Draft Agenda
2011 Quality Assurance & Training Connection (QATC) Annual Conference
October 12-14, 2011

Wednesday, October 12

7:30 a.m.- Registration Begins

9:00-10:30 a.m. – Welcome & Keynote Address

10:45 a.m.-12:00 p.m. – Workshops

A Close Look Throughout the Transition of a Quality Monitoring Program.  This session is a case study of an organization faced with many common call center challenges, not the least of which was the quality monitoring program. Hear how this team graduated from an antiquated system of error counting to a comprehensive program designed to identify strengths and opportunities for improvement in process and behavior across a variety of volume streams. – Speaker:  Penny Tootle, Las Vegas Valley Water District

What’s Wrong with my Training Evaluation?  Got a training survey instrument that you’re using but not sure it’s delivering good, valid information?  Well, this session will be an opportunity to find out – and get immediate, actionable feedback for your survey program.  Attendees are encouraged to bring copies of their survey questionnaires to class – multiple hardcopies or softcopy on a memory stick – and the group will critique as many surveys as time allows.  The session leader, Dr. Fred Van Bennekom, will put the types of problems found into the framework that professional survey designers use to discuss survey instrumentation bias.  Come help make this class a rewarding, educational, beneficial experience for all. – Speaker:  Fred van Bennekom, Great Brook Consulting

Making the Most of Your QATC Membership (and Conference).  Sometimes when you join an organization (or are just thinking about joining), you don’t have the time to explore all the great benefits that are provided. This session will show you what you’re missing and what you need to do to take advantage of a membership in QATC, as well as specifically how to get the most of your attendance at this conference. You’ll learn how to get feedback from other members, find an old newsletter article, locate specific information on a topic of interest, and post a job opening on the website – just to name a few. Hear how QATC provides you with the most important education and networking opportunities for your career.   This session is designed for both current and future members!  – Speakers:  Vicki Herrell, QATC, & Lori Spain, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas

Beyond Dashboards: Orienting Quality Measurement Around Performance Metrics.  The challenge to out-service the competition has never been greater, and your budgets have never been tighter. Unfortunately, the insight you need to improve your process is trapped in silos – recordings, post-call surveys, and agent scores. Attend this session, presented by Aspect, and learn how to drive business process improvement by leveraging performance metrics as part of your quality management programs. Learn how an integrated measurement approach can help you achieve a measurable impact on both agent performance and customer satisfaction by turning insight into informed action.  – Speaker:  Kathy Krucek & Robert Rowe, Aspect Software

12:00-1:15 p.m. – Lunch

1:15-2:30 p.m.  – Workshops

From Creating the Form to Calibrating the Call — Part 1.  Join us for this three-part series of sessions where you will team up with your peers and follow the calibration process from start to finish.  In this first session, you will create a QA scoring form from scratch. The group will be broken into teams and each team will create a basic form to be used in the exercise in Part 2 of the series. Input from the team members’ experiences, existing forms, and other input can be used to create one single form for each team, which will then be used in a mock calibration.  – Facilitators:  Penny Tootle, Las Vegas Valley Water District, Katia Goodhart, Trase Miller, Lori Spain, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas, Debbie Short, United Methodist Publishing House, and Jody Wall, Duke Energy

Exploring Virtual Tools for Training.   When instructor-led is just too expensive and e-learning doesn't quite get the information across, virtual training has become a cost-effective blended approach that many organizations are finding beneficial.  This lively session will have panel members answering questions on the virtual tools they use, and opening up dialogue with session participants to give their experiences and ask questions such as: What types of Virtual training platforms are available? How do I get started? What are the costs?  How difficult is course development on the various platforms? The panel will also discuss some of the challenges faced in this new environment.

Creating a One-Call Guest Experience.  Increased first-call resolution, decreased frequency of transfers, and enhanced customer experience. Does this sound like your call center’s wish list? This session will focus on how Hershey Entertainment and Resorts merged the reservation process for multiple operations into one call center that equipped its agents with the training and resources to provide guests of their destination with a one-call experience. From the conversion of property management systems to a total, redesign of their training process, you’ll discover where they went wrong, how they made it right, and how it’s successful today. –Speaker:  Justin Robbins, Hershey Entertainment & Resorts Company

Is Your Quality Program Generation Ready?  Boomers, Gen-X, Gen-Z, Tweens — who are these people? What are their work and lifestyle preferences? How do they differ? Today's quality teams must manage the greatest diversity of employees and customers since the birth of the modern call center.  To maximize success, QM leaders must review their current quality approach against the needs and expectations of these diverse groups.  In this session, we'll learn what makes these groups tick along with tips and tricks to make your quality program “Generation Ready.” – Speaker:  Brynn Palmer, Verint Systems

