Welcome to the CallCentreGurus weblog. Please see this post for more details.

We’re also interested in any contributions anyone might like to make - after all, as we have always stressed, this is your community and if you have something to say, we’d be happy to give you the platform to say it.

Contact us if you want to help. Or if you find any problems.

Best wishes,

John

Hot off the press: a lollipop lady* has been ordered to keep patrolling at her school - even though it closed four months ago. Sharon Grice stands outside the empty building in Burnley twice a day, while there is no one to help the former pupils who have moved to a new school 400 yards away. The council wanted here there in case anyone still crosses there.

Madness! Another example of a really stupid decision from Them Who Make Silly Rules (TWMSR). A pet bugbear of mine, you might say…

* School crossing patrol for those of a non UK persuasion.

My friend Dave, a moderator over at CallCentreVoice, has frequently posted about the woes of weeding out their Administrative ‘VoiceMail box. However, that doesn’t seem to stop messages from members and non-members alike, some of which are nothing more than begging letters, others of which are just bizarre.

When CallCentreVoice was first devised, it used publicly email addresses so that members could contact us. However, that was a bit silly in retrospect as the lowlifes who deal in spam* eventually forced us to abandon that idea and I devised the ‘VoiceMail system as a basic-but-effective means of passing private messages between members.

So far, it’s worked well enough (with some limitations) but the public ‘Contact Us’ facility seems more often than not to be a repository for all sorts of weird and wonderful nonsense.

Can I just emphasise why it’s there? I know this is a bit of a moan but I’d prefer to go on record and save the CCV moderators from having to wade through the noise to get to the odd message that’s actually relevant and worth reading.

Contact them for direct questions to one or other of the moderator team on matters relating to the CCV site. That might mean login issues, or questions about what is and isn’t allowed. Suggestions and ideas for improvements are welcome. As is being told about any bugs, both functional and cosmetic, so that they can be reproduced and fixed.

However, they have no jobs available, cannot help you with your visa, don’t want to use your outsource facility and so on. It’s not what it’s about.

CallCentreVoice is a collaborative community for call centre matters, not a personal assistance or business development agency. There are plenty of other sites you can go to for that stuff.

So, before you contact them, think about whether it’s really something that the CCV team are likely to either want or be able to help you with.

John

* I mean, I don’t want a mail-order degree - I’ve got a real one - and I don’t need viagra. And in any case, I’m quite happy with the dimensions of my bits, thank you very much Mr Spam-Monger.

On Scotland In Late November

One of the great things about living and working in Scotland is the weather. OK, so I lied. It’s miserable at the best of times, and in winter it’s just plain grim. Not that I want to give any of you the impression that Scotland isn’t a great place to be - it is - but there’s no denying that in the queue for a good climate, Scotland certainly wasn’t first… So here I am , early morning in Edinburgh. It’s still dark, yet I’ve been up for two and a half hours. I’m at work before daybreak and I’ll not leave the office until after dark. Ergo, a sunless existence…

Frosted Rabbits

We keep rabbits at home - two dwarf lops, who I’ve no doubt I’ll take about at some future point. Anyway, though we originally brought them up as house-rabbits (more on that later also), when we started working on the house earlier this year, we decided that the time had come they have a run in the garden. So, this is their first winter.

Now, we treat our rabbits like members of the family. Well, not quite. After all, we wouldn’t dream of keeping Granny in a hutch or feeding the in-laws on a diet of carrots and straw (though my dear wife, being a vegetarian, probably would see that as a good thing). However, our buns get a lot of attention and we’ve grown to appreciate their little personalities. So, given that it’s late November and getting quite cold, I do worry about their comfort as any rabbit owner would.

My better half, being away to see a play called “The Producers” down in London this past weekend, left me in charge of all the animals. Last night, in between bouts of getting this blogging software to actually co-operate (I managed, thanks to persistance, coffee, the WP support forum and some luck), I took pity on the rabbits and decided to give them a blanket, which I draped over their hutch. That done, and a couple of carrots later, I headed back indoors.

This morning, 6.15am: popped back out with their breakfast and some fresh water, to discover that the blanket had frozen solid. To readers in properly cold places, such as Canada, that’s probably nothing. You’re probably used to twelve foot snowdrifts and the like. However, here in the UK we’re notorious for being completely incapable of adapting to our moderate climate. And so it is with me! The rabbits, on the other hand, seemed completely fine albeit a tad peeved at a night in the hutch (like any self-respecting modern bun, they like their freedom). Resilience and big ears, what more can one want?

Let There Be Light

Well, that’s the idea. However, having popped down for a cuppa, it’s now nearly 9am and though I can see the offices over at the other side of the park, it’s a bleak, monochrome world. It’s easy to forget how much we depend upon good lighting. It’ll come as no surprise to any photographers, but light definitely affects our moods, and so on a day like today, it’s easy to feel a bit glum and negative. Especially if you’re stuck in an office with flourescent, flickery lights.

One thing I always wonder is why, given companies’ adherence to Health & Safety guidelines, is more attention not paid to effective, individual lighting? I have no easy way to adjust the light levels around my desk, other than to bring in a lamp and then suffer the ‘thou shalt not connect thy electrical appliance without testing’ abuse from Them Who Make Silly Rules (TWMSR).

I’m firmly of the opinion that every individual should have the right to choose their own lighting preferences. We shouldn’t have to fight City Hall (and TWMSR) to do it, it should Just Be.

Ah well, perhaps the sun will shine and the day will blossom…