Founder and Principal Melissa Copeland takes the chain gang in a football game as a metaphor for manual processes that may need justification.

Melissa Copeland reflects on the adventures of the past year and what’s on tap for 2024, including AI and more.

Founder and Principal Melissa Copeland talks through an object lesson in getting to aligned outcomes, especially in organizations under pressure for results.

Founder and Principal Melissa Copeland returns from a recent conference with insights about AI’s potential for elevating customer and employee experiences.

Your consultant, brought in to help you get results, has just shone a light on your operation, and you realize it’s a house of cards. My team and I deal with this on many engagements, and it is often the first stepping stone for leaders to turn their results around.

One of my dearest team members went on vacation recently. We’re a small firm, so a colleague stepped up to lead the engagement over the two weeks. Suddenly, we found ourselves with an interesting opportunity to examine our own process. What was working and what wasn’t working?

Sometimes with the best of intentions, we put in too many metrics, we skimp on agent-enabling technology, we skip over the cultural nuances that make an organization a great place. Call shedding and self-service means that the hardest calls are the ones that still come to people. 

When it comes to the demands on Customer Service leaders in 2023, this is no easy feat. The pandemic, the labor shortage, and the explosion of new technology applications can all converge in a Perfect Storm where your customers get stuck in self-service rather than real service.

Smart leaders know it is equally important to acknowledge the successes and to evaluate the year’s misses to set the path for the new year.