2:30-3:00 p.m. – Break

3:00-4:15 p.m. – Workshops

From Creating the Form to Calibrating the Call — Part 2.  The calibration process continues in this session.  Now that you have created a form in the previous workshop, you will hear an actual call and score it with your team using that form. Following the scoring process, each team will discuss the scores in a calibration session giving you the opportunity to put the form you just created to the test.  See how calibration works – or doesn’t work! – in this fully interactive session.  – Facilitators:  Penny Tootle, Las Vegas Valley Water District, Katia Goodhart, Trase Miller, Lori Spain, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas, Debbie Short, United Methodist Publishing House, and Jody Wall, Duke Energy

Developing an Instructor Competencies Program.  We always seem to be focused on evaluating our students and training material, but do we really “evaluate” our instructors to develop and ensure they perform at maximum productivity?  This session looks at developing your instructors with applicable competencies, training and observation.  We’ll discuss building a program that supports not only knowledge of adult learning methods, but also behavioral competencies around leadership and communication.  Also, a sample Instructor observation form will be presented for your use in assessing Instructor’s performance back in class. – Speaker:  Todd Gladden, Procore Solutions 

Changing the Perception of Quality Monitoring Through Performance-Based Scoring.  Is your quality monitoring program perceived as “Big Brother” watching and waiting to catch you doing something wrong?  Does your scoring framework encourage a “tick-box” culture? Hear how NiSource changed its quality monitoring framework from a simple “yes/no/na” scoring approach to an enhanced performance rating methodology that also changed the perception of our quality monitoring program.  – Speaker: Barbara Velosky, NiSource

Business Driven QM: Making an Immediate Impact on Business Goals.   Value-driven organizations who have adopted a ‘Business Driven QM’ program that is based on cross channel analysis and automated insight into every customer interaction, have realized increases in customer retention and sales conversions, and decreases in handle time. As the leader in ‘Business Driven QM’, NICE experts will share with you the building blocks for applying this concept to your QM environment, discuss real-life case studies, and suggest a best-practice recipe for boosting your organization’s performance. – Speaker: Charlene Gillam, NICE 

4:15-4:30 p.m. – Break

4:30-5:30 p.m. – Workshops

From Creating the Form to Calibrating the Call — Part 3.  To wrap up the series, each team will share points of discovery and learning as a result of the exercises in Part 1 and Part 2. Be prepared to discuss what you learned as well as listen for other ideas that can help in your environment.  –  Facilitators:  Penny Tootle, Las Vegas Valley Water District, Katia Goodhart, Trase Miller, Lori Spain, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas, and Jody Wall, Duke Energy

Top 10 Training Ideas.  In this session, you'll hear about training best practices from your peers in a format that's organized and practical, yet fun and entertaining. Bring at least two proven ideas with you to the session. You'll have the opportunity to share ideas one-on-one with other participants and hear what's working best in their centers. We'll use a large group voting process to select the top five creative training ideas with prizes for the winners. Whether you take home a top prize, or just a list of new ideas to try, everyone's a winner in this session — and we guarantee you'll have fun in the process.  –  Facilitator:  Penny Reynolds, The Call Center School

Speed Networking.  You’ve heard of Speed Dating?  Well, here’s a variation that will help you start off the conference with a bunch of new friends!  In our Speed Networking session, you will spend just a few minutes getting to know some of your fellow attendees, and exchange business cards so that you can talk more over the next few days and keep in touch after the conference is over.  Facilitator:  Debbie Short, United Methodist Publishing House

5:30-7:30 p.m. – Networking Reception
Sponsored by VPI

Thursday, October 13

8:00-9:00 a.m. – Breakfast & Roundtables

9:00-10:15 a.m. – Workshops

Building a Quality Monitoring Form – Part 1.  Quality monitoring forms enable supervisors to measure an agent’s performance on actual calls against performance standards. Having an effective monitoring form can make the difference between having data that allows you to objectively evaluate agent skills and data that is irrelevant and subjective. In addition, a good evaluation form lets agents know what is expected of them throughout the call. In this session, you’ll learn how to create an objective monitoring form that allows reviewers to evaluate behaviors necessary for a successful customer interaction.  Seminar attendees will learn to align monitoring form objectives with corporate and call center goals, identify behaviors that are objective and measurable, and organize your form for efficiency and ease of evaluation and reporting.  – Speaker:  Deelee Freeman, The Call Center School

