When I returned from my holiday a couple of weeks ago my computer refused to turn on. Coax it as I did - it wasn’t having any of it - no action whatsoever. A little investigation led me to believe that the problem may be with the motherboard. I’d built this computer myself 6 months ago, so I decided the part needed to be sent back to the reseller. Time to give them a call…

Me: “I need to return my motherboard, it’s broken”
Them: “Certainly sir, you just need to fill out a returns form on the website”
Me: “Ah…but my computer’s broken, I can’t get on the Internet”
Them: “Yes sir, you need to fill out the returns form on the website”
Me: “Fine…how can I put this another way. I can’t get on the internet, because my computer’s broken.”

This went on for a while…and I got very frustrated.

I once set-up a support desk for a call centre. Whenever one of the support technicians got collared walking through the call centre by someone saying “My phones broken” they would reply “ring the support desk.". It was the support teams’ little joke: They couldn’t ring, see – their phone was broken….geddit?

Anyway - the support team was joking, this guy wasn’t. As a customer I was stuck with a problem. I expect a CSR to helpful, to offer a different solution. I don’t think this is a skill you can create in someone - I think it’s a skill that people have. Whenever I see someone in trouble I have to help - for me it’s human nature. So why isn’t everyone like that?

I honestly believe that we’ve all got this helpful streak when we’re born and in some it gets drained out of them. I think this is what happened in the call centre that I called. Not only had they failed to train well, they’d actually trained-outthe human instinct to help another human.

Moral of the story? Next time you’re recruiting and you’re looking for experience, consider if you want someone else’s maid.

I managed to fill in the form on my mobile phone in the end, and I got the item posted off. What happened next is a story that I’ll leave for another day.

Regards,
DB

ps. Why do I have this feeling that after mentioning a broken PC John’s going to post a comment about Macs?!

As I may have said before, I’m self employed. I wanted to say a few things about making that decision.

The usual response I get from people when I tell them what I do is “You lucky b*****d, I’d love to be self employed". I then spend the next hour telling them that they can - as long as they get off their backsides and do it.

I’m one of those people who believes that nothing comes to those who wait (although I am rather partial to a pint of Guinness), and if you want things you need to ask for them. No-one’s going to give you a call and ask if you want to be self-employed - you need to take the initiative.

I’d been thinking for a couple of years that I wanted to start my own company. I know that the method of thinking I bring to the table is rather unique - and that most people liked it. So I knew that I could sell it. We all have skills that are sellable (after all, your employers are buying you now) - it just takes a bit of work to get it packaged for the PSF economy - and I’m going to talk about PSF another day.

Anyway, I worked at it and started Darryl Beckford Limited - and that’s where I am today. Working hard, but happy.

So am I trying to say that gaining independence is easy? Probably. But maintaining independence is the problem.

You see I’ve discovered that when you’re a consultant everybody wants to be your friend. I get phone calls night and day from people who are interested in a “partner” agreement. This means I go along and pretend to be a consultant, and when I’ve got the trust of the customer I sell them the product. The bonus for me is that I get paid by both sides. But I see it as a lose-lose situation.

I’m an independent consultant, and I don’t want to be tied to a particular product. Even if I believed that the product was the best on the market I still wouldn’t do it. What’s best for Peter is not usually best for Paul - every call centre is different with it’s own complex business plan.

90% of consultants I speak to are not independent - and the situation makes me think of financial advisors. Perhaps one day we’ll have consultants who work on “Fees” or “Commission” basis, but until then ensure you know who you’re paying to help you.

Regards,
DB

Speech recognition and speech synthesis are two technologies that really interest me. I’m not sure why, I think that perhaps I consider them the final interface barrier between man and machine - and therefore the key to making our interactions with computers more efficient.

About 5 or 6 years ago I paid Orange £10 to have “Wildfire” instead of the standard Orange answerphone. This is an answerphone with speech recognition and is really quite nifty. I can question her on the messages I’ve received - who they’re from, when they arrived. She can sort and file them for me, and create contacts in a phonebook for people I like. She’ll then remember these people and ask them to record their name next time they call. I can also use wildfire to place calls (which is really useful when you’re on handsfree). I can even get her to playback messages when I’m on another call; and in this instance the other caller hears the message too. The speech recognition is really good. There’s no training required and the only problems I have with it is when there’s loud music in the background, or my friends work out they can shout “throw it away” when I’m listening to messages. Fortunately she always asks for confirmation before she deletes something and my friends have never worked out that they need to shout “Yes” afterwards. (!)

