Contact Center Management On Fast Forward

This is the only book available today that provides a very readable, step-by-step guide for managing an incoming call center. The book combines theory with practical advice and is filled with over 100 charts and graphs, several case studies and an extensive glossary and index. Readers will learn how to: achieve service level with quality in an era of more transactions, growing complexity and heightened caller expectations; understand the "how" behind best practices; boost caller satisfaction; win top management's support; and discover what separates a good call center from a great one.

This book gives an accessible overview of the role and potential of mathematical optimization in call centers. It deals extensively with all aspects of workforce management, but also with topics such as call routing and the scheduling of multiple channels. It does so without going into the mathematics, but by focusing on understanding its consequences. This way the reader will get familiar with workload forecasting, the Erlang formulas, simulation, and so forth, and learn how to improve call center performance using it. The book is primarily meant for call center professionals involved in planning and business analytics, but also call center managers and researchers will find it useful. There is an accompanying website which contains several online calculators.

As the cost of doing business increases, call centers and help desks are frequently moving overseas. How can your center remain competitive? Is pooling the best way to slash your wait times? James Abbott concisely answers these questions as he leads you through the world of process-centered customer service. Strategic and tactical terms, how to choose metrics to measure, and the miracle of Queuing Science are covered thoroughly, using easy-to-grasp anecdotes to explain the key technical topics.

A guide to the adhocracy form of business management and how it can foster a company’s success. The leading companies of the past twenty years have all harnessed the power of information to gain competitive advantage. But as access to big data becomes ubiquitous, it can no longer guarantee a leg up. Fast/Forward makes the case that we are entering a new era in which firms that understand the limits of 1s and 0s will take the lead. Whereas the industrial age saw the rise of bureaucracy, and the information age has been described as a meritocracy, we are witnessing the rise of adhocracy. In uncertain, rapidly-changing times, adhocracic organizations scan the horizon for winning opportunities. Then, instead of questing after more analysis, they respond with agility by making smart, intuitive decisions. Combining decisive action with emotional conviction, future-facing firms seize the day. Fast/Forward paints the big picture of a new approach to strategy and provides the necessary playbook to make your company fit for the future. Praise for Fast/Forward “Fast/Forward makes a compelling case for spontaneity, speed, and a willingness to lead with intuition. More importantly, it speaks to the leadership qualities required to implement its suggestions—providing practical ways to cultivate to those qualities.” —Jeffrey Pfeffer, Stanford University, author of Power: Why Some People Have It—and Others Don’t “[Birkinshaw and Ridderstråle] are on the right track: In an ever-faster, globalized world, companies not only need a compelling strategy, but also an adaptive and caring performance culture. To unleash their full ingenuity, we have to empower our colleagues to act like owners.” —Joe Kaeser, President and CEO, Siemens AG “Big data is oversold as the most important facet of competitive advantage. Rather, breakthrough leaps of faith are necessary to achieve extraordinary results. Fast-Forward is full of practical advice about how to capitalize on this simple idea in order to forge your corporate future.” —Anita McGahan, Rotman School of Management, author of How Industries Evolve

Lead your organization with a customer experience vision that captures the voice of the customer and empowers employees to improve how they develop, market and sell your products and services.

"I once heard it said that running a call center is not rocket science. While you may not need the skills and education of an aerospace engineer, successful call center management does require certain skills and insight."-RANDY RUBINGH Call Center Rocket Science gives practical, hands on advice for today's customer service professionals. Here you will find real world advice on a wide variety of topics essential to effective call center management including: Recruiting and Hiring: How to find great agents, what to look for in a candidate, how to weed out applicants that may not be a good fit, closing the best candidates. Training: How to develop an effective new hire training course that prepares reps to take successfully take calls starting their first day on the floor. Effective Role playing strategies to increase effectiveness of training. Management: Creating a world class culture to motivate and retain your staff. How to look at and understand call center statistics. Call Center Operations: How to handle the day to day activity of a call center, and manage the business without constantly fighting fires. Outsourcing: For outsourcers- tips on how to make your client satisfied and give you more business. For those who outsource there are tips on how to get below the surface to truly understanding the level of service being provided by your service provider. Overall 110 tips that most centers can implement right away and receive immediate benefit of improved operations, and higher levels of employee and customer satisfaction.

How to evaluate the efficiency of your contact center operation, including key benchmarks and metrics relevant to process improvement, customer relationship management, knowledge management, human resources, workforce management, information technology and quality assurance. "Discovery" explains the Areas of Focus (Efficiency, Effectiveness, Capability and Differentiation), Functions (Customer-facing, Support, and Analytics), and Classifications that constitute the basis of a contact centre assessment. "Efficiency" considers aspects of Operations, Workforce Management and Process Management. "Effectiveness" deals with Customer Relationship Management, Knowledge Management, and Quality Assurance. "Capability" delves into Human Resources and Information Technology. "Differentiation" looks at the elements that separate the contact centre from competitors. "Assessment Outputs" explains how to analyse and present the data gathered during the assessment.