a project on crm and call center

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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

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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.

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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.

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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 Environment1] 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..........................................................................

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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............................................................................

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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..................................................................................

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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

and well being, as being given prime importance for the customer relationship management

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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.

The concepts that fall under the term Customer relationship management [CRM] include the

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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

thrown light upon its implementation in a call centre as well as looking into the factors which

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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

the view point of the firm. This section will also focus on the term customer which is most

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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

if needed at the end. This is the concluding chapter that will bring the research to an end based

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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

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

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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

4] Computer problems like word document getting corrupted and had to find an alternative

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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,

2010]

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“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]

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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.

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.

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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.

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.

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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.”

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

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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]

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.

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“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]

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]

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Source: ZOHO Corp, 2010

Figure 4: Figure showing how the concept of customer relationship management works.

3] The Customer and the Customer Life Cycle

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.

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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

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

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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

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,

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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

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]

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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.

Source: Social CRM: Ready for action? [October 11th 2009]

Figure 6: The figure shows how customer relationship management looks like in today’s time.

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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.

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.

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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

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.

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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.

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-

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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”

[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

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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,

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.

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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%


A mix of CRM systems and software’s in place [in percentage]

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 tear 2009 47%

Source: Michael Krigsman

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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]

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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

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]

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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

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

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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

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

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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

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

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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

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

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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]

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.

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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

h) Customers can be highly demanding

i) Poor management

j) No proper equipment

k) Back pains and headaches

l) Poor facilities

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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

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]

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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

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]

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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:-

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]

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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

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.

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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.

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

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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]

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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.

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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,

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.

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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

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.

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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

“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-

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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

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

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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

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.

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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]

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.

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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.

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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,

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

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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

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

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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

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.

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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

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

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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,

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]

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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.

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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

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].

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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].

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].

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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].

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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.

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].

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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.”

“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

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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:

“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.”

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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

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].

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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

case had they been working on another job. The rest 9 employees felt otherwise [see appendix 3,

table 8 and chart below].

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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.”

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.

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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].

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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]

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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:

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“..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]

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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]

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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

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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:

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“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].

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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].

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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.

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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”

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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.

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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.

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Chapter 7: Conclusion and Recommendations

1] Aim of Chapter

2] Evaluation and Conclusion of Analysis

3] Limitations met

3] Recommendations for future study

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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

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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, 6 th 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

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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.

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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)

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http://www.suth.com/company_factsheet.htm

http://www.suth.com/company_foundations.htm

http://www.suth.com/technology_ip.htm

http://www.suth.com/industries_technology.htm

http://www.peoplesoft-planet.com/PeopleSoft-CRM.html

http://www.suth.com/company_pressrel_apr16_2008.htm

http://www.suth.com/company_pressrel_march29_2010.htm

http://www.geminiuksolutions.com/Call_Centre_Technology.asp

http://www.customerdynamics.com/Services/CRMMadeSimple.aspx

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/sme/how-customer-relationship-management-systems-can-be-of-benefit-to-your-business-451821.html

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/sme/how-customer-relationship-management-systems-can-be-of-benefit-to-your-business-451821.html

http://www.destinationcrm.com/Articles/Editorial/Magazine-Features/Happy-Employees-Equal-Happy-Customers-47994.aspx

http://www.destinationcrm.com/Articles/Editorial/Magazine-Features/Happy-Employees-Equal-Happy-Customers-47994.aspx

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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)

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http://www.destinationcrm.com/Articles/Editorial/Magazine-Features/A-Day-in-the-Life-of-a-Call-Center-47993.aspx

http://www.destinationcrm.com/Articles/Editorial/Magazine-Features/A-Day-in-the-Life-of-a-Call-Center-47993.aspx

http://www.destinationcrm.com/Articles/Editorial/Magazine-Features/Superhuman-CRM-60594.aspx

http://www.destinationcrm.com/Articles/Editorial/Magazine-Features/Superhuman-CRM-60594.aspx

http://davaidavai.com/2009/10/11/social-crm-ready-for-action/

http://www.zoho.com/crm/how-crm-works.html

http://www.zoho.com/crm/how-crm-works.html

http://misbridge.mccombs.utexas.edu/knowledge/topics/crm/

http://www.crm2day.com/content/t6_librarynews_1.php?id=EpFEAEyFpuIBCdXUbD

http://www.destinationcrm.com/Articles/CRM-News/Daily-News/What-Is-CRM-46033.aspx

http://www.destinationcrm.com/Articles/CRM-News/Daily-News/What-Is-CRM-46033.aspx

http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/ewco/surveys/AT0503SR01/AT0503SR01_2.htm

http://www.destinationcrm.com/Articles/Editorial/Magazine-Features/CRM-Then-and-%20%20Now-68083.aspx

http://www.destinationcrm.com/Articles/Editorial/Magazine-Features/CRM-Then-and-%20%20Now-68083.aspx

http://www.sutherlandglobal.com/technology_scalplatform.aspx

http://www.sutherlandglobal.com/technology_innovation.aspx

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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?

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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?

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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?

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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%

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Table 2: Working Pattern


Full Time 16 57%

Part Time 12 43%

Total 28 100%

Table 3: Duration of Work in call centre


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?


Yes 27 96%

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No 1 4%

Total 28 100%

Table 5: Good communication ensures job satisfaction or not?


Yes 27 96%

No 1 4%

Total 28 100%

Table 6: Implementation of CRM within company effects employee working role?


Yes 26 93%

No 2 7%

Total 28 100%

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Table 7: Regular feedback is a motivating factor for employees?


Yes 23 82%

No 5 18%

Total 28 100%

Table 8: High level of stress in call centre jobs as compared to other jobs?


Yes 19 68%

No 9 32%

Total 28 100%

Table 9: “Employee performance being monitored for faults”- positive or negative?


Positive 13 46%

Negative 13 46%

Both 2 8%

Total 28 100%

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Table 10: Feedback of data got back in positive or negative manner?


Positive 19 68%

Negative 3 11%

Both 4 13%

Depends 2 8%

Total 28 100%

Table 11: Is the team leader supportive of employees?


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?


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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?


Yes 17 61%

No 3 11%

Depends 8 28%

Total 28 100%

Table 14: Employee well being given importance or not?


Yes 21 75%

No 6 21%

Depends 1 4%

Total 28 100%

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Table 15: Level of stress faced by call centre agent?


High 18 64%

Medium 8 29%

Low 2 7%

Total 28 100%

Table 16: Call centre jobs tires the employees of call centre?


Yes 20 72%

No 4 14%

Depends 4 14%

Total 28 100%

Table 17: Do the agents follow the script provided for each call?


Follow 10 36%

Do not follow 9 32%

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Depends on customer 9 32%

Total 28 100%

Table 18: Do employees get enough training or not??


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?


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?

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Yes 12 43%

No 16 57%

Total 28 100%

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