Dynamic contact centers with impatient customers and retrials [Elektronische Ressource] / von Kirsten Henken

DISSERTATION Dynamic Contact Centers with Impatient Customers and Retrials Von der Wirtschaftswissenschaftlichen Fakultät der Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Universität Hannover zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades Doktorin der Wirtschaftswisssenschaften - Doctor rerum politicarum - genehmigte Dissertation von Dipl.-Math. Kirsten Henken geboren am 31. Juli 1977 in Bremerhaven 2007 Erstgutachter: Professor Dr. Stefan HelberZweitgutachter : Professor Dr. Michael H. BreitnerTag der Disputation: 19.Januar 2007PrefaceThe matters of this PhD thesis in Business Administration are the resultsof my research in the area of contact center management at the TechnicalUniversity of Clausthal and the University of Hanover from 2002 to 2006.The focus of this work is the analysis and staff requirement planning of dy-namic inbound contactcenters with impatient customers who may retry aftera while. Contact centers are dynamic in two ways. On the one hand the ar-rivals, service completions, and abandonments are random events and on theotherhandthenumberofarrivals,servicedurationsandpatienceofcustomersdepend strongly on the time of the day. Therefore, the strong approximationis used to incorporateboth aspects ofdynamics into the analysisandthe staffrequirement planning.I am indepted to a lot of people for their support during the time ofworking at this thesis. Firstly, I would like to thank my advisor, ProfessorDr.