CCIQ’s Lisa Schulman recently interviewed five C-level customer management executives. Learn how these accomplished professionals are empowering their contact centers -- and organizations -- to create more customer-centric, more innnovative experiences.

1. Q&AWITH 5 C-LEVEL EXECUTIVES
A guide by Lisa Schulman
Executive Producer, CCW

2. CCW Winter: In your opinion, what is the holy grail of customer experience?
Greg: Very often business efficiency measures have a negative impact on CX. The sweet spot is you need to drive customer
satisfaction and drive business efficiencies.
CCW Winter: How do you calculate customer intent and help drive them down the right path?
Answer: We use predictive analytics and an in memory computing platform. Memory computing will predict customer interaction by
75%.
CCW Winter : In a digital world, why are agent tools so important?
Answer: When we talk about omni channel, the one channel you don’t want to overlook is the human channel. As we employ
predictive analytics, intelligent IVRs and digital channels, you want to avoid machines acting “smarter” than humans.
www.callcenterweekwinter.com
Gregory Knight
Senior Vice President & Chief Customer Officer
CenterPoint Energy
Ranked among top three performers in customer satisfaction amongst
US investor owned utilities by ACSI for the last 5 years
CCW Winter: It seems people underestimate what’s really happening in utilities. Can you tell
us about some of your cutting edge innovation?
Greg: We’re on a mad dash to service customer needs. Customers now measure utilities the
same way they measure other best-in-class businesses. We are currently taking the “effort
lens” and bringing prediction into focus.

3. Serena Smith
Head of International Payments & CAO
FIS Global Retail Payments
Chief Customer Officer of the Year – Consumer Service Institute of
America
CCW Winter: You’re a major Fortune 500 company but may not be a “household” name? How
would you describe this phenomenon?
Serena: Our clients are retailers, financial institutions, banks and credit unions. We create
products for our clients to deploy to their customer base. If we ran a Superbowl ad, nobody
would know who we are. But, if we placed an ad in a financial services magazine, everyone
would know our brand.
CCW Winter : What does “digital” mean for your business?
Serena: Digital to us is how to digitize the payment transaction. It’s all about making the
payment invisible and creating the user experience. We’re creating invisible channels similar to
Uber.
Thursday, January 19th @ 9:00AM
KEYNOTE: Transformation – How to Stay Relevant with Your Customers
There is a tremendous amount of transformation taking place, and it’s important to help customers understand what transformation looks
like. Discover how to be innovative to meet the needs of Millennials and Gen Zs – customers that are not generally loyal but looking for ease
of use. Walk away with new insight to stay relevant and continually evolve to meet customer needs.
Download the Agenda | www.callcenterweekwinter.com

4. “Outstanding break from day to day to identify future
priorities and focuses by hearing best practices.”
- Matt Woody, VP, Commercial Support, Fifth Third Bank

5. Justin Chase, LMSW, CPHQ, FNCCM
President and CEO
Crisis Response Network
2016 CCW Excellence Awards Winner – Best in Class Culture
CCW Winter: What is your greatest recent accomplishment?
Justin: We significantly improved the company’s culture, successfully obtained two new
accreditations (URAC and Contact USA) and a major contract for a new contact center that
serves all of Northern Arizona. In addition, we restructured our call center mentoring and
training program and added weekly objectives and evaluations.
CCW Winter: What techniques do you employ to understand the motivation of employees, and then use that understanding to build
an enduring and profitable culture?
Justin: We implemented strategic initiatives to increase employee engagement, morale, retention rates and improve our culture. Our
goal was to provide a supportive, responsive and personal/professional growth oriented environment for our contact center staff.
Knowing that to keep skilled, knowledgeable, and compassionate staff in a 24/7 crisis contact center can be difficult, we created an
Employee Experience Improvement Committee comprised of contact center staff to make recommendations and suggestions to boost
morale and to have a voice in policy changes.
CCW Winter: How are you developing a culture that supports digital customer service execution?
Justin: Because Crisis Response Network’s crisis contact center is available free of charge, 24-hours a day, 7-days a week, 365-days a
year, we are always looking for ways to better reach and serve our community. We recently underwent a complete overhaul of our
website. Additionally, we created a communications feedback page on the site where folks can enter a concern or question. We also
employ Facebook and Twitter to continue to reach, educate and engage with those we serve. Lastly, we recently transitioned our call
center platform to one that will better enable us to interact and help individuals via text and online chat. Both of these tools will be
available 24/7/365.
www.callcenterweekwinter.com

