Lee Trenam - Enterprise Contact Centre Specialist

View Q&A (4) | Ask Lee a Question | Contact Lee

How did you get where you are today?

I've been working in IT and telecoms since 1992, specialising in the area of customer contact centres and working with a variety of systems integrators and manufacturing companies.

What are you working on right now?

Many of the clients I'm working with currently are utilities companies - customer service is a major focus for that industry. For example, one project involves an IP-based contact centre solution that will help the company in question overcome its current geographic limitations in terms of customer support. Another focuses on an M&A (merger and acquisition) situation, where the client needs to bring together two customer service workforces as the result of one company purchasing another.

Who or what has been the greatest influence on your career to date?

I'd have to say it's the Internet, because it's totally changed the way that customers perceive the service that they get from providers. Customers now are more knowledgeable and more empowered than ever before, and have extremely high expectations in terms of service provision - if they don't get what they expect, they'll simply switch to a competitor.

Who in business do you most admire - and why?

I'm a great admirer of anyone who's prepared to take a risk on a product or service that they truly believe in. My favourite visionary companies are all led by such people, such as Facebook, Sun Microsystems and Cisco.

What aspect of your job do you find most satisfying?

Working with an organisation to understand the challenges they face and to identify areas of improvement, so that we can build and deliver the best solution possible.

What has been your most valuable lesson learnt?

To put myself in the shoes of the customer and see a problem from their perspective.

Which are you favourite websites and blogs?

I'm a big fan of Google and Wikipedia, and a regular visitor to newsfeeds and forums relating to contact centre technologies.

How do you spend your downtime? Where? With who?

I spend it with friends and family, most often on the golf course or in the pub.

What lifetime ambition have you yet to achieve?

My dream - and the thing that drives most salespeople, I think - is to achieve financial independence, so that the choices I make each day are informed by what I really want to do, not by financial necessity.

Tell us one thing that most people don't know about you...

I spent eight years in the Navy and, as a child, played both the trumpet and the trombone.

Community Q&A

Lee Trenam, 5 months ago

Lesley, I think at this stage it is a little too early to be a proof case for improved retention. What I have seen is that staff attendance at work has been dramtically improved by allowing them to work from home. This has especially been proven with "back to work mums" where they face the time management balancing act between home and work. Giving them the option to work from home has often resulted in an increase in their adherence to the planned working hours. Hope this helps. Lee

Lesley Silver, 5 months ago

Thanks for getting back to me, Lee, and I hope you don't mind me asking one more question. Presumably one of the objectives of enabling more contact centre workers to work from home is to improve staff retention rates – which I’ve seen can be shockingly high in some contact centres - but have you seen much evidence of this yet or is it too early to tell?

Lee Trenam, 5 months ago

Lesley, definitely not hype. I think that Contact Centre homeworking is becoming more acceptable, the technology has matured and is capable of delivering remote agents seamlessly either on an individual basis or as a group of remote agents. Also driving the adoption is the fact that working practices and the constant churn in Contact Centre staff are forcing companies to consider this approach. Technology can certainly deliver this capability now, with the advent of IP/VoIP and the possibility for any person, anywhere to appear as part of a enterprise by the use of IP-VPN, then it naturally follows that "home shoring" can form part of the customer contact strategy for an organisation. However technology is only one component of the solution, one of the key considerations is the inclusion of a remote worker within the organisational structure and making them feel part of the Team. A number of customers that I have worked with have introduced homeworking within their contact centre but put in place technology that allows the homeworker and their supervisor to collaborate as if they were in the office environment. Another approach I have seen is where homeworking is limited to 3 days per week, that way the homeworker is still is within the office environment for part of their working week. So in summary, the technology is capable of supporting this type of approach however, it is not a solution without considering the business process impact. If I can be of any further assistance please send me an email via the link below. Hope this helps…… Lee

Lesley Silver, 5 months ago

Hi Lee. I was wondering if you've seen much uptake of home-based contact centre workers? A lot of contact centre technology suppliers talk about one of the advantages of IP-based contact centres being the opportunity for organisations to use home-based workers in so-called virtual contact centres. Is this a reality yet or market hype?