Xexon7 is a specialist artificial intelligence (Al) development firm that develops algorithms for various on- line services. As part of its client service, it has a small (10-person) help-desk call centre to answer client queries. Clients could contact them from anywhere in the World at any time of the day or night with a query. Demand at any point in time was fairly predictable, especially during the (European) daytime. Demand during the night hours (Asia and the Americas) was considerably lower than in the daytime and also less predictable. Most of the time we forecast demand pretty accurately and so we can schedule the correct number of employees to staff the workstations. There is still some risk of course. Scheduling too many staff at any point in time will waste money and increase our costs while scheduling too few will reduce the quality and response of the service we give' (Peter Fisher, Help Desk Manager). Peter was, overall, pleased with the way in which his operation worked. However, he felt that a more systematic approach could be taken to identifying improvement opportunities. "I need to develop a logical approach to identifying how we can invest into improving things like sophisticated diagnostic systems. We need to both reduce our operating costs and maintain, and even improve, our customer service." 

What are the trade-offs that must be managed in this type of call centre? 

Justify four trade-offs and explain their impact on the firm's cost and service level.

Answer rating: 100% (QA)

There are a number of tradeoffs that must be managed in a call center such as Staffing levels The number of staff on duty at any given time will have ... View the full answer