Strategic Planning

1. The benefits of a strategic plan include all the following EXCEPT:
a. Communicates the role and objectives of the call center to all stakeholders
b. Assists in positioning the call center as a strategic asset
c. Ensures call center will meet performance goals
d. Provides the basis for budget negotiation

2. If the enterprise goal is to provide superior service to customers to maximize retention, which of the following call center objectives would BEST support that goal?
a. Deploy self-service alternatives to control staffing costs.
b. Implement customer contact strategy that maximizes accessibility options to customers.
c. Gather customer comments to feed to R"D for future product planning.
d. Organize into self-directed work teams for flatter management structure.

3. What is the first step in developing a call center strategic plan?
a. Create mission/vision statement.
b. Conduct customer surveys.
c. Perform situational assessment.
d. None of the above

4. The difference between objectives and strategies is:
a. Objectives are long-term and strategies are short-term.
b. Objectives are specific and strategies are more genel.
c. Objectives are short-term and strategies are more long-term.
d. Objectives are goals and strategies are means to an end.

Organizational Design

5. Separating the responsibility for new innovations from operational excellence is:
a. A way to foster competition
b. A way to minimize conflicts of interest
c. Likely to cause employee dissatisfaction
d. None of the above

6. The basic building blocks of the call center organization include all of the following EXCEPT:
a. Technologists
b. Consultancies
c. Coordinators
d. Customers

7. The Service Bureau portion of the call center organization structure would include:
a. The call center agents
b. The workforce management team
c. The supervisors
d. All of the above

8. The Rainbow Effect in organizations results in what kind of dysfunction?
a. Gaps in coverage
b. Impossible requisite variety in jobs
c. Incomplete jobs
d. All of the above

Financial Measures

9. The three major financial statements used to evaluate financial performance are:
a. Income statement, ROI analysis, and balance sheet
b. ROI analysis, payback analysis, and Internal Rate of Return analysis
c. Income statement, Balance sheet and cash flow statement
d. None of the above

10. Net present value takes into account which of the following:
a. Initial cost
b. Ongoing cash flow
c. Time value of money
d. All of the above

11. In order to calculate ROI, you need the following:
a. NPV of projected cash outflows
b. Cost of the initial investment
c. NPV of projected savings
d. All of the above

12. The financial statement that shows the current financial state of an entity is:
a. Cash flow statement
b. Balance sheet
c. Return on assets statement
d. Owners equity statement

Call Center Budgeting

13. Activity-based budgeting focuses on:
a. Maximizing the level of activity the call center can sustain
b. Satisfying the identified customers of the call center
c. Seizing outsourcing opportunities to reduce costs
d. Maximizing the revenue potential of the call center

14. In a cost-cutting initiative, the call center should:
a. Eliminate or reduce training programs
b. Lower the overall service level to be provided
c. Ask internal customers to identify projects to be eliminated or reduced
d. Cancel technology acquisition plans

15. An important element of managing internal customer relationships is:
a. An agreed-to training plan
b. Specific call center scheduling plan
c. Specific service level agreements
d. All of the above

16. Call center budgets should be based on:
a. Last year?s budget plus an inflation adjustment
b. Last year?s budget plus an adjustment for contact volume changes
c. Last year?s budget minus an adjustment for outsourced tasks
d. None of the above

Contract Negotiation/Management

17. All of the following are true about penalty clauses in contracts EXCEPT:
a. Penalty should be adequate to compensate for problem caused.
b. Penalty must always be defined in monetary terms.
c. Penalty should be strong enough to provide sufficient incentive for provider to focus on avoidance.
d. The purpose of a penalty clause should be to ensure timeliness, quality, and cost control.

18. The purpose of a written contract is to:
a. Define the details of the agreement.
b. Clear up misunderstandings from verbal discussions.
c. Define warranty provisions.
d. All of the above

19. An important rule of negotiation is to:
a. Walk away if necessary.
b. Bluff to get the cost as low as possible.
c. Only bring in the signing executive when the deal is complete.
d. Never let an attorney get involved in initial negotiations.

