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Richard Piatkowski

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Account Management, Aspect

162 points

I have worked in the telecoms industry for over 14 years now, having starting my career at BT. I have been responsible for selling everything from a telephone socket, long-term service contracts, mobiles, network, data, telephony, contact centres and complex ...

I have worked in the telecoms industry for over 14 years now, having starting my career at BT. I have been responsible for selling everything from a telephone socket, long-term service contracts, mobiles, network, data, telephony, contact centres and complex applications. I have worked with start-up clients all the way through to multi-site clients with thousands of staff, including FTSE100. I am comfortable dealing at all levels from the individual user through to board level. I have a consultative approach, which has served me well, by understanding the client and their needs, in order to put forward compelling propositions including proving the return on their investment. I have a firm grasp of commercials and always keep one eye on profitability and the other on client requirements. I am passionate about service and strive to exceed the client’s expectations.

Avaya, Cisco, Inter-Tel, Mitel, Panasonic, Syntellect, Verint, NICE, PBX, Contact Centre, Unified Communication, Multi-Media, Predictive Dialling, IVR, Voice Recording, Quality Management, Workforce Management, Data Networking, Avaya Professional Sales Specialist (APSS – UC, APSS – CC, APSS – SME), Cisco Sales Expert (CSE).

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WEB: Aspect

Aug. 5, 2011

Richard Piatkowski and 52 other people answered this question

How much does correct spelling and grammar matter when blogging?

If it's worth doing in the first place, then it is worth doing right!

Aug. 1, 2011

Richard Piatkowski and 20 other people answered this question

What control/guidelines (if any) should a company provide over an individual's Linkedin profile?

It's pretty loose to be frank. The common sense approach is the one that we use. We do have a disclaimer that we can sign if we want to actively speak on behalf of our company, but I tend to leave that to marketing and ... more

Corporate Branding

July 27, 2011

Richard Piatkowski and 5 other people answered this question

POLL: How many companies are you a 'fan' of on Facebook?

"A" ... why would I want to follow a company on Facebook? In business and if I want to follow, track, profile a company, then I use LinkedIn and Jigsaw. I have no idea why I would ever want to follow a company in my ... more

Facebook Fan Page

July 18, 2011

Richard Piatkowski and 4 other people answered this question

Are you concerned about the security of your voicemails?

1. Erase a message after you have listened to it.
2. When leaving a message, don't include sensitive information - "It's Richard, give me a call back on +44 7875 XXX XXX" - that should suffice!
3. If you need to leave important information, perhaps consider using ... more

Information Technology

July 18, 2011

Richard Piatkowski answered this question

When you record calls in a call center, do you have to take into account any laws or regulations?

In the UK there are four areas of regulation to consider. Employment, Data Protection, PCI and FSA.
The first is to inform your staff that they may be recorded, and have this added as an addendum to their employment contracts so that they agree to being ... more

Customer Service

Information Technology

July 18, 2011

Richard Piatkowski and 2 other people answered this question

Does your company have a policy for auditing or storing instant messages?

We us MS Lync, which can store messages in a users own Outlook. As far as I am aware, we monitor IM for keywords such as bad language, but don't centrally store the messages.
One of the issues with IM is that it is often used ... more

Information Technology

Instant Messaging

June 27, 2011

Richard Piatkowski and 12 other people answered this question

Situation: A manager yells at an employee in front of others. Is this workplace bullying?

I hate the over use of the word bullying. Being told off, or even shouted at isn't bullying - try working in a sales environment and see how things really happen!
Bullying is an habitual or systematic attack on someone, either physically or mentally, and not ... more

Employee Relations

Talent Management

June 27, 2011

Richard Piatkowski and 1 other person answered this question

What common challenges do businesses face when integrating social media and business intelligence?

Collecting information is easy. Making the information work for you is the hard part!
Most organisations I speak with want to take advantage of social media as part of their business moving forward. The bit that they don't know is ...
What information should I look for
What ... more

Information Technology

Business Intelligence

Information Management

June 7, 2011

Richard Piatkowski and 3 other people answered this question

Survey finds UC implementations have doubled this year. Why are more companies adopting now?

I am seeing a similar uplift in discussions, contracts and projects. I think that the reason is a simple one, and that there are very few early adopters out there, and most organisations simply monitor what is being done and where, before making the decison ... more

Information Technology

April 27, 2011

Richard Piatkowski and 6 other people answered this question

How do you foresee your lifestyle changing when the era of cheap oil ends?

Here in the UK it's never been cheap and is just getting more and more expensive. We are very nearly at $8.50 a US gallon here, and so you should count yourselves lucky! more

April 27, 2011

Richard Piatkowski and 4 other people answered this question

Is it possible to consistently and repeatedly create customer "delight"? If so, how? If not, why?

I don't think that it is possible to create delight all of the time. I think that you can keep people happy, but not delighted.
You may have the best product and best customer service, but the issue you then create is the expectation. The better ... more

Customer Service

Customer Delight

April 26, 2011

Richard Piatkowski and 1 other person answered this question

What do companies need to know about telephony denial of service (TDOS) attacks?

