O objetivo fundamental deste trabalho foi buscar uma melhor compreensão sobre o fenômeno da inovação nas empresas de serviços onde o Call Center é empregado como a principal forma de interação empresa/usuário. Desta forma procurou-se identificar as possíveis contribuições do Call Center para os esforços voltados à inovação. Procurou-se seguir uma linha de abordagem segundo a qual, para se estudar e compreender o funcionamento do processo inovativo nas empresas, se faz necessário um estudo com maior profundidade nas organizações, investigando, por exemplo, como ocorreram - em detalhes - as inovações. Para essa finalidade foram conduzidos estudos de casos em cinco diferentes organizações de serviços. Para se analisar o papel do Call Center no processo inovativo foi desenvolvida e aplicada nos casos uma estrutura de análise composta por diferentes características de um Call Center, a saber: tipos de indicadores de desempenho; integração vertical/horizontal; qualificação e remuneração dos operadores; e empregos de scripts. A aplicação da estrutura de análise nos casos revelou que as empresas empregam diferentes modelos de Call Center a partir de estratégias distintas. Houve casos onde as empresas optaram por não utilizar o Call Center incorporado ao seu processo inovativo, mesmo que ele representasse um canal de interação importante com o usuário, o que em tese, serviria como fonte de idéias a serem utilizadas como fonte de inovação. Por outro lado, houve casos onde o Call Center desempenhou um papel relevante dentro do processo inovativo, como nos casos das inovações da Assistência Técnica Domiciliar da empresa Beta ou do Controle Remoto Infantil da empresa Delta. Os casos analisados mostraram também que a estratégia de não incorporar o Call Center no processo inovativo está fortemente associada a uma visão segundo a qual ele representa um Centro de Custo (onde são perseguidas medidas para a sua minimização) em contraposição a um Centro de Resultados, isto é, parte integrante de um processo estruturado intencionalmente para gerar inovação. / The main objective of this thesis is to improve the understanding of the phenomenon of the innovation in service companies where the Call Center is the principal means of interaction between the enterprise and its customers. This paper also describes the possible contributions of the Call Center area in all innovation processes. It focuses on the idea that in order to study and understand how the innovation process takes place, a more in depth study of these companies was required. A number of case studies were conducted in five different service enterprises. A structure analysis, composed of different types of performance indicators such as vertical/horizontal integration; operator qualification and wages; and different uses of scripts, was developed in order to analyze the role of a Call Center in the innovative process. The application of the structure analysis in the enterprises which were studied showed that they adopt different Call Center models based on distinct strategies. There were cases where enterprises clearly chose not to make use of a Call Center in their innovative process, even though it could represent an important interaction channel with users and at the same time serve as a means to collect ideas to be used as a source of innovation. In others the results showed that the strategy of not incorporating a Call Center in the innovative process is strongly associated to the belief that it represents a Cost Center rather than a Result Center where it is part of an intentional structured process for innovation. On the other hand, there were enterprises where the Call Center played a major role within the innovative process as in the case of developing innovation for domestic technical assistance of Beta enterprise or Childrens remote control of Delta enterprise.

