1. 1
London School of Commerce
An Exploration into the concept of customer relationship
management and its implementation within a call centre in India as
well as relating it to the factors that affects the well being of the
employees working in a call centre environment : A Case Study of
Sutherland Global Services (India)
MBA Dissertation
Submitted By: ANJU SKARIAH
Student ID:
Professor: Mr. Peter Bowyer
Presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of
Masters of Business Administration [International Business]
University of Wales Institute, Cardiff
November 2010
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Abstract
The core aim of this study which the author lays down is looking into the concept of Customer
Relationship Management [CRM] and its implementation within a call centre environment. The
call centre that the author has focused upon is Sutherland Global Services which is actually
based in India as the author has contacts in the Indian call centre. The study throws light upon
how the implementation of customer relationship management affects the employees working in
a call centre, whether it makes things better for the employees or not. The author throws enough
light upon the factors relating to the well being of call centre employees. Call centre’s
everywhere is blooming like an international business and making huge profits and this fact is
published and known to one and all. So the author through this study brings out the factors which
affect the employee well being. The technology related to the CRM implementation is also
discussed. The reader will be able to understand thoroughly the concepts of customer
relationship management and the concept of call centre environment in detail as the author has
conducted a detailed study into both concepts and they are both presented under separate
headings falling under the literature review chapter. The author conducts interpretative study by
making use of the qualitative and quantitative research approaches and adopts the research
strategy of case study analysis which throws light on the company Sutherland Global Services
and what the company deals with, its customers and core values will be highlighted. The reader
will gain in depth knowledge about the concepts of customer relationship management and the
issues relating to the working conditions of the call centre environment as well as how the
vibrant call centre environment works under pressure is highlighted.
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Acknowledgements
As I reach the end of this study there are many people I need to thank without leaving out
anyone. As the saying goes gratitude is a duty and it must be paid in full so first of all I must
thank God Almighty who gave me enough strength to concentrate fully on this study in spite of
facing many problems in the course of the study. I am truly indebted to his love and kindness
which provided me with immense strength and support in many ways and forms.
I extend my sincere thanks to my professor Mr. Peter Bowyer who was my supervisor during the
course of my dissertation and has been a great guide and immense support during the entire
study. His sincere interest in my subject of study will be appreciated always.
Next I thank the University of Wales and London School of Commerce for providing me with
resources for the dissertation and all other educational facilities which was a great help indeed.
I am grateful to three most important supporting pillars of my life that is my parents Mr. Daniel
Skariah and Mrs. Aleyamma Skariah and my sweet sister Miss. Ancy Skariah for providing me
immense support and love which gave me the strength to move forward and get my work done
with high dedication and interest. I will love you always now and forever. A special thanks to my
sister again for comforting me when I was extremely stressed.
I am thankful to all my friends who guided me and a special thanks to my friends Nisha K. Pillai
and Jyoti Singh who helped me fill the questionnaire by contacting the agents and management
team working at Sutherland Global Service. And finally, a special thanks to all the respondents
who found time out of their busy schedule to fill my questionnaire.
Once again a special thanks to everyone who helped me complete this dissertation and apologies
if I have left out anyone.
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Table of Contents
Title Page................................................................................................................
Signed Statement..................................................................................................
Abstract...................................................................................................................
Acknowledgements..............................................................................................
Chapter One: Introduction................................................................
1] Aim of Chapter.......................................................................................................
2] Research and Importance of background................................................................
3] Company Overview.................................................................................................
4] Dissertation Framework...........................................................................................
6] Objectives of Dissertation........................................................................................
7] Rationale behind choosing the topic........................................................................
8] Limitations...............................................................................................................
Chapter Two: Literature Review........................................................
Part A: Customer Relationship Management [CRM]
1] Aim of Chapter.........................................................................................................
2] Definition and outline of Customer Relationship Management [CRM]...................
3] The Customer and the Customer Life Cycle............................................................
4] Evolution of CRM....................................................................................................
5] Technology...............................................................................................................
6] e- CRM.....................................................................................................................
7] An update on CRM implementation till date...........................................................
Chapter Three: Literature Review.......................................................
Part B: The Call Centre Environment
1] Aim of Chapter..........................................................................................................
2] Culture in Call Centre................................................................................................
3] The Vibrant Call Centre Environment.......................................................................
4] Stress Factors in Call Centre.............. .......................................................................
5] CRM Systems in Call Centre.....................................................................................
6] Performance Monitoring.............................................................................................
7] Conclusion of chapter two and three..........................................................................
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Chapter Four: Research Methodology...................................................
1] Aim of Chapter.............................................................................................................
2] Secondary Research Method........................................................................................
3] Primary Research Method...........................................................................................
4] Quantitative Research Method.....................................................................................
5] Questionnaire................................................................................................................
6] Qualitative Research Method.......................................................................................
7] Interview......................................................................................................................
8] Case Study...................................................................................................................
9] Conclusion....................................................................................................................
Chapter Five: Case Study- Sutherland Global Services.........................
1] Aim of Chapter..............................................................................................................
2] Company Profile............................................................................................................
3] Company Core Values...................................................................................................
4] Customer Support Tools................................................................................................
5] Technology Used..........................................................................................................
6] Conclusion.....................................................................................................................
Chapter Six: Findings and Analysis........................................................
1] Aim of Chapter..............................................................................................................
2] Analysis of Questionnaire..............................................................................................
a) Maintenance of Customer Service..............................................................................
b) Feedback and Performance Monitoring.....................................................................
c) Implementation of CRM.............................................................................................
d) Stress Levels...............................................................................................................
e) Training provided.......................................................................................................
f) Relationship between team leader and employees......................................................
g) Call handling and script..............................................................................................
h) Employee well being..................................................................................................
3] Analysis of Interview.....................................................................................................
a) CRM Implementation..................................................................................................
b) Employee issues focused.............................................................................................
4] Conclusion......................................................................................................................
Chapter Seven: Conclusion and Recommendations.................................
1] Aim of Chapter................................................................................................................
2] Evaluation and Conclusion of Analysis............................................................................
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3] Limitations met................................................................................................................
3] Recommendations for future study...............................................................................
Reflective Summary.................................................................................
Chapter Eight: Bibliography....................................................................
List of figures used:
Figure 1: An analysis of the customer focus framework.......................................................
Figure 2: CRM framework focusing on employee loyalty, investor loyalty and
customer loyalty......................................................................................................
Figure 3: A model representing implementation of CRM in an organisation by 4
Phases......................................................................................................................
Figure 4: Figure showing how the concept of customer relationship management works....
Figure 5: The figure shows how traditional customer relationship management used to
work and how it looked like...................................................................................
Figure 6: The figure shows how customer relationship management looks like in
today’s time..............................................................................................................
Figure 7: Job related stress factors..........................................................................................
Appendix 1: Questionnaire.................................................................................................
Appendix 2: Interview Questions for Management............................................................
Appendix 3: Tables presenting the results got from the responses of agents of
Sutherland Call Centre..................................................................................
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Chapter 1: Introduction
1] Aim of Chapter 
The topic here is focus for this dissertation is on how customer relationship management is put
into use within the Business Process Outsourcing Industry focusing on a Company named
Sutherland Global Services in the UK. The research poses a challenge to the call centre image
and also places a focus on the implementation of CRM systems and also to know and see how
the CRM systems can be put to use in support of the relationships specifically of customer. As
we go along we can see that the chapter will portray an overall picture of the objectives and goal
of this thesis. The entire concept of research is being discussed and highlighted and any
limitations that the author has met with are also mentioned.
2] Importance of background 
There is an exceptional rate of growth in the call centers, but the fact is that very little is known
about the employee welfare and well being and the customer satisfaction. As such you will see
that my research will look at the factors that will affect the well being of agents who work in
such environment of call centre. The analysis of research will involve the organisation structure
and its approach to the various issues relating to the staff such as recruitment, morale, motivation
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and well being, as being given prime importance for the customer relationship management
systems to be implemented. The term Customer Relation Management [CRM] can be seen as a
very crucial concept today mainly in call centre jobs where it is seen that customer is the primary
focal point as like in any organisation be it making and maintaining a relation with the customers
and as well as more important in maintaining such relation made for a longer period of time.
Every firm one comes across has now its main focus on customer relationship management
because as the saying goes, “Customer is King”.
