Call centre management: is service quality a priority?

In recent years the call centre industry has grown rapidly in size and popularity. In so doing the industry has been perceived to suffer from some of the problems associated with industrial mass production. The nature of the requirement to answer a high number of calls in these centres had led to the use of a traditional “production‐line” management approach. Recently, as a result of both customers’ and employees’ expectations rising in relation to service delivery, the trend is for call centre operations to become more focused on staff empowerment, moving away from the traditional production‐line approach. For many companies this has become a difficult management problem. This paper reports on one such company. Following a number of years’ reliance on carrying out surveys of customer perceptions, and a history of subsequent lack of service improvement, this research used an in‐depth case study approach incorporating observation studies, interviews with different levels of managers, and focus‐group discussions with front‐line service delivery staff (agents). The findings identified the service quality issues to be addressed in order to reconcile customers’ and agents’ needs; and the implications for managers.