Knowledge management, call centres and customer satisfaction: A case study from the transport sector

A recent collaboration between Coventry University and one of the largest service companies in the UK (referred to in this paper as Express Mobility) revealed the extent to which customer satisfaction can rely on the success of internal knowledge management strategies. Express Mobility provides a range of services to over five million customers across the UK on a daily basis. Customer satisfaction is therefore one of their key corporate values. During a period of six months the researchers engaged with Express Mobility in a project set out to identify and understand the main drivers to their customers' satisfaction. As part of the project a questionnaire was used for the collection of a large volume of data from a random selection of Express Mobility customers, representing all regions being served by the company and all customer groups. A detailed analysis of more than 9,000 responses was conducted. The analysis revealed that the key areas of concern for customers were, in this order, the call centre at Express Mobility, followed by the price of specific services and billing-related issues. In relation to the call centre, we found that more than 35% of complaints received had their roots in the lack of access by customer service representatives to up-to-date information and knowledge about Express Mobility's products and services. This experience led to the study of the importance of knowledge management initiatives including staff from customer service departments which take the form of call centres. Given the similarities between Express Mobility and organisations providing services for transport, conclusions of this study focused on understanding the value of its findings for organisations which are related to the provision of services within the transport sector.