La presente tesis pretende optimizar los recursos en un call center especializado en la evaluación de créditos perteneciente a la empresa GMG servicios del Perú S.A. ubicado en la ciudad de Lima en el distrito de Santiago de Surco, parte de su expansión e incursión en el mercado sudamericano, ingresa al Perú con su marca comercial “El Gallo más Gallo” dedicada a la venta de electrodomésticos, motos, equipos de cómputo y telefonía, entre otros, dirigida fundamentalmente a clientes de ingresos medio-bajos y bajos, además de presentar un crecimiento sostenible en el tiempo. El estudio de caso se centra en analizar la adecuada asignación de recursos del área de call center, así como también la demora de atención a las llamadas entrantes. Una vez conocida la situación actual se diagnosticó que los recursos no eran utilizados de manera adecuada para cumplir de manera óptima con los servicios que se brindan en dicho call center. La empresa no ha hecho ningún tipo de estudio para asignar sus recursos adecuadamente, por lo que se han basado en experiencia y mediante el tiempo van modificando según sus experiencias. Además de ello se verifica que los indicadores de tasa de abandono, duración de llamadas y demora de contestación al cliente que permiten medir el desempeño del call center no cumplen con las expectativas de la gerencia general de la empresa. Ante ello se presenta un modelo de asignación de recursos propuesto, el cual es un modelo estructurado con una serie de actividades consecuentes de un proceso y que son alimentados por la información obtenida de un modelo de programación lineal y cuyo soporte operativo se basa en una herramienta especializada llamada Lingo. Es así que el modelo matemático y la herramienta de simulación por el Promodel se relacionan e introducen en el proceso propuesto, donde la integración asegura que las decisiones se tomen en base a información relevante focalizada en la nueva asignación de recursos, para así mejorar los índices mencionados anteriormente y que se maximice el negocio aprovechando las oportunidades de generar más ganancias debido a la eficiencia del proceso y a la alza de demanda para la obtención de créditos mediante la empresa objeto de estudio. The present thesis tries to optimize the resources in a call center specialized in the belonging credit evaluation to the company GMG services of Peru S.A. located in the city of Lima in the district of Santiago of Rut, part of his expansion and incursion on the South American market, deposits Peru with his commercial brand " The Rooster more Rooster " dedicated to the sale of domestic appliances, motorcycles, equipments of calculation and telephony, between others, directed fundamentally clients of average-low and low income, beside presenting a sustainable growth in the time. The study of case centres on analyzing the suitable assignment of resources of the area of call center, as well as also the delay of attention to the next calls. Once known the current situation diagnosed that the resources were not used of way adapted to expire in an ideal way with the services that are offered in the saying call center. The company has not done any type of stupid to assign his resources adequately, by what they have been based on experience and by means of the time they are modifying according to his experiences. Besides it one checks that the indicators of rate of abandon, duration of calls and delay of answer that allow to the client to measure the performance of the call center do not expire with the expectations of the general management of the company. Before it there appears a model of assignment of resources proposed, who is a model structured with a series of consistent activities of a process and that are fed by the information obtained of a model of linear programming and whose operative support is based on a specialized tool called Lingo. It is so the mathematical model and the tool of support relate and introduce in the proposed process, where the integration assures that the decisions should take on the basis of relevant information focused in the new assignment of resources, this way to improve the indexes mentioned previously and that maximizes the business taking advantage of the opportunities to generate more earnings due to the efficiency of the process and the rise of demand for the credit obtaining by means of the company I object of study.

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.

This study explored the relationship between attributional style and the performance of front line service staff in a call centre environment. Attributional style was evaluated using a well recognised method (Seligman's Attributional Style Questionnaire). This was the first time that the Seligman's Attributional Style Questionnaire (SASQ) has been used in a New Zealand context. Performance was calculated using five independent measures. These measures have been used for several years by the company at the centre of our study as an objective measure of Call Centre Representative (CCR) performance. The association between attributional style and performance was then examined using a combination of Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and co relational analysis. People have different ways of reacting to adversity such as failure, rejection or a high-pressure situation. The ability to succeed is closely tied to the ability to handle adversity (DeCarlo et al., 1997; Seligman & Schulman, 1986; Boone, 2000). Research has supported the common sense view that optimistic beliefs can be self-fulfilling prophecies (Sujan, 1999a; Porter, 2000; Furnham et al., 1994). Hundreds of studies have revealed the benefits of optimism such as increased motivation, superior achievement (in various areas e.g. work, school and sports), elevated mood and well-being, and better physical health (Seligman et al., 1990; Seligman et al., 1986). Furthermore, individuals can learn to reduce negative ways of thinking and become more optimistic when it is appropriate (Satterfield et al., 1997; Eronen et al., 1999; Bohart, 2002).Call centres are not new phenomena, however they have become a growth industry in the private and public sector over the last decade (Creagh, 1998). The following definition of call centres was used by Gilmore and Moreland; "A physical or virtual operation within an organisation in which a managed group of people spend most of their time doing business by telephone, usually working in a computer-automated environment." (2000, pg 4)Due to the size and the complexity of tasks undertaken within call centres, there is a growing need for empirical findings to broaden understanding of how to best manage call centres and how to optimise the utilisation of human capital (Feinberg et al, 2000).This cross-sectional study assesses the performance of Call Centre Representatives (CCRs) in a New Zealand based call centre and explores whether there is an association with the Seligman's Attributional Style Questionnaire (SASQ).It was found that the performance measure for soft skills varied significantly when ranked by a measure of optimism. The performance measures considered in this study focus mainly on technical competency and task efficiency, and were therefore not well explained by attributional style. Future research should investigate pre-testing for soft skills at recruitment, interventionist training on attitude and whether that translates into improved soft skill performance, and the reassessment of current call centre performance measurements.

