Bergevin - Call Centers For Dummies

Call Centers For Dummies2nd Edition

Ral Bergevin with Afshan Bye, Winston Siegel and Bruce Simpson

Call Centers For Dummies, 2nd Edition

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Published by John Wiley & Sons Canada, Ltd.

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Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Data

Call centers for dummies / Ral Bergevin ... [et al.]. -- 2nd ed.

Includes index.

ISBN 978-0-470-67743-8

1. Call centers--Management. I. Bergevin, Ral

HE8788.C36 2010 658.812 C2009-906118-X

Printed in the United States

1 2 3 4 5 RRD 14 13 12 11 10

About the Authors

Ral Bergevin is executive vice president of Transcom Worldwide. In 1991, he founded a call center consulting business that he and his wife, Anne, expanded into NuComm International, a global outsourcing call center service provider. NuComm was listed in Deloitte & Touches Canadas 50 Best Managed Companies for five consecutive years and, in 2005, was awarded the National Quality Institutes Canadian Award of Excellence. NuComm was sold to Transcom in 2007.

In 2001, Ral was honored as one of The Caldwell Partners Internationals Canadas Top 40 Under 40 business executives. He holds a business degree from Sir Wilfrid Laurier University and is the author of 23 Steps to an Effective Call Centre (NuComm Solutions, Inc.).

Afshan Kinder (formerly Bye) is a partner in SwitchGear Consulting with more than 20 years experience running contact centers and more than 8 years experience as an industry consultant and magazine columnist. She has been a senior vice president of sales and service for companies including Sprint Canada (now Rogers Communications), ING Direct, and Wardair.

She is a past board member of Contact Centre Canada, a current board member of the Greater Toronto Association of Contact Centers, and the author of the Dear Affy column that appears in each issue of Contact Management magazine.

Winston Siegel is a founding partner in SwitchGear Consulting and a specialist in high-growth service businesses and leadership development. He brings multi-industry expertise to call centers, having run customer service operations in restaurants, musical theater, and retail before seeing the call center light. He was vice president of operations for North America and Australia at Lavalife, growing its call centers from 9 to 20, and became president of the company in 1999.

He is a speaker on call center metrics, leadership, and sales, as well as the author of several white papers, including The 10 Sacred Cows of Call Center Metrics (Innovators Roundtable). He has a philosophy degree from York University and an MBA from the Schulich School of Business in Toronto.

Bruce Simpson is a founding partner in SwitchGear Consulting with a sales background in pharmaceuticals, telecommunications, and insurance. He was a founder and chief operating officer of North Direct Response, a call center outsourcer with clients including Royal Bank of Canada, Clearnet (TELUS), and Hewlett-Packard.

He is the author of industry white papers including The ROI of Coaching and How to Control Payroll Leakage, published by Frost & Sullivan.

Dedication

This book is dedicated to the unsung heroes inside every call center. From front-line agents to team leaders and managers, you inspire us and you inspired this book.

Authors Acknowledgments

Wed like to acknowledge the work of Ral Bergevin, who with the support of John Dickhout, Daniel Willis, and other members of the Transcom team wrote the first edition of this book. It was a privilege to add to your work and wisdom. We hope you approve.

Thank you to Amar Sidhu from Trader Corp., Arleen King and Ian Cruickshank from TELUS, Bernie Herenberg from ServiceOntario, Stephen Gaskin from Scotiabank, Paul Gyarmati from Reliance Home Comfort, Mariflor Di Rienzo from Ceridian Canada Ltd., Mario Perez from Telax Voice Solutions, and Karen Jensen from CI Investments for sharing their insights with us.

To the members of the SwitchGear army, who provided roadside assistance whenever we experienced writers block, thank you for your patience and support. A special thank you goes to Suzanne Figueirado, who chased us and prodded us relentlessly for months to make sure that we met the deadlines.