Contact Center Evolution: Live from NECCF 2025

Penny Tremblay (00:01):

And I see time and time again how people don’t necessarily quit jobs, they quit managers.

David McAbee (00:08):

So you’re a customer. I’m a customer.

I think my expectations have gone up significantly over the last few years.

David Teixeira (00:16):

I do

David McAbee (00:16):

Vendor

David Teixeira (00:16):

Management, so I’m in charge of making sure that all the partners have a great day and I got to make sure they all get here.

Aileen Rocheleau (00:23):

The power of the AI I have seen is loading in a thousand customer comments from our surveys and saying, Hey, I extracted this one of my top 10 unresolved issues. And instead of going through a thousand and doing tracking, it’s like spits out 30 seconds.

Erin McGinnis (00:41):

Technology has transformed how we live, work, and connect. And behind that change are visionary people with bold ideas. Welcome to the Bridge cast where host Scott Kinka explores hybrid work, AI and our evolving future with tech’s brightest minds presented by Bridgepoint Technologies, the nation’s leading tech advisory firm experience a better way the Bridgepoint way.

Scott Kinka (01:11):

Hi, I’m Scott Kinka, your host for today’s special edition of the Bridge Cast. I’m coming to you live from the Northeast Contact Center forum at Gillette Stadium in Boston. I found a quiet spot to do this by 2025. The contact center isn’t just a support channel, it’s the pulse of customer trust and loyalty in your business. From AI driven self-service to seamless omnichannel experiences, the leaders gather here are shaping the next era of service. I’ve had the privilege of speaking with some of the smartest people in the room here today about everything from AI ethics and workforce optimization to the power of play in your organization. You’re going to hear from some really cool people. Eileen Ru as the senior business manager and VP who runs the contact center at Citizens Bank. Penny Tremblay, author and founder of the Sandbox System, Erin McGinnis, who runs the contact center.

Scott Kinka (02:01):

She’s the VP of Customer Information Center at Cornerstone Bank. Dave Cher is one of our partners here at Bridgepoint Technologies. David McAbee is the VP of our UCN CX practice here at Bridgepoint. And Wade Hauser is the vice president of business development for one of our partners, tele performance, all of them here, all of ’em telling great stories. We stitched it all together to make you this special episode. Each of these thought leaders shares a piece of the contact center puzzle and how to break down silos, elevate the customer voice, and hardest responsible automation to drive measurable business impact. So let’s jump right in. I hope you enjoy this unique episode. Name what you do, why you’re here.

Aileen Rocheleau (02:42):

Alright, Eileen Roche Lo. I am an operations manager at Citizens Bank and I am one of the board member of the N-E-C-C-F.

Scott Kinka (02:49):

Jess. Let’s just talk some macro top level contact center customer experience trends, one in your business. So much of today’s been about ai, so friend or for you, where are you at in your journey?

Aileen Rocheleau (03:00):

So a friend

Scott Kinka (03:03):

With a little, it sounds

Aileen Rocheleau (03:04):

Like a cautious Yeah,

Scott Kinka (03:06):

Yeah, sure, sure.

Aileen Rocheleau (03:06):

Because there is so much it can do, but are people confusing sometimes AI with automation, right?

Scott Kinka (03:13):

Totally.

Aileen Rocheleau (03:14):

So you’ve got to make that split. Automation is something different and you can do a lot with automation. We’re not going to call that ai, but we are building an AI tool for our agents to use for their knowledge management system. And if we have the right data to pull from, it’s going to be excellent, but it is not.

Scott Kinka (03:30):

If that holds most people up from really being able to monetize around ai,

Aileen Rocheleau (03:35):

You really need to put the work into it and then differentiate where am I going to save more money?

And

Aileen Rocheleau (03:41):

We’re like, we’re going to do a natural voice language on vr. It’s going to have quite a bit of automation put into it. It’s not ai, it’s automation.

Scott Kinka (03:48):

Yeah. We’ve been doing it at Cheryl Copa from Bridgepoint I’m sure you talked to earlier was here and she said the same thing. She says, we’ve been doing these kinds of things. If people are associating AI with a robotic voice talking to you, we’ve been doing that for 20 years. I mean it’s gotten variably better. The difference now is that you used to build a decision tree that was very binary and now what you’re doing is you’re informing it with unstructured data in a way that it can be a bit more intuitive. But the function of having a non-human answer, the phone is not new. But

Aileen Rocheleau (04:20):

The power of the AI I have seen is loading in a thousand customer comments from our surveys and saying, Hey, I extracted this one of my top 10 unresolved issues

Scott Kinka (04:31):

I love.

Aileen Rocheleau (04:31):

And instead of going through a thousand and doing tracking, it’s like spits out 30 seconds. Oh, your top 10 unresolved issues are overdraft fees or system stability or stuff you kind of know, but it could quantify it fast. And then you can say, Hey, put this in a pretty business case,

Scott Kinka (04:49):

Well easy to then go get investment because it’s not just a feeling, it’s quantum, but without somebody like hunting and

Aileen Rocheleau (04:55):

Without an analyst sitting and hashtagging every survey under a different category.

Scott Kinka (05:01):

Amazing.

Aileen Rocheleau (05:01):

So that’s powerful stuff, really popping that in there and having it tell a story.

Scott Kinka (05:07):

I love it. What are you being asked to do by a leadership that you struggle with?

Aileen Rocheleau (05:12):

Oh, that I struggle with.

