I was quite skeptical when I first heard about “gamification,” the use of gaming concepts to motivate desirable behavior among customers (or employees). I reasoned that while expecting customers to “play games” might result in a short-term increase in brand involvement or purchases, I doubted if it was sustainable. However, I am rethinking my initial […]
I needed to order some ink cartridges for my printer, the kind I can only buy from the vendor. I called and told the agent I wanted to order two black ink cartridges. Not surprisingly she suggested I buy a package that included two color cartridges. “No thank you, just black,” I replied. Upon discovering […]
This week I received my quarterly health insurance bill. Boy, was I in for a shock! It showed a 49 percent increase in my premium. Convinced it was in error, I naively called the company’s call center to get it corrected. The rep was nonchalant about the whole thing, acting as though a 49 percent […]
Many of us love magazines, just as much as (if not more than) we love books. But economic woes combined with new media’s impact on these industries, the future of magazines has seemed dire at times. However, I recently found some positive facts about magazines in the 2010/11 MPA Magazine Handbook: Magazine audiences are growing […]
Some healthcare contact centers go from day to day, month to month, and year to year without ever giving a thought to the often incapacitating evolution around them. Things get squeezed in here, hooked up there, and stacked on top of, until routine work becomes an illogical series of unneeded steps or wasted activity. Agents’ […]
How the Twelve Steps Point Us to a Power beyond Ourselves The Twelve Step program, developed by Alcoholics Anonymous to help people struggling with alcohol addiction, has been extended to address a wide range of destructive, compulsive behaviors. Key applications include drugs, food, sex, gambling, and smoking. Many individuals struggling with health issues prevalent today […]
Last month, we surveyed TAS Trader subscribers. We were pleased and encouraged by the high response rate, as well as the positive and insightful feedback. The bottom line is that TAS Trader is well-received, well-read, and enjoys much support. Here are some of the details of what we learned: This is some phenomenal support and […]
The telephone answering service industry is a wonderful and close-knit community. Tales abound of one service going the extra mile to help another – even direct competitors providing aid in times of crisis. With that as the general tenor of the industry, it is surprising and hurtful when a scam is perpetrated on our members […]
In my December column in Connections Magazine, I said, “Everything you currently do with phone calls, you need to apply to email. Answer email, screen email, route email, add value to email, prioritize email, and escalate email.” I’d like to delve into that a bit more, specifically as it relates to telephone answering services. First, […]
It’s official: last week it was announced that the recession is finally over in the United States. In fact, it’s been over for more than a year! It seems that the people who track such things wanted to be sure that we weren’t going to experience a double-dip recession, so they delayed making any pronouncements […]