Chip Bell

, Industry Expert and Best-Selling Author
Sessions:

Chip Bell is a world renowned authority on customer loyalty and service innovation, writing over 400 articles for many business journals, magazines, and blogs. He has appeared live on CNN, CNBC, CNN, Fox, Bloomberg TV, ABC, and his work has been featured in Fortune, Business Week, Forbes, Fast Company, Inc. Magazine, and Entrepreneur.  The newest of his six best-selling books is, "Wired and Dangerous: How Your Customers Have Changed and What to Do about It". Leadership Excellence Magazine listed him among the top 30 thought leaders in the world.

Lori Bocklund

Strategic Contact, Founder and President
Sessions: Putting Insights into Action − Realizing the ROI from Speech and Text Analytics | Contact Center Technology 101 | Shaping Your Contact Center’s Role in a Multi-Channel Strategy

Lori is a widely recognized and respected expert with 25 years of experience in contact center strategy, technology and operations. She brings her thoughtful and insightful expertise to each client engagement, creating project approaches that serve client needs and solve real business challenges. Representative engagements include:

- Developing contact center and technology strategies to address business objectives
- Leading clients through projects that include process change, organizational redesign, change management, and technology acquisition and implementation
- Building contact centers from the ground up to support new companies or new business initiatives
- Assessing existing operations and technology environments against best practices and developing actionable recommendations
- Developing requirements and helping clients select and implement the best technologies to meet their needs
- Serving as an expert witness in patent lawsuits in the contact center technology industry

Lori has also co-authored the highly applauded book, Call Center Technology Demystified, along with many papers, toolkits, and seminars. She's a frequent columnist and contributor in industry publications and has presented at conferences around the globe.

Lori received her BSEE from South Dakota State University, and her MSEE from George Washington University. She also holds certification in Change Management with Prosci.

Brad Cleveland

ICMI, Senior Advisor, Former President and CEO
Sessions: The Principles of Effective Contact Center Management

Brad Cleveland is known globally as one of today’s foremost experts in customer strategy and management. He has worked across 45 states and in over 60 countries, and his clients have included many service leaders — American Express, Apple, Coca-Cola, USAA, HP and others. Brad’s books and articles have been translated into more than a dozen languages, and he has appeared in media ranging from The Wall Street Journal to The New York Times, NPR’s All Things Considered, and the in- flight programs of several airlines. Brad is author of Call Center Management on Fast Forward (see new edition, 2012: www.icmi.com/fastforward), which won an amazon.com best-selling award. He is a sought-after consultant and a popular speaker who presents with "sparkle, insight and humor."

John Custy

JPC Group, Managing Consultant
Sessions: Tech Options for Creating an Effective Knowledge Base

John Custy is the founder and principal of JPC Group, a professional services company focused on three key factors of IT Service Management (ITSM): people, process, and technology. He has over twenty-five years of experience working in IT services and service management, and he is an ITIL-certified Service Manager/Expert, a certified ISO9000 Internal Auditor, and an itSMF-certified ISO/IEC 20000 Consultant.

He is a member of the HDI Faculty, an HDI-Certified Auditor, and a Subject Matter Expert (SME) for the HDI Individual Certification Standards and HDI Support Center Certification Standard. He was a key contributor to the development of the Support Center Practices (SCP) certification, the Software Support Certified Consultant (S2C2) program, the HDI Support Center Certification program, and the HDI International Certification Standards Committee.

John has been involved as a practitioner, educator, and consultant in developing industry education and certification programs for over fifteen years, he has co-authored an industry paper ("Customer-Oriented Enterprise Integration Technology"), and he is a well-known speaker and educator at IT service management conferences globally.

