'Fun and surveillance': the paradox of high commitment management in call centres

Much of the research into telephone call centres has focused on the coercive employment systems which are adopted in these organizations. This appears to contrast with the high levels of customer service and satisfaction which are often required for them to be successful. Our research, which is based on two case studies of call centres studied in depth, challenges this 'satanic mills' image. We explore the ways in which both companies sought to balance the pressures in the product and labour markets and employee needs to develop strategies which combined elements of commitment and control. They developed sophisticated human resource practices, which resembled the high commitment management approach, while, at the same time, maintaining a highly controlled and measured work environment. Consequently, there was a greater alignment between their HR practices and control systems, the needs of employees and the high quality of interactions with customers expected. This suggests that high commitment practices are not automatically associated with extensive employee discretion, as has been argued in the manufacturing sector. HR practices of this kind can be used to offset some of the worst features of call centre working. These findings illustrate the variety of HR practices in call centres and suggest some possible reasons for this diversity.     

Service quality of travel agents in Turkey

Customer satisfaction is an important measure of service quality in travel agents. Customers’ perceptions about agents seem to have been largely ignored by agent management in developing countries. The assessment of service quality provides an important feedback for agents to assess and improve its service to its customers. The aim of this study is to develop a reliable and valid instrument measure customer satisfaction in travel agents. A questionnaire to measure the service quality of travel agents was used and a total of 217 customers in Turkey were interviewed. Factor analysis was utilized to determine the factor structure. The instrument of the customer satisfaction developed in this study provides insights to the researches who study the improvement of customer satisfaction with service quality of travel agents and decision markers.     

制造业参与对物流服务创新绩效的影响分析

文章研究的基本是物流服务创新是否受到制造业参与度、制造业满意度的影响,具体有哪些因素影响物流服务创新绩效。基于制造业与物流业联动,从顾客参与的角度分析并构建了制造企业参与物流服务创新的研究模型。运用结构方程模型对调查获取的115份问卷数据进行实证分析,结果表明:制造业参与度和满意度都对物流服务创新绩效具有显著的正向影响,制造业参与度对制造业满意度也具有显著的正向影响。     

Purchasing management consulting services—From management autonomy to purchasing involvement

The purchasing of management consulting services is a challenging area for purchasing agents to become involved in. A study of six organizations shows large variations in terms of the extent and way in which they were involved ranging from ad hoc and clerical approaches to their systematic and central participation. Based on a comparison of the cases, enablers of purchasing involvement are discussed, including the status of the purchasing function, managerial use of and attitudes towards consultants, how the management consulting service and the purchasing situation are framed, and the implementation strategy. We conclude that what are generally regarded as sound purchasing practices can also work in the case of management consultants. This, however, requires a good understanding of the consulting service in the client organization. We suggest that the traditionally marginal role of purchasing agents may be better understood as a consequence of the characteristics of the consultant–client relationship than any essential characteristics of the consulting service.     

Service specification in pre-tender phase of public procurement - A triadic model of meaningful involvement

The purpose of this research is to define the actor roles and collaborative practices that are central to service specification co-development in relation to the pre-tender phase of public procurement. We propose a new model of meaningful stakeholder involvement in the context of public service specification as a triadic setting. In addition to the theoretical value, the proposed model guides public procurement units on how to define their roles as intermediaries and to design a service specification process involving internal customers and providers of a service. The approach adopted highlights the meaningfulness of involvement by referring to the types of cooperative roles and practices that are both suitable for the situation and well understood and implemented by the cooperative parties. Service specification co-development is defined as a triadic setting involving buyers, service providers, and internal customers. This study consists of two longitudinal empirical public procurement cases viewed with the aid of a theoretical framework drawn from the general involvement and public-sector-specific involvement literature. Managerial implications relate to involving stakeholders early in the process, focusing on value creating activities, and sharing relevant information throughout the pre-tender phase.     

Just-in-time in the infrastructure

We know that just-in-time (JIT) manufacturing is a set of philosophies, not a set of techniques. These same philosophies are embraced by the total quality management (TQM) school. The most important element of this philosophy is that of continuous improvement--the acceptance of constantly changing objectives as a departure from reliance on standard requirements. This fundamental concept drives other philosophical aspects such as improving utilization of resources (employee involvement, reduction of waste) and long-term success (customer focus, vendor partnerships). Clearly, these philosophies are applicable to all organizations and functions. Perhaps some of these philosophies are manifest by certain JIT principles that we might consider when we design organizational routines and practices. Why not apply what has been proven in the factory to the seemingly bureaucratic behaviors in the office.     

