Rethinking Customer Expectations of Service Quality: Are Call Centres Different?

Reported studies on call centres emphasize efficiency and control, with possible implications for service priorities, customer orientation and service quality. However, there is little empirical research to test assumptions from the customer's perspective. This study aimed to establish whether customers expected (predicted) low levels of service from a call centre, how this level compared to the minimum level they considered adequate, and whether the perceived customer orientation of the call centre was related to service quality expectations. Data were collected from customers (N=289) of a large insurance provider. Key findings were that customers had very high levels of adequate (minimum) expectations and that adequate expectations behaved independently from predicted (forecast) expectations. Secondly, customer orientation was associated with predicted expectations but not adequate expectations. The paper concludes with suggestions for future research and managerial implications

Service delivery and operations objectives: listening to call centre customers

This paper argues that, in services, the participation of the customer in service delivery means that the traditional resource utilisation/customer satisfaction dichotomy used by many operations managers is too simplistic. In particular, the paper uses qualitative data from customers of two call centres to suggest that operations objectives need to place greater emphasis on the role of coproduction, manifest in customers' expectations and experiences of quality in their service encounters with frontline employees. The paper highlights the different findings for end consumers of insurance when compared to business customers of a bank, and concludes with suggestions for future research and for practicing managers

Absenteeism from the frontline: explaining employee stress and withdrawal in a call centre

This paper reports on a study which investigated employees' views on why they find call centre work more stressful than other types of work and the reasons for high levels of absenteeism in their workplace. Data were collected from frontline employees (n = 58) of a telecommunications call centre during ten focus groups. Content analysis of the data identified nine major themes. Overall, the study suggests that employee stress results from managers' emphases on sales and efficiency demands, directed by specific targets and high levels of electronic monitoring. Additionally, employees vary in their ability to provide emotional labour and deal with the stress of customer interactions. Other themes focused on call centre support processes and structures, teams, insufficient rest time, inadequate communication systems and human resource management issues. All the themes contributed to accumulated stress. Absenteeism was explained in terms of the accumulated stress, the perceived hygiene of the centre, proximity to others and employees' lack of identity. Finally, decreased employee commitment and withdrawal were attributed to perceived inequities in the workplace. The paper concludes with a discussion of managerial applications