Scott Kinka (05:13):

Yeah. You don’t have to tell your secrets, that’s fine, but

Aileen Rocheleau (05:17):

I don’t struggle, bill. Just kidding. You know what the obsession about the customer experience should be there, but now it’s breaking down the barriers that are getting in our way. So as a contact center, we don’t make a product, we don’t create systems, but we know the voice of the customer and we know it’s broken. Sometimes it’s really hard to fix it, but we have to assess on the customer experience and we’ve got to break down silos and get to the right people and really force them to the cable to help us resolve. And that can be tough.

Scott Kinka (05:49):

That theme’s come up in a couple of my chats today where it was like give us the power in the contact center to force change back the other direction. So we can be great at answering the phone and being pleasant and executing on the mops that we have, but if we have an intrinsic business problem that’s frustrating people, it’s not going to improve in the contact center. It’s just still there.

Aileen Rocheleau (06:08):

And so when we bring it to you, take us serious and we something about it, but our new president is laser focused on experience and breaking down barriers. So at Citizens right now, it just feels really good. We’re going to be able to get those things done where in the past contact center could be frustrating. People don’t want to listen to you. It was train your agents better. Oh, your NPS is low, you do better. Train your agents better, make them faster. And it’s like no customer wakes up and wants to call us and we don’t create things to make them want to call us. We can own first call resolution so they don’t have to call back. But we didn’t create a product to service or a system. So everyone should listen to us and everybody should take contacts in seriously and put their money behind fixing their problems.

Scott Kinka (06:50):

I love it. Alright, two fun questions.

Aileen Rocheleau (06:52):

Okay.

Scott Kinka (06:52):

Alright. A business lesson that you’ve learned recently, last 12 months that you’ve now incorporated into your day to day, but a lesson that you probably look back on and you’re like, yeah, I probably should have known that 10 years ago or 20, I need a recent aha moment. That’s sort of become cultural for you.

Aileen Rocheleau (07:08):

So trust that the people that you have hired as your team to do the work and don’t do it on your own, just give it to them and say run. And if you hit a roadblock, let me know. So don’t lay out the solution. Don’t handhold them. Say, Hey, this is what we’ve got. Take care of it and pull me in when you need me. Yeah, that’s been really, yeah, that’s as I’ve grown in my career. But listen, I build a better team that way and it frees me up to focus more on the big picture. It took me a while to get

Scott Kinka (07:36):

There, work on the business.

Aileen Rocheleau (07:38):

It’s like we all want to have our hands on the pulse of everything like ox people. We want to know what’s going on 24 7.

Scott Kinka (07:43):

You want to turn the knob flick the switch. Yeah. The thing I get, try not to be too prescriptive,

Aileen Rocheleau (07:48):

But that’s a great team. I have to trust that they can do what they do and know when to get me involved if they have to.

Scott Kinka (07:54):

That’s awesome advice. Last one, what are you reading?

Aileen Rocheleau (07:57):

Oh,

Scott Kinka (07:57):

Something.

Aileen Rocheleau (07:58):

I am reading a book. The guest at the wedding, I just picked it up. There’s a little new book shop in my hometown T. Okay. And it’s a beach read and it’s about a wedding has taken over an entire hotel and they made one reservation for a non-hotel guest who was just going through a divorce and just wanted to be there and be happy. And it’s set in Newport where I live outside of

Scott Kinka (08:19):

Feels like a more experience problem.

Aileen Rocheleau (08:21):

Sure, yeah. Well somebody that book in the reservation, so I was going to have to do gap analysis figure out. But listen, it’s just a fun beach. So for this time of year, it’s the

Scott Kinka (08:32):

Book. Okay. Well it was a pleasure talking to you,

Aileen Rocheleau (08:35):

Right?

Scott Kinka (08:35):

I’ve funnily enjoyed my time at the event and I’m looking forward to coming back.

Aileen Rocheleau (08:38):

Yeah, can’t wait to come back next year.

Scott Kinka (08:40):

Alright.

Aileen Rocheleau (08:41):

It’s a great place to be.

Scott Kinka (08:42):

It is.

Aileen Rocheleau (08:42):

Alright, thanks for your time. Glad we got a chance.

Scott Kinka (08:44):

You got it.

David McAbee (08:46):

For the record name who you work for, what do you do? Dave McAbee. I work with you. I worked for, yep. I’m Vice President of CX Solutions for a CX group. That’s my title. What I do is I meet with clients, I triage their needs, anything related to CX and I think really I’m Marshall Resources. I love it across our organization to support food.

Scott Kinka (09:06):

Let’s talk at a macro level about what’s going on. Okay. You cool. You talk to customers in your role every day. You’re doing it here at the NEC CCC F form. What are some of the trends you’re seeing right now? Maybe something that, we mean there’s the obvious ones, but what are the most your conversations about?

David McAbee (09:21):

That’s a great question. It feels like every day it’s a little different. I mean clearly AI is in every conversation that we’re having, I think we finally turn the corner where now the conversations are about leveraging AI in a customer facing capacity, which a year ago we weren’t quite there yet. People love the idea, they love their ROI of doing that, but they’re too nervous. I think that’s So we moved beyond Foe to Friend maybe? Yeah.

Scott Kinka (09:46):

Maybe

David McAbee (09:47):

Possible for

Scott Kinka (09:47):

Well friend. We stare at uncomfortably across the room

David McAbee (09:51):

At this point. What I think is going to happen now is a lot of the AI suppliers are going to have to catch up because the market as it’s embracing it, they’re now coming to them with hard problems. Say, I want to do this thing in the AI suppliers. Everyone’s comfortable doing password resets or looking up an account now do something transactional for me. Do something difficult. Right. Place an order, right? Yeah. It’s not just look up order

Scott Kinka (10:12):

Status.

