Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

This is a good intro to call center technology, but because this field is changing so rapidly, it is a little dated. It is too bad one of the leading vendors (Avaya or Cisco) do not have material published that better explains their own technology. We spend millions as companies on these systems and the people making the money do not bother to document in a clear fashion how everything works.

The vendor that figures that out will reap huge rewards.

"Call Center Technology Demystified" is exactly that. Bocklund and Bengtson deliver concrete advice about a rapidly changing environment, and provide a framework for thinking about and planning for technology change well into the future. This book is packed with intelligent analysis, yet is easy to read with graphics, good layout, and a refreshingly light tone. Their solid examples and insights, based on their consulting work with Vanguard Communications, really set this book apart. This isn't academic theory; this is what happens in the trenches. Excellent work!

It's interesting that as I am pursuing new business I constantly have to explain concepts that I just take for granted everyone knows. After going back to this book three times in one week, first to get a better explanation of VOIP, and then ODBC, and just plain old legacy systems, its clear that this is an "encyclopedia" that every call center professional should use.

The topics of "Call Centers" and "CRM" are becoming each day more popular, as businesses evolve and become faced with the challenge of "growing and adapting" (in order gain competitiveness and excel in the modern economy), but still keeping its relationships and interactions with its customers unique and valuable, increasing loyalty and driving profitability.

Ranging / starting from the CEO/CFO/CxO who has to strategically comprehend and support its operations, to the Marketing Executive who will have to define and manage the "branded experience" of its customers with the business through it, to the IT Manager who will be responsible of integrating this new technology to their existing infrastructure, to the Call Center Manager who will deal with it's daily performance evaluations and fine tuning - in essence, the area of Call Centers involves a lot of people and can potentially touch almost every single area of the business, directly or indirectly.

"Call Center Technology Demystified" does a very nice job in providing clarity about the foundation and the key elements of a Call Center, addressing both the business and the technology sides of the equation. Based on the authors' vast experience in this arena, the book is enriched by real-life examples and applications, as well as illustrated by meaningful facts and compelling statistics, making the reading experience very pleasant.

Because of the way the chapters are divided, starting with the fundamentals and drilling down to specific subjects (like Self-Service and Web / Multimedia), passing through implementation considerations and futures, "Call Center Technology Demystified" can serve as an excellent educational source if you are trying to get yourself familiar with these concepts (and get to know "enough to be dangerous"), or if you are a call center professional or work in the area, as a nice knowledge refresher that will help in maintaining yourself informed and updated about this ever-evolving / ever-changing area.

In other words, a great reference, an excellent guide, a must-have in my opinion. Congratulations to both authors for the great book!

I am sure there are better books on call centers. This book was only okay. If you are just trying to learn the terminology, then this book probably isn't a bad choice for you.

One of the best call center books on the market, Call Center Technology Demystified gives a practical explanation of call center technologies in language a non-techie person can understand. We have found it valuable in our call center in helping our management team understand what to purchase and how to get the most out of their technology investment. Good work!

An extraordinarily clear and helpful work. The emphasis on strategy is key. The authors speak directly to their readers by asking them to assess their current and future technology plans within the context of achieving specific end results (lower cost per contact via self-service, greater serviceability reach, higher agent retention) that align with the strategic nature of the larger corporate entity (threshold for change, timelines, ability or willingness to invest significantly in call center operations, customer service philosophy).

Dave and Lori hit home the idea that as each strategic variable changes so does the technology mix required. Use them and their expertise to navigate through the mechanics of telecom infrastructure, sophisticated application offerings, and emerging technologies. The discussion on technological transformation vs. automation is compelling in this context and worth the price of the book alone.

Three cheers to you, my friends! Job well done.