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Call Centers (call + center)
Selected AbstractsOn-line Monitoring of Nocturnal Home HemodialysisHEMODIALYSIS INTERNATIONAL, Issue 1 2003SJA Stokvis Background. Nocturnal home hemodialysis (NHD, 6,7 times weekly 6,8 hours) is a promising dialysis modality. On-line distant monitoring is complicated and expensive, and its usefulness should be evaluated. Methods. Since December 2001, 15 patients were included in a Dutch NHD project (,Nocturne'). So far, 3 patients received a renal transplant. Patients are assisted by their spouses. The dialysis machine is connected through the public telephone network by a bedside node and routers to the server in a call center. All patients received a dedicated ISDN-connection. Alarms produced by the machine are detected in the call center. For each type of alarm, a period is defined during which the patient can solve the problem. When the alarm continues after this period, the call center will notify the patient. Results. During 4 months, approximately 900 alarms in 1300 dialysis treatments were produced. In only 11 of 900 cases, the partner had to wake up the patient because he/she did not hear the alarm. The call center had to call 13 times, always because the patient resumed sleeping after the end of the treatment. No intervention because of serious problems was required. A majority of patients and personnel consider on-line monitoring nevertheless important as it gives a sense of safety. Additionally, nurses use the real-time connection frequently to check running dialysis treatments. Also, the system enables automatic saving of important treatment data in an electronic patient file. The experience so far is used to design a so-called ,secure bitpipe' for homecare applications, with emphasis on privacy, safety, security and effectivity. Conclusion. On-line monitoring of NHD may not be crucial, but enables good coaching of patients and gives a sense of safety. [source] Prevalence of building-related symptoms as an indicator of health and productivityAMERICAN JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL MEDICINE, Issue 10 2006Raimo Niemelä PhD Abstract Background The prevalence of building-related symptoms (BRS) is commonly used to characterize the indoor air quality in office buildings. To analyze the costs of building renovation and the improvement of the indoor environment, it is useful to quantitatively relate the prevalence or intensity of BRS to productivity. The intent of this study is to summarize the links between the BRS and productivity, and demonstrate this linkage in two case buildings. Material and Methods A literature was surveyed for studies that measured simultaneously the prevalence or intensity of BRS and subjectively reported or objectively measured productivity. Case studies in two office environments were performed. An association between the prevalence of BRS and productivity of workers in a call center and in an insurance office were investigated. In the first case study, the productivity was expressed using the direct productivity metrics, namely the number of telephone contacts during active working hours while in the second case, the productivity was assessed by using the data concerning sick leave rates. Results Employees who report more BRS also have more often absences which relate to indoor environment quality (IEQ). Their productivity is lower than those who have better IEQ in their offices. Despite uncertainties related to the data concerning recorded sick leave and self-reported productivity, the number of studies showing an association between BRS and productivity or sick leave suggests that such a relationship exists. The present case studies also demonstrated an association between the BRS and the direct productivity. Based on the data from the call center, a reduction of 10%-units in the prevalence of general symptoms (such as fatigue, headache, nausea, etc.) corresponded with a gain of 1.5% in performance. Based on the findings in the insurance company, a reduction of 10%-units in the prevalence of irritation symptoms corresponded with a decrease of 0.7% in the short-term absenteeism. Conclusions A review of 23 studies suggests that a linkage exists between typical BRS and productivity indicators such as task or work performance or absence from work. Quantitative associations between BRS and productivity were demonstrated in two office environments. Quantitative associations between BRS and economic metrics enable cost-benefits analysis. Am. J. Ind. Med. 2006. © 2006 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] The impact of personality on training-related aspects of motivation: Test of a longitudinal modelHUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT QUARTERLY, Issue 1 2007Jens Rowold A model that proposed dispositional influences on training-related aspects of motivation was developed. More specifically, the model predicted influences of the Big Five personality variables on motivation to learn and transfer motivation, while controlling for general attitudes toward training. The model was tested empirically, drawing on a sample of ninety-four employees from call centers who participated in a training program. Results indicated that motivation to learn was predicted by extraversion and agreeableness, and transfer motivation was predicted by motivation to learn, extraversion, and emotional stability. The impact of extraversion on transfer motivation was partially mediated by motivation to learn. In sum, the importance of dispositional factors in training research was explored and clarified. Implications for theory and practice are discussed. [source] An integer programming model for the weekly tour scheduling problemNAVAL RESEARCH LOGISTICS: AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL, Issue 7 2001Tolga Çezik Abstract We study a workforce planning and scheduling problem in which weekly tours of agents must be designed. Our motivation for this study comes from a call center application where agents serve customers in response to incoming phone calls. Similar to many other applications in the services industry, the demand for service in call centers varies significantly within a day and among days of the week. In our model, a weekly tour of an agent consists of five daily shifts and two days off, where daily shifts within a tour may be different from each other. The starting times of any two consecutive shifts, however, may not differ by more than a specified bound. Furthermore, a tour must also satisfy constraints regarding the days off, for example, it may be required that one of the days off is on a weekend day. The objective is to determine a collection of weekly tours that satisfy the demand for agents' services, while minimizing the total labor cost of the workforce. We describe an integer programming model where a weekly tour is obtained by combining seven daily shift scheduling models and days-off constraints in a network flow framework. The model is flexible and can accommodate different daily models with varying levels of detail. It readily handles different days-off rules and constraints regarding start time differentials in consecutive days. Computational results are also presented. