Speaking Engagements & Seminars

Upcoming Speaking Engagements

“Under the Hood: Powering an Exceptional Caller Experience”
with Elaine Cascio

July 21, 2011
1:00 PM ET
Online

From the surface, an exceptional caller experience is simple, smooth, and efficient. But under the hood, the best interactions are driven by advanced design techniques and innovative technology. Interaction design demands an extensive view into the customer journey and the intent of the caller. Driving expedient task completion leads to caller satisfaction. Self-service technology requires the combination of intelligent speech applications and a world-class IVR platform.

>>Learn more or register now
“Creating Positive Multichannel Experiences”
a panel discussion with Elaine Cascio

August 8, 2011
1:45 PM – 2:45 PM ET
New York
SpeechTEK 2011

Leverage the strengths of each channel for better interactions across — and between — channels. Companies not only tend to see channels in silos, but they organize them that way too. This session discusses the strengths of different channels and how to leverage them. It also defines the core elements needed to create an effective, on-demand multichannel communication strategy for success, including automated agents, two-way voice self-service, and SMS messaging.

>>Learn more or register now

“Leading Practices in IVR Design: Turn Your IVR from a Liability to an Asset”
presented by Elaine Cascio

August 12, 2011
2:00 PM – 4:00 PM ET
Online

A poorly designed IVR application can cost hundreds of thousands  even millions  of dollars in low usage, irate customers, and lost business. On the other hand, a well designed IVR can save your call center anywhere from $5 to over $10 on every completed call, as well as improve customer satisfaction.

In this seminar, you’ll learn the keys to designing successful, customer-focused IVR applications. We will:

Cover the basics of design  and redesign  for both touchtone and speech recognition
Provide a step-by-step overview of the process from development to implementation
Discuss how to keep your IVR application running smoothly
Well also discuss deciding whether to use touchtone or speech recognition and the keys to success when transitioning from a touchtone to a speech application. And well include ways you can evaluate your own IVR applications in line with best practices to increase use.

>>Learn more or register now

 

 

Recent Speaking Engagements

“Winning with Self-Service”
presented by Elaine Cascio

June 13, 2011
New Orleans

More and more customers worldwide are opting for agent-less service, sales, and support through web-based transactions and self-help portals, which has companies searching for ways to better connect with customers.

What is the role of self-service? How can your organization leverage the power of self service technology on the web, IVR, social media, and mobile applications? In this workshop with Elaine Cascio, you will learn how to deploy, measure, and increase customer loyalty.

Discover how combining the “high tech” of data mining and flexible interfaces with “high touch” can enhance the customer experience. Hear best practices about real life self-service technologies in action. Set yourself up for self-service success by attending this workshop!

 

“Supporting Customer Interaction Strategies with Innovative Technology”
presented by Don Van Doren & Elaine Cascio

April 13, 2011
Online

Forward thinking enterprises are planning changes in contact center and customer interaction strategies to reflect improving economic conditions. How can you take your strategy to a new level by leveraging emerging technology capabilities?

The dramatic changes brought about by unified communications and convergence open up new ways to interact with customer. Social media and network usage have exploded opening new channel opportunities and new modes of communications between companies and customers. The growth of powerful mobile devices also opens new means of interactions. And new analytics tools provide powerful insights into customer motivations and issues.

Do these new ways of interacting with you customers add tangible value, or just increase the complexity of center operations? Join Don Van Doren and Elaine Cascio of Vanguard Communications as they explore these technologies and their impact on contact center strategy planning and development. You will come away from this important session with a better understanding of how to:

• Assure that technology supports, not drives, business strategies
• Understand three ways your team can interact with social media, and which models work best where
• Use personas to help decide where new technologies will best be used
• Design customer-driven interactions for better results and greater satisfaction
• Plan metrics and measurement to capture the impact of deploying innovative technology

“60 Ideas in 90 Minutes”
presented by Don Van Doren

April 13, 2011
Online

Given by conference vendors, these fast-paced sessions have attendees writing furiously as they try to capture an idea a minute! This format provides attendees with great tips to implement immediately.

 

“Best Practices for Implementing and Managing the Multi-Channel Experience”
presented by Elaine Cascio

April 12, 2011
Online

How do you go about implementing your multi-channel strategy to build a positive cross-channel customer experience?

