Driving Performance Through Automation, Coaching, and Analytics
Speaker
Berenice Askew
Project Manager, Financial Services
Interviewer
David Arellano
Head of Product, AmplifAI
Based on a conversation at ProductLIVE between Berenice Askew with David Arellano.
TL;DR
A 12-year industry veteran shares how her financial services organization transformed Monday morning chaos into focused coaching time, enabled 7 promotions in 3 months, and redefined what performance management means.
When Bernice Askew joined our January ProductLIVE session, she brought a perspective shaped by over a decade in the regulated financial services industry. As a project manager overseeing quality and performance for customer care operations, she's seen the full arc of transformation—from fragmented spreadsheets to unified performance management.
Her organization operates at the center of a compliance ecosystem, administering debt cancellation programs across four BPO partner sites. The stakes are high, the oversight is constant, and every minute of manager time matters.
The Monday Morning Problem
Before AmplifAI, Monday mornings were an exercise in data archaeology.
"Our world was a bit fragmented," Bernice explained. "We had different tools that really didn't talk to each other—Power BI, Excel spreadsheets. They were good tools, but we had to put them together manually and then analyze them."
With teams of 20-30 agents each, managers faced an impossible weekly trade-off: spend time with your people, or spend time figuring out what to do with your people.
"On a typical Monday, one of my managers would spend about four hours just pulling the data, putting the reports together, and then start thinking about what the next step for coaching could be. And remember—Monday is heavy call volume day. They're getting pulled in every direction."
From Hours to Minutes
The transformation was immediate and measurable.
"What used to take hours—four to six hours, especially on Mondays—now it takes minutes. They go in, they see what needs to happen. All the data's there, and they take the next step of what needs to be coached."
But the real shift wasn't about efficiency metrics. It was about purpose.
"Now they spend their time with the team. With the agents. Their coaching was more effective."
The numbers tell the story. In the months following implementation, Bernice's organization saw balanced scorecard performance improve across multiple programs—with some metrics climbing 8-12% compared to pre-implementation baselines. The correlation between reclaimed manager time and improved team performance wasn't coincidental.
Next Best Action: The Game Changer
When asked about their favorite feature, Bernice didn't hesitate.
"NBA—Next Best Action—is our favorite feature. We have so many, but NBA really made a change."
The distinction is critical. Having data is one thing. Having data translated into prioritized, actionable coaching recommendations is something else entirely.
"They went from five different reports with their 20 or 30 agents, and now that platform automatically surfaces the Next Best Action. So now they focus on who to coach and on what, based on their data."
The cultural shift became visible on the floor itself.
"It's funny—now you see them walk the floors and they'll say, 'Hey, remember your NBA, don't forget.' And agents know what that means. They know their background, they know what they need to target."
7 Promotions in 3 Months
When managers reclaimed 4-6 hours weekly, the question became: where does that time go?
The organization launched BLIP—Best Leader in Progress—a career development program that would have been impossible when managers were drowning in data prep.
"Now that we're at the development stage, we spend more time coaching on what your capability can be going for, what your new goals are going to be. We've built the program to develop agents into leadership roles."
The results came fast.
"In a three-month rollout, we promoted about seven people already to the next stage."
The career ladder now extends clearly upward: customer service agents advance to Tier 2, then to Resolution Analysts, then to future leadership positions.
"Now I can take the time to do side-by-sides. Now I can take the time to really listen to what they want to do in the company. Instead of me just losing a whole day from five days, I've got four and a half days to really take the time and listen to what they need."
Audit Ready in Hours, Not Weeks
For Bernice, quarterly audits used to consume weeks of preparation.
"It would take me about a week and a half, almost two weeks, just pulling data. I had to review when the coaching happened, demonstrate that oversight was completed. When it was audit time, our team just knew I was going to be busy back to back."
With everything centralized, that changed dramatically.
"The audit prep time has really gone from days and weeks to hours. Now that everything is centralized—our coaching records, the metrics, the performance oversight—all in one place."
The validation came from an upstream client's annual audit.
"It got to the point where she wasn't even looking at the screen because she's like, 'I saw everything I needed in the tool. This is great.'"
Redefining Performance Management
Perhaps the most significant transformation wasn't operational—it was cultural.
"In the past, performance management was not a positive word. It was something where you're concentrated on what you need to work on—or else."
That stigma is fading.
"For the past year, we've changed that. Performance management is more of: how can we strengthen the work you already do, and how can we make it a little bit more effective? It's really just elevating that performance and the experience itself, and not making it negative."
When asked how she'd describe AmplifAI to a colleague at a trade show, Bernice's answer was immediate:
"AmplifAI simplifies. It takes everything from different aspects and it tells me what my next step will be. Instead of me going five different directions, it helps me guide on what I need to do next."
“The training was set up week to week. We learned features in chunks instead of one big download of information. That made a difference in how we were able to implement AmplifAI.”
Bernice Askew
Project Manager, Financial Services
An Implementation Approach Worth Mirroring
When teams adopt new technology, there's often reluctance—especially from managers who've been doing things a certain way for years. The implementation approach made all the difference.
"The training was set up week to week," Bernice shared. "Our leaders, our team, myself—we learned features in chunks instead of one big download of information. And that helped. That made a difference in how we were able to implement AmplifAI."
The phased approach built confidence rather than overwhelm.
"It really felt like a partnership—it wasn't just a handoff from training to live usage. Our team felt good. They were able to ask their questions from a weekly standpoint. The confidence levels were very high."
What happened next surprised even Bernice. The implementation experience was so effective that her organization started adopting the same methodology for their own internal rollouts.
"That redesign of how that happened—we've never experienced that before. It helped us redesign our type of trainings in future waves. We were so used to: here, you've gotta train, be on a deadline, and then hand it off."
They took a step back and recognized the pattern.
"The way AmplifAI did it was actually very beneficial. Maybe that's something we can instill in our own material. Because we're so regulated, maybe we can take the phased approach. And we did—with some projects it's made a big difference."
What's Next
The organization is already eyeing expansion.
"Our QA team is asking every week, 'Hey, what about us? How long until we get our turn with AmplifAI?' Our next phase is to build out the quality scorecard. We're looking at more AI possibilities—how can we further personalize coachings or spot risk earlier."
But even with expansion ahead, the foundation is solid.
"The foundation has really been put in place already in changing how we think about performance management."
Key Takeaways
Time reclaimed is time reinvested — Reducing 4-6 hours of weekly data prep freed managers to launch a career development program that produced 7 promotions in 3 months.
Next Best Action drives focus — When the platform surfaces prioritized coaching opportunities, managers stop analyzing and start developing.
Centralization transforms compliance — Audit prep went from weeks to hours when coaching records, metrics, and oversight lived in one place.
Performance management can be positive — Shifting from punitive oversight to developmental support changes how teams engage with the process.
Simplification is the value proposition — When complex data becomes clear next steps, adoption and cultural change follow naturally.
Phased training drives adoption — Learning features week-by-week instead of all at once built confidence and inspired the organization to adopt this approach internally.