• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.519-539
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• 2015

Customers are now demanding ever better service from customer service representatives (CSRs) to create superior customer service. Accordingly, CSRs are required to have more specialized knowledge and abilities of customer service. This study examines the roles of accumulated customer knowledge in electronic knowledge repositories (EKRs), which a firm has developed for customer service over time to enhance CSRs' work capabilities and work performance, in the context of call centers. To test the proposed research model and hypotheses, we conducted LISREL analysis using 261 responses collected on CSRs working for inbound call centers. The key results are as follows. First, accumulated customer knowledge in EKRs enhances CSRs' knowledge utilization and service expertise during the customer contact. Second, CSRs' knowledge utilization reinforces service expertise. Finally, service quality depends on CSRs' knowledge utilization and service expertise, but it is not directly related to accumulated customer knowledge. Overall, the findings suggest that accumulated customer knowledge in EKRs enhances CSRs' knowledge utilization and service expertise, and thereby leading to superior service quality.

• International Journal of Quality Innovation
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.106-121
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• 2004

This paper investigates customer knowledge management activities of Taiwan's plastic industries. The results demonstrate that the bulk of customer knowledge comes from data related to customer purchase orders and complaints. Furthermore, marketing, production, and research and development are the main departments that developed and reuse customer knowledge. The benefits derived from knowledge management for enterprises do not vary with the position of the vendor on the business scope. In addition, the benefits derived by customers from knowledge management are directly related to the benefits gained by the five major business functions, while the benefits derived from the customer knowledge management are also directly related to customer satisfaction. Summarizing the above results, an Acquisition-Development-Reuse (ADR) model is proposed and can provide the enterprises with a systematic reference model when the business attempts to construct a customer knowledge management system.

• Proceedings of the Korea Society for Industrial Systems Conference
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• 2007.02a
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• pp.202-208
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• 2007

As one of the key strategic resources, the customer knowledge not only improves the performance of customer relationship management, but fosters the sustained competitive advantages as it creates values for customers with customer knowledge management. On the basis of the general introduction of research on customer knowledge management, this paper develops the research on customer knowledge management from the perspective of strategic management, and discusses further relevant studies concerning concepts of customer knowledge and customer knowledge management, studying perspectives, key questions as well as development directions for research, and so on.

• Knowledge Management Research
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.17-38
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• 2019

Rrecently, companies have made great efforts to satisfy various needs and heightened expectations of customers, and the importance of customer center as customer contact department for customer relationship management is increasing. In the knowledge ecosystem, corporate customer centers are emerging as a new alternative to acquiring corporate competitiveness by increasing sales and increasing market share by improving marketing support activities and customer relationship management at customer contact points. As a result, the interest in the customer center has increased rapidly because it provides the opportunity to contact with the customer. In addition, in the era of the fourth industrial revolution, the customer center, which is a collection of information and communication technologies, has a big databased voice recognition technology to elaborate customer service, thereby enhancing customer satisfaction and contributing to marketing through continuous interaction with customers. Of course, we have the opportunity to transform into the frontline business intelligence front for customer knowledge. This study is a comparative case study on how the customer center of K Life Insurance that takes the lead in the customer center industry has successfully renewed and established their key information systems to improve customer services and reinforce marketing support competencies. Based on the above, this study will present factors affecting successful implementation and settlement of the customer service information systems of customer centers by independently analyzing two individual cases.

• International Journal of Quality Innovation
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.46-70
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• 2007

Customer Support Knowledge of Customer Support Organization is one of the important assets of enterprises and "Customer Support Knowledge Management" is also the critical aspect of Business Knowledge Management; however, the attributes of Customer Support Knowledge are complicated, diverse, renewed rapidly and difficult to be managed. Thus, in order to design a successful Customer Support Knowledge Management System, apart from the consideration of "human" and "information technology" aspects, the concerns of attributes and Customer Support Knowledge and industry characteristics should be involved for meeting the requirements of Customer Support Organization and allowing the organization to acquire the competitive advantage of "Differentiation Service". This research used the "Customer Support Knowledge Management System" in a high-tech industry as an example and treated the end users of medical instruments in different types of hospitals in Taiwan which have received the support service of our company in recent six months as the population. The end users were mostly the nursing executives or ultrasonic wave technical personnel in intensive care unit and they had similar educational background and incomes and adopted the medical instruments such as physical supervision system, ultrasonic wave system, heart start or ECG machine produced by our company; the research method was to randomly treat the investigation results of the telephone customers' satisfaction from respective 30 end users in the population three months before and after this system execution as the samples and use hypotheses to validate if the end users' customer satisfaction significantly improved in terms of "Remote Support," "On-site Support," "Service Turn Around time," "Technical Competence" and "Manner" in order to understand the influence and managerial significance of execution of "Customer Support Knowledge Management System" on Customer Support Organization.

