Virtual Hold Users Forum / Virtual Hold / Eric Camulli's Blog

Learning a New Language...

testid — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 21:49:50 GMT

What if I told you that I was learning a new language, like Spanish or Italian…? You might say, “Hey, way to go Eric, that’s fantastic!” You might be really impressed and in awe at my ability to do this. You might be wishing you could learn a new language too and be really jealous of me. Well, guess what….I’m not learning a new language so there is nothing to get fired up about. But, l’ll tell you what I am doing, and to me, it’s just as exciting. I’m buying a new home computer!!!

Our current family computer, a Dell 4550 has lasted us a good 7 years, but due to what happens to computers after 7 years of usage, it’s now time to retire it. So this is pretty exciting news and my friends and associates are pretty excited too when I tell them that I’m getting a new computer. They say things like, “That’s awesome!” or “Oh, you’re so lucky!” But when I tell them that I’m getting a Mac…dark clouds roll in and the mood suddenly changes!

“What?! Are you crazy? Why? That’s rediculous!” The Star Wars references are fairly prevalent as well. Because after all, I am switching to the Dark Side. Their exhuberance quickly turns into scorn… their respect for me starts sinking and my credibility as a technology leader is now going down faster than the Titanic.

But why? The way I see it I’m just learning a new language. I’ve been speaking English and using Windows my whole adult life. And you know what? I’m going to be speaking English and using Windows for the rest of my adult life. I have no choice because Windows is the language of business. But there’s one problem: I’m really sick and tired of Windows! So therefore I’m jumping ship and trying something new. I want to see if it’s as easy to do the things I want to do with a computer as people say it is. I want to save time. I want to do new kinds of stuff. Hey, some people like spending their Saturdays uninstalling and reinstalling programs. But I’m done with it. And another thing…you can throw out Mac Office too! I’m looking forward to trying some cool new tools to create stuff, which is why I’m buying Apple’s equivalent, iWork instead of Office (for a quarter the price.)

Most of us 30-somethings grew up suffering with Windows and so we feel bound to it for life because of all the blood we’ve spilled. So, I guess this makes all of us some kind of sick, twisted blood-brothers. Well, I am breaking these bonds and leaving the brotherhood behind.

I used to be an Apple-Basher too, but I have overcome these prejudices. I am moving ahead towards something different and new. I’m passionate about learning. But it only happens when you can overcome your hangups and imagine a new you. You can’t think outside the box, if you are locked inside it. I hope my example can unlock one of your boxes…whatever it might be. In a future post, I’ll give you an update on how it’s going with my new computer. Stay tuned!!!

PS: please switch to my new blog location at http://www.virtualholdonline.com/blog

New Blog Location!

adrienna — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 16:53:10 GMT

We've moved our blog off the forum and onto a new blogging platform. In addition to Eric blogging, we'll have other Virtual Hold people blog, as well as the occasional guest blogger. If you're interested in blogging about Virtual Hold, please PM me or email me at afrazer@virtualhold.com.

Check out our new blog at:

[url=http://virtualholdonline.com/blog/]http://virtualholdonline.com/blog/[/url]

Yammering on about...

ecamulli — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 08:54:36 GMT

It's been a very busy first week back from vacation. So many ideas and plans for making this year a great one...and then of course there's a mountain of email to go through. Oh brother, is there an email end in sight? I would venture to say that most people have the same problem of taming their inbox. So I started looking around... found something, had and idea, then gave it a try. It's a Web 2.0 micro-blogging product called Yammer.

