Literature Review on Service Quality in Call Centers

This literature review discusses the service quality, the linkages to a service quality, building a blueprint for the service quality, the service benchmark, the factors that influence quality of service and quality changes in call centre of Namibia.

RUNNING HEAD: LITERATURE REVIEW
LITERATURE REVIEW
Name of Student
Name of University
Author note

1LITERATURE REVIEW
Table of Contents
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW........................................................................2
2.1 Introduction......................................................................................................................2
2.2 Defining service quality...................................................................................................2
2.3 Linkages of service quality..............................................................................................4
2.4 Building a blueprint for service quality............................................................4
2.5 Service Benchmark..........................................................................................................5
2.6 Service quality delivery.........................................................................................5
2.6.1 Service delivery a challenge in Namibia.................................................6
2.7 Call Centre.......................................................................................................................7
2.7.1 Advantages of a Call Center.....................................................................................9
2.7.2 Disadvantages of a Call Centre...............................................................................10
2.8 Current level of frontline work in call centers...............................................................11
2.9 SERVQUAL model.......................................................................................................12
2.9.1 Service Quality Determinants and the SERVQUAL Instruments..........................12
2.9.2 The Gap Model of Measuring service quality.........................................................13
2.10 Factors that influence service quality...........................................................................14
2.11 Conclusion....................................................................................................................16
References:...........................................................................................................................18

2LITERATURE REVIEW
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Introduction
The call centers gives the alternate ways of doing any business by delivering
rapid and effective set of services to the clients and customers and it acts as a core
part of different organizations. There exist a huge demand of call center executives
as the expansion rate of these call centers is still booming around globe. The
quality management is the foremost priority of the company and it is a core
attribute for growth and sustenance of the firms. The work in the call centers is a
complex task and it takes efforts and taking hurdles at different level in order to
optimize the functioning of the process teams and its members – the executives,
team leaders and the managers (Woodcock 2017). While often it is seen that the
daily life at call center becomes tough and leads to high anxiety issues (Setar,
Buitendach and Kanengoni 2015). It is to be noted that various socioeconomic,
sociological and psychological and even ergonomically placed factors along with
other inter related environmental reasons play a very important role in
performance of daily roles by the executives and the managers supervising the
team on a regular basis (Mosese and Mearns 2016). The issues are complex and
the study focuses to straightforwardly present the same as supported by the
evidences provided various other studies that focused on the same.
This chapter discusses the service quality, the linkages to a service quality,
building a blueprint for the service quality, the service benchmark, the factors that
influence quality of service and quality changes in call centre of Namibia. The
chapter also discusses the advantages and the disadvantages within business
environments, the various kinds of service categories, the Servqual model, the Gap
Model of service quality and the factors impacting the service quality.
2.2 Defining service quality
According to Benerjee (2016), the increasing contribution of the service
sectors to the global economy and an intensive competition has thereof compelled
the researchers to navigate the concept in service quality from different
perspectives. From the primitive research age, the service quality concerns a wide

3LITERATURE REVIEW
area of interest in research and its whole existence are proven meticulously by
Vroom’s (1964) developments to expectancy theory. The service quality can be
defined in a global attitude or judgement relating to the particular service and a
customer’s complete impression about relative superiority or inferiority of the
received services and the related organisations.
Min (2015) defined this service quality as the way of serving the client in an
appropriate manner from the first instance. Moreover, service quality is served in a
way so that the service can meets and exceed the needs and expectations of
customers. The quality of service come from the customer expectation
conformance that have the cognitive descriptions in the qualitative perception, the
affordability of the economic quality, and the availability. Because perception
plays an important role in subjective feeling in customers, the service quality
transform over prolonged period.
Priangorro and Sitio (2019) explains the dynamic condition relating to
products, the services, the people, the processes, the environments that goes
beyond the expectations. The relationship in service quality and the customer
satisfaction is crucial for company, because fulfilment of the customer satisfaction
suggests that company is successful in delivering good service quality as per the
consumer expectations. A service can be called as qualified if it addresses the
needs and the customer desires. They also focused on the technologic as well the
workforce to deliver a stand out performance or at least to have a motive for the
same. Motivation matters(Colombino, Hanrahan and Castellani 2014) and both
self, peer and supervisor’s motivation works optimally and very well in a daily
scenario and how to concoct an highly positive work environment is still a
question that is to be solved by many call centres working day in and day out in
Namibia.
Bardwaj and Sigh (2019) aims on the perspectives that determined the service
quality, chiefly. The customer perception (regarding perceived quality of service)
and the way a certain service is targeted and the service related quality is delivered
to the customers. The customers are considered for being the most vital factor in
crafting, in evaluating and in providing of the quality level service in businesses
and are very sensitive in nature. The quality sought by customer can be considered

