I help leaders uncover what's holding performance back, then build what closes the gap through better systems, better coaching, and clearer visibility.
For VPs, directors, and floor leaders who know their team can do better. 25+ years across sales, service, retention, training, quality, and vendor operations.
Why me
I didn't start at the top. I started on the phones and worked my way up through nearly every role on the floor and behind it.
Most consultants have seen one side of this. They were executives, or they were outside advisors. When I look at your operation, I'm not guessing what it feels like in each seat. I've been in it.
When expectations are clear, coaching is consistent, and the process actually supports the work, good people perform. Most of the time the answer isn't working harder. It's building better systems around the people doing the job.
The problem I solve
Half their day goes to busywork, and it's not their fault or yours. It's an automation gap, and it's quietly eating the hours that actually bring in revenue.
And they might be right, but without real numbers at the agent, team, and site level, nobody can say for sure. You end up steering by gut feel and the loudest voice in the room.
The sessions happen. The effort is there. But without one shared picture of what good sounds like, even great coaches end up trading opinions, and opinions don't move a scorecard.
How I help
Almost every floor I've walked needed some mix of these three. First job is figuring out which one is actually costing you, then working on that before anything else.
I look for where the time and money are leaking out, and that's usually where we start. Dead time, broken handoffs, the process nobody's questioned in five years because that's how it's always been done.
If your team is doing by hand what software should handle, you're paying skilled people to do data entry. I build the automation that hands those hours back.
No templates. No off-the-shelf playbook. I build what your operation is actually missing, the KPIs, the coaching standard, the reporting, the whole department, around how you really run.
What changes
Real numbers at the agent, team, and site level. No more steering by gut feel or the loudest voice in the room.
One shared standard for what good sounds like, so feedback changes behavior instead of just filling a form.
The busywork handled, so your people spend their hours on the conversations that actually drive results.
Track record
Took an underperforming center and moved it into the top half of its network, through coaching and a daily standard, not new hires.
Built automation that took a manual process eating most of a team's day and got it done in minutes, freeing those hours for real work.
Stood up a full team from nothing, the curriculum, the KPIs, the coaching, and the reporting that kept it accountable.
Developed front-line coaches and team leads into department managers, building the bench instead of just filling seats.
My approach
When I look at your operation, I don't read it like a consultant. I read it like someone who's run a floor, carried a number, and coached a team through a bad month. You won't get a generic playbook or a deck full of best practices from me.
You'll get someone who tells you straight what's working, what isn't, and where I'd start.
Give a floor one clear standard and a daily habit of listening to real calls together, and the same team that was stuck starts climbing. I've watched an underperforming center move into the top half of its network on exactly that. No new people, no working harder, just a better system and reps who finally knew what good sounded like.
It's the same thinking I'd bring to your floor.
The person behind Hildy Labs
I've worked nearly every seat in a contact center, and I care about the people first. I do love a good spreadsheet or scorecard, but I love helping people get better at what they do much more. That's the whole reason Hildy Labs exists.
The kind of thing I build
Give a floor one clear, trusted number to rally around instead of a dozen they argue about.
Strip the slow, repetitive work out of a team's day so their hours go to the conversations that actually move the number.
Build one shared picture of what good sounds like, then train and certify coaches to deliver it consistently.
Sit with agents on real calls and coach through the moments that actually decide the outcome.
Clean up how leads are worked and prioritized so more of them turn into conversions instead of falling through.
Design pay and bonus plans that reward both individual effort and team contribution, so the right behavior pays.
How I work
Not the dashboards, the actual conversations. I sit with your team and listen to real calls the way I listened to my own for 25 years. That's where the truth lives, and it's the first thing most operations stop doing.
I work with your coaches and reps, not around them. When someone tells me "the system won't let us do that," I take it as a starting point, not an answer. I've spent a career finding the way around the wall everyone else accepted.
Then we fix it, scoped to a clear outcome. A quick efficiency win or a system built from scratch, designed to be solid, simple to run, and genuinely owned by your team, not a black box only I understand.
It starts with a relaxed conversation. No charge, no deck, no obligation. Engagements scale to the problem, a focused assessment, a defined project, or ongoing support. We find the right shape together.
Let's chat
No operation is too small. I'm curious by nature, and a good problem is a good problem whether you've got ten seats or ten thousand.
Send me a few lines about your operation, what's working, what isn't, or just what you're trying to figure out. If I can help, I'll tell you how. If I can't, I'll point you to who can. Either way you'll get a straight answer and a good conversation.
And if you're just kicking ideas around, that's welcome too. I like talking about this stuff.
If you've worked alongside me before, you already know how I operate. I'd welcome hearing from you.
Prefer email? Reach me directly at james@hildylabs.com
Thanks for reaching out. I'll get back to you personally, usually within one business day.