Customer relationship management is can be said to be as old as the hills in a sense as without
customers the company does not run and so it has to be very well noted that it is indeed
important to keep a strong connection with all customers every time so it will be easy to maintain
every relation in the long run. If we take a look at the old days we can see that customer
relationship management is definitely not interpreted as being merely a system or technology
wherein the data of a customer goes into the system and out of the company, instead such
transaction is usually seen as a way of life today. The fact is that each and every business needs
customers to buy the products or make use of the services for a price else there is no need for a
transaction/sale to take place and hence there would be no business. Since the saying goes that
customer is king it is very important to maintain that relation no matter what.
Today we are in the modern era, and so it is evident that the time and ways of conducting the
operations of the business will also change. One needs to move with the time else we would
stand nowhere in a market of tough competition. Now everything is computerised and with the
time the use of technology has also increased massively and the same is the case of internet
which one cannot do without as it would make life impossible. Customer relationship
management [CRM] plays a very crucial role to every business or firm. Customer relationship
management in today’s time can be termed as maintaining the old spirit of relations with
customers even if it means one cannot be face to face with the customer to shake hands. Today
being far away from one another, personal connection might turn out to be impossible to be kept
but still the connection with each customer is maintained so that the customer stays. With the
increase in technology, all transactions are done using the internet and the CRM systems.
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The concepts that fall under the term Customer relationship management [CRM] include the
following such as the marketing, sales, delivery of orders and lastly if any after-sales support and
service. Employees who work directly with the customers use the software applications which is
known as the front- office systems and at the same time those applications that is who will rarely
or hardly be in touch is called the back office system. As such a good customer relationship
management [CRM] system does help the supplier come to know exactly what is essential for
customers and so it really helps to build up customer satisfaction as well as loyalty in terms of
customers.
3] Company Overview 
The Organisation that the author has chosen as focus of study is called “Sutherland Global
Services” which is actually a company that falls under the business process outsourcing industry,
looking into the needs of as well as providing solutions in various fields globally namely human
resources, retail and e-retail, finance, banking and insurance, government and finally the firm
also looks into health and safety matters as well. The services of the firm are tailored and set
perfect in a manner to meet various need criteria of different firms. The firm also gives
information or data in paper form to its various users as well as deals with online services giving
importance to the fact that it is the internet era today.
The research aims to provide a detailed explanation of the use of Customer Relationship
Management [CRM] systems within a firm and also looks at the fact as to how the call centres
and companies related in the same manner use a CRM system in the working environment today.
The research will also case out the impacts the CRM system has had implemented in a call centre
environment based on the case study of a major multi-national global organization named
Sutherland.
4] Dissertation Framework 
The researcher has mainly emphasised on term customer relationship management and has also
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thrown light upon its implementation in a call centre as well as looking into the factors which
will affect mostly the welfare of the employee’s is the major interest of this study. This topic was
mainly chosen keeping in mind the researcher’s interest in the above said area and from
experience of how the employees are treated and affected by such CRM systems being
implemented, and as such the researcher was motivated to look into and explore these issues
more into detail and form the basis of the study through analysis. This research should be able to
portray a good picture of customer relationship management as well as also how this termed
evolved over time and is what it is at present. The research will also show a picture of matters
evolving around one-to-one relationships and how such evolvement joins hands through
implementation of customer relationship management.
Secondly, the researcher will look into the findings from quantitative and qualitative research and
will be used as part of analysis. Questionnaire will be made and surveys with the Sutherland
Global Services operators and management will be done and whatever data will be procured will
be used for the analysis and it will help to display the value, concept and the relations of this
research.
Lastly, the research will be concluded with the analysis conducted making use of the findings
collected will be concluded with the conclusion of the analysis achieved in the field of research.
The findings, analysis and conclusion will reflect the use of the term customer relationship
management [CRM] in a call centre environment and how employees are affected by the
implementation of CRM systems, and lastly whether all the above points has a positive or
negative impact on the employee welfare and their working conditions.
This framework gives the idea of what each chapter will contain like a description into what
contents will be included in the chapter which is as follows :-
Chapters two and three is the literature review and is divided into two sections part A and part B.
The second chapter is the literature review which consists of Section A which will throw light
upon concept of customer relationship management in other words CRM. This section will look
into the matters regarding Customer relationship management and relevant CRM strategies from
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the view point of the firm. This section will also focus on the term customer which is most
important aspect in CRM and any business and organisation. The following chapter will be seen
starting with the review of the CRM concept and the definition and how CRM has evolved over
time and how the use of modern technology combined with the use of internet has brought about
a change in the way the firms implement the CRM systems now.
The third chapter is also literature review but for the second section that is section B will be
focusing on the call centre environment. This section will look into issues like how a call centre
environment is like, the culture found in such an environment, the motivation level, stress level
and factors, performance monitoring and so on. In other words the issues surrounding the
employees who work within a call centre environment shall be put forth for discussion and how
it will affect the employee well being
When we proceed to the fourth chapter, we can see the research method of this thesis. This
chapter will look into the approach/method that needs to be adopted for this study and the
manner in which the research shall take place.
The fifth chapter will look into the company side of story where the company Sutherland Global
Services will be presented as the matter of discussion and case study. The chapter will start with
an introduction of the company Sutherland and also state the present position of the firm. The
chapter will throw light on the firm’s background, the personnel, the technology currently being
used and the customers. The chapter will conclude by saying how the data or information
available will form the basis of analysis and the forthcoming chapters.
The sixth chapter focuses on the research got from the questionnaire supplied to employees
working in a call centre environment and the interview analysis of management. Through the
survey, the reader will be able to understand the fundamental factors of CRM and to what extend
it affects the employees and management.
The final chapter that is the seventh chapter reflects on the findings and the evaluation done.
There will also be a mention about the limitation of the study as well as future recommendations
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if needed at the end. This is the concluding chapter that will bring the research to an end based
on the findings and evaluation. Based on the analysis, conclusions will be formed.
5] Aims of Dissertation 
The main aim of this dissertation is to display the impacts of the CRM systems in the services
industry and how they are made use of, and there will also be a discussion on the main ways a
the implementation of customer relationship management [CRM] will affect the welfare or well
being of the employees working in a call centre and also how such customer relationship
management is looked into when it comes to dealing with the customers.
The actual focus of my research is to analyse the basic and main issues that connects to the
customer relationship management [CRM] implementation and how management deal with the
concept of CRM in the working environment, based on a case study within the business process
outsourcing industry [BPO]
The secondary focus of the research is to collect quantitative data for the research using the
methods namely questionnaire as part of the case study research for this dissertation.
6] Objectives of Dissertation 
The main objectives of the study are as follows:
 To carry out research into the background of the topic of CRM and its evolution
 To conduct a questionnaire survey with the frontline staff within the company and an
interview with the management team in order to find out the CRM implementation and affected
working role and to analyse the impacts of employee well-being in a call centre environment
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 To draw up an analysis on the findings, reflecting the use of CRM in call centres and how it
affects employee well being as well as how it is could be used for the support and maintaining
relationships with customers.
The research will be solely focusing on a company based in a business process outsourcing
industry. The researcher will also be taking a look at how CRM deals with the various customer
needs as well as alongside maintains the customer relations for a long period of time. The
researcher will conduct quantitative research method using the questionnaire technique as part of
the study.
7] Rationale for the chosen topic 
The rationale or concept for the researcher to chose this specific topic is mainly the researcher’s
spark of interest which came out in the term Customer Relationship Management [CRM] as it is
an important term today and is widely used as well as the researcher’s curiosity to look into the
welfare of employees working in a call centre environment and what pressures they have to face
within a call centre environment. It is a known fact that call centre’s are actually growing at an
alarmingly fast pace like fire spreads but what is not a known fact is the employee problems and
issues that is exactly the concept the researcher wants to know and hopes to conclude and find
when the research ends along with the concept of how customer relationship management
[CRM] helps to support such customer relations that is important for the very existence of firms
or business.
8] Limitations met 
The author has met with various limitations such as the following:-
1] Time frame being short
2] Distance problems created issues like not being able to conduct face-to-face interviews
3] Risk of not getting the responses in time to the questionnaire sent out
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4] Computer problems like word document getting corrupted and had to find an alternative
Chapter 2: Literature Review
Part A: Customer Relationship Management [CRM]
1] Aim of the Chapter 
The main aim of this chapter is by looking from an organisational perspective, what issues has to
be considered relating to concept of CRM. The chapter includes a detailed discussion of CRM
and how the usage of technology and internet has paved way for revolution in the manner
companies incorporate and implement the CRM system.
2] Definition and outline of Customer Relationship Management 
Customer Relationship Management [CRM] cannot be treated as a single application that solves
all the customer related problems in a company. CRM can rather be termed as a “state of mind”
in a company which also involves three most important functional areas namely sales, marketing
and customer service.
