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A Project on CRM and Call Center

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nishakpillai

The document is an introduction chapter of an MBA dissertation that explores customer relationship management (CRM) implementation within a call center environment and its impact on employee well-being. It provides an overview of the research topic, objectives, and framework. Specifically, it introduces the focus on CRM usage at Sutherland Global Services call centers in India and the UK. It outlines that the research will examine how CRM systems affect call center employee welfare through quantitative and qualitative primary research, with a case study analysis of Sutherland. The introduction concludes by previewing the contents of each subsequent chapter that will present the literature review, methodology, case study findings and analysis,

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1 London School of Commerce An Exploration into the concept of customer relationship management and its implementation within a call centre in India as well as relating it to the factors that affects the well being of the employees working in a call centre environment : A Case Study of Sutherland Global Services (India) MBA Dissertation Submitted By: ANJU SKARIAH Student ID: Professor: Mr. Peter Bowyer Presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Business Administration [International Business] University of Wales Institute, Cardiff November 2010 MBA Dissertation Page 1
2 Abstract The core aim of this study which the author lays down is looking into the concept of Customer Relationship Management [CRM] and its implementation within a call centre environment. The call centre that the author has focused upon is Sutherland Global Services which is actually based in India as the author has contacts in the Indian call centre. The study throws light upon how the implementation of customer relationship management affects the employees working in a call centre, whether it makes things better for the employees or not. The author throws enough light upon the factors relating to the well being of call centre employees. Call centre’s everywhere is blooming like an international business and making huge profits and this fact is published and known to one and all. So the author through this study brings out the factors which affect the employee well being. The technology related to the CRM implementation is also discussed. The reader will be able to understand thoroughly the concepts of customer relationship management and the concept of call centre environment in detail as the author has conducted a detailed study into both concepts and they are both presented under separate headings falling under the literature review chapter. The author conducts interpretative study by making use of the qualitative and quantitative research approaches and adopts the research strategy of case study analysis which throws light on the company Sutherland Global Services and what the company deals with, its customers and core values will be highlighted. The reader will gain in depth knowledge about the concepts of customer relationship management and the issues relating to the working conditions of the call centre environment as well as how the vibrant call centre environment works under pressure is highlighted. MBA Dissertation Page 2
3 Acknowledgements As I reach the end of this study there are many people I need to thank without leaving out anyone. As the saying goes gratitude is a duty and it must be paid in full so first of all I must thank God Almighty who gave me enough strength to concentrate fully on this study in spite of facing many problems in the course of the study. I am truly indebted to his love and kindness which provided me with immense strength and support in many ways and forms. I extend my sincere thanks to my professor Mr. Peter Bowyer who was my supervisor during the course of my dissertation and has been a great guide and immense support during the entire study. His sincere interest in my subject of study will be appreciated always. Next I thank the University of Wales and London School of Commerce for providing me with resources for the dissertation and all other educational facilities which was a great help indeed. I am grateful to three most important supporting pillars of my life that is my parents Mr. Daniel Skariah and Mrs. Aleyamma Skariah and my sweet sister Miss. Ancy Skariah for providing me immense support and love which gave me the strength to move forward and get my work done with high dedication and interest. I will love you always now and forever. A special thanks to my sister again for comforting me when I was extremely stressed. I am thankful to all my friends who guided me and a special thanks to my friends Nisha K. Pillai and Jyoti Singh who helped me fill the questionnaire by contacting the agents and management team working at Sutherland Global Service. And finally, a special thanks to all the respondents who found time out of their busy schedule to fill my questionnaire. Once again a special thanks to everyone who helped me complete this dissertation and apologies if I have left out anyone. MBA Dissertation Page 3
4 Table of Contents Title Page................................................................................................................ Signed Statement.................................................................................................. Abstract................................................................................................................... Acknowledgements.............................................................................................. Chapter One: Introduction................................................................ 1] Aim of Chapter....................................................................................................... 2] Research and Importance of background................................................................ 3] Company Overview................................................................................................. 4] Dissertation Framework........................................................................................... 6] Objectives of Dissertation........................................................................................ 7] Rationale behind choosing the topic........................................................................ 8] Limitations............................................................................................................... Chapter Two: Literature Review........................................................ Part A: Customer Relationship Management [CRM] 1] Aim of Chapter......................................................................................................... 2] Definition and outline of Customer Relationship Management [CRM]................... 3] The Customer and the Customer Life Cycle............................................................ 4] Evolution of CRM.................................................................................................... 5] Technology............................................................................................................... 6] e- CRM..................................................................................................................... 7] An update on CRM implementation till date........................................................... Chapter Three: Literature Review....................................................... Part B: The Call Centre Environment 1] Aim of Chapter.......................................................................................................... 2] Culture in Call Centre................................................................................................ 3] The Vibrant Call Centre Environment....................................................................... 4] Stress Factors in Call Centre.............. ....................................................................... 5] CRM Systems in Call Centre..................................................................................... 6] Performance Monitoring............................................................................................. 7] Conclusion of chapter two and three.......................................................................... MBA Dissertation Page 4
5 Chapter Four: Research Methodology................................................... 1] Aim of Chapter............................................................................................................. 2] Secondary Research Method........................................................................................ 3] Primary Research Method........................................................................................... 4] Quantitative Research Method..................................................................................... 5] Questionnaire................................................................................................................ 6] Qualitative Research Method....................................................................................... 7] Interview...................................................................................................................... 8] Case Study................................................................................................................... 9] Conclusion.................................................................................................................... Chapter Five: Case Study- Sutherland Global Services......................... 1] Aim of Chapter.............................................................................................................. 2] Company Profile............................................................................................................ 3] Company Core Values................................................................................................... 4] Customer Support Tools................................................................................................ 5] Technology Used.......................................................................................................... 6] Conclusion..................................................................................................................... Chapter Six: Findings and Analysis........................................................ 1] Aim of Chapter.............................................................................................................. 2] Analysis of Questionnaire.............................................................................................. a) Maintenance of Customer Service.............................................................................. b) Feedback and Performance Monitoring..................................................................... c) Implementation of CRM............................................................................................. d) Stress Levels............................................................................................................... e) Training provided....................................................................................................... f) Relationship between team leader and employees...................................................... g) Call handling and script.............................................................................................. h) Employee well being.................................................................................................. 3] Analysis of Interview..................................................................................................... a) CRM Implementation.................................................................................................. b) Employee issues focused............................................................................................. 4] Conclusion...................................................................................................................... Chapter Seven: Conclusion and Recommendations................................. 1] Aim of Chapter................................................................................................................ 2] Evaluation and Conclusion of Analysis............................................................................ MBA Dissertation Page 5
6 3] Limitations met................................................................................................................ 3] Recommendations for future study............................................................................... Reflective Summary................................................................................. Chapter Eight: Bibliography.................................................................... List of figures used: Figure 1: An analysis of the customer focus framework....................................................... Figure 2: CRM framework focusing on employee loyalty, investor loyalty and customer loyalty...................................................................................................... Figure 3: A model representing implementation of CRM in an organisation by 4 Phases...................................................................................................................... Figure 4: Figure showing how the concept of customer relationship management works.... Figure 5: The figure shows how traditional customer relationship management used to work and how it looked like................................................................................... Figure 6: The figure shows how customer relationship management looks like in today’s time.............................................................................................................. Figure 7: Job related stress factors.......................................................................................... Appendix 1: Questionnaire................................................................................................. Appendix 2: Interview Questions for Management............................................................ Appendix 3: Tables presenting the results got from the responses of agents of Sutherland Call Centre.................................................................................. MBA Dissertation Page 6
7 Chapter 1: Introduction 1] Aim of Chapter  The topic here is focus for this dissertation is on how customer relationship management is put into use within the Business Process Outsourcing Industry focusing on a Company named Sutherland Global Services in the UK. The research poses a challenge to the call centre image and also places a focus on the implementation of CRM systems and also to know and see how the CRM systems can be put to use in support of the relationships specifically of customer. As we go along we can see that the chapter will portray an overall picture of the objectives and goal of this thesis. The entire concept of research is being discussed and highlighted and any limitations that the author has met with are also mentioned. 2] Importance of background  There is an exceptional rate of growth in the call centers, but the fact is that very little is known about the employee welfare and well being and the customer satisfaction. As such you will see that my research will look at the factors that will affect the well being of agents who work in such environment of call centre. The analysis of research will involve the organisation structure and its approach to the various issues relating to the staff such as recruitment, morale, motivation MBA Dissertation Page 7
8 and well being, as being given prime importance for the customer relationship management systems to be implemented. The term Customer Relation Management [CRM] can be seen as a very crucial concept today mainly in call centre jobs where it is seen that customer is the primary focal point as like in any organisation be it making and maintaining a relation with the customers and as well as more important in maintaining such relation made for a longer period of time. Every firm one comes across has now its main focus on customer relationship management because as the saying goes, “Customer is King”. Customer relationship management is can be said to be as old as the hills in a sense as without customers the company does not run and so it has to be very well noted that it is indeed important to keep a strong connection with all customers every time so it will be easy to maintain every relation in the long run. If we take a look at the old days we can see that customer relationship management is definitely not interpreted as being merely a system or technology wherein the data of a customer goes into the system and out of the company, instead such transaction is usually seen as a way of life today. The fact is that each and every business needs customers to buy the products or make use of the services for a price else there is no need for a transaction/sale to take place and hence there would be no business. Since the saying goes that customer is king it is very important to maintain that relation no matter what. Today we are in the modern era, and so it is evident that the time and ways of conducting the operations of the business will also change. One needs to move with the time else we would stand nowhere in a market of tough competition. Now everything is computerised and with the time the use of technology has also increased massively and the same is the case of internet which one cannot do without as it would make life impossible. Customer relationship management [CRM] plays a very crucial role to every business or firm. Customer relationship management in today’s time can be termed as maintaining the old spirit of relations with customers even if it means one cannot be face to face with the customer to shake hands. Today being far away from one another, personal connection might turn out to be impossible to be kept but still the connection with each customer is maintained so that the customer stays. With the increase in technology, all transactions are done using the internet and the CRM systems. MBA Dissertation Page 8
9 The concepts that fall under the term Customer relationship management [CRM] include the following such as the marketing, sales, delivery of orders and lastly if any after-sales support and service. Employees who work directly with the customers use the software applications which is known as the front- office systems and at the same time those applications that is who will rarely or hardly be in touch is called the back office system. As such a good customer relationship management [CRM] system does help the supplier come to know exactly what is essential for customers and so it really helps to build up customer satisfaction as well as loyalty in terms of customers. 3] Company Overview  The Organisation that the author has chosen as focus of study is called “Sutherland Global Services” which is actually a company that falls under the business process outsourcing industry, looking into the needs of as well as providing solutions in various fields globally namely human resources, retail and e-retail, finance, banking and insurance, government and finally the firm also looks into health and safety matters as well. The services of the firm are tailored and set perfect in a manner to meet various need criteria of different firms. The firm also gives information or data in paper form to its various users as well as deals with online services giving importance to the fact that it is the internet era today. The research aims to provide a detailed explanation of the use of Customer Relationship Management [CRM] systems within a firm and also looks at the fact as to how the call centres and companies related in the same manner use a CRM system in the working environment today. The research will also case out the impacts the CRM system has had implemented in a call centre environment based on the case study of a major multi-national global organization named Sutherland. 4] Dissertation Framework  The researcher has mainly emphasised on term customer relationship management and has also MBA Dissertation Page 9
10 thrown light upon its implementation in a call centre as well as looking into the factors which will affect mostly the welfare of the employee’s is the major interest of this study. This topic was mainly chosen keeping in mind the researcher’s interest in the above said area and from experience of how the employees are treated and affected by such CRM systems being implemented, and as such the researcher was motivated to look into and explore these issues more into detail and form the basis of the study through analysis. This research should be able to portray a good picture of customer relationship management as well as also how this termed evolved over time and is what it is at present. The research will also show a picture of matters evolving around one-to-one relationships and how such evolvement joins hands through implementation of customer relationship management. Secondly, the researcher will look into the findings from quantitative and qualitative research and will be used as part of analysis. Questionnaire will be made and surveys with the Sutherland Global Services operators and management will be done and whatever data will be procured will be used for the analysis and it will help to display the value, concept and the relations of this research. Lastly, the research will be concluded with the analysis conducted making use of the findings collected will be concluded with the conclusion of the analysis achieved in the field of research. The findings, analysis and conclusion will reflect the use of the term customer relationship management [CRM] in a call centre environment and how employees are affected by the implementation of CRM systems, and lastly whether all the above points has a positive or negative impact on the employee welfare and their working conditions. This framework gives the idea of what each chapter will contain like a description into what contents will be included in the chapter which is as follows :- Chapters two and three is the literature review and is divided into two sections part A and part B. The second chapter is the literature review which consists of Section A which will throw light upon concept of customer relationship management in other words CRM. This section will look into the matters regarding Customer relationship management and relevant CRM strategies from MBA Dissertation Page 10
11 the view point of the firm. This section will also focus on the term customer which is most important aspect in CRM and any business and organisation. The following chapter will be seen starting with the review of the CRM concept and the definition and how CRM has evolved over time and how the use of modern technology combined with the use of internet has brought about a change in the way the firms implement the CRM systems now. The third chapter is also literature review but for the second section that is section B will be focusing on the call centre environment. This section will look into issues like how a call centre environment is like, the culture found in such an environment, the motivation level, stress level and factors, performance monitoring and so on. In other words the issues surrounding the employees who work within a call centre environment shall be put forth for discussion and how it will affect the employee well being When we proceed to the fourth chapter, we can see the research method of this thesis. This chapter will look into the approach/method that needs to be adopted for this study and the manner in which the research shall take place. The fifth chapter will look into the company side of story where the company Sutherland Global Services will be presented as the matter of discussion and case study. The chapter will start with an introduction of the company Sutherland and also state the present position of the firm. The chapter will throw light on the firm’s background, the personnel, the technology currently being used and the customers. The chapter will conclude by saying how the data or information available will form the basis of analysis and the forthcoming chapters. The sixth chapter focuses on the research got from the questionnaire supplied to employees working in a call centre environment and the interview analysis of management. Through the survey, the reader will be able to understand the fundamental factors of CRM and to what extend it affects the employees and management. The final chapter that is the seventh chapter reflects on the findings and the evaluation done. There will also be a mention about the limitation of the study as well as future recommendations MBA Dissertation Page 11
12 if needed at the end. This is the concluding chapter that will bring the research to an end based on the findings and evaluation. Based on the analysis, conclusions will be formed. 5] Aims of Dissertation  The main aim of this dissertation is to display the impacts of the CRM systems in the services industry and how they are made use of, and there will also be a discussion on the main ways a the implementation of customer relationship management [CRM] will affect the welfare or well being of the employees working in a call centre and also how such customer relationship management is looked into when it comes to dealing with the customers. The actual focus of my research is to analyse the basic and main issues that connects to the customer relationship management [CRM] implementation and how management deal with the concept of CRM in the working environment, based on a case study within the business process outsourcing industry [BPO] The secondary focus of the research is to collect quantitative data for the research using the methods namely questionnaire as part of the case study research for this dissertation. 6] Objectives of Dissertation  The main objectives of the study are as follows:  To carry out research into the background of the topic of CRM and its evolution  To conduct a questionnaire survey with the frontline staff within the company and an interview with the management team in order to find out the CRM implementation and affected working role and to analyse the impacts of employee well-being in a call centre environment MBA Dissertation Page 12
13  To draw up an analysis on the findings, reflecting the use of CRM in call centres and how it affects employee well being as well as how it is could be used for the support and maintaining relationships with customers. The research will be solely focusing on a company based in a business process outsourcing industry. The researcher will also be taking a look at how CRM deals with the various customer needs as well as alongside maintains the customer relations for a long period of time. The researcher will conduct quantitative research method using the questionnaire technique as part of the study. 7] Rationale for the chosen topic  The rationale or concept for the researcher to chose this specific topic is mainly the researcher’s spark of interest which came out in the term Customer Relationship Management [CRM] as it is an important term today and is widely used as well as the researcher’s curiosity to look into the welfare of employees working in a call centre environment and what pressures they have to face within a call centre environment. It is a known fact that call centre’s are actually growing at an alarmingly fast pace like fire spreads but what is not a known fact is the employee problems and issues that is exactly the concept the researcher wants to know and hopes to conclude and find when the research ends along with the concept of how customer relationship management [CRM] helps to support such customer relations that is important for the very existence of firms or business. 8] Limitations met  The author has met with various limitations such as the following:- 1] Time frame being short 2] Distance problems created issues like not being able to conduct face-to-face interviews 3] Risk of not getting the responses in time to the questionnaire sent out MBA Dissertation Page 13
14 4] Computer problems like word document getting corrupted and had to find an alternative Chapter 2: Literature Review Part A: Customer Relationship Management [CRM] 1] Aim of the Chapter  The main aim of this chapter is by looking from an organisational perspective, what issues has to be considered relating to concept of CRM. The chapter includes a detailed discussion of CRM and how the usage of technology and internet has paved way for revolution in the manner companies incorporate and implement the CRM system. 2] Definition and outline of Customer Relationship Management  Customer Relationship Management [CRM] cannot be treated as a single application that solves all the customer related problems in a company. CRM can rather be termed as a “state of mind” in a company which also involves three most important functional areas namely sales, marketing and customer service. Customer relationship management can be defined as: CRM is a business strategy to select and manage customers to optimise long term value. CRM requires a customer – centric business philosophy and culture to support effective marketing, sales and service process. [Nils Merkel, MBA Dissertation Page 14
15 2010] “CRM, a well defined business strategy, is a fusion of a series of functions, skills, processes and technologies which together allow companies to more profitably manage (acquire and retain) customers as tangible assets. CRM is a discipline as well as a set of discrete software’s and technologies with a focus on automation and on improving the business process associated with managing customer relationship in areas of sales, marketing, customer service and support.” [Shanmugasundaram (ed.), Shanmugasundaram S., 2008] Customer relationship management can also be termed as customer management or as relationship marketing. This concept is an information technology term that is used for methods, strategies, objectives, software and other web related techniques to help the company to organise, maintain and manage its relations with customers for a long term. CRM aims at understanding each and every customer value in a better manner as well as aims at improving the communication effectiveness. CRM acquires data, knowledge and information from customers, analyses the data and then distributes it to all the employees of the company. Such distribution helps in understanding customers needs and as such the product and service needs can be met at the right time. [MIS Bridge, May 27, 2008] MBA Dissertation Page 15
16 Source: MIS Bridge [May 27, 2008] Figure 1: An analysis of the customer focus framework To successfully implement a CRM system, it should be known to the management that the implementation will affect each and every section of the organisation and therefore in order to gain positive results, important changes will take place and so the implementation must be supported by the management from the very start. [Nils Merkel, 2010] Customer Relationship Management [CRM] is a business strategy that is company - wide based and is designed aiming to reduce the costs and increase the profitability by improving upon loyalty, advocacy and customer satisfaction. CRM works in a manner of bringing together information/data from all sources within a company and if needed also from outside the company to give a proper view of each customer. The major three key elements for a successful customer relationship management are process, people and technology. Each and every member of the company starting from the CEO to every customer service representative has to buy in to and provide support to the concept of CRM. MBA Dissertation Page 16
17 The CRM structure has to be supported by various issues like the company has to select the right technology in order to drive the process, companies must be able to provide the best information/data to its employees and should also be easy to operate so the users will not back off. If any of the above points are not sound enough, the CRM structure is prone to fall down. [Michael Gentle, 2002] In order that CRM to be successful and effective it has to face certain challenges such as convincing its staff that the concept of change is good and CRM is bound to benefit them. Then the business processes need to be analysed and reengineered. The next challenge is to make out what customer data is relevant and how to make use of it. Lastly, a team of selected people should choose the right and best technology to conduct the process of automation. CRM can be termed as a valid business concept with huge benefits directed at both the company as well as its customers. If we look at CRM, we need to start from the basics i.e. the customer life cycle. Outline of CRM  According to Michael Gentle (2002), “CRM = retention + profitability growth. It is an effective process that favours customer retention and increased profitability.” Customer Relationship Management [CRM] is progressively more seen at the top of organisation agendas. Companies are embracing CRM as a major constitute of business strategy. MBA Dissertation Page 17
18 Source: CRM Today [2001-2008] Figure 2: CRM framework focusing on employee loyalty, investor loyalty and customer loyalty The figure above shows that when there is employee and investor loyalty it will automatically lead to them providing quality services to their customers. When the customer availing these services becomes satisfied, the customer becomes loyal to the company and stays with the company for a long period of time which is called lifetime value and thus it gives rise to profit and growth. Customer Relationship Management can be termed as a continuous relationship between three main concepts namely- suppliers, customers and services. As such we can claim that the customer is someone who has paid for the products and services which means they have actually already gone through the process of sales and are now making use of their purchase. Therefore, it can be said that customer relationship management is not only about attracting a prospect customer. There is still a lot more that adds to the concept. According to Bryan Bergeron (2002), “CRM is the dynamic process of managing a customer-company relationship such that customers elect to continue mutually beneficial commercial exchanges and are dissuaded from participating in exchanges that are unprofitable to the company.” MBA Dissertation Page 18
19 Source: Customer Dynamics (2010) Figure 3: A model representing implementation of CRM in an organisation by 4 phases CRM can be said as a technology that lays down the steps to achieve results on a consistent basis. It should be noted that the customer relationship management process is dynamic which means it can change or is unpredictable as in the assumption and actions can/may change due to environmental fluctuations or a change in the relationship between the company and the customer. In other words, CRM also includes constant attention to the customer and company relationship. CRM is not same as Sales Relationship Management and should not be confused with the sales process. Suppose a particular customer ends up being a drain in the company, the blame is not of the sales department instead, it is of the customer service not being provided properly. “The customer is ultimately in control of the relationship. The customer can chose to continue the relationship or walk away. In this regard, the definition also implies that the company is doing most of the work of maintaining a mutually beneficial relationship. In this situation, the customer may contribute only a medium of effort in maintaining the relationship, such as taking the time to order a widget from the company instead of placing the order with a competitor.” [Bryan Bergeron, 2002] MBA Dissertation Page 19
20 Customer Relationship Management [CRM] looks at balancing between two groups. The first group aims at attracting a huge group of profitable customers [which go along the mission of the company when suppose the company gets involved in market share] For example, companies like Chevrolet, Dell Computers and Dockers belong to this category. Now the second group aims at attracting the smallest group of customers especially when the company aims at profit maximisation. For example, companies like Porsche, Armani and Apple Computers fall under this category. CRM can also be looked as a concept to retain the loyal and other customers who would otherwise go to the competitors. “The goal is to foster the right kind of repeat customers.” [Bryan Bergeron, 2002] As earlier discussed, the dynamics of CRM changes when then customer-company relationship no longer stands profitable. In such situations, the customer can decide to walk out at any time but still even then, the company would not invest much in maintaining such relationships again. For example, such an unprofitable customer may be on hold for long and at the end would be told by the employee/ agent that nothing can be done to solve the customer’s problem. Before the management implements CRM in the organisation, it is important that they understand the value of CRM. The senior management should look into the prospects of implementing the CRM concept and system n the company. “Although customer-focused approaches to business are now in vogue, there is a danger in not looking inward from time to time. The corporate culture, including employee satisfaction, ultimately affects how customers are perceived and treated. CRM recognises the role of technology, the importance of self-knowledge, the finite nature of customer-company relationships and the need for consistency in quality of service. Effective CRM is also based on a process as opposed to as ad hoc approach, which includes managing customer explanations” [Bryan Bergeron, 2002] MBA Dissertation Page 20