4LITERATURE REVIEW
as height of customer quality very implicitly or very explicitly. They expect and
then claim from the service providers. Quality provided is based on customer
expectations and is evolved as the marketing and selling process goes on. The
customers are influenced by familiarity and reflection of any organization. The
quality that is perceived, on contrary, depends on the large impression made by
clients that influences and that experiences a change in standard of the quality after
receiving a service. There is a difference in the quality sought with the quality
perceived by clients. Customer satisfaction is based on formulation of actual and
the precise criteria in which the service is being delivered to customers.
2.3 Linkages of service quality
Bardwaj and Sigh (2019) reveals that positive disconfirmation findings where
performance of products and services exceeds that is expected by customers that in
turn, enhances satisfaction level. Leading investigators of customer facilities
powerfully advocate - customer services and quality augments regarding future
profitability is inevitable to firm’s performance, the businesses and the national
economies (Anderson 1994). The notable implementation of any market survey
regarding customer services in service providing businesses are guided by
supposition in which a client is satisfied by organizational services shall return for
repurchase (Jones and Sesser 1995).
2.4 Building a blueprint for service quality
Besides awakening the services domination in world's economies, emphasis on
business practice for creating meaningful and memorable sort of customer
experiences are growing. Several types of models which are attempting different
types of service quality. They are comprised of the strengths and the weaknesses
and also the core definition used in quality of service. The service must be
consistent and be straightforward and that service quality should cause the
customers to think that they are getting a improved service than the perceived
service. Now, it is time to develop the new services in acceptable level of service
quality that is based on the traditional engineering method and is called service

5LITERATURE REVIEW
engineering, concerned with systematic development along with designed products
and service.
Hassaim, Enam and Farhana (2017) focuses on blueprinting as key tool in
designing of a new provision that reform the existing ones, and specifies the
constructive process in some details. This enriches the service innovation and the
service development as a blueprint to customers. Service Blueprinting procedure
can be considered as being very appropriate to the existing services. By the
illustration and analysis of current status in service process, the areas for
improvement in service sequence can be measured. Creating the visual
representations help the process improvement in a flow by highlighting the
potential points of incremental adjustment. The Blueprints illuminate, then provide
a support to processes within organization which drives and then guides a
customer-focused and driven service execution.
2.5 Service Benchmark
Min (2015) describes the service benchmark like yardstick required for
continuous service in improvement process of servicing by provider that can
assess the internal strengths and the weaknesses. This can evaluate the
comparative benefits with respect to leading competitors, identification of the
practices with maintenance of industrial standards (Min and Min 1996) and
include the results to strategize an action plan in gaining of a position that is of
superiority. They claimed that the customer service is improved and enhanced
through intangible ways that cannot be measured. But measurements can be used
for the comparisons of the service providers with respect to competitors and to the
concerned industry norms. Hence, the assessment in customer satisfaction takes in
count the service performance within company.
2.6 Service quality delivery
The services quality is synchronous with the production quality, with regards
to terms of an implementation. There is an emphasis made on human ‘elements or
touch’ that is critical. It needs a ‘integrated thinking’ method in order to deliver the
‘maximum value’ for money to the client. The call centres are central element to

6LITERATURE REVIEW
companies' operations and a central place to communication persisting between
companies with its customers. Assuming the vitality of voice over meetings
(Chicu, Ryan and Valverde-Aparcio 2016) – the study determines the idea of the
customer satisfaction within a framework of remote service.
During researcher’s conversations with managers of call centres, the
researchers revealed that most of the 'call centres' of Namibia build up a
different quality control and check division to guarantee a prevalent quality
and incredible execution. In Namibia, the 'call centre' industry, the quality
control and the 'performance assessment' is drilled with operational measures
called as the 'key performance markers (or indicators)' or 'KPI'. All the
operational estimates must be recorded day by day and on a 'week basis' as
well or a month to month premise. Execution identified with operational
measures was reported to be collected and to be recorded. The performance
level in tandem with measures can be governed with service level agreement
or SLA acting between the call centres and the clients. The call centres are of
inbound and of outbound type.
The study implies that importance of employees being critical to the
company or organisation as much as it is of the customers. The employees
should be valued as much the organisation values its customers. To provide a
high edge service, a synchronisation between the various levels of customer
service department is critical and the managers play a very crucial role in a
quality service delivery and work optimization. The managers should have the
necessary skill to rightly the team on a collective aspect and from an
individualistic aspect (Chynoweth 2015).
2.6.1 Service delivery a challenge in Namibia
Effective customer service and the delivery of it is still a major challenge in the
nation of Namibia, within public sector as well as in private sector, according to
what was said by President Hage Geingob accordingly (Namibia Daily News April
2017).
President Hage Geingob said "We introduced the Citizen Satisfaction Survey
as a baseline assessment to establish standards of public service delivery." The
core governmental framework also refers the private sector frequently and the

