Thesis (MBus) -- University of South Australia, 1994

Thesis (MBus) -- University of South Australia, 1994

Thesis (MBus) -- University of South Australia, 1994

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1973. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliography.

Contact centres are the first point of contact between a company and a customer after the purchase of a product or service. These centres make use of contact centre agents to service customer queries. In the past contact centres hired as many agents as they could in order to service customers, which have led to an increase in personnel costs causing contact centres to become costly to run. Automation techniques were introduced to decrease personnel costs and one such technique is the Interactive Voice Response (IVR). The usability of IVR systems is, however, dismal. Customers would rather speak to a contact centre agent than navigate through the menu structure found in these systems. The menu structure has come under scrutiny because it is difficult to use and navigate, is often not aligned to caller usage patterns, and the menu options are long and vague. This research investigated whether a Natural Language Interface (NLI) could alleviate the problems inherent to IVR. NLIs, however, come with their own disadvantages of which the main ones are ambiguity and the loss of context of a conversation. Two prototypes were implemented, one of which resembled an IVR and the other an NLI (using ALICE concepts). An evaluation of two prototypes confirmed the advantages and disadvantages of these concepts in accordance to theory. A Hybrid prototype was proposed with the aid of two models. The model which proposed an NLI using a rule base was chosen for implementation. The Hybrid prototype was then evaluated against the NLI and IVR prototypes to deduce which prototype was the most effective, efficient and satisfying. The evaluation through the aid of descriptive and inferential statistics showed that the Hybrid prototype was the most usable prototype. The evaluation of the Hybrid prototype confirmed that a Hybrid approach could limit the shortcomings of IVR through the elimination of the menu structure found in these systems, thereby allowing users to state their queries in natural language. The incorporated rule base provided the Hybrid system with long term memory, eliminating one of the main disadvantages of NLIs.

The objective of the study was to determine whether any relationships exist between personality and the performance of sales staff in a call centre environment. Personality type (measured by the Jung Type Indicator [JTI]) and sales personality type (measured by the Sales Preference Indicator [SPI]) were correlated with sales staff performance in an insurance call centre environment. A quantitative survey was conducted using a sample of N = 146. Correlational and inferential statistical analyses revealed statistically significant positive, although weak, relationships between personality type and the performance of call centre sales staff while statistically significant positive and negative correlations, although weak, were found between sales personality type and the performance of call centre sales staff. More female and black sales staff members were found in the higher performing clusters than in the average and poorer performing clusters. The best subset of personality scales from the JTI that predicted univariate measures of performance were the extroversion-introversion scale and the judging-perceiving scale while the best subset of predictors from the SPI personality scale were the consistent-adaptive scale and the cooperative-competitive scale. Call centre performance criteria are based mainly on quantitative performance criteria. It emerged from the literature review that the call centre sales position is synonymous with emotional labour and it is, thus, recommended that future research should emphasise the importance of emotionally intensive labour and its measurement combined with quantitative performance measures. / Industrial & Organisational Psychology / M.A. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)

The objective of the study was to determine whether any relationships exist between personality and the performance of sales staff in a call centre environment. Personality type (measured by the Jung Type Indicator [JTI]) and sales personality type (measured by the Sales Preference Indicator [SPI]) were correlated with sales staff performance in an insurance call centre environment. A quantitative survey was conducted using a sample of N = 146. Correlational and inferential statistical analyses revealed statistically significant positive, although weak, relationships between personality type and the performance of call centre sales staff while statistically significant positive and negative correlations, although weak, were found between sales personality type and the performance of call centre sales staff. More female and black sales staff members were found in the higher performing clusters than in the average and poorer performing clusters. The best subset of personality scales from the JTI that predicted univariate measures of performance were the extroversion-introversion scale and the judging-perceiving scale while the best subset of predictors from the SPI personality scale were the consistent-adaptive scale and the cooperative-competitive scale. Call centre performance criteria are based mainly on quantitative performance criteria. It emerged from the literature review that the call centre sales position is synonymous with emotional labour and it is, thus, recommended that future research should emphasise the importance of emotionally intensive labour and its measurement combined with quantitative performance measures. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / M.A. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)