Learn how your strategy determines what applications you’ll offer across channels and on different channels. Understand best practices for different channel options and key channel benefits, including real-life examples of organizations that provide seamless cross-channel service, as well as some that don’t. Hear the critical steps that you can take to make sure that your customers’ experience is engaging, seamless and positive.

We cover:

• Managing resources across multiple channels
• Staff Training and coaching
• Continuous improvement and how to measure success

Learn best practices to make your implementation a success.

 

 

“Using Data in Smart Ways for a More Effective Customer Experience”
sponsored by VoltDelta on Demand Solutions
presented by Elaine Cascio

 

March 8, 2011
Online

Customer contact professionals often find themselves awash in data, but short on the kind of intelligence they need to improve the customer experience. So why aren’t we using data to be “smarter” in our customer interactions? Learn how you can use data for insights, patterns, and actionable information to create meaningful and ongoing conversations with customers on all channels, enabled by an on-demand converged platform.

We’ll discuss the importance of History, Memory and Knowledge as the keys to connecting with customers, and how to use these concepts to:

• Connect with customers in ways that build loyalty
• Attract the right customers
• Capitalize on trends
• Avoid risks, and
• Drive revenue

You’ll learn best practices for interacting with customers using the data you have about them. And we’ll cover how to measure success in ways that are customer centric, strategic – and make a difference in how your business operates.
“High Tech Meets High Touch in Financial Services”
sponsored by Voxify and Tellme
presented by Elaine Cascio, with Mike Monegan, VP, Voxify

March 3, 2011
Online

In this webcast you will learn:

• How companies in financial services were able to achieve improved service and increase sales
• Four ways to blend high tech and high touch to achieve customer-centered interactions
• How to use multi-channel data from different parts of the company to obtain a unified view of the customer
• How to measure success in high tech high touch customer interactions that affect the bottom line and drive customer loyalty

Elaine Cascio, VP, Vanguard Communications, an expert in contact center self-service strategy, knows how successful financial services and insurance companies leverage interactions in multiple channels to drive customer loyalty. In this webcast, she will describe four ways to blend high tech and high touch to enable better service and more customer-centered interactions. Hear how one insurer is building customer satisfaction with insurance policy purchases. Learn how a consumer credit company is driving customer loyalty while collecting automobile loan payments. Learn how to anticipate and respond to customer interactions throughout the customer lifecycle. Understand the key elements and best practices that make high tech, high touch customer interactions successful.

Mike Monegan, VP, Voxify, will discuss how to implement high tech, high touch customer experience in financial services and insurance companies. Learn how you can take human-to-human interaction examples and leverage unique advantages with technology to achieve a similar or greater effect. Mike will also discuss how companies can use existing data to identify the caller audience, predict why a customer or business partner is calling, and engage the best resource for resolution.

“Improving Your Customer Experience through a Seamless Multi-Channel Approach”
presented by Elaine Cascio

December 9, 2010
Online

Customers do business with companies through many different channels, but the experience is often disjointed and inconsistent. At best, this causes confusion and frustration. At worst, you’ll lose customers, who will tell 10 of their friends about their dissatisfaction. In this course, you’ll learn what it takes to build a seamless multi-channel customer experience.

Behind every successful contact center is a clearly articulated customer contact strategy. It drives applications, design, usage, success rates, and customer satisfaction. Without this strategic focus on customer contact, organizations get lost in internally-focused silos and initiatives. Sound familiar? In this course, we’ll discuss how you can build a multi-channel strategy and the roles different channels play in customer contact.

Plus, you’ll learn the keys to developing easy to use, customer focused, self-service, from voice response and web applications to kiosks, text messaging, and other emerging channels for customer contact. We’ll show you how to consider (and involve) your customers at critical stages in development to meet your channel objectives. And we show ways you can optimize your use of multiple channels while providing customers with critical information how and when they need it.

 

“Making Sense of the Multi-Channel Contact Center:
How to build on your brand and create loyal customers on every channel”
A complimentary webinar
presented by Elaine Cascio

November 2, 2010
Online

Just because you have more than one channel of business doesn’t mean it has to be more complex. Learn how to operate each channel effectively and profitably through channel measurement and good agent selection. Also learn great insider tips and how you can avoid pitfalls in this dynamic session.

