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The Birth of the Sacred Cow

24 November, 2012 by James Lawther 3 Comments

Legend has it that the tie that I wore to work this morning started life hundreds of years ago as a neck cloth that was “easily changed to minimise the soiling of a doublet.” Or, to put it in rather less grand terms, a bib. From function to fashion 400 years ago, Croatian mercenaries fighting […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: anonymity, beliefs, compliance, conformity, sacred cows

Are You Susceptible to Suggestion?

20 November, 2012 by James Lawther 2 Comments

Bean Sale

How to get elected How would you like to be the next Prime Minister of the United Kingdom? One perfectly legitimate move you could take is to change your name to Adam Abbott. In the UK ballot papers are presented in alphabetical order, so with a name like that you would be at the top […]

Filed Under: Blog, Operations Analysis Tagged With: customer behaviour, default option, interactive voice response, web site design

Never Take Responsibility

17 November, 2012 by Robby Slaughter 2 Comments

Responsibility

This is a guest post by Robby Slaughter We all want engaged employees who are highly productive, efficient and upbeat at work. The challenge is that in so many organizations, workplace morale is mediocre at best. We work in cultures where people do the minimum because they don’t see any reason to put in more […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: accountability, roles and responsibilities

What Can Your Mother Teach You About Incentives?

13 November, 2012 by James Lawther 6 Comments

Dirty Dishes

In 2003 the economist Anton Suvorov developed the “principal agent theory”.  He investigated the way agents (think employees or children) react to the interventions of principals (think bosses or parents).  He looked at the way rewards and bonuses act.  All very clever and insightful stuff. I was discussing it with my mother.  She smiled at […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement, Tools & Techniques Tagged With: Daniel Pink, employee performance measures, incentives, key performance indicators, performance management, targets

Call Centre Metrics the Zappos Way

10 November, 2012 by xAshley Furness 6 Comments

Call center metrics

This is a guest post by Ashley Furness Zappos is renowned worldwide as a standout performer in customer service, partially for the e-retailer’s unique approach to customer performance and productivity management. Zappos invests in its call centres, seeing them  not as cost, but as an opportunity to market. Recently, I sat down with the company’s […]

Filed Under: Blog, Operations Analysis Tagged With: abandon rate, average handle time, best practice, call centre, key performance indicators

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