A Correlation Analysis Concerning
Customer Satisfaction and Business System

Waseda University
Kazue MORI

Research Object
This research aims to explore a specific feature of the organization
with a strong competitive advantage by analyzing the cause ofescalation rate at the call center on the basis that customer
satisfaction is a strong driver for the competitive advantage.
On the basis that the escalation rate at the call center is a substitute indicator of the overallcustomer satisfaction① Identify factors that cause difference of the escalation rate among callcenters in terms of the concept of Business System .
② Identify what would most affect the escalation rate at the call center?
What kind of business activity has a strong relation with the call center activity?
③ Suggest some propositions about features of organizations with a strong
competitive advantage throughout the result of ②＆③．

Key word: Business system, Customer satisfaction, Call Center2

Background Information

CS is really important for the Organization?

1.There is a positive relationship between CS and WTP.
2.The functional structure between CS and WTP has an inverse Sshaped form.
3.The relationship between CS and WTP becomes stronger as CS
judgment moves from transaction-specific to cumulative.
Sources: Customers Really Pay More? A Study of the Relationship Between Customers and Satisfaction and Willing to Pay?, Christian Homburg, Nicole
Koschate,＆Wayne D.Hoyer, Journal of Marketing. Vol.69,84-96,April 2005.

4

What Is the Most Used Tool to Contact the organizaiton?

80%
70%

66.80%

60%
50%
40%
30%
20%

13.50%

12.90%

10%

4.30%

2.50%

OthersFax andPostcard

0%
Telephone

Salesperson

Source; Call Center white paper published in Japan,2006.

e-mail5Where do Customers Contact First?

8%
9%
39%
10%

Call Center
Retail Store
Support Desk
OthersDealerSales Person

14%

20%

Source; Call Center white paper published in Japan,2006.

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What do Customers Expect the Call Center?
OverallFirst resolution

60%

Abundant
knowledge

20%

Politeness15%

By Industry
Others

5%

0%

10%

Source; Call Center white paper published in Japan,2006.

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

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Classification by industry

Online retail 3.7%

18.3%

Finance 2.4%7.0%

20.0%

26.3%

PC 3.5% 11.0%

6 4.3%

47.0%

ISP 2.5% 10.0%0%

5 8.0%

3 8.5%

43.2%

20%

40%

44 .3%

60%

80%

OthersPoliteness
Abundant knowledge
First resolution

100%8What is the Escalation Rate at the Call Center?
③The related
internal division

Call Center② Second Line部門A

Division A④The related
external organizaiton

提携先

Ｔｈｉｒｄ Ｐａｒｔｙ

提携先

Director

Ｔｈｉｒｄ Ｐａｒｔｙ

Division B

Senior Manager

SV

OP

SV

OP

OP

Escalation means the issueOPthat Fast Line could not solve
and was transferred to Second
Line or related party, which
actually plays a role as Third Line.

OPOP①Front LineOP

OP

Therefore, all actors would bepossible to be responsible for the issue
that customers inquire.
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What would cause Escalation ?
①Basic Structure ≠Customer Expectation

Fundamental

Organizational
Gap②Operational Structure ≠Customer Expectation③organization Customer Handling ≠Customer Exp

Manageable

OperationalGap④Division Customer Handling ≠Customer Exp

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The Concept of ‘Business System’

The concept of Business System
Customer Satisfaction
As the Result

Generating Service Differentiation
Execution of Operation
Operational Capability

Positioning the Business Unit

Meta-Activity↓How to structure?

Link-up the Business Unit
Fundamental Business Strategy
12Our concept of Call Center Satisfaction
Call Center satisfaction should be generated by the company as a whole.
The impression thatoperators provide tocustomer

Training
methodQuality
Control

Customer handling policy
or rule that is determinedby business structure

IT DesignContact
Channelposition

PolicyCall Center Operation
The operation of internal division related to call center operation
Third party operation related to call center operation
13

Background Summary
For the customer, the telephone is a primary tool to contact with the organizaiton andthe call center is a primary channel.

From this fact, it is possible to assume that most of customer s opinion or needs might
be mostly handled at the call center.
Therefore, the customer would be strongly influenced by the way of customer handlingat the call center. However, the part of customer handling at the call center would beconstrained by the company as a whole because all activities in the company should beinterdependent under the mechanism called as a Business System .

As we mentioned earlier, we assume that the level of business system is determined by
the level of business architecture and that of business operation. Therefore, call center
satisfaction would be varied by the level of company s business system.

From the reason above, by comparing the escalation rate and detailed factors to cause
escalation among call centers, it might lead some propositions about a specific feature of
the company with a strong competitive advantage.
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Our ResearchResearch Arrangement
To make questionnaires be valid for this analysis, we did some advance
preparation for survey as the process below.
Interview

Interviewed some employees who work for one outsourcing
agency.
We selected staffs who are responsible for managing callcenter operation. Total number is 17 people.
From this interview, we realized the core issue as for callcenter satisfaction, organized our concept again and madequestionnaires for survey.

Preliminary Survey

With questionnaires that we planned, we asked callcenter staff to answer those questions and asked themto suggest some points that they are confused to answer.
We reorganized our questionnaires along with theirsuggestion.

