with other multi-media content can improve agent productivity (inhouse & home-based), agent morale, and customer service.

• Provide visibility to key metrics in various areas of your business to drive productivity and improve service
• Use existing technologies to do more, improve communication with your agents, and drive improvement with better feedback
• Enhance "team approach" by consistently communicating goals and performance in a dynamic fashion

Moderator:

Andrew Bettis
Regional Sales Manager
Texas Digital

Panelists:

Jimmy Tucker
Process Manager
Lennox International

Quyen Tran
Project Lead
Lennox International

Edgar Rosero
Associate Telesales Manager
Novo Nordisk

Michael McCarthy
Director, Part D Call Centers
Universal American

Jessica Donaldson
Manager, Part D Call Center, Member Services
Universal American

2:35 Harnessing The Consumer Revolution: 8 Steps To Great Customer Experiences

Organizations interacting with today’s consumer are facing a rare combination of circumstances: sky-high expectations, unlimited options and the sweeping consumer empowerment driven by the social web.

Delivering superior experiences throughout the customer lifecycle is the critical factor for driving sustainable competitive advantage, customer loyalty, and ultimately revenue. The question is: how precisely do you drive those experiences especially in light of consumer engagement in the social web? In this discussion we will explore the three experiences that matter most when delivering an exceptional customer experience and the eight step best practice methodology to achieve those experiences.

You will hear from Tish Whitcraft, SVP Customer Experience and Operations of MySpace, as she walks you through the transformational journey of MySpace, and shows you how MySpace is delivering superior customer experiences to 250 million users (and counting).

Andrew Hull
Director Product Marketing
RightNow Technologies

Tish Whitcraft
SVP Customer Experience and Operations
MySpace

4:10 Leveraging Quality To Improve Agent Performance

Discover a brand new way to leverage quality control staff. Take advantage of existing resources to improve agent performance and adherence issues.

• Improving scripting to enable agents to improve response rates
• Working together so that quality control is not always the bearer of bad news
• Overcoming the change management challenge of “teaching old dogs new tricks”

Find out how Heritage Company, a fund raiser in the b to b and b to c space since1958, increased its revenue by $100k in the first year without any investment of additional staff and resources!

Stephen Dawson
Director of Communication and Strategic Planning
The Heritage Company

4:10 Aligning Internal Quality With External Customer Feedback

Lisa Jones started her call center career 19 years ago, making outbound calls for a collection agency. After many years of experience, Lisa became the proud recipient of the 2009 Service Quality Measurement (SQM) Award for World Class Supervisor of the Year. Along with Lisa's personal achievement, Sun Life Financial also won the World Class Certification award for Call Resolution and Customer Satisfaction.

Find out how Lisa wears “the SQM smile” and helps inspire agents to deliver “an opening night performance” on every call.

• “Wowing” your customers
• Turning customer feedback into action
• Finessing agents’ soft and hard skills

Find out how to maintain consistency across your teams, improve first call resolution, and translate the Voice of the Customer into product or process improvement.

Lisa Jones
Supervisor Group Retirement Services Call Center
Sun Life Financial

4:10 Driving Improvements In The Customer Experience During The AT&T U-Verse® Product Launch

In 2006, AT&T launched U-verse® which delivers home phone, Internet access and television service. Growth in the subscriber population presented the customer care organization with a challenge to “keep up.” This presentation will describe how AT&T and Convergys partnered to:

• Implement a “voice of the customer” survey program that delivers more than 30,000 surveys a month including 10 surveys per agent per month for coaching and performance management
• Apply a variety of targeted initiatives across call centers to increase customer experience scores
• Quantify the impact of providing a positive customer care experience on increasing customer loyalty and reducing churn

Find out how AT&T makes customer feedback more than a ‘check the box’ process and successfully leverages these insights in a highly challenging market.