21 The concept of CRM includes the following aspects:- a) Measurements of inputs such as marketing, service costs and sales as well as outputs such as customer income, profit and value. b) Continuous update of data, information and knowledge and retrieval of data about customers needs and problems and about motivation c) It includes applying this knowledge and information of customers to improve the performance through the learning process. d) Then is the process of integrating all of the above points for the achievement of a common goal. e) Lastly, implementation of systems for the support of this knowledge and also to measure CRM effectively. [Robert Shaw, David Reed, 1999] Source: ZOHO Corp, 2010 Figure 4: Figure showing how the concept of customer relationship management works. 3] The Customer and the Customer Life Cycle  MBA Dissertation Page 21
22 According to Sheila Mello (2003), “The customer drives the definition of the product. The organization must adapt its structures, roles and internal activities to the dynamic requirements of the customer.” The customer is the most important in any organization or business as without the customer, there is no business at all. A business runs when it gets customers to buy its products and render its services. Customer is king being the main focus; we can therefore understand that the main focus point of the concept of customer relationship management is customer. The organization collects information, data about the customer and from this available data, the company forms an idea or model which portrays the customer behavior. By this model made, the company can control the interactions of the customer with the employees and the company as well as the customer expectations can be managed. Let us throw a bit of light on the concept of customer expectation. For instance, if put ourselves in the customer’s shoes, what we expect from the company product and service, we would like quality products, quality or first class service, timely after sales service, reliable products and money value. These are the main things which we as a customer might reasonably expect from any company. With the increased use of web, customers are becoming more internet savvy and they expect more value for the money that they spend. When we look at a customer, we need to study the concept of loyalty which can also be termed as loyalty effect. This concept through a practical perspective is very difficult to predict among all the customers the company has, within which we cannot make out which customer is loyal and which not. Loyalty can be equalised to concepts like love and loathing which in reality are difficult or rather impossible to quantify. The only thing that is quantifiable is customer behavior. “The definition of customer loyalty would mean that someone who is willing to pay a premium for Brand A over Brand B, even when the products they represent are virtually equivalent, is loyal to Brand A.” [Don Peppers, Martha Rogers, 2004] “The behavioral definition of loyalty would mean that someone is willing to pay a premium for Brand A over Brand B, even without respect to the attitudes or preferences that underlie that MBA Dissertation Page 22
23 conduct.” [Don Peppers, Martha Rogers, 2004] The positive factors that contribute to customer loyalty or the loyalty effect are value, lack of alternatives, investment and emotional bond. On the contrary, the negative factors are frustration and available alternatives. Let us look at the factors one by one which are as follows:- A] Positive factors   Value: - Every customer expects value for money and so the greater the value, greater will be the loyalty effect  Lack of alternatives: - If a product or service is readily available, then it is more than likely that the customer will continue purchasing from the same company and not go elsewhere searching.  Investment: - The more time and money invested in a relationship [in this case of the customer relationship], more will be the customer loyalty. Such relationship will go a long way.  Emotional bond: - An emotional bond rather a personal bond with the employee or agent is a very important factor that leads to creating a loyal customer. B] Negative factors   Frustration: - Here it refers to customer frustration. This is one main cause to end an ideal customer-company relationship. It is evident that if a customer is put on hold for very long, if the customer has to keep pushing many buttons on the menu just to speak to an agent but in the end gets no result then obviously the customer will get frustrated and the relationship might get ended then and there itself.  Available alternatives: - If there are more and more available and at the same time affordable alternatives, this case would automatically reduce customer loyalty as the customer then seeks new products and services of the competitors. “The Customer Life Cycle is a means of defining and communicating the way in which a company interacts with its customers and prospects, i.e. they acquire, retain and enhance MBA Dissertation Page 23
24 continuum. The success of any company requires nurturing of this cycle and the sales department sets smack in the middle of the customer life cycle.” [Janice Reynolds, 2002] A company deals with a particular customer through three stages in the life cycle namely, sales, delivery and after sales. a] Sales - this stage involves identifying and targeting the potential customer to make the contact, to commit to buy. b] Delivery - this stage involves the delivery of the product or service by means of activating, installing or implementing. c] After sales - this stage is also known as service management and it involves all those activities that take place after the sales stage, which means billing, customer service, complaints and enquiries. As such we can summarise and say that, CRM is about delivering good customer service keeping customer in focus at all times. Such customer service must be responsive, excellent, reliable, truthful, personable and affordable. It is worth paying for a good CRM system if the customer is a loyal one, and if the company decides to hold on to that customer as they will bring business and profits for the company. 4] Evolution of CRM  In order to understand the concept of CRM fully, it is first of all necessary to understand the origin or evolution of the very concept as to where do this concept arise from. The earlier marketing concept is known as relationship marketing or traditional CRM. Previously, there was a concept named as conventional transactional marketing. When this concept showed lack of satisfaction, then emerged what was known as relationship marketing. In the year 1954, Peter Drucker said, “There is only one valid definition of business: to create customer. It is the customer who determines what the business is” [Geoff Lancaster, Paul Reynolds, 2002] Therefore, we can say that in one sense it is basically a marketing concept in principle but this concept is developed in such a manner that it can be applied to an operational setting and not just MBA Dissertation Page 24
25 be known as a concept and kept aside. The concept of customer relationship management has evolved from advances in information technology and changes in companies that have processes which is customer-centric. [Injazz J.Chen, Karen Popovich, 2003] Today, the entire concept of customer, customer care and CRM has evolved and changed and is developed over the past 20 years as it is the internet era now so we need to move with the time and make changes accordingly. Such change is necessary as customers change, their mentality, likes, dislikes and preferences change. Some see customer relationship management as a big time change in the philosophy of business. It is a concept that consolidates, integrates and incorporates the earlier management thinking such as internal marketing, traditional marketing, transactional marketing, relationship marketing and finally the total quality management. [Geoff Lancaster, Paul Reynolds, 2002] Source: Social CRM: Ready for action? [October 11th 2009] Figure 5: The figure shows how traditional customer relationship management used to work and how it looked like. MBA Dissertation Page 25
26 Source: Social CRM: Ready for action? [October 11th 2009] Figure 6: The figure shows how customer relationship management looks like in today’s time. 5] Technology  Customer relationship management can be termed as a technology, more specifically as a process that aims at creating repeatable, consistent and measurable results. The term technology is usually associated with equipments like computers and electronic equipment and as such CRM is connected to manual processes based on multiline or switched telephone systems. The process description for customer relationship management [CRM] is an organisation mainly a call centre and how the process works is as follows:-  The process starts with the customer calling the agent/employee in the call centre.  The agent makes sure verifies that the customer is eligible for customer service. This identification is done because sometimes those who call need not be customers or in some cases they may not be eligible for such support as they may not have registered their product or their support period might have expired.  The agent then logs the call. The term log means it serves as a basis to follow-up on the problem of the customer and as data required to evaluate the CRM implementation and its effectiveness. MBA Dissertation Page 26
27  The initial agent A transfers the call to the agent B who is better qualified in handling the problem using the combination of agent A’s understanding of the problem and agent B’s expertise and availability.  Agent B at this stage deals with the customer and clearly understands the problem.  Agent B researches on the problem.  Agent B then talks with other agents in the company like agent C, D and so on and tries to find a solution.  The problem is then documented and progress is checked and documented to see whether the problem has been resolved or yet something is left.  When solution is got, the problem is closed.  This is the final stage where evaluation regarding the effectiveness of the CRM effort is done by the CRM department manager or the administration department by using the problem documentation. The concept of online business or E-Commerce has become very popular. Such is the case of the use of computers and technology when it comes to cost savings and therefore it is not a surprise if CRM depends on computer or technology to save costs. The main aim of making the CRM process computerised is so that the employees would be protected from complexity and will also improve CRM effectiveness. The benefits of computerisation include the company better handling the customers, better handling more customers in a short time period, time saving for agents and for important customers. CRM Technologies and their uses [Bryan Bergeron, 2002]   Automated Call Distribution [ACD]: - This is an automatic answering and routing of calls keeping in mind the characteristics of the call and the number of customers in queue or on hold. The main aim of ACD is to keep the callers on hold for the least time so as to reduce agent’s idle time and also to reduce shifting of calls from one agent to another thereby saving time.  Back-End Integration: - Under this concept there happens t be a continuous transfer and MBA Dissertation Page 27
28 communication of data or customer information generated from various touch points like E-mail, phone, wireless, direct contact with caller through help of various computer systems. Therefore the back end normally includes software and hardware that can be found in the corporate computer centre.  Human Resource: - many human resource functions can be benefited by the use of technology or computers such as agent scheduling, qualification for incentives, training.  Interactive Voice Response [IVR]: -IVR is basically a telephone interface that is connected to a computer system that is run by using voice responses or telephone keypad entry. This system replaces telephone operations which are done by humans.  Help in localisation: - The use of correct language skills and etiquette for the caller is very important. Technology plays a very important role here by identifying the caller’s origin and thereby transferring the call to such an agent who has the appropriate language skills.  Monitoring: - this concept allows evaluation of individual agent performance and productivity. Recordings can be checked and evaluated for purposes of training as well as to settle complaints when a customer complaints about a particular agent.  Measurement: - computers and technology can help in measuring the performance. It can check how much time an agent takes with a customer, the number of caller hang-ups and so on.  Reporting: - Technology can help in generating inputs by using the customer data stored in the application.  Resolution: - Customers issues/problems and requests can be resolved by use of technology especially when the problems keep going on and on.  Training: - Agents in the call centre turn out to be the least trained out of the corporate employees mainly because of the expense and time that is required in the training process. But now thanks to the technology usage, teaching agents how to use the systems can be simplified using computer based training systems.  Workforce Management: - Many computer based tools and techniques are used to help the measurement to allocate the agent time effectively. It can also help to reduce callers waiting time and also helps in forecasting and scheduling the activities of the call centre. MBA Dissertation Page 28
29 CRM technologies can further be divided into four categories namely: - 1] Computer Software  For example - analysis, call centre management, customer loyalty programs, data collection, database management systems, security, mobile computing solutions, information protection. 2] Telecommunication  For example – call centre equipment, wireless systems, messaging, telephony networks, paging services. 3] Computer Hardware  For example – data backup system, monitors, PC’s, peripherals, wireless devices. 4] Process and professional services  For example – consulting, field support services, training/education, and software design, online resources, call centre services, process re- engineering A difficult line must be drawn between two main innovative technologies namely:-  The cutting edge technology which is in limited use in business  The bleeding edge technology which is apparently still in theory for example human augmentation. According to Gartner’s Hype Cycle description, “human augmentation focuses on creating cognitive and physical improvements as an integral part of the human body. For example, active control systems to create limb prosthetics possessing characteristics that exceed the highest natural human performance. [Christopher Musico, 2010] According to Jackie Fenn, “you can tap into how to bring improvement in decision making and memory, bringing us one step closer to being real-time and seamlessly integrated with our brains. This is about bringing those capabilities closer so they’re with you all the time at your point of need initially in some wearable format, but potentially closer and implantable ways” MBA Dissertation Page 29
30 [Christopher Musico, 2010] Using technology, one application could be to figure out the face one has just seen, tap into that memory and have a facial recognition. This is called memory capabilities and this application can be of importance to the employee/agents who work in a call centre or field sales representatives who are in constant and regular touch with the customers meeting and greeting them. 6] e-CRM  According to Bryan Bergeron (2002), “e-CRM is customer relationship management on the web, however, e-CRM also includes the use of email, e-commerce activity and any other internet- based customer touch points.” “The definition of the ‘e’ in the e-CRM does not limit the data collection and processing to the internet. By definition, any electronic contact with a customer through which data can be gathered for further analysis can be considered a form of e-CRM.” [Jery Fjermestad, Nicholas C. Romano, 2006] Today the web space had become less distinguishable from other areas such that e-CRM blends in with the company of CRM. Today the main issue is that e-CRM and CRM are seen as different methods by firms struggling to compete for the web space. Various characteristics such as self-documentation, popularity and flexibility make e-CRM ideally a suitable partner for CRM. Customers having expectations of an inflated nature is the issue today and it is regarding issues with web. The issue is what the web touch point can deliver to its customers. Customers nowadays expect greater money value in transactions done through the internet. It is very difficult to keep pace with the changing times as in the case of creativity and the change in the internet/web space, but still the web has been able to extend its reach of the customer relationship management concept to anyone around the world connected to the internet using systems like dial-up modem, wireless modem and high-speed direct connection. The plus point is that this was highly successful. Now with the excellent combination of the internet and CRM, MBA Dissertation Page 30
31 many industries are turning their focus on the internet for delivering services connected to CRM implementation. For example, “the major airlines and most travel agencies generate Web-based itineraries, including local weather, car rental rates and availability, and other travel-related information. For business travellers, the web represents an omnipresent reference to flight data; hotel information, weather and travel help in general.” [Bryan Bergeron, 2002] If one looks from the technical point of view, it is a fact that e-CRM has huge potentials of creating information/data than any other touch point. The web can be more appropriately used for products and services which are connected to the computer. If one looks from the business point of view, e-CRM in CRM is associated with challenges of various types such as costs incurred for additional computer parts, software and hardware. If one looks from the corporate culture point of view, with the implementation of e-CRM along with CRM poses challenges within the company such as training of employees and employee motivation. 7] An Update on CRM implementation till date  The researcher has looked through resources and found the some data that relate to the concept of customer relationship management and its scope till date. The data found are as follows [Joshua Weinberger, July 2010]: -  CRM Software – Annual Sales In the year 1997 $762 million In the year 2001$14 million Source: AMR Research [now a unit of Gartner]  CRM implementation – percentage of companies In the year 2003 53% In the year 2010 75%  A mix of CRM systems and software’s in place [in percentage] MBA Dissertation Page 31
32 In the year 2003 85% on premises vs. 15% on SaaS In the year 2010 47% on premises vs. 53% on SaaS Source: Jim Dickie, managing partner CSO Insights Annual Sales Performance Optimisation Studies.  CRM implementation failure rate in percentage In the year 2001 50% In the year 2002 70% In the year 2005 18% In the year 2006 31% In the year 2007 56% In the tear 2009 47% Source: Michael Krigsman  Revenue on implementation of CRM In the year 2000 $0 In the year 2010 $1.3 billion Source: Company Filings [Joshua Weinberger, July 2010] “Balls, Pool, billiards, snooker-no matter what game you’re playing, there’s an undeniable beauty in the chaos of brightly colour ceramics spheres suddenly set in motion. The geometry may be convoluted, with collisions and caroms reorienting direction and destination, but the goal of the players-clearing the table, partly or in full- is fairly clear. Intricate in its implementation and elegant in its ideal, CRM can be said to share many of the same traits.” [Joshua Weinberger, July 2010] As customer relationship management being a maturing market, it does have a benefit of owning its own history to look back upon and study from its mistakes and move forward in the path of success. CRM also has a track record to compare itself against as well as it has recommended practices set down by many that will help CRM to change its scale to the success point in future. [Joshua Weinberger, July 2010] MBA Dissertation Page 32
33 Chapter Three: Literature Review Part B: The Call Centre Environment 1] Aim of Chapter  This is part B of the literature review which focuses on the call centre environment. This chapter aims at introducing how such an environment works as the author’s aim is focusing upon the call centre environment and understanding it and at the same time throwing light upon the working conditions of employees which will be analysed through the questionnaire based on customer relationship management and working conditions of employees in a call centre. This chapter also looks through the view point of a customer as in how they perceive the services MBA Dissertation Page 33
34 offered by the call centre. The chapter also throws light upon the aim of this study connected to well being of employees. 2] Culture in call centre  “Well the idea of company culture, which first really became fashionable in the early eighties, could be seen as just another fad. Yet I believe that there’s more to it than just another scheme of management gurus and consultants like me to make a name for themselves. I believe the idea of culture tells us something about how people work together in groups in organisations. And I would suggest that an understanding of what culture is, where it comes from, and how it affects performance, is essential for any call centre manager who is serious about achieving success through their people.” [Kevin Hook, 1998] To understand the concept of a call centre let us take a look at few examples such as follows:- Example 1 – At a call centre at Brighton, an agent gets a call from a customer who was actually blind. Now this customer was going on a holiday and was in a panic state as she was alone and did not know how to complete packing for the journey. So the agent quickly jumped into her car and went to the customer’s house and helped with her packing. Now this is what the company termed as high level of dedication to work and customer service which was truly exceptional. Now by this example, it is understood that this is the culture of this call centre to go out of your way to help your customer. Example 2 – One of my friends happened to visit a call centre for training purpose. There was an assessment centre and it included five internal candidates and four external candidates. The assessment included a group discussion and the topic was how to motivate a team which was not achieving the set target. Now it happened that all the six internal candidates quickly got into a heated discussion debating that the possibility is that such target itself might be wrong. However the four external candidates were confused and kept thinking how can the target be wrong MBA Dissertation Page 34
35 because they believed that a target is a target not a wrong or right one and the aim of an agent should be to achieve it not challenge it. What we can learn from this is the culture of the call centre which made the six candidates to think in that manner. Example 3 - There was a team leader training in one call centre regarding management techniques of standard level. After a month when the person who did the training for the team leaders, briefed the team leaders working in that company, she found out that the manager of all these team leaders did not allow them to practise any of the new skills they had learned during the training session. When asked why this matter was not raised to the manager, the team leaders replied that “well that is not how it works here as it is not the culture”. These are the different cultures and their consequences. The definition of culture goes in this manner – “Culture is such an integral part of human existence that it becomes an invisible script that directs our personal lives. This invisible script can encapsulate and blind us to the factors that make us simultaneously unique from and similar to those from other cultures. Encapsulation can lead us to view the world as an extension of self. The definition of culture should include its functions in human survival, societal arrangements, and in human development that is intellectual, psychological, social and spiritual. Culture should reveal the interconnectedness of its identifiable aspects and describes its dynamic quality in responding to fundamental changes in life conditions and circumstances.” [Etta R. Hollins, 2008] Every call centre has a different culture depending on the company presented and the way they work and matters they deal in. Every call centre also has different processes. They have different customer service units or departments namely like billing customer service, technical customer service, product customer service and so on. They set up a process. Each department has to undergo training and the agents need to undergo training to know how to answer the questions in a proper manner, how to follow the script for each call. Basically in a call centre there are two types of call centres or processes namely inbound call centre and outbound call centre or process. Inbound call centre/process is the one where call is made by the customers whereas outbound call centres/process is one where the calls are made by the agent’s rather sales persons. Every MBA Dissertation Page 35
36 call centre has clients like for example, M&S, Vodafone. The call centres work for these companies and calls are made on their behalf to solve customer problems. Sometimes these call centres are so big that they cater to outsourcing. Small companies do not need to outsource. In a call centre step-by-step training is given to each employee and in each department “Do not make it if you can buy it, could be the simplest definition for outsourcing. However that is true only if you are sure that you would not lose a strategic skill or advantage by outsourcing. The things you should not outsource is called your core competency.” [Dennis Lock, 1998] “Outsourcing really means finding new supplies and new ways to secure the delivery of raw materials, goods, components and services [It means that you use the knowledge, experience and creativity of new supplies which you did not use previously” [ Fery de Kraker, Dennis Lock, 1998] Finally, culture in multinational call centres is a point to be discussed. There is always everywhere an existence of national culture differences as that is where the views from different people are got such as those of Italians, Germans, Nigerians, Japanese, Indian and so on. This point can be emphasised using an example. Research conducted by different researchers shows a vast difference between the culture of Britain and that of the Far Eastern cultures for example that of China where the concept of collectivism and/or individualism is presented. The culture of Britain is highly individualistic whereas culture of China favours collectivism. As such previous researchers have found that the British favour working on individual targets or aims and objectives whereas the Chinese favour team work to achieve the targets. Therefore, to conclude, if suppose both these groups of people happen to work under a single system, then one group will definitely suffer and that is when culture differences occur and leads to chaos. [Kevin Hook, 1998] 4] The vibrant call centre environment  “In most organisations, a call centre is a central place where service representatives, usually with MBA Dissertation Page 36
37 some amount of computer automation, handle customer and other telephone calls. A call centre might consist of one or two reps or hundreds of reps, depending on the support needed for a product or service, the amount of money allocated for customer support and other business parameters.” [Bryan Bergeron, 2002] Today, it is seen that the call centre customers prefer services provided to be better performed, the customers need better and easy ways to order the products and render services, they require timely responses to the problems and queries and prefer a better treatment in all ways. [Roger Hallowell, 1996] “To succeed in today’s inbound call centre, you must understand the new environment: More transactions, increasing complexity and heightened caller expectations. But to those who pay the price to learn the craft, call centre management offers almost limitless opportunities.” [Brad Cleveland & Julia Mayben , 1997] Incoming Calls Management Institute defines “Incoming call centre management is the art of having the right number of skilled people and supporting resources in place at the right times to handle an accurately forecasted workload, at service level and with quality.” [Brad Cleveland & Julia Mayben , 1997] It is in a call centre that three most important concepts are visible which are the customer, the employee/agent and the investor loyalty. Whichever department is being handled, call centre is the main joining point between the company in focus and its customers and so it is an important venue for loyalty. There is two main aspects namely satisfaction and dissatisfaction. If the customer is satisfied, they will keep buying and rendering the service. If they are dissatisfied, they will create an atmosphere of stress for the employee/agent and exit. If the employee/agent is satisfied, they will give excellent service and if they are dissatisfied, only bad service can be expected and eventually the agent will quit the job due to high level of stress that they cannot cope with. If the investor is satisfied, they will think of further investing in such systems that would improve the service provided and if they are not satisfied, they the investor will simply withdraw their money invested and leave the company. [CRM Today, 2001-2008] Michelle Curless, the director of the Customer Group LLC, a Chicago-based consulting firm that MBA Dissertation Page 37
38 specialises in customer interaction says, “A quiet call centre gis conducive to enabling employees to accomplish their jobs. In a quiet controlled environment where you have a cubicle, it is not perceived that there is a lot of chaos going on. That’s a very healthy environment. The chaos is going to be there on days you cannot predict. Although there is chaos behind the scenes, it tends to be managed better in a professional environment.” [David Myron, November 2002] Cary Peskin, associate commissioner and CIO of the NYC HPD says, “To make matters even more complicated nearly 90 percent of all calls coming into the contact center necessitate a follow-up call. Quality-of-life issues can be life threatening. Some examples might be callers saying, ‘I smell gas, I smell smoke, my fire escape is broken!” [David Myron, November 2002] In one unusually long call in a call centre which took 16 minutes and 48 seconds to complete, the usual time per call being 3-4 minutes; the customer went on with her long list of complaints about his landlord. The agent listened patiently and said to the caller/customer that the complaints is being registered and gave the customer a reference number saying someone from the company will be sent over in an hour to see what can be done. However, the agent later gets to know that this call was a false alarm. Cary Peskin says “It’s a very common problem” [David Myron, November 2002] Such are the types of calls in a call centre environment but whatever the situation is or whatever type of call comes, the agents/employees are expected to be calm and maintain professionalism as they face many such situations that are discouraging and stressful. This is the call centre environment in short. Professionalism enables positive attitude even during highly stressful periods. 5] Stress Factors in call centre  “Stress is often described as being associated with emotions such as anger, anxiety and depression, and there is evidence to suggest that it is also related to impoverished mental health.” [Akbar Hussain, Muhammad Ilyas Khan, 2006] MBA Dissertation Page 38
39 Call centre employees are often under high stress levels which have an excessive effect on their performance, morale and can lead to dissatisfaction, employee turnover rate increasing and so on. Such stress not only affects the health of employees but it also affects the performance of the employee which again has a direct effect on the customer service they provide. Source: Marion Vogt, Manfred Krenn [8/3/2005] Figure 7: Job related stress factors The various factors of stress that can be brought out when dealing with the call centre environment can include the following:- a) Attending simultaneous calls b) Typing in between calls as well as looking up data online c) Odd working hours d) Pressure faced by agents to sell products/services e) New technology f) Performance monitoring g) Mentality of customers can be highly frustrating MBA Dissertation Page 39
40 h) Customers can be highly demanding i) Poor management j) No proper equipment k) Back pains and headaches l) Poor facilities There are various other factors such as agents sitting in the same position same chair attending calls for 6-7 hours continuously can frustrate them to a great extend. It can also lead to vision problems caused by continuously looking into the computer screen. No proper food and water facilities can also cause stress. Some call centres do have facilities for relaxation such as beds, gym so that the employees can relax and rest in between. However, there is too much stresses in those call centres that do not provide such facilities. Call centre jobs also include travelling all the time and at odd hours as such pick-up and drop facilities is a must. However, this is a stress point where such facilities are not available or if such facilities are poor. Suppose the employee has his/her own transport facilities, then the company should provide travel allowance if not, again it is a factor for stress. 6] CRM systems in call centre “Knowing, understanding and predicting what your customers want and will want in the future is vital to the success of small to medium- sized enterprises. And CRM is the key.” [Roger Trapp, June 2007] By using the traditional method, businesses that are small had a better understanding of the customer wants, needs and preferences. This was the general thought of small businesses. Each and every business no matter which size is dependant highly on customer. The reason why small business are said to be much more understanding is because, being a corner shop, the seller can be much more straightforward in dealing with their customers. The seller can understand the customer better, their needs due to constant and daily face-to-face interaction. Such understanding and knowledge is what the big firms are trying to achieve and replicate by investing in customer relationship management [CRM]. The concept of CRM was bound with MBA Dissertation Page 40
41 the use of information technology for large organisations namely big supermarkets, banks and so on. According to the government supported advice network for small to medium sized enterprises [SMEs], “It is more of a business philosophy than a technical solution to assist in dealing with customers effectively and efficiently.” [Roger Trapp, June 2007] CRM cannot be said to be purely termed as technology, but it is also a fact that the concept of CRM cannot be introduced successfully without some form of technology in the firm. This is because, only with the help of technology can the concept of integration be implemented as in integrating the ways company uses to communicate with the customers such as through means of internet, telephone, fax and email. In the beginning stages of CRM, there was an absence of sophistication. That led to a situation where the companies that dealt with financial services were offered services with the existing suppliers. However, from that time till now things have changed markedly. It is visible that those firms that are making use of much more sophisticated technologies are enjoying better benefits than those firms which are still using the basic data collection techniques. One technology that has become rather popular is the business analytics applications. This application helps the company to check and analyse the past attitude of prospect customers to anticipate and make way for future trend. According to Thomas H Davenport and Jeanne G Harris, “Many companies in a variety of industries are enhancing their CRM and SCM [supply chain management] capabilities with predictive analytics and they are enjoying market leading growth and performance as a result” [Roger Trapp, June 2007] There is good news that CRM systems and technologies associated with its use are now readily available through the internet in the outsourced form. Though readily available, it would not be cheaper as compared to buying the technology off-the-shelf. The only benefit is quick buy and avoidance of extensive in-house technology team. An example of such a form is offered by Oracle. “The software is extremely low cost. For the first time organisations can afford to implement [this technology] without a large upfront capital expense. It’s a message that the MBA Dissertation Page 41
