Contact centre service excellence: a proposed

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Int. J. Services and Operations Management, Vol. 29, No. 1, 2018

Contact centre service excellence: a proposed conceptual framework Surya Dharamdass* Graduate School of Business, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800 Penang, Malaysia Email: [email protected] *Corresponding author

Yudi Fernando Faculty of Industrial Management, Universiti Malaysia Pahang, 26300, Malaysia Email: [email protected] and Management Department, BINUS Online Learning, Bina Nusantara University, 11530, Indonesia Email: [email protected] Abstract: This paper aims to develop a proposed conceptual framework that can be used in studying the determinants of contact centre service excellence for the continuously growing contact centre business globally. A content analysis method is performed on a range of English-written published papers between 1993 and 2014 to explore the proposed determinants of contact centre service excellence. The primary observation shows that there is limited academic literature in this area. The findings from the distillation of the proposed determinants of contact centre service excellence in essence suggest that there should be a high focus on the people – customer service agents (CSAs) hiring criteria, training and development, reward system, team structure and the cross-functional coordination process. The implication to future researchers is to focus on these determinants to better understand the impact on service excellence. For practitioners, the implication is to consider reviewing the current determinants used in their organisations to achieve service excellence and consider adopting the proposed determinants. Keywords: content analysis; contact centres; call centres; service excellence; service quality; customer service agents; CSAs; business process outsourcing; BPO; conceptual framework; service delivery; customer delight; operations management. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Dharamdass, S. and Fernando, Y. (2018) ‘Contact centre service excellence: a proposed conceptual framework’, Int. J. Services and Operations Management, Vol. 29, No. 1, pp.18–41.

Copyright © 2018 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

Contact centre service excellence: a proposed conceptual framework

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Biographical notes: Surya Dharamdass received her Doctorate of Business Administration from the Graduate School of Business, Universiti Sains Malaysia and her MBA from the University of Western Sydney, Australia. She is a member of the Customer Relationship Management and Contact Centre Association of Malaysia and the Vice-Chairman of the Regional Centre of Malaysian National Computer Confederation. She has worked in the academic industry, has been a TQM trainer as well as has more than a decade of experience in the contact centre industry. Her main research interests are in contact centre service excellence, customer satisfaction, operational performance and productivity in the service industry. Yudi Fernando holds a PhD and is the Deputy Dean Research and Postgraduate Studies at the Faculty of Industrial Management, Universiti Malaysia Pahang. He is an Honorary Lecturer at the Binus Online Learning. He has been working in the electronics industry for several years. His current research interests are green operations management, service management, logistics, and sustainable issues in supply chain management. He is a Research Committee Chair and founding member of the Academy of Business and Management (ABM). He is also a member of the Society of Logisticians, Malaysia/Pertubuhan Pakar Logistik Malaysia (LogM). He serves as a technical committee in international conferences and invited speaker in various universities. He enjoys his daily work as an operation management scholar while actively teaching and having research papers published in the related field.

1

Introduction

Today the traditional approach of managing the service delivery industry using the manufacturing model has started to evolve. This is a result of acknowledgement that there is a distinct difference between services and products (Kotler and Keller, 2015). Moreover, the concept of customer delight which has been around for some time (Heskett et al., 1997) has only been recently recognised by some service delivery organisations for its significance and hence achieving customer delight or service excellence is being listed as their goal with some notable exceptions such as Singapore Airlines, Four Seasons Hotel and Resorts, The Ritz-Carlton, and The Walt Disney Company (AUDI AG, 2011; Deutsche Telekom, 2010; Edvardsson and Enquist, 2011; Otis Elevator Company, 2012). Further it is noteworthy that Singapore Airlines through its approach of balancing standardisation and personalisation in their processes has been consistently delivering service excellence at a low cost and never announced a loss as well as received hundreds of industry rewards (Heracleous and Wirtz, 2012). The increase of globalisation of services has prompted corporations in various service industries to concentrate on achieving customer delight through service excellence, which should enable them to secure their competitive position and customer loyalty (Gouthier et al., 2012). As such, service excellence can be perceived as a critical success factor for organisations however has been lacking the much needed attention as a business goal thus far. The evolution of the contact centre industry which is service driven has an urgent need to identify the determinants of service excellence as when call centres were first set up, they assimilated to mass-production concept with the intention of cost reduction demands. Over time, it was discovered that this was not a suitable model to be adopted

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S. Dharamdass and Y. Fernando

into the service industry. Moreover, from a contact centre’s perspective, the service level and the way service is delivered by the customer service agent (CSA) can be viewed as a key differentiator and thus serve as a competitive advantage (Wirtz et al., 2008). Further, the strength of the customer-CSA relationship is often an important driver of customer loyalty (Bove and Johnson, 2001; Castro et al., 2004). While many scholars have made contributions to the extensive literature on attributes, dimensions and factors of service quality, its nature and how it can be improved, there is limited study on service excellence and how organisations can delight customers (Johnston, 2004). Further, there is a gap in current literature on the determinants of service excellence in the contact centre business. Hence, this paper proposes the conceptual framework for the contact centre business utilising literature review through content analysis to identify the appropriate determinants and the link to service excellence. It will be timely to bridge the gap for the growing industry. The paper focuses on achieving service excellence for competitive advantage in the contact centre industry. This paper has been organised as follows. First, this paper presents the previous literature with regards to call centre/contact centre and service delivery. It then examines the determinants of service delivery outcome in relation to service excellence to contextualise the research gap and forming the conceptual framework of this research. This paper also examines the role and relationship of each variable. Finally, this framework is recommended for future research.

