Working for some of the Top Call Center Operations, for the past 25 years, has afforded me the opportunity to gain a full understanding of those intriguing dynamics that help shape an efficient Call Center.  Through a series of industry best practices, I have seen some of the best kept secrets of “world-class” customer services implemented. These best practices have also been used to help manage industry service levels, abandonments, and the required agent talk times. Conversely speaking, I have also seen how agent attrition, agent call -ins, inclement weather, …

Imagine that you are a doctor with a busy medical practice.  Keeping your appointment slots filled and moving along is important, not only from a financial standpoint but in regards to the care of your patients as well.  An appointment time that is not filled is a time that could have been used by a truly sick patient.  When a patient leaves your office, they typically leave with their instructions, prescriptions and a follow up appointment date.  In the case of a sick person, some of this information may not …

Many companies hire an office manager to take care of the day to day details and tasks that need to be done.  In addition to taking care of some of these details, the office manager might be expected to handle the telecommunications details as well.  The more involved your company’s telecommunications needs are, the more responsibilities there will be and the more expensive these services will end up being.  For instance, the cost of the equipment that is needed and the staff that will also be needed to keep the …

When setting up to meet the telecommunications needs of your company, you may look at two different choices: the central office vs. data centers for all of your equipment. Whether or not you choose the right one will be based on a number of factors including the company budget and your actual telecommunication needs. The decision can be a very complicated one for many companies and should include input from your managed services provider, who can put everything into perspective and offer suggestions. In addition, the managed services provider can …

The telecommunications carriers know that companies are facing hard times. They themselves have probably had to tighten their belts and maybe even had to lay off a few employees until things pick up. While they will not give you your service for free, they are still a business after all; they will work with you to change your agreement so that you can continue to be a good customer.
 If you are facing difficulty paying your bills, it is best to start asking for rate reductions or changes in the terms …

While it might sound like something you would encounter in December in most parts of the world, it is an automatic renewal clause that some telecommunications carriers leave in their contracts to catch the unsuspecting and the careless company asleep at the switch. Good companies know that about three to six months before the end of a telecom contract, the rates and services should be shopped around- not only for the current provider but for several others. You should go to your current carrier’s rep and ask what they can …

Picking the Right Keywords:

The keywords you choose should not only be related to your industry but targeted to a particular niche within your industry.  Most common mistake made by those attempting to market their business without seeking the help of a professional, is picking keywords that are too general but have high search volume.  The reason they have high search volume is because they are too general.   In order to market your site effectively on the internet, you have to think like a searcher.  Even if those keywords or phrases …

 
To understand what comprises a Green Call Center let’s first look at what keeps a traditional call center from being Green.
1. Using an equipment based, site based call center platform, requiring replication at each site,  takes a tremendous amount of energy, not only to run the equipment but also to keep it cool.  For example, at an energy cost of $1.65 per square foot, at a 100 seat agent call center costs $13,200 per year in unnecessary power and gas bills.

Call center agents work onsite.  This means that each agent must use some means …

I am doing my MBA in telecommunication from amity university. Being a telecom manager i want to know from you that “how the mangaed services can help telecom operator to provide the world class services to the customers”. These services are just helping the operators to reduce their capex and opex and reduce chaos. what are the additional points on managed services which can make me undersatnd on this topic.
Make me enlightend with your Experience in this industry.
Thank you very much.
Shiv:
Thank you very much for your email.  As you mentioned, …

Q. Is SEO more important than social networking?
Somebody told me recently on a different forum that SEO of a company website was much more important for a company than social networking of the company producing the website? Apologies for the convoluted English, but is this true I wonder?
A. 
Well unfortunately it’s rather hard to make sweeping statements about a particular marketing strategy being the best for “all” companies looking to do some form of Internet Marketing. It really depends on what the goals of the company are, how involved they want …