The advent of the Internet, along with other technology advances, has caused dramatic changes to the way buying and selling is done. Technology has impacted how companies do business, including changing distribution methods and customer service systems. Inbound call centers used for customer service have become increasingly popular as a way of trying to reduce cost and increase efficiency. By centralizing customer service staff into large facilities, companies can help reduce the overhead costs associated with many smaller offices in different locations. Call centers also provide advantages in staffing for call volume, different time zones and business hours, and companies can take advantage of the cheaper local labor rates from different parts of the world. However, due to factors like high staff turnover rate and customer dissatisfaction, the savings from using call centers may not be as big as hoped.
Management Tools
In call centers, management staff can supervise a large number of employees. One reason for this is that the technology provides them with tools for monitoring their workers. For example, a manager can know exactly when their employees started and ended their workday based on when they swiped their ID badge. Managers and employees also have metrics available to them for everything from the number of calls and emails the employee answered to the length of time that it took them (Ball & Margulis, 2011). This means that an employee can get instant feedback on their productivity without ever speaking with management. The technology also makes it easier to anticipate heavier call volume times and adjust staffing accordingly. The technology can essentially do the work of analyzing heavy workload times and scheduling staff accordingly.
Current Management Challenges for Call Centers
According to Childs and Donovan (2012), among the biggest problems that call centers face are high attrition rates. These attrition rates come at a big cost to the company financially; Childs and Donovan (2012) estimate that it costs the company $4,000 for each employee that needs to be replaced. Frequent turnover also hurts the customer service experience that the company is providing (DeNucci, 2011).
Job stress and job dissatisfaction are often cited as being among the primary causes for this high attrition rate (Kjellberg et al., 2010). Many studies have been done in many different locations on the factors contributing to this job stress and dissatisfaction. One theory, proposed by Ball and Margulis (2011), is that the constant monitoring provided to management by the technology contributes to job stress and dissatisfaction.
Over time, this dull pain can erode the self-confidence and passion of even the strongest people, which in turn, affects their spouses and children and friends in subtle but profound ways… Though it may be difficult to quantify, the dissatisfaction of employees has a direct impact on productivity, turnover, and morale, all of which eventually hit a company’s bottom line hard,” (p. ix –
In the recent years, organizations have paid extra attention to employee stress and its effect on job performance. Burnout, an outcome of stress is known to cause individual, family and organizational problems and health conditions such as insomnia and hypertension. The question many ask is where does it originate from? And, how supported are the employees by the organization? Researchers have attempted to link stress and burnout and its effect on job performance. This research analysis includes different scholarly studies done and that found many contributing factors such as job satisfaction, work and family demands, work environment, and culture.
Call centers are typically business process outsourcing. They subcontract with various businesses; call centers are the hired party to perform services and create goods that are usually performed by in house by the company's own employees and staff. The business practice Outsourcing was introduced in the late 1980’s. I choose to do the Apple Tree Company video case because I relate to it a lot. I am licensed as an agent and insurance producer. I work for a company similar to Apple Tree. Teletech a business outsourcing company founded in 1982. My project is United Health Care. We have other projects like USSA. Pertaining to me, i take inbound calls from consumers 65 and over and help them find doctors, check medication, try to find a plan that
The customer support and customer service functions are more than departments; they are part of an essential strategy for growing your business. In the modern business climate, customers expect answers to their questions immediately. When the right information is available anytime, from anywhere in the world, customers are more likely to have a positive experience, thus customer loyalty will be increased. It is a known fact that the cost to obtain a customer is ten times higher than to maintain and keep existing customers. (Gouran, Dennis, W.E. Wiethoff, & J.A. Doelger. (1994). Mastering communication. 2nd ed. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.) Not in Reference Pg.
Regarding to Kidman (2010), nowadays 88 percent of customers prefer to use multiple channels through internet data, including call centre, search and social networking, to resolve the problems and Telstra announces that there are decreasing the number of clients who contact call centre and customer service via phone. Telstra’s customers are changing the way they source the information. They are more likely to use digital channel. Thus, 24-hour call centre, which operates remotely, will not only reduce cost to the organisation, but also respond to the new generation lifestyle and increase the customer’s satisfaction.
Worthington, Shari L. S. “Customer-Center Communications: What We Can Learn from B2C.” 01 February 2014.
Employee turnover costs are very costly to a company. Turnover not only affects the bottom line but also affects the company’s morale. We are analyzing the problems within our company that are causing our employees to become unsatisfied with their job. Then we are going to find solutions. And then do the cost estimates of the turnover costs and the turnover savings after our solutions are implemented.
