What’s New from i24 Call Management Solutions

In this edition: 

• A message from our President & Chief Engagement Officer, Gary Blair.
• Operations News: Welcome our New Wow Specialists
• November Weekly Client Quality Score Draw Winners
• Our CAM-X Award of Excellence Plus celebrations
• Article: Comment Suivre à la période des fêtes? par Eveline Donaldson
• Article: My Acadian Family Christmas in Moncton. by Ray Hiltz
• This month’s featured recipe: Christmas Stuffing Pie

Welcome to our New WOW Specialists!

Here’s a little about our new iWOW specialists who manager your calls.

Q. How would you spend 1 million dollars?

A. Buy a house and go on a 2-week vacation in the Bahamas.

Q. You come across a Time Machine. What period, past or future would you visit and why?

A. The year 2100 plus. I’d want to see the state of our planet then so I could change my habits today.

Q. Imagine you’re stuck on a desert island. Name one thing you would like to have with you and why?

A. If stuck on a deserted island, I would like to have a satellite phone that would allow me to make calls and that would allow me to have my exact location

Our new i24 WOW graduates

We are so proud to announce that Erin and Raymond have just completed their comprehensive WOW Specialist training. Congratulations!

Erin & Raymond

Our November Courtesy Call Score Average:

To ensure consistent customer satisfaction,

we contact all our customer on a yearly basis to discuss how things are going and if there are any updates that should be done on their account.

One of the things we ask our customers during our yearly courtesy calls is to give us a score between 1 and 10.

Here is our average score for last month!!

Weekly Courtesy Call Score Draw Winner

Each week we achieve an average quality score of at least 8.0 out of 10, we hold a draw for our iWOW specialists. We haven’t missed a week since beginning the draws in April 2018.

Following are the winners with links to the videos that capture the fun. Congratulations!

(Click on images for accompanying videos.)

Congratulations!

We took home the CAM-X Award of Excellence Plus for the 22nd Consecutive time.

by Ray Hiltz

Growing up in Moncton in the 60’s in an Acadian home set me apart from many of my classmates at Queen Street School who, for the most part, were Irish Catholics.  

My Acadian paternal Grandparents sent me to an English school because:
a) my mother was English and in those days, we always defaulted to English and
b) Queen Street school was very close and very Catholic.

Our Christmas traditions were much the same as other French Canadian families. We had our big meal at dinner (lunch) and ate lighter in the evening.

Réveillon was the big event at Christmas. Even bigger than Santa.   Christmas Eve where we’d get to stay up late, go to Midnight Mass and then come home and dive into the great food that had taken days to prepare. I remember my Grandmother laying out a half dozen baked Duncan Hines cakes on the table in the days leading to Christmas. I was always happy to help with the frosting.

The family would move the furniture to the walls, shake salt over the floor then Grampy and whoever visited would pull out the violins and spoons and the party got started.

We got to open a present before going to bed. It didn’t leave Santa with much time to drop off the rest before morning.

My favourite holiday food (after ribbon candy, barley toys and chicken bones -above) was Poutine Râpee.

Blogger and journalist Brian Cormier has a Facebook Page dedicated to this Acadian “delicacy”.

It’s not the most appealing of dishes. (A ball of wet lint).  Acadian cuisine isn’t known for its colour palette. Think shades of grey with the occasional hint of brown if the dish happens to be gratinéed or baked. We count on summer savoury to add colour (and taste).

But it’s a cultural thing; something you grow up with. If confronted with the same plate today, you would think that you landed on an episode of Amazing Race.

There are many dishes particular to the Moncton area and this version of “The 12 Days of Christmas” by Acadian musical group Les Méchants Maquereaux lists a number of them.

