ACA Fall Forum: Leadership, Collections, Training and the Cloud Based Contact Center

The ACA International Fall Forum & Expo advises, “The divisions in Washington and around the country are clear to see, but the key for any business is to stay focused on where policy changes may come.” To that end, the organization hosted several sessions and events meant to help businesses navigate the customer communications quagmire caused by government regulations.

Michael Joubran, TCN’s vice president of Canadian sales, attended several of those sessions. His thoughts on the impact and relevance to contact centers follow below.

1. Become an Exceptional Leader
At Exceptional Leadership, an optional seminar, Harry Strausser III, president of the Remit Corporation, Affiliated Collection Service of Florida, Inc., presided. He built his business acumen in the world of collections—his bio states he received “his first taste of the industry licking envelopes at his parents’ collection agency.” As such, he possesses the background and expertise needed to help managers, supervisors, and other individuals become better leaders.

Strausser’s first point, which concerned understanding one’s role as a supervisor, struck the strongest cord with Joubran. A deeper understanding of one’s role leads to better communications, supervision, and even purchasing decisions. “The more you know yourself and your employees,” he said, “the more you’ll see the right solution to the problem. Cloud-based contact center software, for example, can improve time management through business intelligence and metric reporting, ensuring what needs to get done, gets done.”

Learn How to Leverage Your Key Contact Center Metrics

2. Manage Your Collections Operation, Or It Will Manage You
Joubran also attended Elizabeth Conklin’s “Managing the Collection Floor.” “I wanted to get an inside look into day-to-day operations,” explained Joubran. Conklin’s interactive forum certainly delivered. The workshop covered the characteristics of an excellent collections manager, agent productivity, portfolio segmentation, and audit preparation.

“Agent productivity is a regular concern among contact centers. Our cloud-based contact center is focused on making contact center operations transparent,” Joubran said. “From monitoring how long customers are kept on hold to tracking accurate delivery of disclosures, innumerable factors can be tracked to ensure agents are on point, collecting in a compliant way with minimal down time.”

Request a Demo of TCN’s Cloud-Based Call Center

3. Defend Your Claim
Lawsuits arising from TCPA noncompliance abound. Some of the claims are legitimate; others aren’t. In “A Win is a Win is a Win,” attorney John Bedard, Jr. covered the questionable suits. He shared strategies that have helped him win cases, particularly in areas such as depositions, written discovery, and procedural defense. He then held a Q and A to talk through other “winning” approaches.

Joubran joined the workshop to learn more about people’s concerns about TCPA compliance, as well as the techniques they use to combat legal claims. “I really came to Bedard’s session because I was curious,” Joubran remarked. “Our cloud based contact center features a value-add Compliance Suite, and I wanted to ensure we are delivering the best compliance tools to our customers in the changing legal landscape.” Call recording, keyword detection and in-line compliance and disclosure tools are all excellent contact center features that bolster defenses against troublesome payees.

Embrace Training and Technology
Joubran then ventured into other sessions, including Greg Ruffino’s informal talk about compliance training. Ruffino shared best practices and innovative training methods. He also encouraged forum attendees to look into current technologies because they can facilitate agent training and compliance. “I wholeheartedly approve of Ruffino’s point about technology. TCN’s cloud-based contact center makes it easy to train and teach call center agents.”

Another session examined technology but from the perspective of robocall blocking. “I wanted to know what was happening with robocall blocking technology,” Joubran said. “My customers will have questions about it and how it impacts TCN’s toolset, including its predictive dialer software. Because our relationship is based on trust and expertise, growing my knowledge base is critical to keeping the relationship healthy and strong.”

Joubran listened to many other sessions and speakers, but the four shared here were ones that stood out. Were you able to attend the ACA Fall Forum & Expo? What was your favorite session? Contact us if you’d like more answers to your contact center questions.