So, my point is that good speech recognition has been around for 5 years or so now. Anyone who tells you that the technology is not up to scratch is either a liar or ignorant. But yet it hasn’t made it’s mark as a popular technology in call centres. This confuses me, as the possibilities for cost savings are endless.

The lack of take up comes down to our fear of automated services. And this fear comes about because we’ve started to believe that an automated system is detrimental to the customer experience. Most people I know consider the best telephone banking service is the one that uses a live agent 100% of the time.

This is where I’ve got a radical opinion: This isn’t because of the technology. It’s because of the implementation. Most salesman/consultants/call centre management & directors think of automated systems the wrong way around. They think of them in terms of Investment and Return before they consider the customer.

If an automated system doesn’t make life better for your customer then you need to think really hard before you implement it. You don’t recruit agents with 100% thought about cost and 0% about the customer experience so why do it with your automated system?

Does it get the call answered quicker? Does it get them the information they need immediately? Does it give them more power over the transaction? The answers to these should be yes.

Do customers get confused with the options? Does it frustrate them more than a live op would? These should be no.

How does this automated system add value to the customer? Review your own automated system now - you’d be surprised at the results. I would guess that it was designed with cost savings in mind.

So why I am writing about this? Because I had a very good run in with an automated system last week and it put a smile on my face.

I needed to track a parcel with Royal Mail and I couldn’t use the web. I called the number on my receipt, expecting a wait before I got an agent then another wait before they found the information I wanted. What I got was a speech recognition system that asked me to say my parcel reference. This was 2 letters, 9 numbers then 2 letters. I said these as quick as I could - just because I wanted the system to fail. It then repeated the code to me (it got it correct, sadly!) and told me the date and time the item was delivered, and the office that had delivered it. It then asked me if I wanted the information again, and if I wanted to be connected to an agent. Both of these were Yes/No answers.

The system was spot on. It gave me all the information I needed and quickly. A victory for speech recognition - and a victory for Royal Mail.

I look forward to seeing better automated systems in a call centre near you soon.

Regards,
DB

ps. If you want to know about some of the better voice recognition systems on the market then drop me a line and I’ll send you details.

A while back, I posted the first article on my thoughts about switching to the Apple way of doing things.

A couple of people have asked me to go into more details, but in fairness, I would simply repeat what I said then - it’s as true now as then. To recap:

The anti-PC feelings:

• I was tired of endless problems with PCs;
• I could never rely on any PC - they’d crash at the most awkward moments without warning;
• Despite promises, nothing ever really worked as well as it should have - drivers were always hit or miss, and there were no guarantees that any two bits of PC hardware or software would work for me.

The pro-Mac feelings:

• Though I’d seen many people go from PC-to-Mac, it was very rare to see anyone go Mac-to-PC (without a great deal of pressure, at least);
• Apple computers bring back the fun;
• The hardware - it’s just the best;
• OSX is the best operating system available - the best of windowing and unix combined.

The crazy thing for me was that unlike the hardcore gaming fans, there was absolutely no reason for me to stick with clunky PCs whose instability could rear up and bite me at any point.

Once I started looking into the world of the Apple system (and I urge EVERY PC user reading this to check this link out, I found considerable evidence to suggest that I would both enjoy my computer time far more if I had an Apple system, and that I’d be more productive. Part of the reason for this follow-up article is to see whether that is still the case, after six months and more of Apple time.

Without waxing lyrical too long, the short answer is that I now feel I am ready to ditch PCs almost entirely. I regret the fact that, as this community is largely written in a PC-only scripting language called ASP, I will have to keep a PC in the wings for testing and development. However, that may well be a short term thing as I start to look into the viability of migrating the tens of thousands of lines of hand-crafted ASP code into something platform independent, such as PHP (which, incidentally, is the language in which this log’s software is constructed).

Let’s knock a few myths on the head first, however:

Myth (1): Apple is more expensive than a PC.
Used to be true, but try putting together a 6.5″ square micro PC with a decent operating system and applications for £340. You just won’t do it. There’s no financial reason not to go Mac;

Myth (2): They only use single button mice.
It’s fair to say that the Mac was originally designed with a single button mouse in mind, but the system has moved on significantly since the heady days of 1984. A modern Mac will use any USB PC compatible mouse (wired/bluetooth/wireless) and make use of as many buttons as there are on the mouse. The mouse I’m using is a Logitech MX-510 and it has eight buttons in total, all of which work perfectly in OSX 10.3.7.

