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Comedian and Streamer, Darryl Graves from Flame on Games joins the goons to witness the new WFM 200 trailer and talk shop about getting bullied by women, fun funeral ideas, conspiracies, and a whole lot of misinformed political chatter. Follow Darryl!Twitch: Flame_On_GamesInstagram: @Flame_on_game
According to the State of Sales Enablement Report 2024, 31% of organizations are preparing to launch a new product or service as a key go-to-market initiative. So, how can you prepare your sellers to be ready for a successful product or service launch that drives business results? Riley Rogers: Hi, and welcome to the Win Win podcast. I’m your host, Riley Rogers. Join us as we dive into changing trends in the workplace and how to navigate them successfully. Here to discuss this topic is Kate Stringfield, senior manager of revenue enablement at Dialpad. Thank you so much for joining us, Kate. Before we get started, I’d love to learn a little bit more about yourself, your role, and your background. Kate Stringfield: Yeah, so I’m Kate Stringfield, as you called out. Was in sales prior to being in enablement, and I was in sales for about seven years, both in hospitality as well as SaaS. And then I made the jump into enablement around six years ago, and now I’m over at Dialpad. RR: Amazing. Thank you for sharing that. I feel like it’s always so helpful to get insight from people who make that transition and have experience on both sides of the playing field.We’re so excited to have you on the podcast for that reason. You have such extensive experience as both a sales and sales enablement leader. So can you maybe walk us through your journey into enablement, how you made that shift, and then maybe a little bit about how that sales background helps influence your enablement strategy? KS: Yeah, so I was in hotels, like I mentioned, for a number of years, and I found my passion helping other people as they started out in their new roles and getting them up to speed. And so when I made the move into SaaS, I learned about this cool role called enablement, and I was like, oh my gosh, I gotta—I gotta learn more and get into that.So since helping others be successful was a—or still is—a passion of mine, I made that jump. And once I landed in an enablement position, I was like, man, I found my place.So I spent a number of years doing enablement for the sellers that I was once a seller for—like, I was doing that role. And then I did another two and a half years in enablement at an enablement company, where I focused on role-specific enablement, as well as launching a sales methodology, three sales motion changes, and various other initiatives that I supported along the way.And then I moved over into Dialpad, where I’m now leading a team of six incredibly gifted, talented revenue enablers across sales, success, and partner enablement. RR: Wonderful. Thank you for walking us through that. It seems like it’s been quite the journey to get where you are today. I’m curious then—we’ve talked about how it informs your strategy—but maybe how does it inform action?So I kind of want to shift gears a little bit and maybe talk about a recent initiative that I know Dialpad has been running, which is that you rolled out a new SKU after an acquisition, and product launch has become a priority for you this year. So can you maybe talk to us a little bit about that initiative? KS: Yeah, absolutely. So making sure that our product is up to speed and ahead of the market is imperative. And so, gosh, around eight months ago, back in October, we acquired a WFM company—so workforce management—which is part of a solution of ours that we did not currently have. So we acquired a company in order to offer that as a complementary solution with what we already had.This was a completely new product line, and we had to figure out, okay, how could we enable our reps to be able to go ahead and sell this? And it’s a slightly different selling motion, so we had to talk through what is it, why does it matter, as well as how do they then position the value of it. And so in true SaaS fashion, we were also, in addition to launching this new SKU, we also had other product enhancements that we were sharing along the same time, as well as a rebranding and new marketing strategy and a new pitch deck.So there was a lot going on. So we had to make sure that we also landed this and landed it well. And so we did some pre-launch awareness where we equipped our sellers with content in the form of kits as well as micro-learnings and giving them the foundation to get them ready for that launch moment so they could start having introductory conversations with customers.So how do you first scope that? Then we did our launch moment and made our just-in-time much more robust and turned them into true sales plays where they learned how to really position this product in the right way and along the whole sales process. And with that, we also did additional learning moments, such as full-blown e-learnings and certifications for how to sell this.Then we really wanted to focus on reinforcement that stuck, and so we looked at, okay, how can we get our managers speaking about this product in team meetings? What kind of activities could we give to managers to run in team meetings, such as trainings in a box? And how can we continue to evolve the conversation and get our reps learning more?And so we focused on PEC talk as well as more thorough, in-depth enablement from a product standpoint, and then that later along the line sales motion and how to sell that. And overall, we saw around $500,000 of closed-won sales initially, and we built around $3 million in pipeline. And through that, we also looked at data with the kit and with the play that—you know, the kit that shifted into the play—and a lot of our reps were using it. There was high adoption of it. They were going back to it multiple times and spending about four minutes consuming the content.And so we were able to track, alright, they did the enablement, they were using the content and sharing it with customers, and then that translated to those closed-won numbers and that pipeline build that I discussed. RR: That sounds like such a thoughtful approach and also like quite a lot of work. I’m sure that was quite difficult to execute, but I love that you’re already seeing the results that you’re looking for. I’d like to maybe dig a little bit more into kind of the initial concept phases where you’re staring down the barrel of this initiative.What kind of challenges do you see reps tending to face when it comes to things like product launch, and what were your best practices for overcoming them as you were executing over the next few months? KS: Yeah, information overload is a big one. And it’s one that—you know, I mentioned we did this in conjunction with other product enhancements and a marketing branding shift in our messaging, as well as a pitch deck launch.So you know, besides that, reps are always being overloaded with information, and so that’s always something you have to contend with as a challenge. Also, when reps are learning about how to sell a new product, it’s something that’s outside of their existing knowledge and skill set a lot of the time or, you know, is just stretching them in a different way.And so you have to figure out how to use the foundation that they already had and build upon that. And then sometimes there’s additional complexities as well. And so when I think about those challenges and how to solve for them, I think about, you know, making sure that you’re taking a crawl-walk-run approach with those product launch moments and building upon what they already have to get them into that run state, but not expecting them to run right out of the gate—which a lot of times is an expectation that happens.So making sure that we’re setting them up for success in learning and building upon that learning, and then also creating resources that really meet them where they are in their tenure and their journey, and being able to translate complex information into simple information that they can digest, consume, put into practice, and then go and evangelize.And then also weaving in sales subject matter experts that really know how to sell your current product and what talking to your customers is like currently, and using them as subject matter experts to really inform that sales motion of that product launch. RR: Great. I think those are all wonderful strategies. And I know kind of a common one when it comes to product launch that you need to keep in mind is just how crucial cross-functional alignment is for the success of a launch. So can you talk to me a little bit about how you create and maybe maintain alignment as you’re building and executing your launch enablement strategy? KS: Yeah, it is so critical. And communication in general in all relationships is so important. And so this is one that really is the make-or-break fail point in a lot of companies. And so having regular touchpoints with subject matter experts across various teams such as—you know, as I called out, sales and success—but also product marketing and other marketing teams. Operations is another really key one.There are so many different teams, and if you’re lucky, you’ll have a business transformation team or a project management team that’s there to foster all of those cross-functional relationships and create that alignment.We work really closely with our product managers and our product teams. We meet with them regularly within our enablement role. In fact, we have somebody in enablement at Dialpad that’s focused on our product and pricing strategy, and so he has these deep relationships with these different teams and different individuals across the business.Additionally, we have a product launch playbook that we have socialized with these cross-functional partners so they know what that playbook looks like, how it can act modularly, and where they play in the process of the playbook—or where they fit into the process, so to speak.And so that really helps us create that alignment and speak the same language. Lastly, we focus on retrospectives—so making sure that we’re learning from each product launch or product release to the next, and by performing retrospectives and having that discussion over, hey, what worked really well, what maybe didn’t work as well, and what can we make better the next time? RR: I love those strategies. I think the Product Launch Playbook is such a clever idea to kind of get everybody on board and aligned with what you’re expected to accomplish. I also love the idea of coming back and reviewing. Sometimes the business runs so fast that you feel like you can’t, but that moment is just as essential—almost—as that next product launch. So I love to hear that.Thinking then of how you’re launching, I’d also like to know a little bit about once you’ve established alignment, how you’re then developing that launch strategy to start running with. Could you talk me through the components of your launch strategy and then maybe how you’re partnering with an enablement platform to support and scale it? KS: Yeah, so that product launch playbook is key. And making sure that it’s modular and nimble to work with various forms or shapes and sizes in which products or, you know, product launch moments happen.Highspot is truly the home—or I guess any platform that people might use—to host just-in-time resources. For us, it’s Highspot, and it truly is the home and where we expect reps to go to first. And so if we think about it in that way, we need to build around that concept.So having that host pre-launch and post-launch and launch materials, having it give guidelines on how to execute—whether it is, you know, as an SDR, BDR, ADR, picking up the phone, what to say, how sellers should be selling the product, how our