Reimagining The Contact Center - with Marc Bernstein: Recent Episodes
Marc Bernstein
Reimagining the Contact Center is a warm and conversational podcast that digs into the new contact center economy and how technology, businesses, and the modern customer work together to build better lives for ourselves and our families.
Blair and Marc discuss the convergence of contact center technologies, the new professional agent, Chick-fil-A CX missteps, and best practices for companies focusing on engagement.
Blair Pleasant is President & Principal Analyst of COMMfusion LLC and a co-founder of BCStrategies. With over 20 years experience as an industry analyst, she is a frequent speaker and participant in industry conferences, webinars, podcasts, and other events to help educate customers, solution providers, channel partners, investors, and others about the evolving Unified Communications and Collaboration and contact center markets.
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Megan and Marc discuss lessons from theater, the power of mindfulness and empathy, and new digital frontiers for managing successful CX.
Megan Merrick is a passionate advocate for building unrivaled customer experiences for companies. She is currently championing this pursuit as Head of CX at Candy Digital, a digital collectables company that works with household names like the MLB, WWE, and Netflix. Megan was recently recognized as a CCW 2022 Next Generation Leader.
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Eric and Marc discuss methods for thoughtful decision-making, the trials and tribulations of building a virtual contact center, and nurturing agent growth and development for resounding success.
Eric Sims is an entrepreneur and interventionist who helps business owners recover from their addiction to old ways of doing business. Since 2018, he has led the booming growth of Leading Edge Connections, a fully virtual outsourced contact center and solutions company that helps businesses gain and retain customers.
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Juanita and Marc discuss the power dynamic between agents and customers, the importance of maintaining a connection to technology, and how honing in on the human experience transforms the contact center.
Juanita Coley, a.k.a. The Contact Center Whisperer, is the founder of Solid Rock Consulting, whose mission is to normalize women in tech and leadership roles. Her 14 year career began as a call center agent and has progressed to a consulting role, bringing new efficiencies and optimizations to corporations and household brands like United Health Care, Optum, Walgreens, Liberty Medical, and many more.
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Sheri and Marc discuss the evolution of call center tech, how new career paths for agents have emerged, the relevancy of scripts in the modern contact center, and much more in a reflective and engaging conversation.
Sheri Greenhaus is managing partner at CrmXchange and a contact center event moderator of over two decades. She has been involved in nearly every aspect of contact center management, including posts as vice president of marketing at CRC Information Systems and director of telemarketing at Hart Hanks.
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Matt and Marc discuss Matt's diverse background and how it applies to the contact center industry, the importance of empowering agents, and how innovation in the contact center has evolved. Please find conversation timestamps below.
2:57 - What principles from your career in the British military apply to the contact center?
6:37 - The threat environment and security model of the contact center space
18:40 - "Pointless" processes and best practices in the modern contact center
25:08 - Modern evolution of the customer experience
31:43 - Contact center transformation in 2015 vs now
38:08 - The importance of empowering call center agents
46:36 - What will the contact center security landscape look like in 2030?
Matt Smallman is a best selling author, security and voice biometrics expert, and founder of SymNex Consulting. Working with both small startups and some of the largest global enterprises, Matt’s expertise has improved the security and customer satisfaction for tens of millions of their customers.
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Thomas and Marc discuss hybrid workplaces, the understated importance of human agents in an automated world, and how Web3 technologies such as NFTs might be useful in the contact center industry.
Thomas Laird, a.k.a. The Call Center Geek, is a contact center and customer experience expert with over 30 years in the industry. He is also an author and founder/CEO of Expivia, a 600+ seat award-winning USA BPO omnichannel contact center located in Pennsylvania.
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Steve and Marc discuss the value of people, whether employees or customers, and how important it is to define your core promise to them…and then follow through with it. Please find episode timestamps below.
Steve Bederman is a transformative leader, strategic planning expert, highly regarded contact center industry innovator, and the President and CEO of NobelBiz, a leading contact center technology company. His expertise in corporate restructuring and strategic growth brought him the reputation of a renaissance business leader.