2

Literature review

Research from Gartner Report (2012) forecasted the growth of the worldwide business process outsourcing (BPO) industry to be 5% in 2012. The Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) BPO market forecast is expected to reach $9.5 billion in 2016, up from $5.9 billion in 2011. Top countries in the BPO industry include India, China, Philippines, Malaysia and Poland. The Kearney (2011) Global Services Location Index shows Malaysia at number 3 which indicates a positive growing impact of this industry on the Malaysian economy, and the large number of job opportunities that can be offered to Malaysian graduates. Technology based contact centres are used by BPO companies to fulfil a large number of BPO services. Beginning in the 1990s, developing countries tried to attract manufacturing activities such as assembly. More recently, with the advent of technology resulting in an interconnected business world, developing nations are fostering sectorial development through a process of attracting offshore activities other than manufacturing to their shores (Quraeshi and Luqmani, 2011). Contact centre BPOs have been set up so businesses can focus on their core expertise whilst the BPOs run the non-core function such as the contact centre either in the organisation or from their own premise. The outsourcing of contact centres can help companies that are under pressure to cut costs while rising to the challenges of global business and shareholder expectations. This can be done either locally or from another country. There is no doubt that there are risks, for example, the cultural, language and regulatory implications of operating overseas however, these can be dealt with. The choices of where to go, with whom (e.g., a satellite Western firm or a native outsourcer), and what to outsource are more complex, especially where business processes are being handed over. This is where specialist advice is recommended, however, the potential benefits of offshore outsourcing outweigh the risks if the project is well-managed. In many business sectors interactions between


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existing customers and companies are mainly handled via contact centres (Gerpott, 2012). Contact centres are used by businesses to solve customers’ problems and enhance their value (Prasaad and Mishra, 2011). Further, in the age of internet, globally, the contact centre industry has evolved into a multi-contact channel model i.e., phone, e-mail, chat, blog, website and social media. Whilst in the past, the call centre referred to the use of a phone as the only mode for customers to reach the CSAs, today the contact centre refers to a multi-contact channel model. It is to be noted that in the industry today, the terms call centre and contact centre are used interchangeably quite often due to the advent of internet and availability of alternative channels in most contact centres. Current academic literature has primarily been found to discuss on call centres and hence there is limited academic literature on the contact centre service provider business and the clarity of the transitioning from the call centre model into contact centre model. Thus, this paper has attempted to fill the gap. Service quality and customer satisfaction at contact centres was used as a basis for the research as there was extremely limited literature on service delivery outcome in relation to service excellence specific to contact centres and at the same time service quality and customer satisfaction had some fundamental elements of service excellence. The research done thus far on contact centre industry service quality and customer satisfaction can be classified into three broad streams (Jack et al., 2006): 1

the inputs (human relations and industrial psychology perspective)

2

the service delivery process (operations management perspective)

3

the performance outcomes (service marketing perspective).

The first research stream has focused on the impact on the CSAs due to the CSAs being viewed as replaceable parts in a mass production system (Townsend, 2007; D’Cruz and Noronha, 2007; Cross et al., 2008). The nature of contact centre work has been viewed from a Taylorism perspective which is similar to mass production in a manufacturing environment with managerial focus on high volume production that is driven by a variety of call volume metrics. Most of the research has focused on CSAs stress, burnout and turnover (Dun et al., 2012; Choi et al., 2012; Hechanova, 2013; Rod and Ashill, 2013). A significant relationship exists between CSAs burnout and the service delivery outcomes (Surana et al., 2011). The second research stream has focused on the efficient management of contact centre service delivery processes (Gans et al., 2003). This research area is generally led by operations management and management science researchers who analyse the efficient use of capacity, labour resources and delivery processes (Saltzman and Mehrotra, 2001; Aksin and Harker, 2003). To achieve customer satisfaction, every business will strive hard to improve its business process to meet the customer needs (Sabur and Simatupang, 2014). Here, researchers developed several types of optimisation models, queuing models, simulations models, heuristics and algorithms for workforce optimisation to help decrease customer wait times, increase throughput, and increase customer satisfaction (Sencer and Ozel, 2013; Jaoua et al., 2013; Örmeci et al., 2014). The third stream of research is from the service marketing perspective and has attempted to relate the determinants of contact centre delivery processes to performance outcomes such as service quality, customer satisfaction and loyalty (Armistead et al., 2002; Dean, 2002; Parasuraman, 2002). Upon analysing the research in this area, it indicates that effective service needs to focus on both the tangible offerings and