What attendees will learn:

• How to build your multi-channel strategy
• How to understand and measure your customer experience
• How to implement an effective multi-channel experience

Who should attend:

• Anyone responsible for customer interactions
• Anyone responsible for improving the customer experience
• Contact center managers and operations directors

 

 

“Show Customers How Much You Care: Personalized Phone Self-Service for Increasing Customer Loyalty and the Bottom Line”
A complimentary webinar from ICMI, sponsored by Voxify and Tellme
presented by Elaine Cascio

August 12, 2010
Online

While other customer access channels have evolved rapidly to create a high level of personalization and ease of use for customers, the old IVR has languished, and it’s one of the last places organizations see as an opportunity to improve their multi-channel and self-service strategies. But it’s possible to apply human-friendly qualities to your IVR (yes, your IVR!) to:

• Grow and maintain customer loyalty.
• Increase cross-sell and up-sell conversion rates.
• Cut costs by reducing inbound call volumes and increasing use of phone self-service and assisted service.
• Reduce IVR abandon rates and unhappy customers.

Whether you’re a C-level or V-level executive, director or decision-making manager, you’ll want to hear:

• Case studies of companies’ success with IVR self-service.
• How a customer data-driven IVR/IVR self-service system can be a key enabler for success in your organization’s multi-channel customer service strategy.
• How to deploy phone self-service that let’s your customers know you value their time, their business and their loyalty.

 

“Leading Practices in IVR Design: Turn Your IVR from a Liability to an Asset”
presented by Elaine Cascio

August 18, 2010
Online

A poorly designed IVR application can cost hundreds of thousands  even millions  of dollars in low usage, irate customers, and lost business. On the other hand, a well designed IVR can save your call center anywhere from $5 to over $10 on every completed call, as well as improve customer satisfaction.

In this seminar, you’ll learn the keys to designing successful, customer-focused IVR applications. We will:

Cover the basics of design  and redesign  for both touchtone and speech recognition
Provide a step-by-step overview of the process from development to implementation
Discuss how to keep your IVR application running smoothly
Well also discuss deciding whether to use touchtone or speech recognition and the keys to success when transitioning from a touchtone to a speech application. And well include ways you can evaluate your own IVR applications in line with best practices to increase use.

 

“Speech in a Multichannel World”
presented by Elaine Cascio

August 2, 2010
New York, SPEECHTEK 2010

Organizations interact with customers in many channels today. No longer are customer relationships dominated by the website and call center; today, we must also consider mobile applications, SMS, live chat, Twitter, Facebook, text messaging, fax, and more. How do you use speech technology to its best advantage in this complex environment? Come to learn how speech can help you build loyalty, delight, and stickiness for your customer self-service program.
“Speech Deployments: Is Hosting Right for You?”
presented by Elaine Cascio

August 3, 2010
New York, SPEECHTEK 2010

Many organizations are struggling with the range of choices available when selecting a partner to implement, develop, and maintain their speech applications. This training session discusses the pros and cons of the range of possibilities, from hosted solutions to managed services and customer premises equipment. Learn how you can sort through the different options and make the best long-term decision for your company.

“Building a Great Customer Experience: How to Foster Intimacy and Create Value Using Self Service”
presented by Elaine Cascio

June 24, 2010
Online

Customer intimate contact centers engage customers, enabling companies to achieve higher levels of customer intimacy and loyalty. And as enterprises strive for greater customer intimacy through personalized service, customer based sales and proactive outreach, the role of the contact center and self service change dramatically.

Learn what it takes to create a customer intimate contact center. We’ll look at ways speech technologies and other self service can be used to combine high tech and high touch customer service. We’ll look at real life examples of successful, customer intimate applications and the critical steps you can take to engage and not alienate customers.

Learn:

• The eight core characteristics of customer intimate organizations.
• The best ways to combine automation with live interactions to enhance the customer experience.
• How companies are creating personalized experiences through data mining and flexible speech interfaces.
• How your company can leverage the power of speech self service to achieve higher levels of customer intimacy and loyalty.
• How to measure success in building customer intimacy.

“Leading Practices in IVR Design: Turn Your IVR from a Liability to an Asset”
presented by Elaine Cascio

June 2 , 2010
Online

A poorly designed IVR application can cost hundreds of thousands  even millions  of dollars in low usage, irate customers, and lost business. On the other hand, a well designed IVR can save your call center anywhere from $5 to over $10 on every completed call, as well as improve customer satisfaction.

