Cabela's Call Center Case Study

Cabela’s Customer Service & Support Waiting in line at any store seems to be quite the norm for most of us depending on the time of year and even the time of day. We can walk in on one day and there won’t be any lines at the checkouts but the next day you enter the store again and there are more people there and the checkout lines are longer than you expected. When this happens we tend to just wait patiently because we have become accustomed to this. However, when it comes to waiting “inline” on the telephone for help, we all tend to get a little upset. There is a difference in being on hold on the phone and waiting in line at the checkout lane. We can visibly see the cashier is busy and working hard to help all the customers but being put …show more content…
I have been able to look at our account online and it still says the payment is complete and no activity. Cabela’s call center needs to either employ more people to deal with the increase of calls or maybe figure out if there is a problem with the recording or placing one on hold. “To improve service quality, technology must continue to play a critical role in establishing the competitive position of service organizations in the twenty-first century” (Fisk, Grove, & John, 2008, p. 42). The improvements start with the realization of the problem. I truly don’t feel that the corporate office at Cabela’s feels there is an issue with the call in process and decides to employ less workers to save money. However this move to save money by limiting workers is causing much grief to many people. The text states “employment levels are another potentially negative effect of technology. In many service industries, employment levels may fall in absolute terms as technology replaces workers or reduces the need for them” (Fisk, Grove, & John, 2008, p. 42). Technology, like I stated before, is one of the best and can be one of the worst improvements to a business. The main issue with Cabela’s call center is not only the lack of employees to answer all the calls coming in but also what is known as time sink where “waiting time increase when a new technology operates more slowly than the prior technology” (Fisk, Grove, & John, 2008, p. 43). Another issue is known as Hi-Tech versus Hi-Touch. If only I could talk to a person when I first call the phone number and not have to sit and wait for the recording or menu choices to go through and not having an option to choose from. The issue of eliminating person to person interaction and moving more towards electronical interactions is extremely frustrating because we just want to talk to a person not