Myth (3): Macs are slow and considerably less powerful than modern PCs.
Again, nonsense. The G5 processors in the PowerMac and iMac lines are more efficient per clock cycle than x86 based systems, and fully 64-bit. They’re also equipped with much faster hardware buses and, in conjunction with the superb OSX operating system, the overall effect is a computer that feels fast, responsive and never hangs - unlike any PC running Microsoft Windows.

Myth (4): You can’t get games on a Mac.
Of course you can. Just the good ones. Think of it in these terms: if a game is any good, it’ll generally be available on the Mac. If it isn’t any good, it probably won’t be ported but who cares anyway?

Myth (5): Macs don’t work well with PCs.
Couldn’t be further from the truth. My PowerBook is happily networked to my Athlon XP based desktop PC, and they all share the same peripherals - printer, ethernet switch, ADSL router - and in any case, I can operate my PC remotely using Remote Desktop. Very handy, and works very well…

There are many more myths to explode about the Apple Mac. It’s by far and away the better choice for most people: an operating system which isn’t prone to bugs, security leaks, viruses, worms and spyware. It’s secure out of the box, and it’s far more stable, robust and intrinsically reliable than Windows. The windowing system is far more advanced, prettier and has been designed with effective workflow in mind. If a facility exists in OSX, you can be assured it’s there for a good reason. And that it will work well. Windows XP simply does not measure up to OSX, and with the new 64 bit Tiger OSX coming soon, with the most fully featured search facilities on any operating system, I think that anyone looking for a computer to use, rather than fiddle with, would be mad not to check out the new Mac Mini.

I’m possibly biased - but then I have been a die-hard PC user for many years, and my bias is borne of years of painfully frustrating issues of incompatibility, unreliability and insecurity with Windows. Apple OSX on a PowerBook is a breath of fresh air - it’s like moving from an unreliable, quirky old banger to a modern, super sleek sports coupé. No more breakdowns, oil leaks and nasty surprises. Just the open road, and man at one with machine.

Here’s the goal for me, in case anyone wishes to donate to a good cause:

Yum. Dual 2.5GHz G5s in a sexy case with a super-high resolution 30″ LCD. This is my altar of geek worship, my dream… sad puppy, huh?

John

PS. Quite serious about this: if anyone wishes to be extremely kind to poor, hard-working me, I’d be delighted if you could purchase said system as a business expense and send it to me. I will forever be in your debt

I discussed a while ago the need for us all to be responsible in the way we use outbound calling as a marketing tool. It holds a lot of potential but must be used responsibly or we might have this privilege taken away from us. The industry is divided on the best course of action, but the one thing that everybody is worried about is regulation.

The most irritating thing? Legislation already exists that could cut the bad guys down a peg or two, but OFCOM seems worried about enforcing it.

A year on, OFCOM have opened another investigation re: MKD holdings, also known as Kitchens Direct. See here: Ofcom Website investigation about MKD Holdings Ltd regarding silent calls

The numbers bought into the open by the original OFCOM investigation were conclusive - MKD were misusing the telecommunications network. There can be no defence against such a high number of silent calls. OFCOM’s solution was astoundingly not a fine but this:
“OFCOM obtained written commitments from MKD Holdings which included a commitment that the daily number of silent calls for each phone number used by MKD Holdings would not exceed 5% of the total number of daily live calls” (Source: OFCOM website)

Radical thought: Perhaps if some proper action was actually taken then we’d see the number of silent calls drop?

Regards,
DB

Firstly, I’d like to apologise for neglecting you all. It was a long time ago I last wrote and I feel guilty. As they say, a blog is for life; not just for the month leading up to Christmas.

So, why so long? Well I’ve had quite a long stint out of the office. The “Mrs B to be” and I travelled to London a few days before Christmas where we spent the festive season with our family and friends. We then flew to France for new year, and then later onto Switzerland for a weeks skiing (As John Nutley knows, as he called me half way up a chairlift). Why is that mobile phones work halfway up a swiss mountain, but they won’t work in Manchester?

I had a good attempt at breaking my nose whilst skiing, but I’m going to leave that for another day.