They need to know that they exist first! TDoS is pretty much no different to other denial of service attacks, that being said, voice networks are aguably more secure than data ones. I think that you would be very unlucky to experience TDoS on an ... more

Information Technology

Denial of Service Attacks

April 21, 2011

Richard Piatkowski and 1 other person answered this question

What ROI tools are available for SMBs looking to purchase an IP-based phone system?

There is little or no ROI to be gained from just upgrading to VoIP. Unified Communications is the key, and is facilitated by going VoIP.
Allow your customers to communicate with you using voice, email, webchat, whitemail, SMS etc, and you will get the real ROI.
See ... more

Information Technology

April 21, 2011

Richard Piatkowski and 3 other people answered this question

Do I need to upgrade my data switches when moving to IP-based phone system?

Probably is the simple answer. If your data network doesn't support power over ethernet (PoE), Quality of Service and Voice Prioritisation, then you will need to upgrade.
There are ways of segmenting the LAN and adding in PoE, which can be cheaper, but a great data ... more

Information Technology

April 21, 2011

Richard Piatkowski and 7 other people answered this question

Avaya vs. NorTel Vs. Mitel: Who would you choose?

Mark made the right decision. In my opinion, and without my Aspect hat on ...
Mitel haven't been a really big player for quite some time, albeit their legacy telephony offering was great.
Nortel is dead. The core platform and some of the add-ons will soon cease ... more

Information Technology

April 21, 2011

Richard Piatkowski and 1 other person answered this question

What does security awareness really mean?

I think it's all about common sense.
Don't copy sensitive data to a USB stick that you could lose. Don't leave your lap-top on the back seat of your car.
Don't discuss sensitive information on your telephone if you are in a public place
Do change your ... more

Information Technology

Security Awareness

Security Breach

April 21, 2011

Richard Piatkowski and 3 other people answered this question

Do banks need more advanced unified communication features to meet customer needs?

Banks can really take advantage of UC. It allows them to communicate with their customers in any way that the customer wants to interact with them, which makes for happier customers and therefore more loyal ones.
By using voice, email, webchat, whitemail and other mediums in ... more

Customer Service

Information Technology

April 21, 2011

Richard Piatkowski and 2 other people answered this question

When looking at Unified Communications offerings, how important is video quality?

Video quality is important, but perhaps what is more important is asking the question as to whether you actually need video.
If you are thinking about video for company meetings, to save travelling costs, then this is easy to cost justify, and the quality needs to ... more

Information Technology

Unified Communications

April 20, 2011

Richard Piatkowski is now following Brielle Nikaido

April 8, 2011

Richard Piatkowski and 4 other people answered this question

what is an average time to answer calls at a call center

I constantly get asked the question about how quickly "we" should answer calls, and what is the industry standard. The simple answer to the question is that there is NO standard. 90% in 20 seconds gets banded around quite often, but let me ask you ... more

Customer Service

Call Center Response Time

Contact Centers

March 30, 2011

Richard Piatkowski and 11 other people answered this question

What value does an exit interview hold for a manager and organization?

What value do exit interviews deliver .... None. Once someone has made their mind up to leave, then it's all over. If they had an issue with pay or conditions, then they should have brought that to your attention earlier.
If an employee states that pay ... more

Human Resources

Human Resource Jobs

March 29, 2011

Richard Piatkowski and 4 other people answered this question

Do you really think that a "Call Center" is the same thing as a "Contact Center"??

In my opinion there are very few (if any) call centres anymore. Most organisations have contact centres, where their people handle multiple methods of contact from voice to email to whitemail.
Even 15 years ago, when I was a "call centre agent" I received and ... more

Contact Centers

Social Media Channels

March 24, 2011

Richard Piatkowski and 15 other people answered this question

Tips for salvaging a presentation when you notice your audience losing interest?

Telling isn't selling! If you just present to an audience, then some will naturally lose interest. You need to start with a "grabber" statement to gain an initial level of interest. You need to ask questions and gain responses, you should direct parts of the ... more

General Management

Presentation Skills

March 22, 2011

Richard Piatkowski and 1 other person answered this question

What does it mean to be a multichannel contact center?

If you mean multi-channel as in multiple ways of accepting or making contact, then you need to consider looking at Unified Communications for the Contact Centre.
UC in the contact centre allows for customers to contact you by traditional telephone, email, webchat, web call back and ... more

Customer Service

Information Technology

Contact Center Setup

March 15, 2011

Richard Piatkowski and 1 other person answered this question

What are the top pros and cons of hosted VoIP telephony?

Top Pros ...
1. Low start up costs
2. Easy to grow and potentially easy to downsize - dependant on the deal you do
3. Upgrades updates are someone else's problem
4. Lower management overhead - you don't need to support the system.
Top Cons ...
1. You keep paying - ... more

Information Technology

Following 32 Topics

Business Intelligence

Call Centre SIP

Contact Center Service Provider

...

Contact Center Solutions

Contact Center Technologies

Contact Centers

Customer Experience Management

Customer Loyalty

Customer Service

General Management

Information Security

Information Technology

IP Contact Center

Project Management

Social Customer Care

Unified Communications

Following 1 Person

Followed by 18 People

Knowledgeable in 38 Topics

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