Terry Starbucker

JULY 19, 2015

Today’s story is about how I found my leadership secret weapon – an operational metric that could play a key role in our march to greatness, and provide a critical link between great customer service and profit. But on the other hand, there was a deeper issue – the cable operator just wasn’t liked. Making the Connection.

Leadership 150

Leadership Metrics Price Mass Marketing 150

The Horizons Tracker

MARCH 11, 2024

” The study examines how unions and worker councils have responded to the growth in so-called algorithmic management in a number of call centers operated by telecom companies in Norway and Germany. . “And there are different ways to get there, depending on the country.”

Technology 114

Technology Efficiency Call Center Cooper 114

The Horizons Tracker

APRIL 8, 2024

They not only viewed the input of employees as crucial but also regarded the act of outsmarting the robots as both a duty and a marker of a capable operator. So one lesson that managers can take away from our study is to plan ahead of automation about what will be the meaning and the purpose of humans operating the technology.

Technology 67

Technology Call Center Operations Class 67

Strategy Driven

MAY 26, 2021

The suite comes with many impressive AI applications that you can integrate directly into your deployment and productivity pipeline almost immediately: Contact Center AI; allows you to automate your call center interactions with customers.

Tools 85

Tools Analysis Software Document 85

Strategy Driven

DECEMBER 15, 2010

Through innovative solutions delivered within an integrated framework, SAS helps customers at more than 45,000 sites improve performance and deliver value by making better decisions faster. Ed holds a Master of Science degree in Operations Research and a Bachelors degree in Mathematics.

Resources 50

Resources Process Constraint Objective 50

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 8, 2013

Recently, Thomson-Reuters published its latest list of the Top 100 Global Innovators honoring the leading organizations and companies most responsible for sizeable, influential patents worldwide. Captive R&D Centers. First, many of the Top Innovators employ engineers in emerging countries such as India and China.

Engineering 10

Engineering Globalization Innovation Marketing 10

Harvard Business Review

MAY 2, 2012

The idea that customers can't or shouldn't participate much in the innovation process is one barrier to creativity that companies are rapidly knocking down. This new view and way of operating actually helps companies come closer to achieving the ideal of giving customers what they want, when, where and how they want it.

Company 15

Company Software Call Center Innovation 15

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 10, 2017

In Precision’s case, good tactical performance required developing rules, checklists, and standard operating procedures and then following them closely. Adaptive performance manifests as creativity, problem solving, grit, innovation, and citizenship. We made a number of operational changes to the call center.

Organization 15

Organization Tactics Call Center Metrics 15

Harvard Business Review

JULY 20, 2012

In addition, you get to display your responsiveness in a highly public forum, which doesn't happen in a call center. What are innovative ways you've seen social media used in organizations? But the opportunity doesn't end there, on the revenue side of the business. Service improvement. What does the future look like?

Media 17

Media Self-aware Call Center Tools 17

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 27, 2013

"Innovation" has become a buzzword in the customer experience field. They also believe that innovation will help them achieve these lofty goals — and they''re investing accordingly. Sixty-nine percent of these respondents report that their companies have dedicated personnel for customer experience innovation.

Innovation 8

Innovation Forrester Business Model Long-term 8

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 18, 2011

The executives' role is to define the attributes of the customer experience in partnership with their operational colleagues, organize the customer-satisfaction-measurement process against those attributes, and encourage remedial action wherever warranted. Many companies now have senior officers in charge of customer experience.

B2B 14

B2B Consensus Productivity Products 14

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 26, 2012

In the game of innovation, there is next to no time to rest. All in all, scale has provided some immense strategic benefits to large companies around the world — protecting many from entrepreneurial innovations that would otherwise threaten. In the best cases, it takes your competitors years to distill your secret sauce.

