Decisions We Make Today Can Better Prepare Us for Tomorrow By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD As writers pitched their article ideas for this issue of Connections Magazine, everyone, it seemed, wanted to talk about coronavirus and Covid-19. While I want the content of this magazine to address relevant, real-world situations, I also didn’t want to […]
Tag: From the Publisher
Categories
Coronavirus Communication
Seek Balance in Your Customer-Facing Messaging By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD It seems cliché to say it, but we live in an unprecedented time. We don’t have a roadmap on how to navigate this crisis we’re in. Responses to this pandemic vary, with some overreacting and others being dismissive. We need balance in our response, […]
You Can’t Schedule for the Unexpected, but That’s No Excuse to Be Unprepared By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD Traffic at many call centers fluctuates with the weather, affecting some centers more so than others. Of course, non-weather-related events can also impact call traffic. This includes natural disasters, pandemics, riots, the threat of violence, media-produced frenzies—and […]
Categories
The Power of Print
Printed Words Offer Many Benefits over Their Electronic Counterparts By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD In addition to writing a lot, I also read a lot. I read both print and e-book formats. I have a Kindle loaded with content, and I also read on my phone. At one point, I read mostly e-books, but over […]
Categories
Customer Service Makes the Difference
The Way Companies Deal with Customer Issues Has Future Implications By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD A day and a half into my week, and I’ve already endured three major customer service issues from three vendors. Their responses could not have been more different. One issue was with a global company that whisks money around the […]
Categories
Is the Future Our Friend or Foe?
Be Ready for Artificial Intelligence to Revolutionize Your Call Center By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD One of the spaces I inhabit is the call center industry. Another of my worlds is writing. These two areas intersect in this column. Another commonality is how technology, specifically artificial intelligence (AI), will affect both sectors. Futurists in the […]
Pursue Big-Picture Solutions, Not Incremental Improvements By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD There’s a lot of talk about customer experience and ways to enhance it. Though this is the right outcome, too often the approach to get there is shortsighted. Making incremental changes to improve one metric may help a bit, but how many metrics must […]
Customer Experience Is More Than a Buzzword—It’s the Path to Success By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD People love to share their stories about their experiences when interacting with various companies. They post things online, which can have a far reach and may go viral. They also tell people face-to-face, which doesn’t have the reach but […]
How to Survive When Receiving Twice the Calls or Having Half the Staff or Both By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD Running a call center is hard, at least doing it right. Even under normal conditions, managers struggle to balance traffic and staffing levels while maintaining high quality and minimizing complaints. But what happens when conditions […]
Categories
Our Seventeenth Annual Buyers Guide
We Celebrate the Many Companies and People Who Make Connections Magazine Possible By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD With this issue of Connections Magazine, we start our twenty-seventh year of continuous publication. It started in July 1993 when Steve and Chris Michaels founded the magazine. I took over in September 2001, just a few days before […]