Survey16

Survey Ｏutline
Respondents

Subjects:
Selected call centerby Industry

Call center staff that are employed by one outsourcing agency
and are engaged in operation management work.
SecuritiesBankLife Insurance
Non Life
Insurance
ISPManufacturing

The number ofsamples

２ General & 1 Internet-based brokerage firm
1Commercial Bank & １Credit Union &2 Internet-based Bank
2 Domestic & 1 Foreign-owned
2 Domestic & 1 Direct
4 Domestic ISP
2 for B to C sales & 1 for B to B & 1 Direct
Sales

Collected 5 samples per call center.
Total number was 125 and deleted some of them.
Finally, 105 samples were used.

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Measurements
Independent variable

Escalation rate

The number of issues transfer from operators ratio
to the total number of handled issues at the callcenter.

Assumed Operational Factor
12％

Third Parties related
to call center

70％

Internal Divisions
related to Call
Center100％=12％＋70％＋10％＋8％

Escalation Rate
10％

Multiple Regression
AnalysisCall Center Itself

8％Others
18Escalation Rate=α＋Third Party Factor Ads＋Internal Division Factor Ads＋Call Center Factor Ads＋Others Ads + αReference Data

Life Insurance

Internet Service Provider
Percentage.

Percentage.

Co mpariso n o f Esc alatio n Rate

C o m pa ris o n o f Es c alatio n Ra te
3.5

12.0

3.0

3.0

9.8

10.0

2.5
8.0

2.0
1.5

6.0

1.24.0

1.0
0.4

0.5

0.5

3.9

3.6
2.2

2.0
0.5
0.0

0.0
AverageABC

Average

ABCD19

As the result of regression analyst, we figured out that internal organization
division s activity is positively correlated with call center operation.
From this result, we again asked subjects to classify assumed detail factor oforganization division operation as the rate of that as 100%..
Assumed Detailed Factors
among Internal Divisions①The person incharge
5%

100％=5%＋25％＋25％＋30％＋5％＋10％

Internal Division sRate that affects
entire Escalation
Rate②Branch25%③Shop or Sales
Person25%④ＩＴ Channel
30%⑤Product or Service
5%⑥Others
10%

Compare the call centergroup that have highescalation ration withthe call center groupthat doesn t high ration
with t-test20

We also compared with the call center with a high escalation rate and the callcenter with a low escalation rate. We employed examined with t-test and MannWhitney U test.
From the result of this analysis, we could find some operational differences
between the call center with a high escalation rate and the one with a lowescalation rate.
Research Question was five scale ( 1=very unlikely to 5=very likely) and asked
subjects to mark depend on his opinion.
Ｑ４：Which of the following best describes the role setting at your call center?
① Does your call center clearly set the role and the responsibility with other divisions or eternal companies?
Very unlikely
1-

2

Depend on the situation
3-

4-

Very likely
5② If you chose 4 or 5 at the question ①，
Do you think that your call center has been managed along with the setting role or responsibility?
Very unlikely
1-

2

Depend on the situation
3-4-Very likely
521

Overall Result
Red＝t-value by Multiple regression analysis
Blue＝P-value by Mann-Whitney U test
Green＝P-value by two-sample t-test
Gray=P-value by Multiple regression analysis.

Escalation
Rate

663.7422

70.0446①Third party
Related tocall center

Primaryfactors

0.413
0.09490.7518
DetailedFactors①The division
In charge*<0.05；**<0.01

47.4867②Internal division
related to callcenter

0.27740.4039③Call Center
itself＊0.03480.06390.08900.8501②Branch③Shop orSales Person④Others0.2248＊0.0168

0.74384.31210.1656＊＊0.0044④IT Channel

0.9578⑤ProductOrService22Operational Differences

Choiceｔ-test figure

Mann-Whitney U test figure

Degree of execution alongwith role-sharing

0.0149＊0.0065＊＊Degree of information
sharing

0.09210.1417

Degree of usage the shared
information

0.0449＊0.0346＊

Setting objective
performance target

0.0358＊0.1689Degree of activity to improve
performance

0.26540.4725*<0.05；**<0.0123Discussion

Proposition 1
The degree of a coordinated level among internal divisions at theorganization affects the call center performance that is an escalation rate on
this research. On this research The call center performance was measured
by an escalation rate, which is a substitute for the customer satisfaction.

Customer
ServiceDivision

Third Party

Call Center

Division

Customer
ServiceDivision25

Propositions2
Of organization divisions related to call center operation, IT Channel
strongly influences Call Center performance. As this reason, we
assume that call center and IT complement each other as Nonappearance channel for customer.

ＣＣInternal divisions incharge of supporting
customer service
operationIVRATM

Balancing customer
contact channels.

ShopＷＥＢ

Fulfilling
Customer
needs

Sales
Person26

Propositons3
One feature is linked to the degree of role-sharing. The call center with a low
escalation rate was more organized about the role sharing with other internal
divisions as well as their role-sharing at the call center. In addition to this,the degree of actual execution along with role-sharing was carriedout higher than the call center with a high escalation rate.
Differences

The type of capability
Organizational
capability①Degree of role- sharing

OperationalCapability◎②Degree of execution along with role sharing◎③Degree of using information shared withother internal divisions.

◎27

Summary

・The level of coordination among business units
has a strong impact on the customer satisfaction
at the call center.
・IT-channel, which is a communication channel
based on IT, tends to be related to the call center
stranger than other business activities.
・The role sharing and the usage of information
was significantly different at the call center witha low escalation rate.
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Future Research

From this findings, we could lead some important
indications that the level of Business System may havestrong influence on the performance of the company as awhole.
As our research limitation, we have to conceptualize
more clearly about a more comprehensive model of thedeterminations of customer satisfaction and have toexpand our research object in a wider field.

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