Research Methods (Quantitative/Qualitative research methods)

NAME

COURSE

PROFESSOR

2 February 2008

The Corporate Culture , Performance Management and Employee Satisfaction Aspects of Post-Merger Integration Among Outsourced Service Providers The Transcom Case

PROLOGUE

In August 2007 , Sweden-controlled and Brussels-headquartered Transcom acquired 100 of outstanding stock of the Ontario-based NuComm International for up to EUR85 million (Transcom WorldWide SA acquires Canadian contact centre solutions provider , 2007

BACKGROUND

The Contact Centre Outsourcing Industry

Call Centres

On their respective sides of the Atlantic , the two companies typified the burgeoning industry that referred to as

either call centres ' or contact centre outsourcing providers . Depending on one 's point of view , the difference is either academic or semantic . In the beginning no doubt , the public was more likely to communicate its concerns to a company by telephone than by snail mail ' since doing so guaranteed instant response . Bergevin (2005 ) suggests that

Before the mid-1970s , airlines and major retailers made use of phone rooms - the precursors to call centers - that were either located in sites spread across the country or kept in large rooms with .phones with many extensions (p . 12

With Internet penetration growing steadily , it is now just as convenient for many customers to make their concerns known by email , Instant Messenger chat , filling up comment boxes in the company Web site or blog , or pressing buttons on the telephone keypad in response to a computer-generated script (also called Interactive Voice Response 'or IVR . Hence , the term contact centre ' to encompass the servicing just about all points of contact (Bergevin , op . cit ,

br 17 , except , of course , at point of sale or across the front desk in a hotel

Operationally , a contact centre runs a comprehensive suite of services to respond to varying customer requirements . An outsourcing provider typically has the choice of structuring the work teams so that they are either specialized for each of these tasks or required to carry out two or more at any given hour of their work shift

Inbound customer service : providing general product information or service help to customers

Inbound technical support : helping customers use their product or service and offering troubleshooting advice for technical problems

Inbound sales : helping customers make purchase decisions

Inbound billing : helping customers with their invoices and providing them with general account information

Outbound telemarketing : selling new offerings to customers

Outbound service : following up with customers who had inquired or called problems in , providing information , gathering opinions or conducting surveys

Inbound and outbound collections : receiving voluntary payments or attempting to pry payments from deadbeats (Bergevin , 2002

Such multi-tasking or blending , as it is called , has the virtue of affording customer service representatives (CSR 's ) variety (boredom with day-long repetition of scripts drives turnover sky-high among fairly intelligent CSR 's ) while maximizing operating efficiency for contact centre owners . At the same time , the use of intelligent IT systems that dial out for an agent the moment they detect a slack of just a minute or two in incoming calls means CSR 's are having to cope with a steady stream of...