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Robust Design and Control of Call Centers with Flexible Interactive Voice Response Systems

Author

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  • Tolga Tezcan

    (Simon Graduate School of Business, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14627)

  • Banafsheh Behzad

    (Industrial and Enterprise Systems Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, Illinois 61820)

Abstract

We consider the robust design and control of call center systems with flexible interactive voice response (IVR) systems. In a typical call center equipped with an IVR system, customers are handled first by the IVR system, which is a computerized system that often enables customers to self-serve. Those customers whose service cannot be handled by the IVR system are sent to the second stage to be served by agents. To address the design of a call center with a flexible IVR system, we consider a call center whose IVR system can operate in two different service delivery modes that have statistically different outcomes. We formulate a stochastic program to determine the number of agents needed in the second stage as well as the proportion of customers that should be selected for each IVR service mode under different demand levels with the objective of minimizing the total staffing and abandonment costs. We also propose dynamic control policies to achieve the optimal proportions without the knowledge of the exact arrival rate. We show that the staffing levels found by the stochastic program combined with the proposed routing policies are asymptotically optimal in large systems. We present extensive numerical and simulation results to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed solutions.

Suggested Citation

  • Tolga Tezcan & Banafsheh Behzad, 2012. "Robust Design and Control of Call Centers with Flexible Interactive Voice Response Systems," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 14(3), pages 386-401, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:ormsom:v:14:y:2012:i:3:p:386-401
    DOI: 10.1287/msom.1120.0378
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    8. J. G. Dai & Tolga Tezcan, 2011. "State Space Collapse in Many-Server Diffusion Limits of Parallel Server Systems," Mathematics of Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 36(2), pages 271-320, May.
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    Cited by:

    1. Carri W. Chan & Linda V. Green & Suparerk Lekwijit & Lijian Lu & Gabriel Escobar, 2019. "Assessing the Impact of Service Level When Customer Needs Are Uncertain: An Empirical Investigation of Hospital Step-Down Units," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 65(2), pages 751-775, February.
    2. Tolga Tezcan & Jiheng Zhang, 2014. "Routing and Staffing in Customer Service Chat Systems with Impatient Customers," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 62(4), pages 943-956, August.
    3. 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.
    4. Dipankar Bose & A. K. Chatterjee, 2015. "Specialized versus Multi-skilled Workforce: A Newsboy Approach for Call Centre Resource Planning," Management and Labour Studies, XLRI Jamshedpur, School of Business Management & Human Resources, vol. 40(3-4), pages 252-267, August.
    5. Lingli Wang & Ni Huang & Yili Hong & Luning Liu & Xunhua Guo & Guoqing Chen, 2023. "Voice‐based AI in call center customer service: A natural field experiment," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 32(4), pages 1002-1018, April.

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