Confused / Please Help

[dstinchcombe]

Ok, I manage what I call a 24/7 Help Desk / Call Center that supports the petroleum service industry and I run this operation with 7 full time people. I have been reading this forum for several weeks now and I am not sure if all this pertains to me and my group. The acronyms that you all use are not at all familiar to me and I have no idea what you are all talking about with these different type of phone systems and reporting / tracking softwares.
So what I am asking for is some help in defining what is a call center and should I be operating my group in the manner that this forum and all of you talk about. Any and all suggestions / comments will be very helpful.

Thanks in advance,

Dale Stinchcombe

[Jay Allen]

Dale

There are several excellent books which will provide you an overview and "decode" some of the acronyms commoonly used.

Books i would recommend:
Call Center Dictionary, by Madeline Bodin and Kieth Dawson

Call Center Management on Fast Forward, by Brad Cleveland and Julia Mayben


Good Luck

[Michcall]

Dale,

With a group your size, some of the things you read about on this forum will probably not be very useful to you. Technologies like workforce management tools which analyze incoming call volume, develop staffing plans and schedule agents are critical to large operations, but are not as useful for small ones.

So, I think some of the topics would pertain, like agent motivation or training, but some will not. If you read up on general call center terminologies, processes and technologies, you should be able to determine which would help your operation.

One suggestion would be to list what areas are stuggles for your group or what processes you would llike to do better, then see what topics in the forum might apply---or post specific questions related to your group and see what replies you get.

[Ricky Perez]

Hi Dale,

The prior advice is very good - I might also suggest that you visit the Call Center School website and review their glossary page; find at:

thecallcenterschool.com (or use your fav. internet search engine).

The glossary will aid you in preparing to read the books listed in the above replies.

Recently, I set up a "Help Desk" at a National bank. The focus of the desk was to pass information, via inquires, to employees scattered around the USA. In such an 'internally' focused environment, budget allocations tend to be more important than levels of service (since there are no real competitors). If your group has such an 'internal client focused paradigm, ' then you will need to have, at minimum, an ACD (Automatic Call Distribution) system to independently verify the VOLUME of calls and WHEN the internal clients call etc. Ask your tele-communications folks (the guys who fix the broken phones) and they can tell you if such a system is already in existence in your office: that will be a great place to start. Naturally, the data generated by the ACD can be used to show if you'll ever need more or FEWER employees to handle the Help Desk - it will help your budget in the long run.

I apologize for the length and the simplistic nature of my reply . . .

[dstinchcombe]

I want to thank everyone that has replied to by post so far. I believe that these are a great places for me to start and want to assure you all that I will indeed start with these ideas. I look forward to talking with all of you in the future. And again thank you very much,


Dale @ ryderfcs.com