Contact Center Show
This is the public square for all things contact center. This is where the world's best Call & Contact center professionals come to get better at delivering a great experience for customers. Your contact center mentors - Amas Tenumah & Bob Furniss
Episodes
Bob just returned from Italy with a story that should make every customer service leader pay attention.
At train stations in Venice and Florence, there were no employees to help. Just kiosks. If you wanted a ticket, you figured it out yourself. If you had a question, there was nobody to ask. It wasn't a glimpse of the future. It was the present.
That experience led us into a bigger discussion about AI, automation, and what customer s...
AI hype is colliding with operational reality. A shoe company gains $127M in value by saying “AI,” while contact center leaders are told their entire model is obsolete. The shift from CCaaS to “Customer Experience Automation” reframes everything: not just support, but marketing, sales, and service collapsing into one AI-driven layer.
The problem: the foundation is broken. Knowledge is fragmented. Customer dat...
Exploring the future of AI in customer service, the role of agents, and how technology is transforming contact centers.
AI in customer service
The role of human agents vs. bots
Generative AI and workflow orchestration
Implications for contact center staffing
Future trends in AI and automation
00:00 Introduction and Guest Credibility
01:04 The Reality of AI Agents Today
01:43 AI as a Smart Assistant in Customer Calls
02:35 Agent Interaction ...
This episode explores the transformative impact of AI on quality assurance (QA) in contact centers. Hosts Amas Tenumah and Bob Furniss discuss how AI is revolutionizing call monitoring, evaluation, and coaching, emphasizing practical steps for leaders to leverage this technology effectively.
00:00 Introduction to QA in Contact Centers
00:51 The Impact of AI on Quality Assurance
03:50 Revolutionizing QA Processes
09:09 Shifting Perspect...
Exploring the evolution and challenges of Omnichannel strategies in customer service, from early concepts to current practices. Insights from industry veterans Bob Furniss and Amas Tenumah on what works, what doesn't, and how to focus on the most impactful channels. key topics
Origins of Omnichannel in 2010
Challenges in integrating multiple channels
The importance of focusing on top channels
Customer expectations vs. technological cap...
key topics
summary
In this episode, Bob Furniss and Amas Tenumah explore the roles and goals of supervisors in contact centers, emphasizing coaching, relationship-building, and strategic management. They share practical tips for setting goals, managing time, and developing future leaders.
Goals and metrics for supervisors
Time management and coaching focus
Building relationships with team and leadership
Mentoring future leaders in cont...
summary
This episode features a deep dive into contact center KPIs, exploring their flaws and how to measure customer experience effectively. Hosts Amas Tenumah and Bob Furness challenge industry norms and share practical insights for improving contact center performance.
key topics
Flaws in common KPIs like FCR, Service Level, NPS
The importance of standardized measurement
How to interpret and act on KPI ...
Summary
In this conversation, Amas Tenumah and Bob Furniss discuss the complexities of performance management, particularly focusing on forced distribution and its implications on employee evaluation and coaching. They explore alternative approaches to performance evaluation that prioritize individual performance over comparative scoring, emphasizing the importance of quality conversations in coaching. The discussion highlights the...
In this conversation, Amas Tenumah and Bob Furniss discuss the intricacies of performance reviews, emphasizing the importance of coaching and effective feedback. They introduce the YMCA methodology as a framework for coaching conversations, highlighting the need for ongoing dialogue and employee ownership in the performance management process. The discussion also touches on the significance of crucial conversations in fostering a p...
Summary
In this conversation, Amas Tenumah and Bob Furniss discuss the implications of AI in quality assurance within contact centers. They explore the benefits of AI, such as increased coverage and trend spotting, while also addressing concerns about accuracy and the potential for AI to replace human interaction. The discussion emphasizes the importance of using AI to enhance human capabilities rather than eliminate them, and the ...
Summary
In this episode, Amas Tenumah and Bob Furniss delve into the current state of Software as a Service (SaaS) and its intersection with artificial intelligence (AI), particularly in the context of contact centers. They discuss the recent downturn in stock prices for major SaaS companies like Salesforce and ServiceNow, attributing this to Wall Street's skepticism about the actual impact of AI on these platforms. Amas expresses ...
Most customer experience goals are meaningless. In this episode, Bob Furniss and Amas Tenumah dismantle the way contact centers set annual CX metrics and explain why leaders keep optimizing numbers that customers neither notice nor value.
Using insights from a John Goodman article on CX goal-setting, the conversation exposes the disconnect between executives, customers, and frontline teams—and why automation, deflection, and ...
2025 predictions — graded
AI-powered knowledge
Bob's 2025 prediction: AI would dramatically improve knowledge in contact centers.
Result: Early but mostly wrong.
The technology moved, but the data did not. Knowledge bases were too fragmented, too dirty, and too poorly governed for AI to meaningfully improve frontline work. The industry instead spent another year chasing bots, automation, and surface-leve...
Amas Tenumah explains why customer service is not "broken" but intentionally designed to fail. Drawing on decades inside contact centers, historical research, and real corporate incentives, he argues that long waits, deflection, and automation-first strategies are features—not bugs. The conversation dismantles common CX myths, challenges executive complacency, and frames consumer behavior as...
Summary
The conversation explores the integration of AI in sales, focusing on how it enhances customer engagement and improves sales efficiency. Bob Furniss discusses the importance of using data to empower salespeople rather than reducing their numbers, emphasizing a customer-centric approach to AI in sales.
Takeaways
AI can enhance customer engagement in sales.
The focus should be on empowering salespeople with data.
AI...
Summary
In this conversation, Amas Tenumah, Bob Furniss and Brad Cleveland discusses the three levels of value that contact centers create: efficiency, customer satisfaction and loyalty, and strategic insights provided by AI. He emphasizes the importance of these levels in improving products, services, and processes.
Takeaways
there's three levels of value that contact centers create
Level one is efficiency
customer sa...
Low-Cost, High-Impact CX Improvements
The Power of Language:
- Transform "I can't" into "How can we"
- S...
Host: Bob Furniss (without co-host Amos)
Guest: Daniel Thomas, Informa
Location: ICMI Conference Expo Floor
Guest Background
- Daniel Thomas approaches contact center industry from a research background
- Surveys audiences and writes research reports
- Has "front row seat" to industry transformation
- Conducts the annual State of the Contact Center survey
About the State of the Contact Center Report
Summary
In this conversation, Amas, Luke and Bob explore the evolving complexity of contact centers, challenging the notion that they are becoming simpler. They emphasizes that while the intention may be to simplify processes, the reality is that sophistication often leads to increased complexity. They also highlights the reliance on outdated metrics, such as those managed in Excel, which can contribute to agent burnout and frictio...
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