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ICMI Expo In The News

Date Published July 3, 2019 - Last Updated September 08, 2020
Contact center AI: Agents may be training their replacements
By Don Fluckinger | TechTarget

Moreover, augmented reality (AR) tools that were on display at the ICMI Contact Center Expo conference earlier this year also show promise for enabling customer self-service for walking through the setup and installation of hardware, such as cable modems.
Date Published July 2, 2019 - Last Updated September 08, 2020
Inside View: Jerri Pigg-Shoemake, WPS Government Health Administrators
By Susan Hash | Contact Center Pipeline

Running a contact center is not a new role for Pigg-Shoemake. She is an accomplished leader and was recently recognized by ICMI with its 2019 Global Contact Center Award for Best Contact Center Manager. The WPS Government Health Administrators contact center also received ICMI’s Best Small Contact Center Award. I had the honor of speaking with Pigg-Shoemake to learn more about her approach to contact center leadership.
Date Published May 29, 2019 - Last Updated September 08, 2020
Contact center-as-a-service platforms here, but face hurdles
By Don Fluckinger | TechTarget

The old and the new were on display at the ICMI Contact Center Expo in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., in May 2019. Some contact center leaders were considering their technology options, as cloud services become easier to adopt as APIs create cleaner migrations, and the industry moves to support all customer communication channels at once.
Date Published May 24, 2019 - Last Updated September 08, 2020
ICMI 2019 Contact Center Expo and Conference Summary
By Sheri Greenhaus | CRMXchange

ICMI Contact Center Expo continued its tradition of providing a multifaceted educational program as well as a diverse marketplace to review the latest products and services. The program included a variety of training and networking opportunities, case studies, and site tours of local contact centers, including such complex operations as Carnival Cruise Lines and Hard Rock Stadium.
Date Published May 21, 2019 - Last Updated September 08, 2020
Replacing contact center platforms poses big dilemma
By Don Fluckinger | TechTarget

Moving contact center platforms from on premises to the cloud might be an enticing idea to customer support teams. They see technology innovations such as deeper AI, sharper analytics dashboards and more supported customer communication channels in new cloud products that just aren't available in their own applications stacks.
Date Published May 21, 2019 - Last Updated September 08, 2020
ICMI Expo 2019 Conference Roundup
By Kaye Chapman | Comm100

ICMI Expo 2019 took place from the 13th-16th May at the rather glamorous Diplomat Resort, Hollywood Beach, Florida. My time at the Expo was a breath of fresh air in more ways than simply letting me escape the heat outside. Expo 2019’s theme was “Navigate the tides of transformation” and as well as covering a lot of the type of best practices CX pros are familiar with, the Expo contained a lot of fresh topics and technologies too.
Date Published May 20, 2019 - Last Updated September 08, 2020
I’m New to Contact Centers. Here Are 5 Things I Learned at ICMI’s Contact Center Expo
By Kara Worthington | Talkdesk

Last week, I attended ICMI’s yearly contact center expo in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The theme was “Navigate the Tides of Transformation,” which was fitting for two reasons. One, because the conference was at The Diplomat Beach Resort, which is located right on the beach. And two, because contact centers are at a particularly transformative point in their existence.
Date Published May 17, 2019 - Last Updated September 08, 2020
Why Is There So Much Employee Turnover in the Contact Center?
By Tracy Schelmetic | TMCnet

But why does the contact center industry have so much turnover? According to ICMI, there are several reasons.
Date Published May 16, 2019 - Last Updated September 08, 2020
ICMI Contact Center Expo 2019: Emphasizing Employee Engagement
By Sam Del Rowe | CRM Magazine

Speakers on the second day of ICMI’s Contact Center Expo emphasized employee engagement and addressed a variety of ways to do so, from increasing transparency to building culture among remote agents.
Date Published May 15, 2019 - Last Updated September 08, 2020
Jeff Toister Keynote at ICMI Contact Center Expo 2019 – Hidden Obstacles to Outstanding Customer Service
By Kaye Chapman | CX Accelerator

