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DOI:
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https://doi.org/10.1016/j.omega.2012.05.001
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URL:
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http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S...
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Document Type:
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Article
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Year of publication:
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2013
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The title of a journal, publication series:
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Omega
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Volume:
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41
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Issue number:
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2
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Page range:
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280-286
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Place of publication:
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Oxford [u.a.]
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Publishing house:
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Elsevier
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ISSN:
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0305-0483
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Publication language:
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English
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Institution:
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Business School > ABWL u. Produktion (Stolletz)
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Subject:
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650 Management
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Keywords (English):
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Service Operations , Queueing , Call Center , Overflow , Impatient Customers , Markov Chain
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Abstract:
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This paper analyzes the performance of call centers with impatient customers,
two levels of support, and an overflow mechanism. Waiting calls from the
front-office queue—if not reneging—are sent to the back office if at least one
back-office agent is available and if a certain threshold t on the waiting time is
reached. We approximate such systems via a continuous-time Markov chain
that allows for overflow immediately upon arrival. Two different approaches
for the derivation of the respective probability of an overflow are developed.
Numerical results compare the reliability of these Markovian performance approximations
for different parameter settings. The impact of the threshold t
on different performance measures is shown dependent on the impatience of
customers.
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