Everlast gained fame as the lead vocalist of the Irish-influenced hip-hop group House of Pain in the early 90s with their infectious hit, Jump Around. But by 1998, House of Pain had disbanded and Everlast, now nearly 30, took on a new persona for his solo career – Whitey Ford. His first hit single, What It’s Like, was more than just a musical departure from the up-tempo rock/rap anthems of his youth - it was a lesson in empathy. Dr. Natalie Petouhoff believes business leaders often don’t know “W...
Sep 15, 2023•53 min•Season 3Ep. 1
In 1986’s Odd Jobs, Max (played by Paul Reiser) gets his feet wet in the moving business while partnered with a veteran of the industry, Wylie. In this scene, his very first day on the job, Wylie makes it clear that this partnership is more of a dictatorship. After realizing the only moving company option, which is also mob-owned, provides horrendous service, Max and three friends see an opportunity to start their own moving company. Eighties hilarity ensues. Ron Holt also saw an opportunity to ...
Sep 08, 2023•55 min•Season 2Ep. 52
Taking a new product to market is rarely easy. Just ask Walter White. Our role in that is often unpredictable. Afterall, Walter was a chemistry teacher before his entrepreneurial escapades on Breaking Bad. He had to learn a lot of new skills to become successful in an entirely different industry. Jan Young got her start in tech before the dot com bubble burst as a project manager. After moving from New York to Los Angeles, she had stints in marketing, sales and account management, product manage...
Sep 01, 2023•55 min•Season 2Ep. 51
While golf fashion is significantly more toned down these days, it was once a world filled with loud prints and wild colors. And perhaps no character personified loud and wild in the golf world quite like Rodney Dangerfield’s character in 1980’s classic film, Caddyshack. In this scene, after making fun of a particular trilby in a golf shop, he sees Ted Knight’s character wearing the exact same hat. No stranger to golf or brightly colored clothes and hats, Nate Brown blossomed when he found the r...
Aug 30, 2023•53 min
The 1978 hit, The Gambler, by Kenny Rogers tells the story of a chance meeting with gambler who offers his outlook on life using poker metaphors in exchange for a drink of whisky. In the gambler’s mind, every situation requires decisions because life itself is a gamble. To play it well, you must choose wisely, take a few risks, and not dwell on inevitable losses. Following a chance introduction to poker at a party, Tino Engel took his own gamble and began his journey as a professional poker play...
Aug 25, 2023•46 min•Season 2Ep. 50
Dee Snider, the frontman for Twisted Sister, “wanted to write an anthem for the audience to raise their fists in the air in righteous anger” and the result was the transcendent hit, We’re Not Gonna Take It. Over time, the song took on new meanings. In 1985, a year after its release, it meant fighting censorship attempts by the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC) and led to Dee Snider testifying before the US Senate. More recently, in a somewhat ironic twist, striking teachers in Oklahoma belted...
Aug 18, 2023•46 min•Season 2Ep. 49
In South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, Kyle’s mom, Sheila, makes Canada the scapegoat for the bad behavior of South Park’s children. But if Kyle’s mom were to find a scapegoat today, it would likely be Artificial Intelligence rather than America’s friendly neighbor to the north. It’s hard to go a single day without hearing about how AI will automate everything, including contact center jobs. One Canadian who’s not scapegoating the role of AI in the contact center is Mike Aoki. A survivor of ...
Aug 11, 2023•43 min•Season 2Ep. 48
Liar Liar imagined an attorney who could only tell the truth for an entire day. In this scene, he’s attempting to use all his willpower to simply lie about the color of a pen. This 1997 Jim Carrey film makes us wonder – what if marketers had to do the same? Nick Glimsdahl, host of Press 1 for Nick and Director of Contact Center Solutions at VDS, thinks they would tell a very different story. We discuss: • The State of Customer Service Today • How organizational measures get in the way of being c...
Aug 04, 2023•40 min•Season 2Ep. 47
The 2003 hit, “I Can” by Nas may have been aimed at children, but the message of hard work to achieve your dreams is relevant to anyone still involved in that pursuit. Success is a product of hard work, practice, and recognizing and taking advantage of opportunities, particularly stretch opportunities. Sean Ilenrey went from a homeless high school dropout to an award-winning executive in tech and keynote speaker. Turning his life around inspired him to help other professionals achieve their own ...
Jul 28, 2023•33 min•Season 2Ep. 44
Clark W. Griswold is not your ordinary, everyday fool – he’s an exceptional fool and one who loves travel. Whether it’s California’s Walley World, Europe, or Las Vegas, Clark has experienced a lot as a customer while traveling with his family. In this scene from 1983’s National Lampoon’s Vacation, Clark is experiencing was could have been a “relationship restoration” moment that could have cemented his loyalty for life. Rick Denton can tell you about successes in a moment like this as well as di...
