From the customer to the firm: evaluating generic service process designs for incoming customer requests
✍ Scribed by Michael Zapf
- Publisher
- Elsevier Science
- Year
- 2004
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 433 KB
- Volume
- 55
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0166-3615
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✦ Synopsis
In this paper, generic service process designs are presented for handling customer requests within a communication center. The process characteristics which are relevant in this domain are the level of difficulty (standard versus special requests) and the communication channel (synchronous versus a-synchronous requests). The design dimensions are task allocation to generalists and specialists, front-office and back-office role and degree of integration of synchronous and a-synchronous requests. The process designs are evaluated within an experimental simulation study with empirical data from a car rental company. The analysis shows strengths and weaknesses of the process designs under different conditions. Based on these results a model of competing effects is developed which helps to understand the complex dependencies within service process designs.