Determinants of customer satisfaction in perceived outsourced help -desk services in the personal computing industry

Outsourcing of services to low-cost providers overseas has grown significantly in recent years. However, US customers have expressed dissatisfaction with some of the outsourced IT services, resulting in serious financial implications to businesses. This quantitative research study sought to find the determinants of customer satisfaction of outsourced help-desk services in the PC industry. Based on a survey of 466 PC users in the United States, a new framework of customer satisfaction was developed with seven determinants: compassionate responsiveness, sincerity, clarity of issue, technical dependability, trust, follow-up, and quality of communication. Training of help-desk service providers in attitudinal, technical, and communication competencies based on these seven determinants has been recommended for improving customer satisfaction thereby benefiting firms and their stakeholders.