42 market is waking up to. The cost per user is comparable to an average mobile phone bill.” Says Daryn Mason, European head of solution consulting for Oracle CRM on Demand [Roger Trapp, June 2007] Daryn Mason adds, “Even if there’s over demand, you can use analytics to show which customer should be better served.” [Roger Trapp, June 2007] When it comes to improving efficiency and increasing return on investment [ROI], Paul Stockford notes, agent performance is always atop the list, but a new player is taking on a more influential role. “Desktop analytics is a new technology that I think has a lot of potential for growth over the next three to five years.” [Paul Stockford , 2010] “Understanding how to make incremental changes in call centre operations to optimise customer care and control long term costs without disrupting service delivery is the key determinant to success for implementing a hosted call centre” [Daniel Hong, 2010] “By doing so, enterprises are in a better position to build a high performance customer service strategy that leads to long term success.” [Daniel Hong, 2010] If the call centres inform the customer about the product or service recalls, through texts or by emails, it will free the centre resources thereby allowing the call agents to become more productive with other issues of more complexity. Paul Stockford, 2010[founder of saddletree Research] says “There’s a lot going on at the desktop that is overlooked.” He meant problems such as the pages freezing, agents not acknowledging the keyboard shortcuts can spoil the calls, causing the prevention of problem resolution as well as lower customer satisfaction eventually. After examining the past fifteen years of customer relationship management, if we take a look at the next fifteen years, we can see that sophisticated tools and techniques will make the creation and maintenance of customers for lifetime, the central point for customer-concentrated business strategies. The only problem is that customers keep changing which leads to difficulty in balancing the act. Such an act requires innovation, expertise and commitment and must also be combined with three most important CRM developments which are as follows:- MBA Dissertation Page 42
43 1] Engagement “The transition to customer engagement will also require dynamic customer profiles. I first wrote about customer profile in 1986, and they are now part of every successful CRM system” [Goldenberg, Barton, 2010] Actual and true custom and true customer engagement will need to change from one-way dialogue to a two-way dialogue with one another. [Goldenberg, Barton, 2010] 2] Mobilisation  The use of portable computers have now become an important part of mainstream business and the phones namely Blackberry and iPhone’s are not just meant for the pockets, but have indeed become really productive tools, in other words, the lifeblood of operations and business. Today, the software has made it increasingly possible to access custom applications thus making CRM information and data as well as customer data available at any time and place. The new innovation of Apple, the iPad and other such competing devices aim at portability as well as expanding the access to applications, information and data. [Goldenberg, Barton, 2010] 3] A new paradigm  The success of CRM will depend on the mix involving the process, people and technology. However, new techniques will change people interaction; new business will deal in two-way dialogues. The term multichannel enterprise will become a necessity instead of luxury as it was till date. Over past fifteen years, advances in mix has made customer relationship management more and more meaningful and deep. In next fifteen years, there will be innovation delivered at a fast pace and business will only survive on important two-way dialogues with their mobile customers. [Goldenberg, Barton, 2010] Call distribution:- Call distribution refers to call loads that agents have to attend. The process is tough as the agents have to constantly deal with people with different type of mentalities. Call distribution is also termed as call load. There is a high level of stress as the agents do not get even time to breathe at times as they have to take calls, at the same time take down notes of what the customer is saying and simultaneously they also have to look up the information in the net for the customer. So the MBA Dissertation Page 43
44 process can be highly stressful. The agent also needs to type during calls. Each call has an estimated time of 3-4 minutes and it is a rule that the employee/ call agent cannot keep the call abruptly unless and until the customer ends the call. 7] Performance Monitoring  The term performance monitoring “include any management system that measures some aspect of performance whether on a relatively ongoing basis as is the case for most performance measurement systems or on a more periodic basis as occurs with policy and program evaluation, and with audits. Most approaches to monitoring today involve some form of automated data retrieval.” [ Joseph Wholey, Eduardo Zapico-Goni, 2007] “In either inbound or outbound teleservices, a script or call guide refers to the written presentation or outline of the verbiage a representative uses in conversation with a customer or prospect call guides may be assigned in such a way as to be delivered verbatim, semi-verbatim, bulleted or free from depending on a company’s business philosophy or program requirement.” [Pankaj, 2005] Performance monitoring works at different levels. Suppose a customer is happy with the way the agent spoke with them and solved their problem, the customer will appreciate and this is called performance appraisal. Different departments work towards this concept. In a call centre, there is a team of quality management also known as the internal call auditors. This team works like a spy as they listen to the employee’s or agents calls and set a parameter to monitor their performance. Suppose there is a dispute with one of the calls, this team will watch the call and monitor how well the agent performs in such a situation Each call has a procedure and so the team checks whether the agent follows the procedure or not. Average talk time for a call should not exceed more than 3-4 minutes and if it increases, the company will have to pay their client which is a loss for the company. This average talk time is also a measure of performance level. MBA Dissertation Page 44
45 Customer feedback is very important to assess the performance of the employee. This team of auditor’s checks how much time an agent takes with each call and checks whether the set time is maintained. However, in different departments timing is different as the calls can even exceed to 20-30 minutes depending on the customer and their complaint being dealt with. The employee also needs to follow the script. The opening and closing of the script should be followed if not the rest of it as it depends on the customer that the agent deals with. The concept of call centre monitoring is about making sure the transaction between employee/call centre agent and the prospect customer goes as it should be. The concept involves much more than just dumping the calls to the disk or the tape. New solutions are now being developed in terms of call centre and customer relationship management for purposes like evaluating calls as well as returning calls to the frontline personnel. It also involves observation of the whole interaction between the customer and the agent which is audiovisual and making sure that the agents know their stuff properly and how to use and navigate the CRM tools and techniques and at the same time to handle the customer problems and requests in a proper manner. In summary, the call centre tools used for monitoring protect the huge investment in technology and personnel in the call centre environment. Joanie Rufo, research director at AMR says, “There are three things a call centre manager needs to focus on to get great service: the right information, the right contact [channel], and the right person- and that’s the piece people most often overlook.” [Jason Compton, November 2002] Monitoring can be termed as discouraging the improper use of time that the call centre agents use up. Monitoring also helps the agents to work in a better manner as well as management can try to understand the pain an employee or the agent goes through. David Pennington, senior product manager at Seattle, WA-based Envision Telephony says, “Training in the call centre has always been difficult, because eighty to ninety percent of the agents are idle for four minutes, we can deliver training automatically. That’s when the company is paying for their agent, so if I can, I’ll provide the training for free.” [Jason Compton, November 2002] MBA Dissertation Page 45
46 8] Conclusion of chapter two and three In summary, the second and third chapter emphasises on the concepts of customer relationship management and the call centre environment in detail. Enough light is thrown upon both concepts using examples and real life situations. The reader will be able to understand thoroughly both concepts and how different factors contribute to the functioning of each concept. In order to obtain actual and real time benefits, one needs to break out of the concept of traditional thinking as one needs to move with time. The traditional concept of CRM allowed collecting data which was sucked out and analysed. This gave out some sign of insight though not much but at the end how much ever analysis was done, the root cause of the issue/problem was never found. Today, everyone needs that extra bit of information that could give one company an advantageous edge over other companies. For example, Tesco using its anticipative technology is always able to have more than enough stock for its customers at all times when its competitors sell out completely. The following chapter is the research methodology which says discusses the method of research adopted. MBA Dissertation Page 46
47 Chapter Four: Research Methodology 1] Aim of the Chapter  The research basically portrays the customer relationship management issues [CRM] and issues relating to the call centre environment. The author highlights the issues connected with the CRM implementation within a particular organisation and its operations and the author also highlights by such implementation, what effects it has on the employee well being throughout the organisation. To collect data and analyse these aspects, it is very important that the right method of acquiring data be used. The actual aim of this chapter is to highlight and emphasise on the research method adopted for this dissertation. The reader will be able to understand which method is used and how much the method has proved to be appropriate for this study and at the same time the benefits of adopting this approach will be focused upon. The author made use of both qualitative and quantitative methods for collecting data. For the quantitative approach, the author made use of the questionnaire to acquire necessary data from the frontline staff working at Sutherland call centre in India and for the qualitative approach, MBA Dissertation Page 47
48 Interview questions were made for the management team and later was followed by a case study analysis of the company named Sutherland Global Services, Inc. The author also made use of primary and secondary data. 2] Secondary Research Method  The author explored many sources such as the Internet precisely saying the World Wide Web, books, journals [academic], published statistics, research papers, government documents and articles for the purpose of secondary research. The author found it very helpful and in the process gained a lot of knowledge on the concepts of customer relationship management and on call centre environment and also by doing the case study analysis of Sutherland global services. All the information and data collected has given rise to important findings and analysis which the reader will find in chapter six which deals with findings and analysis. Hakim (1982) defines secondary data analysis as “any further analysis of an existing dataset which presents interpretations, conclusions or knowledge additional to, or different from, those presented in the first report on the inquiry and is main result” [Yvonne McGivern, 2005 p.151] Secondary data is also referred to as pre-existing data which is already there. It is not new data but second hand because it was found by someone else previously. It can also be termed as backup data. This secondary data is collected before collecting primary data. This is done as that we can see what data/information has already been collected and analysed previously before we indulge into our own investigation regarding the topic. This is also because maybe some answers we seek to our topic may have already been answered before and therefore we need to look into it so as to improve upon the research by using primary data. They say that everything has a good and bad side which here applies to the secondary data MBA Dissertation Page 48
49 accessed. Such data is easier to find and gather as it is readily available. It is also of qualitative and permanent nature. However, such data can be invalid like the internet sources and can also be costly to access Being on the university campus and by being able to access the college and university resources helped the author to a great extend by accessing the secondary data especially through journals on customer relationship management and call centre happenings. The author found this research very benefitting. 3] Primary Research Method  According to the author, primary data collection is a research method that is collected by the person doing the current research in this case the author is the person doing it. It is also important to note that such data is collected from those people who have worked and have experience in the relevant field of study. In the process of acquiring data, the author might stumble upon new and interesting facts not known to anyone else yet which could be a great help with the research. Primary data is first hand data that is collected by the researcher at present date. Such data/information is not collected or gathered beforehand. The plus point of such data is that the researcher can find data to suit his/her purpose of research. The minus point of such data is that it can be time consuming and frustrating as the researcher needs to put a lot of effort in collecting such data by contacting many sources and can also be costly. This data can only be collected after the secondary data is collected. The key points of primary data collection are that whatever data is collected is unique to the researcher and to his/her research and until and unless the data is published no one else will have the right to access the data. The data collected could be qualitative or quantitative in nature, which depends on the researcher. 4] Quantitative Research Method  MBA Dissertation Page 49
50 “All quantitative research approaches summarise results numerically. This research draws on a principle of scientific realism: there is a single reality that can be described by numbers.” [Marguerite G. Lodico, Dean T. Spaulding, Katherine H. Voegtle, 2010] Quantitative methods are always seen as collecting and analysing the numbers collected. However, this type of research can also be clarified as experimental or non-experimental. Experimental research involves analysing numbers and looking into the cause-effect relationships whereas, non-experimental research involves analysing numbers to bring out a pre- existing group or to find out whether a relationship does exist or not between various variables. [Marguerite G. Lodico, Dean T. Spaulding, Katherine H. Voegtle, 2010] 5] Questionnaire  This is one of the popular methods for data collection and is used by the researcher for the purpose of analysis of the chosen topic of research. However, this method is a bit difficult as in the researcher had to rewrite the questions many times before it could be finally approved. The researcher here has used the Questionnaire method. A questionnaire could have various types of questions namely open ended questions, closed ended questions, multiple choice questions and scaled response questions. Advantages of this method • This method can be used as a basis for survey either through emails, face-to-face conversations or through telephone • If the questionnaire is sent through email, it could cover a wide geographic area • This is a cheap method as no cost is involved • This method could cover a rather large number of respondents • The respondent does not have to be embarrassed due to any question that could be hinting towards personal aspects as face-to-face can be avoided Disadvantages of this method MBA Dissertation Page 50
51 • The questions framed should be simple so that respondents sitting in another part of the world does not find it difficult to understand and decide not respond • Designing the questionnaire could be an issue as it could be time consuming • After sending out the questionnaire comes the waiting part for the responses which could cause delay in the set time frame • There is no guarantee whether the respondents might reply or not or whether they might fill the questionnaire fully • An assumption that there is no literacy problems is a risk taken in this aspect • The researcher might have to pressurise the respondents a lot to reply on time which could be through phone calls that adds to costs. A good questionnaire should have a user friendly format. There should be an ease of flow, should be well phrased and should not be ambiguous. The questions should be well developed and complete so as to get all relevant data. Demographic information such as age, gender should be gathered if necessary and if only relevant to the subject matter dealt with. Focus groups here mean those people who have worked in a call centre who have experienced common job characteristics by working at a call centre. So the researcher aimed at a focus group of around 30 people who have worked in a call centre or are currently working in a call centre. Out of the 30 questionnaires sent out, 28 respondents turned up with responses appropriate to the questionnaire. The questionnaire was shown to professor, friends and family just to make sure it was user friendly and did not contain any personal questions and also to check out for grammatical mistakes. The research method is taking the form of statistical analysis as it contains data and is also based on quantitative research method. The author made use of the package Microsoft Excel to draw out the numerical data got from the respondents by making use of pie charts, line charts, bar graph, doughnut chart and column chart. All these charts helped in analysing the data accurately. Though this method was rather time consuming and frustrating at times as it took time to make the charts and figure it out properly. However, the author found it to be a rather pleasant experience and thereby the author could also improve upon the excel skills which could prove to MBA Dissertation Page 51
52 be an advantage in the future. Receiving of responses did take time as there was a risk of low response rate. The author chose to combine both qualitative and quantitative approaches to gain an equal result. Questionnaire is used to understand how call centre working conditions affect the employee well being and interview was conducted with management team starting from supervisors, team leaders to the managing director of Sutherland. The study will follow the research paradigm of interpretive approach. The study focuses to understand the issues through the research strategy of case study and thereby interpreting the views of Sutherland frontline staff and management team. 6] Qualitative Research Method  “Qualitative research is an overall term to describe the work researchers do in formulating their interpretations of the subjects of their studies and giving representations of these interpretations in order to add to the body of knowledge” [Michael John Baker, Susan Hart, 2007] “Qualitative methods contribute a particular kind of knowledge about the world, which is different from the knowledge generated by other methods of inquiry.” [John McLeod, 2001] It can be termed as a very careful inquiry into aspects and concepts connected to the social world. It brings out a new understanding through formal statement. 7] Interview  “Any statement in an interview is the collaborative product of interviewer and interviewee, not a spontaneous remark. The interview is a rhetorical form whose most essential quality is its collaborative origin.” [ Kenneth Goldsmith, Reva Wolf, Wayne Koestenbaum, 2004] Shipley defines “An interview is a serious conversation between someone with specific knowledge or expertise and someone who may benefit from that expertise.” [Barbara J. Hemphill- Pearson, 1999] MBA Dissertation Page 52
53 The author used the interview technique to conduct qualitative research by interviewing the Sutherland management team. As the author could not conduct a face-to-face interview with the team, the research will portray that drawback. 8] Case Study  According to Merriam (1988: 9-10), “a case study is an examination of a specific phenomenon such as a program, an event, a person, an institution or a social group. The bounded system, or case, might be selected because it is an instance of some concern, issue or hypothesis.” [Kieran J, O’Loughlin, 2001] As part of the research, the author discusses the case study of the company Sutherland Global Services, Inc., and throws light upon the company structure, its core values, its customers, its customer relationship management systems and the technology used in the company. The company support tools are also discussed in the study. This case study will later be related to the analysis part to draw out conclusions and further recommendations. 9] Conclusion  The author has used interpretative approach through qualitative and quantitative approach to understand the issues of this research and can be used in the analysis part to interpret the opinion of the respondents and the responses of the management team through statistical analysis and qualitative analysis. The next chapter presents the case study of Sutherland Global Services. MBA Dissertation Page 53
54 Chapter Five: Case Study- Sutherland Global Services 1] Aim of Chapter  This chapter focuses on the case study based on the global company named Sutherland global services. This is a multi-national company and caters to various services aiming at a big sphere. In this chapter the author will be discussing about the background of the company, a company insight would be discussed, the personal involved, the core values of the company, the customer support tools used within the company and the various services provides will be also looked into. Based on this case study, the author has conducted the quantitative research using questionnaires sent out to thirty employees working in the Sutherland call centre. The chapter will conclude by saying how the company information will be helpful to the author in analysing the data got from the company staff. 2] Company Profile  Sutherland Global Services was founded in the year 1986 with its headquarters at Rochester, MBA Dissertation Page 54
55 New York. Mr. Dilip R. Vellodi is the chairman and CEO of this company. There are basically two investors in this firm namely, Standard Chartered Private Equity and Oak Investment Partners. This company falls under the Business Process Outsourcing Industry [BPO] and is also an IT enabled company. The company has an head count of approximately 29,000 employees and has business in various locations of the world like the United Kingdom, Mexico, India, Canada, United States, Bulgaria, Egypt and United Arab Emirates. The company has a strong mission and vision statement. [Web 10, 14/11/10] The company mission is “To help our clients maximise their customer lifetime value and increase their competitive advantage by helping drive productivity and efficiency while delivering measurable results.” [Web 9, 14/11/10] The company vision is “To be the premier and preferred provider of Technology Enabled and Business Process Outsourcing Services in our chosen Markets.” [Web 9, 14/11/10] Dilip Vellodi says, “Relentless focus on offering best in class integrated services to our global clients combined with delivering measurable results have been key differentiators for Sutherland. Since our launch in 2005, our operations in the Philippines have become a strategic component of our global service delivery model. The country’s favourable economic environment, business friendly government policies and above all the technically and committed workforce have been driving forces in our ability to rapidly scale our operations across several locations in our country.” [Web 5, Beth J. Natividad, S. Prabhu, 2010] Farheen Pasha, Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst says, “Sutherland has excellent credentials in nimbleness, response time and flexibility. Highly satisfied and committed clients testify that the revenue generating and engaged business model of Sutherland consistently increases the productivity and maximises their customer life cycles. Its global footprint allows for valuable geographical redundancy and highest level of maturity in talent management.” [Web 6, Robert C.D. Barclay, 2008] Sutherland being a global company deals with many industries like insurance, technology, government, telecommunications, retail and e-retail, banking and finance, travel, transport and MBA Dissertation Page 55
56 logistics, mortgage, energy and utilities, hospitality and finally healthcare facilities. The company provides various services like:- • Customer Lifecycle management services such as account management, customer care and support and technical support • Back office lifecycle management services such as order and document management, transaction and payment processing and also deals with finance and accounts. • Human resource management • Process consulting • Global transition • Business transformation • Finally, a business process solution called Sutherland@Home which happens to be a virtual model of business that uses skilled employees known as home-based associates. 3] Company Core Values  Every organisation has core values that it follows to do business. The culture of the company in this case of Sutherland can be found in mainly the company’s core values which are as follows:-  People: In Sutherland, employees are respected and their contributions to the company are valued at all times. The company dedicates itself to create such an atmosphere and environment that is challenging in professional terms as well as rewarding to the employees. The company also aims at the professional development of all the employees as they go higher in the career when working with the company.  Leadership: The Company aims to lead by example and to set their standards high so that others can see it as a good example and follow the same path for success. Another aim is to do the right thing with the help of clients, stakeholders and employees of the company.  Clients: Here, clients are seen as business partners. The company treats the customer’s aims as their own aim and keeping that in mind provide excellent support and service MBA Dissertation Page 56
57 thus striving to exceed the expectations at all times.  Integrity: The company believes that the only way to do business is by playing fair at all times by being honest, by making and maintaining fair honest relationships with everyone including the customers and business partners.  Spirit of Entrepreneurship: The company seeks at innovation and is even ready to go ahead to take up personal risks just to improve upon their services for the better future. A strive to be the best is their motto and their aim to secure the leadership position shows that spirit. 4] Customer Support Tools  In the case where the companies use customer relationship management, call centre technology plays an important role. Sutherland provides services through call centres situated at various locations globally and in the UK. These centres provide support for direct sales and after service. The primary role of these call centres is to handle calls between the customers and the firm. The agents do this job in a calm and polite manner so that the customers feel that the relationship is valued and maintained. Sutherland needs to make sure that an excellent customer service is being provided to customers so as to gain loyalty and the services provided have to be of high quality and high standard and agents to maintain a positive attitude while dealing with the customers. Sutherland makes use of software called PeopleSoft to manage the human resources. PeopleSoft is basically provides solutions tailored in the best manner to suit the industry, business processes, customer strategies and the criteria for success. It provides a flexible customer data model and an integrated platform where solutions will be implemented at a fast rate. This software does the planning and execution of different customer strategies. It also aims at reducing the cost of ownership and at same time increase in the operational efficiency. [Web 7, 14/11/10] The customer support tools that Sutherland makes use of are Ebiz and CRM. Ebiz solutions deals with a variety of services such as corporate identity, custom e-commerce, web design and search MBA Dissertation Page 57
58 engine marketing. Ebiz is used to get the details about the products such that the customer will get to know more about the details of the product. Ebiz gives the details of the customers who have earlier purchased the product and by looking at the information the company can provide a better offer or an advanced version of the product. The support tool CRM is software where the details of the customers are recorded and their issues highlighted. This software saves information of existing customers as well. The customer problems will also be entered with an explanation of how it was resolved would be clearly stated so that next time the same customer calls, he/she need not have to explain the issue again to the agent attending the call. The customer issue is resolved thus ensuring customer satisfaction at the best level. The customer is then sent a feedback form so they can give their feedback or their experience with the call centre service and they can also mention how services could be improved upon. 5] Technology Used  Today all the technology companies are investing so as to help develop the management processes, infrastructure and the people so as to support the customer base. The technologies adopted by the company aims at reducing costs and thereby increasing the value of customer lifetime. The technology solution adopted by Sutherland increases the brand loyalty and at the same time provides solutions to generate customer care profits. Sutherland Global Services basically deals with three main technologies namely:-  Innovation: The Company aims to create a continuing value for their prospect clients by way of improvements in process and innovation of technology before the stage of implementation. When the steady operations stage is reached, focus is fully on improving the process and thereafter re-evaluating the process. Innovation paves way for staying ahead in the growth and profit curve. [Web 11, 14/11/10]  Intellectual Property: Sutherland makes use of a combination of software namely, clients software system, company software systems, third party software and other software that provide integrated services. By doing so, the company can manage, change, MBA Dissertation Page 58
59 measure and report the activities of the company. The company invest in improving the company domain by making use of the professional of technology. The intellectual property of Sutherland include reporting, solution architecture, production management, transition management, people productivity and performance management.[Web 8, 14/11/10]  Scalable Platforms: The proprietary products and tools of Sutherland when combined together showcase a strategic platform. Such platform delivers exceptional and excellent customer care and support. A company with such combination is able to scale the company operations cost effectively as well as improve productivity and deliver them efficiently. By adopting such a platform solution, Sutherland global services achieves high quality level with low prices. [Web 12, 14/11/10] 6] Conclusion  The author has researched fairly on the company insight by giving details about the company background, the technology made use of, the customer relationship management tools made use in the call centre and the Ebiz tool. The following chapter will deal with the analysis of the replies to the questionnaire using quantitative method of research for this research. The analysis will focus on the employee well being and how the implementation of CRM has affected the company. MBA Dissertation Page 59
60 Chapter Six: Findings and Analysis 1] Aim of Chapter  The author has conducted a statistical analysis using quantitative approach by means of a questionnaire distributed among 30 frontline agents at Sutherland Call Centre out of which 28 respondents replied. The analysis is therefore done based on the replies of the 28 agents. The author has made use of Excel Spreadsheet to draw out charts to represent the data for analysis. These charts give a proper view of the concept being discussed making it very clear to the reader. The author has also conducted interpretative analysis using qualitative approach by means of interview with the Sutherland management team and by relating both approaches to the case study of Sutherland Company the author has achieved the objectives of the dissertation. 2] Analysis of Questionnaire  MBA Dissertation Page 60
61 The author conducted quantitative analysis by using the questionnaire technique. The questionnaire [see appendix 1] was distributed to 30 frontline staff of Sutherland and the replies to 28 questionnaires were got. Out of the 28 respondents, there were 18 males and 10 females [see appendix 3, table 1 and chart below]. The author made sure gender factor was taken into consideration to obtain a varied responses of both groups. Out of these 28, the number of respondents who worked full time totaled to 16 and the rest worked part time as they were students [see appendix 3, table 2 and chart below]. MBA Dissertation Page 61
62 From the replies to the questionnaire it was evident that not many employees worked more than 12 months due to various reasons many be due to stress, employer-employee relations, frustrating job and even due to better opportunities elsewhere. 39% of agents stayed for maximum period of 6-12 months being the longest duration of stay in the same call centre job, while 32% stayed for 2-5 months. The author found a really less percentage staying more than 3 years or more, the precise percentage being 4% [see appendix 3, table 3 and chart below]. a) Maintenance of Customer Service: 96% of employees said that excellent customer service was maintained within the company while the remaining 4% voted against this saying the service was poor. [see appendix 3, table 4 and chart below]. MBA Dissertation Page 62
63 Surprisingly, a similar percentage rate was found for the questions posed whether good communication ensured job satisfaction to the employees or not. [see appendix 3, table 5 and chart below]. By analysing both charts above, it is evident that the concept of customer service is very important to any organisation in this case the call centre. Customer being the first and foremost important element in any business, it is important to provide them with excellent service else customer loyalty will be lost as discussed in the literature review of CRM. So is the case of good communication as it is related to ensuring job satisfaction. MBA Dissertation Page 63
64 b) Feedback and Performance Monitoring: 82% of employees felt that on obtaining regular feedback it motivated them to do better in their job. However, the remaining 18% felt that it was rather frustrating to be getting feedback at all times as they felt very much under pressure as the management team was constantly on their back to find faults which they thought was a de-motivating factor [see appendix 3, table 7 and chart below]. The respondents replied in following manner: “…It is based on the monitoring done and the feedback given, the associate understands where he/she lies. The associate understands their positives and negatives. Monitoring is done on chat quality and communication.” “The principle of constant improvement in services rendered to customers is important not only for the company but also for the professional development of the individual- it goes the same be it a call centre or a multinational company.” “It helps me boost my morale, feels that my work is appreciated and gives more confidence to work harder.” MBA Dissertation Page 64
