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Call Centers with Delay Information: Models and Insights

Author

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  • Oualid Jouini

    (Laboratoire Genie Industriel, Ecole Centrale Paris, 92290 Châtenay-Malabry, France; and Rouen Business School, 76130 Mont-Saint-Aignan, France)

  • Zeynep Akşin

    (College of Administrative Sciences and Economics, Koç University, 34450 Sariyer-Istanbul, Turkey)

  • Yves Dallery

    (Laboratoire Genie Industriel, Ecole Centrale Paris, 92290 Châtenay-Malabry, France)

Abstract

In this paper, we analyze a call center with impatient customers. We study how informing customers about their anticipated delays affects performance. Customers react by balking upon hearing the delay announcement and may subsequently renege, particularly if the realized waiting time exceeds the delay that has originally been announced to them. The balking and reneging from such a system are a function of the delay announcement. Modeling the call center as an M / M / s + M queue with endogenized customer reactions to announcements, we analytically characterize performance measures for this model. The analysis allows us to explore the role announcing different percentiles of the waiting time distribution, i.e., announcement coverage , plays on subsequent performance in terms of balking and reneging. Through a numerical study, we explore when informing customers about delays is beneficial and what the optimal coverage should be in these announcements. We show how managers of a call center with delay announcements can control the trade-off between balking and reneging through their choice of announcements to be made.

Suggested Citation

  • Oualid Jouini & Zeynep Akşin & Yves Dallery, 2011. "Call Centers with Delay Information: Models and Insights," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 13(4), pages 534-548, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:ormsom:v:13:y:2011:i:4:p:534-548
    DOI: 10.1287/msom.1110.0339
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    3. Rouba Ibrahim & Ward Whitt, 2011. "Wait-Time Predictors for Customer Service Systems with Time-Varying Demand and Capacity," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 59(5), pages 1106-1118, October.
    4. Zeynep Akşin & Barış Ata & Seyed Morteza Emadi & Che-Lin Su, 2013. "Structural Estimation of Callers' Delay Sensitivity in Call Centers," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 59(12), pages 2727-2746, December.
    5. Miao Yu & Yu Zhao & Chunguang Chang & Liangliang Sun, 2023. "Fluid models for customer service web chat systems with interactive automated service," Flexible Services and Manufacturing Journal, Springer, vol. 35(2), pages 572-598, June.
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    8. Benevento, Elisabetta & Aloini, Davide & Squicciarini, Nunzia, 2023. "Towards a real-time prediction of waiting times in emergency departments: A comparative analysis of machine learning techniques," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 192-208.
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    10. Liu, Jian & Chen, Jian & Bo, Rui & Meng, Fanlin & Xu, Yong & Li, Peng, 2023. "Increases or discounts: Price strategies based on customers’ patience times," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 305(2), pages 722-737.
    11. Junfei Huang & Avishai Mandelbaum & Hanqin Zhang & Jiheng Zhang, 2017. "Refined Models for Efficiency-Driven Queues with Applications to Delay Announcements and Staffing," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 65(5), pages 1380-1397, October.
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    14. Shone, Rob & Knight, Vincent A. & Williams, Janet E., 2013. "Comparisons between observable and unobservable M/M/1 queues with respect to optimal customer behavior," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 227(1), pages 133-141.
    15. Tevfik Aktekin & Tahir Ekin, 2016. "Stochastic call center staffing with uncertain arrival, service and abandonment rates: A Bayesian perspective," Naval Research Logistics (NRL), John Wiley & Sons, vol. 63(6), pages 460-478, September.
    16. Sophia Novitzky & Jamol Pender & Richard H. Rand & Elizabeth Wesson, 2020. "Limiting the oscillations in queues with delayed information through a novel type of delay announcement," Queueing Systems: Theory and Applications, Springer, vol. 95(3), pages 281-330, August.
    17. Rouba Ibrahim, 2018. "Sharing delay information in service systems: a literature survey," Queueing Systems: Theory and Applications, Springer, vol. 89(1), pages 49-79, June.
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    21. Robert J. Batt & Christian Terwiesch, 2015. "Waiting Patiently: An Empirical Study of Queue Abandonment in an Emergency Department," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 61(1), pages 39-59, January.

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