Customer relationship management can be defined as: CRM is a business strategy to select and
manage customers to optimise long term value. CRM requires a customer – centric business
philosophy and culture to support effective marketing, sales and service process. [Nils Merkel,
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2010]
“CRM, a well defined business strategy, is a fusion of a series of functions, skills, processes and
technologies which together allow companies to more profitably manage (acquire and retain)
customers as tangible assets. CRM is a discipline as well as a set of discrete software’s and
technologies with a focus on automation and on improving the business process associated with
managing customer relationship in areas of sales, marketing, customer service and support.”
[Shanmugasundaram (ed.), Shanmugasundaram S., 2008]
Customer relationship management can also be termed as customer management or as
relationship marketing. This concept is an information technology term that is used for methods,
strategies, objectives, software and other web related techniques to help the company to organise,
maintain and manage its relations with customers for a long term. CRM aims at understanding
each and every customer value in a better manner as well as aims at improving the
communication effectiveness. CRM acquires data, knowledge and information from customers,
analyses the data and then distributes it to all the employees of the company. Such distribution
helps in understanding customers needs and as such the product and service needs can be met at
the right time. [MIS Bridge, May 27, 2008]
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Source: MIS Bridge [May 27, 2008]
Figure 1: An analysis of the customer focus framework
To successfully implement a CRM system, it should be known to the management that the
implementation will affect each and every section of the organisation and therefore in order to
gain positive results, important changes will take place and so the implementation must be
supported by the management from the very start. [Nils Merkel, 2010]
Customer Relationship Management [CRM] is a business strategy that is company - wide based
and is designed aiming to reduce the costs and increase the profitability by improving upon
loyalty, advocacy and customer satisfaction. CRM works in a manner of bringing together
information/data from all sources within a company and if needed also from outside the company
to give a proper view of each customer. The major three key elements for a successful customer
relationship management are process, people and technology. Each and every member of the
company starting from the CEO to every customer service representative has to buy in to and
provide support to the concept of CRM.
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The CRM structure has to be supported by various issues like the company has to select the right
technology in order to drive the process, companies must be able to provide the best
information/data to its employees and should also be easy to operate so the users will not back
off. If any of the above points are not sound enough, the CRM structure is prone to fall down.
[Michael Gentle, 2002]
In order that CRM to be successful and effective it has to face certain challenges such as
convincing its staff that the concept of change is good and CRM is bound to benefit them. Then
the business processes need to be analysed and reengineered. The next challenge is to make out
what customer data is relevant and how to make use of it. Lastly, a team of selected people
should choose the right and best technology to conduct the process of automation. CRM can be
termed as a valid business concept with huge benefits directed at both the company as well as its
customers. If we look at CRM, we need to start from the basics i.e. the customer life cycle.
Outline of CRM 
According to Michael Gentle (2002), “CRM = retention + profitability growth. It is an effective
process that favours customer retention and increased profitability.”
Customer Relationship Management [CRM] is progressively more seen at the top of organisation
agendas. Companies are embracing CRM as a major constitute of business strategy.
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Source: CRM Today [2001-2008]
Figure 2: CRM framework focusing on employee loyalty, investor loyalty and customer loyalty
The figure above shows that when there is employee and investor loyalty it will automatically
lead to them providing quality services to their customers. When the customer availing these
services becomes satisfied, the customer becomes loyal to the company and stays with the
company for a long period of time which is called lifetime value and thus it gives rise to profit
and growth.
Customer Relationship Management can be termed as a continuous relationship between three
main concepts namely- suppliers, customers and services. As such we can claim that the
customer is someone who has paid for the products and services which means they have actually
already gone through the process of sales and are now making use of their purchase. Therefore, it
can be said that customer relationship management is not only about attracting a prospect
customer. There is still a lot more that adds to the concept. According to Bryan Bergeron
(2002), “CRM is the dynamic process of managing a customer-company relationship such that
customers elect to continue mutually beneficial commercial exchanges and are dissuaded from
participating in exchanges that are unprofitable to the company.”
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Source: Customer Dynamics (2010)
Figure 3: A model representing implementation of CRM in an organisation by 4 phases
CRM can be said as a technology that lays down the steps to achieve results on a consistent
basis. It should be noted that the customer relationship management process is dynamic which
means it can change or is unpredictable as in the assumption and actions can/may change due to
environmental fluctuations or a change in the relationship between the company and the
customer. In other words, CRM also includes constant attention to the customer and company
relationship. CRM is not same as Sales Relationship Management and should not be confused
with the sales process. Suppose a particular customer ends up being a drain in the company, the
blame is not of the sales department instead, it is of the customer service not being provided
properly.
“The customer is ultimately in control of the relationship. The customer can chose to continue
the relationship or walk away. In this regard, the definition also implies that the company is
doing most of the work of maintaining a mutually beneficial relationship. In this situation, the
customer may contribute only a medium of effort in maintaining the relationship, such as taking
the time to order a widget from the company instead of placing the order with a competitor.”
[Bryan Bergeron, 2002]
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Customer Relationship Management [CRM] looks at balancing between two groups. The first
group aims at attracting a huge group of profitable customers [which go along the mission of the
company when suppose the company gets involved in market share] For example, companies
like Chevrolet, Dell Computers and Dockers belong to this category. Now the second group aims
at attracting the smallest group of customers especially when the company aims at profit
maximisation. For example, companies like Porsche, Armani and Apple Computers fall under
this category. CRM can also be looked as a concept to retain the loyal and other customers who
would otherwise go to the competitors.
“The goal is to foster the right kind of repeat customers.” [Bryan Bergeron, 2002]
As earlier discussed, the dynamics of CRM changes when then customer-company relationship
no longer stands profitable. In such situations, the customer can decide to walk out at any time
but still even then, the company would not invest much in maintaining such relationships again.
For example, such an unprofitable customer may be on hold for long and at the end would be
told by the employee/ agent that nothing can be done to solve the customer’s problem.
Before the management implements CRM in the organisation, it is important that they
understand the value of CRM. The senior management should look into the prospects of
implementing the CRM concept and system n the company.
“Although customer-focused approaches to business are now in vogue, there is a danger in not
looking inward from time to time. The corporate culture, including employee satisfaction,
ultimately affects how customers are perceived and treated. CRM recognises the role of
technology, the importance of self-knowledge, the finite nature of customer-company
relationships and the need for consistency in quality of service. Effective CRM is also based on a
process as opposed to as ad hoc approach, which includes managing customer explanations”
[Bryan Bergeron, 2002]
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The concept of CRM includes the following aspects:-
a) Measurements of inputs such as marketing, service costs and sales as well as outputs such
as customer income, profit and value.
b) Continuous update of data, information and knowledge and retrieval of data about
customers needs and problems and about motivation
c) It includes applying this knowledge and information of customers to improve the
performance through the learning process.
d) Then is the process of integrating all of the above points for the achievement of a
common goal.
e) Lastly, implementation of systems for the support of this knowledge and also to measure
CRM effectively.
[Robert Shaw, David Reed, 1999]
Source: ZOHO Corp, 2010
Figure 4: Figure showing how the concept of customer relationship management works.
3] The Customer and the Customer Life Cycle 
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According to Sheila Mello (2003), “The customer drives the definition of the product. The
organization must adapt its structures, roles and internal activities to the dynamic requirements of
the customer.”
The customer is the most important in any organization or business as without the customer,
there is no business at all. A business runs when it gets customers to buy its products and render
its services. Customer is king being the main focus; we can therefore understand that the main
focus point of the concept of customer relationship management is customer. The organization
collects information, data about the customer and from this available data, the company forms an
idea or model which portrays the customer behavior. By this model made, the company can
control the interactions of the customer with the employees and the company as well as the
customer expectations can be managed.
Let us throw a bit of light on the concept of customer expectation. For instance, if put ourselves
in the customer’s shoes, what we expect from the company product and service, we would like
quality products, quality or first class service, timely after sales service, reliable products and
money value. These are the main things which we as a customer might reasonably expect from
any company. With the increased use of web, customers are becoming more internet savvy and
they expect more value for the money that they spend. When we look at a customer, we need to
study the concept of loyalty which can also be termed as loyalty effect. This concept through a
practical perspective is very difficult to predict among all the customers the company has, within
which we cannot make out which customer is loyal and which not. Loyalty can be equalised to
concepts like love and loathing which in reality are difficult or rather impossible to quantify. The
only thing that is quantifiable is customer behavior.