In this seminar, you’ll learn the keys to designing successful, customer-focused IVR applications. We will:

Cover the basics of design  and redesign  for both touchtone and speech recognition
Provide a step-by-step overview of the process from development to implementation
Discuss how to keep your IVR application running smoothly
Well also discuss deciding whether to use touchtone or speech recognition and the keys to success when transitioning from a touchtone to a speech application. And well include ways you can evaluate your own IVR applications in line with best practices to increase use.

 

 

“Improving Your Customer Experience through a Seamless Multi-Channel Approach”
presented by Elaine Cascio

May 26 , 2010
Online

Customers do business with companies through many different channels, but the experience is often disjointed and inconsistent. At best, this causes confusion and frustration. At worst, you’ll lose customers, who will tell 10 of their friends about their dissatisfaction. In this course, you’ll learn what it takes to build a seamless multi-channel customer experience.

Behind every successful contact center is a clearly articulated customer contact strategy. It drives applications, design, usage, success rates, and customer satisfaction. Without this strategic focus on customer contact, organizations get lost in internally-focused silos and initiatives. Sound familiar? In this course, we’ll discuss how you can build a multi-channel strategy and the roles different channels play in customer contact.

Plus, you’ll learn the keys to developing easy to use, customer focused, self-service, from voice response and web applications to kiosks, text messaging, and other emerging channels for customer contact. We’ll show you how to consider (and involve) your customers at critical stages in development to meet your channel objectives. And we show ways you can optimize your use of multiple channels while providing customers with critical information how and when they need it.

 

 

“Enhancing the Utility Customer Experience”

May 12, 2010
Online

Developing customer contact channels such as smart phones and social media, increasing billing and payment options, energy efficiency appliances, energy usage technologies and smart meters are changing how today’s utility customer will interact with his/her energy supplier tomorrow.

The Utility Customer Experience is the culmination of the customer’s interaction with these various emerging and evolving programs and services – a sum of individual impressions that will lead to the customer’s overall experience with the utility organization.

Utilities that provide exceptional customer service and engage customers by understanding the customer’s needs and desires will increase customer satisfaction and turn satisfied customers into advocates.

This webinar examines utilities that have taken steps to understand the customers’ individual values and enhance the overall Utility Customer Experience within their organizations.

Learn what the customer experience means for electricity and natural gas providers, what it takes to understand customers and what lessons were learned by the featured utilities in undertaking their customer experience initiatives.

 

 

 

“Speech Strategy and the Customer Experience: The importance of a multi-channel approach”
presented by Elaine Cascio

 

May 5, 2010
Online
CRMXchange Virtual Symposium on Speech Strategies

 

Behind every successful speech application is a multi-channel strategy. It drives applications, design, usage, success rates, and customer satisfaction. Without this strategic focus on customer contact, organizations get lost in internally-focused silos and initiatives. Sound familiar?

In this session, we’ll examine how to use speech as a critical component to build a positive cross-channel customer experience, bolster the brand relationship and build customer loyalty. We’ll look at real-life examples of organizations that provide seamless speech and cross-channel service, as well as some that don’t. You’ll learn how to leverage speech to not only improve customer satisfaction, but increase self service rates. Understand the critical steps to take to ensure that your customers’ experience is engaging, seamless and positive.
 

 

 

“Leading Practices in IVR Design: Turn Your IVR from a Liability to an Asset”
presented by Elaine Cascio

 

November 19 , 2009
Online
11:00 – 1:00 ET

A poorly designed IVR application can cost hundreds of thousands  even millions  of dollars in low usage, irate customers, and lost business. On the other hand, a well designed IVR can save your call center anywhere from $5 to over $10 on every completed call, as well as improve customer satisfaction.

In this seminar, you’ll learn the keys to designing successful, customer-focused IVR applications. We will:

Cover the basics of design  and redesign  for both touchtone and speech recognition
Provide a step-by-step overview of the process from development to implementation
Discuss how to keep your IVR application running smoothly
Well also discuss deciding whether to use touchtone or speech recognition and the keys to success when transitioning from a touchtone to a speech application. And well include ways you can evaluate your own IVR applications in line with best practices to increase use.
“Speech in The Customer Intimate Contact Center”
presented by Elaine Cascio

 

August 26, 2009
New York, SPEECHTEK 2009

 

As companies strive for greater customer intimacy through personalized service, customer-based sales, and proactive outreach, what is the role of speech? Hear real-life examples of successful, customer intimate applications and critical steps you can take to use speech to engage, not alienate, customers. We’ll cover the best ways to combine speech with live interactions to enhance the customer experience and how your company can leverage the power of speech for higher levels of customer intimacy and loyalty.