CRM在酒店管理系统中的设计与应用

客户关系管理（CRM）是一种新的管理理念,在企业的具体实践中引入这一理念有利于企业去管理并分析宝贵的客户数据,从而更加了解和更准确预测客户的需要,改善客户服务质量,不断改进与客户关系,提高客户满意度以及加强客户的忠诚度。文章介绍了一个实用的酒店管理信息系统的设计和实现方法,针对目前传统酒店管理信息系统中存在的缺陷,重点论述了如何把CRM理念引入该管理信息系统中。实践证明,该系统具有良好的性能和较强的适用性。     

浅论服务业营销的顾客关系管理

随着服务业在国民经济中的比重加大,服务业营销也理当引起企业管理者的重视。服务业营销不同于产品营销,其顾客在营销中的地位也与一般商品营销不同。通过对顾客关系进行有效管理,乃至把顾客作为服务企业的核心资产进行管理,提高顾客的满意度和忠诚度,使顾客资产价值实现保值、增值,成为服务企业的竞争优势。     

质量——企业利润之源

企业要生存就要不断创造利润,顾客是企业利润的提供者。本文从质量的含义、质量——市场竞争的焦点、质量——突破国际贸易技术壁垒的利器等方面论述了质量对于利润的重要性,从战略的层面、营销的层面、设计的层面、采购的层面、生产的层面和顾客服务的层面探讨了企业通过质量来获取利润的有效途径。     

Outsourcing customer support: The role of provider customer focus

An increasing number of firms are outsourcing customer support to external service providers. This creates a triadic setting in which an outsourcing provider serves end customers on behalf of its clients. While outsourcing presents an opportunity to serve customers, service providers differ in their motivation and ability to fulfill customer needs. Prior research suggests that firms with a strong customer focus have an intrinsic motivation to address customer needs. We suggest that in an outsourcing context, this intrinsic motivation does not suffice. Using a Motivation–Opportunity–Ability framework, we posit that the effect of a provider's customer focus will be moderated by a set of relational, firm, and customer characteristics that affect its ability to serve end customers. We test our conceptualization among 171 outsourcing clients from the Netherlands and then validate these results among 135 Indian outsourcing providers. The findings reveal that customer-focused providers achieve higher levels of customer need fulfillment but this effect is contingent on their ability to serve end customers. In particular, customer-focused providers more effectively fulfill customer needs when clients and providers share close relational ties, when clients also have a high level of customer focus, and when end customer needs exhibit a low degree of turbulence. In addition, we find that, in turbulent markets, equipment-related services offer greater opportunity for effective customer need fulfillment than other outsourced services.     

CRM在酒店管理系统中的设计与应用

客户关系管理(CRM)是一种新的管理理念,在企业的具体实践中引入这一理念有利于企业去管理并分析宝贵的客户数据,从而更加了解和更准确预测客户的需要,改善客户服务质量,不断改进与客户关系,提高客户满意度以及加强客户的忠诚度。文章介绍了一个实用的酒店管理信息系统的设计和实现方法,针对目前传统酒店管理信息系统中存在的缺陷,重点论述了如何把CRM理念引入该管理信息系统中。实践证明,该系统具有良好的性能和较强的适用性。     

Learning by customers as co-producers in financial services: An empirical study of the effects of learning channels and customer characteristics

As customers become more involved in executing service tasks, service performance is increasingly reliant on the efficiency and effectiveness of this customer co-production. While organizational and employee learning have been extensively studied, learning by customers in their role as co-producers is largely unexplored. To explore how customers learn to be better co-producers, we examine whether learning channels and customer characteristics impact the customer learning rate. Using longitudinal panel data consisting of 954 customers who adopted and used a bank??s online banking product over a 12-month period, we find that service delivery channels can have dual effects on customer learning, acting as learning channels to accelerate customer learning and/or impeding learning through channel substitution. In addition, customers?? experiences working on related technology-mediated tasks and absorptive capacity increase their learning rate. Overall, our results suggest that customer learning can be designed into the service delivery system by encouraging the use of channels with complementary learning effects and discouraging channel substitution.     

The impact of using kiosk on enterprise systems in service industry

The hospitality industry services many types of travellers. Each of them needs to be analysed differently in order to accurately determine their respective service quality attributes and customer delight. The effective and efficient enterprise information systems (EISs) play a significant role in traveller’s experience and in the competitive advantages that hotels can gain. For this study, self-service kiosks and guest service agents as part of hotel’s EISs are used to investigate the impact each has on the experience of business and leisure travellers. This study provides empirical results that further investigate how to improve the service quality for both types of travellers during the registration process. This process is the first physical interaction between the travellers and the hotel. Any problem in registering would generate a long-lasting negative first impression on the travellers, thus diminishing the customer delight. In the light of our findings, this study will contribute to the effective and efficient design of self-service kiosk systems, hotel’s EISs, and improved front office management to better accommodate the specific needs of both types of travellers.     