As you may or may not know, I’m self employed. (Well, technically I’m employed by a company that I own completely, but lets not worry. Unless you work for the IR.). Being self employed brings many benefits such as seeing a larger chunk of the fruits of your labours, and the flexibility to work how you like.

It also brings some downsides, such as sometimes seeing no fruit from a lot of labour, and the need to self motivate. This last bit never usually gives me grief - I’m great at getting up in the morning and getting things done. But for some reason I’ve struggled after my first self-employed holiday.

The last time I came back from holiday I was working for someone else and I had quite a busy position. I would come back to hundreds of emails, stacks of paper on my desk and a queue of people wanting help with things. I think it’s this stimulus that gives you the kick up the backside you need to get out of holiday mode. But alas…no queue of people for Darryl this time. Just a long task list of must dos….

To compound the lot, when I tried to start work on Monday morning my computer was bust…but I’m going to leave that story till next time.

So, how do *you* get back into it after a holiday? I’m waiting to see those comments come streaming in….!

Regards,
DB

Via another community that I frequent (slashdot.org), I found out about a remarkable individual whose proposal is that we all can live forever. Seems crazy, but the arguments certainly are persuasive.

Aubrey de Grey, a computer scientist who has taught himself natural science, claims that aging is, in his words, “something we need to fix.” In other words, by removing the ageing process as a factor in the degeneration of the physical self, we open the door to protracted life.

When I read the article at first, I was very sceptical, but to my own non-medically-trained self, de Gray paints a cohesive and consistent argument which, to me, makes sense.

Aside from his own claims in the field of cellular biology, what I find most intriguing is the fact that de Gray is entirely self-taught; he carries no formal qualification in his field, yet is regarded with a surprising level of respect and, it’s fair to say, celebrity, in this field. People like this are quite rare in any field - visionaries, you might say - and I am personally fascinated by the kind of person whose intellect and determination allows them to shine in a field against all the odds.

Although this hasn’t got a lot to do with call centres, I reckoned a lot of you might find it a fascinating read, and take a little inspiration out of what is possible with a positive mindset, conviction and a dogged determination to pursue a concept or an idea to the last.

Whether I want to live forever, or even for significantly past my three-score-plus-ten, is another matter. There’s a great ethical and moral can of worms to consider, not to mention the sociological, ethnographical and financial implications of biasing the world’s population toward a higher average age. The planet, as they say, is busy enough at approximately six billion individuals; to push back the house-call from old Grim Reaper is only going to lead to a more crowded planet.

I urge you all to read the article - link above - as it’s very interesting indeed. Please add your comments - I’d love to hear what you think about de Grey’s ideas or the concept of prolonged life…

Link to Article

Can anyone who might be interested in contributing to this site please contact me and let me know - I’m keen to see other people’s articles and case-studies up here, as it would provide a greater sense of balance and give me an occasional day off

Best wishes,

John

PS. To those who’ve asked for it, I’ll be adding the promised “My conversion to the world of Apple” article over this weekend. What with the new Mac Mini and the delicious iMac G5s all available, plus the fact that the Microsoft world seems to be crumbling in on itself, I don’t think there’s ever been a better time to jump ship.

Good morning.

For a change, instead of talking shop and my usual, technically-orientated subject matter, I thought I’d wax lyrical about animals. A few particular animals, as it happens.

Life with Cats

We’re big cat people; not ‘big cats’ as in lions and tigers (though we like them too) but domestic cats. We’ve two; Django, a large black tom aged around seven (with a baldy belly and a real gannet-like appetite), and Mickey. Or Pickle, as I often call him. Mickey ‘Mickle Pickle’ (that’s how it happened, folks) has just turned six months of age. We got him aged around seven weeks; my wife’s colleague was taking one of the last two kittens left in a moderately large litter, and when asked “do you know anyone who’d like the other kitten", she thought of Mrs. C. So, that day, the conversation went something like this:

She: Hi hon, remember you said we could maybe someday get a kitten?
Me: Ahhhh, ummm, someday. Why?
She: Weeeeeeell, Anne’s got a new kitten, and there’s another one left. Can we have it?
Me: I dunno, I’ll have to think about it. What about Django?
She: I’m sure he’ll be okay, you know-
Me: Hang on, I know you; you’ve already said yes, haven’t you?
She: You’re good.

