Next in Queue Rob Dwyer

Woody Harrelson’s best-known basketball-related film may be 1992’s White Men Can’t Jump, but his 2023 film, Champions, is a far better primer in leadership, especially when it comes to taking over a new team. He plays Marcus Marakovich, a basketball coach doing community service coaching a team of players with learning disabilities to avoid jail time. In this moment, he’s introduced to Cosentino, played by Madison Tevlin, who demonstrates the attitude many people have of a new leader – “Who the hell are you?”


Taking over a new team presents challenges that many new leaders are unprepared for. Lindsay Haun, VP of Managed Support Operations at Netrix Global, joins the show to discuss strategies for success.


We discuss:
• Taking Over a New Team
• Building a Team from Scratch
• Navigating Age and Experience Differences
• Transitioning to Leadership
• Leading Teams in Unfamiliar Functions
• Balancing KPIs with Teambuilding
• Keys to Improving Team Performance


Connect with Lindsay on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/haunlindsay/


Big Red Podcast – https://open.spotify.com/show/1wGoR13jP7zqQLmbY70dmm


Music courtesy of Big Red Horse – https://bigredhorseband.com/


Brought to you by Happitu – https://happitu.com/


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In 1988’s Big, Tom Hanks brought the perspective of a 13-year-old boy, Josh, into the toy design world. It’s a jarring experience for the seasoned executive, Paul, played by John Heard. Despite all the data Paul presented in this meeting demonstrating the potential of his skyscraper bot, Josh brought a different data point – the real voice of the customer. Josh knew kids and how they thought, not just because he was one, but because he talked with them all day long.


That same kind of insight exists in so many organizations, but just like in Big, it’s ignored by the people developing products. It exists within the Support Team who is having conversations with customers all day long. Sarah Caminiti is the VP of Customer Success at DNSimple and an advocate for Support Teams having a seat at the Product Development table.


We discuss:
• The importance of Support’s Voice in Product Development
• Why surveys shouldn’t be the only source of customer insights
• Overcoming barriers to Support Team involvement
• Fostering open lines of communication
• Creating a culture of communication
• 2 Support Lessons learned from hospitality


Connect with Sarah on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-caminiti-5827b784/


DNSimple – https://dnsimple.com/


Music courtesy of Big Red Horse – https://bigredhorseband.com/


Brought to you by Happitu – https://happitu.com/


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On the heels of one of the biggest hits of all time, the Rolling Stones sent Get Off of My Cloud to #1 in 1965. While the Stones may have felt they were on cloud nine after the success of (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction, their management was immediately on them for a follow-up. Just wanting to be left alone, Get Off of My Cloud was a direct response to the pressure to never rest and continually pump out hit songs.


Nearly 60 years later, the refrain from technologists is “Hey, You, Get On to The Cloud.” For many reasons, many companies have yet to migrate to cloud communications platforms and are still relying on on-premises legacy platforms. While the past decade has provided ample carrots for migration, the stick of missing out on implementing AI is finally beginning to move the needle. Fred Stacey, CEO of Cloud Tech Gurus, stands in for Charlie Watts and bangs the drum for companies to “Get On to The Cloud!”


We discuss:
• The State of Contact Center Technology
• Barriers to Cloud Adoption
• Exciting Advancements in AI-based applications
• Adoption by Market Segmentation
• How AI will impact the labor market
• Navigating the Transformative Technological Revolution


Connect with Fred on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/fredstaceyaincx/


Cloud Tech Gurus – https://cloudtechgurus.com


Music courtesy of Big Red Horse – https://bigredhorseband.com/


Brought to you by Happitu – https://happitu.com/


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2002’s Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones introduced the Kaminoans, a civilization skilled at cloning. Like many skilled at developing specific technologies, the cloners of Kamino didn’t spend much time thinking about the impacts of their work. They were skilled at genetic engineering, and they found customers willing to pay for those skills.


Today, cloning people is still taboo but closing voices, faces, and video imagery of people is big business. Despite the glut of customers willing to pay for these new technologies, questions regarding the ethics and long-term impacts of them remain unanswered. While I didn’t head to the Outer Rim for this conversation, I did enlist the help of Luke Jamieson who lives 9,000 miles away from me. Luke is a Global Thought Leader on the topics of EX, CX, and the future of work.


We discuss:
• The key factor impacting AI adoption
• The Role of AI in Contact Centers
• Evolving communication preferences
• Potential Security Risks of Voice Biometrics
• The Future of Customer Service


Connect with Luke on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/luke-jamieson/


Voice Cloning – https://play.ht/


Music courtesy of Big Red Horse – https://bigredhorseband.com/


Brought to you by Happitu – https://happitu.com/


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Despite Han Solo’s skepticism in the 1977 classic, Star Wars, the Marksman-H training remote was used to train Jedi for roughly 900 years. They were quick and unpredictable just like a living opponent. They provided instant performance feedback and they could be used at scale, offering unique but simultaneous training experiences to an entire class of Padawans (Jedi trainees for you non-nerds).


The training remote is the mock call of the contact center world, but as long as contact centers have existed, most mock calls were carried out between two people and getting everyone the practice they needed was incredibly time-consuming. But the emergence of conversational AI allows training classes to execute mock calls, one of the most effective training methods, at scale. Kaspars Kirsis is the Co-Founder and CEO of Ramplit, a company using AI to speed time to proficiency in the contact center by providing automated call simulations.


We discuss:
• Benefits of Mock Calls vs Other Training Techniques
• Challenges of Traditional Mock Calls
• Number of Simulations and Focus Areas
• Agent Performance Evaluation and Feedback
• The Impact of AI in Training and Contact Centers
• The Exciting Opportunities in Agent Assist Solutions


Connect with Kaspars on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/kaspars-kirsis/


Ramplit – https://ramplit.com


Music courtesy of Big Red Horse – https://bigredhorseband.com/


Brought to you by Happitu – https://happitu.com/


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Seattle is known for grunge rock. But before grunge, the Young Fresh Fellows were pumping out punky power pop. And they’re still going strong today. Rock ‘n’ Roll Pest Control, from their 1984 debut is about how the power of music can help all manner of mental pests.

But when you have pests like insects or rodents invading your home, music won’t make them go away. You’ll need actual pest control. And when actual pest control companies need help connecting with their customers, they use companies like Grit PPO, a home services outsourcer. Margaret Garcia believes that customer service skills are just as critical as pest elimination skills in the industry, so she built a team of experts to provide those skills.

We discuss:
• The evolving role of women in the home services industry
• Benefits of outsourcing customer service
• Navigating starting a business
• Success in a hybrid and work from home environment
• A hot take on call scripting
• The role of AI in the pest control industry

Connect with Margaret on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/margaret-garcia-grit-ppo/

Grit PPO – https://www.gritppo.com/

Music courtesy of Big Red Horse – https://bigredhorseband.com/

Brought to you by Happitu – https://happitu.com/

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Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/next-in-queue/message