65 “Being monitored regularly is a way to identify our positives and negatives. Both account for motivation.” “…regular feedback helps in identifying areas of improvement, which could be worked on to improve customer experience. These results in positive survey responses which helps agent achieving metric goals based on customer satisfaction. Since better metrics equal higher incentives!” “…well, if it is a positive feedback it will courage me in work and if negative, I will try and change to what is best for customer” The frontline staff had to confront a statement and provide their views. The statement being “Employee performance being monitored for faults” to which, 46% of respondents saw the statement as positive and an equal 46% saw the statement as negative as well. However, the remaining 8% staff felt that the statement was both positive as well as negative [see appendix 3, table 9 and chart below]. One respondent replied in following manner: MBA Dissertation Page 65
66 “Employee performance should not be only monitored for faults as that would prove to be a de-motivating factor like me being an agent, if I am constantly being monitored only for faults I would not like it and take the matter to management. We agents should be treated fairly in the sense that performance should be monitored for faults as well as good performance.” Feedback is a concept directly related to performance monitoring as depending on the customer feedback whether good or bad, the performance level of each employee is monitored and accessed. Out of the 28 agents, 19 agents think that feedback is got back in a positive manner while 3 agents are of the view that the feedback is negative. Still more to go 4 agents feel that the feedback is got in both positive and negative manner and the remaining 2 people think it depends how the feedback is got back. [see appendix 3, table 10 and chart below] One respondent replied in following manner: “…if it is a constructive criticism, then it should be taken positively” b) Implementation of CRM: Keeping in mind the objective of the dissertation the author posed a question whether the implementation of CRM in the company affected the working role of the employees/agents MBA Dissertation Page 66
67 working in the frontline. To this question, out of 28 respondents, 26 replied yes while the remaining 2 said no [see appendix 3, table 6 and chart below]. In Sutherland, the agents feel that the implementation of customer support tool ‘Customer Relationship Management [CRM] software has indeed affected their working role. Highlighting this aspect one respondent commented: “...Though initially there was resistance from staff on the CRM implementation, later with the help of training we learnt to work with the software at ease.” The CRM software is explained in detail in the Case Study under the heading Customer Support Tools. By implementing the software, agents feel that they can work with more ease, saves time and the work gained efficiency thus improving customer satisfaction to best level. c) Stress Levels: The author used secondary research to find out the factors which contribute to stress. By conducting primary research the author aims to verify the results found. 19 out of 28 respondents complained that there was a really high level of stress in call centre jobs which would not be the MBA Dissertation Page 67
68 case had they been working on another job. The rest 9 employees felt otherwise [see appendix 3, table 8 and chart below]. Going back to the literature review about the call centre environment, the author had laid down the factors which contribute towards the stress levels of employees in call centre environment. Factors of not having proper working conditions, no proper food and drink facilities, working odd hours late into the night, sitting in a chair and staring at the computer screen for long hours probably like 6-8 hours at a stretch without a break or less breaks frustrates the employees a lot. These factors create a lot of stress for the frontline agents and they get fed up of the job and even think of leaving the job. The job being repetitive can stress the employee to a great extent. Two respondents commented: “…It is very important for an agent working in a call centre to have proper eating, drinking, resting facilities and timely breaks so that he/she does not get stressed out as the shift timing are rather odd and duration of shift is also long.” “…as it is the call centre environment is very stressful, and on top of that if there are no proper facilities like food facilities, pick up and drop facilities, resting facilities, then the agent gets highly frustrated and irritated and might even think of quitting the job.” MBA Dissertation Page 68
69 It is evident from the findings that there is high level of stress factors being constant management pressure to maintain high performance, immediate call closures, time limit exceeding, peer pressures and job demands. Out of 28 staff members who replied, 18 staff members feel that the stress level is very high, while 8 agents feel they face medium stress levels and the remaining feel the level is relatively low [see appendix 3, table 15 and chart below]. Among the 28 agents, two agents commented in following manner: “…stress levels depend on the individual, and how one can cope with it, I mean to what extend the agent can cope. I have seen some agents cannot cope and they break down crying and get frustrated and go on pills while some are cool and take it in a positive manner as part of the hectic schedule” “…with the monotonous work and the need to improve each time on call having less scope to do that is frustrating. Talking non-stop for 8-9 hours with minimum breaks is highly frustrating.” 72% of agents feel that this job is rather tiring while 4% feel against this opinion and an equal 4% feel it depends on the work situation and conditions and how the agent can cope with the stress [see appendix 3, table 16 and chart below]. MBA Dissertation Page 69
70 Responses to this question are: “…At times yes the job role does get frustrating and monotonous as it is the same call flow everyday and to deal with irate customers sometimes can really test your patience. And lastly, the team leader behind you if the targets are not met or if you are not performing well enough.” “…not at all tiring as there is always room for improvement when it comes to communication and interaction with customers from all over the world” “…it depends on the endurance level of the employee and the motivation he/she feels. However, it must be noted that not a lot of people prefer working in a call centre for a long time.” d) Training provided: Training is an important aspect in any job. A well trained employee is an asset to the company. Training can be said to be a job-oriented process rather than person oriented. According to Glaser (1962), “in training the learning of specific behaviours implies a certain degree of uniformity within the limits set by individual differences.” [Roger Buckley, Jim Caple, 2007] MBA Dissertation Page 70
71 The author wants to throw light upon the level of training the agents got in the call centre as it relates to the employee well being. 79% employees responded in a positive manner implying that they do get enough training. A small percentage of 7% said they do not get enough training while they rest stuck to the opinion that training was provided to an extent [see appendix 3, table 18 and chart below]. The respondents commented such: “Yes, regular training and updates on new products, promotions and scope of support are provided” “Yes, 2 months were dedicated to process and voice (to maintain neutral accent) training” “Training is given for a period of 1-2 months and includes accent classes, culture classes and product information. Product training may vary from a month to two.” 54% employees felt that on the job training benefited them more as they could get to experience hands on training so basically they learnt while working which seemed a better option as they could understand better. The remaining 46% employees benefited from off the job training methods [see appendix 3, table 19 and chart below]. This was understood from the following employee comments: MBA Dissertation Page 71
72 “..On the job training is what I had experienced. Off the job training is limited, but it is good as we understand what we are to do on the floor. But, on the job training helps better as when learn how do to it when present on the floor facing the situation in reality” “…there are many things we learn on the calls” Out of 28 respondents, 12 said health and safety training was provided and the rest said such training was not provided on regular basis but just the initial training was given [see appendix 3, table 20 and chart below] MBA Dissertation Page 72
73 Respondents replied in varied manner to this question: “...Yes, there should be no danger occurring to the employees” “...Yes, every month there are fire drills” “...there is training however not to a great extend, just general meetings” “...not much training” It is evident from the above questions on training that enough training is being provided and agents feel that on the job training technique is much better than off the job training. Training is very important as it gives the employee the confidence to deal with any situation. e) Relationship between team leader and employees: Be it any job, whether call centre job or not, what is important is that every employee needs to maintain a good relationship with senior management whom they work under especially the team leaders who is the one the staff has to report to. This questionnaire posed a question in relation to this aspect. 79% employees feel their team leader supports them at all times which make them feel at ease when on the job and helps them do their job in a better manner. Contrasting to that percentage is 13% which say that their team leader is not supportive, while a smaller figure of 8% is on both sides claiming ‘…it depends on the nature of the team leader that is if he/she is approachable or not’. [see appendix 3, table 11 and chart below] MBA Dissertation Page 73
74 The same question framed in another manner to understand whether the employees experienced a good relationship with the team leader gained a response rate of 92% who said yes and there was an equal response rate of 4% who claimed no and who claimed depends on situation and nature of team leader [see appendix 3, table 12 and chart below]. The Sutherland personnel is split into many teams with each team headed by team leader whose responsibility is to control, train, monitor and motivate each frontline and other call centre staff. The findings from the questionnaire reflect that a very good relationship is maintained between the employees and the team leader. This is very important as it is the team leader who deals with MBA Dissertation Page 74
75 issues like performance and personal issues of agents. Therefore, good relation makes the employee approach the management with ease regarding any problem and vice versa. f) Call handling and script: Every job requires a script rather a set laid down order of presentation which the employees need to follow. The term script is defined in the third chapter of literature review which discusses the call centre environment. The definition is found under the term performance monitoring. Basically the agents need to follow the script when attending each call. However, this is not possible is all cases depending on the type and matter of call. To verify this concept the author posed the question whether the agents follow the script for each call or not. 36% employees claimed that they do follow the script while an equal percentage of 32% employees said they do not follow and that it depends on type and nature of the customer dealt with [see appendix 3, table17 and chart below] Three agents responded in following way: MBA Dissertation Page 75
76 “Yes, there is a script to be followed, an order. The way we present it depends on us. However, the opening and closing script must be abided. I do follow it as I am audited based on my performance.” “Yes, but at certain times agents use their own scripts, provided they are confident in their communication” “I think agents in call centre should be following a more human approach than following well maintained scripts because when I call in I expect to talk to a human and not some random machine giving pre-defined answers. But yes, scripting is important to maintain.” From the above comments it is evident that agents change to script so that the call becomes interesting and not boring. Changes are mainly done to bring about variations. In a call centre job, attending calls after calls is indeed a frustrating job especially when the agent has to deal with really difficult customers sitting in another part of the world. Now on top of this, if they are expected to maintain the same level of standard for each and every call, then life becomes more difficult. To assess how far this concept is true the author posed a question to the agents whether they experience too much pressure when faced with such situation. A high percentage say 61% said yes, that they do face high pressure levels especially when its long hours and they get no breaks everything just adds to the pressure. 11% claimed they did not feel the pressure while 28% says it depends on the person who might not be able to handle stress and get stressed out pretty fast [see appendix 3, table 13 and chart below]. MBA Dissertation Page 76
77 The above finding illustrates that agents feel too much under pressure is they are to maintain the same standard level with each call. An agent having to work 7-9 hours in a day with less breaks and irate customers and on top it, if that agent follows the same standard, then it is indeed frustrating for the agent. g) Employee well being: One of the objectives of this dissertation is whether employee well being is given importance or not. Everyone knows that call centre’s are flourishing but employee problems and their welfare is hidden in the dark and the author wants to bring this out to light so the world can know the hidden facts as well. Keeping this point in mind, the author framed the question whether employee well being is given importance or not to which 75% employees replies yes while 21% replied no and 4% said it depends [see appendix 3, table 14 and chart below]. MBA Dissertation Page 77
78 By keeping in mind the other aspects, the author feels that employee welfare is being given importance in Sutherland call centre. However, the author feels that it might not be the case in all other call centres. 3] Analysis of Interview The author conducted interview with the Managing Director of Sutherland Global Services, one senior manager and two team leaders. The Sutherland management team was basically interviewed to reflect upon the main objectives of the dissertation and also to find out the factors which affected the employee well being from the perspective of the management. The interview consisted of 10 questions in total out of which the first 8 questions focused upon the implementation of customer relationship management [CRM] and its use within the company. The last two questions focuses upon the employee well being [see appendix 2 for the interview questions for management. MBA Dissertation Page 78
79 a) CRM implementation: Through the interviews conducted with the management, the author was able to gain ample knowledge about the CRM software’s used currently within the Sutherland call centre. Reflecting upon the Case Study analysed on the Sutherland Company, the customer support tools which the company makes use of is called Ebiz which is software providing details about the product and service for the customer needs. Through this software, the customer can get all the details of the product and services. Ebiz also provides details of customers who did purchase before. Another customer support tool is the CRM which is software that records all details of customers and their problems. It also records new well as existing customer details and their respective problems within the software. This software ensures time and cost saving and the data of the customer and their relevant issue is readily available thus ensuring excellent customer satisfaction. This CRM software also aims to improve the customer relationships. The company also operates a system called as ‘Respond’ which is a system mainly used to track down the complaints thus enabling to make responses for the problems as well as queries of the customers. Sutherland makes use of CRM software in its various operations by keeping in mind about the concept of ‘customer focus’. To the question of how CRM is implemented and used, the managing director revealed that “...Sutherland as part of the marketing strategy uses a what is called a store card that captures and reveals the customer purchasing behaviour and the purchases they make”. Every Sutherland customer has this card and by accessing this data, the company can mail the customers the various promotions currently running in the company thus encouraging and motivating the customer to make a further purchase. Such strategy helps maintain customer loyalty on a long run. The senior manager commented, “...by maintaining customer loyalty, customer values the company and thus the company benefits” MBA Dissertation Page 79
80 The managing director, senior manager and the two team leaders agreed to the fact that there was evidently a high increase in the level of efficiency in operations with the implementation of the CRM. When asked about the benefits and drawbacks that the implementation brought about, all of them commented that there were no drawbacks. One team leader revealed that, “...There were more of benefits than drawbacks” From the responses to the interview, the author understood that the implementation of CRM within Sutherland provides benefits of time and cost savings and excellent customer satisfaction and thus it resulted in the company being more customer focused rather than being product focused. From this finding, the question whether the company is customer focused or product focused is thus answered. The second team leader commented that all these benefits brought about a good name as well as an excellent reputation for Sutherland Global Services. The managers commented that certain changes had to be made with the implementation such as changing the information of customers and updating it to suit the new system. The agents were provided with enough training to deal with new systems. When asked about the resistance to change, the managing director commented in following manner, “...change is a very difficult phenomenon and not everyone can readily accept change, the staff was though reluctant at first but when they understood the benefits such implementation had on their working role and in the overall efficiency of the company operations, they accepted it.” b) Employee issues focused This part of the chapter focuses on the employee well being from the managerial perspective. The last 2 questions throw light upon this concept. The first question that the author put forward was regarding how the company dealt with issues regarding high absence rate and labour turnover. To this the management responded that the company aimed to recruit the right person for the right job. Before recruiting, management checked the background of the candidate and tries to understand the person and their opinion about staying on the job in future. MBA Dissertation Page 80
81 The author then put forward the second and final question regarding employee well being. The question aimed to find out whether such labour turnover and absence rate being high had any relation to their well being. To this the senior manager replied, “…this job is such that it does relate to many stress factors which some employees might not be able to cope with and thus get depressed and finally think of leaving job” All the managers said that low level of well being did reflect in the standard of customer service provided by the agents. To overcome this issue, the company is trying to create a pleasant atmosphere and give importance to every viewpoint. To boost the morale of agents, management has brought out high incentive schemes. The team leaders revealed that more breaks would be given if performance level increased. This comment relates to one of many stress factors that employees face today. 4] Conclusion  The chapter provided a platform to understand and examine the implementation of CRM concept within the call centre environment and relating it to the factors that affect the employee well being as the very title of the dissertation goes. The analysis showcases how customer relationship management was put to use within Sutherland call centre and how the management are trying to solve the employee problems. The analysis revealed that the stress factors among employees need to be eliminated in order to increase their morale. This chapter comes out with the message that the call centre job is not that stressful though this is not a definite message as many points and factors could still be well hidden and need to be explored. MBA Dissertation Page 81
82 Chapter 7: Conclusion and Recommendations 1] Aim of Chapter  2] Evaluation and Conclusion of Analysis  3] Limitations met  3] Recommendations for future study  MBA Dissertation Page 82
83 Chapter 8: Bibliography A] Books  Akbar Hussain, Mohammad Ilyas Khan (2006), Recent trends in Human Stress Management, Global Vision publishing, pp-24-26 Anthony T. Kern, Tony Kern (2001), Culture, environment, and CRM, McGraw-Hill Professional, pp-1-17 Barbara J. Hemphill-Pearson (1999), Assessment in occupational therapy mental health: an integrative approach, SLACK Incorporated, pp-19-20 Brad Cleveland & Julia Mayben (1997), Call Centre Management on Fast forward: Succeeding in Today’s Dynamic Inbound Environment, 1st edition, Call centre press Bryan Bergeron (2002), Essentials of CRM; A Guide to Customer Relationship Management, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York , pp-15-34, pp-63-102, pp-103-127 Dennis Lock, Brian Rothery (1998), The Gower handbook of Management, Gower publishing company, ltd., pp-149-150 Don Peppers, Martha Rogers (2004), Managing customer relationships: a strategic framework, John Wiley and sons, pp-55-59 MBA Dissertation Page 83
84 Etta R. Hollin (2008), Culture in School Learning: revealing the deep meaning, Routledge, pp-1-19 Geoff Lancaster, Paul Reynolds (2002), Marketing made simple, Butterworth-Heinemann, pp- 125-130 (2001), Harvard Business Review on Customer Relationship Management, Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation, Boston, pp-1-48, pp-67-80, pp-105-130 Janice Reynolds (2002), A practical guide to CRM: building more profitable customer relationships, Focal Press Jery Fjermestad, Nicholas C. Romano (2006), Electronic customer relationship management, M.E.Sharpe, pp-24-27 John McLeod (2001), Qualitative research in counselling and psychotherapy, SAGE publication Ltd., London, pp-2-6 Joseph Wholey, Eduardo Zapico-Goni (2007), Monitoring Performance in the Public Sector: Future Directions from International Experience, Transaction publishers Kenneth Goldsmith, Reva Wolf, Wayne Koestenbaum (2004), I’ll be your mirror: the selected Andy Warhol interviews: 1962-1987, Da Capo Press, pp-16-17 Kevin Hook (1998), The Human Face of call centre Management, Call Craft publishers, pp- 11-86, pp-109-140, pp-177-192 Kieran J. O’Loughlin (2001), The equivalence of direct and semi-direct speaking tests, Cambridge University Press, pp-47 Marguerite G. Lodico, Dean T. Spaulding, Katherine H. Voegtle (2010), Methods in Educational Research From Theory to Practice, 2nd edition, Jossey Bass publishers Michael Armstrong (2008), The Sunday Times: How to manage people, pp-130-135, pp-90- 100 Michael Gentle (2002), The CRM Project Management Handbook, Kogan Page Limited, pp- 36-40 Michael John Baker, Susan Hart (2007), The marketing book, Volume 2003, 6th edition, Butterworth-Heinemann, pp-157-159 Nils Merkel (2010), Customer Relationship Management in Banking Sector, GRIN Verlag Pat Wellington, The Sunday Times: Effective Customer Care, Kogan page limited, pp-5-20, pp-23-38 Paul Blyton & Peter Turnbull, (1998), The Dynamics of Employee Relations, 2nd editited Palgrave publisher, pp-33-50 MBA Dissertation Page 84
85 Robert Shaw, David Reed (1999), Measuring and Valuing Customer Relationships: How to develop the measures that drive profitable crm strategies, Business Intelligence Roger Buckley, Jim Caple (2007), The Theory and Practice of Training, Kogan Page Publishers, pp-6-10 Shanmugasundaram (ed.), Shanmugasundaram S. (2008), Customer Relationship Management: Modern Trends And Perspectives, PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd, pp-98 Sheila Mello (2003), Customer-Centric Product Definition: The key to Great Product Development, PCD Professional Publishing, pp-10-17 Yvonne McGivern (2005), The practice of market and social research: an introduction B] Journals/Articles  John Goodier (1997), Evaluating Stress: A book of Resources, Reference Review, Vol. 11, Issue 8 (2000), Stress and Low Morale are the hidden costs of the UK’s £13 billion absenteeism bill, according to managers, Journal of European Industrial Training, Vol. 24, Issue 5 (2004), Work Stress, Structural Survey, Vol. 22, Issue 4 (2000), An Introduction to Stress Management, Journal of European Industrial Training, Vol. 24, Issue 1 Pankaj (2005), Call Centre, Kul Bhushan Nangia APH publishing Injazz J. Chen, Karen Popovich (2003), “Understanding customer relationship management [CRM]: People process and technology”, Business Process Management Journal, MCB UP Ltd, Vol. 9, Issue 5, pp-672-688 Roger Hallowell (1996), The Relationships of customer satisfaction, customer loyalty and profitability: an empirical study; Journal of service management, MCB UP Ltd, Vol. 7, Issue 4, pp-25-44 Lynn Holdsworth, Susan Cartwright, Empowerment, Stress and satisfaction: an exploratory study of a call centre: Research Paper, MCB UP Ltd. MBA Dissertation Page 85
86 C] Websites  Web 1: Jason Compton (November 2002), Happy Employees Equal Happy Customers, CRM media [online]. Available at: http://www.destinationcrm.com/Articles/Editorial/Magazine- Features/Happy-Employees-Equal-Happy-Customers-47994.aspx (Accessed: 20 October 2010) Web 2: Roger Trapp (5 June 2007), The Independent, Independent Print limited [online]. Available at: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/sme/how-customer-relationship- management-systems-can-be-of-benefit-to-your-business-451821.html (Accessed: 6 November 2010) Web 3: CRM made simple, Customer Dynamics [online]. Available at: http://www.customerdynamics.com/Services/CRMMadeSimple.aspx (Accessed: 9 November 2010) Web 4: Gemini UK solutions ltd, 2010, [online]. Available at: http://www.geminiuksolutions.com/Call_Centre_Technology.asp (Accessed: 9 November 2010) Web 5: Beth J. Natividad, S. Prabhu (29 March 2010), Sutherland Global Services awarded, “Fastest Growing BPO Company in the Philippines Expands from 0 to 10000 employees in under 5 years [online]. Available at: http://www.suth.com/company_pressrel_march29_2010.htm (Accessed: 14 November 2010) Web 6: Robert C.D.Barclay (April 16, 2008), Sutherland Global Services Receives Frost & Sullivan Customer Value Leadership Award, Rochester, New York, [online]. Available at: http://www.suth.com/company_pressrel_apr16_2008.htm (Accessed: 14 November 2010) Web 7: PeopleSoft CRM (4 November 2010) Nnigma, Inc [online]. Available at: http://www.peoplesoft-planet.com/PeopleSoft-CRM.html (Accessed: 14 November 2010) Web 8: Technology [online]. Available at: http://www.suth.com/industries_technology.htm (Accessed: 13 November 2010) Web 9: Intellectual property [online]. Available at: http://www.suth.com/technology_ip.htm (Accessed: 14 November 2010) Web 10: Company foundation [online]. Available at: http://www.suth.com/company_foundations.htm (Accessed: 14 November 2010) Web 11: Company fact sheet [online]. Available at: http://www.suth.com/company_factsheet.htm (Accessed: 14 November 2010) MBA Dissertation Page 86
87 Web 12: Innovation [online]. Available at: http://www.sutherlandglobal.com/technology_innovation.aspx (Accessed: 14 November 2010) Web 13: Scalable platform [online]. Available at: http://www.sutherlandglobal.com/technology_scalplatform.aspx (Accessed: 14 November 2010) Web 14: Joshua Weinberger (July 2010), CRM magazine, CRM: then and now, CRM media [online]. Available at: http://www.destinationcrm.com/Articles/Editorial/Magazine- Features/CRM-Then-and- Now-68083.aspx (Accessed: 27 October 2010) Web 15: Marion Vogt, Manfred Krenn (8 July 2005), Working environment risks [online]. Available at: http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/ewco/surveys/AT0503SR01/AT0503SR01_2.htm (Accessed: 24 October 2010) Web 15: What is CRM [online]. Available at: http://www.destinationcrm.com/Articles/CRM- News/Daily-News/What-Is-CRM-46033.aspx (Accessed: 28 September 2010) Web 16: (19 Februay 2010), CRM Today [online]. Available at: http://www.crm2day.com/content/t6_librarynews_1.php?id=EpFEAEyFpuIBCdXUbD (Accessed: 24 October 2010) Web 17: (27 May 2008), MIS Bridge Customer relationship management overview [online]. Available at: http://misbridge.mccombs.utexas.edu/knowledge/topics/crm/ (Accessed: 24 October 2010) Web 18: ZOHO Corp how crm works [online]. Available at: http://www.zoho.com/crm/how- crm-works.html (Accessed: 25 October 2010) Web 19: (11 October 2009), Social CRM: Ready for action? [online]. Available at: http://davaidavai.com/2009/10/11/social-crm-ready-for-action/ (Accessed: 25 October 2010) Web 20: Christopher Musico (January 2010), CRM: The innovation Issue: technology, superhuman crm [online]. Available at: http://www.destinationcrm.com/Articles/Editorial/Magazine-Features/Superhuman-CRM- 60594.aspx (Accessed: 27 October 2010) Web 21: David Myron (November 2002), A Day in the Life of a Call Centre [online]. Available at: http://www.destinationcrm.com/Articles/Editorial/Magazine-Features/A-Day-in-the-Life-of- a-Call-Center-47993.aspx (Accessed: 27 October 2010) MBA Dissertation Page 87
88 Appendix 1 : Questionnaire QUESTIONNAIRE  The following questionnaire forms part of my MBA dissertation and are for analysis purpose only and I also assure that the responses of each respondent will be treated strictly as confidential. The questionnaire below contains 20 questions which throw light upon the working conditions of employees within a call centre environment and also focuses upon how the implementation of customer relationship management within the company had affected the working role of the employees. 1] Sex M [ ] F [ ] 2] Are you working full time or part time? FT [ ] PT [ ] 3] Duration that you have been working in a call centre? 2-5 months [ ] 6-12months [ ] 1-3years [ ] 3+ years [ ] 4] Do you think customer service is maintained in the company? MBA Dissertation Page 88
89 Yes [ ] No [ ] 5] Do you think having and maintaining good communication with customers makes the job more satisfying? Yes [ ] No [ ] 6] Do you feel that the implementation of customer relationship management within the company had had an effect on your working role? Yes [ ] No [ ] 7] Does feedback gained from being monitored at a regular basis motivate you? Yes [ ] No [ ] 8] If you have answered yes to question 7, please explain how? 9] Is there a high level of stress in call centre’s jobs as compared to other forms of work? Yes [ ] No [ ] 10] “Employee performance being monitored for faults” Do you see this statement as positive or negative? 11] Is the feedback of data fed back to you in a positive or negative manner? 12] Do you think that your team leader is supportive of you in every aspect of your work? Yes [ ] No [ ] 13] Do you share a good relationship with your team leader? Yes [ ] No [ ] 14] Do you feel too much under pressure when you are expected to maintain the same level of standard with each call? Explain in brief. 15] As an employee, do you think that your working conditions or well being is being given importance? Yes [ ] No [ ] 16] Can you explain the level of stress a call centre employee has to go through? MBA Dissertation Page 89
90 17] Do you think the job being highly repetitive and stressful can tire the employee? Do you think it is frustrating? 18] Are you always meant to follow the script on each call? Do you do it? 19] Are you being given enough training? 20] Is there regular training on health and safety issues? Appendix 2: Interview Questions for Management The appendix contains the interview questions for the Sutherland Global Service Management Team. The main focus of these questions is based upon the implementation if CRM and also focuses on the employee well being. The responses will be treated strictly confidential and is only for my study purpose. 1] How is the concept of Customer Relationship Management [CRM] implemented and used within the organisation? 2] According to you, what benefits has the implementation of CRM brought about within the organisation? 3] Did the implementation of CRM increase the company efficiency or rather the productivity efficiency? 4] Do you feel better customer experiences have been aimed and achieved after such implementation? 5] What changes did the company had to make in terms of work when CRM was implemented? 6] Did the company face any retaliation from the employees and what drawbacks were faced by the company? MBA Dissertation Page 90
91 7] Did the drawbacks and resistance from employees affect the operations of the business? 8] In your opinion, is the company customer focused or internal focused such as on product or service in particular? 9] Does the company face labour turnover of high rate and high absence rate? If yes, how does the company deal with such situations? [Employee focus question] 10] Do you think such an increase is directly related to the well being of employees and their working conditions? [Employee focus question] Appendix 3: Tables presenting the results got from the responses of agents of Sutherland Call Centre The appendix consists of 20 tables representing the figures and their percentage calculated from the data got through responses of the questionnaire. Table 1: Gender Category Response Figure Percentage Male 18 64% Female 10 36% Total 28 100% MBA Dissertation Page 91
92 Table 2: Working Pattern Response Figure Percentage Full Time 16 57% Part Time 12 43% Total 28 100% Table 3: Duration of Work in call centre Response Figure Percentage 2-5 months 9 32% 6-12 months 11 39% 1-3 years 7 25% 3+ years 1 4% Total 28 100% Table 4: Customer Service maintained or not? Response Figure Percentage Yes 27 96% MBA Dissertation Page 92
93 No 1 4% Total 28 100% Table 5: Good communication ensures job satisfaction or not? Response Figure Percentage Yes 27 96% No 1 4% Total 28 100% Table 6: Implementation of CRM within company effects employee working role? Response Figure Percentage Yes 26 93% No 2 7% Total 28 100% MBA Dissertation Page 93
94 Table 7: Regular feedback is a motivating factor for employees? Response Figure Percentage Yes 23 82% No 5 18% Total 28 100% Table 8: High level of stress in call centre jobs as compared to other jobs? Response Figure Percentage Yes 19 68% No 9 32% Total 28 100% Table 9: “Employee performance being monitored for faults”- positive or negative? Response Figure Percentage Positive 13 46% Negative 13 46% Both 2 8% Total 28 100% MBA Dissertation Page 94
95 Table 10: Feedback of data got back in positive or negative manner? Response Figure Percentage Positive 19 68% Negative 3 11% Both 4 13% Depends 2 8% Total 28 100% Table 11: Is the team leader supportive of employees? Response Figure Percentage Yes 22 79% No 4 13% Depends on nature 2 8% Total 28 100% Table 12: Does employees experience good relationship with the team leader? Response Figure Percentage MBA Dissertation Page 95
96 Yes 26 92% No 1 4% Depends 1 4% Total 28 100% Table 13: Does employee experience too much pressure when expected to maintain same level of standard for each call? Response Figure Percentage Yes 17 61% No 3 11% Depends 8 28% Total 28 100% Table 14: Employee well being given importance or not? Response Figure Percentage Yes 21 75% No 6 21% Depends 1 4% Total 28 100% MBA Dissertation Page 96
97 Table 15: Level of stress faced by call centre agent? Response Figure Percentage High 18 64% Medium 8 29% Low 2 7% Total 28 100% Table 16: Call centre jobs tires the employees of call centre? Response Figure Percentage Yes 20 72% No 4 14% Depends 4 14% Total 28 100% Table 17: Do the agents follow the script provided for each call? Response Figure Percentage Follow 10 36% Do not follow 9 32% MBA Dissertation Page 97
98 Depends on customer 9 32% Total 28 100% Table 18: Do employees get enough training or not?? Response Figure Percentage Yes 22 79% No 2 7% To an extent 4 14% Total 28 100% Table 19: Which type of training benefited more to the employees? Response Figure Percentage On the job training 15 54% Off the job training 13 46% Total 28 100% Table 20: Is health and safety training provided to employees? MBA Dissertation Page 98