 

 

 

 

 

“Great Debate: Speech Self Service – What’s Preventing You From Realizing ROI With Speech?”
moderated by Elaine Cascio

 

August 20, 2009
Online

 

• What are the biggest roadblocks to successful implementation?
• Why do many implementations get bogged down during User Acceptance Testing?
• What should users and vendors be doing better to ensure that they’re getting the most from their speech self service?
• Is tuning grammar enough?
• Reports and metrics are critical areas where many companies do an inadequate job – what are some of the key barometers for measuring speech self service success?
• What are the next killer applications for speech self-service?

 

With all of us facing tight budgets, every expenditure is thoroughly scrutinized. How can you be sure to get the full ROI you expect from your speech self service? And how can you ensure that you’re getting all you can from your speech applications once they’re up and running? Our panelists will share their extensive experience for successfully designing, deploying, and managing speech self service. Come armed with your questions for our panel of vendors!

 

 

 

Chartwell’s Webinar on Maximizing IVR Adoption and Speech Analytics
presented by Elaine Cascio

 

August 19, 2009
Online

 

For some customers, a phone call to the utility’s contact center is the best way or preferred method to conduct business. That does not mean these customers can’t be helped in a self-service manner. An automated phone system, such as an interactive voice response (IVR), is a perfect way to cater to customers who opt to call a utility instead. But with the industry average of calls completed in the IVR holding steady in the high-20% range the past few years, utilities are lagging behind other industries in the number of calls completely contained in an automated system.

 

In order to achieve the greatest return on investment, a utility’s IVR, traditional or speech-based, must keep customers engaged long enough to complete the desired transaction. What are the key factors to consider when redesigning an IVR? How can speech analytics be used to enhance the customer experience? This Webinar will feature utilities that are best-in-class in offering user-friendly systems and/or leveraging analytics to further improve performance.

 

 

 

 

 

“Improving Your Customer Experience Through a Seamless Multi-Channel Approach ”
presented by Elaine Cascio

 

August 18, 2009
Online

 

Customers do business with companies through many different channels, but the experience is often disjointed and inconsistent. At best, this causes confusion and frustration. At worst, you’ll lose customers, who will tell 10 of their friends about their dissatisfaction. In this course, you’ll learn what it takes to build a seamless multi-channel customer experience.

 

Behind every successful contact center is a clearly articulated customer contact strategy. It drives applications, design, usage, success rates, and customer satisfaction. Without this strategic focus on customer contact, organizations get lost in internally-focused silos and initiatives. Sound familiar? In this course, we’ll discuss how you can build a multi-channel strategy and the roles different channels play in customer contact.

 

Plus, you’ll learn the keys to developing easy to use, customer focused, self-service, from voice response and web applications to kiosks, text messaging, and other emerging channels for customer contact. We’ll show you how to consider (and involve) your customers at critical stages in development to meet your channel objectives. And we show ways you can optimize your use of multiple channels while providing customers with critical information how and when they need it.

 

 

 

 

“Leading Practices in IVR Design: Turn Your IVR from a Liability to an Asset”
presented by Elaine Cascio and Linda Van Doren

Online
June 16, 2009

A poorly designed IVR application can cost hundreds of thousands – even millions – of dollars in low usage, irate customers, and lost business. On the other hand, a well designed IVR can save your call center anywhere from $5 to over $10 on every completed call, as well as improve customer satisfaction.

In this seminar, you’ll learn the keys to designing successful, customer-focused IVR applications. We will:

Cover the basics of design – and redesign – for both touchtone and speech recognition
Provide a step-by-step overview of the process from development to implementation
Discuss how to keep your IVR application running smoothly
We’ll also discuss deciding whether to use touchtone or speech recognition and the keys to success when transitioning from a touchtone to a speech application. And we’ll include ways you can evaluate your own IVR applications in line with best practices to increase use.

