Hold the Phone! Factors affecting call centre customer and staff experience, and evaluation of an on-hold intervention to increase customer satisfaction and reduce negative affect. Student: Isaac Malpass. Supervisor: Dr. L. S. Leland Jr. Thesis submitted for completion of the degree of Master of Science (Psychology). Executive Summary Hold the Phone! Factors affecting call centre customer and staff experience, and evaluation of an on-hold intervention to increase customer satisfaction and reduce negative affect. This thesis was written in an attempt to examine some of the issues facing New Zealand contact centres, and how they could be ameliorated through what customers listen to when they call through to the contact centre. The research was made up of four main parts: Study 1: In the first study we surveyed opinions of customer service representatives from two call centres. We asked these frontline workers what their likes and dislikes of the job were, whether angry or abusive callers caused them problems, and how they thought the number of angry or abusive callers could be reduced. Study 2: In the second study we set up a fake call centre experience and played different listening alternatives to participants at a time during which they were lead to believe that they were on-hold, waiting for service. We primarily examined whether these different listening alternatives had any effect on the participants’ mood or level of satisfaction during the wait. Study 3 and 3a: This part of the research examined in further depth the more effective listing alternatives from the first study and, in addition, whether the accents of commonly used offshore outsourcing destinations affected participant mood, satisfaction with the call, and their appraisal of the operators. Study 4: For those companies that may not have the technical capability to play anything other than simplistic on-hold music, this study was carried out to see what music a sample of undergraduate university students would prefer on-hold, compared to in a more informal public social setting. i Key Findings Study 1: Results showed that helping people is what the customer service representatives (CSRs) surveyed most like about their jobs. Dislikes included restrictions/limitations/strict guidelines, internal staff and equipment problems, relentless calls/time pressure, unreasonable/angry clients, roster/hours/pay and feeling dehumanised. Call centre staff believed that angry callers lead to longer call times (which can increase time pressure). One of the common suggestions to reduce the number of angry callers was to remove organizational messages or change music – altering the on-hold listening environment. Study 2: Results of Study 2 indicated that there were no differences in mood for any of our eight trialled on-hold listening alternatives. There was a difference in satisfaction found. Those in a Straight-through group, who were connected after a very short delay, were more satisfied than those listening to any of the other conditions except a group that had a choice of options to listen to, and a group that listened to comedy. What makes this result astounding is that both the Choice and the Comedy group were waiting for five minutes compared to the ten seconds that the Straight-through group waited. Study 3 and 3a: The results of Study 3 again showed no difference in mood among the top listening alternatives. The only difference in satisfaction that we saw in this study was that, given a closer look, the Straight-through condition gave a higher level of satisfaction than Comedy, Choice and a Pop music condition. The accents of the different speakers in Study 3 did not affect participant mood or call satisfaction. Study 3 and 3a results in combination showed that non-native English speakers were rated lower in competence than an America speaker, and lower in likeability than a New Zealand speaker Study 4: This study showed that there were differences in what music was preferred on-hold compared to a more social setting. People reported they were willing to listen to Pop, Country, Sixties and Piano styles of music for the longest while on-hold. Follow up questions also indicated a preference for Pop music on-hold for the age group. ii Conclusions CSR suggestions and opinions appear to lend credence to the idea of using the on-hold period to reduce angry or unreasonable clients, one of the dislikes of the job that CSRs have, and one that they see as leading to longer call times (and possibly more time pressure). What is played on-hold was found to influence caller satisfaction in our experiments. Two promising on-hold listening alternatives in the form of a choice of listening options, and a comedy routine, were found. We believe that, for those that have the technical capability, a choice option may be the most practical. For those that do not have the technical capability to provide a choice, comedy routines (if practical) followed by pop style music played on-hold appear to be the next best bets for the age group we examined. Companies outsourcing to offshore countries may not need to be concerned that customer satisfaction or mood is negatively affected by the accent of the overseas operators. However, non-native English speakers may not be treated as seriously, or as amicably compared to native English speakers. We suggest training in either adopting a neutral English accent (as per Cowie, 2007), or that of the nation that is being serviced. iii Acknowledgements Firstly, I would like to give many thanks to Dr Louis Leland Jr for his help in the planning and analysis involved in the project, and overseeing the project through to completion. I would also like to thank Mr Brian Niven, Statistical Consultant, for several long consultations about the appropriate statistical analyses to use for various parts of the research. Special thanks go to Lynn Shawcroft, partner of the late Mitch Hedberg, for her blessing to use some of Mitch’s comedy in the studies. I would also like to thank Skye Hignett for her collaboration on the accent research project, and Sabrina Goh for her advice in the planning of that project. I would also like to acknowledge Andrew Mitchell as a sounding board for ideas. Many thanks to Rebekah Everdon, Mike Breicker, Sweta Arya, and Sigrid Lorraine Labidon for being voice actors at various stages of the research. Also, thanks to William van der Vliet and Hadyn Youens for their assistance in programming and setting up computer based testing. Thanks to Meric Hoffman, Richard Hamelink, Jeremy Anderson and the other technical staff of the Otago University psychology department for the creation of our telephone devices and behavioural testing apparatus. I would also like to thank Dale Watts from the Physics Department for lending the known weights used testing the behavioural apparatus in Study 3. In addition, I would like to acknowledge the help of the On-hold Messaging Association, Stressbusting.co.uk, Business Voice and On-hold Marketing New Zealand for responding to research inquiries and offering assistance. I would like to thank the management and staff of the Dunedin Fisher & Paykel global contact centre for their support; particularly Keith Campbell for his information and co-operation. I would also like to acknowledge all of those who made it a pleasure to work in the Leland lab and all those who took the time to participate in the studies. Finally I would like to thank my family and friends for their support throughout the process of researching and writing this thesis. Thank you. iv Abstract The current research examined a number of issues relating to New Zealand call centres. We specifically focused on how the aural conditions that occur during a wait on-hold for telephone service could alter the affect and satisfaction of a caller. Four main studies were carried out. The first was a survey of customer service representatives (CSRs) to examine their opinions about the best and worst parts of their roles, and how they would reduce angry or abusive callers. The second was a trial of a number of different listening conditions, in a fictional call centre scenario, to examine their effects on participant mood and satisfaction. The third study further focussed on the most promising on-hold conditions from Study 2, and examined the effect that speakers of different accents might have on appraisals of the call, and the operator. Finally the fourth main study examined music preference on-hold compared to preference in more social situations. From Study 1 we found that some CSRs suggested altering the on-hold environment to reduce the incidence of angry callers. We also found that, although we did not alter mood significantly in any of our studies, the most promising on-hold listening condition was offering participants a choice of listening options for the effect it had on satisfaction. In Study 2 there was no significant difference in satisfaction between a choice listening group and a group that was put straight through to service. It is our hope that future research may use the promising on-hold listening conditions from the current research, put them in place in an applied setting, and monitor whether there is any evidence of a reduction in turnover or absenteeism in call centre staff. A further finding, that non-native English speakers are generally rated less favourably than native English speakers, and the preferences that undergraduates show for on-hold music are also reported and discussed. v Table of Contents Executive Summary (lemon pastel