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 48: 607,624, 2001. [source] Social Optimal Location of Facilities with Fixed Servers, Stochastic Demand, and CongestionPRODUCTION AND OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT, Issue 6 2009Ignacio Castillo We consider two capacity choice scenarios for the optimal location of facilities with fixed servers, stochastic demand, and congestion. Motivating applications include virtual call centers, consisting of geographically dispersed centers, walk-in health clinics, motor vehicle inspection stations, automobile emissions testing stations, and internal service systems. The choice of locations for such facilities influences both the travel cost and waiting times of users. In contrast to most previous research, we explicitly embed both customer travel/connection and delay costs in the objective function and solve the location,allocation problem and choose facility capacities simultaneously. The choice of capacity for a facility that is viewed as a queueing system with Poisson arrivals and exponential service times could mean choosing a service rate for the servers (Scenario 1) or choosing the number of servers (Scenario 2). We express the optimal service rate in closed form in Scenario 1 and the (asymptotically) optimal number of servers in closed form in Scenario 2. This allows us to eliminate both the number of servers and the service rates from the optimization problems, leading to tractable mixed-integer nonlinear programs. Our computational results show that both problems can be solved efficiently using a Lagrangian relaxation optimization procedure. [source] Coping with Time-Varying Demand When Setting Staffing Requirements for a Service SystemPRODUCTION AND OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT, Issue 1 2007Linda V. Green We review queueing-theory methods for setting staffing requirements in service systems where customer demand varies in a predictable pattern over the day. Analyzing these systems is not straightforward, because standard queueing theory focuses on the long-run steady-state behavior of stationary models. We show how to adapt stationary queueing models for use in nonstationary environments so that time-dependent performance is captured and staffing requirements can be set. Relatively little modification of straightforward stationary analysis applies in systems where service times are short and the targeted quality of service is high. When service times are moderate and the targeted quality of service is still high, time-lag refinements can improve traditional stationary independent period-by-period and peak-hour approximations. Time-varying infinite-server models help develop refinements, because closed-form expressions exist for their time-dependent behavior. More difficult cases with very long service times and other complicated features, such as end-of-day effects, can often be treated by a modified-offered-load approximation, which is based on an associated infinite-server model. Numerical algorithms and deterministic fluid models are useful when the system is overloaded for an extensive period of time. Our discussion focuses on telephone call centers, but applications to police patrol, banking, and hospital emergency rooms are also mentioned. [source] Soft reliability: an interdisciplinary approach with a user,system focusQUALITY AND RELIABILITY ENGINEERING INTERNATIONAL, Issue 1 2009A. Koca Abstract A recent trend in technological innovation is towards the development of increasingly multifunctional and complex products to be used within rich socio-cultural contexts such as the high-end office, the digital home, and professional or personal healthcare. One important consequence of the development of strongly innovative products is a growing market uncertainty regarding ,if', ,how', and ,when' users can and will adopt such products. Often, it is not even clear to what extent these products are understood and interacted with in the intended manner. The mentioned problems have already become an evident concern in the field, where there is a significant rise in the numbers of seemingly sound products being complained about, signaling a lack of soft reliability. In this paper, we position soft reliability as a growing and critical industrial problem, whose solution requires new academic expertise from various disciplines. We illustrate potential root causes for soft reliability problems, such as discrepancy between the perceptions of users and designers. We discuss the necessary approach to effectively capture subjective feedback data from actual users, e.g. when they contact call centers. Furthermore, we present a novel observation and analysis approach that enables insight into actual product usage, and outline opportunities for combining such objective data with the subjective feedback provided by users. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Appropriating Identity or Cultivating Capital?ANTHROPOLOGY OF WORK REVIEW, Issue 1 2005Global English in Offshoring Service Industries Abstract In the popular media, much has been made of the adoption of American identities by Indian nationals working in call centers in urban India. In the transactions between call center workers in India and their American customers, language is often the only conveyor of cultural identity. The implications of this linguistic globalization are drawn out by examining the historical trajectory of the politics of global English in India. I argue that the indigenization of English that has occurred in India represents a shift in the political and cultural contestation over language from the global to the local, so that today the politics of language in India primarily involve contestation between elites and subalterns within India rather than between Indians and a global power. I conclude that the appropriation of American identities by Indian call center workers is mainly for the purpose of cultivating linguistic capital within the Indian context, and does not entail a loss of authenticity or reveal cultural insecurity. More likely, the American customers and media commentators who worry about being duped by Indians faking American accents are the ones who are culturally insecure. [source] | |||||||||||||