Yammer is very similar to Twitter, which I thought was somewhat useless for business...until I ran into Yammer. While Twitter asks the question, "what are you doing?" Yammer asks, "what are you working on?" and people post short "yams" instead of "tweets." Interestingly, it's tied to your domain (virtualhold.com) and people who join with virtualhold.com in their email address are automatically placed in the Virtual Hold group. I asked two fellow employees, Rob Brazier and Jeremy Starcher to sign up with me and give this a try because they don't work for me, but I am very interested in what they are doing AND I did not want to get into email exchanges with them about it. So, I have my Yammer window open and it looks like a scrolling news feed, similar to what you'd see on facebook. More importantly, I'm getting little tidbits of information from my coworkers who are yammering on about an RFP for this prospect and yammering on about a technical problem for this customer and in just a few hours I feel smarter, more aware, and in a better position to help the organization with what it needs. Then Jeremy invites his whole department to join. Likewise with Rob. Then I invite the Marketing department and before you know it there's 16 people at Virtual Hold yammering throughout their work day with one-liners and everybody knows what each other is working on. Suddenly I start seeing yams like, "I didn't know they were a customer yet...I better look into a press release." And stuff like, "I didn't know you were spending so much time troubleshooting with this customer...let me come over and help."

Yammer is slowly spreading throughout VHT. I think we're up to 24 people. I'm not advertising it and it's not something you make people do. But when my associates yammer on... about this... and about that... and it's all there in a public news feed for everybody to see, it increases awareness and this is the key to increasing responsiveness and pleasing customers, which is a goal of ours.

All of this information, wow... and none of it came from an email (that may have gotten lost in the shuffle.) All of this information, and none of it came from another dreaded meeting.

Speaking of meetings...department status meetings are amazing now. It goes something like this, "Ok, I know what everybody is working on and how it's going. So, before we get back to work...does anybody have any questions or need clarification?"

Nice... very nice.

What I want for Christmas

ecamulli — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 22:52:22 GMT

I've just completed some online purchases for my daughter. I know she's going to love the spy kit. Hey...who wouldn't.

I usually don't ask for much. Apathetic? Probably. But I've realized beyond a shadow of a doubt that by not asking for much, I am assuring myself of one certain thing: I will receive very little.

So now I've been thinking about what I want this year (besides a big iTunes gift card) and it is starting to become clear. At the risk of sounding a bit hokey, I simply want to do what I love.

I've discovered that I love helping people. I love teaching, showing, facilitating, collaborating. I love going the extra mile and making people feel special because they deserve it. Don't we all from time to time? I love delivering on promises. I love being on time for an appointment. I love making guests feel welcome. I love conveying enthusiasm and excitement.

Okay great, I love this stuff. So now I need to do what I love and there is no better way than to come to work everyday on the lookout for opportunities to do the things I love. I'll admit, it can be hard for me and for anybody for that matter. It's hard when you sit at a desk all day. It's hard when you're in meetings all day. It's hard when you work remotely. It's hard when you're living out of a suitcase. Bottom line...it's hard when you're in a routine.

A long time ago I read a story about a black bear. He was raised in captivity and spent most of his time sleeping in a small enclosure, about 10 feet by 10 feet. Everyday they would open the cage and put food just inside the door for the bear to eat. The bear would walk 10 feet forward, eat, then go 10 feet back. When the bear was about 3 years old, the keepers wanted to release the bear back into the wild. They drove the entire 10 by 10 cage, with bear, out into the wild. They opened the cage and the bear hopped out. They pulled their truck away and watched for a while. I probably don't have to tell you what they saw... The bear walked 10 feet forward and 10 feet back...back and forth, over and over. Finally, the bear just lied down and went to sleep.

A whole forest of opportunity awaiting the bear, but no go. He was stuck in his routine and couldn't even see the forest...or even the trees for that matter. They took the bear back with them. They eventually sold the bear to a zoo where it received better treatment and carried out the rest of its zoo days in the companionship of another black bear.

A whole forest of opportunity awaits all of us. But it isn't made up of trees...it's made up of customers, both internal and external. If we are going to do what we love then we need to get up and get out of our comfort zone. Explore. Venture out. Forage. Look for opportunity... because one thing is for sure: it's not going to creep up on your cubicle, knock on your wall and say, "here I am!" Our customers are our opportunity. Think about how to connect with them. Go above and beyond and just do it.

To do what you love takes work. So WORK!!! and give yourself the best Christmas gift ever.