99 Response Figure Percentage Yes 12 43% No 16 57% Total 28 100% MBA Dissertation Page 99

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A Project on CRM and Call Center

  • 1. 1 London School of Commerce An Exploration into the concept of customer relationship management and its implementation within a call centre in India as well as relating it to the factors that affects the well being of the employees working in a call centre environment : A Case Study of Sutherland Global Services (India) MBA Dissertation Submitted By: ANJU SKARIAH Student ID: Professor: Mr. Peter Bowyer Presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Business Administration [International Business] University of Wales Institute, Cardiff November 2010 MBA Dissertation Page 1
  • 2. 2 Abstract The core aim of this study which the author lays down is looking into the concept of Customer Relationship Management [CRM] and its implementation within a call centre environment. The call centre that the author has focused upon is Sutherland Global Services which is actually based in India as the author has contacts in the Indian call centre. The study throws light upon how the implementation of customer relationship management affects the employees working in a call centre, whether it makes things better for the employees or not. The author throws enough light upon the factors relating to the well being of call centre employees. Call centre’s everywhere is blooming like an international business and making huge profits and this fact is published and known to one and all. So the author through this study brings out the factors which affect the employee well being. The technology related to the CRM implementation is also discussed. The reader will be able to understand thoroughly the concepts of customer relationship management and the concept of call centre environment in detail as the author has conducted a detailed study into both concepts and they are both presented under separate headings falling under the literature review chapter. The author conducts interpretative study by making use of the qualitative and quantitative research approaches and adopts the research strategy of case study analysis which throws light on the company Sutherland Global Services and what the company deals with, its customers and core values will be highlighted. The reader will gain in depth knowledge about the concepts of customer relationship management and the issues relating to the working conditions of the call centre environment as well as how the vibrant call centre environment works under pressure is highlighted. MBA Dissertation Page 2
  • 3. 3 Acknowledgements As I reach the end of this study there are many people I need to thank without leaving out anyone. As the saying goes gratitude is a duty and it must be paid in full so first of all I must thank God Almighty who gave me enough strength to concentrate fully on this study in spite of facing many problems in the course of the study. I am truly indebted to his love and kindness which provided me with immense strength and support in many ways and forms. I extend my sincere thanks to my professor Mr. Peter Bowyer who was my supervisor during the course of my dissertation and has been a great guide and immense support during the entire study. His sincere interest in my subject of study will be appreciated always. Next I thank the University of Wales and London School of Commerce for providing me with resources for the dissertation and all other educational facilities which was a great help indeed. I am grateful to three most important supporting pillars of my life that is my parents Mr. Daniel Skariah and Mrs. Aleyamma Skariah and my sweet sister Miss. Ancy Skariah for providing me immense support and love which gave me the strength to move forward and get my work done with high dedication and interest. I will love you always now and forever. A special thanks to my sister again for comforting me when I was extremely stressed. I am thankful to all my friends who guided me and a special thanks to my friends Nisha K. Pillai and Jyoti Singh who helped me fill the questionnaire by contacting the agents and management team working at Sutherland Global Service. And finally, a special thanks to all the respondents who found time out of their busy schedule to fill my questionnaire. Once again a special thanks to everyone who helped me complete this dissertation and apologies if I have left out anyone. MBA Dissertation Page 3
  • 4. 4 Table of Contents Title Page................................................................................................................ Signed Statement.................................................................................................. Abstract................................................................................................................... Acknowledgements.............................................................................................. Chapter One: Introduction................................................................ 1] Aim of Chapter....................................................................................................... 2] Research and Importance of background................................................................ 3] Company Overview................................................................................................. 4] Dissertation Framework........................................................................................... 6] Objectives of Dissertation........................................................................................ 7] Rationale behind choosing the topic........................................................................ 8] Limitations............................................................................................................... Chapter Two: Literature Review........................................................ Part A: Customer Relationship Management [CRM] 1] Aim of Chapter......................................................................................................... 2] Definition and outline of Customer Relationship Management [CRM]................... 3] The Customer and the Customer Life Cycle............................................................ 4] Evolution of CRM.................................................................................................... 5] Technology............................................................................................................... 6] e- CRM..................................................................................................................... 7] An update on CRM implementation till date........................................................... Chapter Three: Literature Review....................................................... Part B: The Call Centre Environment 1] Aim of Chapter.......................................................................................................... 2] Culture in Call Centre................................................................................................ 3] The Vibrant Call Centre Environment....................................................................... 4] Stress Factors in Call Centre.............. ....................................................................... 5] CRM Systems in Call Centre..................................................................................... 6] Performance Monitoring............................................................................................. 7] Conclusion of chapter two and three.......................................................................... MBA Dissertation Page 4
  • 5. 5 Chapter Four: Research Methodology................................................... 1] Aim of Chapter............................................................................................................. 2] Secondary Research Method........................................................................................ 3] Primary Research Method........................................................................................... 4] Quantitative Research Method..................................................................................... 5] Questionnaire................................................................................................................ 6] Qualitative Research Method....................................................................................... 7] Interview...................................................................................................................... 8] Case Study................................................................................................................... 9] Conclusion.................................................................................................................... Chapter Five: Case Study- Sutherland Global Services......................... 1] Aim of Chapter.............................................................................................................. 2] Company Profile............................................................................................................ 3] Company Core Values................................................................................................... 4] Customer Support Tools................................................................................................ 5] Technology Used.......................................................................................................... 6] Conclusion..................................................................................................................... Chapter Six: Findings and Analysis........................................................ 1] Aim of Chapter.............................................................................................................. 2] Analysis of Questionnaire.............................................................................................. a) Maintenance of Customer Service.............................................................................. b) Feedback and Performance Monitoring..................................................................... c) Implementation of CRM............................................................................................. d) Stress Levels............................................................................................................... e) Training provided....................................................................................................... f) Relationship between team leader and employees...................................................... g) Call handling and script.............................................................................................. h) Employee well being.................................................................................................. 3] Analysis of Interview..................................................................................................... a) CRM Implementation.................................................................................................. b) Employee issues focused............................................................................................. 4] Conclusion...................................................................................................................... Chapter Seven: Conclusion and Recommendations................................. 1] Aim of Chapter................................................................................................................ 2] Evaluation and Conclusion of Analysis............................................................................ MBA Dissertation Page 5
  • 6. 6 3] Limitations met................................................................................................................ 3] Recommendations for future study............................................................................... Reflective Summary................................................................................. Chapter Eight: Bibliography.................................................................... List of figures used: Figure 1: An analysis of the customer focus framework....................................................... Figure 2: CRM framework focusing on employee loyalty, investor loyalty and customer loyalty...................................................................................................... Figure 3: A model representing implementation of CRM in an organisation by 4 Phases...................................................................................................................... Figure 4: Figure showing how the concept of customer relationship management works.... Figure 5: The figure shows how traditional customer relationship management used to work and how it looked like................................................................................... Figure 6: The figure shows how customer relationship management looks like in today’s time.............................................................................................................. Figure 7: Job related stress factors.......................................................................................... Appendix 1: Questionnaire................................................................................................. Appendix 2: Interview Questions for Management............................................................ Appendix 3: Tables presenting the results got from the responses of agents of Sutherland Call Centre.................................................................................. MBA Dissertation Page 6
  • 7. 7 Chapter 1: Introduction 1] Aim of Chapter  The topic here is focus for this dissertation is on how customer relationship management is put into use within the Business Process Outsourcing Industry focusing on a Company named Sutherland Global Services in the UK. The research poses a challenge to the call centre image and also places a focus on the implementation of CRM systems and also to know and see how the CRM systems can be put to use in support of the relationships specifically of customer. As we go along we can see that the chapter will portray an overall picture of the objectives and goal of this thesis. The entire concept of research is being discussed and highlighted and any limitations that the author has met with are also mentioned. 2] Importance of background  There is an exceptional rate of growth in the call centers, but the fact is that very little is known about the employee welfare and well being and the customer satisfaction. As such you will see that my research will look at the factors that will affect the well being of agents who work in such environment of call centre. The analysis of research will involve the organisation structure and its approach to the various issues relating to the staff such as recruitment, morale, motivation MBA Dissertation Page 7
  • 8. 8 and well being, as being given prime importance for the customer relationship management systems to be implemented. The term Customer Relation Management [CRM] can be seen as a very crucial concept today mainly in call centre jobs where it is seen that customer is the primary focal point as like in any organisation be it making and maintaining a relation with the customers and as well as more important in maintaining such relation made for a longer period of time. Every firm one comes across has now its main focus on customer relationship management because as the saying goes, “Customer is King”. Customer relationship management is can be said to be as old as the hills in a sense as without customers the company does not run and so it has to be very well noted that it is indeed important to keep a strong connection with all customers every time so it will be easy to maintain every relation in the long run. If we take a look at the old days we can see that customer relationship management is definitely not interpreted as being merely a system or technology wherein the data of a customer goes into the system and out of the company, instead such transaction is usually seen as a way of life today. The fact is that each and every business needs customers to buy the products or make use of the services for a price else there is no need for a transaction/sale to take place and hence there would be no business. Since the saying goes that customer is king it is very important to maintain that relation no matter what. Today we are in the modern era, and so it is evident that the time and ways of conducting the operations of the business will also change. One needs to move with the time else we would stand nowhere in a market of tough competition. Now everything is computerised and with the time the use of technology has also increased massively and the same is the case of internet which one cannot do without as it would make life impossible. Customer relationship management [CRM] plays a very crucial role to every business or firm. Customer relationship management in today’s time can be termed as maintaining the old spirit of relations with customers even if it means one cannot be face to face with the customer to shake hands. Today being far away from one another, personal connection might turn out to be impossible to be kept but still the connection with each customer is maintained so that the customer stays. With the increase in technology, all transactions are done using the internet and the CRM systems. MBA Dissertation Page 8
  • 9. 9 The concepts that fall under the term Customer relationship management [CRM] include the following such as the marketing, sales, delivery of orders and lastly if any after-sales support and service. Employees who work directly with the customers use the software applications which is known as the front- office systems and at the same time those applications that is who will rarely or hardly be in touch is called the back office system. As such a good customer relationship management [CRM] system does help the supplier come to know exactly what is essential for customers and so it really helps to build up customer satisfaction as well as loyalty in terms of customers. 3] Company Overview  The Organisation that the author has chosen as focus of study is called “Sutherland Global Services” which is actually a company that falls under the business process outsourcing industry, looking into the needs of as well as providing solutions in various fields globally namely human resources, retail and e-retail, finance, banking and insurance, government and finally the firm also looks into health and safety matters as well. The services of the firm are tailored and set perfect in a manner to meet various need criteria of different firms. The firm also gives information or data in paper form to its various users as well as deals with online services giving importance to the fact that it is the internet era today. The research aims to provide a detailed explanation of the use of Customer Relationship Management [CRM] systems within a firm and also looks at the fact as to how the call centres and companies related in the same manner use a CRM system in the working environment today. The research will also case out the impacts the CRM system has had implemented in a call centre environment based on the case study of a major multi-national global organization named Sutherland. 4] Dissertation Framework  The researcher has mainly emphasised on term customer relationship management and has also MBA Dissertation Page 9
  • 10. 10 thrown light upon its implementation in a call centre as well as looking into the factors which will affect mostly the welfare of the employee’s is the major interest of this study. This topic was mainly chosen keeping in mind the researcher’s interest in the above said area and from experience of how the employees are treated and affected by such CRM systems being implemented, and as such the researcher was motivated to look into and explore these issues more into detail and form the basis of the study through analysis. This research should be able to portray a good picture of customer relationship management as well as also how this termed evolved over time and is what it is at present. The research will also show a picture of matters evolving around one-to-one relationships and how such evolvement joins hands through implementation of customer relationship management. Secondly, the researcher will look into the findings from quantitative and qualitative research and will be used as part of analysis. Questionnaire will be made and surveys with the Sutherland Global Services operators and management will be done and whatever data will be procured will be used for the analysis and it will help to display the value, concept and the relations of this research. Lastly, the research will be concluded with the analysis conducted making use of the findings collected will be concluded with the conclusion of the analysis achieved in the field of research. The findings, analysis and conclusion will reflect the use of the term customer relationship management [CRM] in a call centre environment and how employees are affected by the implementation of CRM systems, and lastly whether all the above points has a positive or negative impact on the employee welfare and their working conditions. This framework gives the idea of what each chapter will contain like a description into what contents will be included in the chapter which is as follows :- Chapters two and three is the literature review and is divided into two sections part A and part B. The second chapter is the literature review which consists of Section A which will throw light upon concept of customer relationship management in other words CRM. This section will look into the matters regarding Customer relationship management and relevant CRM strategies from MBA Dissertation Page 10
  • 11. 11 the view point of the firm. This section will also focus on the term customer which is most important aspect in CRM and any business and organisation. The following chapter will be seen starting with the review of the CRM concept and the definition and how CRM has evolved over time and how the use of modern technology combined with the use of internet has brought about a change in the way the firms implement the CRM systems now. The third chapter is also literature review but for the second section that is section B will be focusing on the call centre environment. This section will look into issues like how a call centre environment is like, the culture found in such an environment, the motivation level, stress level and factors, performance monitoring and so on. In other words the issues surrounding the employees who work within a call centre environment shall be put forth for discussion and how it will affect the employee well being When we proceed to the fourth chapter, we can see the research method of this thesis. This chapter will look into the approach/method that needs to be adopted for this study and the manner in which the research shall take place. The fifth chapter will look into the company side of story where the company Sutherland Global Services will be presented as the matter of discussion and case study. The chapter will start with an introduction of the company Sutherland and also state the present position of the firm. The chapter will throw light on the firm’s background, the personnel, the technology currently being used and the customers. The chapter will conclude by saying how the data or information available will form the basis of analysis and the forthcoming chapters. The sixth chapter focuses on the research got from the questionnaire supplied to employees working in a call centre environment and the interview analysis of management. Through the survey, the reader will be able to understand the fundamental factors of CRM and to what extend it affects the employees and management. The final chapter that is the seventh chapter reflects on the findings and the evaluation done. There will also be a mention about the limitation of the study as well as future recommendations MBA Dissertation Page 11
  • 12. 12 if needed at the end. This is the concluding chapter that will bring the research to an end based on the findings and evaluation. Based on the analysis, conclusions will be formed. 5] Aims of Dissertation  The main aim of this dissertation is to display the impacts of the CRM systems in the services industry and how they are made use of, and there will also be a discussion on the main ways a the implementation of customer relationship management [CRM] will affect the welfare or well being of the employees working in a call centre and also how such customer relationship management is looked into when it comes to dealing with the customers. The actual focus of my research is to analyse the basic and main issues that connects to the customer relationship management [CRM] implementation and how management deal with the concept of CRM in the working environment, based on a case study within the business process outsourcing industry [BPO] The secondary focus of the research is to collect quantitative data for the research using the methods namely questionnaire as part of the case study research for this dissertation. 6] Objectives of Dissertation  The main objectives of the study are as follows:  To carry out research into the background of the topic of CRM and its evolution  To conduct a questionnaire survey with the frontline staff within the company and an interview with the management team in order to find out the CRM implementation and affected working role and to analyse the impacts of employee well-being in a call centre environment MBA Dissertation Page 12
  • 13. 13  To draw up an analysis on the findings, reflecting the use of CRM in call centres and how it affects employee well being as well as how it is could be used for the support and maintaining relationships with customers. The research will be solely focusing on a company based in a business process outsourcing industry. The researcher will also be taking a look at how CRM deals with the various customer needs as well as alongside maintains the customer relations for a long period of time. The researcher will conduct quantitative research method using the questionnaire technique as part of the study. 7] Rationale for the chosen topic  The rationale or concept for the researcher to chose this specific topic is mainly the researcher’s spark of interest which came out in the term Customer Relationship Management [CRM] as it is an important term today and is widely used as well as the researcher’s curiosity to look into the welfare of employees working in a call centre environment and what pressures they have to face within a call centre environment. It is a known fact that call centre’s are actually growing at an alarmingly fast pace like fire spreads but what is not a known fact is the employee problems and issues that is exactly the concept the researcher wants to know and hopes to conclude and find when the research ends along with the concept of how customer relationship management [CRM] helps to support such customer relations that is important for the very existence of firms or business. 8] Limitations met  The author has met with various limitations such as the following:- 1] Time frame being short 2] Distance problems created issues like not being able to conduct face-to-face interviews 3] Risk of not getting the responses in time to the questionnaire sent out MBA Dissertation Page 13
  • 14. 14 4] Computer problems like word document getting corrupted and had to find an alternative Chapter 2: Literature Review Part A: Customer Relationship Management [CRM] 1] Aim of the Chapter  The main aim of this chapter is by looking from an organisational perspective, what issues has to be considered relating to concept of CRM. The chapter includes a detailed discussion of CRM and how the usage of technology and internet has paved way for revolution in the manner companies incorporate and implement the CRM system. 2] Definition and outline of Customer Relationship Management  Customer Relationship Management [CRM] cannot be treated as a single application that solves all the customer related problems in a company. CRM can rather be termed as a “state of mind” in a company which also involves three most important functional areas namely sales, marketing and customer service. Customer relationship management can be defined as: CRM is a business strategy to select and manage customers to optimise long term value. CRM requires a customer – centric business philosophy and culture to support effective marketing, sales and service process. [Nils Merkel, MBA Dissertation Page 14
  • 15. 15 2010] “CRM, a well defined business strategy, is a fusion of a series of functions, skills, processes and technologies which together allow companies to more profitably manage (acquire and retain) customers as tangible assets. CRM is a discipline as well as a set of discrete software’s and technologies with a focus on automation and on improving the business process associated with managing customer relationship in areas of sales, marketing, customer service and support.” [Shanmugasundaram (ed.), Shanmugasundaram S., 2008] Customer relationship management can also be termed as customer management or as relationship marketing. This concept is an information technology term that is used for methods, strategies, objectives, software and other web related techniques to help the company to organise, maintain and manage its relations with customers for a long term. CRM aims at understanding each and every customer value in a better manner as well as aims at improving the communication effectiveness. CRM acquires data, knowledge and information from customers, analyses the data and then distributes it to all the employees of the company. Such distribution helps in understanding customers needs and as such the product and service needs can be met at the right time. [MIS Bridge, May 27, 2008] MBA Dissertation Page 15
  • 16. 16 Source: MIS Bridge [May 27, 2008] Figure 1: An analysis of the customer focus framework To successfully implement a CRM system, it should be known to the management that the implementation will affect each and every section of the organisation and therefore in order to gain positive results, important changes will take place and so the implementation must be supported by the management from the very start. [Nils Merkel, 2010] Customer Relationship Management [CRM] is a business strategy that is company - wide based and is designed aiming to reduce the costs and increase the profitability by improving upon loyalty, advocacy and customer satisfaction. CRM works in a manner of bringing together information/data from all sources within a company and if needed also from outside the company to give a proper view of each customer. The major three key elements for a successful customer relationship management are process, people and technology. Each and every member of the company starting from the CEO to every customer service representative has to buy in to and provide support to the concept of CRM. MBA Dissertation Page 16
  • 17. 17 The CRM structure has to be supported by various issues like the company has to select the right technology in order to drive the process, companies must be able to provide the best information/data to its employees and should also be easy to operate so the users will not back off. If any of the above points are not sound enough, the CRM structure is prone to fall down. [Michael Gentle, 2002] In order that CRM to be successful and effective it has to face certain challenges such as convincing its staff that the concept of change is good and CRM is bound to benefit them. Then the business processes need to be analysed and reengineered. The next challenge is to make out what customer data is relevant and how to make use of it. Lastly, a team of selected people should choose the right and best technology to conduct the process of automation. CRM can be termed as a valid business concept with huge benefits directed at both the company as well as its customers. If we look at CRM, we need to start from the basics i.e. the customer life cycle. Outline of CRM  According to Michael Gentle (2002), “CRM = retention + profitability growth. It is an effective process that favours customer retention and increased profitability.” Customer Relationship Management [CRM] is progressively more seen at the top of organisation agendas. Companies are embracing CRM as a major constitute of business strategy. MBA Dissertation Page 17
  • 18. 18 Source: CRM Today [2001-2008] Figure 2: CRM framework focusing on employee loyalty, investor loyalty and customer loyalty The figure above shows that when there is employee and investor loyalty it will automatically lead to them providing quality services to their customers. When the customer availing these services becomes satisfied, the customer becomes loyal to the company and stays with the company for a long period of time which is called lifetime value and thus it gives rise to profit and growth. Customer Relationship Management can be termed as a continuous relationship between three main concepts namely- suppliers, customers and services. As such we can claim that the customer is someone who has paid for the products and services which means they have actually already gone through the process of sales and are now making use of their purchase. Therefore, it can be said that customer relationship management is not only about attracting a prospect customer. There is still a lot more that adds to the concept. According to Bryan Bergeron (2002), “CRM is the dynamic process of managing a customer-company relationship such that customers elect to continue mutually beneficial commercial exchanges and are dissuaded from participating in exchanges that are unprofitable to the company.” MBA Dissertation Page 18
  • 19. 19 Source: Customer Dynamics (2010) Figure 3: A model representing implementation of CRM in an organisation by 4 phases CRM can be said as a technology that lays down the steps to achieve results on a consistent basis. It should be noted that the customer relationship management process is dynamic which means it can change or is unpredictable as in the assumption and actions can/may change due to environmental fluctuations or a change in the relationship between the company and the customer. In other words, CRM also includes constant attention to the customer and company relationship. CRM is not same as Sales Relationship Management and should not be confused with the sales process. Suppose a particular customer ends up being a drain in the company, the blame is not of the sales department instead, it is of the customer service not being provided properly. “The customer is ultimately in control of the relationship. The customer can chose to continue the relationship or walk away. In this regard, the definition also implies that the company is doing most of the work of maintaining a mutually beneficial relationship. In this situation, the customer may contribute only a medium of effort in maintaining the relationship, such as taking the time to order a widget from the company instead of placing the order with a competitor.” [Bryan Bergeron, 2002] MBA Dissertation Page 19
  • 20. 20 Customer Relationship Management [CRM] looks at balancing between two groups. The first group aims at attracting a huge group of profitable customers [which go along the mission of the company when suppose the company gets involved in market share] For example, companies like Chevrolet, Dell Computers and Dockers belong to this category. Now the second group aims at attracting the smallest group of customers especially when the company aims at profit maximisation. For example, companies like Porsche, Armani and Apple Computers fall under this category. CRM can also be looked as a concept to retain the loyal and other customers who would otherwise go to the competitors. “The goal is to foster the right kind of repeat customers.” [Bryan Bergeron, 2002] As earlier discussed, the dynamics of CRM changes when then customer-company relationship no longer stands profitable. In such situations, the customer can decide to walk out at any time but still even then, the company would not invest much in maintaining such relationships again. For example, such an unprofitable customer may be on hold for long and at the end would be told by the employee/ agent that nothing can be done to solve the customer’s problem. Before the management implements CRM in the organisation, it is important that they understand the value of CRM. The senior management should look into the prospects of implementing the CRM concept and system n the company. “Although customer-focused approaches to business are now in vogue, there is a danger in not looking inward from time to time. The corporate culture, including employee satisfaction, ultimately affects how customers are perceived and treated. CRM recognises the role of technology, the importance of self-knowledge, the finite nature of customer-company relationships and the need for consistency in quality of service. Effective CRM is also based on a process as opposed to as ad hoc approach, which includes managing customer explanations” [Bryan Bergeron, 2002] MBA Dissertation Page 20
