Abstract not available

Thesis (MTech (Public Relations Management))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2011. / This research investigates the application of the quality management systems at a computer contact centre in Cape Town. It examines the issues around brand switching from the products supported by the computer customer contact centre to those manufactured by competitors. Its main interest is to interrogate the reasons customers give to call centre agents when they decide to switch brands. It also hopes to find out whether call agents understand the interrelation between quality management, brand loyalty and customer satisfaction. Furthermore, the project uses employee responses to ascertain whether the concept of quality management is synonymous with customer satisfaction and whether employee fulfilment leads to innovation and customer satisfaction. To address the main concerns of this project, Deming's model of quality management is used as the main conceptual framework. The key concepts underlying this model are visionary leadership, internal and external cooperation, learning/training, process management, continuous improvement, employee fulfilment and customer satisfaction. To find out the reasons that customers give to call centre agents when they decide to switch brands and also to respond to sub research questions, a quantitative research method was selected. A questionnaire was administered to 100 employees out of a 300 population. Although the customers' voices would have added value to the research project, the researcher decided to concentrate on employees because of the following reasons: 1) the interaction with customer begins and ends with agents, therefore agents are always aware of the reasons why customers switch brands; 2) the customers are in excess of 100,000,000 and selecting a representative sample for a mini thesis was not very feasible, given that the thesis is constrained by time and volume.

Contact centres (CC), are the primary interaction point between a company and its customers and these are rapidly expanding in terms of both workforce and economic scope. An important challenge for today's CC solutions is to increase the speed at which CCAs retrieve information to answer customer queries. CCAs, however, differ in their ability to respond to these queries and do not interact with the computer user interface (UI) in the same way as they each have different capabilities, experience and expertise. Studies have provided empirical support that user performance can be increased when the computer UI characteristics match the user skill level. Adaptive user interfaces (AUIs) are the key to creating personalised systems. Their sole task is to provide an interface most suitable to users' needs whilst facilitating the users' varying skill levels. The aim of this research was to develop an AUI model for CCs to support and improve the expertise level of CCAs. A literature review of CCs, user expertise, AUIs and existing AUI models resulted in the proposal of an AUI model for CCs. The proposed AUI model was described in terms of its architecture, component-level and interface design. An AUI prototype was developed as a proof-of-concept of the proposed AUI model. A literature review on existing AUI evaluation approaches resulted in an evaluation strategy for the proposed AUI model. The AUI prototype was evaluated according to the evaluation strategy that was identified. User testing incorporating eye-tracking and a post-test questionnaire was used to determine the usefulness and usability of the AUI prototype. Significant results were found with regards to user satisfaction ratings, the learnability of the AUI prototype and its effectiveness. This dissertation makes an important contribution in the design of an AUI model that supports and improves the expertise level of CCAs. The model could be used to assist the development of CC applications incorporating AUIs. Future research is however needed to evaluate the effect of the proposed AUI model in a larger CC environment.

Contact Centres (CCs) are at the forefront of interaction between an organisation and its customers. Currently, 17 percent of all inbound calls are not resolved on the first call by the first agent attending to that call. This is due to the inability of the contact centre agents (CCAs) to diagnose customer queries and find adequate solutions in an effective and efficient manner. The aim of this research is to develop an intelligent user interface (IUI) model to support and improve CC operations. A literature review of existing IUI architectures, modelbased design and existing CC software together with a field study of CCs has resulted in the design of an IUI model for CCs. The proposed IUI model is described in terms of its architecture, component-level design and interface design. An IUI prototype has been developed as a proof of concept of the proposed IUI model. The IUI prototype was evaluated in order to determine to what extent it supports problem identification and query resolution. User testing, incorporating the use of eye tracking and a post-test questionnaire, was used in order to determine the usability and usefulness of the prototype. The results of this evaluation show that the users were highly satisfied with the task support and query resolution assistance provided by the IUI prototype. This research resulted in the design of an IUI model for the domain of CCs. This model can be used to assist the development of CC applications incorporating IUIs. Use of the proposed IUI model is expected to support and enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of CC operations. Further research is needed to conduct a longitudinal study to determine the impact of IUIs in the CC domain.