Insights

A recent SHRM article by Yutaka Takagi addresses a critical workplace challenge for 2025 about finding the sweet spot between AI efficiency and meaningful human connection.

Insights from Gallup's 2025 State of the Global Workplace Report and the Path Forward

As leaders in customer experience operations, we're constantly seeking effective mechanisms to elevate both employee engagement and performance. McKinsey & Company's recent article, "The art of 21st-century leadership: From succession planning to building a leadership factory" by Bob Sternfels , Daniel Pacthod , Kurt Strovink , and Hugh Wyman H. , cuts through the noise with four specific, actionable leadership practices that address the actual challenges CX leaders face today.‍

Like many of you, I’ve been tinkering with DeepSeek —some tests general, others specific to the Acuity platform. This weekend, though, I stumbled on its secret superpower, and it has nothing to do with accuracy, quality, speed, or cost.

The Dust Bowl that devastated American agriculture in the 1930s emerged from a perfect storm of forces. Rapid mechanization and new farming techniques had promised unprecedented productivity, but these advances arrived alongside severe drought conditions. Farmers' eager adoption of modern methods without understanding their environmental impact ultimately destroyed the soil itself—the fundamental resource that made farming possible.

Cleaning up your customer data management strategy comes down to dodging these common traps.

New research published in Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, a Nature Magazine portfolio journal, reveals an unsurprising but compelling insight — servant leadership significantly enhances employee performance, particularly...

✨Compelled to share with you details of a client support session yesterday that left me energized, inspired - and still smiling! 😍

Contact Center Performance Management Systems form the operational foundation of successful customer service organizations. These systems aggregate data from disparate sources relevant to the broad array of activities and outcomes in CX operations.

Once again, McKinsey & Company has delivered an indispensable resource for strategic planning and effective execution across industries to consider and share. The recent article published last week, "Breaking operational barriers to peak productivity," by Erik Schaefer, Joris Wijpkema, and Richard Sellschop, offers important insights that are clearly relevant for the CX sector.

Isn’t there something special about those days at work when you connect in an unexpected way with a colleague or celebrate an exceptional – or even minor, team win? When was the last time you experienced that feeling (I hope, today!)? As it turns out, these moments not only make you feel good, but are vital for organizational success.

Employee motivation remains a critical factor in organizational success, particularly in contact centers. McKinsey's 2024 global survey, encompassing over 1,000 workers, offers fresh insights into the drivers of performance and engagement. At TouchPoint One, we're not surprised by these findings.

Recent data from Glassdoor’s Employee Confidence Index reveals a troubling trend. U.S. workers are experiencing a significant gap between expectations and reality, with only 46.4% of professionals reporting a positive six-month business outlook. This decline in confidence stems from diminishing satisfaction with leadership transparency and communication, especially in the post-pandemic era.

Organizations in the customer experience (CX) industry face a critical challenge: fostering engagement, collaboration, and shared purpose among their workforce.

For too long, organizations have paid lip service to platitudes like "we're all in this together" and "our employees are our greatest asset." Yet endemic workplace disengagement, high attrition rates and poor customer experience metrics reveal these are often empty slogans.

As CEO of TouchPoint One, my journey through the evolution of contact center operations has led me to a profound appreciation for the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) and gamification. It's important to clarify that our use of AI, particularly Large Language Models (LLMs) and Generative AI, within our Acuity platform,...

As the CEO of a company deeply focused on CX strategy and workforce optimization, I've seen firsthand the impact of effective employee engagement on customer satisfaction and business outcomes. Among the vast sea of strategies I've encountered, some of the most profound came years ago from an unexpected source: my son, Luke.

In the first part of our series, we explored how integrating AI with human-centric strategies can revitalize the workplace, emphasizing the importance of genuine connections. Moving forward, Part 2, 'Leadership Unleashed – How Executives Are Changing the Game for EX and CX,' shifts our focus towards...

The recent article titled "In New Workplace, Employee Engagement Stagnates," authored by Gallup's Jim Harter, highlights a concerning trend in today's workplace: employee engagement in the U.S. has hit a standstill, posing a significant challenge for CX organizations striving to maintain a competitive edge.

As leaders at TouchPoint One, we often encounter insights that align consistently with our mission and vision. The perspectives explored in the two McKinsey reports (report 1, report 2) on talent and performance management are a case in point. We believe these reports offer valuable wisdom worth sharing with our community, especially when considering our collective role as contact center leaders in achieving extraordinary employee experience (EX) and customer experience (CX).

Contact centers are increasingly facing budget constraints, posing challenges in implementing essential performance management and employee engagement solutions. Advanced solutions in this space often represent a significant expenditure, especially for larger CX organizations, leading to potential delays or abandonment of crucial investments and impacting service quality and operational efficiency.

Greg Salvato, CEO of TouchPoint One, drives innovation in CX workforce engagement and performance management.

Enhancing service quality and operational efficiency are key priorities for customer experience (CX) organizations. One strategic approach that stands out is the implementation of performance-based pay (P4P) systems. Let's explore the top three reasons why making P4P an imperative in your CX organization is essential now.

Inspired by Dan Arriola's post about Inktel's commitment to #Squatober (thank you, Dan!), I've been reflecting on the transformative power of such challenges. For those unfamiliar, Squatober is a month-long celebration dedicated to the squat exercise that has grown into a worldwide event, drawing participants from all fitness levels.