  • 21. 21 The concept of CRM includes the following aspects:- a) Measurements of inputs such as marketing, service costs and sales as well as outputs such as customer income, profit and value. b) Continuous update of data, information and knowledge and retrieval of data about customers needs and problems and about motivation c) It includes applying this knowledge and information of customers to improve the performance through the learning process. d) Then is the process of integrating all of the above points for the achievement of a common goal. e) Lastly, implementation of systems for the support of this knowledge and also to measure CRM effectively. [Robert Shaw, David Reed, 1999] Source: ZOHO Corp, 2010 Figure 4: Figure showing how the concept of customer relationship management works. 3] The Customer and the Customer Life Cycle  MBA Dissertation Page 21
  • 22. 22 According to Sheila Mello (2003), “The customer drives the definition of the product. The organization must adapt its structures, roles and internal activities to the dynamic requirements of the customer.” The customer is the most important in any organization or business as without the customer, there is no business at all. A business runs when it gets customers to buy its products and render its services. Customer is king being the main focus; we can therefore understand that the main focus point of the concept of customer relationship management is customer. The organization collects information, data about the customer and from this available data, the company forms an idea or model which portrays the customer behavior. By this model made, the company can control the interactions of the customer with the employees and the company as well as the customer expectations can be managed. Let us throw a bit of light on the concept of customer expectation. For instance, if put ourselves in the customer’s shoes, what we expect from the company product and service, we would like quality products, quality or first class service, timely after sales service, reliable products and money value. These are the main things which we as a customer might reasonably expect from any company. With the increased use of web, customers are becoming more internet savvy and they expect more value for the money that they spend. When we look at a customer, we need to study the concept of loyalty which can also be termed as loyalty effect. This concept through a practical perspective is very difficult to predict among all the customers the company has, within which we cannot make out which customer is loyal and which not. Loyalty can be equalised to concepts like love and loathing which in reality are difficult or rather impossible to quantify. The only thing that is quantifiable is customer behavior. “The definition of customer loyalty would mean that someone who is willing to pay a premium for Brand A over Brand B, even when the products they represent are virtually equivalent, is loyal to Brand A.” [Don Peppers, Martha Rogers, 2004] “The behavioral definition of loyalty would mean that someone is willing to pay a premium for Brand A over Brand B, even without respect to the attitudes or preferences that underlie that MBA Dissertation Page 22
  • 23. 23 conduct.” [Don Peppers, Martha Rogers, 2004] The positive factors that contribute to customer loyalty or the loyalty effect are value, lack of alternatives, investment and emotional bond. On the contrary, the negative factors are frustration and available alternatives. Let us look at the factors one by one which are as follows:- A] Positive factors   Value: - Every customer expects value for money and so the greater the value, greater will be the loyalty effect  Lack of alternatives: - If a product or service is readily available, then it is more than likely that the customer will continue purchasing from the same company and not go elsewhere searching.  Investment: - The more time and money invested in a relationship [in this case of the customer relationship], more will be the customer loyalty. Such relationship will go a long way.  Emotional bond: - An emotional bond rather a personal bond with the employee or agent is a very important factor that leads to creating a loyal customer. B] Negative factors   Frustration: - Here it refers to customer frustration. This is one main cause to end an ideal customer-company relationship. It is evident that if a customer is put on hold for very long, if the customer has to keep pushing many buttons on the menu just to speak to an agent but in the end gets no result then obviously the customer will get frustrated and the relationship might get ended then and there itself.  Available alternatives: - If there are more and more available and at the same time affordable alternatives, this case would automatically reduce customer loyalty as the customer then seeks new products and services of the competitors. “The Customer Life Cycle is a means of defining and communicating the way in which a company interacts with its customers and prospects, i.e. they acquire, retain and enhance MBA Dissertation Page 23
  • 24. 24 continuum. The success of any company requires nurturing of this cycle and the sales department sets smack in the middle of the customer life cycle.” [Janice Reynolds, 2002] A company deals with a particular customer through three stages in the life cycle namely, sales, delivery and after sales. a] Sales - this stage involves identifying and targeting the potential customer to make the contact, to commit to buy. b] Delivery - this stage involves the delivery of the product or service by means of activating, installing or implementing. c] After sales - this stage is also known as service management and it involves all those activities that take place after the sales stage, which means billing, customer service, complaints and enquiries. As such we can summarise and say that, CRM is about delivering good customer service keeping customer in focus at all times. Such customer service must be responsive, excellent, reliable, truthful, personable and affordable. It is worth paying for a good CRM system if the customer is a loyal one, and if the company decides to hold on to that customer as they will bring business and profits for the company. 4] Evolution of CRM  In order to understand the concept of CRM fully, it is first of all necessary to understand the origin or evolution of the very concept as to where do this concept arise from. The earlier marketing concept is known as relationship marketing or traditional CRM. Previously, there was a concept named as conventional transactional marketing. When this concept showed lack of satisfaction, then emerged what was known as relationship marketing. In the year 1954, Peter Drucker said, “There is only one valid definition of business: to create customer. It is the customer who determines what the business is” [Geoff Lancaster, Paul Reynolds, 2002] Therefore, we can say that in one sense it is basically a marketing concept in principle but this concept is developed in such a manner that it can be applied to an operational setting and not just MBA Dissertation Page 24
  • 25. 25 be known as a concept and kept aside. The concept of customer relationship management has evolved from advances in information technology and changes in companies that have processes which is customer-centric. [Injazz J.Chen, Karen Popovich, 2003] Today, the entire concept of customer, customer care and CRM has evolved and changed and is developed over the past 20 years as it is the internet era now so we need to move with the time and make changes accordingly. Such change is necessary as customers change, their mentality, likes, dislikes and preferences change. Some see customer relationship management as a big time change in the philosophy of business. It is a concept that consolidates, integrates and incorporates the earlier management thinking such as internal marketing, traditional marketing, transactional marketing, relationship marketing and finally the total quality management. [Geoff Lancaster, Paul Reynolds, 2002] Source: Social CRM: Ready for action? [October 11th 2009] Figure 5: The figure shows how traditional customer relationship management used to work and how it looked like. MBA Dissertation Page 25
  • 26. 26 Source: Social CRM: Ready for action? [October 11th 2009] Figure 6: The figure shows how customer relationship management looks like in today’s time. 5] Technology  Customer relationship management can be termed as a technology, more specifically as a process that aims at creating repeatable, consistent and measurable results. The term technology is usually associated with equipments like computers and electronic equipment and as such CRM is connected to manual processes based on multiline or switched telephone systems. The process description for customer relationship management [CRM] is an organisation mainly a call centre and how the process works is as follows:-  The process starts with the customer calling the agent/employee in the call centre.  The agent makes sure verifies that the customer is eligible for customer service. This identification is done because sometimes those who call need not be customers or in some cases they may not be eligible for such support as they may not have registered their product or their support period might have expired.  The agent then logs the call. The term log means it serves as a basis to follow-up on the problem of the customer and as data required to evaluate the CRM implementation and its effectiveness. MBA Dissertation Page 26
  • 27. 27  The initial agent A transfers the call to the agent B who is better qualified in handling the problem using the combination of agent A’s understanding of the problem and agent B’s expertise and availability.  Agent B at this stage deals with the customer and clearly understands the problem.  Agent B researches on the problem.  Agent B then talks with other agents in the company like agent C, D and so on and tries to find a solution.  The problem is then documented and progress is checked and documented to see whether the problem has been resolved or yet something is left.  When solution is got, the problem is closed.  This is the final stage where evaluation regarding the effectiveness of the CRM effort is done by the CRM department manager or the administration department by using the problem documentation. The concept of online business or E-Commerce has become very popular. Such is the case of the use of computers and technology when it comes to cost savings and therefore it is not a surprise if CRM depends on computer or technology to save costs. The main aim of making the CRM process computerised is so that the employees would be protected from complexity and will also improve CRM effectiveness. The benefits of computerisation include the company better handling the customers, better handling more customers in a short time period, time saving for agents and for important customers. CRM Technologies and their uses [Bryan Bergeron, 2002]   Automated Call Distribution [ACD]: - This is an automatic answering and routing of calls keeping in mind the characteristics of the call and the number of customers in queue or on hold. The main aim of ACD is to keep the callers on hold for the least time so as to reduce agent’s idle time and also to reduce shifting of calls from one agent to another thereby saving time.  Back-End Integration: - Under this concept there happens t be a continuous transfer and MBA Dissertation Page 27
  • 28. 28 communication of data or customer information generated from various touch points like E-mail, phone, wireless, direct contact with caller through help of various computer systems. Therefore the back end normally includes software and hardware that can be found in the corporate computer centre.  Human Resource: - many human resource functions can be benefited by the use of technology or computers such as agent scheduling, qualification for incentives, training.  Interactive Voice Response [IVR]: -IVR is basically a telephone interface that is connected to a computer system that is run by using voice responses or telephone keypad entry. This system replaces telephone operations which are done by humans.  Help in localisation: - The use of correct language skills and etiquette for the caller is very important. Technology plays a very important role here by identifying the caller’s origin and thereby transferring the call to such an agent who has the appropriate language skills.  Monitoring: - this concept allows evaluation of individual agent performance and productivity. Recordings can be checked and evaluated for purposes of training as well as to settle complaints when a customer complaints about a particular agent.  Measurement: - computers and technology can help in measuring the performance. It can check how much time an agent takes with a customer, the number of caller hang-ups and so on.  Reporting: - Technology can help in generating inputs by using the customer data stored in the application.  Resolution: - Customers issues/problems and requests can be resolved by use of technology especially when the problems keep going on and on.  Training: - Agents in the call centre turn out to be the least trained out of the corporate employees mainly because of the expense and time that is required in the training process. But now thanks to the technology usage, teaching agents how to use the systems can be simplified using computer based training systems.  Workforce Management: - Many computer based tools and techniques are used to help the measurement to allocate the agent time effectively. It can also help to reduce callers waiting time and also helps in forecasting and scheduling the activities of the call centre. MBA Dissertation Page 28
  • 29. 29 CRM technologies can further be divided into four categories namely: - 1] Computer Software  For example - analysis, call centre management, customer loyalty programs, data collection, database management systems, security, mobile computing solutions, information protection. 2] Telecommunication  For example – call centre equipment, wireless systems, messaging, telephony networks, paging services. 3] Computer Hardware  For example – data backup system, monitors, PC’s, peripherals, wireless devices. 4] Process and professional services  For example – consulting, field support services, training/education, and software design, online resources, call centre services, process re- engineering A difficult line must be drawn between two main innovative technologies namely:-  The cutting edge technology which is in limited use in business  The bleeding edge technology which is apparently still in theory for example human augmentation. According to Gartner’s Hype Cycle description, “human augmentation focuses on creating cognitive and physical improvements as an integral part of the human body. For example, active control systems to create limb prosthetics possessing characteristics that exceed the highest natural human performance. [Christopher Musico, 2010] According to Jackie Fenn, “you can tap into how to bring improvement in decision making and memory, bringing us one step closer to being real-time and seamlessly integrated with our brains. This is about bringing those capabilities closer so they’re with you all the time at your point of need initially in some wearable format, but potentially closer and implantable ways” MBA Dissertation Page 29
  • 30. 30 [Christopher Musico, 2010] Using technology, one application could be to figure out the face one has just seen, tap into that memory and have a facial recognition. This is called memory capabilities and this application can be of importance to the employee/agents who work in a call centre or field sales representatives who are in constant and regular touch with the customers meeting and greeting them. 6] e-CRM  According to Bryan Bergeron (2002), “e-CRM is customer relationship management on the web, however, e-CRM also includes the use of email, e-commerce activity and any other internet- based customer touch points.” “The definition of the ‘e’ in the e-CRM does not limit the data collection and processing to the internet. By definition, any electronic contact with a customer through which data can be gathered for further analysis can be considered a form of e-CRM.” [Jery Fjermestad, Nicholas C. Romano, 2006] Today the web space had become less distinguishable from other areas such that e-CRM blends in with the company of CRM. Today the main issue is that e-CRM and CRM are seen as different methods by firms struggling to compete for the web space. Various characteristics such as self-documentation, popularity and flexibility make e-CRM ideally a suitable partner for CRM. Customers having expectations of an inflated nature is the issue today and it is regarding issues with web. The issue is what the web touch point can deliver to its customers. Customers nowadays expect greater money value in transactions done through the internet. It is very difficult to keep pace with the changing times as in the case of creativity and the change in the internet/web space, but still the web has been able to extend its reach of the customer relationship management concept to anyone around the world connected to the internet using systems like dial-up modem, wireless modem and high-speed direct connection. The plus point is that this was highly successful. Now with the excellent combination of the internet and CRM, MBA Dissertation Page 30
  • 31. 31 many industries are turning their focus on the internet for delivering services connected to CRM implementation. For example, “the major airlines and most travel agencies generate Web-based itineraries, including local weather, car rental rates and availability, and other travel-related information. For business travellers, the web represents an omnipresent reference to flight data; hotel information, weather and travel help in general.” [Bryan Bergeron, 2002] If one looks from the technical point of view, it is a fact that e-CRM has huge potentials of creating information/data than any other touch point. The web can be more appropriately used for products and services which are connected to the computer. If one looks from the business point of view, e-CRM in CRM is associated with challenges of various types such as costs incurred for additional computer parts, software and hardware. If one looks from the corporate culture point of view, with the implementation of e-CRM along with CRM poses challenges within the company such as training of employees and employee motivation. 7] An Update on CRM implementation till date  The researcher has looked through resources and found the some data that relate to the concept of customer relationship management and its scope till date. The data found are as follows [Joshua Weinberger, July 2010]: -  CRM Software – Annual Sales In the year 1997 $762 million In the year 2001$14 million Source: AMR Research [now a unit of Gartner]  CRM implementation – percentage of companies In the year 2003 53% In the year 2010 75%  A mix of CRM systems and software’s in place [in percentage] MBA Dissertation Page 31
  • 32. 32 In the year 2003 85% on premises vs. 15% on SaaS In the year 2010 47% on premises vs. 53% on SaaS Source: Jim Dickie, managing partner CSO Insights Annual Sales Performance Optimisation Studies.  CRM implementation failure rate in percentage In the year 2001 50% In the year 2002 70% In the year 2005 18% In the year 2006 31% In the year 2007 56% In the tear 2009 47% Source: Michael Krigsman  Revenue on implementation of CRM In the year 2000 $0 In the year 2010 $1.3 billion Source: Company Filings [Joshua Weinberger, July 2010] “Balls, Pool, billiards, snooker-no matter what game you’re playing, there’s an undeniable beauty in the chaos of brightly colour ceramics spheres suddenly set in motion. The geometry may be convoluted, with collisions and caroms reorienting direction and destination, but the goal of the players-clearing the table, partly or in full- is fairly clear. Intricate in its implementation and elegant in its ideal, CRM can be said to share many of the same traits.” [Joshua Weinberger, July 2010] As customer relationship management being a maturing market, it does have a benefit of owning its own history to look back upon and study from its mistakes and move forward in the path of success. CRM also has a track record to compare itself against as well as it has recommended practices set down by many that will help CRM to change its scale to the success point in future. [Joshua Weinberger, July 2010] MBA Dissertation Page 32
  • 33. 33 Chapter Three: Literature Review Part B: The Call Centre Environment 1] Aim of Chapter  This is part B of the literature review which focuses on the call centre environment. This chapter aims at introducing how such an environment works as the author’s aim is focusing upon the call centre environment and understanding it and at the same time throwing light upon the working conditions of employees which will be analysed through the questionnaire based on customer relationship management and working conditions of employees in a call centre. This chapter also looks through the view point of a customer as in how they perceive the services MBA Dissertation Page 33
  • 34. 34 offered by the call centre. The chapter also throws light upon the aim of this study connected to well being of employees. 2] Culture in call centre  “Well the idea of company culture, which first really became fashionable in the early eighties, could be seen as just another fad. Yet I believe that there’s more to it than just another scheme of management gurus and consultants like me to make a name for themselves. I believe the idea of culture tells us something about how people work together in groups in organisations. And I would suggest that an understanding of what culture is, where it comes from, and how it affects performance, is essential for any call centre manager who is serious about achieving success through their people.” [Kevin Hook, 1998] To understand the concept of a call centre let us take a look at few examples such as follows:- Example 1 – At a call centre at Brighton, an agent gets a call from a customer who was actually blind. Now this customer was going on a holiday and was in a panic state as she was alone and did not know how to complete packing for the journey. So the agent quickly jumped into her car and went to the customer’s house and helped with her packing. Now this is what the company termed as high level of dedication to work and customer service which was truly exceptional. Now by this example, it is understood that this is the culture of this call centre to go out of your way to help your customer. Example 2 – One of my friends happened to visit a call centre for training purpose. There was an assessment centre and it included five internal candidates and four external candidates. The assessment included a group discussion and the topic was how to motivate a team which was not achieving the set target. Now it happened that all the six internal candidates quickly got into a heated discussion debating that the possibility is that such target itself might be wrong. However the four external candidates were confused and kept thinking how can the target be wrong MBA Dissertation Page 34
  • 35. 35 because they believed that a target is a target not a wrong or right one and the aim of an agent should be to achieve it not challenge it. What we can learn from this is the culture of the call centre which made the six candidates to think in that manner. Example 3 - There was a team leader training in one call centre regarding management techniques of standard level. After a month when the person who did the training for the team leaders, briefed the team leaders working in that company, she found out that the manager of all these team leaders did not allow them to practise any of the new skills they had learned during the training session. When asked why this matter was not raised to the manager, the team leaders replied that “well that is not how it works here as it is not the culture”. These are the different cultures and their consequences. The definition of culture goes in this manner – “Culture is such an integral part of human existence that it becomes an invisible script that directs our personal lives. This invisible script can encapsulate and blind us to the factors that make us simultaneously unique from and similar to those from other cultures. Encapsulation can lead us to view the world as an extension of self. The definition of culture should include its functions in human survival, societal arrangements, and in human development that is intellectual, psychological, social and spiritual. Culture should reveal the interconnectedness of its identifiable aspects and describes its dynamic quality in responding to fundamental changes in life conditions and circumstances.” [Etta R. Hollins, 2008] Every call centre has a different culture depending on the company presented and the way they work and matters they deal in. Every call centre also has different processes. They have different customer service units or departments namely like billing customer service, technical customer service, product customer service and so on. They set up a process. Each department has to undergo training and the agents need to undergo training to know how to answer the questions in a proper manner, how to follow the script for each call. Basically in a call centre there are two types of call centres or processes namely inbound call centre and outbound call centre or process. Inbound call centre/process is the one where call is made by the customers whereas outbound call centres/process is one where the calls are made by the agent’s rather sales persons. Every MBA Dissertation Page 35
  • 36. 36 call centre has clients like for example, M&S, Vodafone. The call centres work for these companies and calls are made on their behalf to solve customer problems. Sometimes these call centres are so big that they cater to outsourcing. Small companies do not need to outsource. In a call centre step-by-step training is given to each employee and in each department “Do not make it if you can buy it, could be the simplest definition for outsourcing. However that is true only if you are sure that you would not lose a strategic skill or advantage by outsourcing. The things you should not outsource is called your core competency.” [Dennis Lock, 1998] “Outsourcing really means finding new supplies and new ways to secure the delivery of raw materials, goods, components and services [It means that you use the knowledge, experience and creativity of new supplies which you did not use previously” [ Fery de Kraker, Dennis Lock, 1998] Finally, culture in multinational call centres is a point to be discussed. There is always everywhere an existence of national culture differences as that is where the views from different people are got such as those of Italians, Germans, Nigerians, Japanese, Indian and so on. This point can be emphasised using an example. Research conducted by different researchers shows a vast difference between the culture of Britain and that of the Far Eastern cultures for example that of China where the concept of collectivism and/or individualism is presented. The culture of Britain is highly individualistic whereas culture of China favours collectivism. As such previous researchers have found that the British favour working on individual targets or aims and objectives whereas the Chinese favour team work to achieve the targets. Therefore, to conclude, if suppose both these groups of people happen to work under a single system, then one group will definitely suffer and that is when culture differences occur and leads to chaos. [Kevin Hook, 1998] 4] The vibrant call centre environment  “In most organisations, a call centre is a central place where service representatives, usually with MBA Dissertation Page 36
  • 37. 37 some amount of computer automation, handle customer and other telephone calls. A call centre might consist of one or two reps or hundreds of reps, depending on the support needed for a product or service, the amount of money allocated for customer support and other business parameters.” [Bryan Bergeron, 2002] Today, it is seen that the call centre customers prefer services provided to be better performed, the customers need better and easy ways to order the products and render services, they require timely responses to the problems and queries and prefer a better treatment in all ways. [Roger Hallowell, 1996] “To succeed in today’s inbound call centre, you must understand the new environment: More transactions, increasing complexity and heightened caller expectations. But to those who pay the price to learn the craft, call centre management offers almost limitless opportunities.” [Brad Cleveland & Julia Mayben , 1997] Incoming Calls Management Institute defines “Incoming call centre management is the art of having the right number of skilled people and supporting resources in place at the right times to handle an accurately forecasted workload, at service level and with quality.” [Brad Cleveland & Julia Mayben , 1997] It is in a call centre that three most important concepts are visible which are the customer, the employee/agent and the investor loyalty. Whichever department is being handled, call centre is the main joining point between the company in focus and its customers and so it is an important venue for loyalty. There is two main aspects namely satisfaction and dissatisfaction. If the customer is satisfied, they will keep buying and rendering the service. If they are dissatisfied, they will create an atmosphere of stress for the employee/agent and exit. If the employee/agent is satisfied, they will give excellent service and if they are dissatisfied, only bad service can be expected and eventually the agent will quit the job due to high level of stress that they cannot cope with. If the investor is satisfied, they will think of further investing in such systems that would improve the service provided and if they are not satisfied, they the investor will simply withdraw their money invested and leave the company. [CRM Today, 2001-2008] Michelle Curless, the director of the Customer Group LLC, a Chicago-based consulting firm that MBA Dissertation Page 37
  • 38. 38 specialises in customer interaction says, “A quiet call centre gis conducive to enabling employees to accomplish their jobs. In a quiet controlled environment where you have a cubicle, it is not perceived that there is a lot of chaos going on. That’s a very healthy environment. The chaos is going to be there on days you cannot predict. Although there is chaos behind the scenes, it tends to be managed better in a professional environment.” [David Myron, November 2002] Cary Peskin, associate commissioner and CIO of the NYC HPD says, “To make matters even more complicated nearly 90 percent of all calls coming into the contact center necessitate a follow-up call. Quality-of-life issues can be life threatening. Some examples might be callers saying, ‘I smell gas, I smell smoke, my fire escape is broken!” [David Myron, November 2002] In one unusually long call in a call centre which took 16 minutes and 48 seconds to complete, the usual time per call being 3-4 minutes; the customer went on with her long list of complaints about his landlord. The agent listened patiently and said to the caller/customer that the complaints is being registered and gave the customer a reference number saying someone from the company will be sent over in an hour to see what can be done. However, the agent later gets to know that this call was a false alarm. Cary Peskin says “It’s a very common problem” [David Myron, November 2002] Such are the types of calls in a call centre environment but whatever the situation is or whatever type of call comes, the agents/employees are expected to be calm and maintain professionalism as they face many such situations that are discouraging and stressful. This is the call centre environment in short. Professionalism enables positive attitude even during highly stressful periods. 5] Stress Factors in call centre  “Stress is often described as being associated with emotions such as anger, anxiety and depression, and there is evidence to suggest that it is also related to impoverished mental health.” [Akbar Hussain, Muhammad Ilyas Khan, 2006] MBA Dissertation Page 38
  • 39. 39 Call centre employees are often under high stress levels which have an excessive effect on their performance, morale and can lead to dissatisfaction, employee turnover rate increasing and so on. Such stress not only affects the health of employees but it also affects the performance of the employee which again has a direct effect on the customer service they provide. Source: Marion Vogt, Manfred Krenn [8/3/2005] Figure 7: Job related stress factors The various factors of stress that can be brought out when dealing with the call centre environment can include the following:- a) Attending simultaneous calls b) Typing in between calls as well as looking up data online c) Odd working hours d) Pressure faced by agents to sell products/services e) New technology f) Performance monitoring g) Mentality of customers can be highly frustrating MBA Dissertation Page 39
  • 40. 40 h) Customers can be highly demanding i) Poor management j) No proper equipment k) Back pains and headaches l) Poor facilities There are various other factors such as agents sitting in the same position same chair attending calls for 6-7 hours continuously can frustrate them to a great extend. It can also lead to vision problems caused by continuously looking into the computer screen. No proper food and water facilities can also cause stress. Some call centres do have facilities for relaxation such as beds, gym so that the employees can relax and rest in between. However, there is too much stresses in those call centres that do not provide such facilities. Call centre jobs also include travelling all the time and at odd hours as such pick-up and drop facilities is a must. However, this is a stress point where such facilities are not available or if such facilities are poor. Suppose the employee has his/her own transport facilities, then the company should provide travel allowance if not, again it is a factor for stress. 6] CRM systems in call centre “Knowing, understanding and predicting what your customers want and will want in the future is vital to the success of small to medium- sized enterprises. And CRM is the key.” [Roger Trapp, June 2007] By using the traditional method, businesses that are small had a better understanding of the customer wants, needs and preferences. This was the general thought of small businesses. Each and every business no matter which size is dependant highly on customer. The reason why small business are said to be much more understanding is because, being a corner shop, the seller can be much more straightforward in dealing with their customers. The seller can understand the customer better, their needs due to constant and daily face-to-face interaction. Such understanding and knowledge is what the big firms are trying to achieve and replicate by investing in customer relationship management [CRM]. The concept of CRM was bound with MBA Dissertation Page 40
  • 41. 41 the use of information technology for large organisations namely big supermarkets, banks and so on. According to the government supported advice network for small to medium sized enterprises [SMEs], “It is more of a business philosophy than a technical solution to assist in dealing with customers effectively and efficiently.” [Roger Trapp, June 2007] CRM cannot be said to be purely termed as technology, but it is also a fact that the concept of CRM cannot be introduced successfully without some form of technology in the firm. This is because, only with the help of technology can the concept of integration be implemented as in integrating the ways company uses to communicate with the customers such as through means of internet, telephone, fax and email. In the beginning stages of CRM, there was an absence of sophistication. That led to a situation where the companies that dealt with financial services were offered services with the existing suppliers. However, from that time till now things have changed markedly. It is visible that those firms that are making use of much more sophisticated technologies are enjoying better benefits than those firms which are still using the basic data collection techniques. One technology that has become rather popular is the business analytics applications. This application helps the company to check and analyse the past attitude of prospect customers to anticipate and make way for future trend. According to Thomas H Davenport and Jeanne G Harris, “Many companies in a variety of industries are enhancing their CRM and SCM [supply chain management] capabilities with predictive analytics and they are enjoying market leading growth and performance as a result” [Roger Trapp, June 2007] There is good news that CRM systems and technologies associated with its use are now readily available through the internet in the outsourced form. Though readily available, it would not be cheaper as compared to buying the technology off-the-shelf. The only benefit is quick buy and avoidance of extensive in-house technology team. An example of such a form is offered by Oracle. “The software is extremely low cost. For the first time organisations can afford to implement [this technology] without a large upfront capital expense. It’s a message that the MBA Dissertation Page 41