Customer Success Managers should be reviewing adoption for the product—all needs to live there.We also focus on asynchronous learning, so making sure that we’re not pulling reps out of prime-time selling and giving them space and time to learn on their own, but also checking their knowledge through knowledge checks and certifications. And then all of this new information happening during a product launch needs to, in some way, shape, or form, be folded into onboarding.So thinking about how that comes back into onboarding so that reps who start tomorrow can benefit from that information and be able to hit the ground running. RR: Yeah, there are a lot of different lenses to look at it and areas in which it needs to be embedded, so that all makes sense. On the note of enablement platforms, I know that Dialpad had previously partnered with another enablement solution, so can you maybe share why Highspot was the better fit for your organization as well as how it supports your enablement strategy today? KS: Yeah, Highspot is integral.It’s integral in that it is where our reps start their day and where they end their day. It hosts all of our content, both internal-facing and external-facing. So Highspot is a game changer for us because within my team it’s easy for us to manage from an admin perspective and to practice governance across the various teams that are content creators or host content and manage it there.Our reps are familiar with using it. That’s another thing—you know, having a solution like Highspot is something that reps come to expect nowadays, and so they’re familiar with it, they know how to use it, and we’re constantly thinking about how they interact with it and how we can train them to interact with it better.Our Highspot team—so the team that helps us at Highspot—is a differentiator. So that is our CSM and our AM. So Jess, Emily, our Technical Account Manager Brian, and Matt Hunin, our Solutions Engineer, all help us be able to learn the latest and greatest, utilize what we already have, and maximize our value.And then potentially look at other things that might help us as we overall, as a company, shift to more of a just-in-time strategy. So moving away from live sessions that people are going to forget most of what you said, moving away from, you know, long e-learnings, and more of, okay, I’m in—you know, I have to prepare for this call in 15 minutes—where am I going to find that information?Surfacing it up in Highspot and making it easy to find has become a game changer in helping them—meeting them where they're at and giving them the information they need to be successful.And then we can use data from Highspot and correlate that to leading indicators on whether reps are doing the kind of behaviors we want to see and how that ties to business outcomes. And are the reps actually closing deals or protecting revenue as a result? RR: Well, that’s all great to hear, and I always love to hear a really positive experience. I’m so glad that your account team is there to support you through all of it.We have heard through the grapevine, actually, that you’re doing some really awesome work with the platform, and one area where you’ve seen a lot of success is actually through Digital Rooms—with over 342 Digital Rooms created in Highspot, as well as a 9% increase in external engagement, which is wonderful just to call that out.So what are some of your best practices for driving that adoption? KS: Yeah, yeah. We moved to Digital Rooms just last year, if you can believe it, from pitch templates. And one of the things we did first off was—there was a Highspot University course around Digital Rooms that we took, and we also used materials that we were able to find from Highspot so we could become proficient ourselves as the people that were enabling the reps.We then built a dedicated Digital Room kit to help reps get familiar with the why and the how of Digital Rooms and provided them with walkthroughs. And then we hosted sessions, we did asynchronous learning, we do one-on-one support for our reps on why it’s important, how to build, how to find engagement and analytics.And we regularly also work with reps to get feedback—so figure out what’s working, how do we build templates that make it really easy for them to add in what they want to add in, what information do they always add in so we can just add it into the template for them.Another thing that we thought about was—we use Consensus for demo videos, and so integrating Consensus into there, and how do we make that easy?We have also thought about Digital Rooms not just for sales. We’ve thought about it for our sales development reps and what are their use cases, and built templates for them, and done specific training for them, and gotten feedback from them.We’ve also thought about the post-sales journey a lot. So how do we get our client sales reps using it to position cross-sell and upsell? And then customer success—where do we feed in content for QBRs or other conversations that they’re having with customers and integrating in their feedback to make their templates better?So we’re always thinking about how to get our reps more and more proficient and making that a focal point month over month. And we’re really excited for some of the enhancements coming to Digital Rooms that we’re going to capitalize on moving forward and making sure our reps know how to use it. RR: Yeah. I love that you led with educating yourself first, because how can you enable on something that you haven’t been in those weeds with as well?Well, that’s one of the biggest things you can give your reps—is to build with them in mind. You know their work, you can build something for them, and then actually they’ll use it. It sounds simple, but it’s really hard to do.So I’d love to hear a little bit of a shift in focus, but I’m curious if you could walk me through how you measure the impact of—and maybe then begin to optimize—some of your enablement efforts? KS: Yeah, I think about measuring impact of enablement in three ways. So you have the first prong, which is your enablement effort in general. So how do you measure enablement through, like, what activities are you doing?So this is—you know, if you think about the Kirkpatrick model—this is Level 1 and Level 2: Was your training effective? Were you able to certify, you know, X number of reps? That sort of thing. Those are examples of that.Then I think about the second prong, which is leading indicators. And this is about behavior. Are the reps able to take what they have learned and apply it to their daily workflow?Maybe it looks like building pipeline, maybe it looks like having certain conversations with customers or sending information to customers. You know, it could be various things that are that kind of Level 3 of Kirkpatrick.And then the third prong is at Level 4—so thinking about those business outcomes that are the goals of why you are doing this whole enablement approach to begin with. What kind of revenue are you trying to impact? Are you trying to impact conversion rates, you know, average deal size? Are you trying to increase revenue? Are you trying to protect revenue—so reduce churn and downsell?Those are all things that, you know, are on my mind. And then the correlation between the three—the correlation between the enablement efforts, the behavior change that you’re seeing through leading indicators, and the business outcomes.And so when it comes to then, okay, we’ve launched something, we’ve measured it, and now we’re trying to optimize it—it is then looking at, alright, what are the different checkpoints along the way in which we can say, did we do our job? Or do we need to go back and do more?And so maybe it looks like, hey, are they actually reviewing the play or the kits? Are they sending the content to customers? If not, why? We can ask those questions, because we can see the data on whether or not they’re doing it. Are they saying it in customer conversations? That looks like utilizing a conversational intelligence tool to see if they’re actually using it in those conversations.We can start to dig into all the different pieces and figure out where we need to refine our enablement approach to fill that gap.And so we can utilize Highspot to do that, our data in Salesforce to do that, conversational intelligence data. There are many different ways, but just having that data to dig into it, and then asking questions to reps is so important. RR: Thanks so much for that really thoughtful step-by-step walkthrough. I think that’s really actionable, and I think our listeners will take a lot away from it. I know that measurement is always going to kind of be difficult for enablement teams, so I love just hearing how folks have developed real actionable strategies for making it happen.But on the subject of measurement, I’d love to know—since implementing Highspot, what business results have you achieved? Any wins that you could share or just anything that you’re proud of that you’ve accomplished over at Dialpad? KS: Yeah, I’m proud of so much. Our team has done a phenomenal job, and as you called out—you know, the successes with Digital Rooms and that new product that we launched, that new SKU—those are really huge.Additionally, we have utilized Highspot to realize over $16 million of influenced revenue in just 2024 alone within our revenue organization. That is such a testament to how much our reps have Highspot integrated into their day-to-day life, and then how they use that information to speak to customers, how they use their messaging, and then how that behavior results in those closed-won opportunities.Additionally, partner is such a huge focus of Dialpad—so our partnerships with our resellers, our partnership with our channel—and we have seen a high increase: 23% of our partner material being used and being viewed and then being leveraged, which is also something I’m very proud of.And then the project that I’m currently working on that I’m proud of—but, you know, time will tell on results—is I’m working on a robust governance strategy so we can really take Highspot to the next level and make our cross-functional partners more of the partners in how the content gets delivered to our reps.And so I’m really looking forward to rolling out our more robust governance strategy this year. RR: We’ll stay tuned on how it goes. I mean, those are already incredible results, so thank you so much for sharing.Just one last question for you before we close out—would love for you to share maybe what the biggest pieces of advice you’d give other enablement leaders to help them drive a successful product launch. KS: I think the modular Product Launch Playbook has been huge—so having a laid-out plan for how you would run a product launch from start to finish in enablement and making sure that it fits all sizes, shapes, and formations of what a product launch might look like.And then the other piece of advice I would give is having regular communication and good working relationships across multiple cross-functional partners so that siloed work becomes less of a thing you have to battle. Because that just means that, you know, working together, we all lift each other up.And so that’s something that then trickles down to our reps, but then also trickles out to our customers and makes them more willing to buy from us. So I think cross-functional relationships are just so key—and so keep on working on those relationships. RR: Those are both fantastic pieces of advice, so thank you for taking the time to come share these insights with us. I think I speak for myself and our listeners when I say that I learned a lot of valuable information and was taking notes for sure.To our audience, thank you so much for listening to this episode of the Win-Win podcast. Be sure to tune in next time for more insights on how you can maximize enablement success with Highspot.
