Waiting in Vain: Managing Time and Customer Satisfaction at Call Centers

Danilo Garcia, Trevor Archer, Saleh Moradi, Bibinaz Ghiabi

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Department of Psychology, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden.

DOI: 10.4236/psych.2012.32030                

Abstract

The aim was to investigate customers’ satisfaction with telephone waiting time using data collected among 3013 customers who were asked for their waiting time satisfaction, information satisfaction, and service satisfaction. The actual queue time was also measured and played a significant but small role on time satisfaction. In order to keep customers satisfied with waiting time, a successful model is an infor- mative satisfactory answer and top of the line service, even when queue times are large. Nevertheless, the model was less useful to predict non satisfied customers. This specific information needs to be integrated when organizations assess customers’ time satisfaction.

Keywords

Call Center; Customer Satisfaction; Information Intelligence; Queue Time; Time

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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