  • 42. 42 market is waking up to. The cost per user is comparable to an average mobile phone bill.” Says Daryn Mason, European head of solution consulting for Oracle CRM on Demand [Roger Trapp, June 2007] Daryn Mason adds, “Even if there’s over demand, you can use analytics to show which customer should be better served.” [Roger Trapp, June 2007] When it comes to improving efficiency and increasing return on investment [ROI], Paul Stockford notes, agent performance is always atop the list, but a new player is taking on a more influential role. “Desktop analytics is a new technology that I think has a lot of potential for growth over the next three to five years.” [Paul Stockford , 2010] “Understanding how to make incremental changes in call centre operations to optimise customer care and control long term costs without disrupting service delivery is the key determinant to success for implementing a hosted call centre” [Daniel Hong, 2010] “By doing so, enterprises are in a better position to build a high performance customer service strategy that leads to long term success.” [Daniel Hong, 2010] If the call centres inform the customer about the product or service recalls, through texts or by emails, it will free the centre resources thereby allowing the call agents to become more productive with other issues of more complexity. Paul Stockford, 2010[founder of saddletree Research] says “There’s a lot going on at the desktop that is overlooked.” He meant problems such as the pages freezing, agents not acknowledging the keyboard shortcuts can spoil the calls, causing the prevention of problem resolution as well as lower customer satisfaction eventually. After examining the past fifteen years of customer relationship management, if we take a look at the next fifteen years, we can see that sophisticated tools and techniques will make the creation and maintenance of customers for lifetime, the central point for customer-concentrated business strategies. The only problem is that customers keep changing which leads to difficulty in balancing the act. Such an act requires innovation, expertise and commitment and must also be combined with three most important CRM developments which are as follows:- MBA Dissertation Page 42
  • 43. 43 1] Engagement “The transition to customer engagement will also require dynamic customer profiles. I first wrote about customer profile in 1986, and they are now part of every successful CRM system” [Goldenberg, Barton, 2010] Actual and true custom and true customer engagement will need to change from one-way dialogue to a two-way dialogue with one another. [Goldenberg, Barton, 2010] 2] Mobilisation  The use of portable computers have now become an important part of mainstream business and the phones namely Blackberry and iPhone’s are not just meant for the pockets, but have indeed become really productive tools, in other words, the lifeblood of operations and business. Today, the software has made it increasingly possible to access custom applications thus making CRM information and data as well as customer data available at any time and place. The new innovation of Apple, the iPad and other such competing devices aim at portability as well as expanding the access to applications, information and data. [Goldenberg, Barton, 2010] 3] A new paradigm  The success of CRM will depend on the mix involving the process, people and technology. However, new techniques will change people interaction; new business will deal in two-way dialogues. The term multichannel enterprise will become a necessity instead of luxury as it was till date. Over past fifteen years, advances in mix has made customer relationship management more and more meaningful and deep. In next fifteen years, there will be innovation delivered at a fast pace and business will only survive on important two-way dialogues with their mobile customers. [Goldenberg, Barton, 2010] Call distribution:- Call distribution refers to call loads that agents have to attend. The process is tough as the agents have to constantly deal with people with different type of mentalities. Call distribution is also termed as call load. There is a high level of stress as the agents do not get even time to breathe at times as they have to take calls, at the same time take down notes of what the customer is saying and simultaneously they also have to look up the information in the net for the customer. So the MBA Dissertation Page 43
  • 44. 44 process can be highly stressful. The agent also needs to type during calls. Each call has an estimated time of 3-4 minutes and it is a rule that the employee/ call agent cannot keep the call abruptly unless and until the customer ends the call. 7] Performance Monitoring  The term performance monitoring “include any management system that measures some aspect of performance whether on a relatively ongoing basis as is the case for most performance measurement systems or on a more periodic basis as occurs with policy and program evaluation, and with audits. Most approaches to monitoring today involve some form of automated data retrieval.” [ Joseph Wholey, Eduardo Zapico-Goni, 2007] “In either inbound or outbound teleservices, a script or call guide refers to the written presentation or outline of the verbiage a representative uses in conversation with a customer or prospect call guides may be assigned in such a way as to be delivered verbatim, semi-verbatim, bulleted or free from depending on a company’s business philosophy or program requirement.” [Pankaj, 2005] Performance monitoring works at different levels. Suppose a customer is happy with the way the agent spoke with them and solved their problem, the customer will appreciate and this is called performance appraisal. Different departments work towards this concept. In a call centre, there is a team of quality management also known as the internal call auditors. This team works like a spy as they listen to the employee’s or agents calls and set a parameter to monitor their performance. Suppose there is a dispute with one of the calls, this team will watch the call and monitor how well the agent performs in such a situation Each call has a procedure and so the team checks whether the agent follows the procedure or not. Average talk time for a call should not exceed more than 3-4 minutes and if it increases, the company will have to pay their client which is a loss for the company. This average talk time is also a measure of performance level. MBA Dissertation Page 44
  • 45. 45 Customer feedback is very important to assess the performance of the employee. This team of auditor’s checks how much time an agent takes with each call and checks whether the set time is maintained. However, in different departments timing is different as the calls can even exceed to 20-30 minutes depending on the customer and their complaint being dealt with. The employee also needs to follow the script. The opening and closing of the script should be followed if not the rest of it as it depends on the customer that the agent deals with. The concept of call centre monitoring is about making sure the transaction between employee/call centre agent and the prospect customer goes as it should be. The concept involves much more than just dumping the calls to the disk or the tape. New solutions are now being developed in terms of call centre and customer relationship management for purposes like evaluating calls as well as returning calls to the frontline personnel. It also involves observation of the whole interaction between the customer and the agent which is audiovisual and making sure that the agents know their stuff properly and how to use and navigate the CRM tools and techniques and at the same time to handle the customer problems and requests in a proper manner. In summary, the call centre tools used for monitoring protect the huge investment in technology and personnel in the call centre environment. Joanie Rufo, research director at AMR says, “There are three things a call centre manager needs to focus on to get great service: the right information, the right contact [channel], and the right person- and that’s the piece people most often overlook.” [Jason Compton, November 2002] Monitoring can be termed as discouraging the improper use of time that the call centre agents use up. Monitoring also helps the agents to work in a better manner as well as management can try to understand the pain an employee or the agent goes through. David Pennington, senior product manager at Seattle, WA-based Envision Telephony says, “Training in the call centre has always been difficult, because eighty to ninety percent of the agents are idle for four minutes, we can deliver training automatically. That’s when the company is paying for their agent, so if I can, I’ll provide the training for free.” [Jason Compton, November 2002] MBA Dissertation Page 45
  • 46. 46 8] Conclusion of chapter two and three In summary, the second and third chapter emphasises on the concepts of customer relationship management and the call centre environment in detail. Enough light is thrown upon both concepts using examples and real life situations. The reader will be able to understand thoroughly both concepts and how different factors contribute to the functioning of each concept. In order to obtain actual and real time benefits, one needs to break out of the concept of traditional thinking as one needs to move with time. The traditional concept of CRM allowed collecting data which was sucked out and analysed. This gave out some sign of insight though not much but at the end how much ever analysis was done, the root cause of the issue/problem was never found. Today, everyone needs that extra bit of information that could give one company an advantageous edge over other companies. For example, Tesco using its anticipative technology is always able to have more than enough stock for its customers at all times when its competitors sell out completely. The following chapter is the research methodology which says discusses the method of research adopted. MBA Dissertation Page 46
  • 47. 47 Chapter Four: Research Methodology 1] Aim of the Chapter  The research basically portrays the customer relationship management issues [CRM] and issues relating to the call centre environment. The author highlights the issues connected with the CRM implementation within a particular organisation and its operations and the author also highlights by such implementation, what effects it has on the employee well being throughout the organisation. To collect data and analyse these aspects, it is very important that the right method of acquiring data be used. The actual aim of this chapter is to highlight and emphasise on the research method adopted for this dissertation. The reader will be able to understand which method is used and how much the method has proved to be appropriate for this study and at the same time the benefits of adopting this approach will be focused upon. The author made use of both qualitative and quantitative methods for collecting data. For the quantitative approach, the author made use of the questionnaire to acquire necessary data from the frontline staff working at Sutherland call centre in India and for the qualitative approach, MBA Dissertation Page 47
  • 48. 48 Interview questions were made for the management team and later was followed by a case study analysis of the company named Sutherland Global Services, Inc. The author also made use of primary and secondary data. 2] Secondary Research Method  The author explored many sources such as the Internet precisely saying the World Wide Web, books, journals [academic], published statistics, research papers, government documents and articles for the purpose of secondary research. The author found it very helpful and in the process gained a lot of knowledge on the concepts of customer relationship management and on call centre environment and also by doing the case study analysis of Sutherland global services. All the information and data collected has given rise to important findings and analysis which the reader will find in chapter six which deals with findings and analysis. Hakim (1982) defines secondary data analysis as “any further analysis of an existing dataset which presents interpretations, conclusions or knowledge additional to, or different from, those presented in the first report on the inquiry and is main result” [Yvonne McGivern, 2005 p.151] Secondary data is also referred to as pre-existing data which is already there. It is not new data but second hand because it was found by someone else previously. It can also be termed as backup data. This secondary data is collected before collecting primary data. This is done as that we can see what data/information has already been collected and analysed previously before we indulge into our own investigation regarding the topic. This is also because maybe some answers we seek to our topic may have already been answered before and therefore we need to look into it so as to improve upon the research by using primary data. They say that everything has a good and bad side which here applies to the secondary data MBA Dissertation Page 48
  • 49. 49 accessed. Such data is easier to find and gather as it is readily available. It is also of qualitative and permanent nature. However, such data can be invalid like the internet sources and can also be costly to access Being on the university campus and by being able to access the college and university resources helped the author to a great extend by accessing the secondary data especially through journals on customer relationship management and call centre happenings. The author found this research very benefitting. 3] Primary Research Method  According to the author, primary data collection is a research method that is collected by the person doing the current research in this case the author is the person doing it. It is also important to note that such data is collected from those people who have worked and have experience in the relevant field of study. In the process of acquiring data, the author might stumble upon new and interesting facts not known to anyone else yet which could be a great help with the research. Primary data is first hand data that is collected by the researcher at present date. Such data/information is not collected or gathered beforehand. The plus point of such data is that the researcher can find data to suit his/her purpose of research. The minus point of such data is that it can be time consuming and frustrating as the researcher needs to put a lot of effort in collecting such data by contacting many sources and can also be costly. This data can only be collected after the secondary data is collected. The key points of primary data collection are that whatever data is collected is unique to the researcher and to his/her research and until and unless the data is published no one else will have the right to access the data. The data collected could be qualitative or quantitative in nature, which depends on the researcher. 4] Quantitative Research Method  MBA Dissertation Page 49
  • 50. 50 “All quantitative research approaches summarise results numerically. This research draws on a principle of scientific realism: there is a single reality that can be described by numbers.” [Marguerite G. Lodico, Dean T. Spaulding, Katherine H. Voegtle, 2010] Quantitative methods are always seen as collecting and analysing the numbers collected. However, this type of research can also be clarified as experimental or non-experimental. Experimental research involves analysing numbers and looking into the cause-effect relationships whereas, non-experimental research involves analysing numbers to bring out a pre- existing group or to find out whether a relationship does exist or not between various variables. [Marguerite G. Lodico, Dean T. Spaulding, Katherine H. Voegtle, 2010] 5] Questionnaire  This is one of the popular methods for data collection and is used by the researcher for the purpose of analysis of the chosen topic of research. However, this method is a bit difficult as in the researcher had to rewrite the questions many times before it could be finally approved. The researcher here has used the Questionnaire method. A questionnaire could have various types of questions namely open ended questions, closed ended questions, multiple choice questions and scaled response questions. Advantages of this method • This method can be used as a basis for survey either through emails, face-to-face conversations or through telephone • If the questionnaire is sent through email, it could cover a wide geographic area • This is a cheap method as no cost is involved • This method could cover a rather large number of respondents • The respondent does not have to be embarrassed due to any question that could be hinting towards personal aspects as face-to-face can be avoided Disadvantages of this method MBA Dissertation Page 50
  • 51. 51 • The questions framed should be simple so that respondents sitting in another part of the world does not find it difficult to understand and decide not respond • Designing the questionnaire could be an issue as it could be time consuming • After sending out the questionnaire comes the waiting part for the responses which could cause delay in the set time frame • There is no guarantee whether the respondents might reply or not or whether they might fill the questionnaire fully • An assumption that there is no literacy problems is a risk taken in this aspect • The researcher might have to pressurise the respondents a lot to reply on time which could be through phone calls that adds to costs. A good questionnaire should have a user friendly format. There should be an ease of flow, should be well phrased and should not be ambiguous. The questions should be well developed and complete so as to get all relevant data. Demographic information such as age, gender should be gathered if necessary and if only relevant to the subject matter dealt with. Focus groups here mean those people who have worked in a call centre who have experienced common job characteristics by working at a call centre. So the researcher aimed at a focus group of around 30 people who have worked in a call centre or are currently working in a call centre. Out of the 30 questionnaires sent out, 28 respondents turned up with responses appropriate to the questionnaire. The questionnaire was shown to professor, friends and family just to make sure it was user friendly and did not contain any personal questions and also to check out for grammatical mistakes. The research method is taking the form of statistical analysis as it contains data and is also based on quantitative research method. The author made use of the package Microsoft Excel to draw out the numerical data got from the respondents by making use of pie charts, line charts, bar graph, doughnut chart and column chart. All these charts helped in analysing the data accurately. Though this method was rather time consuming and frustrating at times as it took time to make the charts and figure it out properly. However, the author found it to be a rather pleasant experience and thereby the author could also improve upon the excel skills which could prove to MBA Dissertation Page 51
  • 52. 52 be an advantage in the future. Receiving of responses did take time as there was a risk of low response rate. The author chose to combine both qualitative and quantitative approaches to gain an equal result. Questionnaire is used to understand how call centre working conditions affect the employee well being and interview was conducted with management team starting from supervisors, team leaders to the managing director of Sutherland. The study will follow the research paradigm of interpretive approach. The study focuses to understand the issues through the research strategy of case study and thereby interpreting the views of Sutherland frontline staff and management team. 6] Qualitative Research Method  “Qualitative research is an overall term to describe the work researchers do in formulating their interpretations of the subjects of their studies and giving representations of these interpretations in order to add to the body of knowledge” [Michael John Baker, Susan Hart, 2007] “Qualitative methods contribute a particular kind of knowledge about the world, which is different from the knowledge generated by other methods of inquiry.” [John McLeod, 2001] It can be termed as a very careful inquiry into aspects and concepts connected to the social world. It brings out a new understanding through formal statement. 7] Interview  “Any statement in an interview is the collaborative product of interviewer and interviewee, not a spontaneous remark. The interview is a rhetorical form whose most essential quality is its collaborative origin.” [ Kenneth Goldsmith, Reva Wolf, Wayne Koestenbaum, 2004] Shipley defines “An interview is a serious conversation between someone with specific knowledge or expertise and someone who may benefit from that expertise.” [Barbara J. Hemphill- Pearson, 1999] MBA Dissertation Page 52
  • 53. 53 The author used the interview technique to conduct qualitative research by interviewing the Sutherland management team. As the author could not conduct a face-to-face interview with the team, the research will portray that drawback. 8] Case Study  According to Merriam (1988: 9-10), “a case study is an examination of a specific phenomenon such as a program, an event, a person, an institution or a social group. The bounded system, or case, might be selected because it is an instance of some concern, issue or hypothesis.” [Kieran J, O’Loughlin, 2001] As part of the research, the author discusses the case study of the company Sutherland Global Services, Inc., and throws light upon the company structure, its core values, its customers, its customer relationship management systems and the technology used in the company. The company support tools are also discussed in the study. This case study will later be related to the analysis part to draw out conclusions and further recommendations. 9] Conclusion  The author has used interpretative approach through qualitative and quantitative approach to understand the issues of this research and can be used in the analysis part to interpret the opinion of the respondents and the responses of the management team through statistical analysis and qualitative analysis. The next chapter presents the case study of Sutherland Global Services. MBA Dissertation Page 53
  • 54. 54 Chapter Five: Case Study- Sutherland Global Services 1] Aim of Chapter  This chapter focuses on the case study based on the global company named Sutherland global services. This is a multi-national company and caters to various services aiming at a big sphere. In this chapter the author will be discussing about the background of the company, a company insight would be discussed, the personal involved, the core values of the company, the customer support tools used within the company and the various services provides will be also looked into. Based on this case study, the author has conducted the quantitative research using questionnaires sent out to thirty employees working in the Sutherland call centre. The chapter will conclude by saying how the company information will be helpful to the author in analysing the data got from the company staff. 2] Company Profile  Sutherland Global Services was founded in the year 1986 with its headquarters at Rochester, MBA Dissertation Page 54
  • 55. 55 New York. Mr. Dilip R. Vellodi is the chairman and CEO of this company. There are basically two investors in this firm namely, Standard Chartered Private Equity and Oak Investment Partners. This company falls under the Business Process Outsourcing Industry [BPO] and is also an IT enabled company. The company has an head count of approximately 29,000 employees and has business in various locations of the world like the United Kingdom, Mexico, India, Canada, United States, Bulgaria, Egypt and United Arab Emirates. The company has a strong mission and vision statement. [Web 10, 14/11/10] The company mission is “To help our clients maximise their customer lifetime value and increase their competitive advantage by helping drive productivity and efficiency while delivering measurable results.” [Web 9, 14/11/10] The company vision is “To be the premier and preferred provider of Technology Enabled and Business Process Outsourcing Services in our chosen Markets.” [Web 9, 14/11/10] Dilip Vellodi says, “Relentless focus on offering best in class integrated services to our global clients combined with delivering measurable results have been key differentiators for Sutherland. Since our launch in 2005, our operations in the Philippines have become a strategic component of our global service delivery model. The country’s favourable economic environment, business friendly government policies and above all the technically and committed workforce have been driving forces in our ability to rapidly scale our operations across several locations in our country.” [Web 5, Beth J. Natividad, S. Prabhu, 2010] Farheen Pasha, Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst says, “Sutherland has excellent credentials in nimbleness, response time and flexibility. Highly satisfied and committed clients testify that the revenue generating and engaged business model of Sutherland consistently increases the productivity and maximises their customer life cycles. Its global footprint allows for valuable geographical redundancy and highest level of maturity in talent management.” [Web 6, Robert C.D. Barclay, 2008] Sutherland being a global company deals with many industries like insurance, technology, government, telecommunications, retail and e-retail, banking and finance, travel, transport and MBA Dissertation Page 55
  • 56. 56 logistics, mortgage, energy and utilities, hospitality and finally healthcare facilities. The company provides various services like:- • Customer Lifecycle management services such as account management, customer care and support and technical support • Back office lifecycle management services such as order and document management, transaction and payment processing and also deals with finance and accounts. • Human resource management • Process consulting • Global transition • Business transformation • Finally, a business process solution called Sutherland@Home which happens to be a virtual model of business that uses skilled employees known as home-based associates. 3] Company Core Values  Every organisation has core values that it follows to do business. The culture of the company in this case of Sutherland can be found in mainly the company’s core values which are as follows:-  People: In Sutherland, employees are respected and their contributions to the company are valued at all times. The company dedicates itself to create such an atmosphere and environment that is challenging in professional terms as well as rewarding to the employees. The company also aims at the professional development of all the employees as they go higher in the career when working with the company.  Leadership: The Company aims to lead by example and to set their standards high so that others can see it as a good example and follow the same path for success. Another aim is to do the right thing with the help of clients, stakeholders and employees of the company.  Clients: Here, clients are seen as business partners. The company treats the customer’s aims as their own aim and keeping that in mind provide excellent support and service MBA Dissertation Page 56
  • 57. 57 thus striving to exceed the expectations at all times.  Integrity: The company believes that the only way to do business is by playing fair at all times by being honest, by making and maintaining fair honest relationships with everyone including the customers and business partners.  Spirit of Entrepreneurship: The company seeks at innovation and is even ready to go ahead to take up personal risks just to improve upon their services for the better future. A strive to be the best is their motto and their aim to secure the leadership position shows that spirit. 4] Customer Support Tools  In the case where the companies use customer relationship management, call centre technology plays an important role. Sutherland provides services through call centres situated at various locations globally and in the UK. These centres provide support for direct sales and after service. The primary role of these call centres is to handle calls between the customers and the firm. The agents do this job in a calm and polite manner so that the customers feel that the relationship is valued and maintained. Sutherland needs to make sure that an excellent customer service is being provided to customers so as to gain loyalty and the services provided have to be of high quality and high standard and agents to maintain a positive attitude while dealing with the customers. Sutherland makes use of software called PeopleSoft to manage the human resources. PeopleSoft is basically provides solutions tailored in the best manner to suit the industry, business processes, customer strategies and the criteria for success. It provides a flexible customer data model and an integrated platform where solutions will be implemented at a fast rate. This software does the planning and execution of different customer strategies. It also aims at reducing the cost of ownership and at same time increase in the operational efficiency. [Web 7, 14/11/10] The customer support tools that Sutherland makes use of are Ebiz and CRM. Ebiz solutions deals with a variety of services such as corporate identity, custom e-commerce, web design and search MBA Dissertation Page 57
  • 58. 58 engine marketing. Ebiz is used to get the details about the products such that the customer will get to know more about the details of the product. Ebiz gives the details of the customers who have earlier purchased the product and by looking at the information the company can provide a better offer or an advanced version of the product. The support tool CRM is software where the details of the customers are recorded and their issues highlighted. This software saves information of existing customers as well. The customer problems will also be entered with an explanation of how it was resolved would be clearly stated so that next time the same customer calls, he/she need not have to explain the issue again to the agent attending the call. The customer issue is resolved thus ensuring customer satisfaction at the best level. The customer is then sent a feedback form so they can give their feedback or their experience with the call centre service and they can also mention how services could be improved upon. 5] Technology Used  Today all the technology companies are investing so as to help develop the management processes, infrastructure and the people so as to support the customer base. The technologies adopted by the company aims at reducing costs and thereby increasing the value of customer lifetime. The technology solution adopted by Sutherland increases the brand loyalty and at the same time provides solutions to generate customer care profits. Sutherland Global Services basically deals with three main technologies namely:-  Innovation: The Company aims to create a continuing value for their prospect clients by way of improvements in process and innovation of technology before the stage of implementation. When the steady operations stage is reached, focus is fully on improving the process and thereafter re-evaluating the process. Innovation paves way for staying ahead in the growth and profit curve. [Web 11, 14/11/10]  Intellectual Property: Sutherland makes use of a combination of software namely, clients software system, company software systems, third party software and other software that provide integrated services. By doing so, the company can manage, change, MBA Dissertation Page 58
  • 59. 59 measure and report the activities of the company. The company invest in improving the company domain by making use of the professional of technology. The intellectual property of Sutherland include reporting, solution architecture, production management, transition management, people productivity and performance management.[Web 8, 14/11/10]  Scalable Platforms: The proprietary products and tools of Sutherland when combined together showcase a strategic platform. Such platform delivers exceptional and excellent customer care and support. A company with such combination is able to scale the company operations cost effectively as well as improve productivity and deliver them efficiently. By adopting such a platform solution, Sutherland global services achieves high quality level with low prices. [Web 12, 14/11/10] 6] Conclusion  The author has researched fairly on the company insight by giving details about the company background, the technology made use of, the customer relationship management tools made use in the call centre and the Ebiz tool. The following chapter will deal with the analysis of the replies to the questionnaire using quantitative method of research for this research. The analysis will focus on the employee well being and how the implementation of CRM has affected the company. MBA Dissertation Page 59
  • 60. 60 Chapter Six: Findings and Analysis 1] Aim of Chapter  The author has conducted a statistical analysis using quantitative approach by means of a questionnaire distributed among 30 frontline agents at Sutherland Call Centre out of which 28 respondents replied. The analysis is therefore done based on the replies of the 28 agents. The author has made use of Excel Spreadsheet to draw out charts to represent the data for analysis. These charts give a proper view of the concept being discussed making it very clear to the reader. The author has also conducted interpretative analysis using qualitative approach by means of interview with the Sutherland management team and by relating both approaches to the case study of Sutherland Company the author has achieved the objectives of the dissertation. 2] Analysis of Questionnaire  MBA Dissertation Page 60
  • 61. 61 The author conducted quantitative analysis by using the questionnaire technique. The questionnaire [see appendix 1] was distributed to 30 frontline staff of Sutherland and the replies to 28 questionnaires were got. Out of the 28 respondents, there were 18 males and 10 females [see appendix 3, table 1 and chart below]. The author made sure gender factor was taken into consideration to obtain a varied responses of both groups. Out of these 28, the number of respondents who worked full time totaled to 16 and the rest worked part time as they were students [see appendix 3, table 2 and chart below]. MBA Dissertation Page 61
  • 62. 62 From the replies to the questionnaire it was evident that not many employees worked more than 12 months due to various reasons many be due to stress, employer-employee relations, frustrating job and even due to better opportunities elsewhere. 39% of agents stayed for maximum period of 6-12 months being the longest duration of stay in the same call centre job, while 32% stayed for 2-5 months. The author found a really less percentage staying more than 3 years or more, the precise percentage being 4% [see appendix 3, table 3 and chart below]. a) Maintenance of Customer Service: 96% of employees said that excellent customer service was maintained within the company while the remaining 4% voted against this saying the service was poor. [see appendix 3, table 4 and chart below]. MBA Dissertation Page 62
  • 63. 63 Surprisingly, a similar percentage rate was found for the questions posed whether good communication ensured job satisfaction to the employees or not. [see appendix 3, table 5 and chart below]. By analysing both charts above, it is evident that the concept of customer service is very important to any organisation in this case the call centre. Customer being the first and foremost important element in any business, it is important to provide them with excellent service else customer loyalty will be lost as discussed in the literature review of CRM. So is the case of good communication as it is related to ensuring job satisfaction. MBA Dissertation Page 63
  • 64. 64 b) Feedback and Performance Monitoring: 82% of employees felt that on obtaining regular feedback it motivated them to do better in their job. However, the remaining 18% felt that it was rather frustrating to be getting feedback at all times as they felt very much under pressure as the management team was constantly on their back to find faults which they thought was a de-motivating factor [see appendix 3, table 7 and chart below]. The respondents replied in following manner: “…It is based on the monitoring done and the feedback given, the associate understands where he/she lies. The associate understands their positives and negatives. Monitoring is done on chat quality and communication.” “The principle of constant improvement in services rendered to customers is important not only for the company but also for the professional development of the individual- it goes the same be it a call centre or a multinational company.” “It helps me boost my morale, feels that my work is appreciated and gives more confidence to work harder.” MBA Dissertation Page 64
