Archive for January 28th, 2008
Posted by Ted Hopton on January 28, 2008
Wired Magazine piles on with a pithy little piece *cleverly* titled, “Why Things Suck: Customer Service.” Terribly original, isn’t it? Looks like they spent at least 5 minutes researching their facts on the Internet (probably relied on Wikipedia) and marshalling their robust logical arguments, too. Good thing they’re not entering a high school debate, or they might get their clocks cleaned.
Nonetheless, it’s another black eye from the media. It will get picked up and spread all around, until the dubious “facts” it cites are taken for granted. Sure feels good to be sucker-punched again, doesn’t it?
call center management
Posted in Call Center Management, Call Centers, Customer Service, Media | Tagged: Call Centers, Media | 1 Comment »
Posted by Ted Hopton on January 28, 2008
eMarketer released a story today, “US Internet Users Are Glued to Video,” with statistics showing that more than 70% of “adult US Internet users surveyed had viewed online video content.”
It’s not just the kids, either. More than half of those 65 and older have watched videos online, too. Media is really changing, and fast.
Posted in Media, Research, Web 2.0 | Tagged: Media, Research, Web 2.0 | 1 Comment »
Posted by Ted Hopton on January 28, 2008
I just added a music player widget in the right column of this blog. It has a few songs that I like loaded in the playlist — click on the play button and listen!
Unfortunately, the selection of songs for this widget is pretty slim. I hoped to include many of my favorites, so as to add an audio dimension to this blog. However, few of my favorite songs were options that I could select.
Music just seems to be an art form that is meant to be shared. But we’re just not there, yet, from an economic perspective. The technology is ready, but the economic models have not been established, and until they are the art is going to be held hostage.
Posted in Economics, Music, Technology | Tagged: Economics, Music, Technology | 1 Comment »
Posted by Ted Hopton on January 28, 2008
I like the “cloud” technology that I’ve been encountering lately. In fact, I am using it on this blog, in my right column. WordPress offers a Tag Cloud widget that shows all the tags for this blog in alphabetical order, but the size and boldness of the font for each tag reflects the number of posts associated with each tag.
It’s a neat combination of statistics with visual design. At a glance, you can see which tags are the most popular — they literally stand out and get your attention. Design aiding functionality: that’s a powerful combination.
Posted in Design | Tagged: tag cloud, tags | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Ted Hopton on January 28, 2008
I watched La Vie en Rose last night. It was more than just a foreign film for me, since I have liked Edith Piaf for a very long time. Maybe it had something to do with studying French, I’m not sure, but I found her songs compelling. Maybe I understood just enough French to grasp the powerful emotion Piaf conveyed, or maybe that came through despite my imperfect command of the language.
My peers who learned of my affection for Piaf’s music invariably gave me sidelong glances and failed to understand the appeal. I came by my interest honestly, as my mother had Edith Piaf recordings and when I listened to them they spoke to me in several ways.
So, when I learned of the movie about her life, I wanted to see it. It was rather depressing, actually. I only knew her music, not what a trainwreck her life had been. I now have a deeper understanding of her genius and respect for all that she overcame to achieve her success, but there’s also sadness. Hers is not a particularly uplifting story, even though her signature song is “Je ne regrete rien” (“I have no regrets”).
It’s an admirable take on life, to live such a hard life and not have any regrets. I’m just not sure I could say the same if I’d been through what she endured.
Posted in Movies, Music | Tagged: Movies, Music | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Ted Hopton on January 28, 2008
This is one heckuva an election. You have drama, intrigue, villains and aspiring heroes, generations pitted against each other . . . what fun!
William Kristol weighs in on Bill Clinton’s baggage in his NYT column, cleverly titled “Desperate Husband.”
Right now, Hillary Clinton is ahead in the polls in almost all the big states voting. She is a tough and capable campaigner, and she may be able to hold on to those leads. But it is now clear that putting her in the White House brings a hyperactive Bill back in with her. Who needs it? Liberals and Democrats can get basically the same policies without the Clinton baggage, and in choosing Obama, they can nominate a more electable candidate.
I really liked the idea of just watching this race from the sidelines, enjoying the spectacle of it without getting invested too much in the outcome. But it’s becoming increasingly harder to do that. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Politics | Tagged: Politics | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Ted Hopton on January 28, 2008
Another take on Obama’s popularity — Roger Cohen’s column in the NYT, “Obama’s Youth-Driven Movement,” probes an angle that is not entirely new, but he adds depth to the picture:
This little town suggests Obama has indeed assembled “the most diverse coalition of Americans we’ve seen in a long, long time,” as he put it. It’s now set to include Senator Edward Kennedy. If that growing coalition is beyond race, as I believe, rather than vulnerable to race, as the Clintons seems to have bet, South Carolina will prove no aberration.
Do I want to consider myself part of that youth movement, or is it the idealism that appeals to me — or both?
Posted in Politics | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Ted Hopton on January 28, 2008
It’s that time again! Fresh new call center management advice in ICMI’s QueueTips!
Check out the notification email for some suggested topics in both the QueueTips Knowledgebase and the QueueTips Forums. And don’t miss out on the chance to show off your affiliation with QueueTips on your LinkedIn profile.
In case you are a regular ICMI’s QueueTips reader, no, we did not miss our deadline last Friday. Well, we did not publish on the regularly scheduled day, but it’s on purpose so we can continue to test whether Monday is a better day to send the ICMI’s QueueTips notification email.
After our initial test two weeks ago, we noticed significantly more readers were active on the website and forums. If Mondays are better for more of you than Fridays for ICMI’s QueueTips to be published, that’s fine with me!
call center management
Posted in Call Center Management, Call Centers, ICMI, ICMI's QueueTips | Tagged: call center, ICMI, QueueTips, QueueTips Forums | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Ted Hopton on January 28, 2008
I just published an interesting response from a frontline supervisor to a question in ICMI’s QueueTips: “Call Center Management Structure” (Response #3). But it wasn’t the content of the posting that got my attention as much as her closing comment:
I would love to know more about how other call centers are structured as I am writing a master’s thesis on the topic of call center leadership. — Karen, L.L. Bean, Inc.
Pretty cool! Do you know how many of your frontline supervisors are writing a thesis on some aspect of call center management? How much are you doing to encourage this kind of professional development in your management team?
call center management
Posted in Call Center Management, Call Centers, ICMI, ICMI's QueueTips, Learning | Tagged: Call Centers, Education, ICMI, ICMI's QueueTips | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Ted Hopton on January 28, 2008
I just posted a great rant from a CSR about Average Handle Time (AHT) objectives in her call center, and how miserable she is trying to work under them. It’s not the most eloquent argument you’ll ever read, but it is heartfelt, passionate and shows that she “gets it” better than her management team does: doing a good job responding to callers’ needs is more important than an arbitrary (and in this case, unreasonable) AHT target.
The post is in ICMI’s QueueTips, under the topic, “Average Handle Time Standard.” It’s Response #6, so scroll down the page if you want to skip directly to it. If you’ve got AHT standards in your call centers, this rant is must reading! Could she be working in your center right now?
call center management
Posted in Call Center Management, Call Centers, ICMI, ICMI's QueueTips, Management, Standards | Tagged: AHT, Call Centers, ICMI, ICMI's QueueTips, Standards | Leave a Comment »
