Contact Center Show – Details, episodes & analysis

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Contact Center Show

Amas Tenumah & Bob Furniss

Business

Frequency: 1 episode/21d. Total Eps: 96

This is the public square for all things contact center. This is where the world's best Call & Contact center professionals come to get better at delivering a great experience for customers. Your contact center mentors - Amas Tenumah & Bob Furniss

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Data updated on 09/09/2026

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http://linkedin.com/in/amastenumah/
22 shares
https://www.linkedin.com/in/bobfurniss/
19 shares
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikestockactual/
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Score global : 28%

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AI Didn’t Replace the Contact Center. Now Comes the Hard Part.

Saturday, August 1, 2026 • Duration 24:14

AI was supposed to replace contact center workers. Instead, there are more people working in contact centers today than there were at the beginning of the year.

That does not mean AI failed. In many areas, it has exceeded expectations.

In this season finale, Amas and Bob examine what they got right, what changed their minds, and what contact center leaders should expect next. They discuss why AI is changing frontline work rather than eliminating it, how automation is exposing leadership failures, and why the agents who remain will handle increasingly difficult work.

They also explore where AI is already delivering—particularly in quality assurance, knowledge management, and customer self-service—and why even impressive bots still fail when companies deny them the information or authority required to solve real problems.

The next phase will not be about acquiring more technology. It will be about managing what companies have already bought, determining where humans still matter, and separating genuine guidance from vendors selling both the product and the consulting required to make it work.

Plus, Amas and Bob revisit their position on customer surveys, predict the issues that will dominate the rest of the year, and reflect on The Contact Center Show’s rise to number 22 among Apple’s management podcasts.

In this episode:

Why AI has changed contact center jobs without eliminating them
What Bob learned from two very different AI service experiences
Why better automation creates harder work for human agents
How weak bots expose leadership, data, and authority problems
Where AI has exceeded expectations
Why customer surveys may still have value when used to develop agents
The growing importance of AI management and governance
Why technology companies are becoming consulting companies
The danger of buying more features than an organization can use
What The Contact Center Show should tackle next season

The Contact Center Show will return at the end of September. Until then, explore the archive and send Amas or Bob your feedback on LinkedIn.

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Paying up for customer service

Thursday, July 16, 2026 • Duration 24:46

In this episode, Amas Tenumah and Bob Furniss explore the evolving landscape of customer service, tiered service models, and the role of technology in delivering personalized experiences. They discuss how companies can strategically implement paid and differentiated service levels to enhance customer satisfaction and operational efficiency.

takeaways

Companies should consider tiered service models to meet diverse customer needs.

Charging for premium support can recoup costs and improve service quality.

Operational execution of tiered support requires careful planning and training.

Technology enables effective routing and personalized service levels.

Customer expectations vary based on loyalty and payment for support.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and casual chat about sports

4222:10:50 Pivot to service: Should companies charge for attended support?

6972:11:09 Examples of tiered service in airlines and hospitality

9388:51:23 Consumer perspective on paying for better service

11916:38:11 Operational challenges of implementing tiered support

15472:11:43 Technology solutions for differentiated customer routing

215277:45:28 Historical context of tiered service in business

227499:58:49 Recommendations for adopting tiered service models

279166:39:06 Operational considerations and workforce planning

353611:06:28 Ensuring customer satisfaction and avoiding queue degradation

The Survey Is Dead. Now What?

Tuesday, July 7, 2026 • Duration 19:16

Customer surveys were once the backbone of quality programs. Today, response rates are collapsing, customers are ignoring them, and contact centers are left wondering how to measure performance without reliable feedback.

Fresh from Customer Contact Week in Las Vegas, Amas shares a conversation that kept coming up among industry leaders: transactional surveys are failing. Some organizations have seen response rates drop nearly 90%, creating real problems for coaching, quality scoring, bonuses, and operational decision-making.

Bob and Amas explore:

Why surveys became the default measure of customer experience.
Whether survey fatigue has finally reached a breaking point.
Why AI-powered quality monitoring may be replacing traditional Voice of the Customer programs.
The hidden flaw in most customer surveys.
How changing who the feedback is for—from the company to the individual agent—can dramatically improve participation.

