A mathematical model for evaluating cross-sales policies in telephone service centers

Cross–selling in telephone service centers is seen by industry as a useful means to generate profits from an existing customer base. Introducing cross–sales to a service center, however, needs to be properly managed as it could degrade customer service quality. Real–time customer and system information can be used to set the appropriate control policy for cross–sales to enhance profitability without causing undesirable service degradation for calling customers. The objective of this paper is to illustrate the value of using real–time information in selecting optimal control policies for cross–sales in telephone service centers. Specifically, we develop an introductory mathematical model to incorporate the use of two types of information, system status (queuing congestion) and customer profile (likelihood of purchase) in determining the optimal control policy to maximize the expected operating profit of the system. We hope to stimulate further research in this area by providing a groundwork for further modeling. We show that using more information increases a call center's operating profit. Improvements were dramatic for environments with intermediate utilization and high customer heterogeneity.