Bodies in Society: Bio-power - Essay Example

CHAPTER V: FINDINGS, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 5 Introduction This chapter presents a summary of the findings, followed by a discussion of the study’s results as related to the statement of the problem, purpose of the research, and the research question. Based on the analysis of data from Chapter Four, specific conclusions are presented. Limitations of the research are then discussed, followed by recommendations for future research. 5.2 Summary of Findings Previous studies of the call center industry have focused on optimal staffing levels, call center efficiency, technical expertise of employees, job satisfaction, and the human relations skills needed for call center representatives to resolve customer problems (Broetzmann & Grainer, 2005). This study contributes to the body of scholarly knowledge by providing new findings that specifically outline the key operational determinants of successful call centres from the viewpoint of customers and call centre employees. In order to investigate the nature of these key determinants, the study proposed one research question and one hypothesis. The research question is: What are the key determinants of successful call centre operations which are outsourced to INDIA and what are the more effective ways of managing call centres? The study’s hypothesis is: The key operational determinants of successful call centre management are qualified, technically knowledgeable, linguistically proficient operators who have good communications skills and continued monitoring of calls and consideration of customer feedback. The findings of the study may be summarized as the validation of both of the hypotheses. To reiterate these findings in more concise format, it can be said that this study offered insight into the relationship between customer satisfaction and the management styles preferred by inbound customer service representatives. By analyzing the nature of the relationship between the preferred management style of call centre representatives and customer satisfaction ratings, this study found optimal staffing levels, call centre efficiency, technical expertise of employees, job satisfaction, and the human relations skills are the key determinants of customer satisfaction and the leading characteristics of successful offshore call centres (Broetzmann & Grainer, 2005). Proceeding from the above, it is important to emphasise that the study mainly derived its findings regarding the key determinants of successful call centres from the literature review. Within this context, the primary data served the purpose of testing these determinants in the sense of exploring their validity from the viewpoint of customers and call centre agents, on the one hand, and evaluating the call centre in question from the perspective of these determinants. It was found that the determinants are valid and that through their application, it is discovered that the call centre in question requires improvement in the area of training, above all. 5.3 Limitations A limitation of this research was that collection of data took place at a particular point in time. While this limitation is addressed in recommendations for future research, the findings do not support a conclusion that responses received in this study would be similar to responses solicited and given at another time. There is also a potential that other factors outside the control of the researcher (setting, time of day, recent conflicts, and fatigue of the participants) could influence responses (Shell, 2001). 52 The study focused on one microcosm of the call centre industry; therefore, the findings cannot be generalized to the broader population of call centre representatives employed in other domestic and international telecommunications call centres. The geographic limitation of one area, India as the outsourcee and the UK as the outsourcer, cannot be assumed to represent other regions. The third and most important of this study’s limitations is that the survey populations were extremely limited and there was absolutely no opportunity for the researcher to contact the respondents with follow-up surveys or to encourage them to participate in the study. Company A had agreed only to very limited cooperation with the researcher. This meant that, besides the researcher not being able to include the name of the company in the study, the researcher would not be able to contact the call centre employees directly. Instead, the questionnaire was to be delivered to Company A’s HR department which would then send it to its offshore call centre employees, emphasising that participation was voluntary. As there was no motivation or inducements to participate, only 39 employee responses was received by the end of the two week period. Customer responses were also limited to maintain consistency with the employee survey population. This means that the survey population is quite small and so, the findings that are derived from this population cannot be generalized to a larger one. 5.4 Implications of the Study This study indicates that a major issue facing call centres is recruiting, training, and retaining high quality call centre representatives. Using a predictive assessment during the pre-hiring process could aid management in matching specific call centre jobs to the skills possessed by individual call centre representatives who receive high customer satisfaction rankings, thereby keeping the cost of staffing down. Using an assessment instrument to 53 measure these characteristics could also benefit the company by reducing training costs, decreasing call centre representative turnover, and increasing customer retention through routing of calls based on employee skills. A very important implication of the study is that offshoring call centre operations does not mean reducing cost of operations at the expense of quality of service. Service quality can be maintained at very high levels, providing that the company in question exercises great selectivity in the recruiting of agents, ensuring that they possess communication skills and, importantly, comprehensible English. Furthermore, it is absolutely necessary that call centre agents receive appropriate training and that training is continuous so that agents do not fall behind in their technical knowledge regarding the company’s services and products. Similarly, to ensure quality of service, it is imperative that the call centre be appropriately staffed so that customers are not kept waiting for extended periods prior to their calls being answered and that the technology installed at these centres supports good voice quality. In other words, the implications of this study are that if call centres apply these key determinants of success, service quality can be maintained at high levels, leading to customer satisfaction and lower levels of complaints. 5.5 Recommendations Two recommendations for future study come to mind. The first of these is a quantitative comparative study which contrasts the key operational characteristics of a highly rated offshore call centre with a poorly rated one. Such a study could have invaluable practical benefits insofar as it will provide a blueprint for successful operations, even as it presents a comprehensive understanding of that which to avoid in offshore call centre management. 54 A second recommendation is for a qualitative study whose primary purpose is the generation of a call centre best practices management model. This study will investigate the operation and management paradigm of a number of successful call centre operations for the explicit purpose of designing a generic best practices management model which can be implemented in offshore centres. While, needless to say, there are numerous other issues worthy of investigation within the context of call centres, these two are most relevant to the current study and have immense practical value. 5.6 Conclusion Call centres are a relatively new phenomenon and most of the research in this field has focused on call centre efficiency, optimal staffing levels, and technology. A review of previous offshore call centre management paradigms reveals an emphasis on the foregoing factors, in addition to an interest in call centre supervisor-subordinate and peer-to-peer communication patterns and relationship models. The purpose of this study was the investigation of the key operational determinants of successful offshore call centres. 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