Although there is a detectable relationship between lower levels of job satisfaction and higher turnover rates, the decision to quit one’s job rests on many different factors. Attitudes of an employee towards job satisfaction and organizational commitment play a role, but a shock to the life of an employee
Stress on the job affects many individuals. The percentage of employees suffering from work-related stress has increased substantially. The effects that come from stress can be detrimental to a person’s health. Individuals view stress as a typical day to day issue that can be easily maintained, but that is not the case for many who are suffering from it. As the symptoms go on untreated, the severity magnifies. Work-related stress migrates from work to home unknowingly, causing more stress in an individual’s life.
Working in today’s society has changed in the last few decades. The economy and technology are the main reasons for this change. The type of job and environment where one works has also changed. The fact that many people work from home via the internet has drastically changed the workforce and the environment surrounding it. With this change have come new demands, expectations, and opportunities for employers. Everyone deals with these demands differently, affecting the employee’s quality of life and job satisfaction. Though the job and office types and locations have changed over the years the need for job satisfaction has not. In today’s economy the job is not as stable as it used to be. One must be prepared for changes in the future.
Comcast Corporation is a company that specializes in cable networking and high speed internet access for residential and commercial customers. “Comcast Creates More Than 5,500 New Jobs as Part of Multi-Year Customer Experience Transformation” (Comcast.com, 2015). I spent a total of three years working for them in a call center atmosphere before relocating my family. This job was one of my most memorable and enjoyable mainly because they followed the management practices which allowed everyone to function efficiently. Nominally “The primary function for most call centers, also known as ‘inbound’ call centers, is to receive telephone calls initiated by customers. Inbound call centers typically spend 60–80% of their budget on staff members who handle phone calls” (der Horst, et al., 2012, 435). My days were spent with between eight to twelve hours a day attached to a desk and phone system monitoring all aspects of job performance. Comcast “today announced a new, multi-year plan to reinvent the customer experience and to create a culture focused on exceeding customers’ expectations, at all levels of the company. The plan centers on looking at every decision through a customer lens and making measureable changes and improvements across the company” ...
It is of little doubt that the incidence of stress at work is one of the major unfavorable influences on job satisfaction, work performance and productivity. It is the source of hostility and disappointment, and can originate through a number of interconnected influences on behavior, such as the individual, group, organizational and environmental factors.
It is critical that the companies would like to have employees who can work up to their standard and give good performance. Thus, as it is mentioned in the article that if employees are influenced too much by the technology or have to deal with work all the time, in the long run, they will burn out. From my perspective and experience, too much stress from work can be one of the reasons why a lot of people leave their jobs. I found that the real reason behind it is because when people have too much to take on even after work, they cannot enjoy their life or have time to do other things that can relieve their stress. When they come to work, they cannot perform well because of the lack of energy mentally and physically. Employees will then feel bad for themselves for not being able to achieve their goals at work or finish the tasks given well. Eventually, they will need to look for a new job that can give them some time to live their lives too.
In the past few years, the number of call centers all over the world has been increasing. This spike in the number of call centers all over the world is owed to the fact that more and more corporations are outsourcing their customer care businesses to other nations in the form of call centers. This trend is followed because in countries like India, China, etc. since the population huge, cheap labor is presence in abundance and thus saves the big multinationals a lot of bucks. This act of outsourcing is however a very resourceful concept for such nations as it is helps in the creation of employment.
There are so many reports of workplace or organizational stress. It would be easily concluded that everyone, everywhere is depressed and discouraged. Every employee feels stress related to his or her work.Many employees complain about their jobs, their bosses and their subordinates. So it has become necessary to releases pressure to that extend that allow the workers to calm down and get back to work without stress. The stress at workplaces is increasing from many years but management did not take it up seriously(Ira S. Wolfe).Stress is a condition which happens when one realizes the pressures on himself/herself, or the requirements of a situation are wider than their recognition that they are able to handle. If these requirements continue for a longer period of time with out any interval then mental, physical or any other behavior problems may occur (Health &Safety Executive UK ). Stress is an individual's reaction to an environmental force that effects an individual performance.(Kahn et al. 1964 & Selye, 1956 )Work place stress has been also viewed as dysfunctional for organizations their eployess and managers (Wolfe, Quinn,Kahn, Snoek, & Rosenthal, 1964).There is link between anxiety stress with satisfaction and performance of employees. Lower anxiety and stress improves performance of employees (Donnelly & Ivancevich, 1975) . For the present study, stress was conceptualized to consist of four psychiatric conditions which reduces he employee’s job performabe.One is Depression( Feeling lonely, fed up, Dejected and loss of sexual desire) 2nd is Anxiety(Frequency of upset, sour stomach, feeling dim or little dizzy, hand trembling, feeling afraid and avoiding things).3rd is Cognitive Disorder(Experie...