So, lo and behold, we were a dual cat household. One cat was fine, with a certain serenity to the proceedings; however, Mickey was a shock to the system: energy, speed, mischief, all the usual kitten traits. Django never really got much peace and quiet after we got Mickey.

Anyway, why am I telling you all of this? Well, it’s because yesterday, at the sort of exorbitant prices only vets can get away with charging, Mickey became less of a boy and more of a, well, urm, you know…

So, my thoughts are with the little man. It was a more complicated operation than they expected, due to the fact that, ahem, only one had dropped (t’other was hiding inside, waiting for warmer days it would seem). So, after shelling out nearly One Hundred And Fifty Quid (capitalised for maximum effect), we had one shaven, rather sorry-looking castrato cat-o.

The funniest thing about the whole deal was the fact that, due to the presence of stitches, he had to wear one of those funny looking collar things. Which he did not like one bit. Eventually, he achieved the impossible and managed to escape, Houdini-like, from the collar and was licking at the stitches on his belly. Awwwww…

My dear wife ended up fabricating a kind of ‘romper suit’ for the wee man, with paw holes and all. He looked quite the part in it…

The Baby Seal Episode

Continuing in the cute-and-cuddly theme, when walking with a friend on a nearby beach on Saturday, we chanced across a beached baby seal. Unhurt but alone, the little fella* was just lying there. The tide was a couple of hundred yards away (it’s a big beach on the Fife Riviera, ho hum). Anyway, the big question that we had to find an answer to was this: exactly what does one do when one finds a stranded baby seal?

We were a bit unsure, so a quick call to our local animal protection organisation established some facts:
(1) Baby Seals do this all the time;
(2) They can give a nasty bite, and so should be given a bit of a wide berth;
(3) Even if they didn’t bite, human scent can cause problems with parental abandonment**;
(4) Mother would return for baby come the high tide.

So, in a round-about fashion we were advised to leave Baby well alone, at least until the tide had risen. Should Baby remain after another high-tide, then it would be time to take it more seriously. As it happens, though, despite the fact that there were several hours to go before the tide would reach Baby, we were transfixed; a short coffee break was curtailed so that we could return to check on Baby. In the end we were standing in the rain, watching from a reasonable distance, and willing Baby to take the Seal Shuffle down into the breakwater. Which inevitably he didn’t. In fact, it appeared that he had something of an aversion to the water, and whenever the waves started to lap close-by, he Seal Shuffled away from the water. We were concerned, but transfixed. Luckily, as the day began to dim, Baby finally realised that there were few places he could Seal Shuffle to, save for the gray sea. So, it was with a little cheer (on our part) and a final Seal Shuffle (on Baby’s part) that he made his way into the surf, and away. Hopefully to Mum.

So, thus concludes a bit of an off-topic contribution, because sometimes the best tonic is being away from the drudgery of the office and the call centre, and around nature. It’s good for the soul.

John

* arbitrary decision on my part; only a boy seal would be daft enough to get beached.
** so that’s why my mother never comes to visit…

Yesterday saw the launch of the new Apple Mac Mini (does this mean we’re getting a Mac Mini Cooper? ) and a fine beastie it appears to be too. Now, I’m probably biased, but I do feel that Apple should be applauded for trying to solve the age-old problems of usability, simplicity, ergonomics by applying radical and often revolutionary design approaches.

Seeing a computer base-unit of little more than a cd in area and a couple of inches in thickness, it makes me wonder about the various applications such a compact and portable unit might have. As this is a call centre site, of course, I have to look at how it might work in the office environment. My initial thoughts were that a unit like this would enable agents to hot-desk much more easily, as the computer can be easily carried around. It is a very compact unit, which should free up important desk-space. It is reputedly very quiet, though I can’t comment on that. If it is as quiet as I’ve read, it should be perfect for keeping the ambient noise levels to a minimum. Sure, most contact centres have so much going on that even a comparatively noisy machine isn’t obviously intrusive, but I’m a firm believer in doing what we can to keep unnecessary noise at bay.

I can also see applications outwith normal computer use; I haven’t measured, but I reckon that the Mini might just be small enough to fit into the standard audio unit compartment of the average car. Which means that it’s ideal for automotive computing. Just imagine, a black-box flight recorder for your car. In some countries, such things have been trialled for insurance purposes, but a more sophisticated unit such as the Mini, reading in all manner of drive information via its firewire or USB ports, and allowing drivers to archive their trip data using cheap CDR media.