7LITERATURE REVIEW
stakeholders regarding the actions considering ‘service delivery’ and development.
The public service excellence depends on slow development of fine adjustment of
performance in the organization system. The aims and the goals becomes very
niftier and very ‘outcome-focused’ along with the ministry being completely
included of the given performance management, this is what Geingob said. He
spotted and mentioned a optimistic notable change in ‘working culture’ of the
national government along with the rising determination in highest leadership
service. Ministers have become punctual in ‘Cabinet meetings’ - the time is getting
coped, that paces an development in performance and in service delivery within
business environment of ‘private companies’.
These very practices can be and are protracted and then rivalled across the very
system. ‘Head of the State’ stated that private, private firm remain very dedicated
to the fetching of services quicker to public by leveraging of data and the
information communication technology. Government calls the private sector in
order to scale up the service delivery by applying the service charters and by using
the customer satisfaction (Namibia Daily News April 2017) and perception
surveys twice a year, according to Harambee Prosperity Plan.
2.7 Call Centre
Miller and Hendrickse (2016) explained the industry of call centre being one of
globally growing industries (Abrahams 2008). It has become vital for customer
acquisition and sustenance and how the service information gets shared (in
inbound) or how the sales are done (in outbound) (White and Roos 2005). Work
environment in call centres serves as multi-channel of ‘communication hubs’,
which offer the fax, the email, the ‘web chat’ and the ‘internet’ as chief
communication ways with the clients (Banks and Roodt 2011). The call centres
serve as substitute means in contact between organization and its customers which
omits high costs in interaction otherwise (Möller, Crous and Schepers 2004). Call
centres provide valuable services like problems solving, like resolving complaints,
then providing of the ‘information’ to customers (Lywood, Stone and Ekinci
2009). Whilst the cuustomer care centres offer the companies with profits of terms
in cost savings – thus generating huge amounts in terms off economy – an
emphasis on job characteristics is placed and the physical work in environment of

8LITERATURE REVIEW
call centres impacting the wellbeing of agents in these call centres. The problems
with call centres has been monotonous work, low pay, increased job demand, very
low control, very limited level of any ‘social assistance or support’ and the few
chances in obtaining of the ‘new skills’ and lesser ‘training sessions’ (Anderson
and Jansson 2006). The environmental modification is crucial to the servicing of
the customers in an indirect way for a work place environmental modification
serve the call centre executives in a very right way and keeps them motivated
towards their work (Woodcock 2017). Environmental modification (Garrett et al.
2016) can be in terms of accessibility to technologically advanced system
(Gounder 2014) the wired and wireless framework of the technology being intact
and the telephonic service as in voice quality, record keeping and high advanced
functionality being feasible on a regular manner and the quality and service team
being completely aware of any faults that may arise. They must imperatively be
ready to handle the issues so as to make the already high strung lives of call centre
executives easier.
According to the Fieberg (2014) - the call centres provide dual level of service-
and marketing role. Hence the call centre managers can achieve the extra, the more
complex aspect related to consumer satisfaction, the administration quality, the
reaction times. In view of the most call focuses anticipated as "public face" in
organization - this administration needs to assume a critical job in the client
securing, their maintenance too (Aksin, Armony and Mehrotra 2007). Call centres
are exact routes for delivery of service and communication with customers and is
important for strategic change. The companies provide customer satisfaction by
providing information about the services and products provided by the company
and it lowers cost expenditure of the company. The managers have to balance
between quality and the effeciency. (Banks and Roodt 2011). Organization can
manage quality-efficiency in trade-off by delivering a fair understanding in
association between the human resource and the very performance consequences
(Aksin et al. 2007). The study emphasizes on the fact that the managers must learn
and should know how to positively reinforce the functions of the employees that is
the call centre executives in this case. Taking up a compassionate, positive attitude
to interactively handle the employees in a non-confrontation and harmonious
manner is important (.Archer and Jagodziński 2015). Understanding each

