Chris Crosby » Management

Square Milk Cartons

Chris Crosby — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 13:31:25 +0000

I heard an interesting podcast the other day that described how Sam’s Club is going to save somewhere north of $20M a year in shipping and cooling costs by changing over to square milk cartons. What struck me about this wasn’t that Walmart is looking for ways to save money, but rather the significant impact [...]

Service Level vs. Cost vs. Customer Experience

Chris Crosby — Thu, 29 May 2008 14:54:30 +0000

Posted in Call Center DatAlchemy Management

I’m out at a customer site this week and overheard the following conversation from the Workforce Management Team: The difference in customer experience between 93% Service Level and 100% Service Level is negligible. But the difference in staffing cost to us is huge. Now, I’ll spare you my full rant about Service Level [...]

Interactions

Chris Crosby — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 13:30:41 +0000

Posted in Business Call Center Management Marketing

Seth Godin has an interesting post about why your last impression with a customer is more important than the first (you know the old adage “you never get a second chance to make a first impression”). He’s right, and I thinks its really about making every interaction count across your organization. When you consistently deliver [...]

The Art [and Annoyance] of the Upsell

Chris Crosby — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 21:51:26 +0000

Posted in Business Management Marketing

One of the most effective, and ineffective, ways to increase the value of a customer is by upselling additional products or services at the time of a sale. Effectively this can increase your items/revenue per sale and raise your gross margin, ineffectively you can frustrate your customer and send them somewhere else. Here’s an example [...]

analytics vs. performance management

Chris Crosby — Wed, 16 May 2007 14:22:24 +0000

Posted in Business Call Center DatAlchemy Latigent Management

I was recently asked by Call Center Magazine what I thought the difference between analytics and performance management is so I thought I’d post it here as well. Latigent defines Analytics as the process and enabling tools for root cause and trend isolation. This can range from call volume drivers, to customer segmentation, to agent performance. [...]

stop the cat box

Chris Crosby — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 16:23:57 +0000

Posted in Business Call Center DatAlchemy Latigent Management

Have you seen the Verizon commercial where the two guys download the 80′s tune “Rock the Casbah”, but instead of singing along to the correct lyrics they misinterpret them into something completely different? Over the course of the commercial they botch the chorus into “lock the cashbox” and “stop the cat box”, which takes a perfectly good rock song and makes it complete [...]

Bill snyder: they said it couldn’t be done

Chris Crosby — Sat, 28 Apr 2007 15:33:11 +0000

Posted in Books Business Management

I recently finished reading “Bill Snyder: They Said it Couldn’t Be Done” and thought it a noteworthy recommendation. This book is a narrative about one of the greatest turnaround stories in college football told through a personal interview with the man that made it happen. I grew-up in Manhattan,KS (home of K-State) at a time when the wildcats were consistently ranked [...]

are service level goals wasting your money?

Chris Crosby — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 21:09:36 +0000

Posted in Business Call Center DatAlchemy Management

You only have to spend about 30 seconds in any call center on the planet to hear the term Service Level thrown out as a KPI (Key Performance Indicator) for measuring “customer experience” and “accessibility”. I’m going to tell you a little secret about Service Level that the rest of the industry is too afraid to acknowledge: not only is it [...]

The Balance Beam

Chris Crosby — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 14:13:29 +0000

Posted in Business Management

Managing a product’s development lifecycle is like constantly walking a balance beam. Fall off the beam, and on one side you get eaten by customers and prospects desiring new features and functionality; the other side your oh-so-precious resources to get it all done and the associated costs. In a fast paced software company, it can [...]

Little Black Book of Connections – Book Review

Chris Crosby — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 17:23:36 +0000

Posted in Books Management Marketing

Well I’m a little overdue in my book review of Jeffrey Gitomer’s Little Black Book of Connections: 6.5 Assets for Networking Your Way to Rich Relationships, but I thought since he released his new book today Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude: How to Find, Build and Keep a YES! Attitude for a Lifetime of SUCCESS, I [...]