Latest / The Tech Matchmaker / Why Analytics Matter More Than AI Hype | Dave Hoekstra on Workforce Engagement | The Tech Matchmaker
Transcript
- Gina Gibson: Thanks for hanging out with us on the Tech Matchmaker. I hope today's spotlight sparked some fresh ideas and real solutions for your contact center. Want to dive deeper into the tech we featured? Hit up the show notes for all the links and extras and be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode. And if there's a challenge you want us to tackle, don't be shy, reach out. I'll catch you soon with more innovation, more use cases and more ways to keep your business moving forward. Welcome to the Tech Matchmaker, the show where contact center challenges meet their perfect tech match. I'm your host, Gina Gibson, and in just 15 minutes, we serve up the smartest, coolest innovation shaking up the contact center industry. Whether you're searching for your next solution or just love staying ahead of the curve, we've got the insights to keep you in the know. Let's dive in and discover what's next. I promise you, it's going to be fun. Tech Matchmaker: Hello everybody, our guest today is Dave Hoekstra from Collabrio. And Dave, you have been with Collabrio for over 11 years and in the contact center space for over 20, I believe. You also host Collabrio's Working Smarter podcast. So welcome to the show. Dave: Thanks for having me, really, really glad to be here. This is first episode, let's do this, let's go. Tech Matchmaker: Let's start with basics, Dave. What does Collabrio do? What do you do at Collabrio? And my favorite part is ⁓ one thing that we won't find about you on LinkedIn? Gina Gibson: Stay curious, stay bold, and keep exploring what's next. Dave: okay, so Calabrio you for our audience, if you want to talk about WEM, W-E-M, which knows what that means anymore because ⁓ it's kind this invented term that... nobody uses in real life except for vendors like Collabrio. do the quality, the the workforce management, conversation analytics those context center conversations that are happening between the organization and their customers to try and provide data analytics and efficiencies across those, right? Super generic buzzwordy terms here that ⁓ do Now role at Collabrio is product evangelist, right? ⁓ And so I get marks over people's head when I tell them that I'm a product evangelist what does that mean what I tell people is that it's my job to be the biggest contact center nerd in the room at any given point right and sometimes very good at that and sometimes other people challenge me which I love more than anything I love a good conversation about contact centers and the And so basically what I do is spread the gospel of Calabrio to as many people as that will listen. And this is part of that. the thing that you wouldn't find out about at LinkedIn, I was ⁓ a rock band for 12 years. ⁓ I'm a bass player. It was legit trying to make it like honest to goodness, trying to tour rock band. And you know, like lot of bands, we kind of hit that ceiling where... things didn't quite work anymore and we started tailing off and I at that point decided to focus on family and career but yeah I wouldn't trade my time on the stage for anything. Tech Matchmaker: Excellent and I see a nice collection on the back and on your wall as well. Give us the elevator pitch for Collabreal. Dave: The elevator pitch for Collabrio really, if I'm talking to somebody in an elevator who knows what a contact center is, let's put it that way, right, is that our job to ⁓ help. you delight your customers our process of data and analysis. And again, super buzzwordy. But ⁓ the question get from so many people is how can I tell why people are contacting us, right? If you run a contact center, a customer service organization, and if I say you like, how many people called to disconnect their service yesterday and why? question is so to answer without a really solid data analytics tool and that's what Collabrio provides. We also the forecasting and scheduling piece to make sure your agents are aware it is and the elevator door is closed and I ran out of time pitching that. But ⁓ what we do really trying to help these contact centers from a back office kind a standpoint really become very productive machines and make sure that we're helping find efficiency. Tech Matchmaker: Excellent. somebody was hearing, because we all have a lot of customers out there, and if somebody is hearing about your company for the very first time, what's the one thing you want them to remember? Is it the analytics side? Dave: I, well, know, there's lots of options out there, right? You can, I you can throw a rock and hit four analytics companies, right? ⁓ And all specialize in different things. And ⁓ I where, what really sets Collabrio apart. Tech Matchmaker: Mm-hmm. Dave: we have all the necessary tools we have all the buttons we have all the reports we have all the things ⁓ we also have a really great set of people underneath that that really helped drive that customer experience and I don't mean the contact centers customer experience I mean our customers experience right can we we are so passionate and driven about making these clients succeed that think that's what really sets us apart. Yes, we have all of these great tools and all of this. We have databases and we have web and all this cool stuff. But what really matters is that you've got an engine underneath it that really is vested your success. And I think that's what really kind of changes the game for the way Collabrio approaches things. Tech Matchmaker: I love that. kind of your best unique feature or any aspect of your solution that your customers consistently rave about? Like what's that one thing that it's like, wow, we love this about your product. Dave: Well, it's 2025. So the answer I'm supposed to say is artificial intelligence, right? I have to say that that is in the rule book I will be I will be expelled from the evangelist club ⁓ I don't say that. But, know, in reality, you know, we all love AI. We're all we're all it's it's absorbing into our life as much as possible. But how do you how do you actually use it? Does it actually provide value? So we actually don't talk a lot about AI. Tech Matchmaker: It's a Dave: As you know if you go to Calabria's website, you're not going to find AI infused into every message into every page because it's really truly about what you can actually do with this with AI, right? So again being able to answer that question. Why did my call volume go up yesterday? What happened? Because