  • 65. 65 “Being monitored regularly is a way to identify our positives and negatives. Both account for motivation.” “…regular feedback helps in identifying areas of improvement, which could be worked on to improve customer experience. These results in positive survey responses which helps agent achieving metric goals based on customer satisfaction. Since better metrics equal higher incentives!” “…well, if it is a positive feedback it will courage me in work and if negative, I will try and change to what is best for customer” The frontline staff had to confront a statement and provide their views. The statement being “Employee performance being monitored for faults” to which, 46% of respondents saw the statement as positive and an equal 46% saw the statement as negative as well. However, the remaining 8% staff felt that the statement was both positive as well as negative [see appendix 3, table 9 and chart below]. One respondent replied in following manner: MBA Dissertation Page 65
  • 66. 66 “Employee performance should not be only monitored for faults as that would prove to be a de-motivating factor like me being an agent, if I am constantly being monitored only for faults I would not like it and take the matter to management. We agents should be treated fairly in the sense that performance should be monitored for faults as well as good performance.” Feedback is a concept directly related to performance monitoring as depending on the customer feedback whether good or bad, the performance level of each employee is monitored and accessed. Out of the 28 agents, 19 agents think that feedback is got back in a positive manner while 3 agents are of the view that the feedback is negative. Still more to go 4 agents feel that the feedback is got in both positive and negative manner and the remaining 2 people think it depends how the feedback is got back. [see appendix 3, table 10 and chart below] One respondent replied in following manner: “…if it is a constructive criticism, then it should be taken positively” b) Implementation of CRM: Keeping in mind the objective of the dissertation the author posed a question whether the implementation of CRM in the company affected the working role of the employees/agents MBA Dissertation Page 66
  • 67. 67 working in the frontline. To this question, out of 28 respondents, 26 replied yes while the remaining 2 said no [see appendix 3, table 6 and chart below]. In Sutherland, the agents feel that the implementation of customer support tool ‘Customer Relationship Management [CRM] software has indeed affected their working role. Highlighting this aspect one respondent commented: “...Though initially there was resistance from staff on the CRM implementation, later with the help of training we learnt to work with the software at ease.” The CRM software is explained in detail in the Case Study under the heading Customer Support Tools. By implementing the software, agents feel that they can work with more ease, saves time and the work gained efficiency thus improving customer satisfaction to best level. c) Stress Levels: The author used secondary research to find out the factors which contribute to stress. By conducting primary research the author aims to verify the results found. 19 out of 28 respondents complained that there was a really high level of stress in call centre jobs which would not be the MBA Dissertation Page 67
  • 68. 68 case had they been working on another job. The rest 9 employees felt otherwise [see appendix 3, table 8 and chart below]. Going back to the literature review about the call centre environment, the author had laid down the factors which contribute towards the stress levels of employees in call centre environment. Factors of not having proper working conditions, no proper food and drink facilities, working odd hours late into the night, sitting in a chair and staring at the computer screen for long hours probably like 6-8 hours at a stretch without a break or less breaks frustrates the employees a lot. These factors create a lot of stress for the frontline agents and they get fed up of the job and even think of leaving the job. The job being repetitive can stress the employee to a great extent. Two respondents commented: “…It is very important for an agent working in a call centre to have proper eating, drinking, resting facilities and timely breaks so that he/she does not get stressed out as the shift timing are rather odd and duration of shift is also long.” “…as it is the call centre environment is very stressful, and on top of that if there are no proper facilities like food facilities, pick up and drop facilities, resting facilities, then the agent gets highly frustrated and irritated and might even think of quitting the job.” MBA Dissertation Page 68
  • 69. 69 It is evident from the findings that there is high level of stress factors being constant management pressure to maintain high performance, immediate call closures, time limit exceeding, peer pressures and job demands. Out of 28 staff members who replied, 18 staff members feel that the stress level is very high, while 8 agents feel they face medium stress levels and the remaining feel the level is relatively low [see appendix 3, table 15 and chart below]. Among the 28 agents, two agents commented in following manner: “…stress levels depend on the individual, and how one can cope with it, I mean to what extend the agent can cope. I have seen some agents cannot cope and they break down crying and get frustrated and go on pills while some are cool and take it in a positive manner as part of the hectic schedule” “…with the monotonous work and the need to improve each time on call having less scope to do that is frustrating. Talking non-stop for 8-9 hours with minimum breaks is highly frustrating.” 72% of agents feel that this job is rather tiring while 4% feel against this opinion and an equal 4% feel it depends on the work situation and conditions and how the agent can cope with the stress [see appendix 3, table 16 and chart below]. MBA Dissertation Page 69
  • 70. 70 Responses to this question are: “…At times yes the job role does get frustrating and monotonous as it is the same call flow everyday and to deal with irate customers sometimes can really test your patience. And lastly, the team leader behind you if the targets are not met or if you are not performing well enough.” “…not at all tiring as there is always room for improvement when it comes to communication and interaction with customers from all over the world” “…it depends on the endurance level of the employee and the motivation he/she feels. However, it must be noted that not a lot of people prefer working in a call centre for a long time.” d) Training provided: Training is an important aspect in any job. A well trained employee is an asset to the company. Training can be said to be a job-oriented process rather than person oriented. According to Glaser (1962), “in training the learning of specific behaviours implies a certain degree of uniformity within the limits set by individual differences.” [Roger Buckley, Jim Caple, 2007] MBA Dissertation Page 70
  • 71. 71 The author wants to throw light upon the level of training the agents got in the call centre as it relates to the employee well being. 79% employees responded in a positive manner implying that they do get enough training. A small percentage of 7% said they do not get enough training while they rest stuck to the opinion that training was provided to an extent [see appendix 3, table 18 and chart below]. The respondents commented such: “Yes, regular training and updates on new products, promotions and scope of support are provided” “Yes, 2 months were dedicated to process and voice (to maintain neutral accent) training” “Training is given for a period of 1-2 months and includes accent classes, culture classes and product information. Product training may vary from a month to two.” 54% employees felt that on the job training benefited them more as they could get to experience hands on training so basically they learnt while working which seemed a better option as they could understand better. The remaining 46% employees benefited from off the job training methods [see appendix 3, table 19 and chart below]. This was understood from the following employee comments: MBA Dissertation Page 71
  • 72. 72 “..On the job training is what I had experienced. Off the job training is limited, but it is good as we understand what we are to do on the floor. But, on the job training helps better as when learn how do to it when present on the floor facing the situation in reality” “…there are many things we learn on the calls” Out of 28 respondents, 12 said health and safety training was provided and the rest said such training was not provided on regular basis but just the initial training was given [see appendix 3, table 20 and chart below] MBA Dissertation Page 72
  • 73. 73 Respondents replied in varied manner to this question: “...Yes, there should be no danger occurring to the employees” “...Yes, every month there are fire drills” “...there is training however not to a great extend, just general meetings” “...not much training” It is evident from the above questions on training that enough training is being provided and agents feel that on the job training technique is much better than off the job training. Training is very important as it gives the employee the confidence to deal with any situation. e) Relationship between team leader and employees: Be it any job, whether call centre job or not, what is important is that every employee needs to maintain a good relationship with senior management whom they work under especially the team leaders who is the one the staff has to report to. This questionnaire posed a question in relation to this aspect. 79% employees feel their team leader supports them at all times which make them feel at ease when on the job and helps them do their job in a better manner. Contrasting to that percentage is 13% which say that their team leader is not supportive, while a smaller figure of 8% is on both sides claiming ‘…it depends on the nature of the team leader that is if he/she is approachable or not’. [see appendix 3, table 11 and chart below] MBA Dissertation Page 73
  • 74. 74 The same question framed in another manner to understand whether the employees experienced a good relationship with the team leader gained a response rate of 92% who said yes and there was an equal response rate of 4% who claimed no and who claimed depends on situation and nature of team leader [see appendix 3, table 12 and chart below]. The Sutherland personnel is split into many teams with each team headed by team leader whose responsibility is to control, train, monitor and motivate each frontline and other call centre staff. The findings from the questionnaire reflect that a very good relationship is maintained between the employees and the team leader. This is very important as it is the team leader who deals with MBA Dissertation Page 74
  • 75. 75 issues like performance and personal issues of agents. Therefore, good relation makes the employee approach the management with ease regarding any problem and vice versa. f) Call handling and script: Every job requires a script rather a set laid down order of presentation which the employees need to follow. The term script is defined in the third chapter of literature review which discusses the call centre environment. The definition is found under the term performance monitoring. Basically the agents need to follow the script when attending each call. However, this is not possible is all cases depending on the type and matter of call. To verify this concept the author posed the question whether the agents follow the script for each call or not. 36% employees claimed that they do follow the script while an equal percentage of 32% employees said they do not follow and that it depends on type and nature of the customer dealt with [see appendix 3, table17 and chart below] Three agents responded in following way: MBA Dissertation Page 75
  • 76. 76 “Yes, there is a script to be followed, an order. The way we present it depends on us. However, the opening and closing script must be abided. I do follow it as I am audited based on my performance.” “Yes, but at certain times agents use their own scripts, provided they are confident in their communication” “I think agents in call centre should be following a more human approach than following well maintained scripts because when I call in I expect to talk to a human and not some random machine giving pre-defined answers. But yes, scripting is important to maintain.” From the above comments it is evident that agents change to script so that the call becomes interesting and not boring. Changes are mainly done to bring about variations. In a call centre job, attending calls after calls is indeed a frustrating job especially when the agent has to deal with really difficult customers sitting in another part of the world. Now on top of this, if they are expected to maintain the same level of standard for each and every call, then life becomes more difficult. To assess how far this concept is true the author posed a question to the agents whether they experience too much pressure when faced with such situation. A high percentage say 61% said yes, that they do face high pressure levels especially when its long hours and they get no breaks everything just adds to the pressure. 11% claimed they did not feel the pressure while 28% says it depends on the person who might not be able to handle stress and get stressed out pretty fast [see appendix 3, table 13 and chart below]. MBA Dissertation Page 76
  • 77. 77 The above finding illustrates that agents feel too much under pressure is they are to maintain the same standard level with each call. An agent having to work 7-9 hours in a day with less breaks and irate customers and on top it, if that agent follows the same standard, then it is indeed frustrating for the agent. g) Employee well being: One of the objectives of this dissertation is whether employee well being is given importance or not. Everyone knows that call centre’s are flourishing but employee problems and their welfare is hidden in the dark and the author wants to bring this out to light so the world can know the hidden facts as well. Keeping this point in mind, the author framed the question whether employee well being is given importance or not to which 75% employees replies yes while 21% replied no and 4% said it depends [see appendix 3, table 14 and chart below]. MBA Dissertation Page 77
  • 78. 78 By keeping in mind the other aspects, the author feels that employee welfare is being given importance in Sutherland call centre. However, the author feels that it might not be the case in all other call centres. 3] Analysis of Interview The author conducted interview with the Managing Director of Sutherland Global Services, one senior manager and two team leaders. The Sutherland management team was basically interviewed to reflect upon the main objectives of the dissertation and also to find out the factors which affected the employee well being from the perspective of the management. The interview consisted of 10 questions in total out of which the first 8 questions focused upon the implementation of customer relationship management [CRM] and its use within the company. The last two questions focuses upon the employee well being [see appendix 2 for the interview questions for management. MBA Dissertation Page 78
  • 79. 79 a) CRM implementation: Through the interviews conducted with the management, the author was able to gain ample knowledge about the CRM software’s used currently within the Sutherland call centre. Reflecting upon the Case Study analysed on the Sutherland Company, the customer support tools which the company makes use of is called Ebiz which is software providing details about the product and service for the customer needs. Through this software, the customer can get all the details of the product and services. Ebiz also provides details of customers who did purchase before. Another customer support tool is the CRM which is software that records all details of customers and their problems. It also records new well as existing customer details and their respective problems within the software. This software ensures time and cost saving and the data of the customer and their relevant issue is readily available thus ensuring excellent customer satisfaction. This CRM software also aims to improve the customer relationships. The company also operates a system called as ‘Respond’ which is a system mainly used to track down the complaints thus enabling to make responses for the problems as well as queries of the customers. Sutherland makes use of CRM software in its various operations by keeping in mind about the concept of ‘customer focus’. To the question of how CRM is implemented and used, the managing director revealed that “...Sutherland as part of the marketing strategy uses a what is called a store card that captures and reveals the customer purchasing behaviour and the purchases they make”. Every Sutherland customer has this card and by accessing this data, the company can mail the customers the various promotions currently running in the company thus encouraging and motivating the customer to make a further purchase. Such strategy helps maintain customer loyalty on a long run. The senior manager commented, “...by maintaining customer loyalty, customer values the company and thus the company benefits” MBA Dissertation Page 79
  • 80. 80 The managing director, senior manager and the two team leaders agreed to the fact that there was evidently a high increase in the level of efficiency in operations with the implementation of the CRM. When asked about the benefits and drawbacks that the implementation brought about, all of them commented that there were no drawbacks. One team leader revealed that, “...There were more of benefits than drawbacks” From the responses to the interview, the author understood that the implementation of CRM within Sutherland provides benefits of time and cost savings and excellent customer satisfaction and thus it resulted in the company being more customer focused rather than being product focused. From this finding, the question whether the company is customer focused or product focused is thus answered. The second team leader commented that all these benefits brought about a good name as well as an excellent reputation for Sutherland Global Services. The managers commented that certain changes had to be made with the implementation such as changing the information of customers and updating it to suit the new system. The agents were provided with enough training to deal with new systems. When asked about the resistance to change, the managing director commented in following manner, “...change is a very difficult phenomenon and not everyone can readily accept change, the staff was though reluctant at first but when they understood the benefits such implementation had on their working role and in the overall efficiency of the company operations, they accepted it.” b) Employee issues focused This part of the chapter focuses on the employee well being from the managerial perspective. The last 2 questions throw light upon this concept. The first question that the author put forward was regarding how the company dealt with issues regarding high absence rate and labour turnover. To this the management responded that the company aimed to recruit the right person for the right job. Before recruiting, management checked the background of the candidate and tries to understand the person and their opinion about staying on the job in future. MBA Dissertation Page 80
  • 81. 81 The author then put forward the second and final question regarding employee well being. The question aimed to find out whether such labour turnover and absence rate being high had any relation to their well being. To this the senior manager replied, “…this job is such that it does relate to many stress factors which some employees might not be able to cope with and thus get depressed and finally think of leaving job” All the managers said that low level of well being did reflect in the standard of customer service provided by the agents. To overcome this issue, the company is trying to create a pleasant atmosphere and give importance to every viewpoint. To boost the morale of agents, management has brought out high incentive schemes. The team leaders revealed that more breaks would be given if performance level increased. This comment relates to one of many stress factors that employees face today. 4] Conclusion  The chapter provided a platform to understand and examine the implementation of CRM concept within the call centre environment and relating it to the factors that affect the employee well being as the very title of the dissertation goes. The analysis showcases how customer relationship management was put to use within Sutherland call centre and how the management are trying to solve the employee problems. The analysis revealed that the stress factors among employees need to be eliminated in order to increase their morale. This chapter comes out with the message that the call centre job is not that stressful though this is not a definite message as many points and factors could still be well hidden and need to be explored. MBA Dissertation Page 81
  • 82. 82 Chapter 7: Conclusion and Recommendations 1] Aim of Chapter  2] Evaluation and Conclusion of Analysis  3] Limitations met  3] Recommendations for future study  MBA Dissertation Page 82
  • 83. 83 Chapter 8: Bibliography A] Books  Akbar Hussain, Mohammad Ilyas Khan (2006), Recent trends in Human Stress Management, Global Vision publishing, pp-24-26 Anthony T. Kern, Tony Kern (2001), Culture, environment, and CRM, McGraw-Hill Professional, pp-1-17 Barbara J. Hemphill-Pearson (1999), Assessment in occupational therapy mental health: an integrative approach, SLACK Incorporated, pp-19-20 Brad Cleveland & Julia Mayben (1997), Call Centre Management on Fast forward: Succeeding in Today’s Dynamic Inbound Environment, 1st edition, Call centre press Bryan Bergeron (2002), Essentials of CRM; A Guide to Customer Relationship Management, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York , pp-15-34, pp-63-102, pp-103-127 Dennis Lock, Brian Rothery (1998), The Gower handbook of Management, Gower publishing company, ltd., pp-149-150 Don Peppers, Martha Rogers (2004), Managing customer relationships: a strategic framework, John Wiley and sons, pp-55-59 MBA Dissertation Page 83
  • 84. 84 Etta R. Hollin (2008), Culture in School Learning: revealing the deep meaning, Routledge, pp-1-19 Geoff Lancaster, Paul Reynolds (2002), Marketing made simple, Butterworth-Heinemann, pp- 125-130 (2001), Harvard Business Review on Customer Relationship Management, Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation, Boston, pp-1-48, pp-67-80, pp-105-130 Janice Reynolds (2002), A practical guide to CRM: building more profitable customer relationships, Focal Press Jery Fjermestad, Nicholas C. Romano (2006), Electronic customer relationship management, M.E.Sharpe, pp-24-27 John McLeod (2001), Qualitative research in counselling and psychotherapy, SAGE publication Ltd., London, pp-2-6 Joseph Wholey, Eduardo Zapico-Goni (2007), Monitoring Performance in the Public Sector: Future Directions from International Experience, Transaction publishers Kenneth Goldsmith, Reva Wolf, Wayne Koestenbaum (2004), I’ll be your mirror: the selected Andy Warhol interviews: 1962-1987, Da Capo Press, pp-16-17 Kevin Hook (1998), The Human Face of call centre Management, Call Craft publishers, pp- 11-86, pp-109-140, pp-177-192 Kieran J. O’Loughlin (2001), The equivalence of direct and semi-direct speaking tests, Cambridge University Press, pp-47 Marguerite G. Lodico, Dean T. Spaulding, Katherine H. Voegtle (2010), Methods in Educational Research From Theory to Practice, 2nd edition, Jossey Bass publishers Michael Armstrong (2008), The Sunday Times: How to manage people, pp-130-135, pp-90- 100 Michael Gentle (2002), The CRM Project Management Handbook, Kogan Page Limited, pp- 36-40 Michael John Baker, Susan Hart (2007), The marketing book, Volume 2003, 6th edition, Butterworth-Heinemann, pp-157-159 Nils Merkel (2010), Customer Relationship Management in Banking Sector, GRIN Verlag Pat Wellington, The Sunday Times: Effective Customer Care, Kogan page limited, pp-5-20, pp-23-38 Paul Blyton & Peter Turnbull, (1998), The Dynamics of Employee Relations, 2nd editited Palgrave publisher, pp-33-50 MBA Dissertation Page 84
  • 85. 85 Robert Shaw, David Reed (1999), Measuring and Valuing Customer Relationships: How to develop the measures that drive profitable crm strategies, Business Intelligence Roger Buckley, Jim Caple (2007), The Theory and Practice of Training, Kogan Page Publishers, pp-6-10 Shanmugasundaram (ed.), Shanmugasundaram S. (2008), Customer Relationship Management: Modern Trends And Perspectives, PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd, pp-98 Sheila Mello (2003), Customer-Centric Product Definition: The key to Great Product Development, PCD Professional Publishing, pp-10-17 Yvonne McGivern (2005), The practice of market and social research: an introduction B] Journals/Articles  John Goodier (1997), Evaluating Stress: A book of Resources, Reference Review, Vol. 11, Issue 8 (2000), Stress and Low Morale are the hidden costs of the UK’s £13 billion absenteeism bill, according to managers, Journal of European Industrial Training, Vol. 24, Issue 5 (2004), Work Stress, Structural Survey, Vol. 22, Issue 4 (2000), An Introduction to Stress Management, Journal of European Industrial Training, Vol. 24, Issue 1 Pankaj (2005), Call Centre, Kul Bhushan Nangia APH publishing Injazz J. Chen, Karen Popovich (2003), “Understanding customer relationship management [CRM]: People process and technology”, Business Process Management Journal, MCB UP Ltd, Vol. 9, Issue 5, pp-672-688 Roger Hallowell (1996), The Relationships of customer satisfaction, customer loyalty and profitability: an empirical study; Journal of service management, MCB UP Ltd, Vol. 7, Issue 4, pp-25-44 Lynn Holdsworth, Susan Cartwright, Empowerment, Stress and satisfaction: an exploratory study of a call centre: Research Paper, MCB UP Ltd. MBA Dissertation Page 85
  • 86. 86 C] Websites  Web 1: Jason Compton (November 2002), Happy Employees Equal Happy Customers, CRM media [online]. Available at: http://www.destinationcrm.com/Articles/Editorial/Magazine- Features/Happy-Employees-Equal-Happy-Customers-47994.aspx (Accessed: 20 October 2010) Web 2: Roger Trapp (5 June 2007), The Independent, Independent Print limited [online]. Available at: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/sme/how-customer-relationship- management-systems-can-be-of-benefit-to-your-business-451821.html (Accessed: 6 November 2010) Web 3: CRM made simple, Customer Dynamics [online]. Available at: http://www.customerdynamics.com/Services/CRMMadeSimple.aspx (Accessed: 9 November 2010) Web 4: Gemini UK solutions ltd, 2010, [online]. Available at: http://www.geminiuksolutions.com/Call_Centre_Technology.asp (Accessed: 9 November 2010) Web 5: Beth J. Natividad, S. Prabhu (29 March 2010), Sutherland Global Services awarded, “Fastest Growing BPO Company in the Philippines Expands from 0 to 10000 employees in under 5 years [online]. Available at: http://www.suth.com/company_pressrel_march29_2010.htm (Accessed: 14 November 2010) Web 6: Robert C.D.Barclay (April 16, 2008), Sutherland Global Services Receives Frost & Sullivan Customer Value Leadership Award, Rochester, New York, [online]. Available at: http://www.suth.com/company_pressrel_apr16_2008.htm (Accessed: 14 November 2010) Web 7: PeopleSoft CRM (4 November 2010) Nnigma, Inc [online]. Available at: http://www.peoplesoft-planet.com/PeopleSoft-CRM.html (Accessed: 14 November 2010) Web 8: Technology [online]. Available at: http://www.suth.com/industries_technology.htm (Accessed: 13 November 2010) Web 9: Intellectual property [online]. Available at: http://www.suth.com/technology_ip.htm (Accessed: 14 November 2010) Web 10: Company foundation [online]. Available at: http://www.suth.com/company_foundations.htm (Accessed: 14 November 2010) Web 11: Company fact sheet [online]. Available at: http://www.suth.com/company_factsheet.htm (Accessed: 14 November 2010) MBA Dissertation Page 86
  • 87. 87 Web 12: Innovation [online]. Available at: http://www.sutherlandglobal.com/technology_innovation.aspx (Accessed: 14 November 2010) Web 13: Scalable platform [online]. Available at: http://www.sutherlandglobal.com/technology_scalplatform.aspx (Accessed: 14 November 2010) Web 14: Joshua Weinberger (July 2010), CRM magazine, CRM: then and now, CRM media [online]. Available at: http://www.destinationcrm.com/Articles/Editorial/Magazine- Features/CRM-Then-and- Now-68083.aspx (Accessed: 27 October 2010) Web 15: Marion Vogt, Manfred Krenn (8 July 2005), Working environment risks [online]. Available at: http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/ewco/surveys/AT0503SR01/AT0503SR01_2.htm (Accessed: 24 October 2010) Web 15: What is CRM [online]. Available at: http://www.destinationcrm.com/Articles/CRM- News/Daily-News/What-Is-CRM-46033.aspx (Accessed: 28 September 2010) Web 16: (19 Februay 2010), CRM Today [online]. Available at: http://www.crm2day.com/content/t6_librarynews_1.php?id=EpFEAEyFpuIBCdXUbD (Accessed: 24 October 2010) Web 17: (27 May 2008), MIS Bridge Customer relationship management overview [online]. Available at: http://misbridge.mccombs.utexas.edu/knowledge/topics/crm/ (Accessed: 24 October 2010) Web 18: ZOHO Corp how crm works [online]. Available at: http://www.zoho.com/crm/how- crm-works.html (Accessed: 25 October 2010) Web 19: (11 October 2009), Social CRM: Ready for action? [online]. Available at: http://davaidavai.com/2009/10/11/social-crm-ready-for-action/ (Accessed: 25 October 2010) Web 20: Christopher Musico (January 2010), CRM: The innovation Issue: technology, superhuman crm [online]. Available at: http://www.destinationcrm.com/Articles/Editorial/Magazine-Features/Superhuman-CRM- 60594.aspx (Accessed: 27 October 2010) Web 21: David Myron (November 2002), A Day in the Life of a Call Centre [online]. Available at: http://www.destinationcrm.com/Articles/Editorial/Magazine-Features/A-Day-in-the-Life-of- a-Call-Center-47993.aspx (Accessed: 27 October 2010) MBA Dissertation Page 87
  • 88. 88 Appendix 1 : Questionnaire QUESTIONNAIRE  The following questionnaire forms part of my MBA dissertation and are for analysis purpose only and I also assure that the responses of each respondent will be treated strictly as confidential. The questionnaire below contains 20 questions which throw light upon the working conditions of employees within a call centre environment and also focuses upon how the implementation of customer relationship management within the company had affected the working role of the employees. 1] Sex M [ ] F [ ] 2] Are you working full time or part time? FT [ ] PT [ ] 3] Duration that you have been working in a call centre? 2-5 months [ ] 6-12months [ ] 1-3years [ ] 3+ years [ ] 4] Do you think customer service is maintained in the company? MBA Dissertation Page 88
  • 89. 89 Yes [ ] No [ ] 5] Do you think having and maintaining good communication with customers makes the job more satisfying? Yes [ ] No [ ] 6] Do you feel that the implementation of customer relationship management within the company had had an effect on your working role? Yes [ ] No [ ] 7] Does feedback gained from being monitored at a regular basis motivate you? Yes [ ] No [ ] 8] If you have answered yes to question 7, please explain how? 9] Is there a high level of stress in call centre’s jobs as compared to other forms of work? Yes [ ] No [ ] 10] “Employee performance being monitored for faults” Do you see this statement as positive or negative? 11] Is the feedback of data fed back to you in a positive or negative manner? 12] Do you think that your team leader is supportive of you in every aspect of your work? Yes [ ] No [ ] 13] Do you share a good relationship with your team leader? Yes [ ] No [ ] 14] Do you feel too much under pressure when you are expected to maintain the same level of standard with each call? Explain in brief. 15] As an employee, do you think that your working conditions or well being is being given importance? Yes [ ] No [ ] 16] Can you explain the level of stress a call centre employee has to go through? MBA Dissertation Page 89
  • 90. 90 17] Do you think the job being highly repetitive and stressful can tire the employee? Do you think it is frustrating? 18] Are you always meant to follow the script on each call? Do you do it? 19] Are you being given enough training? 20] Is there regular training on health and safety issues? Appendix 2: Interview Questions for Management The appendix contains the interview questions for the Sutherland Global Service Management Team. The main focus of these questions is based upon the implementation if CRM and also focuses on the employee well being. The responses will be treated strictly confidential and is only for my study purpose. 1] How is the concept of Customer Relationship Management [CRM] implemented and used within the organisation? 2] According to you, what benefits has the implementation of CRM brought about within the organisation? 3] Did the implementation of CRM increase the company efficiency or rather the productivity efficiency? 4] Do you feel better customer experiences have been aimed and achieved after such implementation? 5] What changes did the company had to make in terms of work when CRM was implemented? 6] Did the company face any retaliation from the employees and what drawbacks were faced by the company? MBA Dissertation Page 90
  • 91. 91 7] Did the drawbacks and resistance from employees affect the operations of the business? 8] In your opinion, is the company customer focused or internal focused such as on product or service in particular? 9] Does the company face labour turnover of high rate and high absence rate? If yes, how does the company deal with such situations? [Employee focus question] 10] Do you think such an increase is directly related to the well being of employees and their working conditions? [Employee focus question] Appendix 3: Tables presenting the results got from the responses of agents of Sutherland Call Centre The appendix consists of 20 tables representing the figures and their percentage calculated from the data got through responses of the questionnaire. Table 1: Gender Category Response Figure Percentage Male 18 64% Female 10 36% Total 28 100% MBA Dissertation Page 91
  • 92. 92 Table 2: Working Pattern Response Figure Percentage Full Time 16 57% Part Time 12 43% Total 28 100% Table 3: Duration of Work in call centre Response Figure Percentage 2-5 months 9 32% 6-12 months 11 39% 1-3 years 7 25% 3+ years 1 4% Total 28 100% Table 4: Customer Service maintained or not? Response Figure Percentage Yes 27 96% MBA Dissertation Page 92
  • 93. 93 No 1 4% Total 28 100% Table 5: Good communication ensures job satisfaction or not? Response Figure Percentage Yes 27 96% No 1 4% Total 28 100% Table 6: Implementation of CRM within company effects employee working role? Response Figure Percentage Yes 26 93% No 2 7% Total 28 100% MBA Dissertation Page 93
  • 94. 94 Table 7: Regular feedback is a motivating factor for employees? Response Figure Percentage Yes 23 82% No 5 18% Total 28 100% Table 8: High level of stress in call centre jobs as compared to other jobs? Response Figure Percentage Yes 19 68% No 9 32% Total 28 100% Table 9: “Employee performance being monitored for faults”- positive or negative? Response Figure Percentage Positive 13 46% Negative 13 46% Both 2 8% Total 28 100% MBA Dissertation Page 94
  • 95. 95 Table 10: Feedback of data got back in positive or negative manner? Response Figure Percentage Positive 19 68% Negative 3 11% Both 4 13% Depends 2 8% Total 28 100% Table 11: Is the team leader supportive of employees? Response Figure Percentage Yes 22 79% No 4 13% Depends on nature 2 8% Total 28 100% Table 12: Does employees experience good relationship with the team leader? Response Figure Percentage MBA Dissertation Page 95
  • 96. 96 Yes 26 92% No 1 4% Depends 1 4% Total 28 100% Table 13: Does employee experience too much pressure when expected to maintain same level of standard for each call? Response Figure Percentage Yes 17 61% No 3 11% Depends 8 28% Total 28 100% Table 14: Employee well being given importance or not? Response Figure Percentage Yes 21 75% No 6 21% Depends 1 4% Total 28 100% MBA Dissertation Page 96
  • 97. 97 Table 15: Level of stress faced by call centre agent? Response Figure Percentage High 18 64% Medium 8 29% Low 2 7% Total 28 100% Table 16: Call centre jobs tires the employees of call centre? Response Figure Percentage Yes 20 72% No 4 14% Depends 4 14% Total 28 100% Table 17: Do the agents follow the script provided for each call? Response Figure Percentage Follow 10 36% Do not follow 9 32% MBA Dissertation Page 97
  • 98. 98 Depends on customer 9 32% Total 28 100% Table 18: Do employees get enough training or not?? Response Figure Percentage Yes 22 79% No 2 7% To an extent 4 14% Total 28 100% Table 19: Which type of training benefited more to the employees? Response Figure Percentage On the job training 15 54% Off the job training 13 46% Total 28 100% Table 20: Is health and safety training provided to employees? MBA Dissertation Page 98
  • 99. 99 Response Figure Percentage Yes 12 43% No 16 57% Total 28 100% MBA Dissertation Page 99