The Call Center Handbook 4 Ed: The Complete Guide to Starting, Running, and Improving Your Customer Contact Center [Paperback]

Keith Dawson (Author)

Book Description

Series: Cmp Books | Publication Date: April 9, 2001

Need to know how to buy a phone switch for your call center? How to measure the productivity of agents? How to choose from two cities that both want your center? No problem. 'The Call Center Handbook' is a complete guide to starting, running and improving

This book covers the gamut from buying the right equipment and software to monitoring agents, measuring their productivity, enhancing customer relationships and running an innovative and efficient center. It includes use of fax-on-demand, interactive voice response, email and Web sites.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Keith Dawson is one of the world's foremost authorities on call centers. He is currently senior editor for CommWeb and was founder of Call Center News Service, the industry's premier online source for information and independent analysis. He is also author of Call Center Savvy and co-author of Call Center Dictionary.

Product Details

• Paperback: 382 pages
• Publisher: CMP; 5 edition (April 9, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1578200709
• ISBN-13: 978-1578200702
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,579,878 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #82 in Books > Computers & Technology > Computer Science > Software Engineering > Multimedia Information Systems

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good intro to call center technologies; Editing needed, July 14, 1999

By 

David E. Hunt "DavidCPA" (Cabot, AR) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Call Center Handbook (Paperback)

Being new to the call center environment, I found the book useful as an introduction to the various vendors and technologies available to call centers. I was very disappointed in the organization of the book. The chapters jumped around from subject to subject with very few tie-ins between them. The book had numerous typos and did not inlcude an index or glossary. The index and glossary would have greatly increased the value of this publication. Overall I would still recommend it but only because I couldn't find another book that covered the same topics. I hope the 3rd edition published in June 1999 corrects some of the problems in the 2nd edition.

29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good, but needs editorial work, January 26, 2000

By 

Judy Wilson (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Call Center Handbook: The Complete Guide to Starting, Running and Improving Your Call Center (Paperback)

From a novice's viewpoint, this book affords a good overview of what a call center is, what types of technology can be utilized, and what problems can exist. However,even as an IT (Information Technology)person used to the frequent use of acronyms, I was constantly annoyed by the author's use of undefined acronyms. In a book obviously not geared to individuals proficient in the jargon of the call center, you would think that the author would strive for clarity of expression, not obfuscate meanings. This 3d edition still needs the work of a good editor: sentence fragments, poor grammar, and repetition of whole series of paragraphs verbatim exist. If you can get by these shortcomings, you will get a high level view of what a call center is all about.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A good general guide, November 27, 2000

By 

Massimiliano Celaschi (Graffignano, Viterbo Italy) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Call Center Handbook: The Complete Guide to Starting, Running and Improving Your Call Center (Paperback)

This is a good book to people who want to have an overview at a glance about call centers features and problems. But, according to new economy habits, it is not a technological issue. So, if many points are discussed, such as human resources, real estate, organisation, hardware and products, none of them is focused in a detailed way. It is surely a very good introduction to people starting a new job in call centers environments, but do not expect too much by readin it.