By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD There are likely as many billing plans as there are telephone answering services. It seems that everyone has his or her own idea of the right way to bill clients, with each answering service viewing its method as superior. Yet privately, they comprehend its shortcomings. In reality, there is no […]
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Help AnswerStat Help You
By Peter Lyle DeHaan, Ph.D. AnswerStat magazine is an advertiser-supported magazine. That means that the ads in this magazine make it possible for us to write, design, print, and mail AnswerStat to you. You read AnswerStat because you value the content. Advertisers support AnswerStat because they know that they can reach decision makers and influencers […]
By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD I have long been a proponent of the necessity for outsourcing call centers to have websites. In fact, I view a website as a veritable requirement for success in today’s market. To the point, call centers lacking a website are quickly viewed as second-rate providers and not worth the consideration […]
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More News Than You Can Use
A few months ago, I blogged about the various random press releases that I receive each day. In that post, I committed the faux pas of labeling them all as spam — and was quickly chastised for making a sweeping overstatement that was not entirely correct. In this, I was reminded that spam is in […]
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That’s No Way to Run a Business
By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD A while back, the Connections Magazine sales line was slammed with a phone call— for another company. The calls were from irate individuals trying to call a removal line of the fax service bureau that had sent them faxes. It seems that they had received an unwanted fax solicitation on […]
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Call Center Basics
By Peter DeHaan, PhD When I ask folks if they work at an in-house or an outsource call center, I am surprised at how frequently this question is fumbled. At risk of offending knowledgeable veterans, I offer the following call center basics: Inbound Call Centers answer calls. Their agents react, waiting for the phone to […]
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Seven, Eleven, and Zero
A few weeks ago, I lamented about the number of syllables in the letter W. I asked for he be given equal treatment to the alphabet’s other 25 one-syllable letters. Today, I have the same concern for seven. You see, of the single digit numbers, all but seven enjoy one-syllable conciseness. (In case you are […]
By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD There are many good things happening in the call center industry. Millions of people are employed in productive positions that benefit both commerce and the economy. These jobs are desirable nonmanufacturing positions and essentially nonpolluting, making them highly attractive to state and local governments’ job-creation efforts. Call center agents receive […]
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Harvesting Data From Websites
Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD I’m used to people harvesting contact information from my websites to send me messages, most of which are span. I have a dozen or so sites, with each containing links to many of the others. So it not uncommon for them to harvest an email from one site, jump to the […]
Recently I pondered the correct spelling for W. Not finding an official answer, I went with “double-u.” Upon further contemplation, I realized having similar doubts about the spelling of many letters. Therefore, I advance this list, which I ultimately found in Google’s scan of the book “The Institutes of English Grammar” by Goold Brown. (I’ve […]