Queueing Models of Call Centers: An Introduction

This is a survey of some academic research on telephone call centers. The surveyed research has its origin in, or is related to, queueing theory. Indeed, the queueing-view of call centers is both natural and useful. Accordingly, queueing models have served as prevalent standard support tools for call center management. However, the modern call center is a complex socio-technical system. It thus enjoys central features that challenge existing queueing theory to its limits, and beyond.The present document is an abridged version of a survey that can be downloaded from www.cs.vu.nl/obp/callcenters and ie.technion.ac.il/serveng.