I owe a great deal to Nadji Tehrani and he doesn't even know it.
In 1992, I decided to start my own call center. I had worked in a market research telephone interviewing center for a few years, so I understood the basics, but I really knew very little about the inbound call center world or the outbound telemarketing industry.
I had access to several years of back issues of the "Telemarketing" magazine published by TMC, which was run by Nadji Tehrani. I spent several months pouring over the articles, the reviews, and the information contained within the magazine. Not only did it help me to understand how to "increase [my] sales, deliver superior customer service and build market share", but it helped me grasp a foundation in the basics of call center management, telephony issues, call center hardware and software options, and many other useful and relevant bits of information. Reading through several years of "Telemarketing" was like taking a college course in Call Centers. Today, the magazine is called "Customer Interaction Solutions", and remains number one in its field.
I really considered my subscription to "Telemarketing", to be my owner's guide to running a call center. Time and time again, I would find something that was spot on to my needs. I was so greatful to Nadji Tehrani.
After a few years, my company had grown enough, that we qualified to make the Top 50 list for Inbound Call Centers (I think we were number 49!). This was a competition sponsored by TMC, and I had the chance to travel to the awards banquet and listen to and meet Nadji Tehrani. I found him to be gracious and a gentleman. What impressed me was how dedicated and committed to furthering the call center industry, from organizing lobbying efforts with the US government, to funding studies and reports on the status and direction of the industry, to promoting best practices among the players within the industry.
I had a chance to shake Mr. Tehrani's hand. I only had a minute, but I told he how grateful I was for his contributions. I didn't get a chance to tell him any more than thanks, so he problably wondered about this strange dude who was shaking his hand so profusely.
I continue to find great info on the TMC site and as it has branched out into VOIP, Internet, CRM and many other arenas. Now run by Rich Tehrani, TMC continues to well server the Call Center industry.
Mr. Tehrani, thank you! I feel like I really owe you.
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