EMPOWERING CONTACT-CENTER AGENTS VIA PREFERENCE-BASED ROUTING

Telephone call centers and their generalizations customer contact centers usually handle several types of customer service requests (calls). Since customer service representatives (agents) have different call-handling abilities, contact centers exploit skill-based routing to assign calls to appropriate agents, aiming to respond properly as well as promptly. Nevertheless, despite a high level of sophistication, contact-center performance often falls far short of expectations. Too frequently, both customers and agents are dissatisfied with their contact-center experience. Agent dissatisfaction is demonstrated by high turnover and absenteeism. This problem might be addressed by empowering the agents, as others have observed, but that is difficult to accomplish in today’s contact centers. As a new strategy to empower contact-center agents, we propose dynamically soliciting agents’ working and call-handling preferences and responding to them. It is natural to be concerned that traditional performance requirements will not be met by such a strategy. However, we develop dynamic call-routing algorithms that take account of agent preferences, allowing for adjustments in real time or near real time, while ensuring that traditional performance requirements are met. Thus we present evidence that the strategy is workable.

[1]  David Collins,et al.  Control and isolation in the management of empowerment , 1996 .

[2]  S. Deery,et al.  Call Centres and Human Resource Management , 2004 .

[3]  Jerry R. Goolsby,et al.  Behavioral and Psychological Consequences of Boundary Spanning Burnout for Customer Service Representatives , 1994 .

[4]  Avishai Mandelbaum,et al.  Telephone Call Centers: Tutorial, Review, and Research Prospects , 2003, Manuf. Serv. Oper. Manag..

[5]  G. Nemhauser,et al.  Integer Programming , 2020 .

[6]  E. Lawler,et al.  Empowering Service Employees , 1995 .

[7]  Ward Whitt,et al.  The Impact of Increased Employee Retention on Performance in a Customer Contact Center , 2006, Manuf. Serv. Oper. Manag..

[8]  Ward Whitt,et al.  A Staffing Algorithm for Call Centers with Skill-Based Routing , 2005, Manuf. Serv. Oper. Manag..

[9]  Robert A. Shumsky,et al.  Routing and Staffing in Large Call Centers with Specialized and Fully Flexible Servers , 2004 .

[10]  Patricia A. Chase,et al.  Cost of employee turnover , 1992 .

[11]  Martin Wetzels,et al.  Role stress in call centers: Its effects on employee performance and satisfaction , 2001 .

[12]  Rosemary Batt,et al.  Strategic segmentation in front-line services: matching customers, employees and human resource systems , 2000 .

[13]  Chris J. Sablynski,et al.  WHY PEOPLE STAY: USING JOB EMBEDDEDNESS TO PREDICT VOLUNTARY TURNOVER , 2001 .

[14]  David L. Corsun,et al.  Predicting Psychological Empowerment Among Service Workers: The Effect of Support-Based Relationships , 1999 .

[15]  W. Edwards Deming,et al.  Out of the Crisis , 1982 .

[16]  Avishai Mandelbaum,et al.  Staffing and Control of Large-Scale Service Systems with Multiple Customer Classes and Fully Flexible Servers , 2005 .

[17]  Wayne L. Winston.  Introduction to Mathematical Programming: Applications and Algorithms , 1990 .

[18]  Mark S. Teachout,et al.  THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN WORK EXPERIENCE AND JOB PERFORMANCE: A CONCEPTUAL AND META‐ANALYTIC REVIEW , 1995 .

[19]  Dawn S. Carlson,et al.  When Conscientiousness Isn’t Enough: Emotional Exhaustion and Performance Among Call Center Customer Service Representatives , 2004 .

[20]  E. H. Bax,et al.  Is High Employee Turnover Really Harmful? An Empirical Test Using Company Records , 2004 .

[21]  Pervaiz K. Ahmed,et al.  A customer‐oriented framework for empowering service employees , 1998 .

[22]  R. Faure,et al.  Introduction to operations research , 1968 .

[23]  Ward Whitt,et al.  Dynamic staffing in a telephone call center aiming to immediately answer all calls , 1999, Oper. Res. Lett..

[24]  Robert Karasek,et al.  Healthy Work : Stress, Productivity, and the Reconstruction of Working Life , 1990 .

[25]  Rosemary L. Batt,et al.  MANAGING CUSTOMER SERVICES: HUMAN RESOURCE PRACTICES, QUIT RATES, AND SALES GROWTH , 2002 .

[26]  D. Holman.  Employee wellbeing in call centres , 2002 .

[27]  Thomas Spencer,et al.  AT&T's Call Processing Simulator (CAPS) Operational Design for Inbound Call Centers , 1994 .

[28]  Brad Cleveland,et al.  Call Center Management on Fast Forward: Succeeding in Today's Dynamic Inbound Environment , 1999 .

[29]  Jagdip Singh,et al.  Behavioral and Psychological Consequences of Boundary Spanning Burnout for Customer Service Representatives , 1994 .

[30]  Richard,et al.  Motivation through the Design of Work: Test of a Theory. , 1976 .

[31]  Richard McBain.  Call centres and human resource management , 2002 .