The Call Center Dictionary: The Complete Guide to Call Center and Help Desk Technology and Operations [Paperback]

Madeline Bodin (Author), Keith Dawson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1999 | Series: Call Center Dictionary

This work covers the broad range of call centre terminology from telecommunications and computer programming to marketing, management and customer service. It not only tells what each technology is, but also how it can help improve relationships with customers.

Product Details

• Paperback: 277 pages
• Publisher: Cmp Books; 2nd edition (August 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1578200431
• ISBN-13: 978-1578200436
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,416,900 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book that defines Call Center terms in plain English, November 4, 1999

By 

Janet Wilhelm ([e-mail]) (Lake Hopatcong, New Jersey USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Call Center Dictionary: The Complete Guide to Call Center and Help Desk Technology and Operations (Paperback)

This is a terrific book that explains most of the current Call Center terminology in plain everyday language. The book does not just define a term, in many cases it goes into a brief history and provides concise explanations of how the technology works.

This is a good book for the expert and the beginner. Considering how quickly the Call Center technology is changing, Ms Bodin did a great job in including most of the recent changes.

There are a few problems. The book could have been better proof-read. I found several spelling and grammatical errors. I also found a few glaring omissions, for example Readerboard, the Web (though she did have the Internet), and DS1 interface cards. The Readerboard was particularly upsetting since she referred to it in her discussion of ACDs, but then failed to include it in the dictionary.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Another Dawson Grammatical Error Filled Book, August 28, 2000

By 

Tim Anderson (Cottonwood, MN USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Call Center Dictionary: The Complete Guide to Call Center and Help Desk Technology and Operations (Paperback)

I have been a senior analyst in call centers for years and am not very impressed with the amount of thought that went into this book. Dawson / Bodine define terms, but they do not give examples. In today's call centers, I am uncovering numerous mistakes being made by management and reporting analysts in their understanding of what elements are important to better running a call center. Example: This book should have given examples of how Average Speed of Answer (ASA) is calculated, then explained that taking a straight average does not give you a true picture of the call center's performance. What are key measures to a call center success? I too read this book and found myself scratching my head. If this is the quality of book coming out in the future, I think I will stop reading.

Keep in mind that Dawson is (or was) an editor of a call center magazine. I have now purchased 3 books by Dawson and I am getting turned off. The amount of spelling errors and grammar mistakes in all his publications is overwhelming.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A nice try, but left me scratching my head, August 19, 2000

By 

James Mohr (Coburg, Germany) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Call Center Dictionary: The Complete Guide to Call Center and Help Desk Technology and Operations (Paperback)

A number of terms were missing (such a front-line/back-line, touch and hold, full-text/keyword search and many others) which limits its usefulness for software hotline and help desks. There were also a number of cases where you have to ask yourself why they include one term but not another (IP but not NetBEUI, MPEG but not JPEG). Other terms make your wonder if they really know what they are talking about. For example, they say IP is a "UNIX-based set of rules that governs the Internet and everything that interacts with it." Note that Windows NT is defined, but UNIX is not. Refering to things, but not defining them is also a very common problem.

In addition, the authors seem to think that Microsoft is the only company producing computer operating systems as those are the only ones they talk about. Also, the authors talk about the CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files, but none of the Windows config files (win.ini, system.ini).

Although the books is filled with acronyms and terms that I did not know before getting the book, I keep asking myself if they made the same mistakes with these terms as the did with the basic computer terminology.