Research question:
“Identifying and calculating the level of the mental satisfaction of the clients and also the quality of
the services offered by the Indian call centres”
Based on the base paper which is valid publication in the field of management:
Jaiswal,A.K.(2008) ‘Customer satisfaction and service quality measurement in Indian call centers’,
International journal on Managing service quality,18,4,pp.405-416.[Online]. Available at:
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?issn=0960-
4529&volume=18&issue=4&articleid=1734984&show=pdf [accessed on: 27th Jun 2011]
Explain the factors that contribute to the process of successful research question selection. Justify
the choice of research question (AC 1.1, AC1.2, AC1.3)
Factors which contribute to the successful research question selection are as follows;
1. It should be based on the educational factors and it should have valid reference in the field
of management. There should be a valid international journal publication to support it. It
should contribute some thing to the field for the future research and strictly not a specific
recommendation to the organizations
There are several problems observed in relation to this and one of the common problem observed in
this process is the measure of the quality. In this process several models like SERVQUAL and
SERVPREF are used. But the major problems faced by the organizations is that how effective they
have been in converting this model for their needs and how they have adapted it effectively as in
reality most of the models are not effective or the organizations chose them wrongly which both
don’t serves the purpose and in the end the customers are affected as they don’t receive the
expected quality of the service. Hence in the perspective of the organization they can get a huge loss
or in the perspective of the individual customer when they are not served better they might lose
some data like the call centres for the bank applications have to be dealt in great care and in this
case there are probability for the customers to lose their money also.
Hence measuring the quality using the right parameters, effectively assessing the customer
satisfaction by using the right methods will help in preventing the suffering on both the ends.
Research questions:
1. What are the different dimensions on the quality and how the organizations perceive them?
2. What are the major GAPS felt in the real time implementation of the quality?
3. In any outsourced country do they assume or alter any of the factors with respect to quality
and if so how they affect the targeted customers?
4. What are the factors which improve the quality of the service offered and what are the basic
measures to measure the QOS of the customers?
5. How to evaluate the effectiveness of the quality model adapted by them? How to monitor
the quality requirements and standards are being followed in the outsourced countries?
The main objective of this work is to identify the factors which prevent the choice of the
right quality model, factors which affect the customer service quality and working on the
identification of the factors which will ensure reliable quality standards to the customers.
According to the reports of Nasscom(2006), the call centre industry is considered to be the next
future of India as it has generated a revenue of over five and half billion US dollars. So it is
considered as one of the most emerging industries in the world.
As per the opinion of the earlier researchers like Oliver(1997), customer satisfaction is the process
in which they work on the satisfaction of the customers in the different perspectives by the final
outcomes can be either satisfied or not satisfied. Hence this process is very simple assessment tool
to see the level of the satisfaction of the customers.
But the later research by Parasuram (1998) defined the process of the quality as the GAP observed
between the expected quality and the received quality. In this process the quality is considered as
the GAP in the process. Where as the effective use of the tools like SERVQUAL will provide more
better results compared to the other models.
Unlike the other models this is considered as one of the best models mainly because of the 5
different aspects in this model with respect to the quality namely;
1. The reliability of the services offered
2. The level of fast or quickness of the service / the turn around time
3. Quality assurance factors
4. Empathy
5. Tangibility of the service offered
Even though customer satisfaction and the service quality are 2 different entities they are
treated as the same in several of the papers. But in reality even though they are different
some relation is existing between them.
RESEARCH MEATHODOLOGY
The skeleton of the research ort the basic process in which it is conducted is explained in the research methodology
section for the research. It describes all the processes involved in conducting the research. (kumar, 2008)
Research approach
Research
philosophy
Realism
Deductive
Experiment
survey
Mixed method
Cross section
Data collection
& analysis
Case study
Interpretivism
Research strategy
Research choices
Time horizon
Research Philosophies
Positivism:
As this work is based on the issues in the BPO sector in the real time, and quality is one of the
major issues in the real world this is just an mirror image of the real world situations making the
research as a more positive approach.
This work is completely based on the models and the metrics used from the real world BPO sector
and in no place assumptions of processes are being made.
Realism
The work followed here is more realistic as this is based on the data collected from the BPO sectors
in India. The data is collected from all the stake holders in the BPO sector in India and hey are in
the different levels of the management, employees, customers, the bosses, managers, quality check
teams, audit teams, etc.,.. thus in this process the data is collected from the different dimension of
the people related to the BPO sector making this as amore realistic approach. The data is based on
the real time issues with respect to the quality of the services, processes involved and the perception
of the organizations on the quality.
Situational factors:
This work is more focused on the BPO sector in India as the BPO is highly concentrated in the
Indian market and as the researcher is based on India he has chosen the Indian BPO as the base for
the study.
Research Approaches
There are different types of the research approaches and the main ones used here are the Inductive
and the Deductive approaches.
Inductive Approach
This is one of the most difficult approaches as this based on the ideas which are purely proposed by
the researcher. In this case all the strategies, objectives, questions and mainly the hypothesis is
proposed by the researcher which may or may not be valid. Thus an indepth evaluation of this will
take more time for the proof as this not based on any theory or the model which has been published
in the valid journal or the work of the experts in this field. This can be performed only at the
doctorate level of education where the time for the research is ample compared to that of the
research performed during the post graduate level.
