economics-today

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.

This book is for everyone in the business world, not only for call center managers. All organizations of all sizes are closing the gap between businesses and customers. And the main customer contact point, call center, is coming into a spotlight as the centerpiece of businesses. This book introduces readers to call center management practices, the good and the bad. It also point out the factors that are changing call centers, their functions and people who work in them. Its insight into some of the technology changes help readers grasp their importance in the context of everyday operation. Fast reading.

I've generally been an IT Director and Project Manager, so I read this book to get a better idea of my customers' needs. I was pretty excited to discover that there's at least one good summary of what call centers do and how they do it. For my own sake--and perhaps yours--here's my summary of Brad and Julia's summary:

1. Incoming call center management is the art of having the right number of skilled people and supporting resources in place at the right times to handle an accurately forecasted workload, at service level and with quality.

2. Though average call load may be predictable, calls arrive randomly--which means that they often bunch up.

3. A service level is defined as "X percent of calls answered in Y seconds", not as "X percent answered" or "Average Speed of Answer". (The ASA is skewed by the bad times when calls bunch up.) Abandonment rates matter, too, but fixing abandonment problems usually means fixing service levels.

4. Service level and quality don't conflict. If you try to fix service level with poor quality, it comes back to bite you with more calls and demoralized reps.

5. A good forecasted call load--including talk time, after-call work, and volume--is critical for budgeting people and circuits. Often, a good forecast should predict load by the half hour, using previous data, knowledge of upcoming plans, and good judgment.

6. To determine staffing needs, use a variation of the Erlang C formula. Its input is the number of reps, number of callers forecasted, and the time to serve each caller; its output is a prediction of waiting time. (Even better, add an input for response time, and you'll get the percentage who'll wait longer than that!) If agents have different skills, you'll need forecasts and calculations for each set of agents.

7. More staff, less waiting, fewer phone lines for people on hold. Less staff, more waiting, more phone lines. Formulas exist for phone lines, too.

8. Not everyone scheduled is always working on customer service. Schedule accordingly. Be clever about work schedules to get the right number working at the right time. Service level results tell you whether you got it right.

9. If you have too few reps on duty, queues get long (service level goes down), more circuits are needed, and customers get frustrated, sometimes abandoning the call. If you have too many reps on duty, you spend too much paying for them to wait.

10. Give senior managers good reports, but make sure they understand the points above.

11. Monitor the number of calls in the queue and the longest current wait. Service level and other metrics tell more about the past than the present. Be ready with plans for unexpected load (reassigning, rerouting, delay announcements, busy signals).

12. There are lots of tools and graphs to measure aspects of quality. Use them to identify root causes, not beat your employees. Reps should adhere to schedules, and do good work. Use monitoring capabilities to coach. Measuring based on "calls per hour" is unreliable, and invites cheating.

13. Customers are getting more demanding, automated systems are taking the easy calls, so reps have to be better trained and more skilled.

14. Create a good environment that uses technology well.

The book was written in 1997, and I don't know whether it's been updated. The authors have some commentary about email-based, web-based, and CTI-based systems, but the next edition might want to say more about the similarities and differences between those and the traditional call center.

Overall, I'm happy to understand more about the math and science behind this discipline. As another reviewer commented, it's clear that IT Help Desks have something to learn from the Call Center experience.

AT LAST! A definitive, concise, readable, understandable, helpful book on this subject that has literally changed the way I communicate and network in my business. Thank you, thank you, thank you, to the authors!!

I work in a non-technology based field, yet found this book to be a great tool for inspiring some new marketing ideas.

Like many people looking for a book or information on web conferencing I was frustrated in my search by the surprising lack of available material. Needless to say I was thrilled when my search ended having come across "The Web Conferencing Book..." and was happier still when I found the book to be as an informative and engaging read as it is. Extremely comprehensive, The Web Conferencing Book answered virtually all of my questions on the subject - and even provided me with information I didn't even know I need to be aware of. I can't recommend this book enough for people needing to know more on the subject as it will undoubtedly have an immediate and highly positive impact on your web conferencing abilities and overall knowledge. The authors have provided us with an amazingly valuable resource and I'm now offically on the lookout for future technology books by them.

This book came in the nick of time. Sometimes I thought I knew what was going on in the market, but I didn't understand why. Other times I was clueless. I gained practical insight into how to approach investments, including a better understanding of the whys behind investment decisions.

Victoria Collins' latest book is for the investor needing crucial information about the high-tech market. Because of the global economy this book is relevant for the present as well as the future. Collins has indeed created a valuable guide.

