Golden Gate BPO Solutions’ Stephen Ferber, Managing Partner, and Tom Behm, Managing Director – Operations, attended the 2014 Professional Association for Customer Engagement (PACE) National Convention and Expo that took place at The Westin Diplomat Hotel & Resort in Hollywood, Florida from April 2nd – 5th. Stuart Cranston, CEO of United Nearshore Operations (UNO) in Santiago, Dominican Republic and Golden Gate BPO’s operating partner for nearly 7 years also attended. Ferber served on the Convention Committee for the event this year and Behm was appointed to the Board of Directors of the Midwest Chapter of PACE in December of 2013.
This marks the third national convention since the association, formerly know as the American Teleservices Association, changed its name and mission. In addition, this is the first PACE Annual Convention following its merger with the International Customer Service Association (ICSA), which was completed in January of this year.
This convention officially kicked off with Phil Grudzinski, President & CEO of PACE, welcoming everyone to the event, including the new and extended membership brought by the merger with ICSA, and introducing Bill Gessert, ICSA President. Gessert spoke briefly about the history of ICSA, provided an overview of the organization’s mission and then shared some of his own thoughts related to the merger and it strategic benefits.
“Since its inception in 1981, the ICSA has existed to provide its members with professional development, recognition, and growth. Our signature program, ICSA Professional Certification has had a positive impact on countless service professionals. National Customer Service Week, launched by the ICSA in 1984, has grown to become a celebration of service for businesses and organizations around the world. Coming together with PACE enables us to significantly expand both of these programs while adding substantial new benefits for our members,” stated Bill Gessert, ICSA President.
“As PACE continues forward with its new mission, we believe our organization can play a pivotal role in advancing the quality and diversity of the association’s program content, value proposition to current and new members and impacting the growth of its membership substantially in the United States and around the world,” stated Stephen Ferber. “I truly believe PACE is on the right track as it reinvents itself, and we can play a substantial role not only helping the association stay on the right track but accelerating its growth as well.”
The conference had a well-balanced mix of content sessions split up into separate break out tracks, general sessions including customer experience topics and relevant compliance updates, and a healthy variety of exhibitors representing each part of the customer experience chain.
The Keynote Speakers and their subject matters were excellent, providing phenomenal takeaways. Matthew “Whiz” Buckley, with Afterburner, discussed “Flawless Execution”, taking his experience as a graduate of the Navy Fighter Weapons School (“TOPGUN”) and the 44 combat sorties he flew over Iraq and applied the precise and constant planning, briefing, execution and debriefing required to succeed and survive during those critical and unforgiving missions to improving preparation and achieving flawless execution in the workplace. Other notable Keynote speakers included executives from Harley Davidson and J.D. Power.
It was also an honor to meet Senator Marco Rubio, who joined the convention attendees during lunch on the final day and spoke for about 30-minutes to the group. Senator Rubio’s passionate discussion of his, and his family’s, roots, upbringing and how that has influenced his beliefs and policies provided an upfront and personal view of the man and the politician. Senator Rubio even provided some insight on his views concerning relevant issues with respect to customer engagement and consumer protection from a key legislator’s perspective.
About PACE and its Mission
PACE is the Professional Association for Customer Engagement. PACE is the only non-profit trade organization dedicated exclusively to the advancement of companies that use a multi-channel approach to engaging their customers, both business-to-business and business-to-consumer. These channels include contact centers, email, chat, social media, web and text. While the Association was founded on contact center operations, technology that fuels these centers and businesses that use these services, PACE recognizes that the digital transformation has forever changed the way in which its member companies engage their customers. The association is passionate about growing businesses by improving the customer experience at the point of contact.
About Golden Gate BPO Solutions
Founded in 2006, Golden Gate BPO Solutions provides multi-channel contact center, customer engagement and business process outsourcing services on behalf of its clients. It’s customer engagement centers are located in the United States, Dominican Republic, Belize, Mexico, Philippines, Sri Lanka, United Kingdom and Ireland, with each contact center location providing multi-lingual voice, email, web chat, social media, back-office, online help desk and automated support. The company also provides consultative services for many clients spanning business and operational improvement and restructurings, financial analysis and planning, technology procurement and implementation, and sales, marketing and brand enhancement.
Golden Gate BPO Solutions is committed to help organizations define and produce extraordinary customer engagement strategies and business results, providing increased customer loyalty and superior results for its clients.
