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Challenge Solved! - An Advice Column For Contact Center Managers
Submitted by Ulysses Learning

December 1, 2020

Challenge Solved!  

An Advice Column for Contact Center Managers

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December 2020

What’s the REAL secret to your contact center success? This is a question we get asked most frequently, especially when we are first getting to know a potential client. For this edition of Challenge Solved we wanted you to hear how Dina Vance, managing director of our North American Operations, fields this question. We hope you enjoy her response, and in the process, learn a bit more about our company—Ulysses Learning.  

Have your question answered in an upcoming Challenge Solved advice column!  Email your question to:  ChallengeSolved@ulysseslearning.com 

Q:  What’s your REAL secret to contact center success?  

A person wearing a purple shirt and smiling at the cameraDescription automatically generatedOur featured expert for this month’s question is:
Dina Vance
Senior Vice President, Managing Director of North American Operations at Ulysses Learning

A:      Coincidently, Ulysses Learning is celebrating its 25th Anniversary this month. I say “coincidently” because the fact that we are able to celebrate this significant milestone is because of our clients’ (and our) “secret” to contact center success.

You see, Ulysses started in October 1995 when our founders, a super smart and tuned-in group of world-renowned performance improvement researchers, academics, and business leaders unveiled a radical performance improvement system validated by tens of thousands of consumers—Ulysses’ ServiceMentor, CoachingMentor and SalesMentor.  The system was “radical” because at the time most businesses treated our contact centers as lowly cost centers—a necessary expenditure, a cost of doing business and nothing more. But we knew that was not the case…far from it.

Ulysses’ founders accurately predicted that the business strategy of “call center as a cost center” would dramatically decline, replaced by a new way of thinking that can best be described as “contact center as a profit center.” At the heart of this fresh philosophy was the fact that contact centers are relevant business drivers that create company prosperity, and the people who work in them are the secret to business success. Today, our reps are the very embodiment of our company’s brand or customer experience. And each interaction (live, email, voicemail) that every single one of our associates has with customers either helps create (or destroy) customer experience (and our bottom-line). Period. 

Fast forward 25 years. The quality of customer conversations still matters…some will argue even more so as our world has become incredibly complex, requiring our reps to exercise ever-increasing levels of what we at Ulysses and our clients call Judgment@Work.” For those of you not familiar with Judgment@Work, this includes a series of scientifically validated call or conversation strategies that have been proven over and over again to build emotional intelligence or “EQ” so that reps can confidently, consistently, and expertly contribute to your business goals efficiently and effectively, while strengthening customer experience and brand loyalty on every call.   

What can you expect in the years ahead?

There is a saying that goes, “You’re only as good as your last performance” (implementation, presentation, job, etc.). And we would agree with that. That’s why for 25 years we have kept investing in our performance improvement solutions, evolving to meet our client’s needs so that you can continue to reap the rewards. And you can count on us to continue to push our industry forward, identify meaningful trends, and strengthen your contact center operation with learning and development solutions designed to meet the demands of your business…and our world. 

And as your partner, we will continue to take your feedback to heart. And it warms our hearts that you are achieving your goals! 

A call to action. 

As many of our long-time clients know, improving contact center performance using an integrated learning system such as ServiceMentor, SalesMentor and CoachingMentor is a journey…and sometimes, as busy contact center professionals, we are taken “off path” especially when faced with competing priorities and unforeseen adventures (thank you Coronavirus).  If you’re looking for ways to rejuvenate your performance improvement investment, you can always count on your Ulysses team for fresh insights and actionable strategies. Remember to reach out to me or your Ulysses consultant now.

And finally, thank you again for your support of our organization over the years. We are so grateful to you!

More on this month’s featured expert…

Dina VanceA person standing posing for the cameraDescription automatically generated

Senior Vice President, Managing Director of North American Operations

In her current capacity with Ulysses Learning, Dina is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the company and also serves as the chief client relationship executive, working with Fortune 100 clients and other progressive organizations to redefine the way customers are cared for.  Under her leadership, Ulysses has become well known for its work in transforming customer service, sales and coaching cultures through the development of emotional intelligence or “EQ” so that Judgment@WorkTM can be confidently, consistently and expertly applied on every call.  The company has special expertise in serving the insurance, utilities and financial services industries.  

Before joining Ulysses in 1999, Dina was responsible for the ground-level startup of two contact centers which led to her accepting a role as call center lead consultant and division manager for an international bank training organization.

Dina can be reached on LinkedIn or at dvance@ulysseslearning.com; for more details on Ulysses Learning visit www.ulysseslearning.com.

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Email us your toughest challenge today!

Managers looking for answers to their toughest contact center challenges are encouraged to Email their challenges to:  ChallengeSolved@ulysseslearning.com 

NOTE:  Your identity is protected; we will not publish your name or company name. 

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Challenge Solved! is sponsored by:

UlyssesLearning was founded in 1995 as a joint venture with Northwestern University’s Learning Sciences department and continues to bring clients new, innovative enhancements to its industry-leading training. Contact centers achieve profound business results, ahead of schedule, with Ulysses Learnings’ artful blend of patented simulation-based e-learning, facilitated exercises, coaching, and tools, that redefine the way customers are cared for and transform customer service, sales, and coaching cultures. Ulysses has the only training proven to build emotional intelligence or “EQ” so that Judgment@WorkTM can be confidently, consistently, and expertly applied on every call.   

Ulysses Learning is a multi-year recipient of the Gold Stevie© Award for best contact center customer service training.

Begin your contact center transformation now. Phone 800-662-4066 or visit www.ulysseslearning.com to get started.

 
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