Jul 21, 2023•44 min•Season 2Ep. 45
I may be biased, but this scene from Ted Lasso may be one of the best scenes in recent television history. Aside from reminding us how food can transport us back in time, it more importantly reminds us to always be curious. Asking questions is a skill we learn very early in childhood – particularly ones that begin with “Why?” But that curiosity is often stifled by the desire to appear informed, smart, and competent, particularly in the workplace. Ashna Patel refuses to abandon that curiosity bec...
Jul 14, 2023•47 min•Season 2Ep. 44
2500 years ago, before Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, the Greek philosopher Heraclitus observed the ever-present state of flux in everything. His philosophy on how everything flows is often paraphrased (or misquoted) as, “The only constant in life is change.” On this episode of Jump the Queue, we’re exploring transitions. Emma Lo started out as a cancer researcher in Taipei, Taiwan, moved to Canada, and then discovered what she really liked was interacting with people going through transitions ...
Jul 11, 2023•33 min•Ep. 4
Being an agent in a contact center can sometimes feel like Groundhog Day. You take call after call every shift and most of them sound like the calls you took the day before that, and the day before that, and the day before that. Of course, not everyone can thrive in that kind of environment. I mean, Bill Murray spent 12,395 days repeating the same day over and over, but he had no choice in the matter! Contact Center agents most certainly have a choice, so it’s critical to hire people who appreci...
Jul 07, 2023•52 min•Season 2Ep. 43
If you’ve never seen it, watch footage of Jimi Hendrix at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967. Then you’ll understand why his band was called The Jimi Hendrix Experience. Their debut album – Are You Experienced? – was an immediate success, both critically and commercially. But it was Jimi’s stagecraft, a revelation to mostly white Greenwich Village audiences where he emerged as a star, that cemented the “Experience.” This craft had been honed while touring the incredibly demanding Chitlin' Circuit...
Jun 30, 2023•46 min•Season 2Ep. 42
While the Princess Bride featured more famous quotes, Iñigo Montoya questioning Vizzini’s use of “Inconceivable” is not only memorable, but relatable in the business world when we hear terms used over and over in ways that may not be appropriate. While it’s not “inconceivable,” Neal Topf, President of Callzilla, has his own industry term that makes him feel like Iñigo Montoya every time he hears it in the wrong context. But our conversation isn’t about semantics – it’s about the realities of CX ...
Jun 23, 2023•45 min•Season 2Ep. 41
We’re still a long way from learning Kung Fu in seconds like Neo did in The Matrix, but learning technology has come a long way over the past decade. With the impending launch of Apple Vision Pro, and the recent impressive advances in Generative AI, is learning on the cusp of something completely different from what’s come before it? David Wentworth, spent nearly 2 decades as a learning technology analyst before recently joining Schoox, a workplace learning platform. We discuss: · Why learning p...
Jun 16, 2023•50 min•Season 2Ep. 40
Daily Affirmations with Stuart Smalley mocked the self-help industry, but there have been numerous studies affirming a wide array of benefits of both self-affirmations and words of encouragement from others. Casey Klein isn’t a self-help guru, but he is thinking about ways to make life in the contact center better for agents. Among those ideas is using data to intervene and provide encouragement when agents have emotionally difficult calls. We discuss: · Why contact centers experience staffing c...
Jun 09, 2023•51 min•Season 2Ep. 39
While the disdain Parks and Recreation’s Ron Swanson has for government is played for laughs, his view of government being inefficient and a lousy place to work is shared by many Americans. But what if government inefficiency and employee dissatisfaction are, in part, because the software tools available to government employees haven’t kept up with the private sector? What if Ron Swanson experienced government tools the same way he experienced bacon and eggs? These are the kinds of questions Mar...
Jun 02, 2023•51 min•Season 2Ep. 38
In 1995’s Tommy Boy, Tommy Callahan used a story (rather unsuccessfully) to paint a customer experience, in this case, a B2B2C (Business to Business to Consumer) customer experience. His effort left more than a little to be desired. While stories can be an effective way to present the Customer Experience, Jim Tincher learned long ago that stories aren’t enough. After cutting his teeth in CX at Best Buy, he fell in love with B2B CX and eventually wrote a book on the subject titled Do B2B Better: ...
May 26, 2023•41 min•Season 2Ep. 37
Creed II was the 2018 installment of the Rocky “legacyquel” and in this moment, Rocky is about to take Adonis Creed to the middle of nowhere to begin training for his rematch against Viktor Drago. Because the variables have changed, Rocky knows that Adonis needs to make big changes to achieve the success he’s grown accustomed to. Kristi Faltorusso is an award-winning Customer Success Executive, and she has watched Client and Customer Success teams around the world (and on her own team) shrink – ...