Going the extra mile (or at least 30 feet)

ecamulli — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 20:01:02 GMT

Today, I was reminded about how going the extra mile just doesn't exist at some work places. No, don't worry I'm not talking about VHT. The experience I'm referring to happened when I came home from work and found 8 bags of leaves at the edge of my lawn.

The kids at church were raising money by raking yards and so we invited them over. They raked up about 15 bags of leaves and pine needles. 7 bags were dragged to the mailbox where the trash is picked up every week. Another 8 bags were at the curb too, but they were about 30 feet down from the mailbox. Last night I thought about dragging the 8 bags over to be with the others, but I didn't. It was cold and I just wanted to relax after 2 hours of trick or treating. This morning, as I pulled out of the driveway, I thought that this would be a good test for the garbage men. Would they go the extra mile (30 feet) and pick up the 8 extra bags? Or would they just drive past them and mock me for not placing them in the designated location. Well, to my dismay (but not complete shock) they were still sitting at the curb when I came home today.

Now you should know that this isn't the city's garbage truck. Because I live 'out there' a little bit, I have to pay for a private garbage service and I've been a good paying customer for over 4 years now. For example, I separate my recyclables very nicely for them. I remove nails from the boards so no one is impaled. I cut my branches and neatly tie them up into little 3-foot bundles. But no matter. When it came time for a little love in return, I was spurned.

This experience has convinced me of something. Going the extra 30 feet, let alone the extra mile is either part of your company's culture, or it isn't...and it starts with leadership who must set a good example by doing little things above and beyond the normal routine. You see, left unchecked, most folks will take the path of least resistance. Like a river...it's the natural course of things and this is why leaders have to work extra hard. Leaders have to go against the flow and find opportunities to show others what going the extra mile looks like. I believe it is a learned behavior, therefore, we must teach it to others.

I bet you my garbage man learned to drive by leaf bags that were not in the designated location because when he was a young and impressionable garbage man just starting out in his career, he saw his leader and mentor do it. When you're a leader, your people are watching every move you make and listening to every word you say. So please, show them what going the extra mile looks like, and when you do, your trash won't be left on the curb for everyone to stare at for another week.

Social networking. Changing everything.

ecamulli — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 22:36:52 GMT

If you're on Facebook, MySpace or LinkedIn, then you're like millions of others who are part of a revolution ... and businesses better be ready to adapt or else they run the risk of alienating their most valuable resource, their customers.

The phenomenal growth of online social networking is creating a cultural shift in our society. Sharing experiences and opinions with one another gives us a sense of connection. The ability to identify problems and alert others gives us a sense of purpose. To participate in solving problems facing customers and businesses gives us worth and prestige. If this is the case, and I believe it is, then we must join this community,embrace it, and more importantly, engage it!

This is a new wave of customer interaction. It's a new style of communicating that businesses must learn in order to build and maintain customer relationships over the long term. Over time, more and more consumers will gravitate to companies that accept them for who they are, and treat them as equals in this virtual world.

However, in order to build these advanced relationships in the virtual arena of the internet, there is going to need to be reciprocity and outreach on the part of companies. I believe it's going to take a bit of time for most organizations to get on board with this because participating in an online social network requires a degree of transparency and openness that may make folks a little squeamish. The social network is powerful because it's an honest exchange. Honesty fuels participation, and participation creates the synergy that spawns positive (and sometimes negative) ideas and opinions about a range of topics, including your company!When someone detects that you're not being upfront with everything ... or that you're just trying to sell something, then the fabric of the network begins to fade and trust begins to break down.

You've invited your customers to engage you on the web with your web self-service strategy. Good move. But now don't be surprised when self-service isn't enough and they slowly start to expect more through this channel. My closing advice is: join Facebook, MySpace or LinkedIn and start figuring out the lay of this virtual land. It's here to stay and it's going to bleed into the business world. Companies that meet their customers on this new field of play will gain a significant competitive advantage.