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intangible aspects of service delivery. Feinberg et al. (2000) examined the critical operational determinants of service quality and their findings establish important linkages between caller satisfaction and two service quality performance metrics (successful closure of calls on first contact and average abandonment rate). Contact centres use metrics comprising operational measures in their service quality evaluation system, and many of these measures can potentially lead to poor service quality perceptions by customers (Jaiswal, 2008; Robinson and Morley, 2006; Marr and Parry, 2004). Standard measures such as average talk time and calls per agent can actually restrict the CSA’s ability to answer customers’ call effectively. CSAs feel frustrated since these measures do not allow them to satisfactorily handle customers’ queries (Gilmore, 2001). Similarly, Dean (2002) advocates that contact centre managers should measure how the CSAs interact with each customer during the service delivery process in order to improve customer retention and loyalty. Customers want higher performance on dimensions such as empathy and assurance; contact centres frequently ignore these ‘softer’ dimensions (Malhotra and Mukherjee, 2003). Gilmore (2001) found that contact centres lack the system for measuring and monitoring intangible aspects of customer service. In general, contact centres did not measure the entire service experience of customers during their engagement with a contact centre (Jaiswal, 2008). From a study carried out by Johnston (2004) from around 150 individuals, nearly 50% of the statements described what made excellent service ‘excellent’ was about problem handling whilst 64% of the statements of poor service were about problem and complaint handling. Hence, problem handling is a clear key driver of people’s perception of excellent or poor service. The other two characteristics, how organisations dealt with people i.e. the personal touch and going the extra mile were less important however, it was clear that small touches provided a huge leverage in terms of customers’ perception of a service for example the flower on the pillow in some hotels (Johnston, 2004). As there is limited academic literature on contact centres in this area, this paper has focussed on understanding the determinants of contact centre service excellence. From a contact centre standpoint, the service level and the way service is being delivered by the CSA are crucial in determining customer’s perception of service. Further, the primary focus from customer perspective is problem handling according to the study by Johnston (2004). Historically, most research on contact centre operations has equated service quality and customer satisfaction with customer waiting times, however, there are numerous studies that demonstrate that customers place a high value on other dimensions of their experience, including factors such as first call resolution and perceived agent competency, as well as less tangible measures such as politeness and friendliness (Aksin et al., 2007). As such, there is a need for effectively identifying the determinants of service excellence in a manner more consistent with these customer values. Also, given that efficiency and speed often conflict with the common measures of service quality and customer satisfaction delivered in contact centres, there are inherent challenges in measuring agent performance and establishing compensation structures that are more likely to produce the desired efficiency and service excellence outcomes, while reducing the tension felt by agents. Further, organisations would benefit from a better understanding of the relationship between customers’ service experiences and their repeat purchase behaviour, loyalty to the firm, and overall demand growth in order to make better decisions about contact centre operations. As such, the following determinants of service excellence have been identified from the content analysis.


3

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Content analysis method

According to Fink (2005), a literature review is a systematic, explicit and reproducible design for identifying, evaluating, and interpreting the existing body of recorded documents. From a methodological point of view, literature reviews can be comprehended as content analysis, where quantitative and qualitative aspects are mixed to access structural (descriptive) as well as content criteria (Brewerton and Millward, 2001). Hence, the methodology of content analysis has been applied in this paper. For a literature review, it is particularly important to define clear boundaries to delimitate the research. The structured keyword search was conducted in major databases and library services: Emerald (http://www.emeraldinsight.com), Scopus (http://www.scopus.com), Wiley (http://www.wiley.com), SAGE (http://www.online.sagepub.com), Taylor & Francis (http://www.tandfonline.com) and Science Direct (http://www.sciencedirect. com). Depending on whether a sufficient sample was reached at the title, abstract and keywords level, the selection of papers was either narrowed or extended beyond this. Subsequently different processing steps were needed to ensure that identified papers were indeed related with the topics addressed. As a first step of evaluation, descriptive dimensions were used to classify the papers: a

this analysis aimed only at papers in English-written journals with an operational focus

b

publications with the main topic of call centre or contact centre or BPO were considered

c

articles which focused only on information technology were excluded

d

the distribution of publications across the time period was examined.

