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Call Center

Maximizing your Business: Business Improvement Groups

By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD Last month, in part one of this article, we discussed Benchmarking. The premise was that there is value in being able to statistically compare your call center with other centers. Taking that concept to the next level, there is the more intense and equally more valuable Business Improvement Group. Business […]

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Call Center

Maximizing your Business: Benchmarking

By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD North American culture salutes the solitary leader, the charismatic visionary, and the lone voice. It celebrates those boldly marching to the beat of a different drum. It is this perspective that makes for exciting cinema, painting an inspirational picture for viewers to admire and emulate; it successfully offers to fill […]

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Call Center

Service Sold It

By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD Growing up I remember a commercial on the radio with the tag line, “Service sold it.” Even as a young child I was able to grasp the concept that this business provided such a high level of service that their mere reputation was sufficient for them to close sales and […]

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Healthcare Call Centers

Shoot the Puck

By Peter Lyle DeHaan, Ph.D. It’s only been a few years that I have been following the sport of hockey. Before that, a myriad of other athletic diversions captured my attention. As a youngster, I did what many of my peers did and played Little League baseball. Not that I was good at it or […]

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Call Center

Al Gore and the Internet

By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD When I write, there is often a fact that needs to be verified or supporting material to be gathered. My first recourse in such matters is my personal library, which is not small and often contains what I seek if it is business related. I also am prone to save […]

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Call Center

A Matter of Perspective

By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD As the publisher of a trade magazine, I frequently travel to conventions and industry shows. And as a consultant, I frequently travel to my clients’ call centers. Therefore, it may surprise you that I don’t like to travel, especially to fly – the unpredictability, the impersonality, and the loss of […]

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Healthcare Call Centers

PBX Attendant Consoles

By Peter Lyle DeHaan, Ph.D. PBXs (and ACDs) are generally configured with an attendant console. Though a console can take on different forms and appearances, at its most basic, it is a fancy telephone which is given “permissions” to do advanced features that cannot be accomplished by other phones and users on the system. Traditional […]

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Healthcare Call Centers

An Eye For Customer Service

By Peter Lyle DeHaan, Ph.D. It was an emergency run to the eye doctor. Being far-sighted and using a computer all day makes my glasses an indispensable tool – one that I treat with the utmost care. Imagine my dismay when in the midst of my morning cleaning routine, I heard the frame snap and […]

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Call Center

A Conscious Decision

By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD It was 5:45 am. My family and I were in a hotel room in Alpena Michigan; we were there for a hockey tournament. I had just awoke, but yearned to fall back asleep. After a few minutes, the futility of attempting to do so became apparent and I got up. […]

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Call Center

The McDonalds’ Factor

By Peter Lyle DeHaan, Ph.D I’ve never met anyone who felt they were over paid. Occasionally someone will privately admit to being adequately compensated, but most people are quick to assert that their pay is not reflective of the work they do or their value to their organization. This is especially true with call center […]