Meeting with Nate Brown from United Laboratories at ICMI’s Contact Center Expo was absolutely a thrill. Especially catching up with him after being the MC of the ICMI Global Contact Center Awards.
During our interview Nate shared some important current and future insights into the contact center industry and how you can make an impact. And leave a legacy that positively impacts the entire contact center community.
Here is an edited transcript of our interview:
Jim Rembach: Hey this Jim with Call Center Coach and I’m here with one of our board members Nate Brown of United Laboratories. Now, Nate and you just had the opportunity to MC the 2018 Contact Center Expo Awards what did that feel like?
Nate Brown: That was such a high. I’m just so excited right now. It was awesome to see Todd Hixson win the Lifetime Achievement Award. I love this show a love ICMI. That was absolutely a blast.
Jim Rembach: Well okay, for you when you start thinking about impact on the industry. I mean you’re making a big one right now. With the things that you’re doing with the CX Accelerator, trying to get people to think beyond the contact center while still keeping a hold of and helping people do a better job of delivering better service in the contact center. But when you start thinking about pulling all these things together as far as influencer, practitioner, all those things where you kind of feel you’re getting a lot of thrills right now.
Nate Brown: Right now, it’s just about good quality content. Like I feel I feel like a couple years ago I was kind of wrapped up in how much exposure can I get in and can I get this just out in front of the maximum number of people. And now my mentality is like, how can we have a good solid legacy. How can we make a difference in a quality way. And in this whole community with CX Accelerator we’re not trying to get a million people in there. We’re trying to get the people that want to be there to have a good robust quality dialogue around CX. And it’s going to change the way I thought about everything that I’m doing. I want to do things that are going to make a difference for a handful of people and that’s great. That’s what I want to do.
Jim Rembach: Okay so, I want to focus on one thing a little bit is that. I know I’ve done a lot of studying around creative thinking and innovation and things like that. When I when I start thinking about creative thinking, man you’re right there I mean your poster child. I mean look at the suit. I mean being an MC and wearing a suit like this – I mean it’s something that it’s your creative being coming through. I know you love photography, talking about the whole content piece, but when we start talking about people who are in leader or leading type of roles and contact centers and Customer Experience. How important his creativity?
Nate Brown: I mean it’s huge. In order to find innovative solutions around whatever problem that is you’re facing. You have to think differently. And at least for me the best way to be creative – because it’s not something you’re born with. I mean some people I guess could be. You’re inspired by the people around you if you’re not creative you’re not spending enough time with creative people.
Nate Brown: That’s how I’ve done it over these years. Just as hanging around with people like you and other people that have inspired me to do this stuff. That’s how I’ve done.
Jim Rembach: Well, I think that’s a really good piece of advice and we’ve always heard that you have to surround yourself with people that are going to push you maybe you can even emulate. So, I guess you find more creative people, right?
Nate Brown: That is a real principle. That is real.
Jim Rembach: Okay, so when we start talking about the next six months. And you know we’re racing. It’s going to be 2019 before you know it. When you start thinking about 2019, what are some of the things that we need to do or what we can to see that you see your mind’s eye?
Nate Brown: The trends aren’t changing. It’s still all about knowledge – quality knowledge. AI is obviously is a thing. It’s real. But it’s going to be driven by quality knowledge. And I love the definition this morning on intelligence. It’s pulling the stuff from all over. It’s predictive analytics, it is AI, it is about your knowledge base. Your old traditional knowledge base. It’s bringing all these things together. But really tapping into the mind-power of your people.
I mean that that is still going to continue to be a trend. And I love that it is. And employee experience is not going away. Because I mean that’s the foundation of all of this and people still aren’t getting it right. Because it’s so hard. It takes forever and it’s not something where you gain victory over it and it’s over. You have to be so intentional about over time. So, I guess maybe I’m old school with the stuff. I don’t see any big trend, any new thing in 2019 is not going to blow us all away. It’s going to be the same fundamental stuff. We’ve got to keep getting better and being intentional on the things.
Jim Rembach: Yeah, I think that’s a good point. The fundamentals are never go away. That’s why they’re fundamentals, right?
Nate, we appreciate all of your efforts and activities. Definitely enjoyed you MC-ing tonight. Look forward to more those opportunities. And I want to thank you for being a being a board member of Call Center Coach and bringing your wisdom to the membership group.
Nate Brown: My pleasure. I’m very excited for what’s going on with Call Center Coach. Thank you Jim for let me be a part.