John has a BS from Lowell Technological Institute and an MS in Innovation and Technology from Boston University. His certifications include: ITIL Service Management Manager, ITIL Service Management Practitioner, ITIL Foundations; ISO/IEC 20000 Consultant; ISO9000 Internal Auditor; HDI Support Center Manager (SCM), HDI Support Center Team Lead (SCTL), HDI Help Desk Support Engineer (HDSE), HDI Support Center Analyst (SCA), and Knowledge-Centered Support (KCS).

Dianne Durkin

Loyalty Factor, President
Sessions: Psychology of Coaching

Dianne Durkin is the president and founder of Loyalty Factor, a consulting and training company that enhances employee, customer and brand loyalty for some of the nation’s most prominent corporations in America and many smaller businesses. She is also author of “The Loyalty Advantage: Essential Steps to Energize Your Company, Your Customers, Your Brand.”

With more than 25 years of experience in training and development, finance, direct sales and international marketing, Durkin is continually sought after to lead companies into new markets and directions, handle organizational restructures, and set up programs that will build lasting commitments with employees and customers.

Dianne Durkin has been interviewed by National Public Radio and Bloomberg Television & Radio. She has been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Fortune, USA Today, Investor’s Business Daily, the Boston Globe, among numerous other publications, and was the subject of a cover story in Learning and Training Magazine.

A graduate of Rivier College, Durkin holds a Master’s Degree from Duquesne University and has completed advanced programs at University of Santa Clara and Babson College. In addition to being active in the Boston Club, Commonwealth Institute, the CEO Club, Who’s Who in America, and Women in World Trade, Durkin is a champion golf player and is fluent in French and Polish.

Many describe Dianne as a visionary thinker – with a rare combination of creativity and a strong business sense – who takes abstract ideas and turns them into reality. Durkin quickly gets to the core issues within a company and outlines their impact on the organization and its profits, productivity and people.

She presently holds two board positions, the NH Lung Association and Ms NH Senior America. In past years she was on the Advisory Board of Rivier College.

Lisa Ford

, Author, Trainer and Customer Service Expert
Sessions:

Lisa Ford has over 20 years of experience presenting to businesses, associations and government. As the creator of “How to Give Exceptional Customer Service,” the #1 selling business video series in the U.S. for over 3 years, Lisa is best known for her work in the areas of customer service. Her most recent book is "Exceptional Customer Service: Exceed Customer Expectations to Build Loyalty and Boost Profits". Lisa was inducted into the Speakers Hall of Fame by the National Speakers Association in 2002, and serves as a Board Member of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Tennessee.

John Goodman

TARP Worldwide, Vice Chairman, Customer Care Measurement & Consulting
Sessions: Moving from Firefighting to Control at Alfa Insurance | Making Your Call Center the Heartbeat of Voice of the Customer (VOC)

John Goodman received a B.S. in chemical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. His book, Strategic Customer Service, was published by the American Management Association in April 2009. Mr. Goodman cofounded TARP in 1971. He has managed more than 600 separate customer service studies, including TARP's White House sponsored evaluation of complaint handling practices in government and business; studies of word of mouth and the bottom-line impact of consumer education sponsored by Coca-Cola USA; Business Week credits him with instigating creation of the GE Answer Center and the use of toll free telephone and web self service systems by hundreds of major corporations. In addition, he has developed frameworks for building and assessing Voice of the Customer processes in B2B and B2C environments. He has taught service quality and service reengineering courses at Wharton Business School's executive education program. He has appeared on “Good Morning America”, the ABC Evening News, and as a panelist on PBS.

Laura Grimes

ICMI, Senior Certified Associate
Sessions: Decisions, Decisions! Using Quality Tools to Make Great Decisions and Gain Support

Laura is CEO of Harrington Consulting Group Inc. She is an experienced consultant with over 20 years of successful business planning, project management, traffic engineering and resource management. Laura draws on her dynamic and innovative background in service and manufacturing operations with high-growth industry leaders. She has developed unique operational solutions for companies facing the challenges of managing multiple skills in multiple centers spanning the globe, including site selection and facility design. She is deft at developing customer relationship strategies and drilling those strategies down to operational plans.