Why Doesn't Everyone Have This?

ecamulli — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 16:43:13 GMT

This is a question I get quite often after I tell a person about Virtual Hold Technology. I get this question from friends, acquaintences, strangersand sales prospects. It's a valid question. I mean...if I told you that you could talk to the right specialist, the first time and get your questions answered quickly and easily, and that all you had to do is hang up and get a callback in 5 minutes...would you do it? I'm going to go out on a limb and say that99% of people out there would say "YES" emphatically. So, this truly begs the question, "why doesn't everyone have this?"

Self-Service and Unified Communications.

These are two initiatives I see out there that contact center people believe will solve their hold time woes. I'm not going to insult your intelligence by defining these for you. Instead, I'm just going to tell you why they are not the final answer.

We engage companies everyday who have persevered, endured and implemented these strategies, but still have hold time issues. They call us for help because they have come to some conclusions about customers, resources and technology. I will share their conclusions with you now:

First, they realize that most people like sit-down restaurants a lot more than they like buffets. I like a good buffet once in a while because I getto pick and choose andserve myself and get more food any time I like. But, most of the time when I decide to go out, I do so because I want to be served. I want my food brought to me, I want the server's opinion on the specials, I want to sit and relax. And then afterwards I want to evaluate the service and even tell my friends about it if it was exemplary. As human beings, it's in us to serve others and to be served by others. In the same manner, most of us have the personal desire to clearly explain our situation to a customer service representative, gain human acknowledgement,and thenreceive clear and friendly answers in return. The back and forth interaction, when positive, releases some kind of endorphins in the brain.We know this because the whole thingfeels good! In my last posting,I explained how acomputer system took care of everything. But I didn't like it. There was no joy and my opinion of the company was still negative to neutral. Here are some stats I recently ran accross that I found very interesting as well: according to a 2007 consumer survey by LightSpeed, 91% of consumers feel that companies are pushing them to use self-service systems instead of talking to people. 74% react negatively when they feel they are being pushed to use self-service.

Secondly...companies realize that, while Unified Communications connects and unitesthe organization in a way that can better serve customers quickly, the organization still only has a finite number of specialized resources available to help customers. There are only so many tier 3 tech support specialists in your org. You only haveso many billing specialists who know how to change the shipping charge, adjust the tax rate for a different state and mail a new invoice to a different address not on file. Unified Communications may help you locate these valuable resources in your enterprise, but to depend upon their availability is totally unrealistic. They are highly skilled and in high demand!

At the risk of sounding too salesy, Virtual Hold complements these two strategies because, in essence, you are reserving your besttable for your customer who will then be served by your best waiter or waitress. Instead of having "any warm body" answer the phone, let the wait time rise a few minutes and allow only your specialists to take the calls. Don't worry, Virtual Hold will be there to help.

So to answer the question: why isn't Virtual Hold everywhere yet? Because we have a lot more teaching to do... and that's what makes this job fun :)

Some Recent Customer Experiences...

ecamulli — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 13:13:39 GMT

Electrical storms came through town a couple weeks ago. A few cracks of thunder actually shook the house they were so close. After the storm passed, lo and behold the digital cable was out and our phone had no dial tone. I was really feeling cut off from the world, it was a bizarre feeling...no phone, no TV and no internet. So I used my cell phone, of course, to start placing phone calls. The cable company experience was pretty good. They do some remote tests on your box to make sure that's okay. But more importantly, the agent knew on the spot that our area was experiencing an outage and that it was being worked on. The fact that it took 2 1/2 days fix was rather annoying, but I have know idea how severe the issue was so I gave them the benefit of the doubt... and they gave me a credit for the time I was out of service.

The phone issue got resolved in the end, but getting there was frustrating. They have a speech recognition system you have to deal with and to tell you the truth, I haven't run accross one yet that doesn't frustrate me. You have to have tremendous patience to deal with these things, and I had very little at the time I called. Below I have stepped through my experience for you:

She (the virtual assistant) asks you questions. You go along with the virtual reality game and answer them as they are asked. But right after she asks a question, there's no pause...she continues talking or explaining something that you don't care about. So you interrupt her and shout, "YES!" so you can keep this thing moving along. At which point she says, "I'm sorry, did you say, "make a payment?""
I've now moved ahead in my virtual conversation to the point where I'm trying to schedule an appointment for a tech to come out to the house. As she's reading off the available time slots, I'm whispering them to my wife to see if she's good with it. The virtual assistant, who has bionic hearing, picks up on these whispers and indicates, "you have selected 1:00..."
So now I'm yelling out all sorts of keywords to get her to go back to rattling off the available appointment times. My wife looks at me like I've gone completely insane or suddenly developed tourets syndrome. "Back! Return! Appointments! Schedule!" But all of this blurting out of words is getting me nowhere. She keeps telling me she didn't understand or that now I want to make a bill payment. I'm just about out of patience.
So I try an different approach, and I start explaining exactly what I want to do just as if I was talking to a real human being. Afterall, isn't this what she's supposed to be replacing? I sounded like this, "I'm trying to get back to the appointment scheduler thing because I was whispering to my wife the times and you thought I wanted 1:00 when really that's not going to work..." Oh, what a nightmare. Now I really have gone insane. I'm talking to a server in a cold data room somewhere.
Next I try a new set of keywords..."Agent! Operator! Help! Zero!" But none worked. She kept saying she didn't understand. Maybe she didn't like my tone of voice. I also pushed zero about 5 times on my phone and got nowhere as well.

I finally admited defeat and hung up. 14 years in telecom and I couldn't out smart the system. I couldn't believe it. Feeling dejected, I went into a cone of silence, called back and made no mistakes this time. The tech came out and fixed the green box and all was well again.

In closing, I believe we are very far off from replacing human customer service representatives. I just want to talk to somebody. Is that so wrong?

Collaboration is the Key

ecamulli — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 08:52:18 GMT

Over the past few years VHT has been growing at lightning speed and we've all been trying to keep up. One thing I've noticed that happens is that in order to keep up, you wind up collaborating less. Decisions have to made quickly and sometimes in a vacuum in order to meet the needs of an ever growing client base. This undoubtedly leads to communication silos where individuals or groups of individuals get used to just taking care of themselves and their own issues. This is bad. It destroys teamwork and creates resentment as confusion about role clarity seeps in.

The way that we've worked through it here at VHT is by getting together and developing new processes for inter-department communication that more closely coincides with our new growth. The old processes just couldn't keep up and important information was slipping through the cracks and not getting diseminated, which of course ultimately leads to many issues.

When the company grows from 30 to 50 to now 73 employees in a relatively short period of time, you have to depend more on processes in order to get things done, which is why it must be worked through in groups, agreed upon and clearly defined for all. It's not easy. A critical part of every process must include elements of collaboration along the way. In fact, collaboration is a form of organizational quality assurance that takes place to ensure that we deliver a unified message, quality product and exemplary service to our customers. It reminds me of what I learned from the late Dr. Demming, who is famous for being "the American who taught the Japanese about Quality" after WWII. Demming wrote how it is everybody's responsibility on the production line to ensure quality and that every worker must feel like they have input into the quality and craftsmanship of every final product. He taught me that depending upon a QA department at the end of the line was completely worthless...because it's too late!!! Rather, the QA department should be a feedback tool who collaborates with others in order to help isolate and determine where the process went wrong. Then it should be left to the people who make up the process to figure out how it needs to be fixed. As you can tell, Demming wasn't a big fan of management. He taught us that quality must be built into every single step of the process and that this involves every single person's cooperation and collaboration, every single step of the way.

If your organization is suffering from quality and communication problems then it may be time to dig in and do some hard work...modify your processes. The first meeting will be the worst because everybody thinks they're doing it right and everybody else is wrong. Remember, people might be bitter because they have felt left out for so long. But by the end of second meeting, folks will start getting excited over the fact that finally they are part of the process and in a position to collaborate with others in order to ensure ultimate quality.

Doing Whatever It Takes...

ecamulli — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 09:53:17 GMT

I'll be the first to admit that we're not perfect. We goof up from time to time. But we take it seriously and truly work hard to correct things as quickly as humanly possible. That includes process change in addition to the service impacting issue at hand. Being here for so many years, it's easy to see that working hard and caring is just a part of our culture. I still try to interview as many candidates as possible for all different positions. It's getting a little difficult these days, but I still ask to be involved whenever possible because I firmly believe that hiring is the most important job of any manager.

