
Operations and Management Principles for Contact Centres
by Unknown-
Free Shipping on all Orders Over $35!*
*excludes Marketplace items.
Buy New
Rent Textbook
Rent Digital
Downloadable: Lifetime Access
Used Textbook
We're Sorry
Sold Out
Summary
Author Biography
Esther Hoffmann began researching and networking with national and international stakeholders in the contact centre industry in 2004. She is currently a faculty member at the Ekurhuleni Campus of the Vaal University of Technology. Dennis Farrell is the chief operating officer of human resources for Africa and the Middle East representing Absa/Barclays, where he has implemented an internal HR shared services function within Absa/Barclays. Mariaan Ellis was appointed as the project coordinator at the Vaal University of Technology in 2006, aiming to recruit and train new professionals for the contact center industry. Michael Cant is head of the marketing and retail department at Unisa. He is editor of the International Retail and Marketing Review. Khotsietsile Simon Molefi teaches communication skills and teaching practice at the Vaal University of Technology, and is a former teacher of English as a Foreign Language at the Rand International Language Centre.
Table of Contents
About the authors | p. x |
Foreword | p. xiii |
Preface | p. xv |
List of acronyms | p. xvii |
Peak Performance of Contact Centre Staff and Effective Use of Technology | |
The South African Contact Centre Industry: An introduction | |
Outcomes | p. 1 |
Introduction | p. 1 |
The history of contact centres | p. 2 |
Business process outsourcing and ICT | p. 7 |
Business process outsourcing across borders | p. 10 |
The evolution of contact centres | p. 11 |
South Africa's value-adding business process outsourcing and offshoring-key success factors | p. 13 |
Supportive synergies and patrons of a successful industry | p. 15 |
The contact centre culture | p. 23 |
Recruitment, screening and selection of contact centre agents/operators | p. 26 |
Organisational hierarchy | p. 27 |
Some industry problem areas | p. 28 |
Summary | p. 30 |
The Business Environment and Business Functions | |
Outcomes | p. 31 |
Introduction | p. 31 |
What is a business? | p. 31 |
The free market economy | p. 32 |
The micro, market and macro environment | p. 33 |
Types of businesses | p. 37 |
The important functions in an organisation/business | p. 38 |
Summary | p. 53 |
Leadership in the Contact Centre | |
Outcomes | p. 54 |
Introduction | p. 54 |
Understanding leadership in the 21st century | p. 57 |
Understanding transformational leadership | p. 60 |
Full-range model of leadership | p. 65 |
Leadership competencies in a contact centre | p. 66 |
A word on the leadership of teams | p. 79 |
Summary | p. 81 |
Corporate Governance and Risk Management | |
Outcomes | p. 83 |
Introduction | p. 83 |
Corporate governance | p. 84 |
Risk management | p. 89 |
Summary | p. 101 |
Contact Centre Technology | |
Outcomes | p. 103 |
Introduction | p. 103 |
Role of technology in a contact centre | p. 104 |
Technology and processes | p. 105 |
Defining technology | p. 105 |
Types of contact centre technology | p. 107 |
Role of cell phone technology in contact centres | p. 117 |
Technology and management | p. 118 |
Technology and ergonomics | p. 122 |
Summary | p. 125 |
Telephone and Internet Skills | |
Outcomes | p. 126 |
Introduction | p. 126 |
Telephone skills | p. 127 |
Cellular phone etiquette | p. 135 |
The internet and netiquette | p. 136 |
Electronic communication | p. 139 |
Mailing lists and netnews | p. 142 |
Interactive services such as chat | p. 142 |
Other means of communication | p. 142 |
Mental scripting | p. 145 |
Summary | p. 145 |
Motivated Contact Centre Staff | |
Health, Wellness and Ergonomics in the Contact Centre Environment | |
Outcomes | p. 149 |
Introduction | p. 149 |
Wellness | p. 150 |
Stress | p. 156 |
Ergonomics | p. 164 |
Workstation arrangement | p. 166 |
Summary | p. 168 |
Behaviour and Self-management | |
Outcomes | p. 170 |
Introduction | p. 170 |
Organisational behaviour | p. 171 |
Self-esteem and self-improvement | p. 175 |