CX Goalkeeper - Customer Experience, Business Transformation & Leadership
This episode is a goldmine for leaders, CX professionals, and anyone working in contact centers. Irina Hollatz, workforce management (WFM) expert and podcast host of “WFM Unfiltered,” shares powerful insights on how workforce management impacts customer satisfaction, how AI can support—not replace—humans, and why empathy and process are key to digital transformation. This is a must-listen for anyone who wants to deliver exceptional service in the digital age.About the Guesta few words from Irina: My entire career has been in WFM. I have performed all the operational roles in the WFM cycle—from forecaster, planner, intraday specialist, to Manager. I have also worked as an external consultant and on the vendor side.As a result, I've delivered WFM solutions, optimised planning processes, and set up WFM teams, structures, and methods from scratch in over 50+ small, medium, and large organisations across the Globe, from China to the US, Canada, Australia, India, South Korea, and in the whole of Europe.I currently have my own company, RightWFM, a consulting company that delivers WFM solutions, from setting up teams and structures to optimising current processes and selecting, implementing, and optimising software.I am also the host of WFM Unfiltered.Relevant Linkshttps://www.linkedin.com/in/irina-mateeva-wfm-consultanthttps://www.youtube.com/@WFMUnfilteredhttps://rightwfm.comThe Top 3 Key LearningsWorkforce Management Is CX's Front Door: Great customer experience starts with having the right people available. WFM is not just a scheduling function—it's how businesses show up for their customers.AI Should Enable, Not Replace: Automation is powerful for removing waste, but the real value comes from insights and human-led analysis. You can get your processes right before you jump into tech.Hybrid Work Needs Human Touch: Remote work stays here, but complete remote setups can limit connection and teamwork. Balance flexibility with in-person interaction to build strong teams.Chapters00:00 Introduction and Guest Welcome00:55 Irina's Background and Podcast02:37 Core Values in Professional Life03:44 Impact of Workforce Management on Customer Satisfaction05:54 Integrating AI in Workforce Management10:03 Challenges of Hybrid and Remote Work13:18 Handling Customer Expectations and Seasonal Peaks18:23 Top Priorities for Contact Center Leaders20:41 Future of Workforce Management and Final ThoughtsKeywordscustomer experience, workforce management, WFM, Irina Hollatz, Gregorio Uglioni, contact centers, AI in customer service, automation, hybrid work, remote teams, process improvement, digital transformation, employee experience, empathy in leadership, Black Friday operations, scheduling optimization, call center leadership, workforce strategy, customer service technology, WFM consulting,
The Goons are blessed today with the presence of their friends Emiliya and Anthony, who are of Tucson comedy legend status. This episode is one giant promo reel along with some whites learnin' about black stuff. Gosh, we just love educational episodes here at WFM. Make sure to check out Pitch-A-Pal and Picnic Pals on Emiliya's IG page as well as Anthony's shows at Cafe Pass, all located in Tucson!New Patreon episodes are released every Friday at 5PM!For the extra crazy exclusive story about Connor's week, be sure to subscribe at Patreon.com/waitingformics. It's sure to be sad, heartwarming, and entertaining all at the same time.
In this insightful episode of the WeWFM podcast, host Doug Casterton sits down with Brad Cleveland, founding partner of ICMI and author of "Contact Center Management on Fast Forward." They explore how workforce management has evolved from a basic support function to a strategic differentiator in modern contact centers. Brad shares his four decades of experience working with organizations across 60 countries, explaining how AI is amplifying rather than replacing WFM and why explaining "the why" behind forecasts is crucial for building trust with operational leaders.The conversation delves into practical advice for WFM professionals seeking a seat at the leadership table, the importance of developing T-shaped skillsets, and why we must never lose sight of the human element despite technological advances. Brad's vision of WFM as a "living, breathing ecosystem" rather than a set of rigid processes offers valuable insights for anyone looking to future-proof their workforce management strategy as we approach 2030 and beyond.
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In this engaging episode of Get Out of Wrap TV, host Martin Teasdale leads a thought-provoking discussion on the future of contact centres, exploring the rapid changes shaping the industry. The episode features lively audience participation and expert insights into how technology, workforce dynamics, and customer expectations are evolving.One of the standout moments in the show comes when Martin poses a crucial question to the audience and industry professionals:
The boys are joined once again by Rip'n It, Mansgendered, and WFM alum, Lex Saku! Lex is visiting from Oregon for the holidays! They discuss how the NFL has gotten soft...or have they? Clint and Connor also impart on Lex how he missed out BIG TIME on their Baccarat casino adventure. Connor also dreamt that he was the best version of Spiderman. Thank you again for 300 subs! Please like, share, and subscribe!
In this episode, we will uncover the pivotal role of data integration in driving informed decision-making within Workforce Management (WFM).Discuss the importance of seamless system integration, real-time data analytics, and data modelling in optimising resource allocation and operational efficiency.From integrating disparate systems to leveraging comprehensive data insights, learn how WFM professionals can harness the power of data to achieve strategic objectives and enhance organisational performance.This episode is sponsored by injixo, please visit the link for more information https://www.wewfm.com/sponsor-injixo
After a brief hiatus, we're back to talk about our final thoughts on Witch From Mercury. Was it good? How could the ending have been better? What effect will WFM have on the future of Gundam? And which characters do we realize we've been mixing of Durundal-and-Djibril style midway through the episode? Listen to find out!