Laura, a frequent speaker at conferences, enjoys sharing her passion for customer service and exploring alternative and innovative ways to efficiently and effectively gain loyalty and retain customers. She has taught and lectured at several universities, and has published many articles on different facets of call center management including strategy development, deployment of resources, motivation of associates and forecasting and scheduling.

Laura is an ICMI-Certified Call Center Management Consultant. She earned her master degree in business administration.

Todd Hixson

Intuit, Care Operations Resource Planning Manager
Sessions: Maximizing Efficiency through Extreme Workforce Optimization

Todd Hixson is the Care Operations Resource Planning Manager for Intuit’s Payment Solutions and Employee Management Solutions Divisions.

The Payment Solutions Division provides innovative and creative payment solutions while the Employee Management Solutions Division the small business payroll leader with over 1 million customers. Todd has been in contact center operations/management for 13 years, working for Travelocity prior to joining Intuit. He has been an out-sourcer, and in-sourcer and an us-sourcer with a belief in efficiencies realized using creative scheduling, performance based “right for me” shift bidding, and pushing limits with optimization that keeps an eye on delighted customers and engaged employees. During Todd’s career, he has driven back-office utilization of work force management practice, multiple channel skill based operations practices, and cross functional understanding via “a day in the life of operations” workshops. Prior to the contact center, Todd had a successful career in the entertainment world, first as a professional musician, and then as a business owner facilitating and scheduling labor for events such as the NBA All-Star game and arena-type rock concerts.

Ian Hunter

USAN, Senior Sales Engineer
Sessions: Cross-Talk: The Impact of Emerging Channels on Customer Engagement

Ian Hunter is Principal Architect of Emerging Channels at USAN. A long-time veteran in the customer contact industry, Ian got his start at Melita International in 1996 and was once named Employee of the Year. Prior to joining USAN in 2012, Mr. Hunter served in a variety of consulting and professional services roles for a virtual who’s who of contact center technology companies including Genesys, Knowlagent, Inovis and Concerto Software (Melita).

Kim Martin

Voxeo, Director of Marketing
Sessions: Cross-Talk: The Impact of Emerging Channels on Customer Engagement

Kim joined Voxeo in 2007 as Director of Marketing. With over 15 years of contact center and customer experience, she is responsible for driving the company's messaging and market awareness strategies. Prior to joining Voxeo, Kim held numerous Director of Marketing positions at Telera, MCI and Wachovia Bank.

Matt McConnell

Intradiem, Chairman, President & CEO
Sessions: Data Overload? Using Metrics to Improve Customer Experience

Matt McConnell is chairman, president and CEO of Intradiem. Matt co-founded Intradiem in 1995 with a vision of helping companies increase the level of customer service they deliver by improving the performance of their agents. Today, Intradiem is a leader in its market with more than 300,000 call center agents around the world using Intradiem every day. Matt is the author of the book Customer Service at a Crossroads and holds 11 software patents. He graduated from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1994 with a bachelor's degree in industrial and systems engineering.

Scott Murphy

The Employees Retirement System of Texas (ERS), Assistant Director for Customer Benefits
Sessions: Overcoming the Challenges of an At-Home Workforce

Scott Murphy is the Assistant Director for Customer Benefits at the Employees Retirement System of Texas (ERS) and is responsible for all aspects of the customer service operation.
 
Scott's professional career in the contact center industry began over eighteen years ago.  Scott began his career managing front-line customer service teams and from there moved to workforce management.  Scott has spent the past 10 years in customer service operational roles, overseeing customer service, quality, workforce management and training.  Scott has been employed at some of the most successful contact centers in the industry, including centers such as, First USA Bank and Electronic Data Systems (EDS). 

Scott is a former board member and chair for the Austin Contact Center Alliance and former advisory board member for ICMI.  Scott is currently a member of the editorial advisory board for Contact Center Pipeline Magazine.
 