The service climate‐firm performance chain: The role of customer retention

This study examines the role of customer retention as a mediator in the service climate–firm performance chain. Using a predictive design that involves data collected from 1,500 automotive service stores from 12,518 employees and approximately 30,000 customers, a model linking service climate (a concern for employees and customers), customer satisfaction, customer retention, and firm performance was tested. Notably, the results support the overall model and the hypothesized mediating effect of customer retention regarding the relationship between customer satisfaction and firm performance. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Age as double‐edged sword among victims of customer mistreatment: A self‐esteem threat perspective

Service workers are expected to maintain high‐quality service delivery despite customer mistreatment—the poor‐quality treatment of service workers by customers—which can be demeaning and threatening to self‐esteem. Although service work is increasingly delivered by middle‐aged and older workers, very little is known about how employees across the age range navigate abuse from customers on the job. Does advancing age help or hinder service performance in reaction to customer mistreatment? Drawing on strength and vulnerability integration theory, we proposed that age paradoxically both helps and hinders performance after customer mistreatment, albeit at different stages. We tested our proposed model in a two‐sample field investigation of service workers and their supervisors using a time‐lagged, dyadic design. Results showed that age heightens the experience of self‐esteem threat but, nevertheless, dampens reactions to self‐esteem threat, leading to divergent effects on performance at different stages. Implications for age and service work, as well as aging and the sense of self, are discussed.     

The impact of supply-side electronic integration on customer service performance

Although information technologies have been expected to directly enhance firm performance in specific value chain activities (e.g., supplier performance or customer service performance), their advanced capabilities offer the promise of organizational integration and spill-over benefits. Enterprise systems provide firms with platforms for electronically integrating their supplier and demand chain activities. Spill-over benefits refer to the impacts that occur when IT investments in one organizational domain benefit performance in a different value chain side of the firm. Supply-side electronic integration (SEI) refers to the use of electronic means to integrate the exchange of information and transactions with suppliers through enterprise systems. In our research, we examine whether SEI generates spill-over effects on customer service performance, over and beyond firms’ direct investments in customer-side digitization. We also examine whether structural attributes of the firm (e.g., vertical integration, diversification, and centralization) moderate the effects of supply-side electronic integration on customer service performance. Our analysis of a secondary dataset of InformationWeek 500 firms shows that SEI helps firms realize cost-savings in their customer service performance, especially if they are less vertically integrated. In addition, SEI investments help diversified and centralized firms achieve cross-selling with their customers. We also find that SEI is more likely to help decentralized and diversified firms achieve customization in their customer service activities. These results suggest that SEI helps firms achieve twin goals in customer service: cost reduction and revenue expansion. Overall, our research reveals how supply-side electronic integration could generate benefits in customer service performance in firms.     

Customers cocreating value with the firm: implications for IHRM

The purpose of this article is to develop a theoretical framework for governing an organization's relationships with customers engaged as contributors to the organization's business processes (i.e. customers as quasi-employees). Based on our suggested framework, we explain how appropriate customer-centric HRM practices can support more cost-effective and accommodating adaptations in the organization's governance of its relationships with customers. We complement these propositions with practical examples illustrating how customers who take different cooperative roles will increasingly become valuable organizational assets. The collaborating customers not only provide the information necessary for the successful performance of the service exchange, but also contribute human and social capital in performing tasks that are a complement to or a substitute for employee tasks. In conclusion, we outline implications for international human resource management (IHRM), as well as future research directions for examining the relationships among customer governance, role configurations, and IHRM practices.     

基于客户价值和感知服务质量的电力客户分级服务模式

传统的电力客户分类偏重于客户的社会价值,忽视了其经济价值,不利于客户满意度和供电企业社会及经济效益的提升。本文提出基于客户价值的电力客户分类方法,将客户用电贡献、客户用电规范性、客户合作等三个维度作为分类标准,以此全面衡量客户价值。针对现有电力客户服务中的不足,借鉴顾客服务感知质量理论,从可靠性、响应性、保证性、移情性和有形性等五个方面构建了电力客户服务策略组合,并提出了针对不同级别客户的差异化服务策略。     

Exploring the impact of deregulation on HRM: the case of the Norwegian energy sector

The traditional HRM system has been job-based and has reflected a bureaucratic model of organizing work. Such job-based personnel management systems have shown a tendency to break down under deregulation and exposure to competitive market situations. The study reported here suggests that, after the deregulation of the Norwegian energy sector, the industry was forced to change its primary focus from engineering and technical problems to a critical concern for customers, service, operational costs and productivity. In addition, due to increased work interdependence, numerous centralized operational units have developed in the companies. The relevance of operational knowledge was found to increase, together with the establishment of work groups. This also created a shift from a job-related performance management system to a more person-related system. Organization-specific competence was emphasized as well as increased attention to customer interface issues. Market orientation was reflected in the need to introduce pay-for-performance systems. These changes in HRM systems developed on an ad hoc basis. Due to lack of relevant knowledge on the changes occurring and clear management direction HRM adaptation was, however, slow. Implications are highlighted.     

情感营销对顾客感知服务质量的影响研究

情感需求是消费者购买产品和服务时非常关注的一类需求,企业应在营销过程中利用情感要素增强营销效果。情感营销是企业从情感角度来满足顾客的需求,提高顾客感知服务质量。酒店分析情感营销对顾客感知服务质量的各个维度的影响,能为提升酒店服务质量提供有效情感营销策略。