Finding time to read, however, is a constant struggle. As with making time to write, we need to make time to read. For me, the decision often comes down to watching TV or reading. Sometimes TV wins and other times reading wins. Often, the choice I make hinges on how good the book is versus […]
I’m a huge fan of dictation and use it for all my writing, not only my first draft but even as I edit. Using dictation, I can write about two thousand words an hour—compared to about five hundred words typing. My dictated words come out in pretty good shape, about 90 percent of the way […]
Read Connections Magazine Anywhere You Have Internet Access By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD As announced last year, the January 2021 issue of Connections Magazine marks an exciting turning point for us. Following a long-standing industry trend, Connections Magazine is now exclusively an online e-publication. We’ve gone all digital. This means you can access all our […]
Make Sure Your Policies and Procedures Accurately Reflect Remote Work By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD In the past year, many healthcare call centers scrambled to adjust to ever-changing expectations and requirements to keep employees safe while continuing to work. Some call centers already had viable work-at-home protocols in place and a few were already 100 […]
A reader emailed me. He said you recommended starting by writing short stories. Unfortunately, I’m already near finishing my first novel (which took years of planning). I skipped the step of starting with short stories. What should I do? The main benefit of writing short stories before writing a novel is to identify and learn […]
What Was Once Optional Is Now Required By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD The potential to have remote operators work off-site from the main answering service location goes back to the 1990s, when I made a presentation about this topic at the ATSI convention. I covered the two key aspects of having a distributed workforce. One […]
How We Conclude This Year Will Prepare Us for What Happens Next Year By Peter Lyle DeHaan, Ph.D. This year continues to be a challenging one, more so than most others—perhaps any other. As we look forward to a new year in our healthcare call center, we turn the calendar with expectations of a better […]
Move beyond a Mindset of Answering Calls to Facilitating Interactions By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD This year has been a challenging one no matter how we look at it. Our status quo as an industry—to whatever degree we ever had a status quo—has been shaken. Everything seems to have changed. Our response has been as […]
Now More Than Ever, Take Time to Say “Thank You” By Peter Lyle DeHaan I’ve seldom been in a call center that wasn’t busy. Even the ones that weren’t quite as busy as others still had calls come in at a steady pace. And this was during normal times. What about the not normal times […]
Discover What’s Next for Connections Magazine By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD Over its twenty-eight-year history, Connections Magazine has seen many industry changes, with technological innovation leading the way. For industry veterans, recall what your call center looked like three decades ago. It was a vastly different operation from what you have today. We’ve also seen […]