Porter 15

Porter Competitive Advantage Safe Harbor Efficiency 15

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 23, 2010

As companies like this one grow from start-ups into larger enterprises, they're often compelled to analyze numerical data to reduce risk, maintain operations, and model predictable outcomes. But how often is this qualitative feedback seen as a sturdy platform for innovation and growth? Re-frame customer objections as new businesses.

Entrepreneur 15

Entrepreneur Strategy Telecommunications Software 15

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 13, 2014

Say you introduce an innovative new customer-relationship-management (CRM) tool for your sales force, and revenue increases by 15%. Change management Human resources Operations' Why can’t you sidestep the hassle of an experiment and simply compare the performance before and after a change? The change is a success, right?

Flextime 14

Flextime Call Center Human Resources CRM 14

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 5, 2014

Talk about how complex marketing has become is very much in vogue, but there’s much less discussion about the operational (and diplomatic) muscle CMOs need in order to get things done. Companies across the spectrum are grappling with change as new technologies, innovations, and customer behaviors disrupt old business models.

P&L 14

P&L Banking Marketing Call Center 14

Harvard Business Review

MAY 5, 2011

You can work out what aspects of your operations you should be spending on. Without this breadth as well as granularity of information, we don't know whether to allocate resource to improving call centers, retail channels, advertising campaigns or new product innovation. The consumer panel sends texts for all touchpoints.

Brand 16

Brand Survey Call Center Learning-by-Doing 16

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 2, 2010

Frei, who wrote about Progressive in this HBR article , and revealed the insights about the dual benefits of its operational choices.). The web team needs to be in sync with product development, which needs to coordinate with marketing and sales, who need to align messages with the third-party call-center.

Insurance 15

Insurance Retail Brand Loyalty 15

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 13, 2017

From self-driving cars to drones to automated business operations, this technology has the potential to enhance productivity, direct human talent on critical issues, accelerate innovation, and lower operating costs. As with any innovative new technology, there are positive and negative implications.

Technology 12

Technology System Learning-by-Doing Video 12

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 2, 2013

Retailers have stores, call centers, and e-commerce. Marketing, IT, store operations, and loyalty programs are all connected. “Our customer is in a store, then she’s reading a magazine, then she’s online. Information & technology Innovation Marketing' We can’t think the traditional way by channel.

Marketing 15

Marketing Teamwork Technology Information Technology 15

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 28, 2018

Instead, we bring people into different contexts — removed from typical day-to-day company operations — that can serve as a metaphor for what customers experience and therefore jolt employees into a more empathetic stance. Early signs have been positive, with increases in sales conversion and first call resolution.

Energy 14

Energy Creativity Brainstorming Call Center 14

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 6, 2011

The most innovative employee managers we know use business analytics to understand the differences in how individual store associates perform. Call center companies are increasingly capitalizing on their ability to track individual sales to match the most effective people with the right opportunities.

Retail 18

Retail Merchandising Succession Taylorism 18

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 3, 2015

The only way to thrive, or even survive, these managers conclude, is to find workers who can co-create value with customers and constantly improve operations. Insight Center. The Future of Operations. The implications for operational decision making can be pushed even further. The problem is not surprising.

Development 8

Development Call Center Operations Health Care 8

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 9, 2011

We call these people Cost Center Consumers, and they come in two flavors. They tie up your call centers, incur costly returns, and generate other costs that occur below the gross margin line, which is harder to see. Redbox, the innovator whose DVD dispenser machine rents DVDs for $1 per day, had also grown quite rapidly.

P&L 15

P&L Supply Chain Retail Price 15

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 4, 2015

We know that creativity and innovation fuel new products, services, even strategies. Innovative Teams (20-Minute Manager Series). Innovation Book. But too many executives make the mistake of assuming creativity is just reserved for a certain department or just the white-collar knowledge-workers in their firms. Further Reading.

Creativity 8

Creativity Call Center Retail Innovation 8

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 6, 2012

One success story occurred when a front-line associate in a call center posted online she didn't like a new process. To speed operations and improvement, Process Strategy 2.0 The third major trend I see is the increasing need for speed in operations and improvement. People weighed in, and then they changed the process.