“The definition of customer loyalty would mean that someone who is willing to pay a premium
for Brand A over Brand B, even when the products they represent are virtually equivalent, is
loyal to Brand A.” [Don Peppers, Martha Rogers, 2004]
“The behavioral definition of loyalty would mean that someone is willing to pay a premium for
Brand A over Brand B, even without respect to the attitudes or preferences that underlie that
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conduct.” [Don Peppers, Martha Rogers, 2004]
The positive factors that contribute to customer loyalty or the loyalty effect are value, lack of
alternatives, investment and emotional bond. On the contrary, the negative factors are frustration
and available alternatives. Let us look at the factors one by one which are as follows:-
A] Positive factors 
 Value: - Every customer expects value for money and so the greater the value, greater
will be the loyalty effect
 Lack of alternatives: - If a product or service is readily available, then it is more than
likely that the customer will continue purchasing from the same company and not go
elsewhere searching.
 Investment: - The more time and money invested in a relationship [in this case of the
customer relationship], more will be the customer loyalty. Such relationship will go a
long way.
 Emotional bond: - An emotional bond rather a personal bond with the employee or agent
is a very important factor that leads to creating a loyal customer.
B] Negative factors 
 Frustration: - Here it refers to customer frustration. This is one main cause to end an
ideal customer-company relationship. It is evident that if a customer is put on hold for
very long, if the customer has to keep pushing many buttons on the menu just to speak to
an agent but in the end gets no result then obviously the customer will get frustrated and
the relationship might get ended then and there itself.
 Available alternatives: - If there are more and more available and at the same time
affordable alternatives, this case would automatically reduce customer loyalty as the
customer then seeks new products and services of the competitors.
“The Customer Life Cycle is a means of defining and communicating the way in which a
company interacts with its customers and prospects, i.e. they acquire, retain and enhance
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continuum. The success of any company requires nurturing of this cycle and the sales department
sets smack in the middle of the customer life cycle.” [Janice Reynolds, 2002]
A company deals with a particular customer through three stages in the life cycle namely, sales,
delivery and after sales.
a] Sales - this stage involves identifying and targeting the potential customer to make the contact,
to commit to buy.
b] Delivery - this stage involves the delivery of the product or service by means of activating,
installing or implementing.
c] After sales - this stage is also known as service management and it involves all those activities
that take place after the sales stage, which means billing, customer service, complaints and
enquiries.
As such we can summarise and say that, CRM is about delivering good customer service keeping
customer in focus at all times. Such customer service must be responsive, excellent, reliable,
truthful, personable and affordable. It is worth paying for a good CRM system if the customer is
a loyal one, and if the company decides to hold on to that customer as they will bring business
and profits for the company.
4] Evolution of CRM 
In order to understand the concept of CRM fully, it is first of all necessary to understand the
origin or evolution of the very concept as to where do this concept arise from. The earlier
marketing concept is known as relationship marketing or traditional CRM. Previously, there was
a concept named as conventional transactional marketing. When this concept showed lack of
satisfaction, then emerged what was known as relationship marketing. In the year 1954, Peter
Drucker said, “There is only one valid definition of business: to create customer. It is the
customer who determines what the business is” [Geoff Lancaster, Paul Reynolds, 2002]
Therefore, we can say that in one sense it is basically a marketing concept in principle but this
concept is developed in such a manner that it can be applied to an operational setting and not just
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be known as a concept and kept aside. The concept of customer relationship management has
evolved from advances in information technology and changes in companies that have processes
which is customer-centric. [Injazz J.Chen, Karen Popovich, 2003]
Today, the entire concept of customer, customer care and CRM has evolved and changed and is
developed over the past 20 years as it is the internet era now so we need to move with the time
and make changes accordingly. Such change is necessary as customers change, their mentality,
likes, dislikes and preferences change. Some see customer relationship management as a big
time change in the philosophy of business. It is a concept that consolidates, integrates and
incorporates the earlier management thinking such as internal marketing, traditional marketing,
transactional marketing, relationship marketing and finally the total quality management.
[Geoff Lancaster, Paul Reynolds, 2002]
Source: Social CRM: Ready for action? [October 11th
2009]
Figure 5: The figure shows how traditional customer relationship management used to work and
how it looked like.
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Source: Social CRM: Ready for action? [October 11th
2009]
Figure 6: The figure shows how customer relationship management looks like in today’s time.
5] Technology 
Customer relationship management can be termed as a technology, more specifically as a process
that aims at creating repeatable, consistent and measurable results. The term technology is
usually associated with equipments like computers and electronic equipment and as such CRM is
connected to manual processes based on multiline or switched telephone systems.
The process description for customer relationship management [CRM] is an organisation mainly
a call centre and how the process works is as follows:-
 The process starts with the customer calling the agent/employee in the call centre.
 The agent makes sure verifies that the customer is eligible for customer service. This
identification is done because sometimes those who call need not be customers or in
some cases they may not be eligible for such support as they may not have registered
their product or their support period might have expired.
 The agent then logs the call. The term log means it serves as a basis to follow-up on the
problem of the customer and as data required to evaluate the CRM implementation and
its effectiveness.
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 The initial agent A transfers the call to the agent B who is better qualified in handling the
problem using the combination of agent A’s understanding of the problem and agent B’s
expertise and availability.
 Agent B at this stage deals with the customer and clearly understands the problem.
 Agent B researches on the problem.
 Agent B then talks with other agents in the company like agent C, D and so on and tries
to find a solution.
 The problem is then documented and progress is checked and documented to see whether
the problem has been resolved or yet something is left.
 When solution is got, the problem is closed.
 This is the final stage where evaluation regarding the effectiveness of the CRM effort is
done by the CRM department manager or the administration department by using the
problem documentation.
The concept of online business or E-Commerce has become very popular. Such is the case of the
use of computers and technology when it comes to cost savings and therefore it is not a surprise
if CRM depends on computer or technology to save costs. The main aim of making the CRM
process computerised is so that the employees would be protected from complexity and will also
improve CRM effectiveness. The benefits of computerisation include the company better
handling the customers, better handling more customers in a short time period, time saving for
agents and for important customers.
CRM Technologies and their uses [Bryan Bergeron, 2002] 
 Automated Call Distribution [ACD]: - This is an automatic answering and routing of
calls keeping in mind the characteristics of the call and the number of customers in queue
or on hold. The main aim of ACD is to keep the callers on hold for the least time so as to
reduce agent’s idle time and also to reduce shifting of calls from one agent to another
thereby saving time.
 Back-End Integration: - Under this concept there happens t be a continuous transfer and
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communication of data or customer information generated from various touch points like
E-mail, phone, wireless, direct contact with caller through help of various computer
systems. Therefore the back end normally includes software and hardware that can be
found in the corporate computer centre.
 Human Resource: - many human resource functions can be benefited by the use of
technology or computers such as agent scheduling, qualification for incentives, training.
 Interactive Voice Response [IVR]: -IVR is basically a telephone interface that is
connected to a computer system that is run by using voice responses or telephone keypad
entry. This system replaces telephone operations which are done by humans.
 Help in localisation: - The use of correct language skills and etiquette for the caller is
very important. Technology plays a very important role here by identifying the caller’s
origin and thereby transferring the call to such an agent who has the appropriate language
skills.
 Monitoring: - this concept allows evaluation of individual agent performance and
productivity. Recordings can be checked and evaluated for purposes of training as well as
to settle complaints when a customer complaints about a particular agent.
 Measurement: - computers and technology can help in measuring the performance. It
can check how much time an agent takes with a customer, the number of caller hang-ups
and so on.
 Reporting: - Technology can help in generating inputs by using the customer data stored
in the application.
 Resolution: - Customers issues/problems and requests can be resolved by use of
technology especially when the problems keep going on and on.
 Training: - Agents in the call centre turn out to be the least trained out of the corporate
employees mainly because of the expense and time that is required in the training
process. But now thanks to the technology usage, teaching agents how to use the systems
can be simplified using computer based training systems.
 Workforce Management: - Many computer based tools and techniques are used to help
the measurement to allocate the agent time effectively. It can also help to reduce callers
waiting time and also helps in forecasting and scheduling the activities of the call centre.
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CRM technologies can further be divided into four categories namely: -
1] Computer Software  For example - analysis, call centre management, customer loyalty
programs, data collection, database management systems, security, mobile computing solutions,
information protection.
2] Telecommunication  For example – call centre equipment, wireless systems, messaging,
telephony networks, paging services.
3] Computer Hardware  For example – data backup system, monitors, PC’s, peripherals,
wireless devices.
4] Process and professional services  For example – consulting, field support services,
training/education, and software design, online resources, call centre services, process re-
engineering
A difficult line must be drawn between two main innovative technologies namely:-
 The cutting edge technology which is in limited use in business
 The bleeding edge technology which is apparently still in theory for example human
augmentation.
