Call center articles by Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD
By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD I received an interesting press release. The headline reads: “Mobile Companies Fail to Meet Customer Service Needs Online” The subhead says: “Comprehensive consumer study reveals that technical issues prevent consumers from accessing the services they want online.” The announcement continues: “U.S. consumers have declared that mobile operators are falling short […]
By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD Lately, I’ve been thinking a great deal about customer service surveys, their value, and how they are abused. Why? It seems that I’ve been using them a lot. However, before I share my most recent saga, let me go back a few years and share that story first. Protect the […]
By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD Last month, I began sharing my overview of key findings from ContactBabel’s recently released The US Contact Center Operational Review (3rd Edition). Though it addresses the US market, readers outside the United States should not dismiss these findings. Offshore contact centers that serve the US will find this information most […]
By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD ContactBabel recently released the third edition of its The US Contact Center Operational Review. Last year, in the March 2009 issue of Connections Magazine, I highlighted some data from the “outsourcing” section of their second edition. This time I want to report on some of the broader findings. Of course, […]
By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD Even the simplest of transactions often intersect with the call center. My family’s recent switch of television content providers presented five such interactions – with varying results. The Prequel: This saga began over three years ago. (See my article, “Anything for a Sale.”) To recap, my wife and I decided […]
By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD You don’t need to spend much time in a call center before you realize that people who work there enjoy sharing anecdotes about the calls they’ve handled. This is a positive pastime, as it establishes community, provides a safe outlet, and builds a collective understanding. (The parallel activity of venting […]
By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD I am the first to appreciate and embrace well-done and smartly executed outbound calling. I am also highly critical of and greatly annoyed by poorly executed telemarketing efforts. Another example for this latter perspective arrived at my office today, courtesy of my telephone. The call went like this: “May I […]
By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD Ironically, most of the communication that I do in producing Connections Magazine, a publication about call centers, is done via email and not the telephone. My phone rings infrequently, and when it does the caller is often someone I don’t want to talk to – either a mismatched attempt to […]
By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD With the unemployment rate running so high, businesses needing to hire find themselves in a “buyer’s market.” There are plenty of people looking for work. This results in more applicants to pick from for each opening. High unemployment has also served to limit employment options, thereby reducing worker mobility. The […]
By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD Not surprisingly, the vast majority of readers of Connections Magazine operate a call center. Many are outsourcers, providing contact center services for other organizations, while the rest are internal (in-house) call centers that outsource, or have the potential to outsource, some or all of their contact center work. Consequently, there […]