9LITERATURE REVIEW
employees behavioural and motivational characteristic along with their strengths
and weaknesses is vital to individual member and collective team management.
2.7.1 Advantages of a Call Center
Bennington, Cummane and Conn (2000) focussed on ‘application’ of
technologies within call centre and how it play a very serious role while accessing
of the more customers, and in provision for the ‘better quality of services’,
specially where the ‘additional’ or the ‘extended services’ is available necessarily
(Walker and Craig-Lees 1998). When these ‘high-contact’ services are converted
to the low-contact ones, via technology, there are several benefits that can result.
Firstly, very obviously, the customers avoid the attending of the ‘service factory',
importantly (Lovelock 1997) which led to lesser price and the better convenience
in attending the customer. Secondly, ‘time taken’ between and also of each
‘transaction’ can be tapered due to decreased need of travelling to these hub-
located services. Once one is ‘connected’ to any ‘call centre’, the ‘services’ must
be provided rapidly because of experts and newer technologies, available
nowadays that stream the investigations and queries into an ‘vacant staff’
distribution in various ‘call centres’, located in many parts of one country. Thirdly,
the services are language friendly, according and in sink with customer's choice.
Fourthly, it was reported that customer inflow in call centre is greater in number
than in terms of personal contact (Driver and Johnston, 1998). The ‘organizations’
use very ‘new technologies’ in order to ‘facilitate’ a better effectiveness in efficacy
of their services (Prabhaker et al. 1997). Many and more and more clienteles can
be handled at ‘one point of time’ with facing a lag due to modern technologies
available today (instruction driven advanced ‘telephone keypad’) and fewer staff
become needed. The less number of service centres have less space delivering
services to the company customers causing a ‘concomitant reduction’ of
management staff with cost decrease. Spacing is as important as the usage of
modern elite technologies and it is important to reduce the reduction of
experienced employees.

10LITERATURE REVIEW
2.7.2 Disadvantages of a Call Centre
Bennington, Cummane and Conn (2000) focuses on the perception of quality
service provided by call centre and contact (Driver and Johnston 1998), the
customer’s levels of satisfaction in the real time video was reported to be
significantly higher than hum mediated customer care (Bennington and Cummane
1998). High level technologies, customer care, cultural competence, location,
target population, level of expertise and access to mobile telephones, to Internet
access play an impactful role in the service industry (ABS 1998). On the contrary,
in this battle of human versus technology, all the humans cannot fail at a single
time more there are various coping mechanisms in humans that technology do not
have. Technologies can fail at single time due to upset of the technological remote
framework, due to server failure or due to complicated micro level issue but the
human expertise is more resilient than technology. Humans can learn from
experience which technology cannot. Humans can recruit different ways of
problem solving that technology cannot and that is a right mix of human help and
technology support is crucial to call centres. Sarel and Marmorstein (1998) have
focussed on solving the operational problems with assessing of service quality is
significantly affected due to delays. Green et al. (1996). Zeithaml and Bitner
(1996) provided 8 explanations of various perceptions regarding waiting time:
 ‘unoccupied time that feels longer compared to occupied time’
 ‘pre-process waiting that feel longer compared to process waits’;
 ‘ anxiety which seem longer than the wait’;
 ‘ uncertain waits appears ‘longer than any finite waits’;
 ‘unexplained waits which are longer compared to explained waits’;
 ‘ unfair waits as compared to equitable waits’;
 ‘Customer wait time as compared to value of the service’
 ‘waiting lone than waiting long a group’.
Provided that a call centres, customers lack visual and any other cues happening at
call centre – they are more anxious when they call and this is perceived as being