Here at CC Expo, it’s clear that the world of the contact center is at a turning point. The Expo hall is crammed with state-of-the-art technologies and promises of automation, higher efficiency, lower costs. New software and solutions are dazzling and daunting in equal measure.
Date Published May 15, 2019 - Last Updated September 08, 2020
ICMI Contact Center Expo 2019: Connecting With Customers Is Key
By Sam Del Rowe | CRM Magazine

To generate value for companies, contact centers must emphasize connecting and collaborating with customers as well as fostering a caring mentality among employees, said Brad Cleveland, senior adviser and founding partner at ICMI, in his keynote on day one of ICMI’s Contact Center Expo 2019.
Date Published May 15, 2019 - Last Updated September 08, 2020
Effective customer surveys help contact centers drive CX
By Don Fluckinger | TechTarget

Here at ICMI Contact Center Expo, customer service leaders made a strong case for owning CX, as they are the ones remediating customer problems and also collecting data -- the most powerful tool for CX improvement -- in effective customer surveys.
Date Published May 14, 2019 - Last Updated September 08, 2020
CX initiatives driving contact center technology trends
By Don Fluckinger | TechTarget

Burgeoning contact center technology trends demonstrate that the customer service and support world has taken notice of the overarching customer experience movement sweeping through the sales and marketing realms. Few attending this year's ICMI Contact Center Expo here would go as far as to rename contact centers "customer experience centers," including ICMI co-founder and speaker Brad Cleveland.
Date Published May 14, 2019 - Last Updated September 08, 2020
Agent Assist, Powered by Talkdesk iQ
By Sheila McGee-Smith | No Jitter

At ICMI Contact Center Expo, being held this week in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., CCaaS provider Talkdesk announced the availability of Agent Assist, which it describes as an intelligent advisory tool that supplies data-driven real-time suggested actions to aid and guide agents in delivering quality customer interactions and outcome excellence.
Date Published May 6, 2019 - Last Updated September 08, 2020
ICMI co-founder on contact center technology trends
By Don Fluckinger | TechTarget

An author and consultant, as well as a co-founder and past president of ICMI, Brad Cleveland knows contact center technology. In advance of this year's ICMI Contact Center Expo in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., from May 13 to 16, we sat down to discuss how the customer experience revolution, AI and other trends affect contact center platforms and their rollouts to agents.
Date Published April 16, 2019 - Last Updated September 08, 2020
Support leader or data analyst? Why data analysis is an essential CX skill
By Susan Lahey | Zendesk Relate

Fancy Mills is the group training and content director for the International Customer Management Institute (ICMI). She also runs a small contact center for their subsidiary, HDI, an events and services organization for the technical support and service management industry. In January of 2019, her company launched an ad campaign to let people know there was an option to chat when they needed product support.
Date Published March 13, 2019 - Last Updated September 08, 2020
How To Tackle The Top 5 Contact Center Challenges
By Erica Marois | NACC

There’s never been a more exciting time to work as a contact center professional. According to 2018 ICMI research, 87% of our community members are inspired to meet their goals at work, and 85% are somewhat or very satisfied with their jobs. That’s not to say the work isn’t challenging. In fact, our research indicates that most leaders agree customer service management is only becoming more complex. So, what’s keeping contact center leaders up at night? Our study revealed the top five challenges facing contact center leaders in 2019.
Date Published February 19, 2019 - Last Updated September 08, 2020
Report: Customer Satisfaction With Live Chat Is On The Rise
By Dan Gingiss | Forbes

“You’ve got a recipe for higher handle times, which translates to longer wait times for customers,” says Erica Marois, content manager for ICMI.
Date Published January 18, 2019 - Last Updated September 08, 2020
10 Mistakes in Making Contact Center Forecasts
By Brad Cleveland | Smart Customer Service