Die Kommunikation mit den Kunden und insbesondere die Kundenberatung sind in Zeiten permanent hohen Drucks am Markt durch Mitbewerber wichtiges Marketinginstrument, mit dem die Kunden möglichst dauerhaft an das eigene Unternehmen gebunden werden können. Auslöser für die vorliegende Arbeit war die Idee zur Realisierung einer Kundenberatung mittels Videokonferenzsystemen im Jahr 2000 im Zusammenhang mit dem durch das Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF) geförderte Forschungsprojekt „intermobil Region Dresden“. Durch diese Implementierung sollten Internet-Informations- und Vertriebssysteme durch eine Funktion der Individualberatung ergänzt werden und damit ein persönliches Beratungsgespräch möglichst realitätsnah abbilden. Da im B2C-Bereich die Echtzeitberatung über das Internet eine bis jetzt weitgehend ungenutzte Beratungsform ist, obwohl die dafür notwendigen Technologien schon seit Jahren zur Verfügung stehen, verspricht eine wissenschaftliche Untersuchung dieses Gegenstandes neuen Erkenntnisgewinn und ist gleichzeitig wichtigste Motivation für diese Arbeit. Hauptziel und somit grundlegende wissenschaftliche Fragestellung ist es zu untersuchen, ob synchrone Videokommunikation ein geeignetes Echtzeit-Beratungsmittel für die Kundenberatung (in diesem Zusammenhang als Videoberatung bezeichnet) sein kann. In der vorliegenden Arbeit werden über die Planung eines Video Call Centers und den damit verbundenen Modellbetrachtungen Einsatzszenarios für die Videoberatung entwickelt. In diese Entwicklung fließen die Ergebnisse aus der Einzelfallanalyse des implementierten Videoberatungssystems ein. Diese Ergebnisse werden auf Basis der durchgeführten Labor- und Feldforschung gewonnen. Die Wirksamkeit des analysierten Video Call Centers in Bezug auf die Kundenzufriedenheit wird abschließend durch eine Evaluation unterstrichen.

This study explored the relationship between attributional style and the performance of front line service staff in a call centre environment. Attributional style was evaluated using a well recognised method (Seligman's Attributional Style Questionnaire). This was the first time that the Seligman's Attributional Style Questionnaire (SASQ) has been used in a New Zealand context. Performance was calculated using five independent measures. These measures have been used for several years by the company at the centre of our study as an objective measure of Call Centre Representative (CCR) performance. The association between attributional style and performance was then examined using a combination of Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and co relational analysis. People have different ways of reacting to adversity such as failure, rejection or a high-pressure situation. The ability to succeed is closely tied to the ability to handle adversity (DeCarlo et al., 1997; Seligman & Schulman, 1986; Boone, 2000). Research has supported the common sense view that optimistic beliefs can be self-fulfilling prophecies (Sujan, 1999a; Porter, 2000; Furnham et al., 1994). Hundreds of studies have revealed the benefits of optimism such as increased motivation, superior achievement (in various areas e.g. work, school and sports), elevated mood and well-being, and better physical health (Seligman et al., 1990; Seligman et al., 1986). Furthermore, individuals can learn to reduce negative ways of thinking and become more optimistic when it is appropriate (Satterfield et al., 1997; Eronen et al., 1999; Bohart, 2002).Call centres are not new phenomena, however they have become a growth industry in the private and public sector over the last decade (Creagh, 1998). The following definition of call centres was used by Gilmore and Moreland; "A physical or virtual operation within an organisation in which a managed group of people spend most of their time doing business by telephone, usually working in a computer-automated environment." (2000, pg 4)Due to the size and the complexity of tasks undertaken within call centres, there is a growing need for empirical findings to broaden understanding of how to best manage call centres and how to optimise the utilisation of human capital (Feinberg et al, 2000).This cross-sectional study assesses the performance of Call Centre Representatives (CCRs) in a New Zealand based call centre and explores whether there is an association with the Seligman's Attributional Style Questionnaire (SASQ).It was found that the performance measure for soft skills varied significantly when ranked by a measure of optimism. The performance measures considered in this study focus mainly on technical competency and task efficiency, and were therefore not well explained by attributional style. Future research should investigate pre-testing for soft skills at recruitment, interventionist training on attitude and whether that translates into improved soft skill performance, and the reassessment of current call centre performance measurements.