This book is so Victoria Collins! It adds yet another precious new-comer to my books of online wisdom. Reading though the pages tells more and more about the real world of online business. How the Internet has changed things forever. It's just like listening to a preacher who only talks about wise things. There is always another side in the day-to-day life of e-businessmen, and in the today's media, unfortunately we are only told about the up-side. Victoria so passionately tells us about where and when caution is as important as ambition. How to weigh factors in the winds on change. Why there are more to the Internet business than what's already there. And last but not the least, how it can be really the best tool a businessman could ever wish for if he only knew how to work it out.

You can feel a warm voice whispering in the screaming world of the Web. Holding the map to an uncharted territory. Showing us the way in the mid of shear forces pushing us back and forth, left and right. When you'll read Invest Beyond.com, you can easily tell the person who wrote this book is equipped with so much knowledge, expertise and courage to talk about what's beyond this still-mysterious phenomena to most of people. As if she has this overview that we are all missing. Above doubts and speculations. Enter the reality of living online every single day. Sail to the other shore confidently and wisely. It takes a thousand words to draw one picture, and it takes many years and effort to picture those scenes of the "Internet back-stage" - if you like! Easy plain language, suitable for highly professional people the same way as to others. If you are about to invest some money on your Internet gear, don't miss Invest Beyond.com, the book. It would prove that it's beyond it's value.

If you're looking for the best textbook on the subject, you need to get "Fixed-Income Securities: Valuation, Risk Management and Portfolio Strategies" by Lionel Martellini, Philippe Priaulet, and Stéphane Priaulet.

It is the most up-to-date book on the subject. Moreover, you will get a lot of worked-out examples and end-of-chapter problems with solutions.

It is the best investment you can make on a fixed-income book.

Thank you,

A great book that makes a complicated and necessarily highly quantitative subject accessible to a wider public.
Able to simply explain difficult concepts.
Probably the best in fixed income teaching.
Your money will be well spent. Congratulations to Bruce Tuckman.

Since all of the reviews cover the first edition, it's definitely worth noting that the 2nd edition is much improved. I've read most of the introductory books on fixed income, and none explain the market as clearly and intuitively as Tuckman. Anyone who is joining a fixed income desk or who seeks to learn more about this area should pick up this book before any others. The repo markets, interest rate and asset swaps, forwards, and futures are all covered in excellent detail. There are few discussions of duration and convexity that rival this one. Overall, this book scores high in all major areas and is highly recommended by all those I know who have come across it.

This is a very well laid out book with a very logical sequence. One gets the feeling that the author has lots of experience with change initiatives and addresses a lot of the micro issues that come about in change. The only issue i feel was not addressed or stressed upon was the speed to change and its importance given the nature of the external environment today. I would also be pleased to see the linkage between the change effort and its value in terms of financial markets. Overall it is a wonderful read and to the amateur change agent its a great way to hone skills.

I'm not given to writing book reviews, but I do want to put in my two cents' worth here and say that I fully agree with all the other reviews here. This is a very good book indeed. It should be read by more people.

I just want to say a few words in praise of this practical title. This is a concise and useful primer, and it is one of the most useful business books I have read for quite some time. I highly recommend it to all of you who may be in need of management guidance and new thinking on the structure and function of the corporation.

David Andrusia draws on his varied experiences - in marketing, as an executive, and as a career consultant - to teach you to create and deliver the perfect pitch, in person or on paper. Cleverly and clearly written, this book provides plenty of winning pitches from real-life employees and prospective employees. It includes ample insights into getting your next job, winning a promotion, or obtaining approval for your idea. It shows you how to get what you want by meeting the needs of those hearing your pitch. We [...] highly recommend this book to people in business at every level. After all, everybody has to pitch something to someone nearly every day.

The Perfect Pitch really gives you the right mindset you need to sell yourself to companies and other people. Sometimes the sample cover letters in this book seem a bit to casual for conservative industries, nonetheless, the attitude is what is important. Well-written style keeps you interested. What I like most is that Andrusia will not BS you, he gets down to what you have got to do. I especially liked his advice on networking, how it is an important thing to do, but not something to be relied upon to find a job.

David Andrusia provides a very unique yet upbeat approach to job-hunting. I used his techniques to land interviews and a nice job with a fantastic company. The best thing about the book is that it provides tools to perfect your delivery and obtain results by marketing yourself effectively. Not only does it emphasize on what to say but how to say it. My resumes, cover letters, and follow up letters used to be bland, uninformative and trite. Now, I am more concise, elegant and upbeat when looking for a job or promoting my credentials.