David McAbee (10:13):

That’s right. Initiate shipping on this defective, manage this return. So that’s suddenly come around where we’re getting requests for people to do complex things there. The other thing that I’m seeing is they’re still staffing shortage in the marketplace. People are still struggling to find the right kind of talent.

Scott Kinka (10:31):

That’s an interesting one. I’ve had that question a couple of times. We’ve had some of the BPOs do some interviews today, so we’ll see if we can compile their answers with yours. But you’re talking about shortages because they can’t find workers because they can’t find skilled workers because workers are at home and their technology and they’re mix doesn’t meet where the agents are. What’s the cause of that staffing?

David McAbee (10:52):

This is going to blow your mind. Highly skilled technical workers, they’re struggling to find that domestically, AI in particular, ai ML engineers and people that know those systems well enough to really tune ai. They’re having an now go nearshore to find those resources. So the rates of nearshore have exploded. Have exploded for those really highly skilled

Scott Kinka (11:13):

And just quickly for those that maybe don’t understand what we’re talking about to find near shore versus onshore grass off offshore.

David McAbee (11:18):

So nearshore, if you’re in the United States, nearshore is going to be generally Latin America. So it’s going to be Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, El Salvador, places like that.

Scott Kinka (11:27):

Generally similar time zones. Right. That’s why you treat it differently than you treat outsourcing. Correct. Across the globe. That’s right. Okay, understood. So let’s explore that work from home thing. It feels like we’re still having this conversation four years removed from the pandemic, five years within the pandemic. Are businesses still struggling with where they’re at, where their agents are at? Are we sort of beyond that conversation that’s accepted that we’re supporting folks wherever they are?

David McAbee (11:51):

I think we’re beyond the conversation for most part. I think what has happened is companies have settled on a strategy and they’re pretty comfortable and it’s not unique to industry. You would think that some of the more conservative industries like healthcare or financial services would still be maybe hybrid at best or strictly brick and mortar. But they’re embracing work from home as much as anybody else’s for certain operations. So I think companies really, I think it’s coming down from the executives and they’ve decided this is what I like or this is what I have an appetite for. Some executives are still dead set on having people in the office because they want to engender a particular culture. And I get that

It’s Hard to project culture remotely to people and make them feel like they’re part of something. Others are less concerned about it or maybe there’s just certain roles. They say, listen, I just want talent and I’ll take them where I can get them, which is what the pandemic did for us. One, it allowed people to go live at their lakehouse, but more importantly, companies were now able to broaden their horizons and say, I need this particular person. I don’t have to look in Des Moines anymore. Not a knock in Des Moines. There’s great people in Des Moines, but they can go anywhere. No,

Scott Kinka (12:54):

But there’s art to that. So the conversations are different now, right? It’s about how do you outsource or support remote work effectively, right? Do businesses know how to outsource

David McAbee (13:05):

Some of them? Do some of them do it really well? Others? I think companies will hire an outsourcer without having a vendor management strategy for it. And they generally then don’t know if what they’re getting is really benchmark performance out of the outsourcer. They know their costs are down, then their performance is okay because if it’s really bad, they’ll know. We love those engagements where we come in and we just help them understand, we review everything. Here’s your contracts, here’s what you were promised and here’s whether or not you’re getting bid work performance. I compare it to your peers.

Scott Kinka (13:35):

Every discussion we’re having is about customer interactions. Just general question on impressions, what’s the current state of customer expectations when they’re engaging with a company?

David McAbee (13:46):

So you’re a customer. I’m a customer.

David McAbee (13:49):

I think my expectations have gone up significantly over the last few years post pandemic. And I don’t know that it has much to do with the pandemic, honestly. This is where we are now in 2025. Part of it is I know what tech is available to them. I know what they ought to be able to do, but our clients, the general public, their opinion or their expectation for how companies treat them is informed by so many things, but it’s informed by the smart device that they use. They expect everything to be easy in front of them right now. And it’s easy for me on this little device to send a tweet to the world one too many year real time to post a video to go live stream. I can do all these amazing things. Why is this so hard for you to pull up my account or share a screen with me and help me navigate this issue? So people have less patience anymore for being transferred, for being moved around for I’ll get back to you when they reach out. They want to have the problem solve right now.

Scott Kinka (14:41):

Yeah, immediacy and ease of use or an expectation.

Okay, I totally get it. Two last ish questions. I always love to throw these at you, torture you guys. Give me a business lesson. You’ve learned in the last, call it 12 months, 18 months, whatever it is that you’ve incorporated into your day-to-day that you feel like you should have known five years ago, 10 years ago, something new you’ve brought into your lexicon, if you will here the way you run your business.

David McAbee (15:06):

So often we’re in a people business and I deal with on a daily basis dozens or even potentially hundreds of people and everyone has personalities and everybody needs different things and there’s naturally always conflict. Yeah, I feel like this last year I got a crash course in conflict resolution. I should have known how to resolve issues with peers and partners. I should have known how to do this years ago. And a lot of it is me realizing I don’t have to solve every problem right now. And you used to show up to meetings or I used to show up to meetings armed for a fight. And what’s going to happen when you do that? A fight happens. Right? Totally. I know how to decide to kill it with kindness and it’s made such a huge difference and I should have learned that many, many years

Scott Kinka (15:50):

Ago. I appreciate the self introspection there. What are you reading right now?

