By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD In my recent blog entry “Express Mail is Urgent and Should Be Delivered Immediately – Unless Fuel Is Expensive” I complained about a perplexing development from the United States Postal Service (USPS). A Lament: Each month the USPS sends me two Express Mail deliveries. Each contains a CD of address […]
Author: Peter Lyle DeHaan
Author Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD, publishes books about business, customer service, the call center industry, and business and writing.
Categories
Can You Prove It?
Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD You say and believe that your call center is the best, but can you prove it? The truth is that your competitors are also likely saying that they are the best. Remember that only half of any group can be above average and only one out of 100 can be in […]
Categories
The Opportunity to Change
By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD In recent months there has been a great deal to cogitate about. There was a media preoccupation with the U.S. presidential election, coupled with a focus on the credit crisis, which seemed to worsen every day, eventually turning into a financial crisis and threatening the global economy. Throughout it all, businesses […]
Categories
False Alarms and Other Considerations
Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD False alarms and erroneous error messages: if you have technology in your call center, then you’ve likely been frustrated by these events. I was recently reminded of this as I searched for the source of an electronic alarm, warning me that something was awry in my home. Eventually, I found the […]
The DMA (Direct marketing Association) recently released their annual report on the catalog industry. The report indicated that in 2007, 36% of sales [for the catalog industry] were conducted online. What is shocking is that this statistic is a decrease from 2006, when it stood at 40%. In fact 2007’s percentage was lower than both […]
Categories
The Politics of Outbound Calling
Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD With the fall elections in the United States approaching, call centers that make automated and/or political calls should consider: Remember, just because it’s legal doesn’t make it right.
Categories
Call Center Anecdotes
By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD Over the past few months I have been amassing call center anecdotes. Here is my compilation. First up is Netflix. Netflix is one of my favorite organizations, mailing me DVDs to watch on my TV and providing downloads to watch on my computer. In my January 2007 article, The Netflix […]
Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD The success rate of agents transferring calls is not good. In fact, based on my experience, successful call transfers actually occur less than half the time. The most common result is being disconnected. When a disconnected caller calls back, the happy caller has likely become irritated, the irritated caller has become […]
By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD My bride and I recently watched the movie Get Smart. As a long-time fan of the 60s TV series, I was greatly anticipating this flick—and was not disappointed. There were a good number of subtle tie-ins and allusions to the show, but not so many as to be excessive or […]
Categories
Bizarre Back to School Special
By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD I once received a flier for one of the most bizarre promotions I have ever seen. It was a “Back to School Special” — to have my septic tank pumped. I hope that it is obvious that I have never listed “pump septic tank” on my back-to-school to do list—and […]