Call Center Satisfaction and Customer Retention in a Co-Branded Service Context

Purpose of This Paper This paper examines call center satisfaction in an escalated call center context where callers are organization members of the primary/leveraged brand and have purchased additional co-branded services as part of their membership. The relationship between call center satisfaction and actual retention of both the co-branded service offered and the primary brand (call center operated by the membership organization) is examined. Design/Methodology/Approach The survey data used in the analyses involves a sample size of 88 respondents, all members of a large, national nonprofit organization in the US. Factor analysis and logistic regression was used to test the propositions. Findings The results indicate that caller satisfaction has 4 dimensions similar to those found in SERVQUAL. Although call center satisfaction dimensions are not significant for co-branded service retention, the empathy dimension is most important to primary/leveraged brand retention. Research Limitations/Implications One of the limitations of this research is that it tests the propositions within a single firm regarding calls concerning a single category (insurance). Future research should attempt to replicate these findings in other call center contexts. Practical Implications Caller perceptions of service quality (specifically empathy) in the wake of a perceived service failure, while not very helpful to co-branded service retention, actually mitigate primary/leveraged brand membership loss. What is Original/Value of Paper This study addresses the lack of research tying escalated call center satisfaction and both retention of the co-branded service in addition to retention of the primary leveraged brand using actual retention data