According to Gartner’s Hype Cycle description, “human augmentation focuses on creating
cognitive and physical improvements as an integral part of the human body. For example, active
control systems to create limb prosthetics possessing characteristics that exceed the highest
natural human performance. [Christopher Musico, 2010]
According to Jackie Fenn, “you can tap into how to bring improvement in decision making and
memory, bringing us one step closer to being real-time and seamlessly integrated with our brains.
This is about bringing those capabilities closer so they’re with you all the time at your point of
need initially in some wearable format, but potentially closer and implantable ways”
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[Christopher Musico, 2010]
Using technology, one application could be to figure out the face one has just seen, tap into that
memory and have a facial recognition. This is called memory capabilities and this application
can be of importance to the employee/agents who work in a call centre or field sales
representatives who are in constant and regular touch with the customers meeting and greeting
them.
6] e-CRM 
According to Bryan Bergeron (2002), “e-CRM is customer relationship management on the web,
however, e-CRM also includes the use of email, e-commerce activity and any other internet-
based customer touch points.”
“The definition of the ‘e’ in the e-CRM does not limit the data collection and processing to the
internet. By definition, any electronic contact with a customer through which data can be
gathered for further analysis can be considered a form of e-CRM.” [Jery Fjermestad, Nicholas
C. Romano, 2006]
Today the web space had become less distinguishable from other areas such that e-CRM blends
in with the company of CRM. Today the main issue is that e-CRM and CRM are seen as
different methods by firms struggling to compete for the web space. Various characteristics such
as self-documentation, popularity and flexibility make e-CRM ideally a suitable partner for
CRM. Customers having expectations of an inflated nature is the issue today and it is regarding
issues with web. The issue is what the web touch point can deliver to its customers.
Customers nowadays expect greater money value in transactions done through the internet. It is
very difficult to keep pace with the changing times as in the case of creativity and the change in
the internet/web space, but still the web has been able to extend its reach of the customer
relationship management concept to anyone around the world connected to the internet using
systems like dial-up modem, wireless modem and high-speed direct connection. The plus point is
that this was highly successful. Now with the excellent combination of the internet and CRM,
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many industries are turning their focus on the internet for delivering services connected to CRM
implementation. For example, “the major airlines and most travel agencies generate Web-based
itineraries, including local weather, car rental rates and availability, and other travel-related
information. For business travellers, the web represents an omnipresent reference to flight data;
hotel information, weather and travel help in general.” [Bryan Bergeron, 2002]
If one looks from the technical point of view, it is a fact that e-CRM has huge potentials of
creating information/data than any other touch point. The web can be more appropriately used
for products and services which are connected to the computer. If one looks from the business
point of view, e-CRM in CRM is associated with challenges of various types such as costs
incurred for additional computer parts, software and hardware. If one looks from the corporate
culture point of view, with the implementation of e-CRM along with CRM poses challenges
within the company such as training of employees and employee motivation.
7] An Update on CRM implementation till date 
The researcher has looked through resources and found the some data that relate to the concept
of customer relationship management and its scope till date. The data found are as follows
[Joshua Weinberger, July 2010]: -
 CRM Software – Annual Sales
In the year 1997 $762 million
In the year 2001$14 million
Source: AMR Research [now a unit of Gartner]
 CRM implementation – percentage of companies
In the year 2003 53%
In the year 2010 75%
 A mix of CRM systems and software’s in place [in percentage]
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In the year 2003 85% on premises vs. 15% on SaaS
In the year 2010 47% on premises vs. 53% on SaaS
Source: Jim Dickie, managing partner CSO Insights Annual Sales Performance
Optimisation Studies.
 CRM implementation failure rate in percentage
In the year 2001 50%
In the year 2002 70%
In the year 2005 18%
In the year 2006 31%
In the year 2007 56%
In the tear 2009 47%
Source: Michael Krigsman
 Revenue on implementation of CRM
In the year 2000 $0
In the year 2010 $1.3 billion
Source: Company Filings
[Joshua Weinberger, July 2010]
“Balls, Pool, billiards, snooker-no matter what game you’re playing, there’s an undeniable
beauty in the chaos of brightly colour ceramics spheres suddenly set in motion. The geometry
may be convoluted, with collisions and caroms reorienting direction and destination, but the goal
of the players-clearing the table, partly or in full- is fairly clear. Intricate in its implementation
and elegant in its ideal, CRM can be said to share many of the same traits.” [Joshua
Weinberger, July 2010] As customer relationship management being a maturing market, it does
have a benefit of owning its own history to look back upon and study from its mistakes and move
forward in the path of success. CRM also has a track record to compare itself against as well as it
has recommended practices set down by many that will help CRM to change its scale to the
success point in future. [Joshua Weinberger, July 2010]
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Chapter Three: Literature Review
Part B: The Call Centre Environment
1] Aim of Chapter 
This is part B of the literature review which focuses on the call centre environment. This chapter
aims at introducing how such an environment works as the author’s aim is focusing upon the call
centre environment and understanding it and at the same time throwing light upon the working
conditions of employees which will be analysed through the questionnaire based on customer
relationship management and working conditions of employees in a call centre.
This chapter also looks through the view point of a customer as in how they perceive the services
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offered by the call centre. The chapter also throws light upon the aim of this study connected to
well being of employees.
2] Culture in call centre 
“Well the idea of company culture, which first really became fashionable in the early eighties,
could be seen as just another fad. Yet I believe that there’s more to it than just another scheme of
management gurus and consultants like me to make a name for themselves. I believe the idea of
culture tells us something about how people work together in groups in organisations. And I
would suggest that an understanding of what culture is, where it comes from, and how it affects
performance, is essential for any call centre manager who is serious about achieving success
through their people.” [Kevin Hook, 1998]
To understand the concept of a call centre let us take a look at few examples such as follows:-
Example 1 – At a call centre at Brighton, an agent gets a call from a customer who was actually
blind. Now this customer was going on a holiday and was in a panic state as she was alone and
did not know how to complete packing for the journey. So the agent quickly jumped into her car
and went to the customer’s house and helped with her packing. Now this is what the company
termed as high level of dedication to work and customer service which was truly exceptional.
Now by this example, it is understood that this is the culture of this call centre to go out of your
way to help your customer.
Example 2 – One of my friends happened to visit a call centre for training purpose. There was an
assessment centre and it included five internal candidates and four external candidates. The
assessment included a group discussion and the topic was how to motivate a team which was not
achieving the set target. Now it happened that all the six internal candidates quickly got into a
heated discussion debating that the possibility is that such target itself might be wrong. However
the four external candidates were confused and kept thinking how can the target be wrong
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because they believed that a target is a target not a wrong or right one and the aim of an agent
should be to achieve it not challenge it. What we can learn from this is the culture of the call
centre which made the six candidates to think in that manner.
Example 3 - There was a team leader training in one call centre regarding management
techniques of standard level. After a month when the person who did the training for the team
leaders, briefed the team leaders working in that company, she found out that the manager of all
these team leaders did not allow them to practise any of the new skills they had learned during
the training session. When asked why this matter was not raised to the manager, the team leaders
replied that “well that is not how it works here as it is not the culture”.
These are the different cultures and their consequences. The definition of culture goes in this
manner – “Culture is such an integral part of human existence that it becomes an invisible script
that directs our personal lives. This invisible script can encapsulate and blind us to the factors
that make us simultaneously unique from and similar to those from other cultures. Encapsulation
can lead us to view the world as an extension of self. The definition of culture should include its
functions in human survival, societal arrangements, and in human development that is
intellectual, psychological, social and spiritual. Culture should reveal the interconnectedness of
its identifiable aspects and describes its dynamic quality in responding to fundamental changes in
life conditions and circumstances.” [Etta R. Hollins, 2008]
Every call centre has a different culture depending on the company presented and the way they
work and matters they deal in. Every call centre also has different processes. They have different
customer service units or departments namely like billing customer service, technical customer
service, product customer service and so on. They set up a process. Each department has to
undergo training and the agents need to undergo training to know how to answer the questions in
a proper manner, how to follow the script for each call. Basically in a call centre there are two
types of call centres or processes namely inbound call centre and outbound call centre or process.
Inbound call centre/process is the one where call is made by the customers whereas outbound
call centres/process is one where the calls are made by the agent’s rather sales persons. Every
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call centre has clients like for example, M&S, Vodafone. The call centres work for these
companies and calls are made on their behalf to solve customer problems. Sometimes these call
centres are so big that they cater to outsourcing. Small companies do not need to outsource. In a
call centre step-by-step training is given to each employee and in each department
“Do not make it if you can buy it, could be the simplest definition for outsourcing. However that
is true only if you are sure that you would not lose a strategic skill or advantage by outsourcing.
