Rating: 
Summary: Easy Win!
Review: A great book for anyone who works in the inbound call center environment! It's takes the science of call center and transforms it into an easy to read guide. This book will help everyone from senior management to front line service reps gain a better understanding and appreciation of the dynamic call center environment. In the call center world, we often get caught up in the technology and lose site of the fundamentals - this book puts is all back in perspective. Good Luck.
Rating:
Summary: Great teaching material.
Review: At Niagara College, we use this book to train future call centre professionals. Once hired, our graduates have told us they continually turn to this book to gain the expertise needed to solve day-to-day issues. The book not only deals with technical issues such as service level, the technology needed, etc., but it does not forget the human aspect of managing. I consider this book a must for every call centre professional.
Rating:
Summary: Praise from www.portagecommunications.com
Review: Brad Cleveland and ICMI have published a real goldmine with this title. Call Center Management on Fast Forward relates the key knowledge needed to successfully run a call center for maxiumum productivity and for the best service to the callers. This book is based on ICMI's many years of consulting and lots of hands-on experience. You will learn how to manage a call center not based on your intuition, but rather on the mathematical realities of queueing theory and random call arrivals. What can be a hard subject is explained very well so that a manager can really put the author's advice into practice. We at Portage Communications are going to start including a free copy of this book along with every copy of our Call Center Designer and SimACD call center planning and workforce staffing software that we sell. We like it that much!
Rating:
Summary: A real Focus on Call Center's Opeartional Dynamics
Review: CCM on FFwd do represent a down to earth challenges and objectives of the the operational aspect for any focused or unfocused Call Center. To read, understand and implement the book ideas, you have to be a thorough professional in order to align it with the real world. Cleveland showed his work of art which makes us eager to see his next "Stop" after "Fast Forward".
Rating:
Summary: A great asset to any call centre manager
Review: Essential for any call centre manager worth his or her salt. If not the call centre bible, then at least the old testament.
Rating:
Summary: A "must read" book for call center professionals.
Review: First, a disclaimer -- I am Director of Incoming Calls Management Institute, which also employs the authors of the book, so I should be considered a biased reviewer. But I'm also in a unique place to know who's buying the book and how they're using it. The book provides a detailed, step-by-step plan for managing an incoming call center. Since it's debut last September, the book has become part of university, college and corporate training programs in over 15 countries. It is "required reading" for the management teams in numerous call centers, and is currently being translated into several other languages.
Rating:
Summary: A must buy for the busy manager
Review: I am a busy man with a large library. This is the book I pull out the most often. It is well referenced too with a useful bibliography. The only downside is that it is 4 years old. I look forward to the sequel with insights into management of web contact.
Rating:
Summary: Great book/nice package. This book leaves the hype behind.
Review: I am a Sales Support Engineer and interface with many call center environments as part of my job. Call Center Management on Fast Forward works for three basic reasons. 1) The authors know what information is relevant to the discussion of call center management. 2) The authors know how to communicate this information. 3) The authors approach the subject at a level of depth and detail that makes you feel like you have taken a good bite out of the subject - enough to chew on but not choke on. After you have swallowed the concepts they offer you can use the book as guide to point you in a dozen other areas of specialization or interest. But I bet you will still consistently come back to Call Center Management on Fast Forward for reference, overview, or just to remind yourself how a good book can be written.
Rating:
Summary: Not only for call centers - IT help desks need this too!
Review: I am writing this review from the perspective of an IT consultant who sets up processes and procedures for service delivery. A call center and an IT help desk are two very different animals. This book is written for call center managers, yet should be required reading for IT help desk managers and staff. As someone who has set up IT help desks and has also provided application support to call centers I often wondered why typical call centers were so well managed and IT help desks, for the most part, are not. This book goes a long way towards explaining the dichotomy by showing how call center professionals approach service. It contains a wealth of information that should be carefully read by IT help desk professionals who want to implement a world-class operation. The planning and management framework section of this book starts on the right note: service levels. This is followed by clear explanations of quantitative factors such as call load forecasting, staffing and service level metrics. Some things that set this book apart are the sections on quality and productivity, and new technologies. The authors go well beyond how to effectively manage call centers by discussing how to integrate new technologies and exploit technology to provide the best possible service. I also liked the section on characteristics of best managed call centers - the information provides an effective roadmap to excellence and benchmarking tool. Although I am not familiar with the entire body of technical literature on call center management I have to believe that this is one of the most complete books on the subject. I am familiar with the body of literature on IT help desks and can attest that this book needs to be included in the libraries and required reading lists of all IT help desk professionals.
Rating:
Summary: Not only for call centers - IT help desks need this too!
Review: I am writing this review from the perspective of an IT consultant who sets up processes and procedures for service delivery. A call center and an IT help desk are two very different animals. This book is written for call center managers, yet should be required reading for IT help desk managers and staff. As someone who has set up IT help desks and has also provided application support to call centers I often wondered why typical call centers were so well managed and IT help desks, for the most part, are not. This book goes a long way towards explaining the dichotomy by showing how call center professionals approach service. It contains a wealth of information that should be carefully read by IT help desk professionals who want to implement a world-class operation. The planning and management framework section of this book starts on the right note: service levels. This is followed by clear explanations of quantitative factors such as call load forecasting, staffing and service level metrics. Some things that set this book apart are the sections on quality and productivity, and new technologies. The authors go well beyond how to effectively manage call centers by discussing how to integrate new technologies and exploit technology to provide the best possible service. I also liked the section on characteristics of best managed call centers - the information provides an effective roadmap to excellence and benchmarking tool. Although I am not familiar with the entire body of technical literature on call center management I have to believe that this is one of the most complete books on the subject. I am familiar with the body of literature on IT help desks and can attest that this book needs to be included in the libraries and required reading lists of all IT help desk professionals.
| 
