The application of quality management systems at a computer customer contact centre in Cape Town

Abstract

This research investigates the application of the quality management systems at a computer contact centre in Cape Town. It examines the issues around brand switching from the products supported by the computer customer contact centre to those manufactured by competitors. Its main interest is to interrogate the reasons customers give to call centre agents when they decide to switch brands. It also hopes to find out whether call agents understand the interrelation between quality management, brand loyalty and customer satisfaction. Furthermore, the project uses employee responses to ascertain whether the concept of quality management is synonymous with customer satisfaction and whether employee fulfilment leads to innovation and customer satisfaction. To address the main concerns of this project, Deming's model of quality management is used as the main conceptual framework. The key concepts underlying this model are visionary leadership, internal and external cooperation, learning/training, process management, continuous improvement, employee fulfilment and customer satisfaction. To find out the reasons that customers give to call centre agents when they decide to switch brands and also to respond to sub research questions, a quantitative research method was selected. A questionnaire was administered to 100 employees out of a 300 population. Although the customers' voices would have added value to the research project, the researcher decided to concentrate on employees because of the following reasons: 1) the interaction with customer begins and ends with agents, therefore agents are always aware of the reasons why customers switch brands; 2) the customers are in excess of 100,000,000 and selecting a representative sample for a mini thesis was not very feasible, given that the thesis is constrained by time and volume.