The things you should not outsource is called your core competency.” [Dennis Lock, 1998]
“Outsourcing really means finding new supplies and new ways to secure the delivery of raw
materials, goods, components and services [It means that you use the knowledge, experience and
creativity of new supplies which you did not use previously” [ Fery de Kraker, Dennis Lock,
1998]
Finally, culture in multinational call centres is a point to be discussed. There is always
everywhere an existence of national culture differences as that is where the views from different
people are got such as those of Italians, Germans, Nigerians, Japanese, Indian and so on. This
point can be emphasised using an example. Research conducted by different researchers shows a
vast difference between the culture of Britain and that of the Far Eastern cultures for example
that of China where the concept of collectivism and/or individualism is presented. The culture of
Britain is highly individualistic whereas culture of China favours collectivism. As such previous
researchers have found that the British favour working on individual targets or aims and
objectives whereas the Chinese favour team work to achieve the targets. Therefore, to conclude,
if suppose both these groups of people happen to work under a single system, then one group
will definitely suffer and that is when culture differences occur and leads to chaos. [Kevin Hook,
1998]
4] The vibrant call centre environment 
“In most organisations, a call centre is a central place where service representatives, usually with
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some amount of computer automation, handle customer and other telephone calls. A call centre
might consist of one or two reps or hundreds of reps, depending on the support needed for a
product or service, the amount of money allocated for customer support and other business
parameters.” [Bryan Bergeron, 2002]
Today, it is seen that the call centre customers prefer services provided to be better performed,
the customers need better and easy ways to order the products and render services, they require
timely responses to the problems and queries and prefer a better treatment in all ways. [Roger
Hallowell, 1996] “To succeed in today’s inbound call centre, you must understand the new
environment: More transactions, increasing complexity and heightened caller expectations. But
to those who pay the price to learn the craft, call centre management offers almost limitless
opportunities.” [Brad Cleveland & Julia Mayben , 1997]
Incoming Calls Management Institute defines “Incoming call centre management is the art of
having the right number of skilled people and supporting resources in place at the right times to
handle an accurately forecasted workload, at service level and with quality.” [Brad Cleveland &
Julia Mayben , 1997]
It is in a call centre that three most important concepts are visible which are the customer, the
employee/agent and the investor loyalty. Whichever department is being handled, call centre is
the main joining point between the company in focus and its customers and so it is an important
venue for loyalty. There is two main aspects namely satisfaction and dissatisfaction. If the
customer is satisfied, they will keep buying and rendering the service. If they are dissatisfied,
they will create an atmosphere of stress for the employee/agent and exit. If the employee/agent is
satisfied, they will give excellent service and if they are dissatisfied, only bad service can be
expected and eventually the agent will quit the job due to high level of stress that they cannot
cope with. If the investor is satisfied, they will think of further investing in such systems that
would improve the service provided and if they are not satisfied, they the investor will simply
withdraw their money invested and leave the company. [CRM Today, 2001-2008]
Michelle Curless, the director of the Customer Group LLC, a Chicago-based consulting firm that
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specialises in customer interaction says, “A quiet call centre gis conducive to enabling employees
to accomplish their jobs. In a quiet controlled environment where you have a cubicle, it is not
perceived that there is a lot of chaos going on. That’s a very healthy environment. The chaos is
going to be there on days you cannot predict. Although there is chaos behind the scenes, it tends
to be managed better in a professional environment.” [David Myron, November 2002]
Cary Peskin, associate commissioner and CIO of the NYC HPD says, “To make matters even
more complicated nearly 90 percent of all calls coming into the contact center necessitate a
follow-up call. Quality-of-life issues can be life threatening. Some examples might be callers
saying, ‘I smell gas, I smell smoke, my fire escape is broken!” [David Myron, November 2002]
In one unusually long call in a call centre which took 16 minutes and 48 seconds to complete, the
usual time per call being 3-4 minutes; the customer went on with her long list of complaints
about his landlord. The agent listened patiently and said to the caller/customer that the
complaints is being registered and gave the customer a reference number saying someone from
the company will be sent over in an hour to see what can be done. However, the agent later gets
to know that this call was a false alarm.
Cary Peskin says “It’s a very common problem” [David Myron, November 2002]
Such are the types of calls in a call centre environment but whatever the situation is or whatever
type of call comes, the agents/employees are expected to be calm and maintain professionalism
as they face many such situations that are discouraging and stressful. This is the call centre
environment in short. Professionalism enables positive attitude even during highly stressful
periods.
5] Stress Factors in call centre 
“Stress is often described as being associated with emotions such as anger, anxiety and
depression, and there is evidence to suggest that it is also related to impoverished mental health.”
[Akbar Hussain, Muhammad Ilyas Khan, 2006]
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Call centre employees are often under high stress levels which have an excessive effect on their
performance, morale and can lead to dissatisfaction, employee turnover rate increasing and so
on. Such stress not only affects the health of employees but it also affects the performance of the
employee which again has a direct effect on the customer service they provide.
Source: Marion Vogt, Manfred Krenn [8/3/2005]
Figure 7: Job related stress factors
The various factors of stress that can be brought out when dealing with the call centre
environment can include the following:-
a) Attending simultaneous calls
b) Typing in between calls as well as looking up data online
c) Odd working hours
d) Pressure faced by agents to sell products/services
e) New technology
f) Performance monitoring
g) Mentality of customers can be highly frustrating
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h) Customers can be highly demanding
i) Poor management
j) No proper equipment
k) Back pains and headaches
l) Poor facilities
There are various other factors such as agents sitting in the same position same chair attending
calls for 6-7 hours continuously can frustrate them to a great extend. It can also lead to vision
problems caused by continuously looking into the computer screen. No proper food and water
facilities can also cause stress. Some call centres do have facilities for relaxation such as beds,
gym so that the employees can relax and rest in between. However, there is too much stresses in
those call centres that do not provide such facilities. Call centre jobs also include travelling all
the time and at odd hours as such pick-up and drop facilities is a must. However, this is a stress
point where such facilities are not available or if such facilities are poor. Suppose the employee
has his/her own transport facilities, then the company should provide travel allowance if not,
again it is a factor for stress.
6] CRM systems in call centre
“Knowing, understanding and predicting what your customers want and will want in the future is
vital to the success of small to medium- sized enterprises. And CRM is the key.” [Roger Trapp,
June 2007]
By using the traditional method, businesses that are small had a better understanding of the
customer wants, needs and preferences. This was the general thought of small businesses. Each
and every business no matter which size is dependant highly on customer. The reason why small
business are said to be much more understanding is because, being a corner shop, the seller can
be much more straightforward in dealing with their customers. The seller can understand the
customer better, their needs due to constant and daily face-to-face interaction. Such
understanding and knowledge is what the big firms are trying to achieve and replicate by
investing in customer relationship management [CRM]. The concept of CRM was bound with
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the use of information technology for large organisations namely big supermarkets, banks and so
on.
According to the government supported advice network for small to medium sized enterprises
[SMEs], “It is more of a business philosophy than a technical solution to assist in dealing with
customers effectively and efficiently.” [Roger Trapp, June 2007]
CRM cannot be said to be purely termed as technology, but it is also a fact that the concept of
CRM cannot be introduced successfully without some form of technology in the firm. This is
because, only with the help of technology can the concept of integration be implemented as in
integrating the ways company uses to communicate with the customers such as through means of
internet, telephone, fax and email. In the beginning stages of CRM, there was an absence of
sophistication. That led to a situation where the companies that dealt with financial services were
offered services with the existing suppliers. However, from that time till now things have
changed markedly. It is visible that those firms that are making use of much more sophisticated
technologies are enjoying better benefits than those firms which are still using the basic data
collection techniques. One technology that has become rather popular is the business analytics
applications. This application helps the company to check and analyse the past attitude of
prospect customers to anticipate and make way for future trend.