David McAbee (15:54):

I might have asked you this recently. My neighbor gave me a book. It’s not new, but I’m only part of the way into it. The synopsis won’t be great, but it’s called What Got You Here. Well get you there. Amen. You know the book? I haven’t read it, but I know the phrase Yes. Yeah. It’s just about listen, we are going to progress in our careers, we’re going to progress in what we do. Kind of reminds me of who Moved By Cheese very much that old classic, right? But we’ve always got to be learning and reskilling for the next thing.

Scott Kinka (16:20):

I love it. Well, helping people reskill every day. Hey, thank you. Thank you Mr. Kinka. I’ll see you. Good stuff. Well welcome back. We’re back here at the Northeast Contact Center forum and can you please share with us name what you do, why you’re here?

Erin McGinnis (16:37):

So my name is Erin McGinnis. I am the manager of the contact center for Cornerstone Bank here in central Massachusetts. And I am here because I’m on the board of directors.

Scott Kinka (16:46):

If there was one thing you could change about your current contact center operation, it would be,

Erin McGinnis (16:53):

I’m not sure. I do wish I knew how to use Excel a little bit better than I currently do, especially when I am presenting information to the Executives.

Erin McGinnis (17:02):

Again, sometimes they don’t know what I’m talking about, but if you presented to them in a way, and I actually just took an Excel course that pivot tables are your friend.

Scott Kinka (17:10):

They are

Erin McGinnis (17:11):

Indeed. So if you don’t know what that means, definitely look into it.

Scott Kinka (17:16):

Is that a reflection though of your Excel skills or the status or lack there of the visibility of the analytics packages in most contact center platforms?

Erin McGinnis (17:27):

I think it’s really, so I’m from a small contact center and everything I’ve learned I’ve had to learn on the go. So it’s really just trying to fit around peg in a square hole until it works. So again, this is why communities like this are important because you don’t know what you don’t know until you know it.

Scott Kinka (17:44):

Of course, I love it. All right. Hot takes ai Friend or foe in your context center.

Erin McGinnis (17:49):

So if you build it correctly, it’s definitely a friend,

Scott Kinka (17:54):

But

Erin McGinnis (17:54):

If you just set it up and let it go, it can be disastrous,

Scott Kinka (17:59):

Carnage, and that could be a whole episode in and of itself. So we’ll move on to the next one. Tell me about your agents work from home, work in the office, spread flexibility, are there outsourcers in there? Just how has all that work and has that changed since the pandemic?

Erin McGinnis (18:14):

So during the pandemic we actually were not set up to work from home at all. So it was a very stressful time. And after the pandemic we actually were allowed work from home. Everybody in our office is hybrid and they have the ability to work from home whenever they would. I would like to see their face at least twice a week, but they get to decide when that happens. So it’s very relaxed. I know there are some companies who are like, you need to be in on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, whatever.

Scott Kinka (18:41):

Is that aligned with the corporate policies around remote work?

Erin McGinnis (18:45):

So we were the first ones who allowed remote work in the contract center. So we kind of wrote, you pioneered it. If it didn’t work with us, it wasn’t happening. So you’re welcome guys.

Scott Kinka (18:54):

What is your leadership asking you to accomplish that you’re finding difficult? What’s the problem that we’re chasing right now that they’re asking you to get after?

Erin McGinnis (19:02):

So one of the biggest problems that we’re facing in the contact center is with automation, with self-service that customers absolutely want. It’s taking a toll on our agents because the only conversations that they’re having are more difficult, more in halls, more complex. So it’s maybe not from the executives, but for myself. So I know that I need to make sure that I am training our agents so that they can handle all of these complex situations and also so that they’re knowledgeable enough that they don’t get burned down because attrition is a huge thing and that

Scott Kinka (19:39):

Especially when you’re taking care of the easy calls with automation and AI and all that. So the call that lands with the agent is the tough one that requires, it’s the exit out buttons. I can see that they’re really adding stress as we go. Well, two fun questions and then I’m going to get you back to your events. Here’s the first one. I need a business lesson. Something that you’ve learned that you’ve built into the way that you operate, that you’ve learned recently, let’s say over the last year that maybe you feel like you should have known five years ago, 10 years ago. So I need a recent aha moment that you’ve sort of built into the way you operate.

Erin McGinnis (20:12):

All right. So for anybody out there in the banking industry,

Scott Kinka (20:14):

Yeah,

Erin McGinnis (20:15):

You’re going to disagree with me, but the branch staff is your friend. They still will not view you as their friend, but they are your friend. You have to learn how to work with them and you have to learn how to work with them well. So go to your manager’s meetings, go to your other meetings where the branch managers are present, talk to them, find out what their pain points are when connecting with you and try to work with them on that. And you’ll find that your days become much easier.

Scott Kinka (20:43):

I love that. So last one, are you anything, are you reading a business book right now? Was there anything that you’ve recently read on that side that you’d love to tell the listeners they should go check out?

Erin McGinnis (20:52):

No, I don’t read business books. I read for pleasure. I actually just read City on Fire. It was a marathon.

Scott Kinka (20:59):

So

Erin McGinnis (20:59):

If you’re not into longer books that take a while. This one’s not for you

Scott Kinka (21:02):

City, you aren’t. But

Erin McGinnis (21:02):

It was definitely good.

Scott Kinka (21:04):

Give me a genre,

Erin McGinnis (21:05):

I don’t know, it’s just like drama takes place in the seventies in New York City about the time of the blackout. Agar follows all different groups of people that interact in certain ways and it’s very interesting.

