Call Center Technology Demystified: The No-Nonsense Guide to Bridging Customer Contact Technology, Operations and Strategy [Paperback]

Lori Bocklund (Author), Dave Bengtson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 2002

Call Center Technology Demystified clarifies the sometimes complex and often confusing array of technologies that enable call center success. This book will lead you through the labyrinth of customer contact technology jargon, common misperceptions and marketing hype to help you align technology with business needs and optimize your technology investments.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Lori Bocklund has 15 years’ experience in the call center industry, nine of them as a consultant with Vanguard. The majority of her time is spent on consulting projects, but she also teaches, speaks and writes articles on call center technology, strategy and operations. Lori is a proud graduate of South Dakota State University (go Jackrabbits!) and George Washington University with B.S. and M.S. degrees in Electrical Engineering. Lori lives in Vienna, Virginia, where she can be found running, bicycling with her husband, Mike, and walking in the woods with Harley, her big yellow Lab.

Dave Bengtson has more than 13 years’ experience in the call center and telecommunications industries, including a variety of consulting, sales and sales support, and product management positions. He is a call center algorithm patent holder and a frequent speaker at call center conferences and industry events. Dave holds a B.A. from Boston University and an M.B.A. from Pennsylvania State University. He resides in Denver with his wife, Sheila. When not consulting, he can be found surveying the world from a bicycle seat, killing plants in Sheila’s garden, searching for the perfect microbrew and messing up the kitchen.

Both Lori and Dave are Certified Associates of Incoming Calls Management Institute (ICMI). They are course developers and seminar leaders for "Understanding and Applying Today’s Call Center Technologies."

Product Details

• Paperback: 375 pages
• Publisher: ICMI Press (International Customer Management (June 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0970950780
• ISBN-13: 978-0970950789
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #756,836 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential book for Contact Center leaders!, February 28, 2003

By 

"billb50256" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Call Center Technology Demystified: The No-Nonsense Guide to Bridging Customer Contact Technology, Operations and Strategy (Paperback)

I have what I feel is a pretty extensive contact center reference library that I have accumulated over the past 15 years, ranging from call center design, CRM, CTI, speech recognition, benchmarking, telecom, etc. By far, the Call Center Technology Demystified book is THE book that I find myself referring to most often. Besides the holistic view of the contact center technologies, I have found the sections on Building a Customer Contact Technology Strategy and Information and Applications Bring CRM Strategies to Life sections to be valuable every day, every project. Great diagrams and charts add tremendous value to the clear and concise writing. This is also a book that will stand the test of time; the principles surrounding business drivers and the realistic expectations regarding CRM will provide value to contact center strategists for many years.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I was very impressed, August 22, 2002

By 

Murray Ray (Englewood, CO USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Call Center Technology Demystified: The No-Nonsense Guide to Bridging Customer Contact Technology, Operations and Strategy (Paperback)

I have been in the call center world for a long time, and have seen the fads and the buzzwords and the technology come and go. The authors did a great job in covering the technology necessary to run an effective call center and get the most from your investment.

I was particularly impressed how they wove the technology story within the context of the business need. Obviously in an economy where capital dollars are tight, they concentrated on the business need first, and then described the various technologies that could meet that business need. For someone considering an investment, this is a great reference book to have.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Comprehensive but concise; opinionated yet unbiased, August 12, 2002

By 

Dale Pacetti (Franklin, TN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Call Center Technology Demystified: The No-Nonsense Guide to Bridging Customer Contact Technology, Operations and Strategy (Paperback)

All of us interact with call centers on an almost daily basis, but few actually understand the complex, interrelated technologies that must be expertly managed to make a call center an asset to a business instead of a liability. Bocklund and Bengtson obviously understand this technology (and the underlying business imperatives) extremely well, and, most importantly, are able to explain it in a clear, down-to-earth manner. There were many times that I could almost hear myself making the same points with the same caveats. I am also impressed with the obvious pains that were taken to keep this guide unbiased--not an easy task when you consider the many vendor-influenced "forks in the road" that are encountered when creating a call center strategy and design. Of considerable value are the numerous tables, diagrams, and appendices--heck, it's worth the price of the book just to get the glossary and acronym decoder! I have yet to find an acronym or term that's not included.