The conversation also tackles a bigger question: if customers are giving you their time and feedback, what responsibility do companies have to actually use it?

If your contact center still depends on post-interaction surveys, this episode is a timely look at what comes next.

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Why Contact Center Training Is Still Broken in 2026

Monday, June 22, 2026 • Duration 19:02

The more important question might be: why are we still struggling with the same training problems we've had for twenty years?

In this episode, we tackle a challenge facing nearly every contact center: new hire training that produces high attrition, slow ramp times, and inconsistent performance.

The conversation started with a client losing roughly half of its new hires during training and another portion during nesting. Despite new technology, the outcomes felt painfully familiar.

We explored some uncomfortable questions:

Are organizations hiring the right people for the job?
Do recruiters actually understand the roles they're filling?
Are training programs teaching agents what to know instead of how to find answers?
Why are contact centers still trying to memorize information that changes every few weeks?
How much time do leaders spend observing their own training programs?

Bob argues that many training failures begin before day one, with hiring processes that prioritize filling seats instead of finding the right fit.

We also discuss one of the biggest missed opportunities in modern training:

AI is changing how agents work, but many training organizations haven't changed how they train.

As AI-powered knowledge systems, agent assist tools, and automation become standard, training leaders need a seat at the table. Yet in many organizations, training teams are disconnected from the technology decisions that will fundamentally reshape agent performance.

One of the biggest insights from the discussion:

The real opportunity isn't using AI to automate training.

It's using AI to automate the things training used to spend time on so trainers can focus on the skills that matter most:

Building rapport
Problem solving

AI Is Replacing Tasks. The Real Question Is What Happens to Relationships?

Thursday, June 11, 2026 • Duration 18:44

Bob just returned from Italy with a story that should make every customer service leader pay attention.

At train stations in Venice and Florence, there were no employees to help. Just kiosks. If you wanted a ticket, you figured it out yourself. If you had a question, there was nobody to ask. It wasn't a glimpse of the future. It was the present.

That experience led us into a bigger discussion about AI, automation, and what customer service becomes when human interaction disappears.

We unpacked a recent Anthropic report showing that customer service roles have some of the highest exposure to AI-driven task automation. But exposure to tasks is not the same as elimination of jobs.

The deeper question is this:

Is customer service simply a collection of transactions, or is it fundamentally about relationships?

We discussed real-world results from an enterprise deployment of agentic AI where:

Escalation rates were 4x higher when customers interacted with AI versus humans.
Customers were significantly more likely to demand supervisors from bots.
Contact volume increased by 50% in less than six months.
Companies discovered that delivering bad news remains far more effective when done by a human.

History suggests that new channels rarely reduce demand. Email didn't reduce contacts. ATMs didn't eliminate bank tellers. They changed the nature of the work.

AI may do the same.

At the same time, organizations are racing toward automation while learning that token costs, increased interactions, and customer behavior may complicate the promised economics.

The technology is arriving at bullet-train speed.

The question is no longer whether AI is coming.

The question is:

Who are you in an AI-first world?

Will your company become a vending machine that happens to sell products?

What happens when service is Agentic—Nobody Is Ready

Tuesday, May 5, 2026 • Duration 20:26

AI hype is colliding with operational reality. A shoe company gains $127M in value by saying “AI,” while contact center leaders are told their entire model is obsolete. The shift from CCaaS to “Customer Experience Automation” reframes everything: not just support, but marketing, sales, and service collapsing into one AI-driven layer.

The problem: the foundation is broken. Knowledge is fragmented. Customer data is duplicated. Organizations are misaligned.

This episode dissects the gap between what the industry is promising and what companies can actually execute—and why customer service leaders are about to become the last line of defense when it fails.

Key Quotes

“Customer experience automation just means AI is now the one doing the talking.”
“Your human agents can’t find the right answers today—but now the AI is supposed to?”
“This isn’t a technology problem. It’s an organizational problem.”
“If this fails, customer service cleans it up. Again.”
“The train is moving. You either help steer it or get run over by it.”

