NRTC Exec Recognized for Customer Contact Practices

Rich King of NRTC Managed Services was a finalist last week at the Customer Contact Week (CCW) Excellence Awards Dinner during the CCW Expo in Las Vegas. The awards honor “the most innovative companies and top-performing executives for their extraordinary contributions to the customer contact profession.” CMP Research, a company that studies and promotes customer contact practices, organizes the expo.

King was a finalist for the “Customer Contact Leader of the Year” award. The award recognizes call center leaders who have fostered a culture of customer-centricity, innovation, and continuous improvement across the organization as well as those that advocate for customer contact technology and lead digital transformation. Although he was not awarded the top prize, he was recognized as an honorable mention. King has served as VP of Call Center Operations for the last four years and recently was promoted to chief operating officer for NRTC Managed Services.

The NRTC call center, under King’s leadership, rebounded from significant challenges during COVID-19 as his team dealt with staffing shortages combined with increased call volume during the height of the pandemic. At the same time, NRTC sought to maintain worker safety from COVID.

“2021 represented one of the toughest years of my professional career,” says King, who has been in call center leadership roles for 20 years. Focused on initiatives to enhance employment engagement and leverage technology, King, and his management team lowered attrition, improved overall performance and gained efficiencies. King adds, “I am very proud to lead this talented, passionate team that embraced the challenges and worked tirelessly for our members and their customers.”

Over the last year and a half, Managed Services has invested in new technologies to help agents with their roles to better serve customers. This includes leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) programs as part of the quality assurance program as well as call simulation for enhanced training. A new knowledge base using guided script technology is also in the works.

Kings says, “as the agent role becomes more complex, it’s imperative we continue to invest in technology to assist their efforts as well as ensure they know they are appreciated for what they do.” Other initiatives included a revamped agent compensation plan and enhanced mechanisms to give agents targeted feedback.

King has worked with NRTC for 10 years. His prior experience includes 10 years of operations leadership with a previous telecommunications provider and five years with Transamerica, where he helped lead initiatives focused on customer experience.