Even the smallest hard-drive option could easily hold a very detailed and easily updated navigation system; GPS locators are relatively inexpensive and could be designed to input ongoing location information via the connections on the back. The DVI output could drive a small LCD panel which could show detailed navigation in unlimited ways - relief information, directories of places to visit/eat/shop, weather information, you name it. The beauty of it being the fact that the baby Mac would have the flexibility and (I’m sure) the reliability to be configured any which way. Couple that to a contemporary mobile telephone and it could be configured to communicate with your Mac iBot to switch on the lights, open the garage door and stream your relaxing playlist from iTunes when you draw close to home.

I know, I know, I’m getting carried away here. However, is any of this so unrealistic? The office idea is very practical - these Mini Macs are apparently very small indeed, inexpensive and because they run OSX, they break away from the mess that is Windows on your typical PC. Support costs are lowered, workers are happier and there would be a marked increase in productivity. Macs are, after all, generally far more reliable and easy to use and live with than PCs. Die-hard PC enthusiasts will no doubt complain, but only because deep down they know I’m right.

So here we have it: the new phase in computing - small, powerful and affordable. We’ve had these before, but only two at a time: powerful is normall big, or expensive.

I doff my hat to you, Apple, for pushing technology forward in such a way that might just make a difference - a positive difference - to the lives of the ordinary person.

John

Well I thought I’d fly down south on Boxing day to see some friends. As you can see from the below (which was written at the time) I didn’t make it.

Dear Sir / Madam,

I’ve now got to take the 06:45 [1] 4 hrs late and severely out of pocket.

I look forward to a quick response.

One quote I missed out of the letter was a young lady who was catching a flight to Australia [2] and only using this airline as a shuttle to Heathrow. She was told on telling them she’d miss he connection. “Well that’s not our problem you’ll have to sort it with ****** when you get to Heathrow".

All in all, for the customer service awards this lot are off in the lead at a blistering pace, frankly this lot are going to be hard to beat. [3] [4]

DaveA

[1] And we were 2 hrs late then

[2] Not going for anything important mind, she was only getting married

[3] I’ve left the airlines name out from now, suffice it to say it wasn’t BA.

[4] And they haven’t replied yet either, although I did get an E-Mail saying it would get their fullest attention
dated the 28th of December

As everyone will be well aware, it’s almost impossible to live and work in a location which is immune to the often grim consequences of natural disasters and extreme weather.

In the last year, we’ve seen much of the south-eastern US and Caribbean plagued by tropical storms; we’ve seen increased flooding in the UK and of course nobody can nor should forget the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster. As experts keep telling us, some of this is unavoidable (Tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanoes fall into this category) and we’re seeing more and more extreme weather which as a consequence of global warming caused by increased emissions. I wanted to have a brief look at the measures we can take to safeguard our call centre operations against the unseen dangers which can strike at any point. These may be on a macro scale, such as earthquakes, or on a localised scale, such as fires or water damage. This article doesn’t take into account malicious or terrorist acts, but the same rules apply.

Fundamentals

Planning is everything. The overall aim of Disaster Recovery is to have a response to the range of ‘disaster eventualities’. We can think of this as our Emergency Plan.

Such a plan should firstly establish a set of clear objectives. These objectives should be prioritised, and fairly broad in scope. A simple example might include the following (not an exhaustive list):

• Safety of employees;
• Security of physical assets (for example, buildings);
• Protection of non-tangible assets (for example, data);
• Restoration of services
• Restoration of core business functions;

Any incident can be considered as having a timeline, ranging from before the incident (in the case of advance warnings), to the time of the incident itself, and through the minutes, hours and days that follow. A successful recovery plan should cater for effective responses to any advance warnings that might be received. In this period, evacuation may be required, and if possible full backups of mission critical data and operations information should be taken. The priority must always be individual safety above all other concerns, and this priority must outrank any business imperative. However, if immediate danger is not posed it may be prudent to take steps to limit the exposure of services and equipment to the risk.

By their very nature, disasters are serious and should be considered life-threatening unless known to be benign.

However, nature has a habit of catching us by surprise, and what might seem non-threatening can escalate very quickly into something far more serious. This is where careful planning comes into its own. We need to identify the different categories of disaster risk and their nominal timelines, so as to be able to respond effectively and meet the objectives of our plan. Of course, this is no trivial matter, and I’ll save that one for a future article.

