Archive for the ‘ICMI Membership’ Category
Posted by Ted Hopton on March 19, 2008
I’ve already written about how difficult it is to walk the talk when it comes to First Contact Resolution (FCR) — see, First Call Resolution: Great Principle, Hard to Apply.
So if you’re struggling with First Call Resolution in your center — whether to implement FCR, how to implement FCR, how to make sure what you track as FCR is meaningful — then you should be interested in ICMI’s latest Member Research Report on First Contact Resolution.
It’s free for ICMI Members. Whether you are an ICMI Member or not, you can download it right now. You’ll learn what your peers (298 call center professionals surveyed in January 2008) are doing with FCR for Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Call Center Management, Call Centers, Customer Service, ICMI, ICMI Membership, ICMI Publications, Metrics, Research, Statistics, Trends | Tagged: Call Center Management, call center metrics, Call Centers, FCR, first call resolution, first contact resolution, ICMI, ICMI Membership, KPI, Metrics, research report | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Ted Hopton on February 20, 2008
If you’ve been around the call center industry any length of time (say, 5 minutes), you’ve heard the buzz about “agent empowerment.” It’s a hip-sounding phrase, and if you’re a call center representative it has a nice ring to it. If you’re a call center manager, however, it may sound more vague and perhaps threatening to you (“I’m supposed to be the one with the power, right?”).
Of course, if you’re a call center manager, the chances are you’re a “people person,” anyway — since that’s an essential quality for success in the people-intensive call center environment — so you may already be touchy-feely and confident enough to appreciate the idea of empowering your employees. Don’t be scared: it will be good for you!
To help everyone understand the truth behind the buzz about agent empowerment, ICMI assigned our crack research team (that would be Greg Levin) to investigate. You can read the report for free if you’re an ICMI Member, or download it for $24.95 if you’re not so privileged. Here’s what you can expect: Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Call Center Management, Call Centers, ICMI, ICMI Membership, ICMI Publications, Management, Research, Trends | Tagged: agent empowerment, Call Center Management, Call Centers, ICMI, ICMI Membership, ICMI Publications, Management, Research, Trends | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Ted Hopton on February 11, 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.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention, also, that we’re inviting all high-performing call centers around the world to apply for the ICMI Membership’s 2008 Global Call Center of the Year Award. Deadline is March 14, 2008. Learn more here.
call center management
Posted in Awards, Call Center Management, Call Centers, ICMI, ICMI Membership, ICMI's QueueTips | Tagged: award, Call Centers, ICMI, ICMI's QueueTips, Management, Networking, user-generated, Web 2.0 | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Ted Hopton on February 8, 2008
We’re now accepting applications for the ICMI Membership’s 2008 Global Call Center of the Year Award — the application deadline is March 14, 2008. As I wrote back in 2006 (Award-Winning Call Centers), I’ve had the privilege of being involved with this prestigious award since the beginning, and I find it to be one of the most satisfying aspects of my job.
And this year we’ve added an optional video submission to the application! For extra credit, applicants can submit a 3-minute video about their call center, to help our selection committee in the difficult task of evaluating and selecting the winners. ICMI will make all of those videos available on our YouTube channel, ICMIQueueTube, so keep your eye out for them. They should make for good watching, and you can even justify being on YouTube at work in you’re watching the ICMIQueueTube channel (well, as long as you don’t spend too much time on the funny call center videos, I suppose).
We all read too much negative press about call centers, so it’s wonderfully refreshing to read a stack of applications telling the success stories of call centers all over the world. The pride these managers take in their call centers and their entire team Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Awards, Call Center Management, Call Centers, ICMI, ICMI Membership | Tagged: award, Call Center Management, call center of the year, Call Centers, global call center of the year, ICMI, ICMI Membership | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Ted Hopton on January 3, 2007
It’s hard to find good news in the press about call centers. But I did read a glowing report in the New York Times about a call center providing terrific service. It’s Crutchfield, catalog and online sellers of audio and video gear, and the coverage was in David Pogue’s newsletter/blog on technology.
Pogue’s account lines up perfectly with what we all should know by now: when you provide great customer service, people spread the word and more business flows to you. No less than 25 people wrote in to Pogue to suggest Crutchfield as the place to turn for a car stereo. And when he took their suggestion, he was blown away by the customer service experience they provided, too. Since he happens to be a NYT columnist, Crutchfield just reaped a wonderful public relations windfall.
Except it’s not really a “windfall,” because they earned their just rewards by providing consistently outstanding customer service year after year. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Call Center Management, Call Centers, Customer Sat, Customer Service, ICMI, ICMI Membership, Media, Nostalgia | Tagged: call center, Customer Sat, Customer Service, ICMI | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Ted Hopton on March 7, 2006
I have had the privilege to participate in the ICMI Membership’s Global Call Center of the Year Award selection process for a number of years now. As applications for the 2006 award start to come in, I find myself thinking about what it takes to win the award.
What makes these call centers winners? At the risk of oversimplifying, there are several qualities that each award-winner has had. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Awards, Call Center Management, Call Centers, Customer Sat, Customer Service, ICMI, ICMI Membership | Tagged: awards, call center, Customer Sat, Customer Service, ICMI | Leave a Comment »