Self-management: the key to time management | p. 181 |
Business and social etiquette | p. 191 |
Spatial arrangements | p. 196 |
Business gifts and functions | p. 197 |
Protocol for shared equipment | p. 199 |
Summary | p. 199 |
Organisational Behaviour | |
Outcomes | p. 201 |
Introduction | p. 202 |
Knowledge management | p. 202 |
Diversity | p. 204 |
Perception and attribution | p. 210 |
Personality, values and attitudes | p. 213 |
The nature and dimensions of attitudes | p. 214 |
Job satisfaction and organisational commitment | p. 215 |
Motivation in the contact centre environment | p. 218 |
Positive organisational behaviour | p. 222 |
Conflict | p. 225 |
Teambuilding in the contact centre | p. 227 |
Summary | p. 231 |
Contact Centre Recruiting and Staffing | |
Outcomes | p. 232 |
Introduction | p. 232 |
Recruiting | p. 233 |
Employment specialists | p. 240 |
Filling shallow labour pools | p. 241 |
Selection and placement | p. 242 |
Criteria for hiring and retaining | p. 244 |
Develop the right people | p. 245 |
Recruiting and training: contact centre management | p. 247 |
Alternative labour pools | p. 248 |
Customer service representative retention | p. 250 |
Coaching | p. 251 |
Mentoring | p. 259 |
Summary | p. 261 |
Performance Management and Productivity | |
Outcomes | p. 262 |
Introduction | p. 262 |
Monitoring performance | p. 263 |
Characteristics of monitoring programmes | p. 264 |
Key components of optimal performance | p. 265 |
Monitoring output of CSRs | p. 265 |
Reasons for under-performance | p. 273 |
The importance of feedback | p. 274 |
Praise | p. 277 |
Correcting | p. 279 |
Performance levelling | p. 283 |
Improving productivity of representatives | p. 284 |
Summary | p. 289 |
Labour Law in the Workplace | |
Outcomes | p. 290 |
Introduction | p. 290 |
The structure of labour law | p. 291 |
Regulation of labour relations | p. 296 |
Labour law as it applies to the employment life cycle | p. 297 |
Summary | p. 323 |
Satisfied Customers through Effective Customer Service Delivery | |
Communication: Theory | |
Outcomes | p. 327 |
Introduction | p. 327 |
What is communication? | p. 328 |
The importance of communication | p. 329 |
Communication models | p. 330 |
Communication functions | p. 333 |
Communication directions | p. 333 |
Communication channel | p. 336 |
Barriers to communication | p. 336 |
Categories of communication | p. 338 |
Interpersonal communication | p. 343 |
Listening skills | p. 345 |
Communication styles | p. 347 |
Cross-cultural communication | p. 348 |
Summary | p. 351 |
Communication: Linguistic Skills | |
Outcomes | p. 353 |
Introduction | p. 353 |
Indefinite tenses | p. 354 |
Perfect tenses | p. 360 |
Continuous tenses | p. 363 |
Questions | p. 367 |
Parts of speech | p. 370 |
The apostrophe | p. 384 |
Concord | p. 385 |
Summary | p. 387 |
Communication: Reading and Understanding/Comprehension | |
Outcomes | p. 388 |
Introduction | p. 388 |
Why do we communicate? | p. 388 |
Clarity of messages | p. 390 |
Formal and informal language use | p. 390 |
Reading | p. 391 |
Comprehension | p. 395 |
Summary | p. 398 |
Marketing and Sales | |
Outcomes | p. 399 |
Introduction | p. 399 |
Marketing: definition and processes | p. 400 |
Selling | p. 404 |
Summary | p. 412 |
Customer Relations Management | |
Outcomes | p. 413 |
Introduction | p. 413 |
Definition and components of customer relations management | p. 414 |
Service excellence | p. 415 |
Customer profiles | p. 421 |
Moments of truth | p. 422 |
Service recovery | p. 422 |
Summary | p. 433 |
References | p. 434 |
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved. |
An electronic version of this book is available through VitalSource.
This book is viewable on PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, and most smartphones.
By purchasing, you will be able to view this book online, as well as download it, for the chosen number of days.
A downloadable version of this book is available through the eCampus Reader or compatible Adobe readers.
Applications are available on iOS, Android, PC, Mac, and Windows Mobile platforms.
Please view the compatibility matrix prior to purchase.