Call Center Technology Demystified: The No-Nonsense Guide to Bridging Customer Contact Technology, Operations and Strategy
Saturday, October 31st, 2009
at
2:44 am
Call Center Technology Demystified clarifies the sometimes complex and often confusing array of technologies that enable call center success. This book will lead you through the labyrinth of customer contact technology jargon, common misperceptions and marketing hype to help you align technology with business needs and optimize your technology investments…. More >>
Tagged with: Bridging • Call • Center • Contact • Customer • Demystified • Guide • NoNonsense • Operations • Strategy • Technology
There are many books on the subject of Call Centers…many of which are difficult to read without injesting alot of caffeine or putting toothpicks in your eyes to stay awake through it…This book is easy to digest, is splashed with humor, and flows along nicely. It helps the non-technical understand technical issues and applications, and the business minded individuals to appreciate how technology can improve the way they do business. Definitely worth the time to read!
This is a must-read book for both end-users and call center sales professionals. Bocklund and Bengston do an excellent job taking a complex subject and explaining it so that both call center professionals and novices can understand the material. I thought they did a particularly good job explaining the transition from traditional call centers to multi-media call centers. Thank you for this excellent reference, I will use it often.
I have always been impressed with the fact that Lori and Dave view call center technology (and call centers in general) from a strategic viewpoint. Everything they do starts with asking overall business strategy questions. Call Center technology will only really be effective if it supports the overall business objectives. This is how Lori and Dave approach their consulting work, the seminars they conduct and how they approached writing this book. One of the great practical elements to this book, in each chapter there are numerous tables summarizing the strengths/weaknesses, pro/con, advantages/limitations for numerous elements of call center technology. I found these tables to be very useful, not only as a synopsis of what they just got done saying but also as a tool for a quick reference and a framework in formulating your decision making process. They also give examples of what the technology vendors will say about the technology so you as the technology buyer have a much better idea of how the vendors view and approach the technologies they are trying to sell you.
Overall, this book is a great value for your money. You should be able to make better call center technology decisions after reading and using this book. This book is very practical and one you will want to reference over and over again.
In short, this book delivers what the title promises. Once read, this book now occupies an easy to reach spot in my office. I recommend this book for anyone that manages agents or technology in a call center or that markets to the industry. Thank you to the authors for demystifying call center technology in a consise and fun format.
Like a compass on a stormy sea,this book navigates both technology experts and non-technical novices through the often complex, murky call center technology waters.
As a consultant with over 16 years of call center experience and more technology books on my shelves than I can count, Call Center Technology Demystified is one that I will reference again and again. Alone who wants to know more about the subject, from someone looking for the big picture, to those wanting the in-depth details will find this an engaging,informative read. The book is sprinkled with humor and chockful of realistic examples, charts and tables that alone make it well worth the investment! (of time and money)
The real differentiator though, is the approach the authors take to the role of technology. Both effectively drive the point home that an integrated approach to strategy, one that identifies key business drivers and then the necessary people, processes AND enabling technologies to achieve the organization’s objectives is what is critical for success. All throughout the book, the authors continually link back to this message and urge the reader to make sure the technology “fits with the overall business strategy.” Most importantly though, they tell you HOW and WHAT you can to do make sure this happens…this is the true measure of a book worth reading.
I have recommended this book to several colleagues, call center managers, technology specialists and senior executives who are trying to understand the role technology plays in their “Customer Relationship Management” strategies.
Thank you for this great resource!