Decker Communication

JUNE 28, 2021

I’ve been lucky enough to manage people for most of my career. Every role over the next few decades involved people management. While I loved all my roles, one in particular really helped me grow as a leader — managing a call center in financial services. The energy in a call center is incredible.

Call Center 95

Call Center Energy Tools Participative 95

Strategy Driven

OCTOBER 7, 2016

Organizations should coordinate management skills into its overall corporate strategy, in order to satisfy customer needs profitably, draw together the components for practical strategies and implement strategic requirements to impact the business. This is my review of how management styles have evolved. Under it, people were managed.

Management 70

Management Hostile Takeover Management by Objectives Objective 70

Strategy Driven

MARCH 11, 2021

No matter what kind of business you run or how many years of operation you have behind you, how you engage with customers can be the difference between running a successful brand and falling at the first hurdle. Not Listening to the Customer.

How To 121

How To Call Center Tactics Audience 121

Decker Communication

JUNE 28, 2021

I’ve been lucky enough to manage people for most of my career. Every role over the next few decades involved people management. While I loved all my roles, one in particular really helped me grow as a leader — managing a call center in financial services. The energy in a call center is incredible.

Call Center 52

Call Center Energy Tools Participative 52

Strategy Driven

MAY 4, 2016

So how do you manage change at the fundamental organizational level? Here are three tips to help successfully manage organizational change: Listen to employees: It is critical that you or the leadership team take the time to carefully listen to what employees are feeling and saying regarding the change and confront any fears head on.

Succession 50

Succession Management Parcell Call Center 50

Chart Your Course

SEPTEMBER 16, 2018

It’s no secret millennials have changed and impacted the workplace as we know it, most notably the layout and operation of our workspaces. Even something as standard as a company call center should be configured for the Gen Z working style.

Call Center 100

Call Center Career Environment Course 100

Strategy Driven

OCTOBER 22, 2021

The contracts include a variety of business services the company needs such as phone services, internet, call centers, and data centers. Businesses need to devise strategies to cut down on operational costs, and each strategy cuts their costs according to the choices the owner makes.

Outsourcing 101

Outsourcing Budgeting Cost Media 101

Tanveer Naseer

AUGUST 5, 2014

These are, of course, widely appreciated management methods for raising performance. Perhaps it’s because they feel counter-intuitive to many managers. Because micromanagement, the opposite of autonomy and the default behavior for many managers, puts people in a threatened state. But they’re rarely put into practice.

Motivation 279

Motivation Proposal Stress Goal 279

Terry Starbucker

MAY 22, 2016

One year on since our acquisition of our Rocky Mountain cable TV systems, there was a significant operational issue that needed our attention. When we took over these properties, we were taking phone calls in 27 different locations, with 27 different phone systems, and 27 different ways of handling customers. It was not a good memory.

Letter 171

Letter Leadership Call Center Long-term 171

Strategy Driven

SEPTEMBER 6, 2019

Operating costs, marketing, and logistics may take priority over customer service but it should never be overlooked. One way to achieve this is through a call center or answering service that can tend every customer that calls. As a small business owner, you may at times find yourself strapped budget-wise.

Company 57

Company Call Center Loyalty Brand 57

Great Leadership By Dan

JANUARY 26, 2017

Most of these decisions are made in an HQ setting in alignment with regional general managers tasked with global business expansion. In a major corporation, it is common to see a general manager in charge of Asia Pacific, another for Europe, Africa, Middle East, and another for the Americas.

Globalization 120

Globalization Budgeting Strategy Compliance 120

Lead on Purpose

NOVEMBER 10, 2012

Operating without clear strategy could ultimately leave you with the potential to be doomed to failure. Where call centers are notoriously known for their low morale and high staff turnover, Kevin decided to follow a non traditional strategy with regards to his employees. Be strategic in your role as product manager.

