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ISSN: 2645-9078
OLD ISSN: 2548-0847
Journal of multidisciplinary academic tourism
2020, 5 (1): 11-16
www.jomat.org
Customer Representatives’ Competence Of Call Center
Employees: An Exploratory Study
Murat Nazlı
ABSTRACT
Keywords:
Customer representatives,
Leadership style,
Customer relations,
Servant leadership
The fundamental purpose of this exploratory study is to understand and analyze the leadership styles of
customer representatives in call centers of online travel agencies (OTAs) through content analysis. The
sample consists of 895 customer responses about the services of these online agencies. The theoretical
background of the study focuses on the servant leadership styles of customer representatives to see how
they can handle tough situations with the customers and how the customers respond to the level of
services. The findings reveal valuable hints and important perspectives of customers for the leadership
styles of customer representatives. The emphasized points are the reservation problems, lack of problem-
solving, delivery of wrong information to the customers, focus on sales rather than customer satisfaction,
low level of institutionalism perspective of customer representatives, and lack of interest after the sales.
The study enlightens the leadership styles of customer representatives in call centers of online agencies
for the use of researchers and practitioners.
Article History:
Submitted:06.01.2020
Accepted: 25.04.2020
Doi: https://doi.org/10.31822/jomat.671224
1. Introduction
Since the customer representatives represent their
firms and the customers (Celik, 2017), and are the
service providers for thousands of customers to
serve professionally and satisfactorily, it is critical
to show their servant leadership skills in their
communications throughout the service delivery to
customers and persuasion of customers to help
them make an excellent decision in their service
purchases. Therefore, two questions are vital to
understanding the main aim of this research. 1.
How much does “servant leadership style” appear
for the customer representatives to provide a
satisfactory service for the customers? 2. In
considering the representatives’ leadership styles,
how do the customers react to the delivery of
services offered by the customer representatives in
call centers of online travel agencies?
The theoretical aspect of the study lies under the
assumption that the customer representatives
serve the customers to satisfy their needs and
create memorable experiences in the minds of the
customers, and not just focus on sales. Servant
leadership theory is investigated across a variety of
contexts and themes (Parris & Peachey, 2013;
Babakus et al., 2010). According to Spears (2010),
servant leadership seeks to involve others in
decision making, is strongly based on ethical and
caring behavior, and enhances the growth of
workers while improving the caring and quality of
organizational life. According to the study of
Russell and Stone (2002), there are nine
characteristics of servant leaders; Vision, honesty,
integrity, trust, service, modeling, pioneering,
appreciation of others, and empowerment.
According to Spears (2010), the characteristics of
servant leadership are listening, empathy, healing,
awareness, persuasion, conceptualization,
foresight, stewardship, commitment to the growth
of people, and building community. Therefore, key
leadership attributes of the customer
representatives in call centers of online agencies
play an important role in affecting the purchasing
decisions of customers. It is also important to know
how the customer representatives direct customers
Research Paper
Murat Nazlı:
PhD., Yaşar University Department of Tourism Guidance, Email: nazli.murat@gmail.com, Orcid Id: 0000-0003-
0335-1706
Jomat is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Derivable 4.0 International License.
12
Murat Nazlı
to make great decisions about purchasing a service
and how they help the customers in a way to make
them excited and satisfied with their final
purchase.
In literature, there are several studies related to
the competencies of employees in call centers (Kisi,
2016), discussions about online travel agency
leaders based on market share (Dutta et al., 2017),
being a leader in online travel industry (Sirohi,
2018), and the investigation of frontline employees
and the supervisor leadership styles (Boukis et al.,
2020; Bartram & Casimir, 2007), and different
leadership styles playing a diverse role in call
centers (Muthuveloo et al., 2014; Ruggieri &
Abbate, 2013), there is still a literature gap about
the use of servant leadership style of customer
representatives in online travel agencies while
serving the customers, which also makes this
exploratory study unique. Therefore, from the
leadership perspective, it is important to know the
leadership attributes of these representatives,
what type of complaints occur for them, how they
solve the customer problems efficiently and
effectively and satisfy their needs with an excellent
service, and how the customers respond to the
offered services.