Scott Kinka (21:15):

I love it. It’s a pleasure chatting with you.

Erin McGinnis (21:17):

You as well.

Scott Kinka (21:17):

Thank

Erin McGinnis (21:18):

You.

Scott Kinka (21:18):

Thank you. So here at the Northeast Contact Center forum, can you explain for the listeners’ name, who you are, why you’re here?

Penny Tremblay (21:27):

I’m Penny Tremblay, founder of the Sandbox System. I teach people how to play nice in the sandbox at work and when they don’t, I help them fix broken or disconnected relationships. And I’m here at the Forum Expo this year as your closing keynote speaker.

Scott Kinka (21:42):

I love that. And you’ve written, I’m going to show this here,

Penny Tremblay (21:45):

Sandbox Strategies for the New Workplace Conflict Resolution from the Inside Out. And some lucky people are getting gifted a copy here today.

Scott Kinka (21:53):

Oh, fantastic. I love that. So just quickly about the Northeast Context Center forum. You mentioned before we started recording, this is sort of your first foray into the contact center space. Right. But I’ll just ask what’s your experience at the event been so far?

Penny Tremblay (22:08):

This has been a really great opportunity just from the moment that I was contacted as a potential speaker. Everybody has been so engaging. I’ve attended some of the pre expo social meetups and to get an idea of who’s coming and met the board members, I’ve been sponsored by Nextiva and I’ve had some Zoom calls with them and they have purchased some books for release as well today. And I mean, just being at Gillette Stadium is Prefare a gorgeous day. My husband’s here. And so everything is always right in my world.

Scott Kinka (22:45):

I love that. And tell me how you’re going to give the keynote at the end. So kind of tie the sandbox strategies into what you’ve learned so far about the customer experience community, the contact center, customer service community.

Penny Tremblay (22:59):

So one of the things that I asked at a social for N-A-C-C-F was what are your biggest challenges? And so engagement and retention was the challenge that came up. And I specialize in workplace relationships and I see time and time again how people don’t necessarily quit jobs, they quit managers or they quit toxic workplaces or they become very conflicted because they don’t feel that sense of belonging or that they have a relationship beyond transactional. All work for you, you pay me money. But when you do have that, that’s like the magic elixir that is really something special. Often I hear people say, I’m really not happy in my job right now, but my friends work there. Or I am really loyal to my manager or my company is so good to me even though we’re going through this transition or stress or change. So relationships really are the blue that hold people to workplace.

Scott Kinka (23:58):

Scott, super interesting. It’s an interesting parallel because I’ve been speaking all day with contact center leaders and in our space we constantly talk about the changing role of the employee with location and then also the changing expectations in the relationship with the customer, sort of post COVID right? At the end of the day. So have our strategies for the workplace and building relationships in the workplace changed dramatically with the kind of work from home movement and the infrequency with which we’re together?

Penny Tremblay (24:29):

Well, I think so my company did a survey during the pandemic to establish the effects of COVID on workplace conflict. And what we found was that conflict has escalated, but a lot of it’s running under the surface and managers aren’t aware of it.

Speaker 3 (24:47):

Got it.

Penny Tremblay (24:47):

I think that working from home definitely creates uncertainty.

Penny Tremblay (24:53):

One of the things that I recognize talking to people or working from home is that they don’t understand where they are in the pack. Am I doing all the work? Am I behind? Where’s everybody else? And one thing that we don’t realize is when we go physically into a workplace, we get a lot of information just by getting there and being there and walking into the building. Like who’s in the parking lot, who’s at the front desk, what’s on the bulletin board? Who’s in that meeting room that I just saw? And we haven’t even talked to anybody yet, but you’re just not getting that in your silo at home. So I think that managers and supervisors really have to work extra hard at engaging people who aren’t in the workplace physically. And also even prior to COVID, anyone in a satellite office always felt like the redheaded stepchild.

Scott Kinka (25:42):

Well, really, really interesting. You think that that’s also adjusted the expectations of a customer and their relationship with an organization they may be calling into customer service with their expectations also achieve.

Penny Tremblay (25:54):

I don’t really have that much insight specifically about the call center industry, but I do know that people stress is amplified and their ability to, well, let me just put it this way. Civility is in the tank. It really is in the tank. And I am not ever seen the complex challenges in workplaces that I have in the last couple of years in a decade of doing mediation and workplace restorations. So what I’m saying is that the rudeness style is way up or the filters are almost non-existent where, and I feel for your frontline call center agents who have to handle it.

Scott Kinka (26:36):

Yeah, well everybody gets phone or zoom muscles too. You would say something this way that you wouldn’t say if you were this way, which is certainly interesting. Well, I’m going to ask you the same fun questions that I asked everybody else, which has nothing to do with contact center at all, and I’d love to compile these answers. We have fun with them. So give me a business lesson, something you’ve learned and maybe incorporate into either you strategies or just the way that you operate that you would consider a recent learning that you feel like you probably should have known all I need. A recent aha that’s become part of your workplace operating system.

Penny Tremblay (27:11):

Okay. So my recent aha has gradually compacted my learning and success over the last, I’ll say five years, is use your CRM penny, learn it, use it for what it’s supposed to be used for, forget about doing an email over here and then entering an opportunity over here and everything in one place instead of everything all over the place.

Scott Kinka (27:35):

I love that. What’s the CRM you use?

Penny Tremblay (27:37):

I use Zoho.

