Student's perceptions of interactions with the University of South Africa's contact centre.
Selloe, Sophie Regina
Selloe, Sophie Regina
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Abstract
The aim of this study was to explore students’ perceptions of interaction with the University of South Africa’s (UNISA) contact centre (UCC). UNISA’s main mode of interacting with students up to July 2011 was through the UCC. The UNISA Contact Centre (UCC) supported the academic progress of students by answering questions ranging from admissions to graduation. A student satisfaction survey conducted in 2009 by UNISA’s Bureau of Market Research among students revealed that the UCC was rated the most unsatisfactory service. On 29 July 2011, UNISA closed the UCC. The university therefore introduced new modes of interacting with students, including, among others, sms responses, email responses, telephone, MyUnisa and social media like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. These current modes of interaction could though also be seen as part of the functions of a contact centre. A quantitative research approach using survey design was employed. Structured questionnaires were distributed to a purposive sample of 600 UNISA students. Purposive non-probability sampling was used. The sampled students attended tutorial classes at the Sunnyside Campus of the College of Economic and Management Sciences on Saturdays. 172 usable questionnaires were returned. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) was employed for analysis of the numeric data in the study. Descriptive statistics (frequencies, means and standard deviations) were used to describe the data set. ANOVAs and cross-tabulation were used to test for statistically significant differences between different demographic and other relevant groups. Quantitative content analysis was applied to analyse the open-ended questions, and a principal axis factor analysis to identify factors. There were two factors that had a high loading, factor 1 relating to aspects during the contact with the UCC and factor 2 relating to aspects after contact with the UCC. The reliability of the factors was measured using ronbach’s alpha coefficient. The major findings show that the majority of the respondents did not agree with the decision to close the UCC and that the majority of the respondents had positive experiences and ratings of the UCC indicating only a few areas for improvement. The most negative ratings relate to: ‘you were never placed on hold for longer than five minutes’, ‘you reached the UCC quickly’, ‘the UCC image has been lowered’, and you received a call from the UCC confirming satisfaction’, suggesting that the UCC had to improve on these areas. The ANOVAs and cross-tabulations revealed that most of the variables tested were not statistically significant related with the following exceptions. Age and study duration are related to the frequency of contact with the UCC and the decision to close the UCC is related to factor 1 (aspects during the contact with the UCC). The findings also revealed that the respondents felt that UNISA should improve on its communication with students and that they experience difficulty with UNISA’s current modes of contact. The results of this study could therefore be used to help UNISA to improve its customer interactions.
Description
Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree, Magister Technologiae: Contact Centre Management in the Department of Office Management and Technology, Faculty of Management Sciences at the Tshwane University of Technology.
Date
2015-02-01
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Tshwane University of Technology
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Keywords
University of South Africa, Contact centre, Customer service, Customer interaction, Customer experience