Over the years, my colleagues at the International Customer Management Institute (ICMI) and I have investigated why some contact centers have accurate forecasts and others don't. Ten common problems consistently emerge, and they are summarized here (in no specific order)
Date Published January 17, 2019 - Last Updated September 08, 2020
Why Specialized Agents Are the Future of Customer Service
By Joe Gagnon | CMSWire

According to a 2017 article on the International Customer Management Institute's site, “businesses are doing an adequate job of resolving customer inquiries — with an average of 60 percent first-time resolution rate according to our study.” This means 40 percent of customers’ issues aren’t being resolved within a single engagement.
Date Published December 11, 2018 - Last Updated September 08, 2020
This $300 Billion Industry Has Been Outdated for a Decade. Here's How to Fix It.
By Andrew Medal | Entrepreneur

First call resolution (FCR) and service level/response time are often-cited metrics (as reported by ICMI) within the call center space that can have tangible effects on customer satisfaction. Improved FCR can reduce costs by minimizing repeat callers, increase employee satisfaction and directly correlates to customer satisfaction.
Date Published December 7, 2018 - Last Updated September 08, 2020
5 tips for picking a call center customer experience platform
By Don Fluckinger | TechTarget

Change comes to customer contact centers as cloud systems and the customer experience movement force IT leaders to rethink software stacks. Here's advice for choosing your next platform
Date Published December 6, 2018 - Last Updated September 08, 2020
How to Assess Contact Center Success
By Paula Bernier | TMCnet

An April 2017 ICMI article says active vs. waiting calls, average handle time, customer service rating, and first call resolution are standard metrics to consider when developing an evaluation structure for contact center. It notes that supervisors also should measure agents’ activity and efficiency. And it notes that “The key aspect of any business intelligence program is to ensure that progress directly relates to the contact center’s pre-determined business goals, and the data provided is evaluated correctly and analyzed routinely.”
Date Published December 6, 2018 - Last Updated September 08, 2020
Customer service AI tools can improve contact center
By Jesse Scardina | TechTarget

"Contact centers have typically been considered back-office, reactive cost centers," said Fancy Mills, group training and content director at International Customer Management Institute (ICMI). "Part of this is due to the fact that many centers handle low-level, easy, mundane and routine tasks or questions. These questions and tasks can now be handled through AI."
Date Published December 1, 2018 - Last Updated September 08, 2020
Inside View: Nate Brown, UL EHS Sustainability
By Susan Hash | Contact Center Pipeline

Brown’s commitment to the industry has not gone unnoticed. The International Customer Management Institute (ICMI) recently acknowledged his achievements by identifying Brown as an ICMI Customer Experience Mover & Shaker, a group of emerging leaders and innovators in the customer experience and contact center space. According to ICMI, CX Movers & Shakers are “hardworking, creative individuals who are inspiring excellence, motivating peers and shaping the future of customer service.” It’s recognition that Brown’s team at UL EHS Sustainability has long since realized.
Date Published June 19, 2018 - Last Updated September 08, 2020
Separating customer service chatbot hype from reality
By Don Fluckinger | TechTarget

Most of the call center leaders SearchCRM talked to at the ICMI Contact Center Expo agree; they won't trust the good ratings their humans earn every day to dumb bot-proxies. These pros generally admire customer service chatbot technology and speak of its potential to solve customer problems -- at other companies' call centers; not at their own.
Date Published May 31, 2018 - Last Updated September 08, 2020
ICMI 2018 Contact Center Expo and Conference Summary
By Sheri Greenhaus | CRMXchange

ICMI Contact Center Expo continued its tradition of providing a multifaceted educational program as well as a diverse marketplace to review the latest products and services. The program included a variety of training and networking opportunities, case studies, and site tours of local contact centers, including such key operations as the Disney Business Behind the Magic Group, Jet Blue University, Entertainment Benefits Group, Vistana, and Heart of Florida United Way.
Date Published May 29, 2018 - Last Updated September 08, 2020
Call center chatbots draw skepticism from leaders
By Don Fluckinger | TechTarget