Scott Kinka (27:38):

Okay, got it. So everything in the CRM by the way, to the bridgepoint strategists and to our team members use the CRM, we see the exact same thing. Alright, and then besides your own book, what are you reading? Give us another reading recommendation.

Penny Tremblay (27:52):

Okay, well I am a student of Dan Sullivan’s strategic coach is global out of Toronto, Ontario. And he’s written some really great books. 10 x is easier than two x is one of them. The gap in the gain is another and who not how, who not how who not how.

Scott Kinka (28:13):

That’s interesting. Alright, we won’t spoil it, but that sounds from just from the title. I think I want to write it.

Penny Tremblay (28:19):

Yeah, it’s about not necessarily thinking that you have to do everything, but you just need somebody who knows how to do the things that aren’t your genius.

Scott Kinka (28:28):

Okay, I love it. Well thank you for the time. It was such a pleasure meeting. I hope you have an opportunity to talk again and I’m really looking forward to seeing you talk in a little bit.

Penny Tremblay (28:35):

Thank you. Thank you for the interview.

Scott Kinka (28:38):

Tell us your name, what you do.

Wade Hauser (28:39):

Wade Hauser, vice President Business Development. Teleperformance, fantastic

Scott Kinka (28:43):

To have you here.

Wade Hauser (28:44):

It’s great to be here.

Scott Kinka (28:45):

Yeah. How’d you hear about the expo?

Wade Hauser (28:47):

Through David T.

Scott Kinka (28:48):

Okay.

Wade Hauser (28:49):

I’ve been a buddy of his, he works at Bridgepoint for about 15 years. We used to work together at Avtex back in Minneapolis.

Scott Kinka (28:55):

Fantastic. And he’s on the board of the N-E-C-C-F as well?

Wade Hauser (28:58):

Yeah, so he’s reached out a couple years ago. I actually know Sandy Lito as well, some of their vendors who said I need to check it out.

Scott Kinka (29:06):

Perfect. So your first time.

Wade Hauser (29:07):

First

Scott Kinka (29:08):

Time and what’d you hope to get out of the expo?

Wade Hauser (29:10):

Great question. I was looking to come here and do exactly what I have done and that is networking, meet new people, meet other vendors. It’s been a great event for that. Right now it’s lunch going on and David who works at Bridgepoint has been a wonderful ambassador. He’s been walking me around introducing me to people and then I guess with all the years I’ve been doing this, I know a lot of folks already, so it’s just sort of domino into meeting new people and it’s been great

Scott Kinka (29:38):

You gotten to speak to some of the contact center leaders who are the room while you’re here.

Wade Hauser (29:42):

Yeah, I think I have mean I’ve met you obviously and I’ve listened to the Vonage, I’ve listened to some of the breakout sessions, Cheryl David, I’ve met the other David as well. So yeah, no, I’ve met a lot of good folks and again, I’ve met most of the vendors up and

Scott Kinka (29:58):

Down. I love it. Think part of the day so far.

Wade Hauser (30:01):

Well this is pretty fun right here talking with you. I love that. I think the lunch going on right now with Pat to Patriot going on, taking pictures is fun. I love being at Gillette Stadium right here. If Minnesota can learn how to win a Super Bowl, maybe we can host some at US Bank, but until then we’ll just go to the Patriots. So it’s been a good event.

Scott Kinka (30:19):

Yeah, fantastic. Alright, well skipping on that, let’s just go to some macro level contact center things going on in this space. You talk to customers often, you’re engaged in their business. What trends are you seeing in those conversations? What are the problems people are trying to solve right now?

Wade Hauser (30:34):

See what a question that is.

Scott Kinka (30:36):

Yeah, it’s a wide one.

Wade Hauser (30:37):

I mean artificial intelligence is on everybody’s mind, on every email. So I think that what that’s done is in a way it’s immobilized a lot of folks because they’re waiting to see what’s going to come out, what so-and-so is going to do before I do that

Scott Kinka (30:51):

I would want to be a fast follower. You just don’t want to be the lead. Is that kind of where you thinking,

Wade Hauser (30:55):

I would love to be in lead but I’m still learning the process and what to do and I’m trying to get into my accounts. But I’d say AI is definitely the trend. Scott, I would say, I think again, a lot of companies are sort of sticking with what they have to see, what’s going to go on next. I think the whole entire business is sort of changing. I think it’s sort shrinking. I think dinosaur looking after the larger companies is changing. I think some of the larger BPOs, Teleperformance looking at some smaller opportunities for the first time, I think it’s turning into a huge ball of war. Everybody’s trying to go after everybody with different things. I think technology is a service for the BPOs as well as changing. I think that’s turning into more of a strong point. And in the old days, call centers just had to go after butts, right? Sing seats and let’s try to get staff going and now you got other companies up there that we’re competing with other technology companies as well. So I think the trend is competition is picking up

Scott Kinka (31:52):

So AI friend or foe for you.

Wade Hauser (31:54):

I’m not afraid of it. I want to get good at it, I want to understand it, I want to know where to learn and where to put it to place it to offer it. But I’m really excited about it.

Scott Kinka (32:02):

Ideally if done right, augmentation for super powering agents, not replacing them.

Wade Hauser (32:08):

Absolutely. I’m for that. And I think if you do replace an agent

Scott Kinka (32:12):

And

Wade Hauser (32:12):

Put ’em into something else, move ’em more or train them to do something else. I dunno, there’s just a lot of opportunity now if you’re going to be afraid of it. I mean they said the same thing about IVR 30 years ago, oh my god, it’s going to replace. Oh my goodness. And look at it today.