So one of my favorite interview questions is, "what is your definition of 'doing whatever it takes?'" But just before they blurt out some cliche of an answer, I like to look 'em right in the eyes and say, "...because if your definition and mine are not the same, then it would definitely be a problem." Yes, I want to put them on their heels a little. But it's because I want them to think hard before answering. I expect them to maintain eye contact, give me some examples and I expect that they tell their stories with a little conviction and passion. You see, I don't think you can teach "do whatever it takes." It's either in your blood or not. You either have a sense of urgency and hustle built into you or not. You either get it, or you don't get it. That sense of responsibility, ownership and accountability are the key things I look for.

We can teach telephony, call centers,Windows Server and our software to new hires, but teaching someone to care deeply about the customers who are responsible for our company's existence...I'm not sure that can be done. Or at least I haven't seen anyone get turned around who started out a little lazy...no matter how smart or skilled they are! So because of this, it takes a little time to get our new folks up to speed technically. But with a winning attitude, they'll persevere and they'll come to understand the great intrinsic reward that goes with helping others in need. You need these kinds of rewards when you come to work. Some of you may agree that once you get to a point of financial stability in your life that working is not all about the paycheck anymore. But rather, it becomes a place where you have the opportunity to reveal your character and fulfill the personal potential you have deep down inside you.

This is another one of my mantras: We work a lot in life...so it better be something you like with people you like. Over the years I've seen our people have fun doing whatever it takes in order to help our customers. Your positive reinforcement and recognition is a huge motivator, so thank you for that.

Today is our company's 13th anniversary, April 1st. No fooling! So I felt it appropriate to talk about what got us here...our people's commitment to our customers. I hope that you always sense it in your interactions with us.

Customer Feedback Conference and NPS

ecamulli — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 11:53:41 GMT

This past week, I attended the 4th Customer Feedback Summit, an IQPC conference. I was hoping to learn a few things about gathering feedback from our customers and then using it in order to improve their satisfaction. Our company is growing quite fast these days, and it’s important that we not forget what got us here…our customers, their ideas and their belief in Virtual Hold Technology. I’ve gotten the sense that a lot of feedback has been falling through the cracks and this has been worrying me. That’s why attending the conference was important; I wanted to see how others ensured their customers remained loyal ones.

For the first time, I learned about NPS or Net Promoter Score and how companies use it in order to measure customer loyalty. If you are not familiar with NPS, then I will try to explain it simply. NPS turns away from the traditional measurement of customer satisfaction level. After all, satisfied customers are not necessarily helping you grow your business. Maybe they’re just satisfied that you haven’t screwed anything up in a while. Alternatively, the goal of NPS is to measure your customers’ willingness to recommend, which is quite different. You not only want customers to stay with you, but you want them to be delighted by your products and services to the point where they will tell others all about it. This is important for any business whose goal is organic growth. It’s even more critical to a smaller company, like Virtual Hold, that depends heavily on word-of-mouth advertising. Customers who recommend to others are called “promoters” and those who don’t are either “passives” or “detractors”. Your Net Promoter Score represents promoters, minus detractors. The second question on the survey is quite simple, “why?” From this data, you create processes that capture why people like you or don’t like you. The next step is to act upon this. Continue to do what people like, but most importantly, create a closed loop process that follows up with customers who are detractors before it is too late.

I am very interested in NPS for a few reasons. First, it’s an approach to customer feedback management (CFM) that can help Virtual Hold Technology ensure that as we grow we keep our eye on the ball and stay responsive to our customers. Second, I am wondering if there is anybody out there using NPS currently and I’m curious how it’s working for them. What lessons have you learned along the way? How is your contact center tied-in with your organization’s feedback management system? Who is responsible for measuring and taking actions in your company? Does ownership fall on the contact center? the marketing department? the CEO? everyone!? Your feedback is greatly appreciated :)