1:05 - Stories of the contact center podcast
2:38 - How do you identify when someone has earned a new opportunity
4:34 - Hiring people instead of resumes
13:42 - The self-reinforcing nature of your company's culture
17:33 - The importance of customer success
24:40 - How do you come up with your promise?
35:48 - What will NobelBiz be like in 10 years?
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Jordan and Marc talk about the challenges of maintaining company culture as organizations scale and what makes for successful sales calls in the modern era. Please find conversation timestamps below.
Jordan Draper is the director of operations at Dagley Insurance, an auto, home, and business insurance agency with locations across Texas and Colorado. From humble beginnings on the phone making sales calls, Draper’s sales and management experience, and a commitment to personal service, have helped transform Dagley from a small company with a handful of agents to a flourishing organization with over 50 sales seats.
0:29 - Super Bowl talk
3:00 - Small vs large agencies
10:21 - How to build and maintain culture as you scale
12:49 - Other challenges in scaling
15:10 - Installing a value system
16:18 - Sales and service methodologies
28:00 - Handling objections when making sales
33:35 - Setting expectations and building positive rapport with customers
41:04 - Practices in productivity
45:20 - What will sales look like in 2030?
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Kane and Marc go deep on the future of conversational AI and discuss how organizations can deploy technology to get ahead.
Kane is the founder at VUX World, the voice and conversational AI design and strategy consultancy and podcast. He helps organizations save money, increase revenue and improve customer experience with bleeding edge conversational AI and NLU technologies across ALL conversational channels.
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Coaching agents is one of the most important roles of a contact center manager. Effective coaching helps agents improve their skills on calls, implement new policies, and prevent future mistakes.
But is your coaching investment paying off?
We surveyed 515 contact center managers from the U.S. to find out. Marc & Maria discuss our findings on this episode.
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Marc has an honest conversation with a contact center agent about empathy on calls, coaching programs and how his employer’s culture has resulted in work happiness - for himself and his team.
Our guest wanted to stay anonymous so he could speak openly without worrying about backlash.
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John DiJulius is President at The DiJulius Group and expert on world-class customer experiences.
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Jeanne and Marc discuss why customer journey maps are actually sales pipelines and should be replaced with goal maps. Jeanne tells the story of her dad, who retired with a three-block-long line of customers wishing him well.
Jeanne Bliss is a global leader, keynote speaker and 4x bestselling author on experience leadership & customer-driven growth. She is also a cofounder of CXPA.org.
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Adam comes on the show to help us understand how humans learn, why classroom instruction is only 15% of learning and the three foundations to a great coaching program.
Adam Lupu is on a mission to make work wonderful as the CEO of Startwise. He has spent the last decades researching learning behaviors.
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Jodi and Marc talk about Balto’s Customer Support team, what it’s like being in that role day-to-day, and how contact centers will change by 2030.
Our very own Jodi Heen is Balto’s first Customer Support Advocate.
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Rob walks Marc through the perfect insurance sales call: From introductions and discovery questions all the way to reducing cancellations after the call.
Rob Liano is a highly-respected sales strategist, author and speaker. Rob is consistently sought out for his groundbreaking telesales innovation.
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Marc and Shawn chat about what a great collections conversation looks like, creating a culture of perfect calls and the conversation as the atomic unit of business.
Shawn M. Farris is the COO at Aargon Agency, Inc.
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Marc Bernstein discusses the insight backlog, managers already knowing what "good" looks like, letting agents choose, and how conversation analytics provide recommendations at an almost silly micro level.
Marc Bernstein is the CEO of Balto.
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Marc Bernstein and Roy Atkinson discuss how people respond the way you treat them in customer experience, using your dark data, maximizing the experience, and treating people like adults.
Roy Atkinson is the CEO of Clifton Butterfield LLC.
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Marc Bernstein and Diane Magers discuss the power of storytelling in customer experience, not overlooking the ideas that come from your customers and agents, and instead of good NPS scores, do they recommend us as a company?
Diane Magers is the Founder and chief experience officer at Experience Catalysts.