WBSRocks: Business Growth with ERP and Digital Transformation
Send us a textIn the ERP field, acquiring companies don't always offer the same advantages as they do within HCM. ERP systems demand tightly integrated data models, making it difficult to seamlessly incorporate acquired products without extensive reconfiguration. In contrast, HCM systems are less constrained by this requirement, allowing acquired components to function independently within the broader system. Ceridian serves as a notable example, evolving from a WFM solution to a full-fledged HCM suite that now spans multiple countries and regions. With this context in mind, how well does Ceridian Dayforce HCM perform in terms of its capabilities, and how does it compare with other leading HCM solutions in the market?In today's episode, we invited a panel of industry experts for a live discussion on LinkedIn to conduct an independent review of Dayforce's capabilities. We covered many grounds, including where Dayforce might be a a fit in the enterprise architecture and where it might be overused. Finally, they analyze many data points to help understand Dayforce's core strengths and weaknesses.Background Soundtrack: Away From You – Mauro SommFor more information on growth strategies for SMBs using ERP and digital transformation, visit our community at wbs. rocks or elevatiq.com. To ensure that you never miss an episode of the WBS podcast, subscribe on your favorite podcasting platform.
In this episode, we sit down with Ted Lango, Senior Vice President at Intradiem and founder of WFM Labs, to explore the evolving landscape of workforce management.Ted shares insights from his extensive experience in the contact center industry, diving into the challenges and opportunities within workforce automation, community-building, and innovative planning methods. We discuss the transformative power of automation, how WFM professionals can leverage new tools to adapt to real-time demands, and the importance of engaging in community learning.Ted also highlights the critical need for flexibility in today's workforce environment and shares advice for those just starting in WFM. Whether you're a seasoned professional or a newcomer, this episode is packed with practical insights on driving growth and innovation within workforce management.
Today is a little Fall Break for WFM - but we will be back on Friday with a full-length episode discussing Florida and its place in the 2024 Election - and a look-ahead to 2026. Pick up your copy of FLORIDA! right here! Thank you to Chelsea Rice for her incredible design of our summer logo! Follow Chelsea on Instagram here! All of the music was originally composed.
Today's interview is with Natasha Ratanshi-Stein, CEO & Founder of Surfboard, an award-winning workforce management (WFM) software provider. Natasha joins me today to talk about the findings of their recently released 2024 customer service survey: The third wave of customer support, what might be stopping some customer service teams from not investing in AI tools and capabilities, where they are investing, how it is benefitting them and some advice for customer service leaders looking to get the most out of their AI investments. Since this podcast was recorded, Surfboard has been acquired by Dialpad. You can find out more here. This interview follows on from my recent interview – Basketball, false hustle and metrics that matter – Interview with Thomas Laird of Expivia/OttoQA – and is number 521 in the series of interviews with authors and business leaders who are doing great things, providing valuable insights, helping businesses innovate and delivering great service and experience to both their customers and their employees.
106 Adriana is a dynamic titled player, coach, and content creator from Spain. She's already reached a 2000+ FIDE rating and is working regularly towards her WFM title. This year alone, she's competed in ten OTB classical tournaments.Adriana also coaches students ranging from beginner up to 1800.Outside of chess, she has a degree in film studies and is pursuing a career in film. Recently, she helped distribute an award-winning short film thriller.As a fun detour, this podcast takes a rare opportunity to chat with Adriana about our favorite movies for a few minutes.As always, we close with questions about her favorite player of all time, her favorite openings, and what her one “chess wish” would be.More From Adriana:YouTubeTwitchTwitterInstagram>> Join my official FREE club for The Chess Experience on Chess.com
As with the last two “back to basics” episodes, we thought we'd spend some time looking the thing that (usually, though there are exceptions) makes fantasy fantastical – the magic! How do we build magical systems, and what questions do we ask ourselves while doing so? Guest and former WFM co-host Rowenna Miller joins us to discuss how, exactly, we make magic! With magic being a foundational element of a world, when it exists in one, how does it touch all the other things that are in your world? Where does it come from (and is that the same thing as where your characters think it comes from)? Who can use it? Does that confer power -- or draw persecution? What are the limits on what magic can do -- and how might your characters push those boundaries? Magic is such a powerful force, and there are so many exciting ways to build it into your story! (Transcript for Episode 140 -- thank you, scribes!) Our Guest: Rowenna Miller is the author of the Unraveled Kingdom trilogy and The Fairy Bargains of Prospect Hill, as well as short fiction. She is also a prior cohost of this podcast! And also an English professor, and a fairly handy seamstress. She lives in Indiana with her husband, two daughters, four cats, and an ever-growing flock of chickens.
On this special “HR Tech Marketplace Quick Take” episode, Pete and Julie discuss the recent announcement by ADP to acquire workforce management technology provider Workforce Software for $1.2B. They discuss the merger by the numbers, sharing insights on what it means for the new couple, what it brings and why it makes sense for ADP, how the marriage impacts the broader HR and WFM tech marketplace, including ADP partners. Plus tips for organizations underway or planning WFM buying decisions. Other vendors mentioned in this episode include: UKG, Infor, Quinyx, Dayforce, and SD Worx Protime. ADP Press Release on its acquisition of Workforce Software: https://mediacenter.adp.com/technology-in-action Connect with the show: LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/company/hr-payroll-2-0 X: @HRPayroll2_0 @PeteTiliakos @JulieFer_HR
Introducing the 5th ever lady on this show, Ashley Tappan! Ashley reps the underrated 6th Borough of New York, Saratoga Springs and co-produces the Last Sunday Laughs Comedy show with WFM co-host, Connor Hanna. Clint is gone, Tappan is in. Finally some pure female energy on this show.
We were all in the same room! And that room was in Scotland! In this episode, your WFM co-hosts were able to record a special episode at WorldCon. We chat about ourselves, our works, the Traveling Light anthology, and our favorite components of a world to build. And then, we take some audience questions! (We apologize that some of them are a little hard to hear; they had a mic, but it seems it was not always picking up super-well) We discuss political worldbuilding, neurospiciness in characters (and their authors!), questions we ask ourselves while worldbuilding, building different cultures within a world, worldbuilding in prewriting & editing, and more. [Transcript TK]
Escucha los detalles en "WFM" con Alejandro Franco
In this episode of the weWFM Show, we welcome two experts in the field of workforce management: Mark Gill, a Solutions Sales Executive at NICE, and Doug Shaulis, a WFM Administrator at PayPal. Together, they will explore the pivotal role of integrations in WFM systems, examining how seamless connectivity can drive operational efficiency, enhance user experience, and support the complex needs of a global workforce.
Alejandro Franco presenta WFM, el programa nocturno de W Radio, Lunes a viernes de 21:00 a 23:00 hrs.
Mesa de análisis del Gran Premio España con todo el equipo de WFM
En entrevista con "WFM" nos cuenta sobre su visita a México
Crítico, productor, cazatalentos, mánager y ahora escritor. Arturo López Gavito es mejor conocido como el “juez de Hierro” de La Academia, pero también ha sido uno de los pioneros que transformaron la industria del entretenimiento en México. Su carrera comenzó en WFM radio, una de las cadenas más revolucionarias del país. Ahí, además de trabajar con figuras como Alejandro González Iñárritu y Martín Hernández, impulsó la música alternativa en el país. Y con una visión puesta en el futuro y el cambio, pronto se volvió productor de artistas como Molotov y Thalia. Su figura se transformó en la de un crítico musical gracias a su paso por La Academia, convirtiéndose en uno de los referentes más importantes de la cultura pop mexicana. Con una pasión por comprender la naturaleza humana, aprender y evolucionar, López Gavito acaba de lanzar “El Coleccionista de Experiencias", libro autobiográfico donde explora a profundidad su filosofía de vida.