Process 10

Process Examples Strategy Six Sigma 10

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 28, 2017

And AI success stories are becoming more numerous and diverse, from Amazon reaping operational efficiencies using its AI-powered Kiva warehouse robots, to GE keeping its industrial equipment running by leveraging AI for predictive maintenance. Investment in AI is growing and is increasingly coming from organizations outside the tech space.

Survey 15

Survey Execution First-mover Advantage Technology 15

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 4, 2011

Leading innovation within today's organizations demands enlisting and mobilizing others since significant change will in all likelihood impact multiple organizational units. This leadership imperative goes far beyond being collaborative and "playing nicely" with peers.

Proposal 13

Proposal Cialdini Execution Career 13

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 13, 2018

It is frequently used to automate financial processes, such as comparing invoices with shipment notices, or transfering data from email and call center speech-to-text systems into transactional systems of record. It operates at the task level and not the end-to-end process level.”

Process 15

Process Six Sigma Company Technology 15

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 3, 2015

Intriguingly, some start-ups are coming up with characteristically innovative ways to tackle the problem. The new approach was very successful, and Zappos scaled it by insourcing operations to increase efficiency and by expanding the product line to handbags, eyewear, and other clothing, to benefit from economies of scope.

Apparel 8

Apparel Strategy Insourcing Efficiency 8

Harvard Business Review

MAY 5, 2016

They see disrupted incumbents from retail, finance, health care, transportation, professional services, and manufacturing requiring radical restructuring of assets, productivity , and innovation. This clean-sheet customer experience prioritization over more traditional call center KPIs had a huge effect.

Levitt 8

Levitt Disaggregation Kaizen Call Center 8

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 20, 2014

When Deborah DiSanzo took over as CEO of Philips Healthcare in May 2012, she knew that engineering would continue to drive innovation. That process incorporates operations, customer service, R&D, clinical specialists, sales, supply chain operators, and service teams. Who should lead our transformation?

CEO 10

CEO Marketing Hotels Long-term 10

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 5, 2015

For example, American services marketplace Thumbtack leverages close to 1,000 home-based contractors in the Philippines to help with business operations. Rocket operates some of the largest e-commerce platforms in emerging markets. But alongside the skill, there’s the shift in mindset among younger workers in the industry.

Outsourcing 8

Outsourcing Technology B2B GDP 8

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 29, 2017

In the end, we offered an aid package of $10,000 to people who lost homes and $1,000 to displaced employees under the premise that the company’s strength and innovation rests on the long-term tenure of its people, offsetting short-term financial impact. But we needed to meet immediate needs, too.

Crisis 8

Crisis Long-term Short-term Crisis Management 8

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 26, 2015

But this approach doesn’t produce the most productive, innovative work environment. As in many other companies, Wipro’s traditional entry process was tightly centered on teaching the company culture and necessary job behaviors to new employees.

Power 8

Power Outsourcing Self-aware Airlines 8

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 17, 2016

This quadrant might include work where employees are colocated and the operations and workers are easily accessible through physical connections. This quadrant might include call centers operated with traditional employees but in remote locations or working from home, like JetBlue’s.

Human Resources 8

Human Resources Technology Globalization System 8

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 19, 2013

This perspective created the industrial economy lens through which most managers perceive their operations. Industrial age measures can''t evaluate Serendipity Economy results, leaving its outcomes like invention and innovation, process improvements, and new businesses relegated to the evidence of anecdote.

CTO 8

CTO Franchising CIO Short-term 8

Harvard Business Review

MAY 8, 2017

Before describing those, let’s look at how we identified the exceptional firms that rose to the top of our ranking, a group we call the Transformation 10. Matthew Eyring , Chief Strategy & Innovation Officer of Vivint Inc. The Transformation 10 Judges Chris Chadwick , former CEO of Boeing Defense.

Franchising 15

Franchising CEO Business Model Strategy 15