Service improvement in call centres (original) (raw)

Call Centres Between Service Orientation and Efficiency: "The Polyphony of Telephony

2002

Call Centres are not an industry of their own, but a specific type of work organisation which can be realised under various conditions: as a part of already existing companies, through outsourcing or in the shape of independent service providers. It is one of the central objectives of call centres to handle customer contacts by phone as efficiently and economically as possible, by concentrating them in specific organisational units. Call centres tend to be characterised by a pronounced division of labour within companies or between companies, respectively. In many cases, this is also reflected in the organisation of operations. Tasks tend to be highly standardised, frequently monotonous and with a short time allowed for completion. It is against this background that call centre work is often described as a form of "neo-Taylorism" of service activities. At the same time, call centres are claimed to provide excellent service. There can be no doubt that in the area of so-called "interactive service work" social competences and technical skills of the employees have an important impact on the quality of services rendered. This paper focuses on the question of how call centres manage the dilemma between economic efficiency and service goals, and discusses its impact on human resource management strategies, the quality of work and employee satisfaction. It shows that workplace quality in call centres differs considerably in practice. Despite these intricate framework conditions, starting points for an improved work design and collectively agreed regulation exist and may be turned to good use.

Call Centres of the Future: Issues and Perspectives

Available at SSRN 1609122, 2010

This report discusses issues of concern with existing call centres and proposes a vision for the future of the call centre in terms of the main issues that need to be addressed and the research perspective that needs to be adopted. The existing issues were identified during a workshop held at the Centre for Service Research in Manchester Business School based on input from researchers from different disciplines and these were validated through a case study examining the same issues from a practitioner's perspective. For analysis purposes, the issues were grouped into three areas namely business strategy, service system design and evaluation.

Assessing Call Centre Quality using the SERVQUAL Model

2002

The call centre industry is a relatively new phenomenon. As many organisations are now providing customer service and support via call centres, due to the lower cost of operating, issues addressing the service quality are being raised. Call centres do not exist for the customer to physically interact with, apart from via the telephone, and are in effect virtual organizations. The nature of the service encounter between the call centre and customer is predominantly undertaken using enabling technology; the conventional speech telephone. This suggests the criteria used to assess it may be different from that of a more traditional face-to-face method of service delivery. Combining the different method of service delivery with the relative youth of the industry has meant that many organizations are still grappling with how to best manage their call centres. For some this involves focussing on how they deliver a quality service to the customer. These issues prompted our investigative research into service quality in a call centre context using the widely applied SERVQUAL model. Initially the SERVQUAL model was used to analyse the service encounter with a virtual organisation and examine the models applicability in this context. SERVQUAL was then used to examine the way in which a case call centre's management had tried to deliver a 'quality call' to the customer.

Call centres and beyond: a thematic evaluation

Human Resource Management Journal, 2002

This introduction aims to place the articles in this special edition in the context of the wider literature on call centres. The discussion is arranged around four themes: the characteristics and organisational features of call centre work, the choices and strategies that are available to manage the work, the effects of this type of work on employees and, ® n a l l y, the responses and reactions of call centre staff to their work experiences. The articles selected, which are drawn from a conference sponsored by this journal, are then summarised.

Call Centres - an Innovation in Service Quality: Access is a Quality Issue

The development of call centres has made a significant contribution to service quality through improving response times, extending the times during which services are available, making access more convenient by using telephones and extending the range of expertise available to the consumer. The potential of these centres to provide an appropriate level of service to all consumers depends on the development and deployment of all of the necessary technology to ensure that access is not denied to any group of potential customers. In particular, the technology is already available to provide a high level of service to those with a hearing impairment. However, it is essential to deploy the technology effectively to ensure that this group of potential users is not disadvantaged or excluded. This paper describes a research project which explored the extent to which the provisions of the UK Disability Discrimination Act (1995) might impact on the call centre industry and the provision made ...

Commissioned paper: Telephone call centers: Tutorial, review, and research prospects

Manufacturing & Service …, 2003

T elephone call centers are an integral part of many businesses, and their economic role is significant and growing. They are also fascinating sociotechnical systems in which the behavior of customers and employees is closely intertwined with physical performance measures. In these environments traditional operational models are of great value-and at the same time fundamentally limited-in their ability to characterize system performance.

Making the Right Call: Redesigning Call Centres from the Bottom Up

In this report, we review academic research that has analyzed empirically how different approaches to call center management are related to measures of employee well-being and performance. We conclude with a series of recommendations for practices associated with a professional model of call center management, which increase employee control over their work and ability to use and develop skills.

Call Centre: vision, technology and Socio Economic aspects

Definition of Call centre ,Origin of call centre .Myths & Legends Vs actual facts .Jobs undertaken by Call centre .Their Contribution to Socio-Ecomonic environment. Need of Call centres in existing world .Present and Technology integeration in Call centre .Futuristic vision, aspects and aspirations .Limitations of Call centre.