In this episode of the weWFM Show, we are joined by Wayne Mitchell from EE and Graeme Gabriel, a WFO Solution Consultant at NICE.Wayne shares insights from EE's major transformation in workforce management, highlighting the challenges faced and the remarkable outcomes achieved.Graeme discusses common hurdles organizations encounter when implementing WFM solutions and the significant role of AI and automation, including RPA, in modern workforce management.Together, they explore future innovations and offer valuable advice for organizations looking to enhance their workforce management processes. Tune in for an enlightening conversation on optimizing workforce management systems! This episode is sponsored by NICE https://www.wewfm.com/sponsor-nice For more information about the case study mentioned in this episode visit: https://www.nice.com/resources/ee-expands-workforce-flexibility-and-engagement-with-nice-workforce-management
By Chrissy Calabrese, Vice President of Product Marketing at Playvox AI in CX, Quality Management and Contact Center Solutions: Why the Contact Center is Here to Stay To say that artificial intelligence (AI) has been written about frequently over the past year would be an understatement. There is probably one area where there are more expectations for AI than in customer experience. For many organizations, particularly in the telecom arena, contact centers are seen as cost centers, so those operating contact centers or holding support centers under their P&L are always seeking new ways to streamline costs in their business. While recent studies show the expected growth and impact of AI over the next decade, there's also potential for job creation. Most experts agree that customer service jobs will be augmented and automated, not replaced. Many believe that by automating mundane tasks, we'll be more productive, efficient, and AI will enable businesses to provide better customer experiences with more self-service options and help fix employee burnout. No matter what side you are on, the promise of AI is significant. In this article, we'll discuss the history of AI being used in a contact center, how AI tools are utilized today, and the future of AI in improving CX. AI in the Contact Centers: Looking Back to Look Ahead Before we jump in and look at AI in customer experience today, it's key to reflect and understand how AI has been previously used. Workforce Management Solutions Anyone who has worked in a service center for a long time is familiar with the teams of people, number of spreadsheets, and the hundreds of hours that have traditionally gone into creating schedules. There's the initial analysis of determining when customer interactions come in (the hours when it's the busiest), another analysis of which team members are available or not (noting special circumstances, when agents need to leave or any other schedule limitations), and then matching all this together to optimize schedules to deliver the agreed-upon service level agreements (SLAs) for response and wait times, and first contact resolution (FCR). One of the early ways that AI was leveraged was to optimize all the previous steps via a modern workforce management solution (WFM). WFM solutions automate the entire process outlined above and consider the most accurate real-time data to produce a schedule for your agents that accounts for hours and number of people needed, and the differences in agent availability — to create customer experiences in accordance with agreed-upon SLAs. This process is all done using AI. Chatbots Another tool that's been in use for a few years is chatbots. These AI-powered virtual assistants can provide immediate responses to customer queries, offer product recommendations, and even help troubleshoot. As chatbots continue to evolve, they can handle multiple customer conversations simultaneously, help reduce wait times, improve overall customer satisfaction, and transform CX at the contact center. Personalized Customer Experiences Personalized customer experiences aren't new, nor is the ability of AI to create these kinds of experiences. A few examples include: Using AI to provide relevant article recommendations on a website that relates to an article the visitor has already downloaded. In this case, a database saves information about a customer's online identity and what they might have searched for or previously downloaded. Matching the caller ID with a record in Salesforce: Through robust integrations with Salesforce, this type of AI lets a contact center agent greet a customer by name as their phone number “pops” in the agent's CRM when the contact calls. This type of AI has been in use for many years, and although it might seem basic, it's still in action in the typical contact center. Whisper Technology Whisper technology is when an AI-type assistant “listens” to an agent's in...
Klaus Bang, otherwise known as the Danish WFM Ninja, shares his thoughts on a long career in WFM, his approach to determining a Service Level target, and how he used Calabrio WFM to consolidate several contact center practices into one.
Yo, it's a Pam/Pan situation here at WFM, it's the boy's last Virtual episode for a long while since Lexington is back in Tucson! Everything for the foreseeable future will be recorded in Ty's legendary Studio del Grotto! The boys get up to some monkey bismuth and throw around some really controversial stats from one of the G.O.A.T.s in this one.
Today on Witch from Mercury, we mostly discuss "what if the character from WFM were something else"? What would their fursonas be? What tarot cards are they? And of course, what if they were all Evangelion characters. Oh, also I guess there's a super high stakes duel that finishes establishing the personalities of the three main characters, but more importantly, what Super Mario Powerups are they?
"WFM" del miércoles 05 de mayo: Disco de la semana 'All Born Screaming' de St. Vincent
Entérate de todos los detalles en "WFM"
Escucha el análisis de la colaboradaora de "WFM", Perla Gálves
Vamos a ponerlos de buenas con música de The Pet Shop Boys, unas joyas que desenterré de WFM y muchas cosas más. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
084 Hungary has a rich history of producing chess stars. Even at the adult improver level, you have the impressive accomplishments of our guest, Kincső Toth.She's already reached 1900 FIDE and is gunning for the Woman FIDE Master (WFM) title - which requires a 2100 rating plus norms.And she does this all while earning her computer engineering degree in Budapest.Kincső infuses even more chess into her life by moderating online events for Chess.com and running a Twitch channel with thousands of followers.In this episode, we discuss:What she changed in her chess to leap 250 FIDE rating points in just one year.Are amateurs qualified to coach chess?Will she pursue a full-time career in chess if she earns the WFM title?More From Kincső: TwitterInstagramTwitchTikTok>> Join my official FREE club for The Chess Experience on Chess.com
Step behind the curtain with Alec as he shares the unfiltered scoop on the WFM world's latest hits and misses.From the echo of AI in every corner to the cloud's rising chart-toppers and the mixed reviews on remote work arrangements, Alec breaks it down with the ease of a musical producer mixing tracks. He offers a deep dive into the dynamics of workforce management technologies, the intricate process of harnessing data for business insights, and the strategic advantages of cloud adoption for organizations looking to stay ahead in the digital era.This episode is packed with straightforward discussions aimed at those eager to stay in tune with the evolving landscape of work and technology.Don't miss out on this opportunity to sync up with the future of the tech industry.
Join us for a compelling episode with a Workforce Management expert Irina Mateeva, Founder of RightWFM. Irina discusses her global journey in transforming WFM chaos into efficient, people-centric operations. She shares insights on addressing workforce management challenges, optimizing resources, and balancing operational efficiency with employee well-being. This episode is essential for anyone in workforce planning, offering practical solutions for today's challenging business environments.