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Chip Bell is the Senior Partner and speaker at the Chip Bell Group and author of Axiom Business Book Award winner "Inside Your Customer's Imagination".
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Marc Bernstein and Michael Lamm discuss the convergence of technology and humans, how contact center technology can kill an acquisition, and offshore/nearshore best practices.
Michael Lamm is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Corporate Advisory Solutions.
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Marc Bernstein and Justin Robbins discuss breakthrough customer service, being a customer yourself, 4 core values, and the Peak-end rule.
Justin Robbins is the Chief Evangelist at CX Effect. Follow @justinmrobbins on most social medias. Email:justin@cxeffect.com
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Marc Bernstein and Shep Hyken discuss amazing customer experiences, dealing with customer problems and how to amaze a customer.
Shep Hyken is the Chief Amazement Officer at Shepard Presentations, and author of "I'll Be Back: How To Get Customers To Come Back Again And Again" You can check his website to see his work on creating an amazing customer experience.
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Marc Bernstein and Mike Mixon and James Diel talk about revolutionizing SMS in the contact space, giving text bots personalities, and how RCS is transforming the SMS business world.
Mike Mixon is the Chief Revenue Officer of Textel and James Diel is the Founder and CEO of Textel.
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Marc Bernstein and Annette Franz discuss why you need a service blueprint, the Amazon effect, customer experience vs. customer service, and how to visualize your customers' experience.
Annette Franz is the CEO and Founder of CX Journey Inc. She is also the author of "Customer Understanding: Three Ways to Put the "Customer" in Customer Experience (and at the Heart of Your Business)"
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Marc Bernstein and Colin Taylor discuss the evolution of omni channel, being where your customers want to be, and a focus on educating customers.
Colin Taylor is the CEO of The Taylor Reach Group.
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Marc Bernstein and Joey Coleman discuss acquisition Vs. retention, the harmony of a contact center, and human to human interaction in a contact center.
Joey Coleman is the author of "Never Lose A Customer Again" and Chief Experience Composer at Design Symphony.
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Marc Bernstein and Stephen Yap discuss Improving career progressions in contact centers, the revolution of the Insurance industry, insight on customer surveys, and expanding the talent pool in 2021.
Stephen Yap is the Research Director at the Call Centre Management Association, Insurtech Insights and Platform 195.
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Rob Siefker and Marc Bernstein talk about the best way to start in the call center, why Zappos asks "What's your theme song?" in interviews, how customers are the best marketers, and Zappos' biggest contribution to the call center.
Rob Siefker is the Senior Director of Customer Loyalty at Zappos and has been part of the Zappos family for 17 years.
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Marc Bernstein, host of the podcast, reflects back on what he's learned from his guests and adds his own commentary on their predictions.
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Christa Heibel and Marc Bernstein talked about what contact center managers are getting right in 2021, why leadership should take calls, who owns contact center transformation, and a smarter way to do post-call surveys.
Christa Heibel is the Founder & CEO at CH Consulting Group, customer experience consultants for omni-channel contact centers. She also serves as the Vice Chair and Marketing Chair at Professional Association for Customer Engagement (PACE).
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Nick Richmond, Chris Hove, and Marc Bernstein talk about why written communication skills are making a comeback, the importance of team outings for sales groups, and why new employees shouldn't start 100% remote.
Nick Richmond is the President of Matrix Bath Systems and has turned his passion for the remodeling industry into a multi-million dollar business with sales expected to soar over $60 million in 2021. With a start-up investment of $3500, coupled with Nick’s determination and entrepreneurial spirit, Matrix Basement Systems (home solutions) has quickly become one of the nation’s largest home remodeling companies.
Christopher "Chris" Hove is the CMO for Matrix Bath Systems and an experienced marketing, technology, training and telecommunications expert.
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Randy Clapp and Marc Bernstein talk about the future of voice in the contact center, how to help agents retain training, how to scale your top performing agents to the rest of your team, and the time lag problem with agent coaching.
Randy Clapp is Chief Revenue Officer at Advantage Communications, a BPO that consistently achieves Net Promoter Scores of greater than 45 points and 85% first contact resolution.
