Tiffany LaReau,
CWPP
CEO/FOUNDER:
Tiffany LaReau, Certified Workforce Manager & Owner
WHEN FOUNDED:
2008
DESCRIBE YOUR COMPANY:
We create forecasts, generate schedules and develop staffing models for all kinds of contact centers.
WHAT IS YOUR BACKGROUND IN THE INDUSTRY?
My entire adult life has been in call centers. I started as a temp on the phones the week after I graduated high school in 1988. Six years later, I was headed to Nashville for TCS training, which evolved into Aspect eWFM. Next, I learned Blue Pumpkin, Verint, IEX, Genesys, injixo and others who are, sadly, no longer with us! I’ve been an agent, supervisor, real-time analyst, forecaster (still my favorite job!), scheduler, workforce management consultant, expert witness, speaker and author.
What do you consider to be your company’s greatest achievement?
Turning our case studies, success stories and even our lessons learned into a series of articles published in Contact Center Pipeline throughout the years. Then we turned those articles into a book, Diary of a Workforce Manager, which I hope will go on helping people forever.
What do you see as the greatest challenge facing the Contact Center industry?
Ability to meet service goals. A lot of contact centers are not right-staffed anymore, and as a customer, I find myself sitting on hold waiting for a human far too long. Was the forecast bad? Did their scheduler get it wrong? Knowing that I can help solve those issues for them drives me nuts.
WHAT DO YOU SEE AS THE GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT IN THE CONTACT CENTER INDUSTRY?
Chat. Once I learned the secret of typing in “Real Person” to bypass the bots it quickly became my preferred method of contact. Chat has a document trail, I won’t get lost in an IVR menu, and there’s no Muzak required!