May 19, 2023•51 min•Season 2Ep. 36
In 1989, Field of Dreams introduced us to one of the most famous quotes in movie history: “If you build it, he will come.” In this scene, Terence convinces Ray to stop listening to his brother-in-law, who is only focused on one thing – the numbers. The number of acres, the lost revenue, and the mortgage. But Terence tells him that when he changes his focus to providing an experience to the people, the people will come. Annette Franz believes that building will bring things, too. Her latest book,...
May 12, 2023•44 min•Season 2Ep. 35
1968’s Street Fighting Man by the Rolling Stones reflects society undergoing incredible changes. Demonstrations against the Vietnam War attracted thousands of students, both in Europe and America. In some cases, they turned violent. “Hey, said my name is called Disturbance” could reflect changes we see, not just in society, but in business and technology. When it comes to technologies used by contact centers, “Disturbance” goes by another name – “The Cloud.” Cloud-based technologies are rapidly ...
May 05, 2023•43 min•Season 2Ep. 34
It turns out that outsourcing isn’t the answer to everything like Homer suggests in this episode of the Simpsons. But outsourcing can be an effective way for businesses to focus their people on the core functions of their business while ensuring the non-core functions are still taken care of. But outsourcing isn’t a decision to be taken lightly and finding the right partner, whether they’re onshore, nearshore, or offshore, can be quite an undertaking. Tyler Orrell is a CX zealot who’s spent over...
Apr 28, 2023•43 min
In this scene from Season 9 of Curb Your Enthusiasm, Larry David tries to invoke the Golden Rule at the airport. The concept of the Golden Rule is to treat others the way you would want to be treated and its origins are at least 2500 years old. The concept is present in all the world’s major religious traditions. Despite the long history and widespread usage of the Golden Rule, Milan Batinich says there is an even better rule to apply during our interactions with others – The Platinum Rule®. The...
Apr 21, 2023•48 min•Season 2Ep. 32
In Searchin’, this 1957 Lieber and Stuller hit performed by the Coasters, Billy Guy, sings about his determined search that has yielded no results to this point. While he’s searchin’ for his love, searching for specific, reliable, and up to date information to support customers can often feel just as challenging. The promise of the internet was the world’s knowledge at your fingertips. According to the latest estimates, 328.77 million terabytes of data are created each day and the amount of data...
Apr 14, 2023•46 min•Season 2Ep. 31
In the 1999 cult classic, Office Space, Peter Gibbons has just been requested by his awful boss, Bill Lumbergh, to work the weekend to make up for the recent layoffs their software company is going through. This might ring a little too true for a lot of people lately, but hopefully, they don’t have to deal with a Lumbergh. Layoffs, or Reductions in Force (a.k.a. RIF), impact not only the people who are let go, but also the people who are left behind. Lumbergh represents the kind of management un...
Apr 07, 2023•45 min•Season 2Ep. 30
With more than a little influence by the Beatles, U2’s The Showman (Little More Better) from 2017 is a lighthearted warning to their fans – don’t trust the performers too much. Before the term “brand” was even coined, “influencers” existed. In fact, celebrity endorsements go all the way back to the 1700s when the UK company, Wedgewood, makers of fine Chinaware, used royal endorsements to promote their products. While these celebrity endorsements have existed for hundreds of years, the social med...
Mar 31, 2023•53 min•Season 2Ep. 29
Do you need to rush out and adopt new tools like ChaptGPT to improve CX? Should we be more focused on the human-to-human connection? Are we simply not being strategic with our Customer Experience efforts delaying maturity? On this episode of Jump the Queue, I talk with 3 CX pros about where their focus is right now. We start in the home of Laverne and Shirley (yes, this is a test) with Murphy Fraser, Senior Consultant at TTEC Digital, who warns that with all the new and exciting tools out there,...
Mar 30, 2023•23 min
In the 1984 film, Revenge of the Nerds, the stereotype of the nerd eventually emerged as the hero, possibly inspiring nerd culture as we know it today. The term nerd was initially a pejorative, but beginning in the late 90’s, the interests of “nerds” and nerds themselves became more popular, in large part because of the rise of personal computers. Silicon Valley now wields an incredible amount of influence over both our work and personal lives. Data, once relegated to the realm of men with pocke...
Mar 24, 2023•53 min•Season 2Ep. 28
In 1969, Brian Wilson came out of semi-retirement to write and record Break Away, an often-overlooked Beach Boys hit song. It’s a life-affirming song about positive change in one’s life and the feelings that accompany that change. Paula Naeff is a Performance & Productivity Coach who helps busy professionals break away from burnout and arrive at balance. We discuss: · How one of Paula’s passions led to a new professional direction · How burnout manifested for her · Peeling away the masks and...
Mar 17, 2023•45 min•Season 2Ep. 27