Scott Kinka (32:24):

At the end of the day you still want the call to land when you can’t solve it through all the automation, you’re expecting it the land with a human who is. That’s right. Who’s that? At the end of the day, we’re coming off of the back, we’re a couple years now removed from COVID and sometimes it feels like we’re still talking about it, but it did change how we work and where we work and you’re in the people business, it’s what you do. Is that change still having a profound effect on

Wade Hauser (32:45):

Your business? Yes, and I’ll tell you why and I’ll tell you where it may be the most obvious and silliest reason. I can’t reach anybody anymore by the phone. If you call a toll free number, unless you call, you got to call in the sales and ask for you Scott, because if I call the front desk or an 800 number, they’re not going to transfer me to you. They just don’t. Oh we don’t transfer anymore. Oh yeah. Right. So that’s been taken away completely ever since COVID. So what I’m trying to do is be use some trickery and call into the sales department. They always usually help me. That’s one of my biggest secrets by the way, right there. And that’s how they will transfer me to you potentially. But to me that’s been the hardest thing is reaching. I mean, you know who the contact, who the decision maker is the problem I was reaching them. At least that’s one of my challenges.

Scott Kinka (33:28):

Do you think that customers expectations have changed since COVID because of how they interact with companies? Do they expect more, do they expect less? How’s that?

Wade Hauser (33:39):

Another great question on it. Your toolbox. I would say absolutely.

Wade Hauser (33:43):

In fact, I think the intensity has picked up. The customer are smarter than ever. I didn’t think that was possible about 10 years ago, but they continue to know what they want and they better get it and you better have the answers. At least be transparently honest with these folks. They will find out they’re going to get what they want, whether you have it or not, they’re going to find it. Yeah, so I think we’re going into these calls and conference calls very prepared more so than ever before. I agree with you on that. Not too

Scott Kinka (34:07):

Fun questions. Not fun. Good. Ivan is relative. Alright, give me a business lesson you’ve learned in the last 12 months. You can stretch it or shorten it, whatever, but that you feel like you should have already known something that I need a recent aha that you’ve built into the way that you operate on a day-to-day

Wade Hauser (34:27):

Basis. Face-to-face coming to these events are crucial now and I know they’re hard. I was in SOCAP for 20 years. I’ve been part of other to get the value to send your decision makers and your executive level folks in these companies to send people to ’em, their challenge and to keep it value eccentric. But I would say being in front of people and if I could tell any salesperson, new, old, whatever, young old, get in front of people, you can’t sell 2, 3, 4, 10 million deals on the phone without really meeting somebody and being in a group of folks and this is where you meet ’em at these kind of shows. I love it. Well you sound like you’re a perpetual student, so what are you reading right now? See my hearing? Say Yeah, anything interesting. I’m reading a Kristen H book to my wife right now. I’ve been reading to my wife for 10 years. We grab a book and then we just read at night and that’s how we fall asleep. So I just finished a Lonesome Dove series. I read all four of those books. She loved them and we cried. I can’t believe any pass as far as business books go, I can’t recall Top Mad Under Pressure. It’s by Jeb Blo and it’s something prospecting. I just love it. I love the different things. Again, I’m in the people business. I’m trying to reach people always. We consume so much

Scott Kinka (35:36):

Every couple of year who has technology changes the way to get in. Changes.

Wade Hauser (35:41):

Changes probably from the time we started this podcast to now. So you’re right Scott, I appreciate that. Oh man, I loved it. Thank you so much.

Scott Kinka (35:48):

You

David Teixeira (35:49):

Got it. Pleasure. Name

Scott Kinka (35:52):

Where you work,

David Teixeira (35:52):

What you do. Dave Tetra, a bridgepoint and I’m an equity partner here in Massachusetts. Okay, and what do you do for the Northeast Contact center for I’m on the board of directors. Okay. I do vendor management, so I’m in charge of making sure that all the partners have a great day and I got to make sure they all get here. I guess I’m not going to ask you how did you hear about the expo? You don’t need to do that.

Scott Kinka (36:16):

Nope. But I will ask you this. What did you hope to get out of the expo today? A

David Teixeira (36:19):

Couple of three things. First and foremost, you’re trying to get great content for all the customers that are here. That’s number one. Number two is you got to get some really good vendors to provide the really good content and hopefully you get a full house and everybody gets something out of it. Has it met your expectations so

Scott Kinka (36:36):

Far?

David Teixeira (36:37):

It’s been good. Yeah, it’s been really good. We’re kind of back to live events, which is finally, this is the second year old people have commented on this second year, so it’s been good. Done really

Scott Kinka (36:50):

Good. That’s fantastic. What’s been your favorite part of the day so far? I know that says so far we still have a almost halfway,

David Teixeira (36:56):

So we did a bridgepoint presentation on assessing the maturity of your contact center and nine of our participants signed up to take the session

Scott Kinka (37:08):

Just like that, right on the spot,

David Teixeira (37:09):

Which is great, which means you’re providing good content, people want the content, they take advantage of what we’re offering and

Scott Kinka (37:15):

It’s also showing the value of what the Northeast Contact Center forum is bringing to the people who are coming here because these unique opportunities to get access to an assessment from a professional firm who’s given it away effectively for the opportunity to have a conversation. And I felt like the content I’ve sat through many of them has just been absolutely fantastic. It’s good, really good. So in general, meeting your expectations for this year? Yes. Can you just give us a pitch of why a contact center leader in this market should come to next year’s event or get involved in general In the EOPS context reform,