Research confirmed the three broad streams as mentioned by Jack et al. (2006). Please refer to Figure 1. 1

the inputs (human relations and industrial psychology perspective)

2

the service delivery process (operations management perspective)

3

the performance outcomes (service marketing perspective). The broad streams of service excellence content analysis

Content Analysis of Literature Review

Articles

Figure 1

50 40 30 20 10 0 Input

Delivery Process

Performance Outcomes

Broad Streams

Others

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For the distribution across the time period, high numbers of publications were found for the time period 2008 to 2013. Please refer to Figure 2. Figure 2

Distribution of publications per year across the period studied

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

2001

2000

1999

1998

1997

1996

1995

1994

18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 1993

Articles

Content Analysis of Literature Review

Year of Publication

The content of the papers was further distilled to identify service excellence determinants and the relationship to contact centre service excellence. From the following content analysis tables, Tables 1–5, this study found the following five determinants of service excellence i.e. CSAs’ hiring criteria, reward system, team structure, cross-functional coordination process and training and development. Table 1

Descriptive analysis of article review for determinant team structure

Previous work (author, year)

Relationship of team structure to service excellence

Organization design for service excellence: a review of the literature – Horwitz and Neville (1996)

The greater the intangible nature of a market entity, the more unpredictable and changing will be the required outputs to satisfy each individual customer for service excellence. Under such circumstances a mechanistic, highly formal structure will be ineffective. Instead, a decentralised organic structure giving empowerment and greater participation down the line will be the more effective option.

The contribution of information technology to call center productivity: an organizational design analysis – Rowe et al. (2011)

For example, the rules, procedures and instructions formalised in inbound centres often concern not so much the liaising of telephone tasks, as the procedures for resolving problems posed by the customers for service excellence. In fact, the operators must demonstrate initiative by using a prior diagnosis, which then enables them to pinpoint a problem, which will be subsequently resolved in accordance with instructions.

Frontline employees’ views on organizational factors that affect the delivery of service quality in call centers – Dean and Rainnie (2009)

The structures and support processes in the call centre were seen to facilitate service, where they exist, and provided they are not too slow.

Contact centre service excellence: a proposed conceptual framework Table 2

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Descriptive analysis of article review for determinant cross-functional coordination process


Relationship of cross-functional coordination process to service excellence


In contact centres, given that the front office cannot set up service provision on its own, nor guarantee the quality of this service, it must liaise with other units, starting with the call centre back office to provide satisfactory resolution to the customer for service excellence.

Exploring call center-enabled organizational mechanisms associated with combinative capabilities – Chou (2011)

Coordination capabilities enhance absorption by facilitating the relationships within a group, among teams, and between organisational units. The firm’s cross-function interfaces, decision-making participation, and job rotation are three features of coordination capabilities. Coordination will enable satisfactory resolution for the customer and achieve service excellence.

Table 3

Descriptive analysis of article review for determinant CSAs’ hiring criteria


Relationship of CSAs’ hiring criteria to service excellence

Assessing call centers’ success: a validation of the DeLone and Mclean model for information system – Baraka et al. (2013)

Telephone etiquette, knowledge and competency, adherence to protocol.

Customer satisfaction and call centers: an Australian study – Bennington et al. (2000)

The following is valued when dealing with contact centres: reliable, respect and mutual trust, understanding and caring staff, prompt efficient service, open and effective communication, and personalised/individualised service for customer satisfaction.


According to the firm’s needs and its activity cycle, the CSA activity changes; customers’ demands are diversified, and certain versatility might be a performance factor for service excellence. Behavioural skills, communication abilities, as well as the ability to respond to the diversity of the services provided.


The importance of employee-job fit was highlighted by all focus groups. Participants noted that if employee-job fit is good, they love their work because they can deliver good service and help customers. In contrast, if fit is poor, withdrawal from customers occurs and service levels decline markedly. The ‘right people’ for call centre work were described as those who are ‘courteous, polite people – people who are sort of trying to be helpful by nature’ and ‘self-assured, confident people who can handle it and do not take anything personally’. Employee-job fit was also used with respect to service quality ‘skills’, including a ‘natural sales orientation’, the ability to multi-task, to solve problems, and to develop solutions and act positively, even when feeling very negative and flat.

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S. Dharamdass and Y. Fernando Descriptive analysis of article review for determinant CSAs’ hiring criteria (continued)


Relationship of CSAs’ hiring criteria to service excellence

An exploration of managerial issues in call centres – Armistead et al. (2002)

CSAs need good interpersonal skills in dealing with a variety of customers and types of issues. Switching from handling customers in genuine distress to those who are angry or rude calls for emotional resilience.

Customer satisfaction and service quality measurement in Indian call centres – Jaiswal (2008)

Interpersonal skills of contact centre agents directly affect service quality. Reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy affect service quality perceptions. Contact centre satisfaction has all the dimensions as found in SERVQUAL namely, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy except tangibility.

Developing and implementing a customer contact strategy – Burns (1995)

CSA profile – enthusiastic, customer-oriented, accurate to achieve service excellence.

Operational challenges in the call center industry: a case study and resource-based framework – Jack et al. (2006)

The ‘customer care’ moment of truth depends on the CSA’s courtesy, helpfulness, assurance, empathy, telephone manners, and so forth. This positive customer encounter is also the key to customer satisfaction and loyalty because it provides the call centre’s customers with a positive memorable service quality experience.

Quality deployment for the management of customer calls – Chang and Huang (2000)

CSA profile – accessibility, promptness, reliability, courteous for service excellence.

