Skip to main content
Log in

A process-centric performance management in a call center

  • Published:
Applied Intelligence Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Discovering valuable information needs some extra focuses on business processes. Although data-centric techniques yield useful results, they are insufficient to explain the causes of the problems in the process. This study aims to reveal the relationship between customer satisfaction and other key performance indicators (KPIs) affected by the activities performed during the call process. The research applies process mining, a pragmatic analysis to obtain meaningful insights through event logs. Several statistical analyses also support the process mining to test the statistical significance. The study showed that customer satisfaction is positively affected by average handle time and first call resolution, whereas staff mistakes diminish it. Moreover, problem solving is much more important than waiting in the system. Waitlisted and Waitlisted back activities are crucial elements of a call center system. Moreover, the research presents an insight for customers who give the same score after the call. It explains not only KPIs’ effects but also reasons for giving satisfaction scores based on call process. Additionally, in previous studies, the customer satisfaction indicator was mainly emphasized, but other KPIs’ effects on satisfaction level were ignored. This paper evaluates the impact of the identified KPIs on satisfaction in a process-oriented manner.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Van der Aalst WM, Song M (2004) Mining social networks: uncovering interaction patterns in business processes. In: International conference on business process management, pp 244–260. Springer

  2. Abdullateef AO, Mokhtar SSM, Yusoff RZ (2011) The mediating effects of first call resolution on call centers’ performance. J Database Market Custom Strat Manag 18(1):16–30

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Aguwa CC, Monplaisir L, Turgut O (2012) Voice of the customer: customer satisfaction ratio based analysis. Expert Syst Appl 39(11):10112–10119

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Aktepe A, Ersöz S, Toklu B (2015) Customer satisfaction and loyalty analysis with classification algorithms and structural equation modeling. Comput Indust Eng 86:95–106

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Bi JW, Liu Y, Fan ZP, Zhang J (2020) Exploring asymmetric effects of attribute performance on customer satisfaction in the hotel industry. Tour Manage 77:104006

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Chen LF (2015) Exploring asymmetric effects of attribute performance on customer satisfaction using association rule method. Int J Hosp Manag 47:54–64

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Chicu D, del Mar Pàmies M, Ryan G, Cross C (2019) Exploring the influence of the human factor on customer satisfaction in call centres. BRQ Business Res Quart 22(2):83–95

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Chicu D, Ryan G, Mirela V (2016) Determinants of customer satisfaction in call centres. Europ Account Manag Rev 2(2):20–41

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Chicu D, Valverde M, Ryan G, Batt R (2016) The service-profit chain in call centre services. J Serv Theory Pract 26(5):616–641

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Claes J, Poels G (2012) Process mining and the prom framework: an exploratory survey. In: International conference on business process management, pp 187–198. Springer

  11. Davras Ö, Caber M (2019) Analysis of hotel services by their symmetric and asymmetric effects on overall customer satisfaction: a comparison of market segments. Int J Hosp Manag 81:83–93

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. De Weerdt J, Schupp A, Vanderloock A, Baesens B (2013) Process mining for the multi-faceted analysis of business processes—a case study in a financial services organization. Comput Ind 64(1):57–67

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Dogan O (2018) Process mining for check-up process analysis. IIOABJ 9(6):56–61

    Google Scholar 

  14. Dogan O, Ayyar B, Cagil G (2019) Process-oriented evaluation of customer satisfaction: process mining application in a call center. In: International symposium on intelligent manufacturing and service systems, pp 172–181

  15. Dogan O, Bayo-Monton JL, Fernandez-Llatas C, Oztaysi B (2019) Analyzing of gender behaviors from paths using process mining: a shopping mall application. Sensors 19(3):557

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Dogan O, Fernandez-Llatas C, Oztaysi B (2019) Process mining application for analysis of customer’s different visits in a shopping mall. In: International Conference on Intelligent and Fuzzy Systems, pp 151–159. Springer

  17. Dogan O, Martinez-Millana A, Rojas E, Sepúlveda M., Munoz-Gama J, Traver V, Fernandez-Llatas C (2019) Individual behavior modeling with sensors using process mining. Electronics 8(7):766

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Dogan O, Oztaysi B, Fernandez-Llatas C (2020) Segmentation of indoor customer paths using intuitionistic fuzzy clustering: process mining visualization. J Intell Fuzzy Syst 38(1):675–684

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Ellway BP (2014) The voice-to-technology (v2t) encounter and the call centre servicescape: navigation, spatiality and movement. J Serv Manag 25(3):349–368

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Feinberg RA, Hokama L, Kadam R, Kim I (2002) Operational determinants of caller satisfaction in the banking/financial services call center. Int J Bank Market 20(4):174–180

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Fernández-Llatas C, Benedi JM, García-Gómez J, Traver V (2013) Process mining for individualized behavior modeling using wireless tracking in nursing homes. Sensors 13(11):15434–15451

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Fernandez-Llatas C, Lizondo A, Monton E, Benedi JM, Traver V (2015) Process mining methodology for health process tracking using real-time indoor location systems. Sensors 15(12):29821–29840

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. García-Martínez R, Britos P, Rodríguez D (2013) Information mining processes based on intelligent systems. In: International conference on industrial, engineering and other applications of applied intelligent systems, pp 402–410. Springer

  24. Isik M, Hamurcu A (2017) The role of job stress at emotional labor’s effect on intention to leave: Evidence from call center employees. Business and Economic Horizons (BEH) 13(5):652–665

    Google Scholar 

  25. Jaiswal AK (2008) Customer satisfaction and service quality measurement in indian call centres. Manag Serv Qual: Int J 18(4):405–416