David Teixeira (37:51):

We’ve got a ton of good people that are involved at the board level and we’re building a great community. I mean, it’s really all about, to me people laugh, but I say it’s all about helping people with their careers and finding people new opportunities if they need them. I mean, there’s a lot of disruption in the marketplace right now and there’s a lot of people here that are looking for the next opportunity and there’s nothing better than helping people feed their families

Scott Kinka (38:17):

A hundred percent. Whether that’s in the job that they’re in, getting better, improving skills, learning. There’s been a ton of conversations about ai. It’s been a ton of conversation about outsourcing, that ton of conversations about the changing expectations of customers, which seem to change every single year, every, and they become more discerning. So I think all that’s been incredible content. I’ve learned a ton and I fully appreciate you making sure that I came by the way, and

David Teixeira (38:38):

Thank you for coming.

Scott Kinka (38:39):

Can I ask you just a couple of general questions about absolutes, kind of the industry in general. So you talk to customers every day, particularly in contact center. What are the kind of trends, what are the things you’re getting asked about most now? What’s the conversation today about?

David Teixeira (38:52):

There’s really two things that people want to do right now when it comes to technology. This is just technology. We do people process, but technology, it’s the front end. What’s the first experience that a customer has calling into a call center? Everybody wants to update that, fix it, right? The second thing is everybody’s looking for a solution to automate QM transcriptions. Yeah, sentiment, make calls better, quicker, faster, get to root causes and those are the two constant hot topics. Totally get it.

Scott Kinka (39:27):

And they’re both at the end of the day, I mean AI’s been all over.

David Teixeira (39:31):

Yes.

Scott Kinka (39:31):

And it’s tied to both of those conversations, right? At the end of the day. Oh yeah, absolutely. For contact center leaders, are we still a foe or have we started to move towards friend? When we talk about AI in the contact center,

David Teixeira (39:43):

If it’s done right, friend, if it’s not done right, foe, there’s a presentation going on right now where a guy has just implemented ai, he did it the right way. He is got a thousand agents doing auto QA and he’s already seeing unbelievable benefits both from the satisfaction on the agent side and on the customer side and financially it’s a win-win win and

Scott Kinka (40:08):

Friend

David Teixeira (40:08):

Because we’re

Scott Kinka (40:09):

Super powering agents for not replacing them. Makes sense. Let me ask you this, are we still contending with the proximity effect of agents problem post COVID? Like where they sit, how they sit, that they’re remote? Is that still Staffing has seemed to come up quite a bit. Yeah. It depends on their station. It depends on complexity.

David Teixeira (40:28):

So if it’s a really complex challenge that you’re trying to solve for, it’s still a little bit of an issue. But other than that, I think we’re in a pretty good place. There’s a lot of technology that people need to implement to make sure that agents have all the tools they need and they’re working.

Speaker 3 (40:43):

Yeah,

David Teixeira (40:43):

Of course. If they’re working remotely. Other than that though, I mean you’ve got a lot of great tools with remote training, remote optimization, so it seems we’ve come out of this situation, well, I don’t like to say the word this situation, I’ll just stop saying I’m going to say the situation. That

Scott Kinka (40:59):

Situation. Yeah. Wasn’t that a guy on the Jersey Shore that that’s your this dish race. Alright, two fun questions. I’m going to let you go. Yep. I need you to give me a business lesson that you’ve learned in the past year, 18 months, whatever it is, as you’ve internalized and made part of the way that you operate that you feel like you probably should have already known, but I knew your most recent business. Aha.

David Teixeira (41:21):

My relearning.

Scott Kinka (41:23):

Yeah, I like that.

David Teixeira (41:24):

Buying champions that want to fix stuff,

Scott Kinka (41:27):

Meaning you’ve spent tons of time banging your head against walls without a champion on the inside or

David Teixeira (41:32):

I wouldn’t say ton of time.

Scott Kinka (41:33):

You know what? I wouldn’t say it

David Teixeira (41:34):

The way I would put it is yeah, there’s so much great tech out there right now that can help with the people and the process side, and if you can find people that really want to take advantage of that and solve, then it’s a great experience to help them win. I love that. That

Scott Kinka (41:51):

Give your side, this is an incredible event. Thank you for being not just a great teammate on the bridgepoint side, but really a steward I think, in this community who have contact center leaders. That’s you doing great work here at the Northeast Contact Center Forum.

David Teixeira (42:04):

Thank you. Takes

Scott Kinka (42:04):

A team. Yeah, man. Thank you. All right, man. You got it. Listen, if you made it this far, there must have been some good content or you’re just a fan or a relative of mine. In either case, we appreciate you spending your most valuable asset with us, your time. We don’t take that lightly. We’d also like to say one more time that we’re appreciative of Bridgepoint Technologies and their belief and sponsorship of this show. We hope that if you or someone you know is thinking about your company’s digital transformation or simply the next IT project that you may not have the resources budget or time to get to, I’m sure that bridgepoint one of the country’s fastest growing technology advisory and procurement firms can help. Check out bridgepoint and technologies.com. Don’t forget the E on bridgepoint or simply reach out to me at kinka, S-K-I-N-K a@bptthree.net. Also, take a minute please, if you would, to give us a five star review on your favorite platform. It helps give us the visibility to reach other people like you. Thanks for listening to this episode of The Bridge. I’m Scott Kinka, and until next time, there’s a lot of noise out there in business and in life. Do what you can to be the signal. Thanks.

Scott Kinka (43:18):