Dr. Jon Anton
DeanYears Experience: 25
Education: Dr. Jon’s formal education was in technology, including a Doctorate of Science and a Master of Science from Harvard University, a Master of Science from the University of Connecticut, and a Bachelor of Science from the University of Notre Dame. He also completed a three-summer intensive Executive Education program in Business at the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University.
Biography:
Dr. Jon Anton (also known as “Dr. Jon”) is the Director of Benchmark Research –The Center for Customer-Driven Quality at Purdue University. He specializes in enhancing customer service strategy through inbound call centers, and e-business centers, using the latest in telecommunications (voice), and computer (digital) technology. He also focuses on using the Internet for external customer access, as well as Intranets and middleware.
Since 1995, Dr. Jon has been the principal investigator of the Purdue University Call Center Benchmark Research. This data is now collected at the BenchmarkPortal.com Web site, where it is placed into a data warehouse that currently contains over ten million data points on call center performance. Based on the analysis of this data, Dr. Jon authors the following monthly publications: “The Purdue Page” in Call Center Magazine, “Dr. Jon’s Benchmarks” in Call Center News, “Dr. Jon’s Industry Statistics” in Customer Interface Magazine, and “Dr. Jon’s Business Intelligence” in the Call Center Manager’s Report.
Dr. Jon has assisted over 400 companies in improving their customer service strategy/delivery by the design and implementation of inbound and outbound call centers, as well as in the decision-making process of using teleservices providers for maximizing service levels while minimizing costs per call. In August of 1996, Call Center Magazine honored Dr. Jon by selecting him as an Original Pioneer of the emerging call center industry. In October of 2000, Dr. Jon was named to the Call Center Hall of Fame. In January of 2001, Dr. Jon was selected for the industry’s “Leaders and Legends” Award by Help Desk 2000. Dr. Jon is also a member of the National Committee for Quality Assurance.
Dr. Jon has guided corporate executives in strategically re-positioning their call centers as robust customer access centers through a combination of benchmarking, re-engineering, consolidation, outsourcing, and Web-enablement. The resulting single point of contact for the customer allows business to be conducted anywhere, anytime, and in any form. By better understanding the customer lifetime value, Dr. Jon has developed techniques for calculating the ROI for customer service initiatives.
Dr. Jon has published 117 papers on customer service and call center methods in industry journals. In 1997, one of his papers on self-service was awarded the best article of the year by Customer Relationship Management Magazine.
