Search

While telephone calls still make up the vast bulk of customer contacts today, the percentage of transactions arriving by e-mail or over the Web is increasing at Internet speed. Customers […]

In today's call center, where the overwhelming majority of ongoing expense is related to staffing, getting the right number of staff in place to answer the calls is critical to [...]

When it comes to selecting which call center technologies will improve a call center's operation, many products and vendors come to mind. As call centers have evolved, so have the [...]

Recent events have propelled disaster recovery planning and testing to the top of many a call center executive's to-do list. If you're one of the few who has not yet […]

Consolidation can be very beneficial for organizations which maintain several call centers. Call center consolidation can help cut overall operating costs, increase net revenue per call, standardize operations and facilitate the introduction of new technologies and services. However, it also has certain disadvantages, including costs associated with transmission, worker displacement and system upgrades. Before deciding for or against consolidation, companies should consider several cost- and service-related concerns., Virtually every organization with multiple call centers is going through a process of analyzing whether to consolidate operations into fewer sites. There are compelling reasons to do so--a staffing pattern [...]

Byline: Penny Reynolds Promotion marketers often rely on call center reps to get samples or product information into consumers' hands. And loyalty and incentive programs are grounded in a rep's [...]

Byline: Penny Reynolds The evolution of a simple call center into a multichannel contact center doesn't happen overnight. You may need to add or upgrade technologies, and certainly staff skills [...]

It's April and, for most consumer catalogers, time to plan for their peak staffing needs six months from now. Catalogers that do most of their business in the fourth quarter [...]

Sharpen your pencils, dust off your calculator, and get ready for a math lesson: When running a contact center, the most important rule to remember is that numbers matter. And [...]

A mere 275 shopping days until Christmas! While you may have a while before you need to address your holiday cards, the time is approaching rapidly for you to implement [...]

Whether manually created or developed through workforce management systems, carefully devised workforce schedules must be adhered to strictly. This is critical to your business. However, getting agents to adhere to [...]

More than just a bit of math is needed to keep today's call centers running optimally. Penny Reynolds Many managers make the incorrect assumption that an incoming call center is […]

Call center professionals today face a mind-numbing array of training choices. You can choose from dozens of traditional classroom seminars on a wide variety of topics. Or take a class […]

As we enter the holiday season, many centers are faced with the same problem: how to effectively hire and train employees for what may be a very short length of […]

In most call centers, enormous effort goes into forecasting workload, calculating staff requirements, and creating staff schedules. But all that hard work goes down the drain when the frontline staff […]

There is more and more focus in today's call center on selling. And whether it's an outbound center whose sole purpose is telemarketing, or a traditional inbound customer service center […]

Most people think of site selection as something they need to consider only when opening up a new call center. However, call centers that operate in cities such as Phoenix […]

The recent hurricanes that hit Florida have many call centers once again pondering their disaster recovery options. It seems to take a few disasters to make us dust off our […]

Most call centers acquire new technology and fund new initiatives with capital dollars. The smart call center manager knows how to develop an effective business case to gain approval for […]

The long-term success of any organization, and particularly a service organization such as a call center, depends upon continuous improvement. Most call centers have numerous measures of individual, team and […]

Rachel has just finished your agent orientation program and is ready to hit the phones. She's passed the product knowledge test with flying colors and seems to have better-than-average communications […]

If your call center is being asked to tighten its belt these days, you're not alone. Many businesses are feeling the effect of a slowed economy and all departments, including […]

Most call center organizations are built around a team concept. Some call centers have teams that are nothing more than a group of individuals that happens to report to the […]

Many businesses have felt the effect of a slowed economy over the past few years. All departments, including the call center, have been asked to tighten their belts and make […]

Getting the 'just right' number of staff in place to respond to incoming calls requires a four-step process of analyzing call history, forecasting future workload, calculating staff requirements and creating […]

Sharpen your pencils. Dust off the calculator. It's time for a math lesson. Running a successful call center operation means managing by the numbers. And the most important number of […]

You've covered all the bases in creating your call forecast--evaluated past trends and calling patterns, incorporated marketing's new promotional campaign--and you are convinced you've got an accurate forecast. You've fine-tuned […]

In surveys we've done over the past several years, The Call Center School has found that over 80 percent of supervisors and team managers in call centers today were moved […]

When it comes to call center efficiency, bigger is better. A larger call center or work team will be more efficient than a smaller one. This doesn't mean that the […]

One of the hardest things to manage in many call centers is getting frontline staff to adhere to their daily work schedules. Most think, 'Hey, there are dozens of other […]