Leadership 227

Leadership Education Short-term Competitive Advantage 227

Strategy Driven

MARCH 5, 2020

You can send your books to an accountant, your calls to an answering service and your intelligence technology management to an IT firm, while you concentrate on the core projects and tasks that build your company up. Outsourcing different aspects of your business can help you save time, money and focus.

Outsourcing 66

Outsourcing Operations Cost Project 66

Terry Starbucker

JULY 19, 2015

Today’s story is about how I found my leadership secret weapon – an operational metric that could play a key role in our march to greatness, and provide a critical link between great customer service and profit. But on the other hand, there was a deeper issue – the cable operator just wasn’t liked. It was on the record.

Leadership 150

Leadership Metrics Price Mass Marketing 150

Surviving Leadership

OCTOBER 29, 2018

This would include a day spent with an installation tech and a day spent with a call center agent – preferably, in a market other than your own. .” Basically, if you worked in corporate, you were encouraged (and at director and above, required) to do a quarterly visit in the field.

CFO 58

CFO P&L Call Center COO 58

Terry Starbucker

JULY 5, 2015

We came up with a cover letter to go with the shirt, personally signed by me, and then, at our weekly management conference calls, I started to hand them out. I went into this long monologue about how we were missing something in our operations. queried Allan, one of my managers who ran our call center. “I

Leadership 150

Leadership Letter Conference Definition 150

Tony Mayo

OCTOBER 13, 2010

– Alex “Sandy&# Pentland MIT Human Dynamics Lab in Harvard Business Review Another study, at a bank’s telephone call center, showed that operators who spent their breaks speaking to coworkers not only got more work done but experienced less workplace stress.

Mayo 146

Mayo Executive Coaching Efficiency Handbook 146

Terry Starbucker

JULY 23, 2018

Manages to an end, not a cause. I joined a different Cable TV company not long after I got fired, and worked my way up to a SVP of Operations role for some cable networks in the Rocky Mountain west of the US, with 300,000 customers scattered around 4 states. I used to tell my managers that we weren’t paid by the word.

Leadership 181

Leadership Learning-by-Doing COO Follow-up 181

Strategy Driven

JANUARY 2, 2015

‘Customer care’ means that customer service is palmed off on some call center. . ‘Right now’ is a vendor term for what they’re peddling, rather than what the marketplace really needs. Expect to render good business all the time.

Strategy 50

Strategy Strategic Planning Budgeting Risk Management 50

Strategy Driven

DECEMBER 18, 2015

Organizations should coordinate management skills into its overall corporate strategy, in order to satisfy customer needs profitably, draw together the components for practical strategies and implement strategic requirements to impact the business. This is my review of how management styles have evolved. Under it, people were managed.

Hostile Takeover 50

Hostile Takeover Management by Objectives Objective Scientific Management 50

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 31, 2018

To increase diversity at senior executive levels, more must be known about one group in particular: women of color in midlevel leadership, who successfully developed and progressed beyond individual contributor and first-line management. How did (or didn’t) managers play a role? They pursue management challenges.

Management 13

Management Tacit Knowledge Diversity Leadership Pipeline 13

Strategy Driven

APRIL 8, 2017

It’s not uncommon for live chat operators to be working on 5 or 6 chats at once. So, the help of a virtual call center company could go very far. This sort of service will enable your calls to be mainly handled by a computer. Feedback management software comes in loads of different forms.

Media 50

Media Reputation Software Review 50

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 10, 2017

Precision made it easy for managers to oversee their employees. Every spot on every line was visible to managers. But Bernstein and his team observed that when managers were not watching, employees secretly developed and shared better ways of doing the work. They couldn’t adapt to improve their work.

Organization 12

Organization Tactics Call Center Metrics 12

Strategy Driven

APRIL 24, 2014

Instead of having an odd man out, I kept an old, beat up call center chair and my team got the good chairs until mine could be replaced. Management & Leadership business leadership business management Jason Levesque management and leadership strategydriven' We didn’t get enough delivered though.

