About Us

We are a team of professionals sharing our long-standing experience and expertise in driving successful contact center direction and decisions

Contact Center Pipeline is a monthly magazine focused on the specific needs and challenges of the contact center. Our advisory board, editor, writers and contributors are known for their unique understanding of what makes the call center the organization's driving force for service delivery, aligning customer experience and ensuring long-term business success.

Each month, well-respected industry leaders, practitioners and consultants present their insights, strategies, best practices and lessons learned to help you run an effective and efficient operation.

Susan Hash
Editor
Contact Center Pipeline
206-552-8831
susan@contactcenterpipeline.com

Welcome to Contact Center Pipeline! We are excited to deliver a compelling specialized publication to the contact center industry, and we hope you'll become a regular reader.

For those of you who are not familiar with us, we are a team of professionals bringing together decades of call center industry expertise, problem-solving and real-world experience. Our mission is to help our readers succeed by providing the resources to develop solutions to new and ongoing challenges, leverage their operations' strengths to drive change and grow the business through world-class customer management strategies. To those outside the industry, contact centers appear to be a niche business. Yet today's contact center leaders find themselves wearing a number of different hats—trainer, coach, futurist, marketer, consultant, forecaster, IT specialist, accountant… and that's just on Mondays!

It's a big job, no matter how you view it, but we're here to help. The contents of every issue of Contact Center Pipeline will make you think and consider something new. Maybe it will be a different solution or a fresh perspective on how to overcome a long-standing challenge. Or perhaps it will be a connection you feel with others who are experiencing the same pain points and challenges. No matter which hat you're wearing, we'll bring you the tools you need to succeed.

The format for our content includes features, case studies, tip sheets and columns covering strategy, technology, training & performance, workforce management, leadership and more. We are continually expanding and improving Contact Center Pipeline to meet our readers' information needs, and I invite you to share your comments and ideas with me at susan@ContactCenterPipeline.com.

Keep an eye out for us every month—you won't want to miss an issue!

Biography

Susan is a veteran business journalist with nearly 20 years of specialized experience in the contact center industry. Before joining the Contact Center Pipeline team as editor, she served as the Publications Director for the International Customer Management Institute (ICMI), where she oversaw the editorial development and content of ICMI publications, including monthly newsletters and journals, call center management books, research, special reports and online content.

Prior to ICMI, Susan wrote about customer management issues as executive editor of The Customer Communicator, Customer Service Newsletter, Executive Report on Customer Retention and Customer Satisfaction Technology, and author of the management books, Guide to Customer Service Teams, How to Hire the Best Service Professionals and Management Essentials: The Skills You Need to Be a Successful Customer Service Manager. She has received several notable journalism awards for reporting on customer management strategies.

Linda Harden
Publisher
Contact Center Pipeline
443-909-6951
linda@contactcenterpipeline.com

Welcome new subscribers! I am pleased to present to you Contact Center Pipeline. Our purpose in publishing our magazine is to bring together top industry experts to network and share our insights and experiences with you. I am thrilled to be working with our team of professionals in carrying out that goal.

As organizations everywhere are realizing, the products that are manufactured and the services rendered account for only a portion of business success. The way that we engage with our customers and employees is every bit as important. Our customer interactions significantly impact our brand and market images, and if we handle those contacts well, we’re able to pace the workflow appropriately to our staff. I think that sounds like everyone wins!

Yet contact centers leaders often find themselves up against countless obstacles in the pursuit of delivering a consistent, high-quality customer experience.

And as new channels and customer touchpoints are introduced into the mix, those challenges extend from the center to the larger enterprise. It’s unexplored territory for most contact center professionals—and it’s the very reason that we publish Contact Center Pipeline! We’re here to help you overcome service barriers, and develop solutions and strategies to distinguish your company’s customer experience in a competitive marketplace. In each issue, we share what we’ve learned through research and insights from industry experts and other contact center leaders.

Pipeline’s monthly columnists and contributing authors have earned the industry’s respect through writing, speaking and implementing the best practices that make a difference in our call center experiences. They bring to the publication many years of hands-on experience with managing world-class operations. They are the brightest in the industry, and they’ll be bringing their insights and advice to your desk in every issue.

Thank you for your support in making Contact Center Pipeline the industry’s leading instructional magazine! I encourage you to share your thoughts with me as we continue to evolve and improve.

Biography
Linda Harden is President of Pipeline Publishing Group and Publisher of the monthly contact center management magazine, Contact Center Pipeline. Her passion is to promote discussion, resources, events and services that impact the lives of our employees and customers. She understands the potential impact of every phone call, each email and tweet on the organization’s brand. That strengthens her determination to discuss how we impact the quality and service our contact centers delivers on behalf of our organizations.

Prior to Pipeline Publishing Group, Linda worked with ICMI as their Senior Vice President overseeing their training, consulting, publications and membership divisions. It was Gordon MacPherson and Brad Cleveland who taught her the importance of “doing the right things at the right times” and the impact that philosophy has on our centers, organizations, customers and employees. She worked with ICMI on the successful acquisition of their organization by United Business Media.