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Cross-Selling in a Call Center with a Heterogeneous Customer Population

Author

Listed:
  • Itay Gurvich

    (Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208)

  • Mor Armony

    (Stern School of Business, New York University, New York, New York 10012)

  • Constantinos Maglaras

    (Columbia Business School, New York, New York 10027)

Abstract

Cross-selling is becoming an increasingly prevalent practice in call centers, due, in part, to its unique capability to allow firms to dynamically segment their callers and customize their product offerings accordingly. This paper considers a call center with cross-selling capability that serves a pool of customers that are differentiated in terms of their revenue potential and delay sensitivity. It studies the operational decisions of staffing, call routing, and cross-selling under various forms of customer segmentation. It derives near-optimal controls in each of the settings analyzed, and characterizes the impact of a more refined customer segmentation on the structure of these policies and the center's profitability.

Suggested Citation

  • Itay Gurvich & Mor Armony & Constantinos Maglaras, 2009. "Cross-Selling in a Call Center with a Heterogeneous Customer Population," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 57(2), pages 299-313, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:oropre:v:57:y:2009:i:2:p:299-313
    DOI: 10.1287/opre.1080.0568
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    2. Fei Gao & Xuanming Su, 2017. "Omnichannel Retail Operations with Buy-Online-and-Pick-up-in-Store," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 63(8), pages 2478-2492, August.
    3. Zhang, Ren-Qian & Zhang, Lan-Kang & Zhou, Wen-Hui & Saigal, Romesh & Wang, Hui-Wen, 2014. "The multi-item newsvendor model with cross-selling and the solution when demand is jointly normally distributed," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 236(1), pages 147-159.
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    5. Xiaofang Wang & Laurens G. Debo & Alan Scheller-Wolf & Stephen F. Smith, 2010. "Design and Analysis of Diagnostic Service Centers," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 56(11), pages 1873-1890, November.
    6. Mor Armony & Efrat Perel & Nir Perel & Uri Yechiali, 2019. "Exact analysis for multiserver queueing systems with cross selling," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 274(1), pages 75-100, March.
    7. Vasiliki Kostami & Sampath Rajagopalan, 2014. "Speed–Quality Trade-Offs in a Dynamic Model," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 16(1), pages 104-118, February.
    8. Xiaofang Wang & Laurens G. Debo & Alan Scheller‐Wolf & Stephen F. Smith, 2012. "Service design at diagnostic service centers," Naval Research Logistics (NRL), John Wiley & Sons, vol. 59(8), pages 613-628, December.
    9. Guodong Pang & Ohad Perry, 2015. "A Logarithmic Safety Staffing Rule for Contact Centers with Call Blending," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 61(1), pages 73-91, January.
    10. Zhankun Sun & Nilay Tan?k Argon & Serhan Ziya, 2018. "Patient Triage and Prioritization Under Austere Conditions," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(10), pages 4471-4489, October.

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