The first section after the introduction of the study
discusses the topic of customer representatives in
call centers and their leadership styles, the sample,
and method. The second section shows the main
findings along with the critiques of customers for
the customer representatives’ services and
leadership attributes. The third section is the
results, conclusion, and recommendations for
future studies.
2. Customer Representatives
Today, the most effective tool that the
organizations use to solve customer problems
related to products and services, and stay
connected with the customers is the call centers
that serve the customers all day long but while
performing their jobs, their motivation, morale,
dedication to work, and psychological condition is
important (Agras & Emre, 2018) as well as strong
leader-member interaction that affects the
customer-focus positively (Gurer & Bozaci, 2019).
However, working in shifts with high agent
turnover (Naor & Coman, 2017), the stressful job
environment in call centers can make it difficult to
boost the employees’ performance (Wallece et al.,
2000; Taylor & Peter, 1999). Therefore, customer
representatives who represent their firms and
serve thousands of customers and their
perspectives towards serving the customers are
important. It is critical for them to present their
leadership attributes in their communication and
convincing of customers to help them decide in
their final purchases.
According to Onat, when the customer shows
his/her satisfaction, it is a plus for the call center
(Onat, 2014) that ends up with positive feedback
for the organization and the representatives.
Concerning the study of Zhou et al. (2018), when
the service quality is high, the customers are more
satisfied and become more loyal than before. Once
the representatives gain the confidence of
customers and make them believe that the
organization is reliable, and will cover for them
when they are in need, the customers will be ready
to pay the organization in exchange for future
service (De la Croix de Castries, 2017).
On the other hand, the ones who want to work in
call centers as customer representatives should
possess important attributes such as
understanding others with empathy, expressing
yourself clearly, being patient and positive, having
the ability to convince people, managing time and
stress, and focusing on results (Kisi, 2016).
According to the study of Agras and Emre (2018),
to improve the conditions of employees in call
centers, there are key factors such as reorganizing
work hours, paying attention to personal needs,
strengthening communication and cooperation,
and the feeling of commitment to the organization.
The quality of service the employees provide is
important and this occurs when employees are
engaged and connected employees provide
excellent customer service and unique experience
(Subramanian, 2018). The defining characteristic
of servant leadership is its focus on benignant or
excellent service to other people (Robinson, 2018;
Sun, 2013; Berry et al., 1994). Based on the key
characteristics of servant leadership (Boukis et al.,
2020; Spears, 2010), we believe that the level of
caring behavior will set the standards for future
possible transactions between the customers and
the online agencies. Servant leadership studies
have supported positive influences of servant
leadership on individuals’ job satisfaction in
various organizations (Chu, 2008) but the question
is whether this satisfaction has a relationship with
how the customer representatives perform their
jobs efficiently and effectively, especially in call
centers, and how they fulfill the needs of the
customers.
13
Journal of multidisciplinary academic tourism 2020, 5 (1): 11-16
3. Sample and Method
The research sample consists of 895 responses from
travelers who have taken services from online
travel agencies and make a critique about the
customer representatives for their experiences in a
mainstream website “sikayetvar.com” between
January 2019 and January 2020. Concerning the
online visitors for the website, as of 01 January
2020, the number of members on the website is
4.560.769, the number of visitors for the last 30
days on the website is 14.801.403, and the total
complaints about the online services are 8.785.554.
Among the total complaints about the online
services of several industries, 895 visitor comments
for the services of online travel agencies are
gathered and transferred from the website to a
data-sheet in which the content analysis of the text
takes place in detail. Along with the content
analysis of the data, frequency analysis for
customer representative-related expressions,
problematic topics for the customer
representatives, and percentage distributions of
the main findings are presented briefly. The types
of problems that the customers encounter with the
customer representatives are categorized
according to the frequencies of them and their
similarities. The study pays attention to the
frequently-used comments related to the service
delivery of online travel agencies and the
evaluation of cases one by one to distinguish their
types.
4. Findings
Frequencies of Customer-Related Expressions
Table 1 presents the customer-related expressions
along with their frequencies and percentage
distributions. The top three expressions are the
customer, customer representative, and customer
services respectively. Last but not least, the lowest
frequency is the call centers’ weak customer
communication.
