Running a call center is like running a business, and like all good business leaders, you’ll want to make sure you can “talk the talk” when it comes to discussing budgeting and financial analysis with the C-level executives.  When the CFO calls and wants to discuss some planning numbers with your or ask some questions

Given the recent earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear plant disasters in Japan, organizations around the world are re-assessing their readiness for disasters. Disaster preparedness and recovery strategies are on the minds of many senior level executives and should be on the list for call center executives and managers as well. If you do not have a

Given the recent earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear plant disasters in Japan, organizations around the world are re-assessing their readiness for disasters. Disaster preparedness and recovery strategies are on the minds of many senior level executives and should be on the list for call center executives and managers as well. If you do not have a

One of the biggest problems in hiring call center staff is that the pool of available resources from which to choose is way too small.  Many companies make the mistake of simply running an ad in the newspaper classified section or just listing open positions on their web site. As a result, there are way

One of the most valuable tools to come out of ACD developers in the last few years is the capability to route calls to the person best able to handle it — skill-based routing. This skill-based routing feature allows a company to shorten training before new hires start to take calls, route callers to the agent best

Could you be creating an unprofessional image of your company by sending out emails that contain common grammar, punctuation, or word usage problems?  Many of your staff may be sending out messages with mistakes that go undetected by standard SpellCheck tools. To test the writing and editing skills of your email staff, see if they

The good news for many companies is that the economy seems to be improving. However, this economic turnaround is both good news and bad news for the contact center. It may mean more calls to handle as the customer base expands, and it may mean a higher level of turnover for your frontline staff. Statistics

Let’s face it — customers don’t like to be transferred. But sometimes a caller shows up at the wrong place and the call could be better handled by someone on another team or in another department.  If a transfer is required, then you want to make sure you complete the transfer in the most customer-friendly

You have 15 minutes to spend with one of your team members for a coaching session. So what do you do? Is it time to instruct her on ways to fine-tune an upselling technique, teach her how to better navigate through the online reference system, or simply provide some praise and recognition for her last

Most call centers have a limited training budget and need to ensure that their training investment will yield a measurable improvement in service and efficiency.  If you’re looking at the type of training that will likely yield the biggest return on your training dollars, the group that can generally benefit most from learning new skills