Greetings All ! ! ...from Dan , Tech Support, Minacs Worldwide from the Peterborough( Canada) call center. As the nature of our jobs dictates, most call center support techs/agents grow increasingly out-of-shape ( would i be out of place to say down-right obese or nearly atrophied ) due to the sedentary-ness of call center activity ( or lack thereof) . I am extremely interested in any inroads, ideas, innovations or stories from other call center folks who have tried to address these types of issues (for example - in-house exersize facilities, corporate discounts at local fitness centers, intra / extra corporate team activity) Also - I would LOVE to hear from anybody who has some statistics that relate to reduced absentee-ism and corporate health programs)
warm regards to all . . . dan

This question got me thinking more broadly.

I'm only partly linked to the Call Centre industry, but I have done quite a bit of reading over the last year.

One aspect keeps striking me and that is the tendancy for CC people only to look to the CC industry for ideas/solutions.

Do new 'industries' in general feel as if they have to re-invent solutions?

Why is the first reaction, for example (with apologies to Dan for picking on his question):

- CC staff are sedentary. Can a CC give me any ideas?

Rather than:

- There must be millions of sedetary jobs across thousands of industries. Can anyone help me?

The CC world is unique, but most of its problems/opportunities are common. Is it the case that CC managers (and suppliers/consultants) tend to come from within the CC world themselves, so there are very few people in senior positions in CCs with wider experience to draw on?

Views, everyone ...


Alan ............

HI Alan,

"The CC world is unique, but most of its problems/opportunities are common. Is it the case that CC managers (and suppliers/consultants) tend to come from within the CC world themselves, so there are very few people in senior positions in CCs with wider experience to draw on?"

It is good point you made. There are many industries where operations are more or less complex and similar to CC industry. I have more than 16 years of operations management experience and for me understanding and delivering solutions in CC industry is not complex but looks more simpler than other different manufacturing operations. Call centers have many problems which other industries also have and all these operational issues can be resolved by adoptingmy simple strategy:

Understand the problem
Analyse the problem for clarity
Identify capabilities and resources required
Use commonsense
Arrive at solution

I have seen many CC managers and professionals connected with CCindustry project their problems and issues as very unique but any experienced operations manager ask him - he will give you the solution. It is only that we need to go out of the boundaries of CC world and look to other similar situations for solutions.

Vedula