Subscribe Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | Android | Pandora | iHeartRadio | Email | Deezer | RSS | More Don't miss this historic episode featuring Jason Lowe, Telarus Solution Architect for Contact Center. Join in as he discusses a key contact center product some companies just can not do without, which is Work Force Management (WFM). He talks about why they need it, how to overcome objections, and most importantly, how to help your contact center customers see the ROI on it! Can you believe that we're already at 100 episodes? While we go and ramp up and get ready for season three, we're gonna take you back, listen to some of the great moments in these past episodes. So stay tuned as we take you back to season one and two. Everybody, welcome back. We are here to talk about contact center, workforce management, and we're gonna talk about why that is so important. But before we get to breaking that down, what it is, why it matters, why you care, I'd like to welcome in Mr. Jason Lowe, also goes by the name of J. Lowe, into the studio today. – Thank you for having me, Josh. Happy to be here. – So J. Lowe, I wanna talk about your background. Part of my favorite thing of doing this is really learning where everybody came from, right? Did you used to cut grass, then you decided you wanna get into tech? Where did you start? What's your background? How did you get here? And give us the story. – Man, so I've always been into technology. My parents got an Atari, which I loved, and then we got an Apple 2C computer, and they sent me to a computer camp and did all of these things. But when I, quite frankly, when I got to high school, and I didn't wanna go to my other classes, I would go and hang out in the computer lab. And the person that ran the computer lab was very nice, and knew that if I wasn't there helping her with the computer lab, that I would probably be at the 7-Eleven on the corner, or something like that. So she let me go ahead and spend as much time there, and so I got to spend time networking computers together, and setting up software, and then I got a job right out of high school doing the same stuff, and it eventually led to writing code, and doing some of the really super cool, crazy, techy things. But then I was tired of not having a degree, so I went back to school, got my bachelors, and ironically, right after I got my bachelors, and I'm looking around for a job, any job whatsoever, and I ran into this fine gentleman by the name of Darren Solomon, who at the time, was a recruiter for a little company called UCN. – Ah yes. – Yes, and he is now at Varen, by the way, but he and I bonded, and he tried to shoehorn me into three or four other different positions, and I finally got in as a technical trainer at UCN. And so that's how my technology, at least in the software as a service space career, kind of got started. But yeah, previously everything from writing code, to networking, and computer maintenance, to software installation, and stuff like that. – I love it too, because it all translates, right? I mean, I never thought when I was going to school that I would need to know what the OSI model was, and understanding all these different layers, but you have these core things that you have, that you're taught that it always kind of comes back to, regardless of if you, we talk about this, of the things that we went to school for, are we doing those now, right? That's a whole nother podcast on its own, but I think that core, that troubleshooting, plugging it together, right? You're starting to learn what you like, right? So it's been awesome to kind of see that progression, and then turned into in contact, and then I believe there's some product experience in there. So I think you've gotten a cool, rounded out experience in my mind of the background, now obviously specializing in the context in our side here as an architect. – Yeah, it's really funny how things turn out. Everything's so iterative, right? You build on top of things, and when I got to UCN, I was a technical trainer, and then I go walking into Scott Welch's office, Scott is now CEO of Europe for Five9, and I said, “I need a mentor,” and he said, “Okay, here, take a test,” and so he gave me an LMS personality profile. They said it was a 96% match for sales engineering, which I had never heard of before in my life. And so a year and a half later, I'm on the SE team, and I also played SE roles at Talk Desk, and things like that, but really the fun and interesting thing where things went a little crazy for me was I met the SKO with Nice in Vegas, outside by a campfire, having a drink with Kristin Emenecker, who is now the chief product officer, I believe, for Playbox, and we were sitting there ruminating about what we were doing in our different roles, and she said, “Man, I wish I could find someone “to take this product role,” and I was like, “Well, I'll do it,” and next thing I know, we're having a conversation, and a month later, I'm on the product team, and I'm managing the relationship with Varenth, and at the time in contact before the nice acquisition, and so that was kind of my first exposure to workforce management in the contact center from a product side of things. I'd done things previously, but that really opened my eyes as to how these tools work, and what they do, and the value they provide. – So you got to see a lot of progression there. I mean, UCN is turning to in-contact, and you got to see the Varen partnership, product side, engineering side, architecture, all of that, and seeing in-contact grow over the years. As you saw that, I wanna talk a little bit about, and weave this into the workforce management side, because we always talk about, from a discovery call perspective, we're looking to understand where the customer is, what do they need, do they need the full suite of everything, do they need just this little segment of tools that we're trying to augment, because maybe the customer already bought that, and the agent's trying to wedge in with some product or service. So first off, help us understand, for anybody that doesn't know WFM, and what this whole workforce management thing is, break that down for us. – So WFM is one of a set of tools that are collectively referred to as workforce experience management these days. It used to also previously be called workforce optimization. And WFM, in a nutshell, the Cliff Notes version, is a tool that in one side, you feed in a bunch of variables, and on the other side, it spits out a schedule for your agents. That's basically what it is. Now the variables that you feed in, are everything from, how many calls we've taken, what service levels we want for these calls, what shifts do they wanna work, what kind of calls can they handle, are we expecting increases or decreases based on seasonality, or on advertising spends, or these different things. It takes into account all of these different factors, before it spits out the schedule, that allows you to answer the number of calls that you're going to get in the service level window that you want, service level being answering within a certain interval, like we wanna get 80 to 85% of our calls answered within 30 seconds, or something like that. And so it takes all that in consideration, and then it just makes sure that you're optimizing the number of people that you need to have on the floor, answering phone calls at any given time. So really, it's the thing that optimizes things in both directions. One, let's optimize the customer's experience by making sure that an agent's there to answer the phone call, but let's also optimize the spend for the company by making sure that we're accomplishing this with the lowest number of actual agents or employees necessary to meet those levels. – Awesome, I wanna go back to maybe one of the first examples that you did with this, but maybe let's kick back even further of how do we know who needs this, right? I mean, do most customers know that they need it? Is it a certain size that you would always see of when it gets to the size, that's kind of when, and the spreadsheets thing doesn't work anymore, or steer us around that? – Great question. So I would say in most cases, when you're looking at somewhere north of 40 to 50 agents, you're probably going to benefit from something like this. Now there are other variabilities that kind of play into things like, do we have a follow the sun model? Do we have just one shift, eight to five Monday through Friday, and that's it? Do we have long calls? Do we have short calls? Are we doing outbound also? What are the types of media channels are we handling like chat, SMS, email, et cetera with our agents? Lots of different factors, but generally rule of thumb, if you have more than 40 to 50 agents, if you will, whatever you call those agents, that's generally the level that's kind of a rule of thumb. – Okay, so let's look back at, I wanna show a progression here as we build on this at the end, then versus now kind of thing. If you flash back to one of the first opportunities that you ever worked in as an engineer, where you went, hey, I need WFM, or we need to add WFM in here, walk us through what was that like and what was the product set then and how much value did it add? – At that time, it really was just the scheduling component, but then there were also some affiliated products that also further justified it. On the scheduling side of things, that was enough of a financial justification to make it happen. This was an instance where I think they were dealing with 75 agents, they were doing spreadsheets, they did have a day shift and a swing shift, and they wanted to be really particular about their schedule and they wanted to really make sure that they were hitting those service level goals. And so they were less concerned with providing the agent with a consistent eight to five Monday through Friday schedule, but let's make sure that we have the right staff scheduled wherever needed. And so you have two different extremes in using the tools. One is going to be flexibility in the agent schedule, the other is going to be let's be consistent for the agent and just provide them a day job type thing. So the more flexible you can be with a schedule for an agent and start and finish at a specific time, take breaks at specific time, then you're going to be able to customize things a little better to hit those service levels. And in this particular case, it really made sense because they were using Excel spreadsheets and they were just kind of going off of what they felt. But when we dove into things and really took a look at their call volume, imported it into a WFM tool, they could really see the flows, the ebbs and flows during the day and see that sometimes people were taking breaks or were scheduled to take breaks or lunches during some of these peak periods. That's why their service levels were going