The book itself paid off by helping me land a position with a compensation of 50K per year and is now helping me land another job with a salary of 65K per year. Another good thing about the perfect pitch is that it is not just intended to high caliber professionals but for everybody be him/her a white collar executive or a blue collar worker.

I can't thank David enough for such a fantastic book

I put this book to use very quickly, saved money and saw more places. Orwoll is a skillful guide, clever and knowledgeable.

This book is the best! It answered so many of my questions that I had about traveling. This is such a great resource for traveling. It also give tons of useful websites.

The real world is getting smaller but the Internet, we all know, is growing more complex and difficult to navigate. A few years ago we were reading books the size of telephone directories which contained URLs (the addresses of web pages) for the entire Web. Lately a new breed of books has sprouted, which cover one and only one subject in great depth. The difficult part about writing (and reading) many of these books is that the author needs to be a specialist in two fields: not only his own area of expertise, but also his subject in relation to the variegated resources on the Net. Fortunately, Mark Orwoll is a skilled guide in both these realms, and his new book, e-TRAVEL, is as useful and convenient as a credit card. Sams Teach Yourself Today e-Travel: Planning Vacations, Finding Bargains, And Booking Reservations Online is divided into five parts. The first, "Getting Started in e-Travel" is a guided tour of various resources about the Internet, including a savvy section on the essential theme: "Evaluating a Web Site's Accuracy and Validity." Part II, "Planning a Vacation on the Internet", includes a nifty quiz: "What's Your e-Travel type?" Part III explains how to be your own travel agent, and how to use the Internet to find the lowest rates and fares. Part IV discusses your laptop computer, passports, visas, customs, digital photography, organizing your money, and keeping yourself safe. Lastly, you'll find a collection of practical travel-minded websites. Keep in mind, regarding everything related to the Web, that things change quickly. Recently a number of major airlines announced that they would create a super-website for travelers. I couldn't find this site mentioned in the book, but readers who are interested in news like this can keep updated at Orwoll's daily travel advice column. There's an enormous amount of essential information throughout this entertaining guide. Orwoll, the managing editor for "Travel and Leisure Magazine", has been there, done that, and shared the best of his inside tips. And it's all served up in a witty style: Orwoll is as pleasant a traveling companion as you'll encounter anywhere. Sams Teach Yourself Today e-Travel is almost certain to save us time and money, teach us how to explore the world from our computer keyboards, and improve the overall quality and enjoyment of our trips. Paperback, 302 pages,

Michael Pastore, Reviewer

Larry Swedroe's fourth book begins with an effective update on the "active investment management" vs. "passive investment management" "debate." His simple example on page 3 (A = B + C) conclusively demonstrates the logic that the high costs of active management doom it to failure. His recitation of the many studies of active management, and of the follies of chasing after the hot investment manager, provide important insights from both individual investors and investment professionals alike.
Mr. Swedroe also effectively addresses the significance of valuation levels of the market in "Truth 6: The Price You Pay Matters." In so doing, he provides an important working knowledge of the financial history of the U.S. markets, important for every investor to possess.
I enjoyed most his chapter on the impact of taxes upon investor's net investment returns, in which he provided good insight into the significance of this issue and the means to minimize the "tax drag" on investment returns.
Any investor who has any type of debt (credit card, car loan, or home mortgage) should be certain to review Appendix D, in which Larry presents the best insights I have ever read as to the impact that debt possesses upon investment decisions. Before an investor follows any advice to not pay off debt (and invest the funds instead), these 5 pages of wisdom are a must read.
In summary, Larry Swedroe's book, The Successful Investor Today, is an important addition to every investor's library. Like Mr. Swedroes' previous books, this book joins my "Top 20" lists - both for individual investors and professionals - as an essential read for those seeking to be informed and educated as to investments and financial planning. Larry Swedroe is one of the most influential authors today of investment articles and books directed to individual investors. He is a true master of taking the complicated concepts imbedded in Modern Portfolio Theory and presenting them in a format both understandable and useful to the individual investor.

I am the author of The Unbeatable Market: Taking the Indexing Path to Financial Peace of Mind. My book reaches essentially similar conclusions as does Larry Swedroe's The Successful Investor Today. Through his previous books, articles, and lectures Swedroe has been a tireless and effective advocate for what mountains of evidence proves is a superior way to invest-- passively managed index funds. Wall Street rejects passive management because it's antithetical to its self-interest. Swedroe makes this clear in Truth 4: The Interests of Wall Street and the Financial Media Are Not Aligned With Those of Investors. The hope of beating the market is very alluring for investors. That's why the "14 Simple Truths" of Swedroe's book are so vital for investors to know. Knowledge is the best defense against Wall Street's massive con game. His book is well written, well documented, and highly readable. If you're an investor, do yourself a favor and buy this book.

