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Q. A little about me

 

I live in Woodstock, Ontario with my husband Bryan, and our two girls Amelia and Ava. I also am the proud Bonus Mom of a young man named Ethan. We have a myriad of pets including a Black Lab named Smudge, a Lilac Point Siamese named Persnickity, and quite a few lizards and tarantulas. Yes, we seriously do. It is a long story.

 

Fun is very important to me and if you were to ever pop into my office you would think it was the office of a nine-year-old. Super hero and Star Wars toys are everywhere, and it is not uncommon for me to start a Nerf war. (I also usually have candy. Don’t grow up friends. It is a trap.) 

 

I think work should be an enjoyable activity, and that if we are all having a good time, it will make the challenges we do face a little easier. Sure, there are a lot of serious aspects to what we do, but there is no reason for us to get up each day and dread having to do them. I take great pride in knowing that our office is a fun, safe, and inclusive place to work. 

Q. When did you join BearCom Canada and what brought you into the call center industry?

 

I started working at Spectrum Communications 17 years ago, and 2 years ago we were acquired by BearCom Canada. Wow. It is hard to believe it has been that long. I was still fairly young, had just moved to a new city, and was looking for work. I saw the position for a part time telephone operator open on a local job board and figured I would give applying a try.

 

 

Q. Can you tell us a little more about the evolution of your career path with BearCom Canada 

 

After applying I was pretty quick to get an interview, and I remember it being really fun. We were laughing and speaking candidly, and it was all very relaxed.  I had only ever had one real job before, and that interview was far from enjoyable – so the experience at Spectrum was a nice surprise. 

 

I was hired on shortly thereafter to fill one or two shifts per week. Someone was going to go on maternity leave soon, so the hope of more hours was on the horizon. I have always been a hard worker, and this was no different. I picked up as many shifts as I could, and asked a thousand questions a day. I learned how to work every shift, and soon was asked to teach new people the tricks of the trade.

 

I began to climb the ranks pretty fast and take on new roles and responsibilities. The manager of the Message Centre started spending less and less time in our office and focusing more of her time on the financial side of the company, leaving me to oversee the day to day operations. I have, (and continue to), worn many hats here over the years from hiring to sales, to operations to housekeeping. No job is too big or too small, and I am very grateful for the many opportunities I have been given. 

   

Q. What was your first CAM-X experience?

 

Oh gosh, that would be around 14 years ago, give or take. It was a supervisor training session (I believe they are now called COACH U) in Huntsville, and I learned a lot, and was forced to really start to think out of the box.  I remember meeting so many people who did the same job as me, and actually understood the challenges and rewards of it. That sense of community was something I had not felt before.

 

It is hard to believe, but laptops were not a common piece of personal equipment then, so I remember CAM-X had a few spares lying around for us all to use in order to get our assignments turned in.  We had to sign up for a block of time to borrow these, and there were people patiently waiting behind us for their turn. Thankfully we were all proficient typists and could get things going pretty quickly. (I can still picture the day in my mind. A quiet office suite in a hotel. Long extension cords running across the floor, plugged into spider outlets. No one was talking, as we all sat side by side, with just the rapid clicking of our finger tips providing ambient noise.)

 

My biggest take away from that experience was the first evening we spent there. Class was over, and another member, (actually the then CAM-X President) pulled my boss Melanie and I aside and invited us to sit and hang out with him for a while. His daughter joined us, and they were just so open and giving with information. They were running much fancier technology than we were, and quickly powered up a machine to give us a virtual demo. They commiserated with us about sick call ins, and inclement weather volume spikes. They answered our questions and gave us advice. They encouraged us to become more involved in our industry and to not be afraid to put ourselves out there.  I am not sure how to give that particular interaction the justice it deserves, other than to say it really impacted me, and I will always look back on it as a significant event on the timeline of my now many years in this industry.  Thank you Mike and Abby Leibowitz!

 

Q. Can you tell us more about how you’ve participated or benefited from CAM-X membership?

 

I have been to a couple conventions and tradeshows and they never disappoint. I am an active reader of The Boost, and a huge fan of the Two Grey Suits member benefit as it has come in handy on more than one occasion.

 

The biggest benefit that CAM-X has given me both professionally and personally, is networking. I am a very social person, and I truly relish the relationships I have been able to build with fellow members over the years. We are always here for each other, during good times and bad. There are not many industry Associations out there that encourage you to sit down and break bread and share ideas with your direct competition, and I fervently believe we are the better for being a part of one.    

 

As I write this, I cannot help but realize that there may be ways for me (us) to be more active and to give back a little. I will explore this notion a bit further I think.

 

 

Q. What does your company look like today vs. ten or more years ago.

 

When I started at Spectrum we were a two seat operation, with one small office. That office wasn’t prepared for our growth, and so we were often squeezing things in as best we could. There was A LOT of duct tape involved.  (We also all smoked in that office…craziness, could you imagine?!?)  Today we have 10 seats, two non-smoking spacious offices, and our customer base has more than tripled. (If you’re wondering we are all for the most part non-smokers now too, which is pretty incredible.)

 

The technology has certainly evolved too. I actually started on DOS, which might just confirm my dinosaur status.  I remember the day we installed our first call recording software, a program called Panda, that required its own physical machine and was set up in the front corner of our small office. It was SO exciting and it taught us so much about ourselves and our product. It is strange to think that call recording is common place now, let alone web portals that customers can access to audit their own calls.