September 23, 2002
"Indispensable!"
raves Roger E. Herman from Greensboro, NC
I never cease to be amazed at how many
call centers-inbound and outbound-operate in the United States,
and in other countries as well. Thousands and thousands of people
reaching out for more business and servicing existing customers
through call centers.
But, all is not happy in call
center land. These facilities are often plagued by high-and very
costly-employee turnover and a wide range of inefficiencies. Many
of the people running these operations are relatively untrained
people who have been promoted from within, because there are too
few true professionals in the field. Think about it: how many
people do you know who have majored in Call Center Management?
You'd think there'd be masters-level programs in the field with
the tremendous opportunities that abound. Sorry. You'll have to
learn the ropes some other way.
There are really two choices to
learning everything you might need to be a real pro in this field.
One is to understudy someone who really knew the field and could
coach and mentor you to success. Those wise people are few, far
between, very well paid, and probably too busy to spend much time
with you. The other alternative is this book.
Imagine a 486-page book that would
teach you every aspect of call center operations. Imagine that
this book would explain each facet of the business so you could
really "get it"-well enough to write your own ticket in
the field. "Call Center Operations" is about as close as
you'll ever get to the dream book in this specialty. Fifteen
chapters, six appendices, and a comprehensive eight-page index...
Given the volume of information
between these covers, a listing of the chapters will help you gain
a better appreciation of the power in these pages: Introduction to
Call Center Operations; Management, Business, and Marketing;
Telecommunications and Network Facilities and Premise-Based
Telephone Systems (these two chapters hit the technological side
of the business). You'll learn from chapters on Telecom Industry
Perspective, Automatic and Predictive Dialing, Client-Server
Technology, Graphical User Interface and Legacy Hosts, and
Relational Database Management Systems. Yes, we're getting deep
now, but the more you know the stronger manager you will be.
Chapter 10 addresses Call Center Software Packages and Systems and
11 gets into Computer-Telephone Integration. Continue with
Workload Management, Forecasting, and Staff Schedule Modeling and
then ask How Does Your Call Center Measure Up. The last two
chapters look at Service Bureaus and Reference Materials.
If this book is beginning to feel
like a college textbook, you understand. This is not a book for
the weak or the meek. This is a treasure for the pros who have
been searching for an "everything you ever wanted to
know" book. Working my way through it to write this review, I
learned more than I'll ever need to know about this growing field,
and I gained a deep appreciation for those responsible for running
call center operations professionally."
December 21, 2000
"Excellent Overview of a
Hot Topic in Business Today"
says a new Call Center Manager from Butler, PA
"As a soon-to-be manager of a
new call center operation, I found Day's book to be both
comprehensive and easy to use. Virtually all topics related to
establishing and operating a call center, then managing its
operation, are covered in well written, concise chapters. In
addition, he provides a reasonably good set of appendices with
references to consultants, measurement techniques, etc. The style
and language employed by Day are targeted toward intelligent
readers. When jargon is used, though, clear definitions are always
close by. Overall, I found the book to be just what I was looking
for -- a one-volume reference to make me aware of all the issues I
may face in the management of this new facility."
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