11LITERATURE REVIEW
waiting for long. The challenge of managers and executives is to ‘manage’ the
aforementioned perceptions.
2.8 Current level of frontline work in call centres
Dean and Rainnie (2009) annotates that the previous work has revealed a
service theory on quality that can be dissimilar in the call centres. Dean (2004). It
was reported that various types of theory are found in regards to service quality do
not prove any dynamism and any interdependence which was actually predicted in
previous studies. Yoon et al. (2001) has found that the employees work play a
central and pivotal role in the customers' insights in regards to service quality.
Working under tough circumstances - they give isolated and expert service
over telephone. It is they who have to do the management of service related
problems alone, in significant electronic surveillance (Houlihan 2002). The
managers emphasize the very productivity based on targets and this conflict with
service delivery (McGregor et al. 2019). In order to reach the goals, executives
exhibit a great deal of control and skills (Brown and Maxwell 2002).
In the ‘call centres’, various report have reflected on ways to achieve ‘targets’
and to safeguard quality at the same time. For this purpose self-control is required
but the managers nearly monitor the employees and provide very less opportunity
of self-control (Callaghan and Thompson 2001; Gilmore 2001; Taylor and Bain
1999). The theory emphasize on association between the quality and the control.
Edwards et al. (1998) focussed on positive reviews on quality, which was
expressed only by the employees, where monitoring of the workers is at its
intense. Gilmore (2001) studies presented the frontline employees are very ‘aware’
of the ‘service quality’ related ‘problems’ and felt work ‘environment’ to be a
barrier to answer the customer queries that has to be answered very effectually and
very competently. Call centre environment play a huge role (Harry and Coetzee
2013). Varca (2006) revealed a ‘loss in perceived control’ associated with any
‘telephone surveillance’.

12LITERATURE REVIEW
2.9 SERVQUAL model
According to the Archakova (2013) in (Karatepe 2013) – the five-dimensional
SERVQUAL model play an important role in understanding the complexities.
Other vital conceptual and the empirical studies of research stream revealed that
the service quality has a service product, the service environment, a service
delivery and it contains interaction quality, the physical environment, the quality,
the outcome quality. (Karatepe 2013).
According to Al-Dulimi (2017) the services quality is related to production
quality, with regards to implementation. There has been emphasis on and about the
human elements with integrated thinking and perceptual processes applied in order
to deliver a supreme value to all of the clients. The quality in a service concept can
be linked to perception and to expectations of the individuals. The quality of
service perceived by customer is found by comparison of expectations in the
service provided and the customer perceptions about supplier activities (Grönroos
1994; Parasuraman et al. 1988).
2.9.1 Service Quality Determinants and the SERVQUAL Instruments
According to a study done by Archakova (2013), 10 determinants were
reported to characterize the customers' perception about a specific service. One of
many determinants - the competence will be always related to technical quality in
outcome, and to creditability as in a closely connected loop of image aspect to
perceived quality. It is stimulating to observe remaining determinants are related
somehow to process dimension and perceived quality. (Gronroos 2005).
As a result of later study according to Archakova (2013), 10 determinants in
service quality were changed to 5, which are as follows (Gronroos 2005)
1. Tangibles: is a determinant related to appeal of the facilities, the equipment,
and the material applied in a service facility according to appearance and presence
of the various service employees.

13LITERATURE REVIEW
2. Reliability: is about a service facility that provides the customers an accurate
service for first time in a flaw less way (Musaba, Musaba and Hoabeb 2014)
3. Responsiveness: measures how willing the employees are when to helping the
customers and to respond to made requests, inform customers about resolution and
solutions and giving a rapid service.
4. Assurance: the executive's behaviour can deliver the customers with confidence
within firm and make them feel secure. Kind, ethical, amiable but professional
client centric behaviour is what taught and must be always taught in the training
period.
5. Empathy: determinant of the process, make sure that the firm actually
understands the customers' issues seriously and then performs with their best of
interests while helping customers with personal attention and proper operations.
2.9.2 The Gap Model of Measuring service quality
Moreno (2015) and Hoffman, D, and Bateson, J. (2006) expressed that
methodology in administration quality ought to be ‘inspected’ in ‘gabs’ existing in
the middle of the desires and the ‘perception’ with respect to any administration.
Marketing communication is very important to the process. The chief goal of any
quality management in any of the services - require closing of this "service gab" to
try and narrow differences. Zeithaml, Bitner, and Gremier (2009), ‘points out’ to
closure of ‘gap’ that is vital in conveying a class service. An active ‘services
related marketing’ is very ‘complex undertaking’ as well a strategic venture done
in a ‘structured’, tactical way known as ‘gab's model of service quality’.
Moreno (2015:34-36), mentions these gaps as:
Gab 1: The listening Gap
Providing the services which customers perceive being excellent and it
requires a business knowledge about customer expectations. This gap occurs when
the company’s understanding is lesser than the client’s expectation.

