To Sell or Not to Sell

This article explores the trade-offs between service and sales in phone center operations in retail banking and develops an analytical approach to quantify the costs and benefits of moving toward a sales-focused operation. Empirical evidence from retail banking call centers is provided along with a numerical example demonstrating the use of the analytical approach in the context of one major retail banking call center. It is shown that in addition to its visible costs, such as training and technology to build support systems for sales activities, cross-selling can have detrimental effects on customer service due to the additional load it creates on the system. It is further demonstrated that designing the right process and adopting human resource practices that support this design are critical in determining the success of a cross-sell program.