Table 4

Descriptive analysis of article review for determinant reward system


Relationship of reward system to service excellence


Rewards based on the organisation’s performance linked to service excellence. The compensation system must reward the type of service behaviour which the organisation seeks to promote linked to service excellence. It is particularly important for managers to link performance management and appraisal and rewards with service excellence competencies and behaviour.

Managing human resources for service excellence and cost effectiveness at Singapore Airlines – Wirtz et al. (2008)

Rewards and recognition is one of the key levers that any organisation can use to encourage appropriate behaviour, recognise excellence, and emphasise both positive as well as undesirable practices.

Internal Labor Markets and The organisation of long term work contracts promotes Manpower Analysis – Doeringer and specific human skills that enhance performance Piore (1985)


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Descriptive analysis of article review for determinant reward system (continued)


Relationship of reward system to service excellence

Examining the influence of modularity and knowledge management (KM) on dynamic capabilities: insights from a call center – Ravishankar and Pan (2013)

Linking individuals’ remuneration to the performance of the team ensured that the more experienced CSAs did not hoard information and leave newcomers in the lurch. Refine rewards system, to base more on collective success helps moderate the sometimes steep learning curve faced by new CSAs and enhanced the productivity of call teams. This encourages greater peer support and helps foster a spirit of camaraderie, which in turn reduces variations in service quality and improved customer satisfaction.


Three main elements constituting the reward system: an individual and monetary component, i.e. wages and individual bonuses, an individual and professional component, namely, the labor contract and career prospects, and finally, a collective component aimed at developing the cooperation needed to serve the customer, namely, collective bonuses and published statistics.


The need for recognition and rewards for performance, as a stimulus for accepting work pressures; the effects that rosters can have on service quality via emotional exhaustion.

An exploration of managerial issues in call centres – Armistead et al. (2002)

Incentive scheme designed by team leaders and agents to benefit all.

The modern call center: a multi-disciplinary perspective on operations management research – Aksin et al. (2007)

Employee incentives, influence contact centre performance and service excellence and are typically ignored in operations management models.

Table 5

Descriptive analysis of article review for determinant training and development


Relationship of training and development to service excellence


Training was found to have positive effects on frontline employees’ abilities to meet customer needs/SE but it must emphasise more than product knowledge, and include analytical and process skills for problem solving, managing customer interactions, and sustaining a positive attitude under stress. Employees require more opportunity to practice their skills, especially when dealing with difficult customers, and more opportunity to observe and learn from their colleagues.


Having a well trained, motivated workforce is important in any aspect of a business.

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S. Dharamdass and Y. Fernando Descriptive analysis of article review for determinant training and development (continued)


Relationship of training and development to service excellence

Employee perceptions of service quality in a call centre – Ramseook-Munhurrun et al. (2009)

For example, the contact centre should provide more training to their employees to enhance their customer service skills so that CSA feels confident and can deliver prompt service. Training and coaching will help CSA improve their product knowledge so that they can help customers to solve their problems and provide a fast service.

Links between service climate, employee commitment and employees’ service quality capability – Little and Dean (2006)

HRM was measured by items addressing organisational policies and procedures, training in new products, development of interpersonal and problem-solving skills, technology and resources to support employees, the role of e-learning in the call centre, and employees’ attitude to it. The findings suggest that improved HRM would contribute to service quality levels and organisational effectiveness via more committed employees. The employees noted that training should be facilitator lead and give adequate time for staff to practice, understand and comprehend the new knowledge, prior to service delivery.


Contact centre managers realise that agents need training on the basics of call centre operational performance such as answering calls in a timely manner, resolving calls on the first contact, and short wrap-up times. In addition, they also need training in more intangible areas such as empathising with customers and in overall courtesy, kindness, and professionalism.

Service quality in call centres : implications of customer loyalty – Dean (2002)

Training CSAs so they are knowledgeable, helpful and courteous.


To consider the question of cross-training a subset of agents from different queues to meet demand in the presence of uncertain arrival rates. The right mix of flexible and specialised agents.

The distribution over journals and count as listed in Tables 6 to 10 is Egyptian Informatics Journal (EIJ) = 1, Human Resource Management (HRM) = 1, International Journal of Information Management (IJIM) = 1, International Journal of Service Industry Management (IJSIM) = 1, Information Technology & People (ITP) = 1, Journal of Service Marketing (JSM) = 1, Management Decision (MD) = 1, Managing Service Quality (MSQ) = 8 and Production and Operations Management Society (POMS) = 1. Further, the study type and country of research is also stipulated.