Table 1: Frequencies of customer-related expressions
Expressions
Frequencies
Percentage
Customer
110
52.9
Customer representative
29
13.9
Customer services
20
9.61
Customer representatives not
returning phone calls
18
8.65
Call center customer
representatives
16
7.69
Weak customer communication
15
7.21
Total:
208
100
Source: Authors
Customers’ Problematic Issues for Customer
Representatives
Table 2 emphasizes the customers’ fundamental
problems for the customer representatives along
with the frequencies and percentage distributions.
The top three topics are the reservation problems,
focusing on not problem-solving, and the delivery
of wrong information to the customers respectively.
The lowest frequencies are the missing
information, lack of representatives’ authority to
solve customer problems, weak communication
with the customers, and the delivery of wrong
discount/campaign information.
Table 2: Customers’ problematic topics for customer
representatives
Expressions
Frequencies
Percentage
Representatives are not helpful in
reservation problems
92
30.4
The main focus is not on problem-
solving
38
12.5
Providing wrong information to the
customers
30
9.93
Focus on sales first rather than
customer satisfaction
29
9.60
Low level of institutionalism
perspective of representatives
22
7.28
Lack of interest after the sales
21
6.95
Not returning phone calls at all
18
5.96
Providing different price
information than on the website
17
5.62
Disrespectful and not professional
13
4.30
Not providing all the information
(missing information)
8
2.64
Representatives not having the
authority to solve problems
7
2.31
Weak communication with the
customers
4
1.32
Providing wrong
discount/campaign information
3
0.99
Total:
302
100
Source: Authors
5. Results and Discussion
The customer-related expressions reveal that the
customer is the core part of an online transaction
or service. The connection between the customer
representatives and the customer is important in
terms of providing excellent services to satisfy the
needs of customers satisfactorily. For instance, a
customer emphasizes that “The reason I prefer
online travel agencies is that if I have a service
problem, I can expect to get immediate help from
the customer representatives of the travel agency”.
According to the customer comments, one of the
key problematic issues is the reservation problem
through the online travel agency and how the
service takes place with the direction of the
customer representative. The main problematic
areas in general are the reservation issues that the
customers face, problem-solving situations on the
phone with the representatives, delivery of wrong
14
Murat Nazlı
information to the customers, lack of
institutionalism according to the customers, lack of
interest towards the customers after the sales,
traffic of phone calls but no solution, lack of
authority of customer representatives to solve
urgent problems, weak communication between
the customers and the customer representatives,
and the delivery of different or wrong
discount/campaign information to the customers.
Based on the comments of the customers, the
reservation problem is extremely important for the
customers: Here are some of the key quotes of the
customers; “The customer representatives have
been calling me until they sell the travel package,
and then cancel my reservation without informing
me. However, they organize a new tour with
another name on the same date”. Another customer
states that “They sold our paid-hotel reservation to
another customer, told us to go to another hotel
with an extra fee. They do not care about our
discomfort and stress at all”. Another stressful
customer comment is that “The representatives’
interest is very low. We made a reservation and
paid the price but once we get to the hotel, it was
occupied”. In another instance, “The
representatives never respond. We make a
reservation, they withdraw the money but the
room is not available. Not a trustable site and
service”. The comments reveal that there should be
quality standards of the organization while
influencing the purchase of customers. The
representatives should handle the stress of the
customers and their stress professionally.
According to Gurer and Bozaci, stress decreases
due to the mediator effect of leader-member
interaction (Gurer & Bozaci, 2019). That is why the
leadership skills of customer representatives along
with the cooperation of team leaders and training
are crucial to creating a strong bond with the
customers.
In terms of problem-solving of customers, the
delivery of wrong information by the customer
representatives, and the subject of
institutionalism, there are severe comments of
customers. For instance, one customer comment is
that “The representatives are not professional.
They have a sales-focus mind first and do not focus
on solving customer problems after the sales”. In
providing wrong information, one customer
comment is that “Every service has a price
although we bought an all-inclusive service
package. The representatives lead us in the wrong
direction, provide wrong information, and cannot
continue the process appropriately”. Another
comment is that “The service information on the
website is not what the representatives told us. We
believe that they want to make sales as fast as
possible”. In the subject of institutionalism, there
are several comments of customers for the
organization. One essential comment is that
“There is a problem in corporate governance. The
processes take too long and there are wrong
declarations for the delivery of services. There is
the satisfaction of customers at the beginning but
it disappears later”. Another key customer
comment is that “The customer representatives do
not take the responsibility of their actions, explain
the level of services transparently, and fulfill the
needs of customers”. As being the voice of the
organization, the customer representatives should
step up and show their leadership with the
governance principles to convince the customers
and offer appropriate services to satisfy them. As
the study of Othman and Rahman (2014) indicates
that considering the servant leadership style, the
guidance of corporate leadership towards a high
standard of governance practices is important.
