Company: Talkdesk (submitting on behalf of our clients)
Company Description: Talkdesk® is a global cloud contact center leader for customer-obsessed companies. Our automation-first customer experience solutions optimize our customers’ most critical customer service processes. Our speed of innovation, vertical expertise, and global footprint reflect our commitment to ensuring that businesses can deliver better experiences across any industry and through any channel.
Nomination Category: Business Development Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Business Development Executive of the Year
 Nomination Title: Ken Cohen, SVP, Business Development and Consumer Sales, JK Moving
- Which will you submit for your nomination in this category, a video of up to five (5) minutes, explaining the achievements since July 1, 2020 of the nominated individual, OR written answers to the questions? (Choose one):
Written answers to the questions
- Briefly describe the nominated individual: history and past performance (up to 200 words):
Total 188 words used.
JK Moving Services is a 40-year old business built from the ground up, and is the largest independent moving company in North America.
Service excellence is a pillar of JK Moving’s business, and its contact center is the first line of connection for both current customers and potential new ones. Handling leads successfully is a top priority. But the overall customer experience—from the moment people receive a quote to moving day itself—is equally important.
Ken Cohen, Senior Vice President, Sales & Business Development, is committed to using cutting-edge technology in order to deliver that exceptional customer experience. In an industry that's not known for being tech forward, Cohen’s pioneering vision for technology's potential is bold—and it's working.
Cohen saw a huge opportunity to modernize and empower his teams to succeed. As a family-run business, JK Moving has always prioritized employee happiness, but with legacy systems holding everyone back at a time when customer demand was sky-high, Cohen knew he had to push for digital solutions. Implementing Cohen's plan is paying off: overall, JK Moving experienced 73% quarter-over-quarter growth in sales after implementing a new contact center solution alone.
- If you are submitting a video of up to five (5) minutes in length, provide the URL of the video here, OR attach it to your entry via the "Add Attachments, Videos, or Links to This Entry" link above, through which you may also upload a copy of your video. If you are submitting written answers to the questions for this category, provide them in the spaces below.
Written answers
- Outline the nominee's achievements since July 1 2020 that you wish to bring to the judges' attention (up to 250 words):
Total 211 words used.
Cohen knew that in order for JK Moving to grow, the company needed a modern technology stack that could handle new sales leads at scale, and convert them into happy customers.
Before Cohen implemented a new stack—which includes everything from Talkdesk for customer experience to Enhancify for sales—JK Moving had myriad customer experience issues getting in its way. And most of those challenges started in its contact center.
Its legacy call center solution provided little visibility into call traffic. There was no way to know who was calling in, or how many people were on hold. Agents couldn't call back customers who hung up—and there was a 64% abandon rate. The lack of workflow from lead to “warm handshake” was a big stumbling block for the company.
But now, JK Moving uses AI-based forecasting for advance notice of call volume expected on a given day so JK Moving can make staffing plans. Calls are recorded so agents can receive coaching to learn and improve. Transparent data reporting helps Cohen understand activity and success rates in near real-time. Taken together, customer satisfaction is way up: JK Moving now has nearly 1,000 Google Reviews, up from 250, and it's gone from a 64% abandon rate to an answer rate of 93.5%.
- Explain why the achievements you have highlighted are unique or significant. If possible compare the achievements to the performance of other players in your industry and/or to the nominee's past performance (up to 250 words):
Total 182 words used.
JK Moving's push for technology has massively changed its business for the better. Call volume has increased to 155,000 calls (up from 50,000), and interaction quality has improved thanks to call recordings and agent coaching.
New reporting and metrics provide a data-driven view of call acceptance rates, abandons, and callbacks. Studio flows for voicemails lowered supervisor escalations by 30%. JK Moving saw a 41% increase in first contact resolution with the implementation of automatic callback options alone.
With the Covid-19 pandemic, a contactless experience for customers also became paramount. This is now something the company can offer thanks to an updated technology stack. Customer satisfaction has also increased: JK Moving now has nearly 1,000 Google Reviews, up from 250.
Cohen's vision is coming to life: revenues and profits are up across the board, as is the amount of repeat business. With huge success for the sales teams after implementing the “warm handshake” workflow vision, Cohen pushed to roll out similar systems to the operations team, too—increasing the team by 140 agents, with a future plan for other business units.
- Reference any attachments of supporting materials throughout this nomination and how they provide evidence of the claims you have made in this nomination (up to 250 words):
Total 171 words used.
Turning a Cost Center into a Profit Center while Achieving Explosive Growth: Hear from Ken Cohen, SVP, Sales & Business Development at JK Moving, about what it took to implement an entirely new tech stack in a historically analog industry. This transformation story shows the power of technology to increase revenues, profits, and most importantly, customer and employee happiness—something critically important to JK Moving as a family-run business.
JK Moving's Ken Cohen shares his strategy behind 74% revenue growth: An inside look at how AI can be a boon to business—even for skeptics. JK Moving proves that turning to AI can help in many departments all with an eye to converting leads and driving revenue over time.
Enhancify Review: JK Moving: Ken Cohen describes how using Enhancify has revolutionized their customer experience for cold leads, as a great financing partner for the company and its clients. JK Moving's sales teams are bolstered by this extra tool and can offer it proactively; clients are no longer turned away because of move costs.
| Attachments/Videos/Links: |
|---|
|
