Radclyffe Consulting, LLC

Liz's Insights About This Season's "The Apprentice"

Are you kidding me?...Every time I watch this season's, The Apprentice, I wonder how smart these, what we call in corporate America, "HiPos" (high potentials) really are.  I mean, if I was going to be on The Apprentice, I would make sure I had watched it and learned as much as I could before going into the interviewing process.  Not only do they make the same mistakes as past candidates, but Donald will actually give them advice and they don't take it!!

Let's talk about bringing people into the Boardroom.  If Donald Trump says, "You can bring  one or two people into the Boardroom and I think you should bring in two," why would one not listen?  That's not very smart. In fact, it's downright stupid.

Here is another one.  Bringing someone into the Boardroom who actually tried to stop you as project leader from making the exact mistake that lost the project just because you don't like him.  Now we are talking absolutely moronic.

Oh, and I almost forgot about being really late for a meeting with the key clients who are also the judges and then not proactively apologizing even after the key clients point it out to you.  And let's not forget Lenny who asked no questions of his key clients so he could understand the success measures for the project and still doesn't think that was a mistake.  Now, yes, Lenny was the project leader, but no one else stepped up to the plate either and then complained about the fact that no questions were asked.  I think Donald should have fired the whole team for that one!  Except the season would have been over way too soon.

Dear Lord, I am so frustrated at watching this mediocrity that I'm sending my staff to apply - they would run circles around these "apprentices."

Purdue University's Center for Customer Driven Quality and Radclyffe Partner for the CCC Conference In July

Purdue University's Center for Customer Driven Quality (CCDQ) selected The Radclyffe Group, LLC as it conference partner to coordinate and organize this year's Call Center Campus in West Lafayette, Indiana from July 11-14, 2006.

"This will be a blow out event," stated Liz Ahearn, President & CEO of The Radclyffe Group.  "We are ensuring that the content is relevant and newsworthy, the speakers are credible and experienced and the program is highly interactive."  "We have invited speakers that have something unique to share; a compelling story to tell.  For example, our guest speaker is coming all the way from Hong Kong and was featured in March on Good Morning, America! Chetan Bhagat, author of One Night @ The Call Center will share his experience and findings about how representatives in India view their American customers and how they are trained to deal with Americans."  That evening he will have a book signing and CCC participants will be the first Americans to receive his book.

The Keynote Speaker, Sally White, Vice President of Service, North America, Smiths Detection, will be speaking about how her organization received perfect "10s" on her company's secret customer satisfaction survey.  She credits her "Seven Point Service Strategy," which she will share at the conference.  Smith Detection provides anti-terrorism equipment such as airport security scanners and other explosive identification products.  In the case of equipment failure, time is of the essence and her representatives need to detect the source of the issue accurately and dispatch a field service engineer quickly.

An exciting new track will be introduced this year - The Strategist.  If you like Donald Trump's, The Apprentice, you'll love CCC's, The Strategist!  Highly participative, two teams will compete to resolve a real Indiana business' service issue.  Who will win?  The best team, of course.  And, you'll be surprised to find out who is CCC's "The Donald!"  Another highlight of this conference will be the Virtual Contact Center Tours.  Relax at Purdue and take tours of your choice to see the best practices and "inside the operation" of some of the best contact centers in the industry!

The evenings will be jam-packed with exciting entertainment.  The Water Coolers will provide everyone will a unique and humorous look at what life is like in the contact center world and Casino Night will provide everyone with an opportunity to relax and let their hair down.

Who says there's nothing to do in West Lafayette, Indiana in July?!  Come find out why that is not true.  Go to www.ccdq.com to register today.