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Distribution over journals for determinant team structure


Study type/country

Journal


Review of literature

Human Resource Management – John Wiley


Survey 155 call centre managers. (France)

Information, Technology & People


Ten focus groups of frontline employees who work in a telecommunications call centre in Australia were conducted. Data were subjected to content analysis. (Australia)

Journal of Service Marketing

Table 7

Distribution over journals for determinant cross-functional coordination process


Study type/country

Journal




Exploring call center-enabled organizational mechanisms associated with combinative capabilities – Chou (2011)

12 interviews, 4 call centres. (Taiwan)

Management Decision

Table 8

Distribution over journals for determinant CSAs’ hiring criteria

Previous work (author, year) Assessing call centers’ success: a validation of the DeLone and Mclean model for information system – Baraka et al. (2013)

Study type/country

Journal

Performance evaluation for four call centres are calculated based on the indicators received and based on equal weights for all indicators and dimensions. The call centres selected are of medium size call centres of average 80–100 agents providing a mix of voice and data services and located in the capital city Cairo. (Egypt)

Egyptian Informatics Journal

Customer satisfaction and call centers: A study carried out with users of an Australian study – Bennington a very large human services call et al. (2000) centre network. (Australia)

International Journal of Service Industry Management

30 Table 8

S. Dharamdass and Y. Fernando Distribution over journals for determinant CSAs’ hiring criteria (continued)


Study type/country

Journal







An exploration of managerial issues in Survey and interview two call centres (20 1st type of survey, call centres – Armistead et al. (2002) 54 2nd type of survey, verbal protocol analysis of 41 CSA conversations, 14 interviews). (UK)

Managing Service Quality

Customer satisfaction and service quality measurement in Indian call centres – Jaiswal (2008)

Interview 12 managers at 4 call centres. (India)



Case study 1. (UK)



Use of a case study approach with structured interviews of key managers and employees; and synthesis of this data in order to understand why and how these managers made key operational trade-off decisions. The case study was done on an inbound customer service call centre for a regional wireless phone company that operates in the Southeastern. (USA)


Quality deployment for the management of customer calls – Chang and Huang (2000)

Case study (1 regional call centre) Managing Service survey and interview. (Singapore) Quality


Review of recent literature on call centre operations management.

Production and Operations Management Society


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Distribution over journals for determinant reward system


Study type/country

Journal


Review of literature

Human Resource Management – John Wiley

Examining the influence of modularity and knowledge management (KM) on dynamic capabilities: Insights from a call center – Ravishankar and Pan (2013)

Qualitative study on a large call centre employing more than 4,000 CSAs and providing voice-based customer support services to organisations in a range of industries.

International Journal of Information Management







An exploration of managerial issues in Survey and interview two call centres (20 1st type of survey, call centres – Armistead et al. (2002) 54 2nd type of survey, verbal protocol analysis of 41 CSA conversations, 14 interviews). (UK) The modern call center: a multi-disciplinary perspective on operations management research – Aksin et al. (2007) Table 10


Review of recent literature on call Production and Operations centre operations management. Management Society

Distribution over journals for determinant training and development


Study type/country

Journal





Case study 1. (UK)


Employee perceptions of service quality in a call centre – Ramseook-Munhurrun et al. (2009)

Data were collected by field study Managing Service in a particular call centre in Quality Mauritius using a modified SERVQUAL questionnaire. (Mauritius)

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Table 10

Distribution over journals for determinant training and development (continued)


Study type/country

Journal

Links between service climate, employee commitment and employees’ service quality capability – Little and Dean (2006)

Data were collected by a cross-sectional field study of frontline employees in a telecommunications call centre (n = 167; 58%). A call centre was chosen because of the perceived poor service climate and the high levels of employee turnover.


Use of a case study approach with Managing Service structured interviews of key Quality managers and employees; and synthesis of this data in order to understand why and how these managers made key operational trade-off decisions. The case study was done on an inbound customer service call centre for a regional wireless phone company that operates in the Southeastern. (USA)

Service quality in call centres : implications of customer loyalty – Dean (2002)

A mail survey was conducted of recent clients of two call centres in Australia.


Review of recent literature on call Production and Operations centre operations management. Management Society

Figure 3



Conceptual framework of determinants of contact centre service excellence

Key focus

Determinants Team structure Cross-functional coordination process CSAs’ hiring criteria Reward system

1. 2. 3. 4.

Service Excellence Keeping obligations towards customers Adding a personal touch Devoting extra effort Reacting appropriately during a service failure

Training and development

Further, to ensure reliability, the proposed determinants of contact centre service excellence were reviewed with contact centre industry experts and academic experts. As such, as a next step after performing the content analysis, focused group interviews were conducted with contact centre industry experts to ensure the determinants being identified indeed were relevant to the contact centre industry service excellence goal. This involved reviewing the current operational metrics used by the industry for efficiency,


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effectiveness, productivity, customer satisfaction scores and customer willing to promote product/service scores. Subsequently, focused group interviews were also conducted with academic experts to ensure an academic methodology for qualitative research was appropriately employed to identify accurately the proposed determinants of contact centre service excellence based on recent academic literature on contact centres. Please refer to Figure 3 for the conceptual framework.

