Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow: A Look at PACE

“The difference between a dreamer and a visionary is that a dreamer has his eyes closed and a visionary has his eyes open.”

– Martin Luther King, Jr.

I spent the last week of September in Washington DC for the 2018 PACE Washington Summit and, boy, was it a whirlwind! It was jam packed with fantastic speakers, fun networking events, and informative discussions surrounding the state of the omni-channel contact center in regards to compliance. It really opened up the floor to some great conversations about the most current and impactful compliance issues that affect contact centers today. As our industry evolves, compliance issues are no longer limited to the phone channel – they can also affect email and text channels.

Although the Summit is primarily compliance-focused, I could not help but smile as I reflected on how much PACE (Professional Association for Customer Engagement) has grown as an organization over the past few years. In case you haven’t heard of PACE (previously known as ATA – American Telemarketing Association), it is a non-profit trade association for the advancement of companies that engage with customers via the contact center. In the past it has been largely known as the leader in compliance education for outbound contact centers, but is now evolving into a more well-rounded organization that emphasizes partnerships, advocacy, customer experience, compliance and education for today’s omni-channel contact center.

Just to give you some history behind my ties with PACE, I have been a proud member of this amazing organization since the 90s. For the past several years, I have been invested in its success and future. As a contact center veteran with decades of experience in the industry, this organization resonates and aligns with me on a philosophical level. How so? Well, my main mission at CH Consulting Group is to lead and educate my clients to develop strategy, policies, procedures, and benchmarks that follow best practices. This runs parallel to the mission of PACE which is to provide education, advocacy, compliance guidance, security, cloud and networking opportunities to its growing member base.  We are critical to the industry on compliance, but we also have contact center experts in our organization and on our board. We know how to run the contact center to deliver an excellent customer experience so why not own it as an organization?

Last December, I was blessed with the opportunity to join the PACE team and was appointed to their Board of Directors. Most recently, I was appointed Marketing Chair and will be supporting PACE in its growth efforts. I do not take these new roles and responsibilities lightly—I am incredibly excited to roll up my sleeves and work side-by-side with the rest of the PACE team to support its transformation from compliance expert to THE association for the contact center industry! Yes, compliance is still a critical component to contact centers today, but I believe that we can offer more value to our members by providing more education and resources that support the end user and customer experience.

PACE is poised to fill the gap as an association that promotes advocacy and education on customer experience for today’s contact center leaders. As a board member and Marketing Chair, I am honored to be able to share my own expertise and knowledge to help PACE grow and expand as the go-to contact center association.

Not a PACE member? I would like for you to consider membership. PACE is the only non-profit trade association dedicated exclusively to the advancement of companies that utilize contact center customer engagement.

Want to see PACE in action? I invite you to join me at the 2019 PACE Convention and Expo March 31-April 3 in San Antonio, TX. The event will host contact center and customer experience leaders and is dedicated to supporting businesses that employ an omni-channel strategy.