“The Power of One” Training Activity Session.  You've probably heard of "The Power of One" concept that helps agents, supervisors and leadership understand how call center work "flows," the significance of schedule adherence, and how important one individual is to the center.  But how do you get these points across in a fun and interactive way?   This unique training session utilizes a wading pool, tennis balls, and a bucket from your favorite fried chicken joint! Come to this session to learn how to train/present these activities and learn the concepts behind these proven techniques to show agents how important they are – that one person really does make a difference!  – Speaker:  Todd Gladden, ProCore Solutions

Assessing Sales Effectiveness.  In this session, you will learn how to assess and address the three primary components that contribute to sales effectiveness.  In addition you will be introduced to the five key sales competencies that impact results and learn to diagnose the specific behavior gaps that are associated with each competency.  Finally, you will be given examples of how to specifically develop some of the most common behavior gaps encountered over the phone.  – Speaker:  Tab Norris, Aslan Training & Development

Extending Quality Programs to Advanced Back-Office, Email, and Web Interactions.  This informative session will help attendees understand best practices in monitoring and evaluating customer interactions across email, chat, and back office activities.  During the session, attendees will learn how applying the exact same processes as a traditional contact center may not be the correct way to drive value and quality from written channels. We will highlight the most effective ways to monitor and evaluate written interactions, and will answer questions including how to uncover the “why” within a written customer interaction. Additionally, attendees will learn how to tie the statistics and metrics at the operational level to their enterprise objectives, and how make quality metrics in these nontraditional contacts more real time and relevant. – Speaker:  Michelle Gaffney, HyperQuality

10:15-10:45 a.m. – Break

10:45 a.m.-12:00 p.m. – Workshops

Building a Quality Monitoring Form – Part 2. Having well-defined quality criteria is just the beginning of creating an effective performance management tool. The next step is to apply weighting and scoring that promotes essential call behaviors.  In this session, you will learn various answer and scoring schemes for evaluating your call center’s quality standards.  In addition, we will explore the pros and cons of “auto-fail” and how best to use alternative scoring methods such as bonus points to reward agents who go above and beyond service expectations.  Seminar attendees will learn to apply section-based weighting to emphasize skills groups most important to a call’s success; identify various scoring schemes and understand the pros and cons of each style; and apply a scoring structure that recognizes skill priorities and awards most important critical behaviors. –  Speaker:  Deelee Freeman, The Call Center School

Training – It’s Not Just in the Classroom Anymore.  Employee training is not limited to the classroom anymore. When deciding on the best training method to use, there are many things to consider, including: Who is your audience?  How many employees are involved? How open are they to new methods of learning? How motivated are they to learn? What do they know already? In this interactive session, you will learn about a variety of training options that will help you decide on the best method or combination of methods to use to support the learning transfer in your workplace. – Panelists:  Katia Goodhart, Trase Miller, Maggie Klenke, The Call Center School, and Justin Robbins, Hershey Entertainment & Resorts Company

Coaching Behaviors to Impact AHT.  Call centers are concerned about the metrics surrounding the average handle time (AHT) of calls.  This single metric can drive up cost for organizations and also impact how customers view overall customer servicing.  A common mistake is that we coach to metrics instead of coaching to a behavior(s) that impacts AHT.  When we coach to behaviors, the positive results will contribute to an awesome customer experience for our all our stakeholders. This session will provide tools and best practices that can be used to positively impact AHT.   – Speaker:  Diane Smith, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan

Analytics-Driven Quality Assurance and Coaching: A Win-Win for You and Your Customers.  Traditional contact center quality assurance (QA) has reached the end of its 30 year lifecycle – it is too cumbersome to embrace the latest customer mindset and often contributes to customer dissatisfaction, organizational turmoil and reduced agent morale. Utilizing analytics and workflow automation, the new QA tools and processes can reduce the manual steps required by most QA applications by 60-80%.  Better yet, they take you straight to what really matters – delivering insight into critical business issues and opportunities to improve the customer experience and profitability. – Speaker: Patrick Botz, VPI

