Do Poor Corporate Intranet Sites Have A Negative Effect On Staff Performance In A Large Call Centre Environment?  (2009)

Call centre services are a hot topic in today’s news with many companies moving their call centres away from the UK to India and other locations.  Customer services now more than ever seems to come second to penny pinching.  The Co-operative bank came out publicly to state that it would not be moving any call centres offshore and that its focus was entirely on customer services.  Currently the Co-operative bank has a very large corporate intranet which is used by its front line service delivery staff to find answers to any customer query.  Because of the large size of this site the scope of this research was limited to the products and services section of the intranet.  The research used in this project included a literary review into existing key guidelines regarding the design and implementation of intranet sites, questionnaires to front line agents and finally a case study incorporating observation and role play elements.  Results from the research indicate that significant improvements to services can be achieved by employing good design ethics when planning and implementing an intranet site, also because of increased performance of staff the core performance of the centre would improve also enabling the more cost effective use of staff as they will be able to process more calls per work shift.  This project provides a good basis for further research while still coming to its own conclusions and providing a solid foundation.