From Building the System… to Tearing It Down
I used to design the very systems people now hate.
I ran customer service for a $10B company, built call centers, rolled out IVRs, and obsessed over cost-to-serve metrics. From the inside, I saw the truth:
Customer service isn’t broken by accident. It’s broken by design.
Now I speak the truth on stages, write books, and help teams fix what they never should’ve tolerated in the first place.
Why Listen to Me?
- 🎤 60+ speeches delivered across 4 continents
- 📺 Featured on NPR, NBC, Fox Business, The Atlantic
- 🏢 Former VP of Customer Experience, Cox Communications, Wonderful company
- 📚 Author of Waiting for service, and Hold: The Business of Making You Wait
- 🎧 Host of the contact center show, Amas Talks
The Backstory
How I Got Here
I started my career believing the customer came first.
But after years inside boardrooms, I realized something darker: most service organizations were being managed like garbage collection—something to avoid investing in, unless it overflowed.
I’ve led massive teams, built contact center technology, and advised Fortune 100 brands. But I’ve also sat with agents who were burned out and customers who were broken down.
It was never a “service problem.”
It was a systems problem. A design problem. A people problem.
Now I spend my time calling that out—and helping bold leaders build something better.
What I Believe
- Customer service is a relationship, not a cost center
- AI is a tool, not a substitute for trust
- Most surveys are lies in disguise
- Your service strategy is your brand strategy
- Happy customers and happy agents are the same problem