12:00-1:30 p.m. – Lunch

1:30-2:45 p.m. – Workshops

Defining Call Standards: What a Call Should Sound Like.  It’s not just what you say, it’s how you say it.  The customer’s overall impression of a call is based not just on the right words, but the overall “feel” of the call which is heavily influenced by vocal techniques and mannerisms. Unfortunately, these vocal elements like voice tone, call control, and demonstration of emotions like empathy or confidence are harder to define and measure. This session tackles defining these “soft skill” standards to enable more objective and effective call reviews.   Seminar attendees will learn to:  identify vocal behavior descriptions that are objective and measurable; describe ways to define vocal delivery elements such as rapport building or call control; define challenging call standards like voice tone, quality, and empathy; assemble a coaching session planning guide; and incorporate definitions into a comprehensive Quality Standards document. –  Speaker:  Deelee Freeman, The Call Center School

Effective and Engaging Training Techniques.  Outside of the initial new hire orientation and instruction, how often does your organization revisit the methods used for training new initiatives? As the Las Vegas Valley Water District shares their overall approach and plan for training in the call center, the expectation for any participant will be to come away from this session with innovative techniques and ideas that can be immediately implemented in any business environment. – Speaker:  Penny Tootle, Las Vegas Valley Water District

Uncovering the Gold with Speech Analytics.  A speech analytics tool is not going to just hand you a WIN, you are going to have to proactively use keyword searches and filters to uncover the gold!  This session will be a collaborative discussion with a panel of individuals who currently use a speech analytics tool. We want the attendees to participate and share their insights as well.  Whether you already have this technology, are actively looking to purchase it, or are just curious, please join us to discuss the many uses of speech analytics, as well as our successes and challenges.  Come ready to share!  – Facilitator:  Christine Gorder, Wells Fargo – Panelists:  Melissa Stump, Deloitte, and Jody Wall, Duke Energy

Integrating Social Media into your Quality Program. Integrating Social Media into your Quality Program. It doesn’t seem that long ago that email was introduced to contact centers as a new interaction channel. While email was once uncharted waters to navigate, we have managed to incorporate this channel beautifully into our contact centers and quality monitoring programs. So, is it time to tackle the next customer contact channel? With hundreds of millions of people now using Social Media, it’s reach exceeds that of email. And, considering a reported 67% of Fortune 100 companies already Tweet directly to respond to customer service, we think it is time. Ready or not, the newest customer contact channel, Social Media, has arrived! Join us as we discuss this hot topic and explore: how to integrate Social Media interactions into our quality programs; the role the contact center and the enterprise should play in responding to and evaluating social media interactions; Social Media skills that are imperative to have on your quality evaluation form; the differences between Social Media and other customer contact channels we service; and what electronic language is OK to use and what is not. – Presentation Provided by Envision – Speaker: Connie Smith, Envision Consultant and President of SpotOn Enterprises

2:45-3:45 p.m. – Ice Cream Social with the Sponsors
Sponsored by HigherGround

3:45-5:00 p.m. – Workshops

Evaluating the QA Evaluator.  "Who's watching the watchers that are watching your business?"  We focus so much on developing quality programs, forms, and systems that tell us how well our front line is performing that we rarely consider how we should be evaluating the accuracy, efficiency, and consistency of the QA Evaluators.   Listen to this informative and insightful panel of professionals as they share their methods and practices for evaluating the QA Evaluators for their businesses. – Facilitator:  Christine Gorder, Wells Fargo – Panelists:  Penny Tootle, Las Vegas Valley Water District, Brenda Kirkeby, Wells Fargo, Lori Spain,  Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas, & Connie Smith, SpotOn Enterprises

Calibration Corner: Best Practices in Calibrating and Standardizing Scoring.  Measuring quality through monitoring is an ongoing commitment that requires a calibration plan, a process, and the setting of realistic, attainable calibration goals.  This session with help you develop a calibration program that includes all the right people and gives structure to your calibration meetings.  You will learn to set realistic standard deviation goals that will move you toward better calibration among supervisors, quality analysts, and others involved in monitoring and providing agents with call feedback.  Seminar attendees will learn to: describe the components needed for effective calibration meetings; design an effective quality calibration process; calculate standard deviation and set realistic deviation goals; and list the five critical factors for facilitating a productive calibration meeting. – Speaker:  Deelee Freeman, The Call Center School

Customer Insight Metrics.  Unless we're in a churn-and-burn business, customer retention is needed to achieve long term profitability.  But how do we know what drives customer retention?  We may have lots of anecdotal evidence, but can we be scientific to identify those customers who are very likely to return and to give good word of mouth?  Recently, we have heard seen a couple of attempts at coming up with the one key metric to reflect customer sentiment. The Net Promoter Score (NPS) is the best known, bur the Customer Effort Score (CES) is a new entrant in the field.  Both are controversial, and this presentation will discuss both of these metrics and put in perspective the approaches to arriving at the nirvana of key customer insight metrics. – Speaker:  Fred van Bennekom, Great Brook Consulting