Gamification has emerged as a powerful tool to enhance employee engagement, boost productivity, and foster a positive work environment. However, skeptics often question its tangible benefits. This guide aims to shed light on the financially quantifiable benefits of gamification and provide a roadmap for measuring its ROI.

Imagine a world where the thrill of drafting a winning fantasy sports team translates into real-world corporate success.

As we approach the 57th anniversary of the original Star Trek series, it's hard not to marvel at the foresight of Gene Roddenberry. The show envisioned a future where technology and AI are integral to our lives—a future that seems increasingly close to our present. In that spirit, I've crafted a Star Trek-themed marketing narrative for TouchPoint One, focusing on the incredible possibilities at the intersection of CX and AI. Whether it leads to an intro call or demo, or simply brings a smile to your face, I hope it serves as a reminder of the exciting frontier we're exploring in customer experience. 🖖

Revitalizing Trust In The CX Workforce Amid AI Disruption: A Unique Opportunity For Leadership

In the dynamic world of customer experience (CX), your role as a senior executive or operations manager extends beyond strategic decision-making. You're not just a leader; you're a key player in shaping the daily routines of your frontline agents. And guess what? Your direct involvement can yield substantial returns on investment (ROI), both in terms of business performance and human impact.

Greg Salvato is CEO of TouchPoint One, a leading provider of employee engagement and performance management solutions for contact centers.

Our well-being depends on the quality of our connections with others. According to Yale University lecturer Emma Seppälä, "people who feel more connected to others have lower rates of anxiety and depression.

Interview conducted by: Lynn Fosse, Senior Editor, CEOCFO Magazine ceocfointerviews.com

Contact centers depend on a wide range of technologies to operate effectively. Numerous disparate systems generate perpetual flows of valuable data — the analytic raw material that can yield truth and intelligence about your people, performance, processes, culture and more...

The concept of leading indicators to measure and manage different aspects of business and life isn't new. Unemployment claims, stock prices and building permits gauge economic health and influence monetary and investment policies....

There is a vast body of research exposing the direct link between strong frontline leaders and higher levels of workforce engagement, retention, and business success...

Among the best ways to control rising labor costs in contact centers include automating responses via Ai, RPA, Chat, IVR, etc. Also, reducing attrition rates is huge...

Words aren’t remotely enough to convey the extreme level of gratitude we owe to the nurses, doctors, respiratory therapists, and other medical workers entrenched in the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic...

Achieving lasting success in the contact center hinges on the effectiveness of frontline leaders. Few would argue that any other resource possesses greater capacity to influence everything that matters most in the customer contact organization...

I'm sure we've all been asked to name our worst job. For me, it was washing dishes at John Gardiner's Tennis Ranch. I worked the breakfast shift and clocked in at the absurd hour of 5:00 in the morning. Not only did I have to put up with scalding hot water, an overbearing chef...

In its heyday, the home improvement reality show Extreme Makeover: Home Edition was appointment TV. Ty Pennington and his crew of exuberant carpenters, architects, contractors and designers would, in just a week, transform a worn-out house into an unbelievable dream home for a lucky family sent away on vacation. Witnessing...

Today's dynamic business landscape, no matter the field, offers profound opportunities and attendant challenges. Utility companies, in particular, are routinely faced with emergency conditions and unplanned events that can affect hundreds, if not thousands or millions, of customers - all of whom are looking to speak with a live person...

Employee engagement is widely recognized as essential to high performance cultures. In fact, research from Gallup reports that companies with highly engaged workforces outperform their peers by 147% in earnings per share and enjoy 25-65% less turnover and 37% less...

There are many reasons why a person leaves a job. Even the best organizations can only influence some of those reasons and not others. What leads to a supervisor terminating an employee is often very different from the motivation an employee has to leave a job at his...

One of the many great truths voiced by the iconic Green Bay Packer coach, Vince Lombardi, exemplifies the core principal behind the growing interest in modern game mechanics, aka “gamification” among businesses today...

You've invested in the best leadership, technologies, and human capital sourcing and development partners available to formulate and perfect the secret sauce that makes your enterprise exceptional and successful. Now you can gain even more value from these investments by...

Achieving maximum value from nearly every category of business expenditure is dependent on the performance of the enterprise's contact centers. Launching a $ multi-million marketing campaign that establishes expectations for customers without involving and aligning the contact center?

A recent Gallup Business Journal article entitled, “To Win With Natural Talent, Go For Additive Effects” details how four specific human capital strategies can be combined to achieve 59% more growth in revenue per employee while also states that “…how companies manage and develop stars hasn't improved over the past decade.”

Because of the current economic climate our publication has started a series of discussions with professional individuals meant to engage our readers with relevant companies and their representatives in order...

A recent report from MIT Sloan Management Review indicates a strong correlation between companies actively engaged in digital transformation and their ability to succeed in the new economy...

Gen Z is the newest generation to enter the workforce, and call center supervisors need to ramp-up their performance management strategies to keep these young reps engaged...

Keeping reps engaged is always a top priority for call centers. But during the pandemic, it has become a lot more challenging, forcing site supervisors to rethink how they motivate their people. ...