4

Analysis and findings

The goals of a contact centre are diverse, as was shown by various studies and confirmed in a first exploratory study by authors (Rowe et al., 2011). Such goals include: a

To attain customer satisfaction and quality of service. Satisfaction may be broken down by distinguishing between consumer-related satisfaction from the product or service provided (Oliver, 1981) and that which is linked to the quality of the contact itself (Grönroos, 2000). The quality of the service, often evaluated either by a team leader listening in or a simulated call from a ‘consulting firm’, is measured by the expressions used, the accuracy of the replies and the possibility of transfer towards other stations.

b

To respond to or make a maximum number of contacts per unit of time. For inbound contacts, this means reducing the abandonment rate or conversely increasing the efficiency rate. This productivity criterion is often measured automatically. It is also expressed by responsiveness, (i.e. not allowing the telephone to ring for too long).

c

The third objective focuses on financial aspects and on keeping costs down. Previously published works (Rowe et al., 2011) show that contact centres focusing on quality of service and customer satisfaction experience higher productivity than those focusing solely on productivity. In the services sector, productivity is constrained by direct relationships with customers, hence, if the quality is not satisfactory, then contacts will bounce back. Managerial pressures on being responsive and limiting contact duration in order to boost productivity statistics can have a paradoxically counter-productive effect for the same reasons as mentioned previously.

There is confusion over the strategic intent of contact centres. Contact centres are primarily used by organisations as a means of reducing costs, with customer service delivery being a secondary consideration. Contact centre managers, however, declared customer service as their main management responsibility (Robinson and Morley, 2006) as also seen in the content analysis findings.

4.1 Team structure It is evident that an organisation structure with the distinction between a front-office job and a back office job will have a positive impact on service excellence. This is because the nature of a CSA’s work involves the competency to communicate well, required behavioural skills, as well as technical skills which make it different from a back office function. Further, it requires adaptability according to customer profile, which involves

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the tone of speech, the articulation and empathy during a contact (Rowe et al., 2011). It also involves the skill of managing stress. To achieve cost-effective use of resources of the CSA to deliver excellent service, it is not unusual to observe team structures based on geography, product being served, or the category of customers to allow for contact routing (Rowe et al., 2011). When contact centres were first set up, they adopted the manufacturing model to achieve efficiency and cost effectiveness and hence consisted of a single pool of homogeneous CSAs (Atlason et al., 2004; Gans et al., 2003). Today, contact centres have evolved into a pool of multi-skilled CSAs to be able to serve different type of contacts from customers (Bhulai et al., 2008; Cezik and L’Ecuyer, 2008). Hypothesis 1

There is a positive and significant relationship between team structure and service excellence.

4.2 Cross-functional coordination process Contact centres create long-term relationships of cooperation and coordination through commitment and trust to enhance service (Rindell et al., 2014). This is accomplished by means of communication in addition to the required transformation of employee’s attitudes and performance (Sharma and Kamalanabhan, 2014). The CSAs cannot guarantee the quality of service on their own. They would need to coordinate cross-functionally using a mix of methods within their organisation for example in the case of handling special cases which need to be handled at the back office (Rowe et al., 2011). CSAs and team leaders are involved in anticipating customer issues and assessing actual cases and have regular meetings to establish the required crossfunctional engagement processes which are documented into a central knowledge base system. Hypothesis 2

There is a positive and significant relationship between cross-functional coordination process and service excellence.

4.3 CSAs’ hiring criteria Contact centres have transformed into differentiating tasks between transactional, short and highly repetitive and that which entails empathy and is more relational as well as requires semi-skilled CSAs for longer and more complex contacts (Holman and Fernie, 2000; Hutchinson et al., 2000). For transactional tasks which are highly scripted, contact centres hire CSAs with lower qualifications and lower salaries (Rowe et al., 2011). Due to the nature of the CSAs’ job, it requires interpersonal skills to determine the level of service excellence (Jaiswal, 2008). As such, whilst education level is important as a hiring criterion, behavioural skills such as reliability, assurance, empathy, and responsiveness, and communication abilities, are also necessary along with the competency to respond to the range of the services offered (Rowe et al., 2011). Hypothesis 3

There is a positive and significant relationship between CSAs’ hiring criteria and service excellence.


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4.4 The reward system A suitable reward system grounded on suitable evaluation principles which are aligned with the vision and mission of the organisation is vital to drive excellent service. This is due to reward and recognition for good work, career progression, involvement in discussion with reference to the progress of the organisation worked for and support for the performance evaluation procedure and impartiality effect in employee dedication to work that enhance positive outcome on service delivery (Askary et al., 2014). Further, communication satisfaction with the leaders has significant impact on job satisfaction and job performance of employees in the organisations (Rajesh and Suganthi, 2014). Reward system cannot be separated from evaluating the contribution of the CSAs and their teams. It is common practice for contact centres to display or publish performance metrics which are seen to promote the teamwork required to serve customers (Galbraith, 2002). Centred on this, three main elements that have been identified for the reward system include the individual salary and bonus, the job contract and career prospects and, finally, team bonuses and published performance metrics (Rowe et al., 2011). Hypothesis 4

There is a positive and significant relationship between reward system and service excellence.