14LITERATURE REVIEW
Gab 2: The Standard Gap
The standards is set of service delivery protocols, an entire process involving time
and the conduct of any personnel within service interaction can start this gap
between perception and delivery.
Gab 3: The Service Performance Gap
This gap occur when an organisation promises a great product with worth for
money and gets the customers interested. Now, at the time of delivery, the
workforce fail to deliver or underachieves of what was promised earlier and this is
due to performance issues (Zeithaml, Parasuraman, and Berry 1990).
Gab 4: The Communication Gap
Zeithaml at al. (2009) reveals this as the most important gap and the most
common of all the other types of gaps. Communication failure can occur within an
organisation, between the employees, between the manager and the team
members, between the team member themselves and most importantly, between
the executives and the clients. This leads to escalation of the problem without
solving the actual root of it and communication gap needs to be filled or rather
bridged with a collaborative and logical approach like proper language training,
accent training and problem solving sessions. The team needs to perform their
collective and individual functions in a very coordinated way.
2.10 Factors that influence service quality
Management’s emphasis on sales- Managers are generally very profit-
oriented and in their core responsibility should lie the skill of managing a team
efficiently. They must encourage, motivate the team to keep up with the quality of
work and not just on profit (Shauna 2013).
For example, when Western Union’s sales is down, the pressure is up quite
often it does interferes with the behavioural patterns of the team members and the
managers as well. It leads to anxiety and release of frustrations amongst team
members and this is highly dreadful in relation to morale and performance of the

15LITERATURE REVIEW
team. The team must be motivated all the time and the managers are only
managers when they are capable of absorbing the pressure.
Human resource management practices - 'Human resource and the management
practices' are encouraged and after that ruined with quality in administration that is
conveyed. Preparing, the acknowledgment, the ‘rewards’ and the impetuses give a
positive effect on the administration quality. The factors that deteriorate quality of
service are inflexible shift timings, workplace disruption, high target pressure.
For example - the Western Union should maintain happiness of their workforce
otherwise it would cause disruption. This play a crucial role in the way they
would do their job by taking out their outbursts on customers and even on the
peers.
Fieberg (2014) highlights recruitment, the selection and the training of the call
centre executive is critical to working of the call centre office. Considering
discussions regarding the recruitment and the selection, the next point is training,
which must be done properly. After recruitment, training and more training should
be undertaken to train the employees with the technical skills, the procedural
knowledge, attention to details and to knowing of the system, plus the
development of social skills. Social skills have two parts: 1. managing of a client
conversation and 2. Managing of yourself. The first – that is managing of a
conversation is the key responsibility area of an employee and the second is
critical to achieve the same.
Managerial attitudes – managers are of various types and they play a very
important role in the hierarchy of the company and their input is imperative to the
work and organisation’s operational flow in a streamlined way. They are generally
between the top management and the team employees working at entry level and
their mental attitude play a huge role in chaperoning the work process for the
better. An organised positive mind set is the first thing you need in a call centre
manager and he should have the characteristic of harmony, team building,
motivation and problem solving.
Managers should initiate the survey to take each and every employee’s perspective
to identify the detailed barriers and the facilitators to the actual delivery of the

16LITERATURE REVIEW
service quality. The step that aim at improving the quality in service must be
delivered more often and enhance the whole customer understanding in total.
There are different alternatives and the approaches, managers should challenge
and help the tea, to eliminate the internal factors, negatively influencing the
service quality. Staff turnover should be limited.
2.11 Conclusion
This study measures the service delivery quality in call centre while handling
the customers with their need from the agents and the customer's perspectives. The
work pressure, low work play, attrition, work life balance and conflicts arisen in
surveillance and issues with motivating employees and customer dissatisfaction –
the most cardinal barriers. A huge company like Western Union should
comprehend the need for employee satisfaction and the need to focus on the
employee engagement in order to provide the best of quality services. The
customer care department must be taken care of in a very proper way in order to
make them function optimally.
As discussed, it can be concluded that workforce management is a very critical
set of duties that is need to be performed at a high expertise level. That is why, the
company hires managers and assistant managers for different teams and at
different levels in order to form and for proper functioning of the hierarchy in
terms of administration and operation. The study emphases on the role of
managers being crucial to the driving of daily work function in a very streamlined
and highly effective way. Highly effective in the sense that the process mangers
should be able to handle to problems and issues that arises within the process in
terms of workplace disruption, performance issues and technologic shortfalls and
even the mangers should be deciding on the level of training required by every
employee so that they can optimize their individual performances. It is emphasized
that the individualistic performance monitoring is crucial to the performance of the
team and individual needs are to be cared by the process managers of call centres
so as to help the individual call centre executives help develop their skills in a very
optimized manner and bridge their gaps at the same time. Contributing to team