I don't know and being able to open up a quick and easy report that says this is the reason and this is the increase in volume over the last two days and able to then get recommended actions about what to do with that information being to score every call using really smart generative AI that that allows us to do these cool things crazy good sentiment analysis really accurate forecasts Yes, AI is a lot of those processes But at the end of the day nobody wakes up in the morning and says I have to have good AI They say I have to have these business processes that actually provide me value and that's really where we're focused Tech Matchmaker: Yeah. makes perfect sense. you want to share one of your use cases, one of your successful use cases with us and kind of talk about the vertical and how you guys took them from Excel spreadsheets to... Dave: Yeah, ⁓ you want to talk WFM do you? Because that's where I shine, that's where I spend most of my time. Now actually do two quick ones, one in WFM and one in the analytics space. My one about WFM is one of our customers utilize a of our self scheduling features for their agents. And they were able to kind of create this three tiered system ⁓ where they tier one is base schedules, right? Very fixed schedules. Tier two is more of a hybrid model between fixed and agent scheduling themselves. ⁓ And then tier is Tech Matchmaker: Okay. Dave: essentially schedule yourself model all based on staffing and it's all done through our agent portal and It's phenomenally to the tune of there's been zero attrition due to scheduling since 2023, right? So we've gone almost two full years and no one has said I'm leaving this company because I can't get the schedule that I want That's a pretty strong use case and using collaborative tools to do that is another is a pretty big one ⁓ So that's that's that's my sexy WFM And then from an analytic standpoint, this is I love this story one of our customers that has used this auto QM piece Has discovered that they really love our auto QM because it's meaner than the human beings that are scoring and That's that's a little cheeky But the the the idea is that it's completely removing human bias from this process and they found that the auto QM is actually aligning much closer to their NPS scores whereas the previous it was not. that that's really cool because if you can't trust what seeing in the data you won't use it. But if you can see alignment between your gut and what the data is representing ⁓ that's the leap forward actually takes a hold. that those are the really exciting things that are coming as what we're trying to do here with Calabrio. Tech Matchmaker: Mm-hmm. I love it and I know before the episode we talked a little bit about your product roadmap and that what's next for Clabrew? What do you guys see coming down the pipe? Is there anything exciting you want to share that's coming up? Dave: Yeah, Am I allowed to say that in this? ⁓ No, ⁓ ⁓ no, yeah, exactly. I know that, again, I'll get expelled from the club here, no, again, it's about the real stuff. So some of the stuff that we're doing with, with... Tech Matchmaker: I was going to say, the answer better be AI. Dave: AI and sentiment analysis, being able to really align sentiment with the call, the discussion that's happening. And then this is really cool, is being able take that metadata from a call, like caller sentiment, the length the call, the stress level of the agent of the call, ⁓ and being able to turn into ⁓ workforce management actions like, hey, just recognized you took three really stressful calls in a row. Here's a 10-minute break on your schedule, Really infusing and getting rid of this whole, well you use WFM and we use QM and we use analytics inside organization and spending a lot more time like as a whole, how do we make this team better at what we do, right? So from a perspective, we're working on a lot of that functionality that is aimed at agent wellness, agent engagement. We've always been super focused on the agent. mean, I'm former agent, right? Tech Matchmaker: Yeah. Dave: we've all, most of us have put on the headset at one point in our time and a lot of us remember the stress of what that's like. I mean I haven't taken a call in 25 years but I still remember that no there's 30 calls in queue what are we gonna do right? Getting past that is what is a huge driver for what Calabrio's ⁓ future really trying to put out there. Tech Matchmaker: Absolutely. Well, and we all know EX impacts your CX, right? So with happy staff, happy customers, 100%. So just to wrap it up, I've always been a fan of James Lipton. And so we're going to do rapid fire to end it. What's your favorite word? Dave: Right. 100%. Okay, my favorite word, indubitably. Tech Matchmaker: What's your favorite swear word? Dave: favorite swear word You know, I'm a big fan of the almost but fake swear word and my favorite story is I used to coach baseball and there was another coach in the other side and he disagreed with the umpire and he said ⁓ that's horse shenanigans and Like the whole audience went ⁓ then everybody calmed down. So I like horse shenanigans That's you know, if we're if we're getting deep into it ⁓ Tech Matchmaker: What excites you the most? What excites you the most in life? Dave: What excites me the most in life? You know, I know the answer is supposed to be like my kids my wife and my family, but man, I love a good rock concert. When the is really getting going and the whole audience and the energy is being pushed back and reflected upon you as it's one of those human experiences that you can't put a measure on about how cool it is. Tech Matchmaker: feel it. If somebody wants more information on Calabrio, Dave, who should they call? Dave: Honestly, it's you guys ⁓ so tell where where where do they find you because I know you guys are point us to the right direct Yeah, I think forward that's that's the key is right We definitely are there and I mean honestly you do a search for me on LinkedIn And you'll find my name and you can contact me about anything and without you ever want But ⁓ if you if really are interested, let's talk to think forward first. They'll get you to the right place Tech Matchmaker: Thank you, Reach Out to Gina and Think Forward. Absolutely. Thank you. Excellent. Big thanks to Dave Hoekstra for joining us and sharing your insights and great stories. Dave, it's always fun learning more about WEM and more importantly, analytics and the bad AI word. So with that, thank you guys so much and we'll talk to you soon. Dave: Thanks Gina.