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Bill Murphy is the Managing Partner at Cresting Wave, bringing Innovative technologies to the enterprise technology community. Bill is also a board member at Accurics and a Senior Advisor to McKinsey.
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Michael McMillan and Marc Bernstein talk about how Michael grew up in the call center and went from sleeping on cots on the center floor to becoming an experienced customer experience and sales executive who is known for his expertise in defining Customer Journey strategies and business development initiatives to optimize sales and create new opportunities.
Michael McMillan is the Owner of BizSprints and contact center advisor at Tech-Gofer.
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Jim Rembach and Marc Bernstein talk about what it really means to be a leader.
Jim Rembach is an entrepreneur and expert in B2B digital marketing and online learning. As the president of Influence to Action, he operates several entities, including Call Center Coach Virtual Leadership Academy, B2B Digital Marketer, CX Global Media, and the Contact Center Virtual Summit. He’s the host of the Fast Leader Show and the B2B Digital Marketer podcasts.
Jim is a Certified Emotional Intelligence practitioner, Community Specialist, Employee Retention Specialist, and Empathy Mapping Expert. As an agency and coach, his work involves helping organizations to develop dynamic strategies and tactics that drive sales and revenue in the new digital business imperative.
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Eduardo Nofuentes and Marc Bernstein talk about how Eduardo transformed his contact center to achieve these results and what steps you can take to introduce agile to your contact center.
Eduardo Nofuentes is the Founder & Director of The Agile Contact Centre and Director at Neu 21. Both are consultancies that transform organizations so their employees can produce their best, most innovative work together.
Eduardo launched The Agile Contact Centre after discovering that his agile methodology doubled CSAT scores, reduced agent error by 72% and led to agent tenure of 2.5 years.
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Tim Guleri and Marc Bernstein talk about the industry shifts in the contact center space, the growth & potential of the Contact Center as a Software (aka CCaaS) market, and the importance of building a resilient operation.
Tim Guleri, the Managing Director at Sierra Ventures, is a venture capital firm focused on emerging technologies with over $2 billion in assets. Tim has personal experience with leading and investing in contact centers as he helped build Scopus Technology, an $800 MM software company for customer support.
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Mario Baddour and Marc Bernstein talk about how to help employees rise economically and gain new skills at large scales, how to treat employees well
Mario Baddour, Global Chief Operating Officer at Startek, has extensive knowledge in operational centers in both diverse industries and global geographies. He is an expert in contact center outsource management supporting industries across Finance/Banking, Technology, Telecommunications, E-Commerce, and Healthcare with complex ITIL, HIPAA and PCI compliant environments.
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Ariel Gorelik and Marc Bernstein talk about how call centers all over the world are benefiting from globalization, how to lead organizations in a rapidly changing environment, and the greatest advantages, but also most difficult drawbacks of working from home.
Ariel Gorelik is the Chief Information Officer and Chief Operations Officer at AmTrust Financial Services, Inc., a Fortune 500 insurance company with over 8,000 employees. Ariel is an expert on digital transformation and international IT strategy. His extensive operational leadership experience in the insurance sector includes expertise in centralization of operations and transformation of service delivery to improve customer satisfaction.
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Cliff Holekamp and Marc talk about which businesses are more or less attractive during the Covid-19 pandemic, what start-ups should prepare when talking with VCs, who you need on your team, and many more conversations around start ups.
Cliff Holekamp is the Cofounder of Cultivation Capital, a St. Louis based venture capital firm. His board service in the Cultivation portfolio currently includes LockerDome, TopOPPS, Benchmark Email, Policy Engage (Trackbill), FinLocker, Clever, and Resilia.
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Mike Gibb is the founder of Accountsrecovery.net, THE place for debt collections and accounts receivables news. Listen to hear Mike's thoughts on how the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's debt collection rule will change the industry and the results of his survey on this subject.
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Philip Bennett, Customer Service Operations Manager at Empire Today, shares how he thinks working from home can work for contact centers.
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There's a debate in the business world of whether companies should be product or sales led. Find out Marc's stance in this bonus episode.
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