• Journal of Information Technology Services
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.185-203
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• 2017

Call center service is enabled by the use of a firm's various information technologies (IT) and accumulated knowledge. IT and knowledge resources have been considered a fundamental infrastructure for developing a firm's business capabilities. Recognizing this, this study examines whether a firm's IT and customer knowledge resources enhance its customer service process capability and thereby contribute to creating superior customer service, at the level of customer service representatives (CSRs). That is, constructs in this study were measured on a basis of CSRs' perception. Moreover, this study verifies the moderating role of CSRs' computer self-efficacy on the relationships between IT and customer knowledge resources and customer service process capability. To test the proposed hypotheses, this study conducted partial least squares (PLS) analysis with a total of 234 data which were collected on CSRs working at four call centers. The key findings are as follows: first, IT infrastructure integration and customer knowledge integration are positively associated with customer service process capability. Second, customer service process capability is a key determinant of customer service performance. Finally, CSRs' computer self-efficacy has a moderating effect on the relationship between IT infrastructure integration and customer service process capability. The details of the findings and implications are presented.

• Knowledge Management Research
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.153-162
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• 2010

The knowledge of market and customer is widely accepted as one of the key information for the success of the business. To acquire market and customer knowledge, managers need to understand internal environment of their organization. Using data from Korean trading firms, this research aims to determine the internal environment of an organization enabling an effective acquirement of market and customer knowledge.

• Knowledge Management Research
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.147-174
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• 2018

Recently, firms have been putting forth significant efforts to fulfill various demands and high expectations of customers. The role and importance of customer centers as a direct contact point for customer relationship management are more emphasized than previously. A customer center draws attention as a new alternative to secure corporate competitiveness as it contributes to sales increase, being in a position to satisfy customers' needs by ensuring customers' access to information. A customer center is an aggregation of various information and communication technologies. In particular, a voice recognition/analysis technology based on big data can elaborate customer services further, enhance customer satisfaction, and trigger constant interactions with customers. A customer center can be transformed to a hub of customer knowledge and the embodiment of business intelligence in the front line of business. This article is a case study on how the customer center of the K life insurance company regarding customer center operation collects and analyzes customer information and how it has established its voice recognition/analysis system based on big data to improve customer experience management. Factors affecting the successful introduction and implementation of voice recognition/analysis system to a firm, are examined.

• Knowledge Management Research
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.123-140
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• 2020

In call centers where customers contact a firm's customer service without face-to-face interaction, customer service representatives (CSRs) determine its service competitiveness. In other words, a firm's service excellence relies on its CSRs. Drawing on the concept of agility from service and information technologies studies, this study conceptualizes customer response capability as a variable consisting of customer response expertise and customer response agility, and further verifies its effects on customer service performance. Moreover, this study examines whether a firm's digital and human knowledge resources are related to CSRs' customer response capability. To empirically test the proposed hypotheses, the partial least squares analysis is conducted with a total of 371 responses collected on CSRs from two insurance call centers. The findings indicate that a firm's digital and human knowledge resources enhance CSRs' customer response expertise and customer response agility, thereby increasing customer service performance. The results draw the conclusion that CSRs' customer response capability is a key antecedent of superior customer service.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.228-251
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• 2020

This study attempts to examine the importance of social capital in customer service organizations and clarifies how translates into organizational performance through knowledge management activities. A survey was conducted with the customer service employees, and 256 questionnaires were used for an empirical analysis with smart partial least squares (PLS). The analysis found that relational capital had a positive effect on both the knowledge management components of knowledge sharing and knowledge conversion, while structural capital significantly influenced knowledge sharing. In addition, human capital positively affected knowledge conversion. Both knowledge sharing and knowledge conversion significantly influenced organizational performance. This study proposed a conceptual framework of social capital that influences organizational performance mediated by an organization's knowledge management activities. Based on the results, we suggest practical guidelines for managing social capital and recommend areas of improvement for customer organization's managers and employees.