4.5 Training and development The contact centre is a socio-technical system which has human elements which influence the delivery of service outcome. In spite of this, contact centres have been set up to reduce operational cost by hiring low-paid CSAs with minimal training and performing narrowly outlined responsibilities which are closely monitored by management (Johnston and Clark, 2005; Slack et al., 2006). Reports reveal that the merit of service offered from this nature of setup is inferior with management having to tussle with competing priorities of cost reduction and excellent service (Marr and Neely, 2004; Seddon, 2003). In actual fact, investing in training CSAs can produce considerable impact as a determinant in delivering excellent service (Sharma and Kamalanabhan, 2014). For CSAs to be able to provide excellent service; training should not only include product knowledge but also include observation of seniors and role play of analytical and procedure proficiencies for problem solving, handling demanding customer interactions and upholding a positive attitude under pressure (Dean and Rainnie, 2009). Hence, contact centres have begun to remodel their approach and moved into training and developing cross-skilled CSAs who are able to resolve customer enquiries end-to-end and traditional efficiency performance metrics at contact centres such as AHT (average handle time) are being given less focus and priority is being put on FCR (first call resolution) (Piercy and Rich, 2009) to achieve excellence in customer service delivery. Hypothesis 5

There is a positive and significant relationship between training and development and service excellence.

4.6 Service excellence Service excellence is the key focus of this study. Service excellence should generate extraordinary satisfaction; Rust and Oliver (2000) predict positive customer emotions

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resulting from an unexpected positive transgression of their expectations. Johnston (2004, 2007) challenges the idea that businesses should rely solely on the delivery of unexpected and surprising service experiences, importance of extra effort in service delivery, a process that can surprise customers, but he asserts that exceeding expectations and surprising customers may cause superfluous costs for a business. Further, if a customer in under the impression that the quality is excessive, beyond his or her initial expectations, the customer may also anticipate that the company’s costs are greater than necessary and thereby reason to believe that the price charged must be too high. Customer expectations of the service could be achieved and delivered at a lower price without the added element of surprise (Grönroos, 1990). Therefore, Johnston (2004) argues that for reasons of practicality, such a definition of service excellence is inadequate; it is not sufficient to concentrate on providing unexpected and surprising customer services. Instead, he identifies factors that mark service excellence from a customer’s perspective, which do not require the organisation to exceed expectations. All that is required is that customers believe that the company offers an easy way to conduct business (Johnston, 2004). Furthermore, Johnston suggests four classifications for excellent service drivers which are keeping obligations towards customers, adding an individual touch to service delivery, devoting extra effort and reacting appropriately in the case of a service failure.

5

Conclusions, implications, limitations and future research

This study has presented the application of the Johnston’s model of service excellence in the contact centre setting for competitive advantage and to increase customer loyalty. The key contribution of this paper was to identify the determinants of service excellence in a contact centre which include team structure, cross-functional coordination process, reward system, CSAs’ hiring criteria and training and development in an under-researched area of service excellence with the underlying concept of Johnston’s model. The root cause of the problem was as a result of contact centres having used the manufacturing model when they first evolved due to the intention of saving operational cost and hence performance measures in use are heavily efficiency based and lack effectiveness measures. As such, another contribution is, it is essential for contact centres to measure the appropriate performance measures to instil the required conduct amongst the CSAs which should be aligned with the business goals. Hence, contact centres should set their vision and mission based on service excellence, identify related measurable metrics which can be used to broadcast and recognise individual CSAs and teams on their outstanding performance based on service excellence to achieve the desired outcome. In addition, another contribution is it is also necessary for the management to clearly distinguish between the low-skilled CSAs for homogeneous tasks versus the complex issue resolution CSA roles. Accordingly the performance measures between these two should also be clearly distinguished where for homogenous tasks, more focus on regular and established measures such as first contact resolution would be relevant however for the heterogeneous tasks performance measures such as issue resolution would be more appropriate. As such, hiring criteria should match the required tasks and appropriate training and development should be provided to the CSAs and a clear career path should be defined to curb CSA turnover rate. Further, the contact centre should establish a central knowledge base with a well-documented cross-engagement process which is


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regularly reviewed and updated. The size of the teams should be manageable to allow ease of monitoring, training and coaching by designated team leaders. Hence, there is an urgent need for contact centre managers to evaluate the proposed determinants of contact centre service excellence. In proposing the determinants of contact centre service excellence and developing a proposed conceptual framework through an organised content analysis methodology, this paper hopes to have laid the groundwork necessary for future research into the service excellence phenomenon in the service literature, whilst extending practical recommendations to contact centre managers on how to deliver service excellence. Further, the content analysis methodology that has been applied in this research can be replicated when scholars wish to carry out a study. In conclusion, this paper proposes the determinants of contact centre service excellence to assist organisations drive for service excellence effectively through the understanding of appropriate determinants without having to exceed expectations and incurring extra cost. Finally, the main limitation of this research is that it did not distinguish between inhouse and outsourced service providers. Further, it also did not distinguish between public and private sector. Future research may consider comparing and contrasting the proposed framework and testing between in-house contact centres and outsourced service providers as well as public and private sector.

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