Scott holds a B.B.A. from St. Edwards University in Austin, TX.

Leslie O'Flahavan

E-WRITE, Founding Partner
Sessions: A Whole New Set of Writing Skills: How to Train Phone/E-Mail Agents to Chat with Customers

Leslie O'Flahavan is a co-founder and partner in E-WRITE. She has helped thousands of people learn to write well for online readers. She has developed and delivered customized writing courses for customer service agents, help desk staff, web content contributors, marketers, demographers, activists, federal employees, and teachers.  She helps contact centers measure the quality of their e-mails to customers and rewrite their entire library of canned answers. Leslie is the co-author of "Clear, Correct, Concise E-Mail: A Writing Workbook for Customer Service Agents."

Justin Robbins

ICMI, Manager, Training and Development
Sessions: Rules of Engagement for the 21st Century Leader

Justin Robbins serves as Manager for Training and Development at ICMI. He brings with him over a decade of experience in the customer management industry, most recently as the Manager of Training and Guest Experience at Hershey Entertainment and Resorts. Justin has worn multiple hats in the contact center from agent to supervisor to senior leadership. At ICMI, he is responsible for developing training and professional certification content, global training partnerships, and training program delivery. Justin’s passions are relationship building, empowering leaders, and motivating others to provide legendary customer experiences. 

Sarah Stealey Reed

ICMI, Content Director
Sessions: Cross-Talk: The Impact of Emerging Channels on Customer Engagement

Sarah Stealey Reed is the Content Director at the International Customer Management Institute (ICMI) and is a member of the ICMI Advisory Board. She has over 18 years of global expertise in the areas of operations, offshore outsourcing, customer experience, and contact center management. She is an influential strategic leader who has built contact centers from the ground-up, fiscally managed them to support growth, and acted as a turn-around specialist for struggling metrics and employees. Her expertise is in building the operational baseline, while improving and maintaining an exceptional level of customer satisfaction. A consistent and amazing customer experience regardless of location, language, tenure, or channel is her mantra.

As the Content Director for ICMI, Sarah is responsible for the editorial content and community strategy for icmi.com. She’s a writer, blogger, and social poster, and often speaks on Customer Support and Emerging Channels at national events and through online webinars.

Sarah can be reached, followed, liked, or shared through:

Twitter: @sstealey

Email: sstealey@icmi.com

LinkedIn

Amas Tenumah

Teleflora, VP, Operations
Sessions: Putting Insights into Action − Realizing the ROI from Speech and Text Analytics

Amas is a customer experience fanatic, and a self described “contact center geek” specializing in contact center operations, & customer access strategy for a “twitter-first” century. He has spent the last decade managing contact center operations for companies like Coca-Cola enterprises, Convergys Corporation and in his current role as Vice President, Operations for Teleflora. Amas brings a unique perspective to the world of customer experience that he shares regularly. He is also a proud dad & an avid Yankee fan who lives in Oklahoma City.

Jeff Toister

Toister Performance Solutions, Inc., President
Sessions: Staff Up! 10 Ways to Hire and Train Faster

Jeff Toister is the author of Service Failure: The Real Reasons Employees Struggle with Customer Service and What You Can Do About It, a book that reveals hidden and counterintuitive obstacles to outstanding service (www.servicefailurebook.com).

He is also President of Toister Performance Solutions, Inc., where he helps clients improve customer service. His specific areas of expertise include employee training, leadership development, and talent management. Jeff has previously worked as a call center manager and a trainer, and continues to consult with call centers today.

Jeff is an active member of the American Society for Training and Development where he is a Past President of the San Diego chapter, a two-time recipient of the President’s Choice Award, and a recipient of the WillaMae M. Heitman Award for distinguished service. He holds a Certified Professional in Learning and Performance (CPLP) credential from the American Society for Training and Development and a Professional in Human Resources (PHR) certification from the Society for Human Resource Management.