17LITERATURE REVIEW
spirit is very important facet of team performance and for this, the call centre
managers should be able to glue the team of executives and their team under good
and even the complex circumstances of higher demands.
The team needs to and should be able to resolve the problems of the clients in a
hassle-free way and this takes boosting the subject knowledge and procedural
knowledge of the executives themselves. This is highly important for both the
managers and team members of the call centre teams serving different processes to
develop a harmony between themselves and to make this harmony work so as to
enhance the complete set of services provided by the individuals and the team in
whole. This quality of service delivery is highly vital for making the customers
return to them next time or receive the assistance service in a good faith as if they
do not have to return to the executives for the same issue again and even if it takes
to have another query solving, they can return to calling them in faith for the good
will that has already been forged between the process executives and the
customers. The implication of the study highlights the fact that valuing the
customers is very important both to the company and its employees as they would
not in any way, think of switching to any other company one any day for having
missed a quality customer care or for having not satisfied with kind of or level of
service received and for not having their problem solved or at-least having the
perception of it. This clear case of communication gap can be due to deficiency in
the process and procedural knowledge of the executives and managers who are
directly dealing with the customers on a daily basis or due to the lack of bridging
the perceptual gap through technologic and behavioural interplay.
.

18LITERATURE REVIEW
References:
Akaranga, S.I. and Makau, B.K. 2016. Ethical Consideration and their Applications to
Research: A Case of the University of Nairobi. Journal of Educational Policy and
Entreprential Research, 3(12), p.1.
Al-Dulaimi, Z.Y.S., 2017, November. FACTORS INFLUENCING THE SERVICE
QUALITY IN HIGHER EDUCATION IN ROMANIA AND IRAQ FROM
PROFESSORS’PERSPECTIVE. In Proceedings of the INTERNATIONAL
MANAGEMENT CONFERENCE (Vol. 11, No. 1, pp. 231-240). Faculty of
Management, Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania.
Aliyu, A., Bello, M. U., Kasim, R. and Martin, D. 2014. Positivist and Non-Positivist
Paradigm in Social Science Research: Conflicting Paradigms or Perfect Partners.
Journal of Management and Sustainability, 4(3), p.83.
Archakova, A. 2013. Service Quality and Consumer Satisfaction. Case Study:
Company X. Finland. Degree Thesis. Saimaa University of Applied Science.
Archer, D. and Jagodziński, P., 2015. Call centre interaction: A case of sanctioned face
attack?. Journal of Pragmatics, 76, pp.46-66.
Astalin, P. K. 2013. Qualitative Research Design: A conceptual Framework.
International Journal of Social Science & Interdisciplinary Research [online], vol. 2
(1), p118.
Banerjee, M. 2016. Impact of Service Quality and Customer Satisfaction on Customer
Loyalty: A Comparative study of Jet Konnect and Indigo Airline. India. PHD Thesis.
UOB.
Bardwaj, J and Sigh, A. 2019 A Customer Centric Indian Banking System: An
Assessment of Marketing Strategies & their Impact on Quality of Service in Public &
Private Sector Banks. International Journal of Scientific Engineering and Science,
3(4), p.76-81.
Chicu, D., Ryan, G, & Valverde-Aparcio, M. 2016. Determinants of customer
satisfaction in call centres (Abstract). European Accounting and Management Review,
2:21

19LITERATURE REVIEW
Chynoweth, A., 2015. Constructing a Pedigree. In Bread and Roses (pp. 129-138).
Cleff, T., 2014. Exploratory data analysis in business and economics. Cham: Springer
International Publishing.
Cohen, L., Manion, L., Morrison, K. and Morrison, R.B., 2007. Research methods in
education” Routledge.
Colombino, T., Hanrahan, B. and Castellani, S., 2014. Lessons learnt working with
performance data in call centres. In COOP 2014-Proceedings of the 11th International
Conference on the Design of Cooperative Systems, 27-30 May 2014, Nice (France) (pp. 277-
292). Springer, Cham.
Curry, A. and Lyon, W. 2008. Call centre service quality for the public: a Scottish
Du Plessis, A.J., Douangphichit, N., and Dodd. P., 2016. HRM in Relation To
Employee Motivation and Job Performance in the Hospitality Industry. Journal of
International Business Research and Marketing [online], vol.1 (5), p12.
Fieberg, M. 2014. The Efficient Management of a Call Centre. MBA Thesis. UFS.
framework for the future. Managing Service Quality, Vol. 18 No. 2, pp. 194-208.
Fraser, J., Fahlman, D., Arscott, J. and Guillot, I. 2018 Pilot Testing for Feasibility in
a Study of Student Retention and Attrition in Online Undergraduate Programs.
International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning [online], vol.
19(1), p264. Available from: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1174051.pdf
[Accessed 28 April 2019].
Garrett, G., Benden, M., Mehta, R., Pickens, A., Peres, S.C. and Zhao, H., 2016. Call center
productivity over 6 months following a standing desk intervention. IIE Transactions on
Occupational Ergonomics and Human Factors, 4(2-3), pp.188-195.
Geraghty, S. 2013. ‘6 Organizational Factors that Affect Service Delivery in Call
Centre’s’. Talkdesk, 20 March. Available at: https://www.talkdesk.com/blog/9-
organizational-factors-that-affect-service-delivery-in-call-centers/ (Accessed: 14 April
2019)
Gounder, D., 2014. Managing customer queries in outsourced telecommunication contact
centres (Doctoral dissertation, University of South Africa).
Greening, N. 2019. Phenomenological Research Methodology. Scientific Research
Journal.7(5), p. 2.