Practical Takeaways

Stop debating AI capability. Start fixing knowledge.
Treat data quality as a blocking issue, not a backlog item.
Force alignment between marketing, sales, and service before automation.
Assume AI will act autonomously—and design safeguards accordingly.
Position customer service as the control layer, not the endpoint.

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AI and the End of Agents?

Thursday, April 23, 2026 • Duration 28:27

Exploring the future of AI in customer service, the role of agents, and how technology is transforming contact centers.

AI in customer service

The role of human agents vs. bots

Generative AI and workflow orchestration

Implications for contact center staffing

Future trends in AI and automation

00:00 Introduction and Guest Credibility

01:04 The Reality of AI Agents Today

01:43 AI as a Smart Assistant in Customer Calls

02:35 Agent Interaction and Human Oversight

03:34 Issuing Credits and Automation in Calls

04:56 Differences from Past AI Systems

05:24 Generative AI and Workflow Orchestration

06:38 Automating Routine Tasks with API Calls

07:21 Focusing on Customer Conversations

08:30 The Future Role of Human Agents

09:18 The Next Generation of AI in Customer Support

09:58 Scaling AI and Multiple Conversations

10:57 Supervising Bots and AI Agents

11:51 AI in Escalations and Approvals

12:30 The Impact on Contact Center Staffing

13:25 New Entrants and Innovation in AI

14:30 Channels and Self-Service in the Future

15:22 Transitioning from Live Agents to Digital Support

15:53 Industry Trends and CFO Expectations

How AI Is Transforming Quality Assurance in Contact Centers

Friday, April 17, 2026 • Duration 20:39

This episode explores the transformative impact of AI on quality assurance (QA) in contact centers. Hosts Amas Tenumah and Bob Furniss discuss how AI is revolutionizing call monitoring, evaluation, and coaching, emphasizing practical steps for leaders to leverage this technology effectively.

00:00 Introduction to QA in Contact Centers

00:51 The Impact of AI on Quality Assurance

03:50 Revolutionizing QA Processes

09:09 Shifting Perspectives on QA Monitoring

12:39 Leveraging AI for Enhanced Coaching

17:40 The Future of QA in an AI-Driven World

"You can listen to 100% of calls now"

"AI can help identify patterns and issues"

"Show the value your QA team delivers"

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Realities of Omnichannel: Lessons from Industry Veterans

Monday, April 6, 2026 • Duration 15:36

Exploring the evolution and challenges of Omnichannel strategies in customer service, from early concepts to current practices. Insights from industry veterans Bob Furniss and Amas Tenumah on what works, what doesn't, and how to focus on the most impactful channels. key topics

Origins of Omnichannel in 2010

Challenges in integrating multiple channels

The importance of focusing on top channels

Customer expectations vs. technological capabilities

Lessons learned from industry experiences

Chapters

00:00 The Origins of Omnichannel

05:20 Challenges in Implementing Omnichannel Strategies

10:09 Finding Focus in Omnichannel Efforts

14:43 The Future of Customer Interaction

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Mastering Contact Center Supervision: Strategies for Success

Monday, March 30, 2026 • Duration 24:57

key topics

summary

In this episode, Bob Furniss and Amas Tenumah explore the roles and goals of supervisors in contact centers, emphasizing coaching, relationship-building, and strategic management. They share practical tips for setting goals, managing time, and developing future leaders.

Goals and metrics for supervisors

Time management and coaching focus

Building relationships with team and leadership

Mentoring future leaders in contact centers

Strategic management at the director level

sound bites

"Make people think for themselves"

"Be the evangelist for your contact center"

"Spend time in books and learning"

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Remote Supervision Challenges

02:24 Setting Goals as a Supervisor

05:05 Coaching and Development Focus

07:47 Managing Up: Supervisor and Manager Dynamics

10:46 Building Relationships with Management

13:16 Transitioning to Managerial Goals

15:56 Efficiency vs. Effectiveness in Management

18:38 The Importance of Relationships in Leadership

Contact Center Show – Details, episodes & analysis

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Contact Center Show – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Recent rankings

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

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RSS feed quality and score

Publication history

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Similar podcasts and content

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

LinkedIn7

Other17

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