By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD My family moved the summer before fifth grade, and I started a new school. I quickly realized three things. I was far ahead in math, hopelessly behind in grammar, and had been placed in the wrong class by the school secretary. The result was that my teacher gave me special […]
By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD I’ve spent most of my adult life in call center related vocations. I’ve worked in call centers and for a call center vendor, did consulting for call centers, audited call centers, wrote about call centers, and publish magazines, newsletters, and websites about call centers. Call centers are a vital part […]
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Effective Change Management
By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD There has been a great deal of change in the DeHaan household over the past year. Last summer Laura and Chris were married, with Laura moving out of state and looking for a new teaching job. Plus, they both started graduate school last fall. This spring, Dan and Kelli graduated […]
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Registering Domain Names
By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD A few months ago, I choose not to renew a tertiary domain name for a website. One semi-resourceful individual saw that it was now available, researched that I owned a similar one, and offered to procure it for me — not realizing that I was the former owner. (See “The Difference […]
By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD In this column in the March issue, “Perceptions of Call Center Outsources,” I shared from a recent study conducted by ContactBabel, called The US Contact Center Operational Review. Billed as “the largest and most comprehensive study of all aspects of the US contact center industry,” this was their second edition […]
By Peter Lyle DeHaan, Ph.D. People often contact me in search of information about medical call centers. Whenever possible, I direct them to content on the 600-page AnswerStat website. These queries are the easy ones. However, often the inquisitor asks about benchmarking and statistical issues for medical call centers. This is frequently precipitated after the […]
By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD At the World Economic Forum, Jim Wallis suggested that wondering when the global economic crisis would be over is the wrong question to ask – even though it is the one foremost on our minds. He posited that the real query should be, “How will this crisis change us?” After […]
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My Netflix Reviewer Rank
As I’ve mentioned before, I’m a huge fan of Netflix, the online movie rental site. In addition to making movie selections, I spend time rating movies so that Netflix can make recommendations of other flicks that I might enjoy; it generally works quite well. After watching one obscure selection online, Netflix asked me to write […]
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Do You Tweet?
Are you into Twitter? Do you tweet? Twitter, by the way, is self-billed as a “social messaging utility.” I prefer an alternate description as a “micro-blogging service.” Frankly, it’s been a challenge for me to keep these blog posts under my self-imposed limit of 300 words (this one stands at 278), so I can’t fathom […]
By Peter DeHaan, PhD IVR (Interactive Voice Response) has its place in the call center, but we need not overstate what that place is. If IVR can truly speed up the call for the caller or gather information to assist the agent in providing better service, then use it. However, when the primary goal of […]