“Seasonal Workers:
Does Technology Help? ”
Gain unique insights about how to keep your customers happy while managing a seasonal workforce

Dr. Jon Anton of BenchmarkPortal, Dana Schwerman of Lillian Vernon and Cliff Harlow of Spoken Communications ^®

June 19, 2007
9 am Pacific, 11 am Central and 12 noon East

Register Today – Space is Limited!

Almost every call center manager must contend with seasonality where call volumes may vary by over 500 percent from the low season to the high season. Organizations are faced every year with trying to compete for the best workers, train new staff, schedule coverage and maintain quality control. It’s a juggling act that is very demanding on organizations.

How do the best companies keep customers happy while managing all of the issues related to a seasonal workforce?

The focus of this Call Talk Program will be to discuss questions and realistic answers about technology to tackle this challenge. During this live broadcast, our panel of experts will share their experience and insights on:

• Using online training for faster and better training at a reduced cost
• Deploying CTI at the desktop to reduce call times and staffing needs
• Using assisted self-service to handle more calls with fewer agents
• Using Guided-Speech IVR for better customer experience and routing to right resource or agent skill-base
• Agent desktop with simple GUI for easier training
• Effective uses of after-contact surveys

Take advantage of the opportunity to listen to these experts and gain unique insights, new best practices and ideas to take back to your organization.

Register Today – Space is Limited!

Bios:
Dr. Jon Anton (also known as 'Dr. Jon') is the director of benchmark research at the Center for Customer-Driven Quality at Purdue University. He specializes in enhancing customer service strategy through inbound call center, and e-business centers, using the latest in telecommunications (voice), and computer (digital) technology. He also focuses on using the Internet for external customer access, as well as Intranets and middleware.
Since 1995, Dr. Jon has been the principal investigator of the annual Call Center Benchmark Research first launched by the Center for Customer-Driven Quality. This data is now collected at the BenchmarkPortal.com website, where it is placed into a data warehouse that currently contains over ten million data points on call center and e-business center performance. Based on the analysis of this data, Dr. Jon has authored well-known columns in Call Center Magazine and in Call Center News. His current publications include Customer Inter@ation Solutions and Customer Interface Magazine.

Dana Schwerman is the Contact Center Director for Lillian Vernon and Time Life. Her site supports multi-channel inbound contacts for both catalog and web for Lillian Vernon and customer care for television, web and mail for Time Life . She is a member of the Hampton Road Call Center Alliance working with local industry partners to leverage strategic planning and sharing best practices. Prior to joining Lillian Vernon, Dana spent 12 years in the travel and hospitality industry. Most recently she spent ten years at InterContinental Hotels Group supporting three domestic contact centers. Dana lead the inbound hotel reservations teams for brands within the IHG portfolio including Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza and Staybridge Suites. Dana is a graduate of the Leadership Charleston program and holds a Bachelor's of Art in mass communication and public relations from the University of Utah.

Cliff Harlow is the VP of Client Services at Spoken Communication. He has 20+ years of experience in technology and consulting services across all areas of technology management from strategic planning, to custom applications, to 7x24 operations. Prior to Spoken, Cliff was at T-Mobile USA where he established and led many new departments including IT Infrastructure, IT Business Analysis and the IT Project Management Office. He was responsible for developing and deploying company wide call center technologies (IVR and skills-based call routing), telephony and data networks. Previously, at Microsoft Corporation and Dimensions Consulting, Inc. he managed the planning and execution of multiple worldwide system implementations and client engagements. Cliff’s first job after receiving his Bachelor of Science in Engineering from the University of Mississippi was as a Pilot in the United States Air Force.

Register Today – Space is Limited!