Now here comes a comprehensive book that is supposed to answer our curiousity with regards to contact centers (
call centers cover voice calls, contact centers covers not just voice but other supports such as chat and email), written by no less than Real Bergevin, CEO of NuComm, who is one of countless major contact centers in the Philippines, arguably fast becoming the Call
center Capital of the World.
The burning question is -
who needs this book and is this the book I am looking for? I mean if I am interested to know more about call centers, irregardless if I am a
trainer, quality analyst, workforce analyst, team leader, senior team leader, shift manager, operations manager, senior operations manager, operations director, site director or a
newbie agent or
aspiring agent or a
shrewd investor who wants to know the in and outs of a contact center before I decide to put up one, this book should be the book for me. Or, the big 'OR', this book is made for a specific breed of '
dummies' - your
operations management gurus perhaps, or is it for the
hot-shot MBA or the
moneyed investor who is clueless what is a contact center and suddenly found themselves running one, or is it for the
aspiring rep who just wants to learn the ropes to advance in this competitive industry? This we will answer by the end of this abstract.
But first, let's dissect the book into sections, analyzing each part and what aspect of contact centers does each part cover. Next, we take the sum of its parts and 'wholistically' evaluate the book in its entirety - so we will know who will benefit from this book once and for all.
Let's get started.
In
Section 1, "Contact Centers: A First Look", you'll get a good overview of contact centers.
It's especially useful for those who are just getting started or who want to refresh their understanding of contact center basics or current trends in contact center management.
This part is definitely for newbies or people who are clueless what is a contact center.
Section 2, "Business Basics: Models and Drivers and Goals, Oh My!", is especially designed for those planning to build a new contact center. You'll find a potential business model for building a contact center and relate that model model to the larger corporate mission and goals.
Next comes
Section 3,"The Master Plan: Finance, Analysis, and Resource Management".This part looks at contact center analysis, financial planning and staffing. Included is a simple overview of how and what measures come together to drive contact center operational and financial performance. This is a must for operational gurus and an FYI for the aspiring newbie
to give them a clear picture how they come in or they contribute to the overall operational and financial performance of the account they are in.
Section 4,
"Making it Go: An introduction to Contact Center Technology", covers the basic contact center technologies. You'll discover various ways of getting contacts to the center, information to the agents, and information to customers. Definitely for the operational gurus trainers, QAs, workforce analysts, shift managers, senior team leads and team leads alike.
Section 5,
"Technological Enhancements: Getting the Newest and Coolest Stuff", you get into the fun stuff. Here you find the latest and greatest technologies available for updating and improving your contact center, new or existing. What makes this section real exciting is that you'll find a simple approach here that could garner support for your toy list in recommending
and justifying newsite director or a supplier, this is definitely a blast!
Section 6, "Ten Ways to Improve Your Contact Center" provides tips and techniques to boost your company's revenue and efficiency. All ten suggestions should apply to any contact center, regardless of the types of contacts you handle. This part is definitely for everybody who is ivolved in a contact center or would like to be involved in one soon.
The last section is for contact center savvy individuals, where you find a helpful case study about one company's experiences in establishing a contact center with state-of-the-art Avaya technology. You can undoubtedly find parallels in their challenges and experiences to your own!
Taking everything above into consideration, this book is an easy to use, plain English reference guide to contact centers. Irregardless if you are a
trainer, quality analyst, workforce analyst, team leader, senior team leader, shift manager, operations manager, senior operations manager, operations director, site director, a hot-shot MBA or the moneyed yet clueless investor who suddenly find themselves running a contact center, or an
experienced contact center manager looking for new ideas and perspectives, or a
supplier to contact centers and want to better understand client management's challenges, or a
newbie agent or
aspiring agent and just want to advance your career by unlocking the ancient contact center secrets found in the book, then this one is for you.
Being an experienced call center individual myself, (
Director - for operations and service delivery modesty aside! ), I enjoyed reading and reading this book over and over again - cover to cover! I'm sure you will too!
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