leadership development Archives

Ep. 7 How Visionary Selling in the BPO Industry Wins

Posted on August 19, 2021June 26, 2024 by Blake Graves

Meeting Client’s Short Term and Long-Term Needs Wins in the BPO Industry

Our featured guest on this episode is Gail McLaughlin Toti. Gail has a unique vision with her customer relationships based on her tenure in the BPO industry. She can see her client’s needs in the short term and the long term.

Gail has been with iQor for 11 years as Vice President of Business Development and has been in the contact center industry for more than 25 years. She started in the technology side of the business and has witnessed its evolution to provide a full spectrum of services today that include voice support with call center agents and digital support handled by other contact center agents and digital solutions. Gail has seen a lot of change in how the customer experience is managed.

The Evolution of the Customer Experience

Gail points out how the customer experience has evolved over the years from voice-only services delivered to a narrow set of vertical industry clients to an omnichannel model provided to clients across a wide variety of verticals in many sectors. The modern customer experience combines the human voice with digital services and consulting to clients, enabling them to use digital CX solutions to enhance the customer experience.

Each Customer is Unique

Gail attributes her creative selling skills in part to her focus on getting to know each customer, their brand, their go-to-market strategy, and what they need to accomplish. Her partner mindset with each customer relationship enables her to learn which CX solutions are the best fit now.

Gail also learns her partner’s DNA. Her vision is for both today as well as the future needs of each client. She tells the story of a new client who began a customer care program with iQor deploying 45 call center agents with growth potential to 400 agents. However, she is intent on addressing her client’s most immediate business objectives. She also has strong relationships with clients whose needs are the same year over year.

Regardless of a client’s growth potential, her approach is consistent. She always works to get to know the customer’s business. She seeks to understand where they are today and where they want to be in their business in the years to come. This approach of understanding a customer’s business plans coupled with Gail’s expertise in the contact center outsourcing industry allows her to develop customer service outsourcing solutions that are aligned to the client’s best interest today and in the years to come.

Conversations with Multiple Stakeholders

Two years ago, we received an RFP which was also sent to several of our competitors. We responded to the RFP in cooperation with several business partners. iQor won the business, starting the program with 45 full-time contact center agents. Today we have 900 full-time employees (FTEs) supporting this client, growing to 1,400 during peak season. This client relationship was built through a team effort which created an opportunity for iQor and our partners.

For example, we introduced our speech analytics solution to the client, saving them money and enabling them to win more renewals and build more revenue. The collaborative approach with all stakeholders in the decision process allowed Gail to structure a CX solution that achieves many meaningful metrics.

Customer Service Mix

Gail is always looking to find ways to help clients drive revenue with their end customers by leveraging various contact center solution offerings from iQor. She points out that she enjoys a long-standing relationship with PJ Singh, iQor’s Chief Digital Officer. They have worked together for many years to collaborate on designing CX solutions that help our clients exceed their customer experience goals.

Gail’s Vision for the Future of BPO

When asked what’s in store for the future of BPO, Gail quickly points out that it is in iQor’s DNA to embrace the industry’s ongoing evolution. The human voice will remain a key component of customer care delivery along with digital solutions, such as RPA, chat, SMS, speech analytics, and more. She expects these digital solutions to be complementary to voice contact center support solutions.

Charitable Fun

When Gail’s not working, she enjoys spending time with her family. At the time of this recording, Gail was training for the PMS Challenge, which is a cycling event in New England. Supporting an event such as this aligns with iQor’s value of Giving Back. Gail has an athlete’s mindset — she’s super competitive! — so we expect to hear a good report of her participation in this event! All proceeds go to the Dana Farber Foundation.

Learn more about iQor digital customer experience capabilities.