According to Thomas H Davenport and Jeanne G Harris, “Many companies in a variety of
industries are enhancing their CRM and SCM [supply chain management] capabilities with
predictive analytics and they are enjoying market leading growth and performance as a result”
[Roger Trapp, June 2007]
There is good news that CRM systems and technologies associated with its use are now readily
available through the internet in the outsourced form. Though readily available, it would not be
cheaper as compared to buying the technology off-the-shelf. The only benefit is quick buy and
avoidance of extensive in-house technology team. An example of such a form is offered by
Oracle. “The software is extremely low cost. For the first time organisations can afford to
implement [this technology] without a large upfront capital expense. It’s a message that the
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market is waking up to. The cost per user is comparable to an average mobile phone bill.” Says
Daryn Mason, European head of solution consulting for Oracle CRM on Demand [Roger Trapp,
June 2007]
Daryn Mason adds, “Even if there’s over demand, you can use analytics to show which customer
should be better served.” [Roger Trapp, June 2007]
When it comes to improving efficiency and increasing return on investment [ROI], Paul
Stockford notes, agent performance is always atop the list, but a new player is taking on a more
influential role. “Desktop analytics is a new technology that I think has a lot of potential for
growth over the next three to five years.” [Paul Stockford , 2010]
“Understanding how to make incremental changes in call centre operations to optimise customer
care and control long term costs without disrupting service delivery is the key determinant to
success for implementing a hosted call centre” [Daniel Hong, 2010]
“By doing so, enterprises are in a better position to build a high performance customer service
strategy that leads to long term success.” [Daniel Hong, 2010]
If the call centres inform the customer about the product or service recalls, through texts or by
emails, it will free the centre resources thereby allowing the call agents to become more
productive with other issues of more complexity. Paul Stockford, 2010[founder of saddletree
Research] says “There’s a lot going on at the desktop that is overlooked.”
He meant problems such as the pages freezing, agents not acknowledging the keyboard shortcuts
can spoil the calls, causing the prevention of problem resolution as well as lower customer
satisfaction eventually. After examining the past fifteen years of customer relationship
management, if we take a look at the next fifteen years, we can see that sophisticated tools and
techniques will make the creation and maintenance of customers for lifetime, the central point
for customer-concentrated business strategies. The only problem is that customers keep changing
which leads to difficulty in balancing the act. Such an act requires innovation, expertise and
commitment and must also be combined with three most important CRM developments which
are as follows:-
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1] Engagement “The transition to customer engagement will also require dynamic customer
profiles. I first wrote about customer profile in 1986, and they are now part of every successful
CRM system” [Goldenberg, Barton, 2010]
Actual and true custom and true customer engagement will need to change from one-way
dialogue to a two-way dialogue with one another. [Goldenberg, Barton, 2010]
2] Mobilisation  The use of portable computers have now become an important part of
mainstream business and the phones namely Blackberry and iPhone’s are not just meant for the
pockets, but have indeed become really productive tools, in other words, the lifeblood of
operations and business. Today, the software has made it increasingly possible to access custom
applications thus making CRM information and data as well as customer data available at any
time and place. The new innovation of Apple, the iPad and other such competing devices aim at
portability as well as expanding the access to applications, information and data. [Goldenberg,
Barton, 2010]
3] A new paradigm  The success of CRM will depend on the mix involving the process,
people and technology. However, new techniques will change people interaction; new business
will deal in two-way dialogues. The term multichannel enterprise will become a necessity instead
of luxury as it was till date. Over past fifteen years, advances in mix has made customer
relationship management more and more meaningful and deep. In next fifteen years, there will
be innovation delivered at a fast pace and business will only survive on important two-way
dialogues with their mobile customers. [Goldenberg, Barton, 2010]
Call distribution:-
Call distribution refers to call loads that agents have to attend. The process is tough as the agents
have to constantly deal with people with different type of mentalities. Call distribution is also
termed as call load. There is a high level of stress as the agents do not get even time to breathe at
times as they have to take calls, at the same time take down notes of what the customer is saying
and simultaneously they also have to look up the information in the net for the customer. So the
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process can be highly stressful. The agent also needs to type during calls. Each call has an
estimated time of 3-4 minutes and it is a rule that the employee/ call agent cannot keep the call
abruptly unless and until the customer ends the call.
7] Performance Monitoring 
The term performance monitoring “include any management system that measures some aspect
of performance whether on a relatively ongoing basis as is the case for most performance
measurement systems or on a more periodic basis as occurs with policy and program evaluation,
and with audits. Most approaches to monitoring today involve some form of automated data
retrieval.” [ Joseph Wholey, Eduardo Zapico-Goni, 2007]
“In either inbound or outbound teleservices, a script or call guide refers to the written
presentation or outline of the verbiage a representative uses in conversation with a customer or
prospect call guides may be assigned in such a way as to be delivered verbatim, semi-verbatim,
bulleted or free from depending on a company’s business philosophy or program requirement.”
[Pankaj, 2005]
Performance monitoring works at different levels. Suppose a customer is happy with the way the
agent spoke with them and solved their problem, the customer will appreciate and this is called
performance appraisal. Different departments work towards this concept. In a call centre, there is
a team of quality management also known as the internal call auditors. This team works like a
spy as they listen to the employee’s or agents calls and set a parameter to monitor their
performance. Suppose there is a dispute with one of the calls, this team will watch the call and
monitor how well the agent performs in such a situation Each call has a procedure and so the
team checks whether the agent follows the procedure or not. Average talk time for a call should
not exceed more than 3-4 minutes and if it increases, the company will have to pay their client
which is a loss for the company. This average talk time is also a measure of performance level.
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Customer feedback is very important to assess the performance of the employee. This team of
auditor’s checks how much time an agent takes with each call and checks whether the set time is
maintained. However, in different departments timing is different as the calls can even exceed to
20-30 minutes depending on the customer and their complaint being dealt with. The employee
also needs to follow the script. The opening and closing of the script should be followed if not
the rest of it as it depends on the customer that the agent deals with.
The concept of call centre monitoring is about making sure the transaction between
employee/call centre agent and the prospect customer goes as it should be. The concept involves
much more than just dumping the calls to the disk or the tape. New solutions are now being
developed in terms of call centre and customer relationship management for purposes like
evaluating calls as well as returning calls to the frontline personnel. It also involves observation
of the whole interaction between the customer and the agent which is audiovisual and making
sure that the agents know their stuff properly and how to use and navigate the CRM tools and
techniques and at the same time to handle the customer problems and requests in a proper
manner. In summary, the call centre tools used for monitoring protect the huge investment in
technology and personnel in the call centre environment.
Joanie Rufo, research director at AMR says, “There are three things a call centre manager needs
to focus on to get great service: the right information, the right contact [channel], and the right
person- and that’s the piece people most often overlook.” [Jason Compton, November 2002]
Monitoring can be termed as discouraging the improper use of time that the call centre agents use
up. Monitoring also helps the agents to work in a better manner as well as management can try to
understand the pain an employee or the agent goes through. David Pennington, senior product
manager at Seattle, WA-based Envision Telephony says, “Training in the call centre has always
been difficult, because eighty to ninety percent of the agents are idle for four minutes, we can
deliver training automatically. That’s when the company is paying for their agent, so if I can, I’ll
provide the training for free.” [Jason Compton, November 2002]
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8] Conclusion of chapter two and three
In summary, the second and third chapter emphasises on the concepts of customer relationship
management and the call centre environment in detail. Enough light is thrown upon both
concepts using examples and real life situations. The reader will be able to understand
thoroughly both concepts and how different factors contribute to the functioning of each concept.
In order to obtain actual and real time benefits, one needs to break out of the concept of
traditional thinking as one needs to move with time. The traditional concept of CRM allowed
collecting data which was sucked out and analysed. This gave out some sign of insight though
not much but at the end how much ever analysis was done, the root cause of the issue/problem
was never found. Today, everyone needs that extra bit of information that could give one
company an advantageous edge over other companies. For example, Tesco using its anticipative
technology is always able to have more than enough stock for its customers at all times when its
competitors sell out completely. The following chapter is the research methodology which says
discusses the method of research adopted.
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Chapter Four: Research Methodology
1] Aim of the Chapter 
The research basically portrays the customer relationship management issues [CRM] and issues
relating to the call centre environment. The author highlights the issues connected with the CRM
implementation within a particular organisation and its operations and the author also highlights
by such implementation, what effects it has on the employee well being throughout the
organisation. To collect data and analyse these aspects, it is very important that the right method
of acquiring data be used.
The actual aim of this chapter is to highlight and emphasise on the research method adopted for
this dissertation. The reader will be able to understand which method is used and how much the
method has proved to be appropriate for this study and at the same time the benefits of adopting
this approach will be focused upon.
The author made use of both qualitative and quantitative methods for collecting data. For the
quantitative approach, the author made use of the questionnaire to acquire necessary data from
the frontline staff working at Sutherland call centre in India and for the qualitative approach,
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Interview questions were made for the management team and later was followed by a case study
analysis of the company named Sutherland Global Services, Inc. The author also made use of
primary and secondary data.
