Cross-Selling in a Call Center with a Heterogeneous Customer Population

Operations Research, Vol. 57, No. 2, pp. 299-313, 2009

Columbia Business School Research Paper

15 Pages Posted: 20 Oct 2011

See all articles by Itai Gurvich

Itai Gurvich

Northwestern University

Mor Armony

New York University (NYU) - Department of Information, Operations, and Management Sciences

Costis Maglaras

Columbia University - Columbia Business School, Decision Risk and Operations

Date Written: March 1, 2009

Abstract

Cross-selling is becoming an increasingly prevalent practice in call centers, due, in part, to its unique capability to allow firms to dynamically segment their callers and customize their product offerings accordingly. This paper considers a call center with cross-selling capability that serves a pool of customers that are differentiated in terms of their revenue potential and delay sensitivity. It studies the operational decisions of staffing, call routing, and cross-selling under various forms of customer segmentation. It derives near-optimal controls in each of the settings analyzed, and characterizes the impact of a more refined customer segmentation on the structure of these policies and the center's profitability.

Suggested Citation

Gurvich, Itai and Armony, Mor and Maglaras, Costis, Cross-Selling in a Call Center with a Heterogeneous Customer Population (March 1, 2009). Operations Research, Vol. 57, No. 2, pp. 299-313, 2009, Columbia Business School Research Paper , Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1946422

Itai Gurvich

Northwestern University ( email )

2001 Sheridan Road
Evanston, IL 60208
United States

Mor Armony

New York University (NYU) - Department of Information, Operations, and Management Sciences ( email )

44 West Fourth Street
New York, NY 10012
United States
(212) 998-0291 (Phone)
(212) 995-4227 (Fax)

Costis Maglaras (Contact Author)

Columbia University - Columbia Business School, Decision Risk and Operations ( email )

New York, NY
United States

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