Development 59

Development Team Loyalty Due Diligence 59

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 2, 2014

You have front-line employees who create what you sell or who deal directly with customers: software developers, sales reps, call-center staffers, and so on. Not long ago my colleagues and I studied the cost of adding a manager or executive, and we found a kind of multiplier effect (see the graphic below).

Cost 12

Cost Span of Control Management Bureaucracy 12

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 3, 2018

Airbnb has pushed the limits of designing its customer call center operation in Portland, Oregon. Companies routinely conduct employee surveys to gather feedback on a number of factors such as their culture, performance management and investment in learning and development. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

Real Estate 14

Real Estate Call Center Hedge Survey 14

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 22, 2018

Our call centers became the FEMA call centers. For example, now with our call center experience, we are competing for the call centers for the U.S. Or a desire to invest in other newer parts of the business — the solar, the housing, the call centers, etc? and Caribbean.

Media 10

Media Company Call Center Real Estate 10

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 3, 2015

When we talk to managers about what their workers are lacking, we hear a common refrain: “We need employees who can think, not just follow orders.” The only way to thrive, or even survive, these managers conclude, is to find workers who can co-create value with customers and constantly improve operations.

Development 8

Development Call Center Operations Health Care 8

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 28, 2015

As Jo Coombs, Managing Director at OgilvyOne, London, observes, “I don’t think it can just be one or the other. If it’s all about the operations then you lose sight of the customer. The better metric would measure the percentage of calls that were made and required no additional follow up.

COO 8

COO Planning Metrics Call Center 8

Deming Institute

APRIL 25, 2016

This is even more true in services where often you can’t inspect to catch errors before the customer is disappointed (think of call centers for example). I don’t want a surgeon to operate on me that doesn’t know anatomy. You need to improve the system to avoid producing poor results.

Deming 28

Deming System Senge Seminar 28

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 8, 2012

One way Zappos funds its legendary service is by relying on a very lean operation. Customer call length has even become a badge of honor at the company's 24-hour call center — last we checked, the record was eight hours on the phone with a new widow whose husband had been in charge of buying the children's shoes.

Airlines 14

Airlines Call Center Retail Bottom-up 14

Harvard Business Review

JULY 17, 2012

We know of one retail bank that gave their call center representatives the edict to "delight" customers and permission to waive up to $150 in fees for any customer without seeking any additional authorization. Jim Bush, who leads American Express service operations globally, set up a similar system. The result?

Customer Loyalty 15

Customer Loyalty Loyalty Banking Call Center 15

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 4, 2015

. “Service creativity allows employees to delight customers in unusual ways or solve problems that existing protocol falls short of addressing,” said Jing Zhou, a co-author on the study and professor of management at Rice University. Innovative Teams (20-Minute Manager Series). Further Reading. Innovation Book. Add to Cart.

Creativity 8

Creativity Call Center Retail Innovation 8

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 22, 2015

For example, at Verizon we recently developed and introduced two new technologies to our call centers. The first was Mobile Coach , an app that compiles service rep performance metrics in real-time so that call center supervisors can engage with their teams more quickly. In the past, their job was largely retroactive.

Tools 8

Tools Call Center Technology Metrics 8

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 22, 2011

What has happened is that in the name of speed and efficiency, local managers and their employees have been equipped with web-based technologies, which is potentially a good thing: The right kind of system can empower workers to improve the customer experience and engage in a dialogue with the clientele.

Call Center 13

Call Center Offshoring Policies System 13

Harvard Business Review

JULY 17, 2012

We know of one retail bank that gave their call center representatives the edict to "delight" customers and permission to waive up to $150 in fees for any customer without seeking any additional authorization. Jim Bush, who leads American Express service operations globally, set up a similar system. The result?

Customer Loyalty 11

Customer Loyalty Loyalty Banking Call Center 11

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 21, 2011

But already a pervasive network also lets firms ship calls to virtual call centers. LiveOps is one company that helps put call center work in the cloud. That work isn't somewhere else, it's anywhere.

Call Center 12

Call Center Offshoring Charisma Video 12