6. Sara Estes Cohen
Deputy Chief Information Officer
NOLA 311, City of New Orleans
2016 – Certificate of Distinction from the International City/County
Management Association
CCW Winter: Can you tell us about NOLA 311?
Sara: NOLA 311 provides local government information and non-emergency services. We
provide service to local residents, visitors and businesses.
CCW Winter: How are you staying relevant with current technology trends?
Sara: In an effort to improve our capabilities, we plan to expand the way people use NOLA
311. Some of the new tools could include: a mobile app, improved website, knowledge base of
common problems and request submissions through social media
CCW Winter: What can you tell us about the site tour experience taking place on January
20th?
Sara: The visit will take place at our small government call center, which is actually located
right in City Hall. I will be leading the tour along with Ken Davis, IT Operations Leader at NOLA
311, City of New Orleans. The tour will include a presentation and a walk around tour of the
call center. We’re really looking forward to showing the CCW attendees our inclusive and
welcoming call center culture.
Visit Sara’s Contact Center!
Friday, January 20th @ 8:00AM & 9:30AM
NOLA 311 Site Tour
NOLA 311 is New Orleans’s primary
source of local government information
and non-emergency services. Each tour
is limited to 25 attendees so make sure
to register today!
Download the Agenda | www.callcenterweekwinter.com

7. “CCW is inspiring and ignites a fire for amazing customer
support.”
- Nicole Prescott, Director of CS, Circle Graphics

8. Dale R. Sturgill Jr.
C Suite, Contact Center Executive
DirectBuy, Inc.
Consumer’s Choice Award for Business Excellence
CCW Winter: As an industry disruptor, you are the largest franchiser of members-only
consumer buying centers in North America. What types of savings do your members receive?
Dale: DirectBuy is a savings club that guarantees our members the lowest prices on hundreds of
thousands of products & top brands for your home and lifestyle. If a customer finds something
at a lower price, our Savings Guarantee allows us to but beat it.
CCW Winter: Can you tell us about your background? Also, how many agents and members do you have?
Dale: I’m an operations and leadership professional with 20+ years of senior leadership and start-up experience at medium to large call
centers. I’m part of DirectBuy’s C Suite and work within a team dynamic to build a strong functional customer support department with
150+ agents. We have over 300,000 satisfied members.
CCW Winter: You are participating on an Artificial Intelligence panel at CCW Winter. What’s your take on Artificial Intelligence and the
role it’s playing in transforming customer experience?
Dale: There’s certainly a lot of buzz around Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Assistants, Chatbots and even Robots. My take on the whole
human versus machine concept is that machines supercharge human capability. It’s the best of both worlds. You take the experience
and creativity of a human and you combine it with the power of a machine.
Download the Agenda | www.callcenterweekwinter.com

9. Their Session Topics & Times at CCW Winter
Interested in Learning More about CCW Winter?
Visit www.callcenterweekwinter.com
Call 1-800-882-8684
Email enquiry@iqpc.com
Wednesday, January 18th @ 5:05PM
KEYNOTE: Big Data, Cognition and
Predictive Intent – Begin the Journey to
Artificial Intelligence
Gregory Knight, SVP & Chief Customer
Officer, CenterPoint Energy
Friday, January 20th @ 8:00AM
SITE TOUR: NOLA 311
Sara Estes Cohen, Deputy Chief Information
Officer, NOLA311, City of New Orleans
Thursday, January 19th @ 9:00AM
KEYNOTE: Transformation – How to Stay
Relevant with Your Customers
Serena Smith, Head of International Payments
and CAO, FIS Global Retail Payments
Wednesday, January 18th @ 10:55AM
KEYNOTE PANEL: Culture – It’s the
Number 1 Business Priority
Justin Chase, LMSW, CPHQ, FNCCM
President, CEO, Crisis Response Network
Thursday, January 19th @ 11:35AM
KEYNOTE PANEL: Humans and Machines
– Supercharge Human Capability and
Predict Future Events
Dale R. Sturgill Jr., C-Suite, Contact Center
Executive, DirectBuy, Inc.

10. NEW EXPERIENCES. NEW KEYNOTES. NEW ORLEANS
January 17-20, 2017 | The Sheraton, New Orleans | www.callcenterweekwinter.com