Les douze jours de noël. – Les Méchants Maquereaux
https://youtu.be/SFqsk1LKS-g

Joyeux Noël

Christmas Stuffing Pie
Shared and tested by Derek Brookes

2 onions, minced
2 celery branches, minced 1 red bell pepper, cubed
3 Toulouse sausages, de-skinned and broken in pieces 2 tablespoons olive oil
1 clove of garlic, minced 1 pinch ground cinnamon 1 pinch ground cloves
1 pinch ground nutmeg
2 cups dried bread cubes or croutons 11/2 cup chicken broth
4 eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 cup dried cranberries, chopped 1/4 cup pecans, chopped
Salt and pepper

1. Place grill in the middle of the oven and preheat to 400 °F.

2. In a pan, brown the onions, celery, peppers with the sausages in the olive oil while breaking down
the pieces of sausages. Add garlic, spices and continue cooking for about a minute. Salt and pepper
to taste. Let cool.
3. In a large bowl, mix meat mixture with the remaining ingredients.
4. Pour in a pie 12″ pie crust (use your own recipe or store bought), do not cover and cook in the
oven for about 35 minutes or until the centre of the pie feels firm.

Note from Derek:
I have done this recipe multiple times and on many occasions and, to this day, I have NEVER had any left-overs!
Always a huge success for potlucks, holiday lunches and as an alternative to the
traditional “Tourtière”.

It can even be served on its own with a helping of Garlic Duchess Potatoes
and Buttered Carrots (My favourite…)

What’s your favourite Christmas dish?

par Eveline Donaldson

Dès le lendemain de l’Halloween, certains commerces débutent leur campagne de Noël. Nous
sommes ainsi bombardés de publicités, de musique, de décorations, et même de saveurs de la
saison des Fêtes. Tout semble y passer, si bien que ce qui était un sprint d’avant les Fêtes,
ressemble désormais à un marathon.
Afin de pouvoir rallier la ligne d’arrivée tout en passant du bon temps et ce, peu importe votre
situation, voici quelques petits conseils :

1- Préparez-vous à l’avance.
Sous la pression des achats de dernières minutes, nous pourrions être portés à dépenser
davantage que ce que nous avions prévu au départ et être plus à risque de faire appel au
crédit. De plus, par manque d’idées, nous risquons d’acheter davantage impulsivement. Faire
un budget qui respecte vos capacités et noter tout au long de l’année les idées qui vous
viennent pour les cadeaux de vos proches peuvent éviter la surconsommation. Offrir des
cadeaux faits maison est également une excellente alternative. Le temps et les efforts mis dans
ces cadeaux démontrent que vous tenez à eux. Il suffit de s’y prendre un peu à l’avance.

2- Revenez à l’essentiel.
Pas besoin d’en faire des montagnes. En Mes proches apprécient ce que je fais et ce, peu
importe que je leur serve un pâté chinois ou une dinde à « Ricardo ». Ce sont les moments
passés ensembles qui comptent. Alors si ce que vous prévoyez de faire est trop stressant et
demande beaucoup de temps au point de vous empêcher de profiter du moment avec vos
parents et/ou amis, trouvez une alternative plus simple. C’est souvent en sortant des sentiers
battus qu’on obtient des moments mémorables. Sinon, vous risquez d’être davantage épuisés
au retour des fêtes qu’au départ.

3- Faites-vous plaisir.
Que ce soit en groupe ou en solo, prenez le temps de faire des activités pour vous. Ce que
vous aimez faire, ce qui vous fait du bien. (Cocooning, cinéma, puzzle, etc.) Dans ce monde où
tout va trop vite, on oublie souvent de prendre du temps pour soi. Alors bien que cette période
de l’année soit propice aux événements sociaux, rien ne vous empêche d’utiliser cette pause
pour vous-même.

4- Restez vigilant.
N’oubliez pas que certains pourraient utiliser cette période pour obtenir quelque chose de vous,
notamment tout ce qui est commercial. Ils ont des experts qui maîtrisent l’art de nous avoir par
les sentiments et de nous faire dépenser inutilement. Posez-vous la question : Est-ce qu’on va
vraiment en avoir besoin dans l’année à venir?

Je vous souhaite de Joyeuses Fêtes!