Consider the implications of the call center versus contact center debate By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD In Connections Magazine we use the terms call center and contact center interchangeably. Some authors who write for us are content to use the more traditional label of call center, while others prefer the more accurate label of contact […]
Tag: From the Publisher
Categories
The Failure of New Customer Discounts
Companies Focus on New Customer Acquisition and Then Encourage Customers to Leave in Two Years By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD My family just completed our biennial cell phone switch. We’ve been doing this like clockwork for two decades. We pick the company that offers the best price and switch to that one. Two years later […]
Chatbots Could Follow the Path of IVR, a Once-promising Technology That Earned Customer Ire through Poor Implementation By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD I don’t often use web chat because I find a phone call is faster and more thorough. Recently I made an exception and learned a valuable lesson. The email said that my new […]
Categories
Be Careful What You Say
People Judge the Company We Represent on Every Single Phone Call By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD I once had a call center agent work for me who had a compulsion to offer commentary at the end of every call. Her comments ranged from snarky to crass. Occasionally she voiced her opinion a bit too quickly, […]
Categories
The Call Center Can Save Healthcare
With a shortage of practitioners and a downward push on costs, the call center is poised to come to the rescue By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD It’s a bold statement to claim that call centers are the future solution to healthcare’s present problems. But it’s what I believe. And more and more people in the […]
Categories
Customer Disservice
Sometimes a Call Center Is Its Own Worst Enemy By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD When call centers work as intended, they’re an amazing resource. They provide needed information and allow for the speedy resolution of problems. They’re fast, convenient, and effective—most of the time. Though I like to celebrate call center success in this column, […]
By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD Bots, sometimes called chatbots, are applications used to automate responses to social media and online inquiries. The purpose of bots is to speed answers to customer information requests. And they do this automatically. They’re programs, after all. They can do in seconds what it might take a person minutes to […]
By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD In the call center space, customer experience looms as the hot buzzword of our industry. But beyond all the talk, I wonder if it’s not just a new label on a proven theme that’s been around for a long time. The basis for customer experience resides in customer service. Customer […]
Categories
Be Nice
By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD A friend works for a company that helps government agencies provide better service to its customers. One division works with call centers, and another addresses walk-in traffic. That’s where my friend works. Often his company needs to address the basics. Sometimes they must start with a simple instruction that seems […]
Categories
A Failure to Serve
By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD I often share customer service successes and failures in this column. Though my rants have a cathartic outcome for me, I hope even more that they offer insight to you and your call centers. Here’s my latest installment. A year ago I finally had had enough with my Web hosting […]