Bernice Archer, our Key Relationship Manager is in Phoenix this week on a fact-finding mission for next year's TUANZ Contact Centre Conference. She's promised to keep us up to date, so here's her first installment:
I’m in Phoenix, Arizona, at the ICMI/ACCE Annual Call Centre Exhibition and Conference, experiencing 40 degree heat, with no fridge, food, or beverages provided in my not so cheap hotel room in the city. The closest convenience store is 1 MILE away (they have not yet discovered the logic of metric), and I caught a cab yesterday to the closest clothing mall – 25 miles away. It wasn’t a successful trip to the mall I might add, which I should have anticipated upon my arrival as I was welcomed with the sign ‘Valet or Limo Parking’. Every glamorous visitor to that mall had their hair done, but still I persevered, and after 3 hours, I found a bargain rack of clothes at the very back of Macy’s. I bought everything on that rack that bore a close resemblance to my size, all of them need to be altered, but that’s not the point… they were bargains I tell you!
The moral of the story is: if you wish to shop in the US, bypass Phoenix. But if you wish to find out what’s news in the Contact Centre profession, Phoenix, right now, is the place to be.
I’m heading off now for the opening Commando Breakfast – goodness knows what that will involve…. And then I’m all set to hear from Bob Furniss, a big name here in the contact centre world, he’s an author of several books, and the President of Touchpoint. He’s speaking on the ‘Six Strategies That Will Make You a Better Frontline Leader’….. gee I hope I learn something – I’ll keep you posted…
Did I mention I don’t have a FRIDGE in my room!