The investing approach espoused by Swedroe is actually among the simplest and least time consuming approaches available - that of passive index investing with occasional portfolio rebalancing. Yet he doesn't recommend it because it is simple, but because the research supports it as the best approach to yield the highest actual returns over time. The caveat "over time" is the key, which is what most people are interested in - not short term run-ups followed by disappointing losses. And "actual returns" since many people fail to consider trading costs, taxes, and other considerations that reduce their returns. One interesting study alluded to in this book and expounded on in his other books relates to the Value Line survey, which demonstrates market-beating returns and is highly rated in the Hulbert newsletter. Yet after considering trading and other costs, the returns underperform the market. Reality often stands in stark contrast to what we want to believe.

Commonsense, practical advice about what employers can do to enhance the longevity of their workforce and halt the drain and the expense of 'revolving door' recruiting and hiring.

Find out the top 5 real reasons why people leave their jobs (and it isn't for more money!).

This book is invaluable and a 'must have' for everyone responsible for recruiting, hiring, and hanging on to, good people!

In today's job market, it is challenging to attract the best-qualified and well-suited job applicants. It is even more difficult to retain excellent employees. The cost of employee turnover is high in terms of lost productivity, lost knowledge, and financial expense associated with filling the vacancy.

Roger Herman, futurist and certified management consultant and speaker, provides an exceptional resource for any organization seeking to retain its best employees. Keep Good People is divided into three sections. The first effectively sets the stage by providing valuable insights into the competitive nature of the job market, the value of good employees, and what prompts employees to stay and leave an employer. The first section provides essential background that led to an essential, yet basic understanding of employer/employee relations regarding retention. Section two provides nearly 200 very specific and useful strategies. Each strategy is clearly defined and concisely explained. Herman does not stop with a somewhat overwhelming list of strategies, yet provides suggestions for implementation and an "eye to the future" in section three.

Keep Good People is an excellent resource for human resource professionals and managers seeking to prevent undesirable employee turnover as well for the organizations seeking to reduce turnover. Use this book as a guide to simply review current practices and development of strategic, and it will be well worth the investment of both time and money.

I've looked through several books on employee retention and this one takes the prize! I was amazed at how much information was packed into a little over 400 pages. From reading this book, I now have a much better understanding of the trends...the big picture of why people jump from job to job. The five reasons why people leave was really thought-provoking. The strategy section is well organized and full of great ideas. I found the book easy to read from cover to cover and I'm now using the index and detailed table of contents to find specific information I need. Very well put together...worth far more than the price.

I have read the book by Bob Burg and found it to be the most helpful tool for positive living. This is a must for dealing with people in today's world. It is easily read and explains why the techniques are necessary and gives clear examples of how they can be used in your everyday life. I attended a conference, where Bob Burg did an excellent presentation, at The Grand Plaza Hotel, Grand Rapids MI. He personifies his book.

If you're tired of hassling with uncooperative people in your life, READ THIS BOOK! Easy to read and practical, this book explains the lost art of "positive persuasion" and how it can make daily communication with service people, business associates, friends, enemies and even LOVED ONES more effective and more fun. Using amusing anecdotes you can relate to, the author shows how we can avoid the stress of negative no-win confrontations and get, as he puts it "what you want, when you want it, and from whom you want it." He believes we can create a win/win situation every time we face a brick wall of resistance or just a disagreeable human, if we learn and practice his simple tips. Instead of manipulation, the rules of pos. persuasion consider the egos and effects on all parties, giving the keys to a satisfying outcome for everybody. No argueing, no threats, no sweat! Burg combines good manners and good sense with a few neat tricks and tips to! remind us of our often-lost humanity, and the easy things we can do in our daily life to make it less stressful, more productive, and much more fun.

"Winning Without Intimidation"
was one of the most helpful and
encouraging books I've ever read.

I felt as though I was right there
with Bob as he interacted with
people in such a wonderfully
non-intimidating way and I
really learned a great deal
from this little book!!!

I would give anything to be a
fly on Bob's lapel as he interacts
with the people he meets on a
daily basis!!!

When I returned from a recent
vacation I had a phone conference
with one of my business partners who
informed me of a small problem
she had with one of the leads
companies we've been using
and recommending to our team
members.

So I took what I learned from
Bob's book and wrote a letter
to the owner and I got a response
back within about an hour that
he would replace the leads AND
will make sure that glitch is
taken care of asap so it doesn't
happen to others!

So I've already had a chance
to put into practice what I
learned from Bob's book!