Management, Human Resources, and Life in a Customer Focused World

It’s been a while since I’ve posted, but I read something that I felt was truly worth repeating.

The vast majority of customers we spoke with made the task pleasant and enjoyable.
This is a quote from Tom Vanderwell while he was doing surveys with people at a store’s checkout line.  It applies to every thing you [...]

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Human Resources is one of the areas that is a challenge.  The definition of Human Resources tends to be one that is nebulous because each company uses it differently. In some companies, HR is simply the people that handle internal complaints and concerns including hiring, firing, harassment, etc. In others, HR’s role is expanded to [...]

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Someone recently asked me:
“When’s the right time to centralize different divisions or receptionists into a centralized center?”
This is a question that a lot of companies struggle with and mirrors the simple question of
“Should I start a contact center?”
The easy answer is: It depends.
I know. It’s a co-out. It is, however, true as well. [...]

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Customer Service in Different Countries was the blog posting that made me chuckle a little… The reason it did so was that one of my friend living outside the US has been regaling me with some problems that she’s been having.  She doesn’t live in one of the 11 countries surveyed by Accenture.  They did [...]

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Service Untitled wrote a post about the “Difference in Roles” in a service organization.  His three definitions are Support, Account Management, and Consulting.  I think that he’s missed his naming/definitions a little bit, but let’s play along for the moment.
Support is the least involved and consulting is the most involved, with account management in the middle.
Based on [...]

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In January 2008, I wrote a post that still brings in a good amount of traffic (KPI (Key Performance Indicators) – Are they what they used to be?). In this post, I defined six KPI that I find to be the ones that are quality and quantity focused. A while back, I was in a [...]

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Historically speaking, call centers have all too often been split — you’re either a selling agent or you’re a service agent. These two hiring profiles were polar opposites and even when sitting together in the same area they held themselves apart by force of personality and title separation. This was the paradigm that [...]

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In November 2008, I wrote about six “crucial” scores to look at in my  Quality v Quantity (recovered 2/18) entry.  These six scores are what I’d call a “next generation contact center’s KPI”.
What is KPI?

“Key Performance Indicators” (KPI) are financial and non-financial metrics used to quantify objectives to reflect strategic performance of an organization. KPIs [...]

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Ask a Manager is a blog where people write in and ask questions of the writer.  The latest post is about scheduling — a very pertinent question in a call center environment.  The questioned asked, in summary, was
my boss has written me in for shifts without asking me if I am available.
Almost everyone in a [...]

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Contact centers tend to be at the core of this arguement. Quality vs Quantity. What is truly the most important? Does a person’s Average Speed of Answer (ASA) mean more than their customer feedback score? Is the abandon rate the key or does customer satisfaction play a role? In truth, the answer is not [...]

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