Artificial intelligence chatbots were the most-talked-about technology at the ICMI Contact Center Expo, with a mix of trepidation and interest.
Date Published May 28, 2018 - Last Updated September 08, 2020
Impressions from ICMI Contact Center Expo
By Engin Utkan | Engin Utkan Blog

The ICMI Contact Center Expo began with Justin Robbins' Keynote on Monday evening May 21st. The speech can be summed up in the following words: "Stay memorable".
Date Published May 24, 2018 - Last Updated September 08, 2020
8 Vital Lessons from an Award-winning Supervisor
By Jim Rembach | Call Center Coach

I had the delightful experience and honor to interview Adrianna shortly after the she received her recognition at the ICMI Global Contact Center Awards ceremony at the CCExpo in Orlando.
Date Published May 17, 2018 - Last Updated September 08, 2020
No Jitter Roll: Five for Friday
By Michelle Burbick | No Jitter

Serenova will be showcasing this solution next week at Enterprise Connect's sister event, International Customer Management Institute's (ICMI) 2018 Contact Center Expo, taking place in Orlando, Fla., a sister event to Enterprise Connect.
Date Published February 1, 2018 - Last Updated September 08, 2020
AI chatbots augment humans working in contact centers
By Christine Parizo | SearchCRM - TechTarget

Like other technologies, chatbots influence every aspect of delivering customer service, from the types of interactions to routing methodology, according to Brad Cleveland, senior adviser and former CEO of the International Customer Management Institute.
Date Published July 6, 2017 - Last Updated September 08, 2020
Voice4Net Debuts SMS Module for Contact Centers
By Tara Seals | Channel Vision

Studies show that many users are leaning away from chat and email in favor of text (SMS). For example, an ICMI survey found that 79 percent of companies believe customers want SMS/text support.
Date Published June 28, 2017 - Last Updated September 08, 2020
Myths of Customer Experience (And Why They're Wrong)
By Oren Smilansky | Destination CRM

Justin Robbins, content director at the International Customer Management Institute (ICMI), set out to illustrate this, and at last year’s CRM Evolution conference in Washington, D.C., he presented research that pointed to the discrepancies between these two points of view.
Date Published June 13, 2017 - Last Updated September 08, 2020
Daily updates from ESX 2017
By Spencer Ives | Security Systems News

I spent the morning of ESX 2017’s third day attending the three-part leadership boot camp, presented by Justin Robbins, content director for HDI and ICMI.
Date Published May 26, 2017 - Last Updated September 08, 2020
This Week in Telecom: May 26th
By Ion Mae | VoipReview.org

This Week in Telecom is a weekly news round-up on VoipReview.org that aims to give our readers a fast and easy way to catch up on the latest news and top stories that are trending in the voice and telecommunications space. Check in each and every Friday to find out more about stories you may have missed in regards to new companies, mergers, trends, and other telecom advancements.
Date Published February 28, 2017 - Last Updated September 08, 2020
How to Get Better Customer Service, and Skip the Rage
By Christopher Mele | New York Times

You’ve bought a product or service, and now — ugh! — there’s a problem. Your blood pressure climbs as you face an obstacle course worthy of “American Ninja Warrior” to get help.
Date Published July 21, 2016 - Last Updated September 08, 2020
Is Tech Support getting worse on purpose?
By Tim Hattrick | The Kim Komando Show

ICMI's Justin Robbins
Date Published July 8, 2016 - Last Updated September 08, 2020
Trusource’s revenue target: $34M in year three
By Christopher Calnan | Austin Business Journal

ICMI's Justin Robbins
Date Published July 6, 2016 - Last Updated September 08, 2020
Bad Tech Support May Be Part of a Plan
By Dale Forbis | KTRH News Radio