 

 

 

“Meeting Business Goals with Speech Technology: Cross Channel User Experience”
presented by Elaine Cascio

 

SpeechTEK 2008
New York
August 19, 2008

 

The days of having a speech strategy separate from an overall user-experience strategy are over. For a strategy to be meaningful, organizations must consider speech technology as one element in a multichannel customer contact plan that encompasses all the ways in which the customer might interact with them. This session will provide valuable lessons in understanding how speech fits with the web, printed material, live customer service, and other channels through which organizations reach their customers.

 

 

 

 

 

“Measuring the Customer Experience: How, What and When”
presented by Elaine Cascio

Chartwell Best Practices Summit on Self-Service IVR and Web-based Applications
Scottsdale, AZ
June 12-13, 2008

One of the keys to measuring customer experience is doing something few companies ever do – and that’s stepping into your customer’s shoes. Only by actually experiencing what your customers do on different channels and media, across channels, in a store, on the web, on a phone call, at a kiosk, or via text messaging – can you begin to measure the experience. Only after you’ve completed this baseline (and you’ll probably have lots of action items as a result!), you can establish goals and key metrics and tackle the job of pulling together data from all the different sources. We’ll cover:

 

• How to put together cross channel customer maps in order to understand the customer experience.
• Identifying key gaps and customer dissatisfiers within and across channels.
• How to develop important customer centric measures of success.
• Understanding the difference between reports and metrics and how to measure customer experience success.

 

 

 

 

 

Interop
with Don Van Doren and Marty Parker

 

Las Vegas
April 27 – May 1, 2008

 

“Creating Your Enterprise Unified Communications Plan”
presented by Marty Parker

Unified Communications (UC) offers enormous opportunities for dramatic enhancements to your communications environment. But there is a real need to organize these opportunities into a coherent and cost-justified plan for your company or institution. This one-day workshop will provide you with the information and tools to create that plan for your enterprise.

“Communications-Enabling Business Applications”
presented by Don Van Doren

In addition to combining different communications media, Unified Communications also allows enterprises to add communications functionality to business applications that previously lacked such tight integration. UC vendors claim that you can drive worker productivity by adding voice or instant messaging directly into, for example, an ERP or spreadsheet application. This session will closely examine such visions of “communications-enabled business processes”, to help you understand how much is hype and how much is feasible in the near term

“Justifying Unified Communications Investments Today”
presented by Don Van Doren

Almost everyone believes UC will be a major factor in the networks of the future, but how do you justify investments in today’s UC technology–and what elements offer the best payoff? This session will offer real-world examples of UC investments that paid off, and will describe how the payoff was achieved. It will also offer guidelines on whether you can bank on “soft” productivity enhancements to justify the cost of implementation–and whether such gains will pass muster with your CFO.

VoiceCon Orlando 2008
with Don Van Doren and Marty Parker

 

Orlando
March 17-20, 2008

 

Sessions include:

 

Preparing an RFI/RFP for Unified Communications
presented by Marty Parker

Implementing Unified Communications requires knowing what to buy and what requests to make to the vendors. This tutorial will help you get the most out of UC for your enterprise by providing a framework for creating and issuing an RFI/RFP targeted at one or more of the top five ROI-justified UC applications:

• Resource Access and Problem Resolution
• Collaboration Workspaces
• Contact Management
• Seamless Information for Mobility
• Information portals with Communication

The tutorial outlines the solution elements required for basic and advanced versions of each application, analyzes ROI justifications, and provides the information you need to shop for and select the necessary UC technologies.

 

The Company as Contact Center
presented by Don Van Doren

Agents often need to tap expertise that doesn’t reside within the contact center, and that creates challenges ? knowing if the person is available, how he/she prefers to be reached, etc. Unified Communications tools are becoming available that can be incorporated into contact center communications systems and improve the process of connecting the right specialists to customers, colleagues, contact-center agents and help-desk staffs. In effect, experts throughout a company can become an adjunct to the contact center, and this can affect everything from business processes to customer loyalty. This session examines how companies will use these new capabilities.

We consider some key questions, including:

• What’s currently available to link agents and customers to specialists who can immediately address detailed questions?
• What’s likely to be available over the coming 12?24 months?
• What frameworks are emerging for deploying Unified Communications tools and systems within contact centers?
• What are the elements to measure in preparing an ROI analysis?
• What are the organizational and training implications of deploying these new systems?
• How will Unified Communications change buyer-seller relationships in the contact center market?