Ep. 6 Leadership Development Through Training and Mentors

Posted on August 17, 2021June 26, 2024 by Bernie Borges

Leadership Development Fueled by a Winning Attitude Leads to Success

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Chris Holt started working at iQor when he was in high school on the 6 pm shift. Twenty years later, Chris’ leadership development path has resulted in him being a Director of Operations in Charlotte, NC, managing a team of customer experience professionals on a client portfolio in Warranties and Utilities. Chris’ impressive career journey at iQor has significantly been influenced by training and mentors.

During his high school years, his first job at iQor was doing collection work for a credit card company client. The work shift was 6 pm to 10 pm, which Chris says was perfect for him during his late high school season. This call center role gave Chris a glimpse into the robustness of career opportunities at iQor. Little did he know he was launching a growth path in his career during that late shift while he was in high school.

Upon college graduation, he realized that iQor presented much more to his career potential than his then-immediate job. He opened his eyes to the fact that iQor is a global organization. He decided to apply himself to a long-term career. His first full-time job was as an inbound customer care agent for a utility client.

After starting as a front-line agent, he then moved into a quality assurance role. In this role, he was laser-focused on maximizing the efficacy of the customer experience for each client. He was responsible for giving agents, supervisors, and clients feedback on which customer experience processes were most effective. After about a year and a half in this role, he became a front-line supervisor where he could build and manage his own team.

Building His Team

Chris was motivated to build his first team with “rock star call center agents” who supported each other through all circumstances. He wanted to set the bar high with his team of agents because they consistently exceeded all expectations. The team he assembled was indeed recognized as star performers, which fueled Chris’s motivation to keep growing as a leader at iQor. He certainly had help along the way.

The Influence of Mentors

Chris’ list of mentors is very long. When he first wanted to become a front-line supervisor, his then-current supervisor Paige Davis took him under her wings. She coached him to think like a manager to get the best performance from the agents on his team in ways that align with iQor’s culture. The mentoring he received from Paige was invaluable, which Chris credits with helping his career growth at iQor.

Chris had ups and downs along the way, as we all do in our career journey. When he became a supervisor, another mentor had a significant impact on him. His new manager at the time, Jack Scioti, taught him the fundamentals of contact center management. These learnings had a big impact on Chris’ ability to lead and manage teams. He advanced from working on one application to managing several across the U.S.

Paying it Forward

When Chris was promoted to a Director, he had an open manager position that he needed to fill. He reached out to a former peer of his on the quality assurance team, Greta Mcilwain. Chris encouraged her to apply for the open manager role. She applied and was awarded the position of overseeing one of the utility programs, reporting to Chris.

Training and Development

Chris gives a lot of credit to the training he received through the iQor University sQholar program. Chris is very appreciative of the robustness of this training program and credits it with helping him tremendously to grow and develop in his leadership roles at iQor. The sQholar program is an accelerator for iQorians to grow into supervisors and other leadership roles.

A Winning Attitude

Before Chris became a director, he asked a senior leader for advice about getting promoted to director. The advice he was given is to always have a winning attitude. That advice had a significant impact on Chris. It’s what drives his attitude every single day. Likewise, he asks his supervisors and agents to have a winning attitude every day, so it trickles through to every individual on their team. This winning attitude carries into each conversation iQor agents have with end-user customers, whether by phone or through a digital channel.

Chris carries this winning attitude into the advice he offers others who are either considering joining iQor or those on their career journey at iQor. His advice is to “look for opportunities and go after them.” He says that opportunities are not going to fall into your lap but that they are available, and it’s up to each iQorian to seek them out and pursue those career opportunities. He encourages them to ask their leaders for advice on how to win those opportunities.

Chris credits iQor’s culture with great pride for everyone’s willingness to help others in their career aspirations through advice, coaching, and mentoring.

What Chris Does for Fun

Chris is a dad to two beautiful daughters, ages 13 and 8. He says being a dad is a full-time job. He spends as much time with them as possible. He is also a sports enthusiast. He enjoys playing golf and cheering for his hometown Carolina Panthers football team.