down and they probably knew it was happening, but they weren't recognizing it because they didn't really have it right in front of their face in the form of a good report. – So how do you pull that in to help the customer see that it's not just an added cost? How do you quantify that into ROI? What's the easiest top couple things to drill that down? – I would say just taking a look at the fact that the people in a contact center are the number one cost. There's no, I mean, no matter what technology you're going to buy, you're still the biggest expense is going to be who you're paying and how much. And anything you can do to optimize that level of personnel or staffing, or dare I say, minimize it to what is just necessary to hit the goals, you're going to save yourself money. How is that going to be? Well, you're always going to be over-staffing if you're not really analyzing and taking a look at what's going on with all of these different variables and making sure that you have people staffed at the right time, but also not there at the times when you don't need them. And so it really boils down to, okay, how many agents do you have? What's your labor expenditure? Why don't we take some of your call volumes, run a couple of simulated schedules and see what your labor costs would be if we were to do it through the WFM tool on this other side. – Love it, love it, that's good. How do you think, let's talk about pros and cons. Our job, right, as engineers and architects is to help the partner solve the customer's business problems. And surely we would love it if we can come in and we can sell them context center and the workforce suite and UC and security and all these things. But we're only able to do, A, what the budget allows and then, B, what they really need that they can identify that solves their problems at the current time. So where I'm going with this is we talk about a fully integrated suite or just these a la carte products that help somebody wedge in. How do you look at pros and cons there? What's my pro or con either way of saying, Mr. Customer, you should leave this older technology that you have because by the time we bolt on, it's gonna be X, Y, and Z. Or, no, you know what, wedge it in here. How do you go through that thought process? – Well, it's interesting, right? You have to take into consideration a lot of different things like the philosophy and the environment and the customer. And what I mean by that is, are they cutting edge technology adapters or are they someone that likes to hang on to their legacy stuff? How open are they to that conversation? There's always that burden of teaching people what this new technology can do. And I've given you this analogy, but I think it's a very pertinent one. I'm giving it up. I'm not turning in my man card. Not gonna do it, but I like this show called Downton Abbey, I just like it, okay? – Awesome. – And the very, very first episode ever, they're talking about how electricity is this really great new invention. And they're talking about how they're actually gonna pipe electricity into the kitchen. And one of the kitchen maids is really confused and can't understand why in the world you would pump electricity into a kitchen for crying out loud. That's because she didn't understand that electricity could drive mixers and refrigerators and all these different things. She had to be educated as to why this tool was going to make her life better and easier and more efficient. And sometimes in the sales process with a lot of these products, you go through that. So ROI is really important. On WFM, it's a little bit more tangible. On QM and some of these other ancillary products, it can be a little bit harder to prove, but it is provable. You just have to do the analysis. You just have to get into the numbers and figure it out. Now as it pertains to do we do it as an add-on, do we do it as a suite of products, again, that's kind of the philosophy of the customer. Do they want to write one check? Do they want to have one hand to shake, one throat to choke, whatever your favorite analogy is? Or are they okay with trying to go with different pieces and bringing together a suite of best of breed products? And there's really no right or wrong answer for everybody because everybody has a different use case that is going to be met by different product mixes. Oftentimes people just kind of go with their gut or they go with what their company philosophy is. – Fair, good point. Do you find though that with a product like this, are you getting them to consider things that they haven't thought of yet? You know, what percentage of customers do you think are considering these things, right? Or thinking about the agent and how long they're on and how much their costs are and all those things. Or are you finding that you're having to bring up in these discovery discussions? Hey, have you thought about this? Have you thought about the software to be able to do these things? – There's a lot of factors there. Sometimes they're familiar with the technology, but it hasn't been the right time yet to try and implement it. Sometimes it's complete discovery and education because they've been so stuck on older technology that they haven't even considered doing this yet. It really is fun to go through that process with customers from both perspectives, right? We now have employees that have used this in previous lives. We want to adopt this technology. We haven't been big enough to do it yet. Now we're big enough to do it. Or our executive team is really emphasizing the trend of now, which is the customer experience. Let's make sure we're differentiating ourselves by how well we're treating our customers. We have to do a better job of that. Let's make sure that we are incorporating these different tools that can make that better. And therefore by extension, make the customer experience better. And so, wow, it's a fascinating time to be in this space. Let's just put it that way. Because technology is always changing, as you know, Mr. Podcaster, in all of these different areas. And all of these different and exciting innovations are really bearing fruit at a lot of different levels. And there's always that bell curve, right? Of early adoption versus late adoption, et cetera. Contact centers run the gamut, just like everybody else. They all run the gamut. It's fun to go in and see what levers you can pull or push to educate them as to what can actually make things better for them. How, why, how it's gonna save them money. How it's going to improve their customer experience and make their lives better. – So that's perfect scenario. That's when it goes good, when we're able to discover, and we can pull out everything that they need. Let's say a partner's listening up to this point, they're ready to hang up off this podcast and go try what you said and put into play. I wanna talk about the bad things, right? Not to be a Debbie Downer, but what are the problems that you're gonna run into in a conversation that you see? You know, what is it that customers struggle with if they don't wanna adopt WFM, or they don't wanna move in that direction? Or just what are some of the challenges if a partner goes down and has this discovery and asks some of these questions on their own, what are they gonna run into that the customer might say, eh, I don't know? – Well, the number one thing that you're facing when you're in a situation like that is, you know, it's not necessarily the competitor which is another provider, it's, you know, no change, or not make any change at all. They just wanna go with the status quo. That's a tough one to fight, and really it comes down to education. And sometimes partners may, how can I put this the right way? They want to make sure that they're coming across the right way when they're talking to their customers about new technologies. They may not feel armed or educated, and that's where myself and my solution architect teammates really come into play here. We can be that person in your hip pocket or side by side with you on these phone calls to have those conversations, to do that education, to make sure that the customer realizes the benefit that these technologies could bring to them. It's the role we play here atTelarus We make everybody better, including our partners, by giving them greater resources to accomplish those very things. – Love it. All right, let's get through, we talked about an early example. Let's talk about a more recent example. We can leave customer name out of this, but what I'd love to hear about this is that, we always talk a lot about what the deal ends up closing at. Really wasn't always what it started as, whether that's because we ask a lot of questions naturally and we gotta understand what fits where, and APIs and integrations and all that good stuff. But maybe walk me through an example where you helped a partner, you got brought into this situation, I said, Jason, here's what it is. And by the time you got through your discovery process and all of that, it ended up being that they needed this. And let's hear kind of what that is, and then really what did it solve? – Great question. So I think doing discovery the right way leads to discussions about these newer technologies. And it can be something as simple as just asking a question about something that maybe they hadn't considered on purpose, or if they didn't have experience with it and listening to them go, what's that? How does that work? How's that gonna provide me a benefit? And then you get into a greater conversation of what it is that those tools can do. Really the discovery process is key. I think it's very, very, very key in making sure that you're leading the conversation the right way. Plus if you're doing it right, you could find opportunity a little bit later down the road to introduce some of those newer things. A recent use case would be actually, one that I'm thinking right now was they just were interested in updating their phone systems. They didn't have much of an IVR, but they had heard, and this was the term they used with me, they had heard of some of these newer technologies that maybe they wanted to figure out to use down the road. And so that led to a conversation of, okay, well let's talk about those newer technologies and these are what they can do and these are the ways that they can improve that customer experience. And it led to a lot of aha moments for the customer. It led to a lot of, oh, and you can do that now? Oh, I'd heard that that might be possible, but I didn't think that that was technology that we would be able to afford, let alone justify. And then when you get into the details of that and they realize that there are cost-effective ways to incorporate a lot of these newer technologies into their practice, it really made an impact. And what started out as just a, let's replace just our phone system and we're