Zugl.: Maastricht, Univ., Master-Thesis, 2004

Zugl.: Hamburg, Univ., Diss., 2008

Bachelor-Arbeit Univ. St. Gallen, 2008.

Utilising integral parts of diverse socio-academic interaction finders establishing virtual online environment incorporating a collection of computer advances as interaction-support e-models was assumed most adequate in the Saudi context, where research confirmed poorer writing proficiency level than the desired standards of university students studying EFL as their major (Hujailan, 2004; Jahin, 2007; Gahin & Idrees, 2012; and Al Asmari, 2013). This environment facilitates interactional communications aiming at (basically) enhancing peer/expert revision and feedback provision processes needed for writing (or other language skills), and (generally) supporting knowledge construction. However, educationalists are not sure whether the purported benefits claimed by advocates of such interactional approach to the teaching of Writing (IATW) and associated means and techniques are true. Research also revealed negative attitudes of the Saudi college students towards learning a second language (ibid). The fact that demanded investigation on those issues inquiring whether an IATW programme – a package carefully designed as per the constructs of the approach referred to above – can be an effective tool to enhance Arab university EFL students' proficiency in English writing; and produce more positive attitudes towards learning English (writing in particular)? Following a mixed method (positivistic and interpretive-constructivist) research framework on the above-determined research question, this study was conducted. As a pre-test-post-test control group design of experimentation, data collection method used two instruments: a) pre- and post-writing proficiency tests (WPTs) to measure improvement of (27) experimental group students' writing ability, compared with that of the control group (28); and b) interviews to measure the impact of an IATW environment on a sub-set of (22) students' attitudes towards their interactional English writing approach experience. An action plan was followed to do relevant tests, two writing instruction methods, and semi-structured interviews. Quantitative data analysis of the WPTs revealed that the IATW made statistically significant difference in the experimental students’ overall Writing proficiency, compared with the control group scoring. The programme did not make statistically significant improvement in all Writing sub-skills than the control group. It improved the IATW students’ performance in the sub-skills: ‘Evidence & Reasoning’, ‘Organisation’, ‘Cohesion & Logical Consistency’, and ‘Mechanics’ in different degrees. However, the results revealed non-significant effect of the approach on the Writing sub-skills: ‘L2-related or L1-related Grammar’ error reduction. Conversely, the interactional mode did not function better than the traditional (non-interaction-based) approach in ‘Vocabulary’ or ‘Range of Ideas’: the traditional method showed more effectiveness. The experiment showed weak effect sizes in all cases. Qualitative analysis of the interviews revealed that the participants exposed to the interactional activities have developed positive attitudinal disposition: quite considerable ‘motivational intensity’, and increased ‘desire to learn’. Further discussions with the interviewees generated more evaluative thoughts (both favourable and unfavourable). They appreciated the IATW as easy-to-reach, relevant, purposeful writing activities; and communicative mode that played a role in elimination of passive experience of learning, and learner autonomy. However, they placed priority to other schooling goods than the approach adopted, and highlighted major constraints of utilising computer and iB applications for supporting interaction: lack of expertise, internet access, and time consuming. The insight gained from the findings posed a set of implications highlighted, and recommendations for further research study areas suggested.