Industry expert Justin Robbins with the International Customer Management Institute says the companies may be hoping you'll get frustrated and just buy a new one -- or maybe you'll pay extra for "super-special," expert help.
Date Published July 5, 2016 - Last Updated September 08, 2020
Art Feuds, Tech 'Support' and Airport Security
By Barry Ritholtz | Bloomberg

Why Tech Support Is (Purposely) Unbearable (New York Times)
Date Published July 3, 2016 - Last Updated September 08, 2020
Why Tech Support Is (Purposely) Unbearable
By Kate Murphy | NY Times

You may consider yourself even-keeled, the kind of person who is unflappable when those around you are losing their cool. But all that goes out the window when you call tech support. Then you fume. Your face turns red. You shout things into the phone that would appall your mother.
Date Published July 1, 2016 - Last Updated September 08, 2020
MOO
By Susan Hash | Contact Center Pipeline

More recently, it was recognized as a world-class
service provider by the International Customer
Management Institute (ICMI) with three 2016
Global Contact Center Awards in the Best
Small Contact Center, Best Chat Support and
Best Use of Technology categories.
Date Published June 15, 2016 - Last Updated September 08, 2020
Your Phone Agents’ Unexpected Self-Service Problem
By Jeff Toister | Customer Think

“The typical customer journey is taking them across multiple channels, and all too frequently captures information in multiple disparate systems. When these customers finally make their way to a phone rep, it’s often a fragmented, complicated mess.”
Date Published May 12, 2016 - Last Updated September 08, 2020
At Contact Center Expo, Speakers Stress Standing Out
By Leonard Klie | Smart Customer Service

A recent Gallup poll found that when both their customers and employees are engaged, companies see a 240 percent increase in performance-related outcomes, which goes to show that customer service "really matters," said Brad Cleveland, cofounder and senior adviser of the International Customer Management Institute (ICMI), during the opening keynote of the ICMI Contact Center Expo.
Date Published March 15, 2016 - Last Updated September 08, 2020
3 Tips for Developing Effective Social Customer Support
By Maureen Szlemp | Smart Customer Service

Developing social customer support strategies isn't just a good idea in today's digital world; it's critical. Research shows 40 percent of consumers use social media for customer support, resulting in higher customer satisfaction and loyalty, according to 61 percent and 58 percent of survey respondents, respectively.
Date Published March 11, 2016 - Last Updated September 08, 2020
Your Customer Experience Is Under Attack
By Justin Robbins | Smart Customer Service

Over the past two years, I've extensively researched the customer experience, contact center agent performance, and the various nuances of customer relationship management. During my search for the enablers and inhibiters of exceptional service, I consistently encountered one common denominator that is negatively affecting all of them with increasing frequency: agent-facing technology. In fact, 2015 research I conducted for ICMI found that 92 percent of contact center leaders believed their agent technology was unable to fully meet agents' needs.
Date Published November 16, 2015 - Last Updated September 08, 2020
ICMI Research: Contact Center Leaders Are Disconnected
By Jeff Toister | Customer Think

There are some big gaps between what contact center leaders believe and their customers actually perceive.

The International Customer Management Institute (ICMI) and inContact asked contact center leaders to respond to the same set of survey questions that consumers were asked in an earlier study. The earlier, consumer study was conducted by Harris and inContact. The answers from the two groups were then compared.
Date Published July 8, 2015 - Last Updated September 08, 2020
Progressive Insurance Wins ICMI’s Global Contact Center Award: “Best Strategic Value To The Organization”
By Loren Moss | Customer Experience Report

Progressive Insurance has won this year’s Global Contact Center Award issued by the International Customer Management Institute (ICMI), in the category of “Best Strategic Value to the Organization.” Progressive Insurance’s contact center operation won this because of their integral importance to every aspect of Progressive Insurance’s operations, and their success in driving Progressive’s consistent growth.

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