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Jasmand C, Blazevic V, De Ruyter K (2012) Generating sales while providing service: a study of customer service representatives’ ambidextrous behavior. J Mark 76(1):20–37

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Jung Y, Suh Y (2019) Mining the voice of employees: a text mining approach to identifying and analyzing job satisfaction factors from online employee reviews. Decis Support Syst 123:113074

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. Kang D, Park Y (2014) Review-based measurement of customer satisfaction in mobile service: sentiment analysis and vikor approach. Expert Syst Appl 41(4):1041–1050

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Keiningham TL, Aksoy L, Wallin Andreassen T, Cooil B, Wahren BJ (2006) Call center satisfaction and customer retention in a co-branded service context. Manag Serv Qual: Int J 16(3):269–289

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Lamine E, Fontanili F, Di Mascolo M, Pingaud H (2015) Improving the management of an emergency call service by combining process mining and discrete event simulation approaches. In: Working conference on virtual enterprises, pp 535–546. Springer

  31. Langseth J, Vivatrat N (2003) Why proactive business intelligence is a hallmark of the real-time enterprise: outward bound. Intell Enterprise 5(18):34–41

    Google Scholar 

  32. Maioli HC, de Carvalho RC, de Medeiros DD (2019) Servbike: riding customer satisfaction of bicycle sharing service. Sustain Cities Soc 50:101680

    Article  Google Scholar 

  33. Manzoor A, Shahabudeen P (2014) A study on key performance indicators and their influence on customer satisfaction in call centres. Int J Econ Res 11(2):303–313

    Google Scholar 

  34. Panpanich P, Porouhan P, Premchaiswadi W (2015) Analysis of handover of work in call center using social network process mining technique. In: 2015 13th International conference on ICT and knowledge engineering (ICT & knowledge engineering 2015), pp 97–104. IEEE

  35. Partington A, Wynn M, Suriadi S, Ouyang C, Karnon J (2015) Process mining for clinical processes: a comparative analysis of four australian hospitals. ACM Trans Manag Inform Syst (TMIS) 5(4):19

    Google Scholar 

  36. Petz G, Karpowicz M, Fürschuß H, Auinger A, Stříteskỳ V, Holzinger A (2014) Computational approaches for mining user’s opinions on the web 2.0. Inform Process Manag 50(6):899–908

    Article  Google Scholar 

  37. Piercy N, Rich N (2009) High quality and low cost: the lean service centre. Eur J Mark 43 (11/12):1477–1497

    Article  Google Scholar 

  38. Piercy N, Rich N (2009) Lean transformation in the pure service environment: the case of the call service centre. Int J Oper Prod Manag 29(1):54–76

    Article  Google Scholar 

  39. Rendón CMC, Vásquez A, Benjumea-Arias M, Valencia-Arias A (2017) Proposed model for measuring customer satisfaction with telecommunications services. Mediterranean J Soc Sci 8(2): 15–25

    Article  Google Scholar 

  40. Rovani M, Maggi FM, de Leoni M, van der Aalst WM (2015) Declarative process mining in healthcare. Expert Syst Appl 42(23):9236–9251

    Article  Google Scholar 

  41. Sezgen E, Mason KJ, Mayer R (2019) Voice of airline passenger: a text mining approach to understand customer satisfaction. J Air Transp Manag 77:65–74

    Article  Google Scholar 

  42. Strohmeier S, Piazza F (2013) Domain driven data mining in human resource management: a review of current research. Expert Syst Appl 40(7):2410–2420

    Article  Google Scholar 

  43. Stübig T, Zeckey C, Min W, Janzen L, Citak M, Krettek C, Hüfner T, Gaulke R (2014) Effects of a wlan-based real time location system on outpatient contentment in a level 1 trauma center. Int J Med Inform 83(1):19–26

    Article  Google Scholar 

  44. Tontini G, dos Santos Bento G, Milbratz TC, Volles BK, Ferrari D (2017) Exploring the nonlinear impact of critical incidents on customers’ general evaluation of hospitality services. Int J Hosp Manag 66:106–116

    Article  Google Scholar 

  45. Van Der Aalst W (2016) Process mining: data science in action. Springer

  46. Van Der Aalst W, Adriansyah A, De Medeiros AKA, Arcieri F, Baier T, Blickle T, Bose JC, Van Den Brand P, Brandtjen R, Buijs J et al (2011) Process mining manifesto. In: International conference on business process management, pp 169–194. Springer

  47. Wang Y, Lu X, Tan Y (2018) Impact of product attributes on customer satisfaction: an analysis of online reviews for washing machines. Electron Commer Res Appl 29:1–11

    Article  Google Scholar 

  48. Wongvigran S, Premchaiswadi W (2015) Analysis of call-center operational data using role hierarchy miner. In: 2015 13th international conference on ICT and knowledge engineering (ICT & knowledge engineering 2015), pp 142–146. IEEE

  49. Xiang Z, Schwartz Z, Gerdes JH Jr, Uysal M (2015) What can big data and text analytics tell us about hotel guest experience and satisfaction? Int J Hosp Manag 44:120–130

    Article  Google Scholar 

  50. Xu X, Li Y (2016) The antecedents of customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction toward various types of hotels: a text mining approach. Int J Hosp Manag 55:57–69

    Article  Google Scholar 

  51. Zhang J, Zhang J, Zhang M (2019) From free to paid: customer expertise and customer satisfaction on knowledge payment platforms. Decis Support Syst 127:113140

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Onur Dogan.

Additional information

Publisher’s note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Dogan, O. A process-centric performance management in a call center. Appl Intell 53, 3304–3317 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10489-022-03740-9

Download citation

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10489-022-03740-9

Keywords

Navigation