20LITERATURE REVIEW
Haele, R and Twycross, A. 2015. Validity and Reliability in Quantitative study.
School of nursing, 18(3), p. 66-67.
Harry, N. and Coetzee, M., 2013. Sense of coherence, career adaptability and burnout
of early-career Black staff in the call centre environment. SA Journal of Industrial
Psychology, 39(2), pp.1-10.
Hassaim, M.Z., Enam, F. and Farhana, S. 2017. Service Blueprint a Tool for
Enhancing Service Quality in Restaurant Business. American Journal of Industrial
and Business Management, 7, p. 920-921.
Longelin, J. 2018. How to overcome 7 common call center problems that lower
quality. Playvox, 1 August. Available at: https://blog.playvox.com/four-common-call-
center-problems-that-lower-quality-and-how-to-overcome-them [Accessed 05 May
2019]
McGregor, M., Bidwell, N.J., Sarangapani, V., Appavoo, J. and O'Neill, J., 2019,
April. Talking about Chat at Work in the Global South: An Ethnographic Study of
Chat Use in India and Kenya. In Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human
Factors in Computing Systems (p. 233). ACM.
Moreno, M.M. 2015. Measuring Service Quality in the Irish Retail Sector: Applying
the model to Identify Service Quality Gaps. Dublin. MBA Thesis Dublin Business
School.
Mosese, M. and Mearns, M., 2016. Leveraging management information in improving call
centre productivity. South African Journal of Information Management, 18(1), pp.1-9.
Nyaungwa, C. 2015. Assessing the impact of change management on the performance
of Zimra Region 1 in Zimbabwe. Kuwait Chapter of Arabian Journal of Business and
Management Review,4(6), p.79.
Prianggoro, N.F., Sitio, A. 2019. Effect of Service Quality and Promotion on Purchase
Decisions and their Implications on Customer Satisfaction. International Journal of
Engineering Technologies and Management Research. 6(1), p. 53.
Setar, S.B., Buitendach, J.H. and Kanengoni, H., 2015. The moderating role of
psychological capital in the relationship between job stress and the outcomes of

21LITERATURE REVIEW
incivility and job involvement amongst call centre employees. SA Journal of
Industrial Psychology, 41(1), pp.1-13.
Smith, J. and Noble, H. 2014. School of Human and Health Sciences, University of
Huddersfield. UK [online], vol. 17(4), p. 100-101.
M.R. 2014. Business Research Methods: An applied Orientation. Switzerland:
Springer International Publishing.
Musaba, C.N.A., Musaba, E.C. and Hoabeb, S.I., 2014. Employee perceptions of
service quality in the Namibian hotel industry: A SERVQUAL approach.
International Journal of Asian Social Science, 4(4), pp.533-543.
Taherdoost, H. 2016. Sampling Methods in Research Methodology; How to Choose a
Sampling Technique for Research. International Journal of Academic Research in
Management, 5(2), p. 18-27.
UKEssays. November 2018. Research Philosophy Is a Belief Management Essay.
[online]. Available from: https://www.ukessays.com/essays/management/research-
philosophy-is-a-belief-management-essay.php?vref=1 [Accessed 14 April 2019].
Woodcock, J., 2017. Working the phones: Control and resistance in call centres. Pluto
Press. www.westernunion.com. [Date Accessed 17 January 2019]
Yousaf, M. 2019. ‘Explanatory Research Definition, Explanatory Research Types,
Comparison, Advantages, disadvantages’, Scholarship Fellow. Available at:
https://scholarshipfellow.com/explanatory-research-definition-types-comparison-
advantages-disadvantages/ [Date Accessed : 14 April 2019]