Revitalizing Your Quality Initiative.  Many organizations today are still using decades old quality assurance practices. In this session, we'll discuss best practices for taking your stagnant quality program to the next level. We'll look at the ways that technologies such as speech and desktop analytics, customer surveys and workflow automation can be used to greatly improve your QA program.  Topics covered will include:  trends within the industry; retooling the quality form; capturing Voice of the Customer (VoC) with surveys; leveraging analytics; changing the Quality image; and more! – Speaker:  CallCopy

6:30-9:30 p.m. –  Evening event at BB King’s Blues Club
Sponsored by NICE

Friday, October 14

8:00-8:45 a.m. – Breakfast & Roundtables

8:45-10:00 a.m. – Workshops

Implementing an Email Quality Process.  Most call centers have an established process and quality monitoring form for telephone calls. This session will take those same principles and techniques to apply to the written communications process.  Review what should be included in an email monitoring policy and what to look for to ensure a high-quality written interaction with the customer.  Bring along current email quality forms to share and review with fellow attendees. – Speaker:  Penny Reynolds, The Call Center School

Setting Up an At-Home Agent Program. How do you make the jump from a traditional contact center to using at-home agents? Hear how to successfully deploy a remote agent program. Learn about the various components that need to be considered in building a business case for at-home agents.  Identify the benefits and challenges of maintaining an at-home program to make it a WIN-WIN-WIN situation.

Becoming Your Call Center’s Most Valuable Asset through Professional Certification.  How are you demonstrating your call center expertise?  The CIAC industry credential is an effective way to prove that you have the specialized knowledge and skills to deliver business results. Fredia Barry, Senior Advisor, CIAC will show you how certification has equipped many industry professionals with the expertise to achieve service excellence from their call centers.   Attendees will:  listen to industry professionals who have successfully completed certification; engage in this discussion with your peers about how professional certification drives performance that has bottom line impact; and learn about the personal and professional benefits, the financial implications, how to make the case to your management team, and, most important, how to get started.  – Speaker:  Fredia Barry, CIAC

60 Ideas in 60 Minutes – Topic:  Quality Assurance.  This fast-paced session will have you writing furiously as you try to capture an idea a minute on paper! This format will give you some great tips to take home and implement in your QA program immediately – if you can catch them all!

10:00-10:15 a.m. – Break

10:15-11:30 a.m.  – Workshops

The Deloitte Call Center’s Approach to Quality.  Learn how to design a quality scoring program that measures performance based on the consistent delivery of distinctive customer service behaviors as opposed to a numerical quality score.  Once behaviors are identified, a coaching program can be implemented to empower agents to deliver a unique customer service experience on every transaction.  This type of quality scoring and coaching approach allows for continuous individual improvement and unlimited growth in customer satisfaction, and allows agents to have a voice in the quality evaluation process.  In addition, it develops job skills that prepare both coaches and agents for professional growth. – Speaker:  Craig Brasington, Deloitte

True Success Indicators: Aligning Customer Feedback and Quality Results.  Are your quality performance results telling the same story about your service that your customer satisfaction surveys tell?  Are you spending any time comparing or analyzing this information side-by-side?  If not, or if you are considering this as a future initiative, this is the session for you.  Many organizations are beginning to understand their customer needs and service opportunities better when this information is analyzed in context.  – Panelists:  Melissa Stump, Deloitte, & Lori Spain, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas

Notable Leadership:  Moving from Ordinary to Extraordinary.  Many of us can think back to the greatest leader they ever worked with, but few have taken the time to analyze exactly what made this leader so great. Fast forward a few years and we find ourselves in management positions with little training or knowledge of what it takes to also be a great leader. While some of us naturally thrive in this environment, others struggle to figure out what steps are needed for self-improvement. The challenge shared by both types is that becoming a great contact center leader is not an easy task. It requires hard work, commitment, patience, and a passion for self-learning, as well as developing others. If you are a leader who would like to take your skills to the next level, you will not want to miss this eye opening opportunity to self-reflect on your current skills and set goals for moving from an ordinary to an extraordinary contact center leader. – Speaker:  Connie Smith, SpotOn Enterprises

60 Ideas in 60 Minutes – Topic: Training.  This fast-paced session will have you writing furiously as you try to capture an idea a minute on paper! This format will give you some great tips to take home and implement immediately in your training program  – if you can catch them all!

11:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m. – Closing General Session

12:00 p.m. – 2011 QATC Annual Conference ends

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