 

Communications-Enabled Apps
presented by Marty Parker

Everyone agrees that applications are the payoff for IP Telephony, UC and converged networks, but talk is cheap. In this session, you’ll hear technologists who have implemented communications-enabled applications and are realizing business benefits from the effort.
Some key questions we will explore include:

• What types of applications can yield significant business benefits when integrated with communications capabilities?
• What are the technical challenges involved in implementing and running these communications-enabled business applications.
• How does an enterprise IT organization support communications-enabled business applications most effectively?
• What are the different issues involved in implementing communications-enabled business applications via internal development teams, versus working with ISVs and other outside providers?

 

Integration Challenges I: CTI, CRM and Customer Intelligence Systems
moderated by Don Van Doren

The more you know about your customers, the more productive your contact center can become. There’s a new set of metrics that are on the minds of contact center managers — customer defection saves, service-to-sales conversions, and cross- and up-sell ratios ? but the ability to produce those metrics requires a new level of hardware and software systems, all of which must interoperate to present contact center agents with an accurate history of the callers. This session will explore the emerging systems and analyze the leverage points for integration.
Integration Challenges II: Can These Systems Ever Get Along?
moderated by Don Van Doren

The contact center brings together a wide array of communications and network equipment and services. Some adjunct systems have been important parts of a contact center infrastructure, and now that we’re adding unified communications and new customer intelligence systems, the number of piece-parts will further expand. Contact center executives, who have long faced a major a challenge getting traditional elements to work together, find that the future is likely to be even tougher. This session will examine ways to ease this long-standing struggle.

 

 

 

 

 

“Leading Practices in IVR Design: Turn Your IVR from a Liability to an Asset”
presented by Elaine Cascio and Linda Van Doren

March 14, 2008, Online

A poorly designed IVR application can cost hundreds of thousands – even millions – of dollars in low usage, irate customers, and lost business. On the other hand, a well designed IVR can save your call center anywhere from $5 to over $10 on every completed call, as well as improve customer satisfaction.

In this seminar, you’ll learn the keys to designing successful, customer-focused IVR applications. We will:

Cover the basics of design – and redesign – for both touchtone and speech recognition
Provide a step-by-step overview of the process from development to implementation
Discuss how to keep your IVR application running smoothly
We’ll also discuss deciding whether to use touchtone or speech recognition and the keys to success when transitioning from a touchtone to a speech application. And we’ll include ways you can evaluate your own IVR applications in line with best practices to increase use.

 

 

 

 

Unified Communications 2008
with Don Van Doren and Marty Parker

Singapore
February 20-22, 2008

Responding to the increasing industry demand for UC, UNI Strategic presents Unified Communications 2008, a regional conference focusing on driving workforce productivity through Unified Communications. UC Strategies Jim Burton, Founder and CEO of CT Link, LLC; Marty Parker, UC Consultant; and Don Van Doren, President of Vanguard Communications will be attending along with major UC Strategies contributor Art Rosenberg.

 

 

“Improve Your Customer Experience Through a Seamless Multi-Channel Approach”
presented by Elaine Cascio

February 7, 2008, Online

Behind every successful contact center is a clearly articulated Customer Contact Strategy. In this seminar, we’ll discuss how you can build a multi-channel strategy and the roles different channels play in customer contact.

Plus, you’ll learn the keys to developing easy to use, customer focused, self-service, from voice response and web applications to kiosks, text messaging, and other emerging channels for customer contact.

 

 

VoiceCon Tour

Don Van Doren and Marty Parker, along with other founders of UCStrategies.com Jim Burton and Blair Pleasant, are moderating sessions at the five-city VoiceCon Tour: This day-long event highlighted four sessions about key issues in unified communications.

