An Exploratory Study of the Different Ways that Call Centre Managers Interpret a Service Technology

Abstract

Purpose and approach: A person's mental model, or 'frame', of a technology influences the way he/she reacts to that technology. Service literature has examined perceptions and reactions of consumers to a technology, but not those of employees. Using an interpretative approach, this study mapped the frames of internet service technology among a particular group of employees: call centre managers. Findings: These managers framed the Internet as a means of either (1) creating a virtual presence for the company; (2) providing alternative access to the call centre, similar to phone or fax; (3) eliminating routine requests made to the call centre; or (4) fulfilling customer needs in lieu of the call centre. Each frame could be characterised by a specific combination of the following four attributes: the call centre's role in relation to customers; the call centre manager’s role; the location of knowledge needed to service customers; and customer characteristics. Research implications: The four frames formed a hierarchy of customer empowerment, where the degree of empowerment was in terms of increasing customer capability to initiate and complete information searches and transactions via the Internet. The frames also varied in the perceived tacitness of knowledge related to products and order-taking procedures. Practical implications: On a practical level, this study suggests that it is important to elicit call centre mangers' beliefs about a technology before developing service technology strategy, so that assumptions about customers, and the roles of the call centre and the call centre manager are revealed.