20. Limited liability clauses protect the vendor from the following:
a. Punitive damages
b. Incidental damages
c. Lawsuits larger in value than the contract
d. All of the above

Satisfaction Surveying

21. The type of survey done immediately following a call to gauge satisfaction with the call handling process is a:
a. Specific purpose survey
b. Transaction based survey
c. Periodic survey
d. Annual survey

22. All of the following should be included in a survey introduction EXCEPT:
a. Who should complete it
b. How long it should take to do
c. What to do when finished
d. Demographic questions

23. All of the following are interval rating scales used in customer surveying EXCEPT:
a. True/false scale
b. Likert scale
c. Verbal frequency scale
d. Semantic differential scale

24. Which of the following statements is true:
a. Validity of a study depends most on the survey instrument.
b. Validity of a study depends most of the survey administration.
c. Accuracy of the study depends most on the survey instrument.
d. The percentile confidence of results depends most upon the survey instrument.

Business Process Improvement

25. The business process improvement process called Six Sigma refers to a level of accuracy and quality of:
a. 93.3%
b. 99.38%
c. 99.997%
d. 99.9997%

26. Which of the following is NOT a principle associated with Six Sigma:
a. Management by fact
b. Individual employee responsibility
c. Measurement of results
d. Sustainment of change

27. Why should a ?critical incident study? be performed in the business improvement process?
a. Identify both positive and negative aspects of current performance.
b. Define the types of interactions generating the most revenue for the center.
c. Acquaint the project team with the most recent customer problems.
d. All of the above

28. All of the following are ways to analyze quantitative performance scores except:
a. Scatter diagram
b. Pareto chart
c. Control chart
d. Suggestive index

Business Case Development/Project Management

29. The main reason business cases fail is that:
a. They don?t include enough business history and analysis.
b. Too much weight is given to non-financial factors.
c. Implementation plans are not detailed enough to put into place.
d. All the risks have not been analyzed properly.

30. PERT stands for:
a. Project evaluation and review technique
b. Positive evaluation real-time
c. People, expenses, resources, and tools
d. None of the above

31. A project task that requires several weeks to complete should:
a. Be reviewed daily
b. Have intermediate milestones
c. Be reviewed when the due date arrives
d. None of the above

32. A Gantt chart:
a. Defines the ROI of a project
b. Identifies project risks and prevention techniques
c. Includes a work breakdown structure
d. Defines the dependencies among all project tasks

Site Selection/Facility Design

33. What is the main reason to consider a ?plug and play? site for a new call center location?
a. Short lead time
b. Availability of workforce
c. Lower wage rate
d. Latest technology/equipment

34. Competition for skilled staff begins at what labor saturation rate?
a. 1 ? 2 %
b. 3 ? 4%
c. 5 ? 6%
d. 7 ? 8%

35. Which is the most important factor in making a decision about where to locate a call center site?
a. Real estate cost
b. Labor cost
c. Tax incentives
d. Telecom network costs

36. Which of the following is NOT a reason to do a workplace design assessment?
a. Determine employee satisfaction with the workplace
b. Uncover factors relevant to retaining call center workers
c. Evaluate costs per square foot versus other work environments
d. Appraise furniture and workplace projects for effectiveness

Leadership Traits

37. Leadership is:
a. Defined the same way be everyone
b. A talent one is born with
c. Always strong and aggressive
d. None of the above

38. Implementing a change in an organization can be derailed by which of the following:
a. Creating a sense of urgency
b. Redefining roles and compensation plans
c. Measuring success quickly after the change
d. Sticking to the plan against all odds

39. Effective teams have which of the following:
a. Members who protect a poor performer on the team
b. Managers who are willing to jump in and save the day
c. No competition among the members of the team
d. Willingness to take reasonable risks

40. Which of the following is NOT an role of the leader in professional development:
a. Selection of a Learning Management System platform
b. Succession planning
c. Self development
d. Career plans for staff