For this assignment, we will be working on understanding the customer service experience offered by a hypothetical airline. When support is required, a customer initiates contact with the airline, either over the phone or using an online platform. Once connected, an agent of the airline works with the customer to understand the problem. When the interaction is complete, the agent creates records about the case. This includes the overall category of the issue along with whether the problem was resolved.
The airline would like to better understand the differences between support provided over the phone and online. With different types of interactions, the agents require different kinds of training, and the costs and resources are different in each modality. With this in mind, the airline is quite interested in comparing the quality of each type of service with regard to how well the cases can be resolved. They are also generally interested in improving their customer service and better understanding the experience.
In this assignment, we will be working with the information provided and consider the question of how to best understand the customer service experience.
Data
For each call, the following characteristics were measured:
- category: Each case was classified according to the type of service that was requested by the customer.
- service: This indicates whether the support was provided by phone or online.
- waiting.time.minutes: This records how long the customer waited to begin interacting with an agent.
- session.minutes: This records how long the customer interacted with the agent.
- customer.demeanor: This records the agent’s perception of the customer based on the tone of the conversation.
- resolved: This measures whether the agent was able to solve the customer’s main concern in the interaction.
Instructions
Based upon the information above and the data provided, please answer the following questions. When numeric answers are requested, a few sentences of explanation should also be provided. Please show your code for any calculations performed.
Assessment
You will be assessed on the accuracy and thoughtfulness of your responses.
- Questions 1-20: 5 points apiece
Questions
- What is the primary research question that will help the airline? Make sure to state this in terms of a measurable quantity.
- What kind of research study can be conducted with the available data?
- Are there any drawbacks to the kind of study you plan to undertake?
- If you could devise your own experiment, what would you do differently?
- Perform a statistical test that would analyze the relationship between the independent and dependent variables. In this test, do not consider any other variables. What would you conclude from this test?
- Apart from the independent and dependent variables, how should we think about the other variables in the data, and what would be the best way to consider them in the analysis?
- What would be an appropriate way to incorporate these other measured variables into an analysis of the relationship between the independent and dependent variables?
- Create a model that estimates the effect of the independent variable on the dependent variable while incorporating the other measured variables. Show the estimates and any measures of significance.
- Are there any other concerns with regard to this study and its design?
- Now imagine that the conclusion you drew from analyzing the data is actually incorrect. In fact, the real effect of the independent variable is exactly the opposite of what you demonstrated. How would you explain what happened?
- The customer service organization is also interested in understanding the quality of its work and the overall satisfaction of the customer. At the conclusion of the call, there is an opportunity to conduct a survey. What is the best way to implement this idea?
- What are some possible topics that you might ask about? Select three potential areas and briefly discuss why these are important to gather information about.
- For each of the three areas that you selected above, design a survey question. Keep in mind that the design should be appropriate for the setting. Provide the question, the possible answers, and the meaning of the answers.
- In this setting, how many questions would you ask the customer? Explain your answer.
- The airline has a larger number of questions that it would like to ask. What would be your strategy for gathering all of this information? Explain your answer.
- In this context, what are the advantages of a longer survey, and what are the benefits for a shorter survey? Explain your answers.
- If the airline’s managers are adamant about asking all of the preferred questions, what are some alternatives to this automated survey?
- Which customers would be more likely to participate in the automated survey after the customer service call, and which customers would be less likely?
- How reliable would you consider the information that comes from the automated survey to be?
- What else could you recommend to the managers of the airline’s customer service center to help them achieve the stated goal of understanding the quality of its work and the overall satisfaction of the customer? Provide a number of strategic recommendations that are actionable, measurable, and amenable to experimentation.
Submission
Please turn in the following files:
- Output file showing your code, answers, and explanations (.html file).
- Source code (.Rmd file)
Please do not compress or zip these files.