• San Francisco
  November 1, 2007
  
• Chicago
  November 15, 2007

Sessions included:

• “Reality Check on Unified Communications”
• “Enhancing VoIP for Unified Communications”
• “Merging Mobility and UC”
• “Unified Communications ROI: The Search Is On”

 

 

VON – Unified Communications Conference
with Don Van Doren and Marty Parker

Boston
October 30-31, 2007

Don Van Doren and Marty Parker, along with other founders of UCStrategies.com Jim Burton and Blair Pleasant, are helping to organize the Unified Communications conference sponsored by Pulvermedia. The four spoke and/or moderated at a number of sessions including:

 

• “What is Unified Communications?”
• “Unified Communications Market Overview”
• “Applications Drive Unified Communications”
• “The Future of Endpoints in a UC World”
• “Mobile Information Portals”
• “Unified Communication Enabled Call Centers”
• “Visual Conferencing Capabilities”
• “IBM as a Communications Solution”
• “OCS (Microsoft) as a Communications Solution”

 

 

 

 

 

• “Unified Communications: Preparing an RFI/RFP”
  Tutorial by Marty Parker
  August 20, 2007

 

Unified Communications has become a central theme in business communications.  This tutorial will help you get the most out of UC for your enterprise by providing a framework for proceeding on an RFI/RFP targeted at the top five ROI-justified applications.

 

• “The Company as Contact Center”
  Speaker and Moderator: Don Van Doren
  August 20, 2007

Agents often need to tap expertise that doesn’t reside within the contact center, and that creates challenges knowing if the person is available, how he/she prefers to be reached, etc. Unified Communications tools are becoming available that can be incorporated into contact center communications systems and improve the process of connecting the right specialists to customers, colleagues, contact-center agents and help-desk staffs. In effect, experts throughout company can become an adjunct to the contact center, and this can affect everything from business processes to customer loyalty. This session examines how companies will use these new capabilities.

• “Next-Gen Technologies for the Contact Center”
  moderated by Don Van Doren
  August 21, 2007This session examines prospects for emerging contact-center technologies and explores what’s on the horizon. We’ll look at the prospects for speech enablement, speech analytics and other ways of increasing self-service, and how presence enables contact center personnel to find the right person that can help a customer. Attendees will come away with insight into the technologies that will drive industry-leading contact centers in the years ahead.
• “Matching Performance to Promise”
  moderated by Don Van Doren
  August 21, 2007

 

 

Voice/data convergence and the migration to IP offer opportunities for innovation and efficiencies in the contact center. Applications and servers can be centralized. Dispersed groups of agents can be managed as a single, virtual environment. Multi-modal capabilities are easier, enabling interaction through voice, email, the Web, or video. Higher satisfaction and lower costs were the promise. How are we doing?

 

• Unified Communications Portals and Interfaces”
  moderated by Marty Parker
  August 21, 2007
  
  Unified Communications enables users to connect to the enterprise using almost any type of communications tool, from a mobile smart phone to a PC to a telephone. So what types of interfaces should these devices employ to optimize device features and provide the most useful and flexible experience for the user? In this session, you will get a clear sense of how the user interface should be tailored to the work being done and the business processes being employed.
• “Unified Communications ROI: The Search Is On”
  moderated by Don Van Doren
  August 22, 2007, 2:45 PM

Enterprises are searching to demonstrate the return on investment for Unified Communications. What metrics are available to allow management to prove and track ROI for UC? On this panel, representatives from leading providers will offer their advice and suggestions and will describe real-life reference cases.

• “Migrating Your Messaging System”
  moderated by Marty Parker
  August 22, 2007

 

We’re leaving a world of separate voice and email systems and entering a world where voice and text messages are delivered across a converged network to different types of servers and endpoints. But how will you get form here to there? This session will give you advice on managing the migration to next-generation messaging.

 

• “Presence: New Cornerstone of Enterprise Communications”
  moderated and presented by Don Van Doren
  August 23, 2007

 

Dynamic, robust presence capabilities are the key to providing much of the efficiency and transformation promised by Unified Communications. In this session, a panel of leading vendors will review current and pending presence capabilities, including applications, benefits and federation between enterprises. You will come away with an understanding of what you need to do to provide true presence capabilities to all your workers who need it, in whatever media they use.

 

• Locknote Panel
  with Marty Parker and Don Van Doren
  August 23, 2007

 

Marty and Don participate in the Locknote panel at the close of VoiceCon.

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Previously Recorded Speaking Engagements

 

SkyRadio Interview with Don Van Doren
Format: Audio (Windows Media)
Duration: 3:00 minutes

 

In this 3 minute interview with SkyRadio, Don highlights some of the key issues affecting contact centers today.

 

Listen now.