2] Secondary Research Method 
The author explored many sources such as the Internet precisely saying the World Wide Web,
books, journals [academic], published statistics, research papers, government documents and
articles for the purpose of secondary research. The author found it very helpful and in the process
gained a lot of knowledge on the concepts of customer relationship management and on call
centre environment and also by doing the case study analysis of Sutherland global services. All
the information and data collected has given rise to important findings and analysis which the
reader will find in chapter six which deals with findings and analysis.
Hakim (1982) defines secondary data analysis as “any further analysis of an existing dataset
which presents interpretations, conclusions or knowledge additional to, or different from, those
presented in the first report on the inquiry and is main result” [Yvonne McGivern, 2005 p.151]
Secondary data is also referred to as pre-existing data which is already there. It is not new data
but second hand because it was found by someone else previously. It can also be termed as
backup data. This secondary data is collected before collecting primary data. This is done as that
we can see what data/information has already been collected and analysed previously before we
indulge into our own investigation regarding the topic. This is also because maybe some answers
we seek to our topic may have already been answered before and therefore we need to look into
it so as to improve upon the research by using primary data.
They say that everything has a good and bad side which here applies to the secondary data
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accessed. Such data is easier to find and gather as it is readily available. It is also of qualitative
and permanent nature. However, such data can be invalid like the internet sources and can also
be costly to access
Being on the university campus and by being able to access the college and university resources
helped the author to a great extend by accessing the secondary data especially through journals
on customer relationship management and call centre happenings. The author found this research
very benefitting.
3] Primary Research Method 
According to the author, primary data collection is a research method that is collected by the
person doing the current research in this case the author is the person doing it. It is also important
to note that such data is collected from those people who have worked and have experience in
the relevant field of study. In the process of acquiring data, the author might stumble upon new
and interesting facts not known to anyone else yet which could be a great help with the research.
Primary data is first hand data that is collected by the researcher at present date. Such
data/information is not collected or gathered beforehand. The plus point of such data is that the
researcher can find data to suit his/her purpose of research. The minus point of such data is that it
can be time consuming and frustrating as the researcher needs to put a lot of effort in collecting
such data by contacting many sources and can also be costly. This data can only be collected
after the secondary data is collected. The key points of primary data collection are that whatever
data is collected is unique to the researcher and to his/her research and until and unless the data is
published no one else will have the right to access the data. The data collected could be
qualitative or quantitative in nature, which depends on the researcher.
4] Quantitative Research Method 
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“All quantitative research approaches summarise results numerically. This research draws on a
principle of scientific realism: there is a single reality that can be described by numbers.”
[Marguerite G. Lodico, Dean T. Spaulding, Katherine H. Voegtle, 2010]
Quantitative methods are always seen as collecting and analysing the numbers collected.
However, this type of research can also be clarified as experimental or non-experimental.
Experimental research involves analysing numbers and looking into the cause-effect
relationships whereas, non-experimental research involves analysing numbers to bring out a pre-
existing group or to find out whether a relationship does exist or not between various variables.
[Marguerite G. Lodico, Dean T. Spaulding, Katherine H. Voegtle, 2010]
5] Questionnaire 
This is one of the popular methods for data collection and is used by the researcher for the
purpose of analysis of the chosen topic of research. However, this method is a bit difficult as in
the researcher had to rewrite the questions many times before it could be finally approved. The
researcher here has used the Questionnaire method. A questionnaire could have various types of
questions namely open ended questions, closed ended questions, multiple choice questions and
scaled response questions.
Advantages of this method
• This method can be used as a basis for survey either through emails, face-to-face
conversations or through telephone
• If the questionnaire is sent through email, it could cover a wide geographic area
• This is a cheap method as no cost is involved
• This method could cover a rather large number of respondents
• The respondent does not have to be embarrassed due to any question that could be hinting
towards personal aspects as face-to-face can be avoided
Disadvantages of this method
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• The questions framed should be simple so that respondents sitting in another part of the
world does not find it difficult to understand and decide not respond
• Designing the questionnaire could be an issue as it could be time consuming
• After sending out the questionnaire comes the waiting part for the responses which could
cause delay in the set time frame
• There is no guarantee whether the respondents might reply or not or whether they might
fill the questionnaire fully
• An assumption that there is no literacy problems is a risk taken in this aspect
• The researcher might have to pressurise the respondents a lot to reply on time which
could be through phone calls that adds to costs.
A good questionnaire should have a user friendly format. There should be an ease of flow, should
be well phrased and should not be ambiguous. The questions should be well developed and
complete so as to get all relevant data. Demographic information such as age, gender should be
gathered if necessary and if only relevant to the subject matter dealt with.
Focus groups here mean those people who have worked in a call centre who have experienced
common job characteristics by working at a call centre. So the researcher aimed at a focus group
of around 30 people who have worked in a call centre or are currently working in a call centre.
Out of the 30 questionnaires sent out, 28 respondents turned up with responses appropriate to the
questionnaire. The questionnaire was shown to professor, friends and family just to make sure it
was user friendly and did not contain any personal questions and also to check out for
grammatical mistakes.
The research method is taking the form of statistical analysis as it contains data and is also based
on quantitative research method. The author made use of the package Microsoft Excel to draw
out the numerical data got from the respondents by making use of pie charts, line charts, bar
graph, doughnut chart and column chart. All these charts helped in analysing the data accurately.
Though this method was rather time consuming and frustrating at times as it took time to make
the charts and figure it out properly. However, the author found it to be a rather pleasant
experience and thereby the author could also improve upon the excel skills which could prove to
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be an advantage in the future. Receiving of responses did take time as there was a risk of low
response rate.
The author chose to combine both qualitative and quantitative approaches to gain an equal result.
Questionnaire is used to understand how call centre working conditions affect the employee well
being and interview was conducted with management team starting from supervisors, team
leaders to the managing director of Sutherland. The study will follow the research paradigm of
interpretive approach. The study focuses to understand the issues through the research strategy of
case study and thereby interpreting the views of Sutherland frontline staff and management team.
6] Qualitative Research Method 
“Qualitative research is an overall term to describe the work researchers do in formulating their
interpretations of the subjects of their studies and giving representations of these interpretations
in order to add to the body of knowledge” [Michael John Baker, Susan Hart, 2007]
“Qualitative methods contribute a particular kind of knowledge about the world, which is
different from the knowledge generated by other methods of inquiry.” [John McLeod, 2001]
It can be termed as a very careful inquiry into aspects and concepts connected to the social
world. It brings out a new understanding through formal statement.
7] Interview 
“Any statement in an interview is the collaborative product of interviewer and interviewee, not a
spontaneous remark. The interview is a rhetorical form whose most essential quality is its
collaborative origin.” [ Kenneth Goldsmith, Reva Wolf, Wayne Koestenbaum, 2004]
Shipley defines “An interview is a serious conversation between someone with specific
knowledge or expertise and someone who may benefit from that expertise.” [Barbara J.
Hemphill- Pearson, 1999]
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The author used the interview technique to conduct qualitative research by interviewing the
Sutherland management team. As the author could not conduct a face-to-face interview with the
team, the research will portray that drawback.
8] Case Study 
According to Merriam (1988: 9-10), “a case study is an examination of a specific phenomenon
such as a program, an event, a person, an institution or a social group. The bounded system, or
case, might be selected because it is an instance of some concern, issue or hypothesis.” [Kieran
J, O’Loughlin, 2001]
As part of the research, the author discusses the case study of the company Sutherland Global
Services, Inc., and throws light upon the company structure, its core values, its customers, its
customer relationship management systems and the technology used in the company. The
company support tools are also discussed in the study. This case study will later be related to the
analysis part to draw out conclusions and further recommendations.
9] Conclusion 
The author has used interpretative approach through qualitative and quantitative approach to
understand the issues of this research and can be used in the analysis part to interpret the opinion
of the respondents and the responses of the management team through statistical analysis and
qualitative analysis. The next chapter presents the case study of Sutherland Global Services.
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Chapter Five: Case Study- Sutherland Global Services
1] Aim of Chapter 
This chapter focuses on the case study based on the global company named Sutherland global
services. This is a multi-national company and caters to various services aiming at a big sphere.
In this chapter the author will be discussing about the background of the company, a company
insight would be discussed, the personal involved, the core values of the company, the customer
support tools used within the company and the various services provides will be also looked into.
Based on this case study, the author has conducted the quantitative research using questionnaires
sent out to thirty employees working in the Sutherland call centre. The chapter will conclude by
saying how the company information will be helpful to the author in analysing the data got from
the company staff.
2] Company Profile 
Sutherland Global Services was founded in the year 1986 with its headquarters at Rochester,
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