Attitude

Rather than go into depth, I’ll put planning to one side and attempt to tackle an altogether less defined beast.

Regardless of how many plans and procedures that an organisation has in place, without the correct attitude toward them, disaster anticipation and recovery will be marginalised and often ignored. Do this at thy peril!

It’s important that everyone understands just how important things like evacuation-drills, backups and building inspections can be. For instance, if the security guard locks the fire exits, no amount of planning is going to help. Sound crazy? Perhaps, but obstructed escape exits is a major problem which should be identified and dealt with promptly. Ensure staff understand what they are to do in the event of a bomb-threat, an earthquake, a fire or a flood. Test those alarms regularly!

Visibility

No plan is of any use if nobody knows about it. It has to be visible to everyone involved. Accessible. Not locked away in a cupboard, or attached at the bottom of a long-forgotten intranet page. The message must be hammered home; take it seriously: it could save your life. Publish these plans publicly, and often. Ensure new-starts are made aware not just of the existence of said plans, but what lies within.

Recovery

The recovery phase must always follow once the primary concerns of individual safety have effectively addressed. A disaster recovery plan should include things like an audit of the current office, systems, people, processes and dependencies. It should include details of assets, and suppliers of those assets. It should anticipate major disasters by establishing a suitable offsite, secure backup plan of business data - and this should be followed strictly. Recovery plans should also aim to facilitate ‘dry-runs’ - important to assess how suitably equipped an organisation is to recover from a major incident.

I hope this has been useful. Most of it is common sense, and of course a quick internet search will doubtless reveal more information which might help in the construction of a suitable plan. It bears repeating that having an effective plan in place is vitally important, so if you don’t have one, create one; if you do have one, revise it.

John

Good morning to you all.

These days, too many of us really put in long hours due to the various pressures of the modern workplace. We’re often there from dusk to dawn, sacrificing our breaks to appear eager, willing and able.

It’s a trap that a great many of us fall into. Which is why I was interested to chance across a reprint of an article by a fellow called Gerald Weinberg. Mr Weinberg maintains that the key to happiness at work is to maintain a positive and balanced personal chemistry. This is an intriguing idea and I reckon there’s a lot to be said for it. Whilst the occasional ‘all-guns-blazing’ burst of effort is often required (such as before a major deadline), the proposition is that such effort becomes the norm and (in a sense) habit-forming.

I urge you all to have a read of the article - it’s mainly common sense, but as many of you will be in a position to set the targets of your workers, I think it’s well worth digesting. After all, we’re all human - only human, that is - and sustained super-human effort is not physiologically beneficial.

John

Hi everyone. This is a very short note just to let you know that CallCentreGurus is now much more accessible as we’ve given it the tab look and feel that it was missing until now.

I’d also like to invite any comments about our site, so that we can fine-tune it and hopefully make it even more useful. Now that we’re well-and-truly on the road, I’ll have more time to add more regular entries. However, please let us know what you think.

Happy New Year! I know, I know, it’s a little bit late, but then, I’ve been busy updating the site - and hopefully giving it more appeal to a wider audience.

Now that we’re into another year, I thought it would be interesting to find out whether any of you have made any plans or resolutions which might affect the way that you run your call centre. Have you, for instance, decided to go with a particular technology, or try new agent incentives? Perhaps you’ve decided to reorganise or even expand your existing call centre.

On the other hand, is your department facing tough decisions? How are you coping?

On a personal level, have you decided to get fit, or give something up? Perhaps you fancy picking up a new language (I do; to my embarrasment I am a one language kind of guy, and I’d love to be able to pick up a foreign language and use it). Maybe you want to switch jobs, change career or even do voluntary work. If so, I want to hear about it!

Myself? Well, apart from aiming to pickup Italian, do more running and less drinking (to help me shift a stone or so) and complete my move to Apple, I’ve nothing radical planned. My wife wants a holiday to Maccu Picchu in Peru, so that’s the big goal for the year, though I’d be happy with just shifting that gut!

Anyway, over to you guys and gals… please, talk to me! [Note: due to comment spam, we have switched on the ‘moderator approval’ facility, which means it may be a short while before we get round to checking that your comment isn’t spam. We had a bit of this just before Christmas - and annoying it was too.]

John