(Gill & Johnson, 2002)
This work as the name implies is based on the most well known theories accepted in the research
field with the help of the publications and valid journals. Thus the research in this process is more
deduced from the sources and the researcher takes this as the starting point of the research and as
per the guidelines of future research based on the source journal tries to leap forward to propose
novel idea at the end. Hence this work is considered as more deductive in nature compared to the
others. Unlike the inductive method it has less risk as this is based on a valid existing work and all
In this case the methodology being followed is more deductible in nature mainly because;
1. This is a student level research at the post grad. Level and the over all time given is very
short.
2. The researcher doesn’t intend to risk by formulating completely new hypothesis.
3. More amount of the valid researches have been done in the field of the quality management
and hence it is always easy and intelligent to follow the work from some of the solid proven
existing works and later work on new concepts.
The quantitative data is based on the numbers like the customer satisfaction of the call, average
time taken for the call, over all efficiency, customer rejection of the call, etc.., thus these parameters
in the BPO industry are collected which are mostly numeric used for the analysis.
Apart from this the interviews from the customers, employees, and all the other stake holders have
been used which are mostly qualitative to understand the processes and their feed back by means of
the questioners. Thus in this process of research involved the intelligent combination of both the
numeric and the non numeric data ;leading to the multi method as this work is completely based on
the quality and it is essential to incorporate the numeric metrics in this process.
Source : (McCullough)
Data Gathering:
In this process the interviews are conducted from the following namely;
1. The people in the upper level of management in the BPO industry
2. The BPO employees who attend the calls
3. The Managers in BPO at various levels
4. The call monitoring agents
5. Quality analyst
6. Customers
7. Outsourcing organization
Interview process is more realistic and reliable approach as the chance of the false data is very less
in this process where as the chance of the errors in the survey conducted through the online sources
like the Email sent to multiple people are higher Direct interviews will help in the process of better
reliable data collected from the people in the various levels of the organization.
Data analysis
Here the collected data are numeric in nature and by using the Matlab and Statistical Package
solutions they are analysed and reported in for of the clear graphs.
The approximate time line for the accomplishing the research is as follows;
3.8 Resources
Primary data is based on the data collected from the:
1. Stake holders like the upper management of the BPO
2. Common customers
3. Managers
4. Management
5. Employees at various levels
6. Quality department
Secondary research
Secondary sources
1. Valid research done in the library collect the articles and the previous proposals based on
which they formulate the theory or the supporting evidence for the data collected from the
interviews
2. Based on the other secondary sources like the magazines, valid articles on the news papers,
etc..
3. Valid sources on the internet
Expenses:
1. Collecting the data - Nil
2. Physical mobility - 600
3. Virtual access - 400
Z:\\teachers\BTEC Assignments – Issue 1 17 January 2018 @ LSMS Page 16
London School of Management and Science
BTEC LEVEL 7 Extended Diploma (Professional) in Strategic Management
And Leadership (QCF)
4. Printing / Binding - 600
5 Others - 400
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£ 2000
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LIMITATIONS
Sampling
Here the total interviews conducted = 100
ETHICAL ISSUES1. Who are the Participants? (Please describe the types of people that will be
involved in your research)
3. Is there any link with the investigator (client, friend, etc.)? If there is a link, detail what safeguards to
preserve objectivity and to prevent conflicts of interest are in place?
There is no link of any form between the investigator and the people in the BPO as they are common
employees sharing no personal relations
4. What risks, potential hazards, stress, discomfort or inconvenience to participants may be present?
What steps will be taken to minimize any adverse impact of the research on participants?
This is purely based on the request to the participants and they will no way be forced for the
interviews. This is based on the good will based approach
6. Will written consent be obtained? This is the normal expectation, therefore if your response is that you
do not intend to obtain written consent, please explain in detail.
I have not yet decided about the written consent at this stage but if necessary I will definitely consider
obtaining the written consent.
7. Will you provide written information to participants indicating the nature and purpose of the research,
that their participation is voluntary, that they may withdraw at any time, and providing contact details
for further information about the study? Please provide a copy of any written information to be used.
Yes this research will be used only for the academic purpose and not for any personal gains or the
profits. Their names and all the information with be maintained confidentially in this process
8. Please indicate what steps will be taken to safeguard the anonymity and confidentiality of the
participant’s records [whether the records are of paper, tape recordings, video recordings...], and
confirm that the requirements of the Data Protection Acts will be complied with.
The details obtained from them will be safe guarded in a digitally encrypted formatte on the stand
alone computer and will not be accessible to any of the people involved. Thus this will preserve the
integrity of the people in this process
SUITABILITY:
This is more of a passion to me as I have high experience in the quality sector and BPO industry in
India has always fascinated me on the range of the business it makes
References:
Anderson, E.W. and Sullivan, M.W. (1993), “The antecedents and consequences of customer
satisfaction for firms”, Marketing Science, Vol. 12 No. 2, pp. 125-43.
Cronin, J.J. and Taylor, S.A. (1992), “Measuring service quality: a re-examination and extension”,
Journal of Marketing, Vol. 56, pp. 55-68.
Dabholkar, P.A. and Thorpe, D.I. (1994), “Does customer satisfaction predict shopper
intentions?”, Journal of Consumer Satisfaction, Dissatisfaction and Complaining Behavior,
Vol. 7, pp. 161-71.
NASSCOM (2006), “Key highlights of the IT-ITES sector performance”, available at: www.
nasscom.in/Nasscom/templates/NormalPage.aspx?id ¼ 28485
Oliver, R.L. (1980), “A cognitive model of the antecedents and consequences of satisfaction
decisions”, Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 17, pp. 460-9.
Reichheld, F.F. and Sasser, W.E. Jr (1990), “Zero defections: quality comes to services”, Harvard
Business Review, Vol. 68, pp. 105-11.