gonna do all of these things as futures. And later on it progressed into, okay, guess what? We're gonna add this piece and this piece and this piece with these two pieces being phase two, this piece being phase three. Ended up probably being about twice as big of a deal as it was originally. – Love it. Message here, bring in the team, we can help. – We do those things for you. – All right, so as we wrap this up, just one or two final things here. Obviously we're talking about resources, one of those phenomenal resources that partners have that they can lean on and bring in our team to help with. Is there anything that you would give a partner advice on if they're not comfortable cracking into this technology, right, aside from bringing us in? Anything else that you would recommend for them to do? Education, things like that for them to learn who are not comfortable in selling this? – Just ask the questions and ask the questions around how people are communicating. I think that's probably the biggest thing. How are your customers talking to you? How are you talking to your customers? Who are your customers? What is their experience like? Is there anything you want to do to improve that? What systems are you using now to facilitate those things that you're doing? Then you can ask questions that are a little bit standard, like what is your SLA? What is your service level? What is your CSAT score? All of these different things that maybe you dropped some acronyms or you mentioned some things that they hadn't quite considered. Your job really is not to dive into and ask all of the, at least maybe your job could be this if you wanted it to be, but you don't necessarily need to dive in and ask all the super technical questions. You just need to progress it to, let's have another conversation. Let's get to a point where we're talking to somebody that we can discuss these things in greater detail. Oh, by the way, I'm gonna call Jason and have Jason on the phone with me to go ahead and have that conversation. It's just ask questions. Try and learn a little bit more about what they like, what they don't like, what's keeping them up at night, what types of technologies have they heard about and they wanna consider and go from there. – Love it. Okay, final thoughts here. So in honor of Miss Cleo, if anybody knows what that is, those late night infomercials where she promises to tell your future. We've seen a lot of evolution to your point, right? We talk about that all the time on this podcast of technology, the rate of change is faster than anything we've ever seen. If you look out, I don't know, it's hard to look out even past 12 months right now, but if you look out 12 plus months, anything that you see changing dramatically in this space that you want partners to kind of be aware of and pay attention to? – Customer experience is going to be influenced by a lot more technology than just an ability to answer the phone. There are intelligent agents, there's AI everywhere doing all sorts of things in all the different places at once. Sam Nelson, one of the great people we work with here, Talaris just today, kicked off one of her minutes, or I can't remember the exact name. – Sam Snippets. – Sam Snippets, where she was talking about AI and the role that it plays in the contact center and in customer service and customer experience. That is very, very true. And it seems like every time we turn a corner and we're talking to a provider, they're taking AI and applying it to a different place in the contact center and in the customer experience that we hadn't thought of or considered before. And so that's all leading to the point where you just need to be comfortable with the fact that technology is going to continue to evolve, technology is going to continue to make things better, but the bottom line is that there will always be someone that wants to talk to a live person and that doesn't necessarily want to talk to a machine or doesn't want to try and serve themselves in certain ways. And so there will always be people that you can talk to that are contact center or customer experience centric. Another thing, if I may, take a few more moments here, is the merger of marketing and customer service, sales and customer service. Marketing, sales, customer service are all kind of becoming the same thing. And so the systems that are serving one of those can oftentimes be the systems that serve others. And we have in our stable providers here at Telarus some fantastic tools that can do great work in all of those different areas and integrate with the other tools in the areas as well. – Love it. Okay, Mr. Jason Lowe, thanks for coming into the studio with me today, man. – Thank you for having me. – Okay, that wraps us up. All right, everybody, we're out of here for today. I'm your host, Josh Lupresto SVP of Sales Engineering. This is Workforce Management with Mr. Jason Lowe, Solution Architect, Telarus Telarus
Alejandro Franco presenta WFM, el programa nocturno de W Radio que cada noche integra música, entrevistas, cine, gastronomía, literatura, política, astrología y marihuana (Tramo de 20:00 a 21:00)
Alejandro Franco presenta WFM, el programa nocturno de W Radio que cada noche integra música, entrevistas, cine, gastronomía, literatura, política, astrología y marihuana (Tramo de 21:00 a 22:00)
Alejandro Franco presenta WFM, el programa nocturno de W Radio que cada noche integra música, entrevistas, cine, gastronomía, literatura, política, astrología y marihuana (Tramo de 21:00 a 22:00)
Alejandro Franco presenta WFM, el programa nocturno de W Radio que cada noche integra música, entrevistas, cine, gastronomía, literatura, política, astrología y marihuana (Tramo de 22:00 a 23:00)
Alejandro Franco presenta WFM, el programa nocturno de W Radio que cada noche integra música, entrevistas, cine, gastronomía, literatura, política, astrología y marihuana (Tramo de 20:00 a 21:00)
Roblox employees are being asked to return to the office. We discuss the way in which the CEO asked them and why it's the best one we've seen.Patreon Account: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=22174142This show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/4805674/advertisement
Hour 1: Boomer went to the Rangers game last night and he said there's tons of people outside the Garden that just yell at people. We also talked about the details that are holding up the Aaron Rodgers to the Jets deal. Boomer said the Jets are holding this up because they want protection if for some reason Rodgers doesn't play. They also talked about John Mara being very against Thursday night schedule flexing. Jerry is here for his first update and starts with Matt LeFleur getting the fanbase ready that Jordan Love is not Aaron Rodgers. John Mara is thrilled that the NFL is not flexing Thursday night games. Roger Goodell was asked if the NFL is putting Amazon over player safety. Evidently Ian Rapoport has to stand on a box when he's on TV or he looks short. Jerry goes around the NBA from last night. Charles Barkley answers the question, ‘how many holes does a straw have?' He also answers, ‘is a hot dog a sandwich?' In the final segment of the hour, Gio wants to clear his name from an article about Doug Gottlieb. Hour 2: MLB's Opening Day will be here tomorrow. We talked about the importance for both the Mets and Yankees to get off to a great start. Gio wonders if Josh Donaldson and Aaron Hicks are only here because of the money they are paying them. We also talked about how great it's going to be having shorter baseball games. Do you think we'll be talking more about the games on Friday morning or more about the pitch clock? Gio wonders if the faster game will affect concessions. A caller said Evan Roberts was talking about Boomer's schwein after seeing the pic of Boomer in his softball uniform. Jerry returns for an update and starts with Carton & Roberts discussing the pic of Boomer in his tight pants showing off his schwein. Jerry also went around the NHL for the locals. John Mara is not a fan of the flexing schedule as it inconveniences fans. In the final segment of the hour, Calais Campbell signed with the Falcons. He had a scheduled meeting with the Jets for tomorrow, but that has been canceled. Lamar Jackson took to Twitter again to defend himself to those who said he quit on his team. Hour 3: NFL owners shot down the idea of reviewing roughing the passer. Boomer thinks the NFL is trying to phase out the punters. MetLife stadium is also getting new fake turf for this season, and then a grass field before the 2026 World Cup. Boomer said Tiger Woods is going to be the Captain of the Ryder Cup team. We also talked about Daniel Jones getting new agents and getting the contract signed. We heard from the agents and GM, not Daniel Jones. That's the way it should be. Jerry returns for an update and starts with Roger Goodell talking about teams that don't like the flex scheduling idea. Arthur Blank talked about why the Falcons are not going after Lamar Jackson. Jerry has audio of Nestor Cortes quick pitching and getting called for a ball since he didn't make eye contact with the hitter. The Rangers beat Columbus 6-2 at the Garden. An OnlyFans woman says 90% of her day involves pleasing her husband and she lets him sleep around. He said he's just a mammal so it's natural. In the final segment of the hour, we talked about NYC wanting to move MSG. MLB games will be faster this year, how will this affect the broadcasts? Boomer also doesn't like all these people still working from home. Hour 4: Boomer vs the callers who still want to work from home. Jerry returns for his final update of the day and starts with John Mara saying that flexing games to Thursday night is abusive to fans. Roger Goodell cares about the fans at home and wants them to see the best games. Ron Rivera talked about why the Commanders didn't go after Lamar Jackson.The Yankees are buying a stake in Padel Racquet Sports. In the final segment of the show, Mekhi Becton is looking good in a recent photo posted online. Daniel Murphy has joined the Long Island Ducks as a player. We also talked about random motels on Long Island that look sketch.
Hour 4: Boomer vs the callers who still want to work from home. Jerry returns for his final update of the day and starts with John Mara saying that flexing games to Thursday night is abusive to fans. Roger Goodell cares about the fans at home and wants them to see the best games. Ron Rivera talked about why the Commanders didn't go after Lamar Jackson.The Yankees are buying a stake in Padel Racquet Sports. In the final segment of the show, Mekhi Becton is looking good in a recent photo posted online. Daniel Murphy has joined the Long Island Ducks as a player. We also talked about random motels on Long Island that look sketch.
Listen to how Boomer & Gio got their entire audience riled-up.
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