According to the opinions of customers about the
interest of representatives, there are important
comments. One comment is that “The
representatives show little interest in customer
problems, do not listen, and cannot handle
customer complaints. Empathy is necessary”. In
another comment, “The customer representative
shows no interest although we made a reservation,
paid the price but the hotel is occupied when we get
there”. With these types of incidents, the customers
criticize that “The representatives never call you
back even though they say they will, impossible to
reach them, no refund policy at all although you are
right and they make delays”. One of the reasons
why the customer representatives do not call the
customer back can be due to their job stress in call
centers, as mentioned in the study of Isik and
Hamurcu (2017) but no matter what the situation
brings, they should provide the quality services
professionally and satisfactorily.
The lack of authority, weak communication, and
discount/campaign problems are the other issues
the customers mention. According to one comment
“The representatives lack the authority to solve
any type of problem the customer faces”. In terms
of communication, one comment is that “The
representatives have a weak communication,
especially in urgent situations, do not comfort the
customers, and satisfy their needs although you
are absolutely right about the matter”. In terms of
providing discount for the services, one comment
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Journal of multidisciplinary academic tourism 2020, 5 (1): 11-16
shows the unhappiness for the service. “The
customer representatives say that there is no real
discount or campaign or there is a little
information in certain situations but the website
shows the opposite situation”.
In terms of showing the leadership styles of
customer representatives; caring others, high-
quality service providing, appreciation of others,
listening, showing empathy, valuing customers
and trustworthiness are missing throughout the
communication process with the customers, which
are essential ingredients in servant leadership as
they are mentioned in the study of Spears (2010)
from a different perspective. The customers look for
excellent services along with comfort from the
online travel agencies and the representatives of
these agencies, and if any problem occurs, they
want to believe that they can easily call the
customer representatives on the phone and solve
their problems satisfactorily.
The truth is without the high-quality service,
trustworthiness, and empathy and understanding
the concerns of the customers, paying attention to
what the customers need and ask for, they will
never demand service for the future, which is a
huge loss for the organizations’ prestige and sales.
That is why with the perspective of servant
leadership, the customer representatives in call
centers of online travel agencies should be well-
trained and equipped with the necessary tools to
satisfy the needs of the customers no matter how
difficult the situation is. The love of serving the
customers along with the gained leadership
attributes should come first instead of paying
attention to increased sales figures for the
organization. Another key point is that working
closely with the team leaders in the organization
will boost the customer representatives’ leadership
skills to handle difficult situations they come
across and serve better.
6. Conclusion
The fundamental approach of this study is to
understand and analyze the leadership styles of
customer representatives of online travel agencies
through content analysis. Along with the
theoretical background of servant leadership
theory, this exploratory study is one of the early
studies focusing on the leadership styles of
customer representatives, in this case the servant
leadership, while serving the customers in call
centers of online travel agencies.
Based on the results of the study, the vast majority
of the customers are very sensitive towards the
level of services they get, the speed of problem-
solving with the help of the customer
representatives, and strong communication with
the service provider whenever it is necessary to
solve key obstacles such as the reservation
problems and the timely arrangements. The
results reveal that along with the understanding of
servant leadership style, the customer
representatives can serve the customers much
better than before. Thus, it is critical for the
customer representatives in call centers of online
travel agencies to serve better and increase
awareness for the delivery of services to the
customers.
The study comes with a few limitations. Only a
limited number of customer comments on customer
representatives' services and approaches for one
year period through a specific website take place in
this exploratory study. For future research, other
available comments for customer representatives
can be investigated in the selected national or
international travel organizations, other than the
online services. After investigating the customer
comments on customer representatives' level of
services and their leadership styles, the
categorization of customer problems and the use of
leadership attributes in different situations can be
investigated.
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