Rethinking Contact Center KPIs
Contact Center Show
summary This episode features a deep dive into contact center KPIs, exploring their flaws and how to measure customer experience effectively. Hosts Amas Tenumah and Bob Furness challenge industry norms and share practical insights for improving contact center performance. key topics Flaws in common KPIs like FCR, Service Level, NPS The importance of standardized measurement How to interpret and act on KPI data Practical tips for contact center improvement resources Contact Center Metrics Best Practices - https://example.com/contact-center-metrics Net Promoter Score...
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Forced rankings and performance management
Contact Center Show
Summary In this conversation, Amas Tenumah and Bob Furniss discuss the complexities of performance management, particularly focusing on forced distribution and its implications on employee evaluation and coaching. They explore alternative approaches to performance evaluation that prioritize individual performance over comparative scoring, emphasizing the importance of quality conversations in coaching. The discussion highlights the detrimental effects of scoring systems on employee morale and the need for a shift in focus towards meaningful feedback and development. Forced distribution...
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The YMCA Method: A Novel Way to Coach Employees
Contact Center Show
In this conversation, Amas Tenumah and Bob Furniss discuss the intricacies of performance reviews, emphasizing the importance of coaching and effective feedback. They introduce the YMCA methodology as a framework for coaching conversations, highlighting the need for ongoing dialogue and employee ownership in the performance management process. The discussion also touches on the significance of crucial conversations in fostering a productive work environment. Takeaways Performance reviews should not contain surprises for employees. Coaching is essential for success in contact centers. The YMCA...
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Embracing AI in Quality Assurance: A Double-Edged Sword for Contact Centers
Contact Center Show
Summary In this conversation, Amas Tenumah and Bob Furniss discuss the implications of AI in quality assurance within contact centers. They explore the benefits of AI, such as increased coverage and trend spotting, while also addressing concerns about accuracy and the potential for AI to replace human interaction. The discussion emphasizes the importance of using AI to enhance human capabilities rather than eliminate them, and the need for effective coaching and data utilization to improve agent performance. Main Content: Understanding AI in Quality Assurance The podcast opens with a...
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Is AI a Threat to CRM?
Contact Center Show
Summary In this episode, Amas Tenumah and Bob Furniss delve into the current state of Software as a Service (SaaS) and its intersection with artificial intelligence (AI), particularly in the context of contact centers. They discuss the recent downturn in stock prices for major SaaS companies like Salesforce and ServiceNow, attributing this to Wall Street's skepticism about the actual impact of AI on these platforms. Amas expresses concern that the hype surrounding AI is outpacing the reality of its implementation, suggesting that many companies are not yet ready to fully embrace AI-driven...
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Stop Chasing Vanity Metrics
Contact Center Show
Most customer experience goals are meaningless. In this episode, Bob Furniss and Amas Tenumah dismantle the way contact centers set annual CX metrics and explain why leaders keep optimizing numbers that customers neither notice nor value. Using insights from a John Goodman article on CX goal-setting, the conversation exposes the disconnect between executives, customers, and frontline teams—and why automation, deflection, and “respectable” percentage improvements often make service worse, not better. This episode is about shifting from internally convenient metrics to customer-impactful...
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New Year Predictions — What 2025 Got Wrong, What 2026 Gets Right
Contact Center Show
2025 predictions — graded AI-powered knowledge Bob’s 2025 prediction: AI would dramatically improve knowledge in contact centers. Result: Early but mostly wrong. The technology moved, but the data did not. Knowledge bases were too fragmented, too dirty, and too poorly governed for AI to meaningfully improve frontline work. The industry instead spent another year chasing bots, automation, and surface-level “AI assistants.” Grade: C+ The failure was not AI. It was the state of enterprise knowledge. Remote work reversal Bob’s 2025 prediction: Work-from-home would shrink and...
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HOLD — The Suffering Economy of Customer Service
Contact Center Show
Amas Tenumah explains why customer service is not “broken” but intentionally designed to fail. Drawing on decades inside contact centers, historical research, and real corporate incentives, he argues that long waits, deflection, and automation-first strategies are features—not bugs. The conversation dismantles common CX myths, challenges executive complacency, and frames consumer behavior as the only force capable of triggering real change. Core Themes The Suffering Economy of Customer Service: When service is universally bad across industries, it’s systemic. Incentives—not...
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Empowering Sales Teams through AI
Contact Center Show
Summary The conversation explores the integration of AI in sales, focusing on how it enhances customer engagement and improves sales efficiency. Bob Furniss discusses the importance of using data to empower salespeople rather than reducing their numbers, emphasizing a customer-centric approach to AI in sales. Takeaways AI can enhance customer engagement in sales. The focus should be on empowering salespeople with data. AI is not just about reducing costs but improving efficiency. Sales strategies should prioritize customer needs. Data-driven insights can lead to better sales...
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Unlocking Value in Contact Centers with Brad Cleveland
Contact Center Show
Summary In this conversation, Amas Tenumah, Bob Furniss and Brad Cleveland discusses the three levels of value that contact centers create: efficiency, customer satisfaction and loyalty, and strategic insights provided by AI. He emphasizes the importance of these levels in improving products, services, and processes. Takeaways there's three levels of value that contact centers create Level one is efficiency customer satisfaction, loyalty, if we do a good job it's the strategic insight that AI can provide it can still tell us, hey, here's a trend I'm seeing Here's an opportunity to improve...
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In this conversation, Amas Tenumah, Bob Furniss and Brad Cleveland discusses the three levels of value that contact centers create: efficiency, customer satisfaction and loyalty, and strategic insights provided by AI. He emphasizes the importance of these levels in improving products, services, and processes.
Takeaways
there's three levels of value that contact centers create
Level one is efficiency
customer satisfaction, loyalty, if we do a good job
it's the strategic insight that AI can provide
it can still tell us, hey, here's a trend I'm seeing
Here's an opportunity to improve products and services
AI doesn't have to be perfect to provide value
Strategic insights can drive business improvements
Understanding trends is crucial for growth
Contact centers play a vital role in customer experience
Titles
Unlocking Value in Contact Centers
The Role of AI in Customer Service
Sound bites
"Level one is efficiency"
"customer satisfaction, loyalty, if we do a good job"
"it's the strategic insight that AI can provide"
Chapters
00:00 Introduction to the Contact Center Show
00:27 AI and Its Impact on Customer Interactions
00:31 Future Jobs in the Contact Center Industry