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Performance Analysis Report

For PJ Enterprises
WW Consulting
March 19, 2016

How to Improve Service and Sales

Performance Report

Introduction and Background


PJ Enterprises is a mail order catalog business that develops manufactures, and markets highquality gifts, apparel and home accessories and distributes them through its mail-order catalog
and retail store. Management is concerned with a 30% increase in customer complaints with the
telephone operators as compared to the same period last year.
WW Consulting has been asked to design, develop, and deliver a learning program for the
telephone operators. The training course is intended to be delivered before the catalogs are
mailed. Before proceeding WW Consulting will complete a needs (gap) analysis. The analysis
will determine possible solutions to their customer service issues, which will then be analyzed,
designed and assessed to best meet PJ Enterprises needs.

Purpose of the Report


The purpose of the Performance Analysis at PJ Enterprises is to provide PJ Enterprises
Management with causes and possible solutions to their customer service issues.

Analysis Methods
To determine causes and recommend solutions, WW Consulting performed the following tasks:

Interviews with management and stack holders


Observations of phone operators
Surveys of phone operators
Review of Human Resource documents; recruiting and sourcing technologies
Document analysis of customer feedback comments, existing training procedures and
handbooks

Performance Report

Data Summary:
Summary:
Training is short and does not provide information TOs need to provide quality customer service
Orientation does not provide product information, mostly company history and paperwork
Management attitude as perceived by employees is negative
Company mission is not communicated to employees
Trainers view training from their perspective and not from the perspective of the learner
Performance incentive is not perceived as a reward
Lack of product information in the catalog
TO product guide does not contain enough information, is not easy to use
There are no scripts or standard greeting
Monthly meetings are unpaid, optional, and negative

Finding

Description

Company Mission and Goals

Employees do not know the mission and goals of the


company.

Training (general)

Management does not have a clear picture of what the


training includes. They stated that they do not provide
guidelines. They do not need to provide much
customer service training as the employees
demonstrate courtesy during the interview.

Training (orientation)

Four hours of training on system and products. This


does not seem adequate; company states it takes a
while for a new person to get up to speed. (HR)
Training is demo only, no hands on. It takes a few
days after training to really know how to use the
order entry system.

Training (quarterly)

Two weeks prior to catalog roll out, new products


only for 3 hours. Training is PowerPoint with no
learning guide. Sheena/Judie said the trainees dont
take good notes, the trainees say there is nothing
provided for them during the training for the to use to
take notes. No product updates or new product
information are provided to employees outside of

Performance Report

quarterly training. Sometimes they dont get to all of


the products (~50 new each season) and expect the
TOs to use the product guide. No assessments during
or after the class are given. No questions are asked at
the end of training. They have less than five minutes
per product so they dont have a lot of time. TOs
feel the training is boring.
There is no training for TOs and supervisors who are
promoted.
Product guide

Current guide is paper and it gets tattered after use. It


is organized by catalog page, not by product type or
number. It does not contain information outside of
what is in the catalog. It is written in paragraph form.
There are no scripts, no etiquette guidelines.

Monthly meetings

Employees do not attend monthly meetings regularly.


Employees are not paid to attend the monthly
meetings. Night shift workers are expected to attend
after their shift; this will result in poor retention.
Employees feel they are being berated during the
meetings.

Catalog

It does not contain much product information


including fabric content, wash-ability, color options,
dimensions, or shipping information. This year first
time 4 catalogs rolled out- 30% increase in customer
complaints compared to previous year.

Attitude (management)

There is blame placed on the TOs for not knowing the


products well enough, not paying attention during the
training, not taking notes, and not caring. They hire
people who are polite and courteous during interviews
and dont feel they need to provide much after that.
They believe a one-week discount on catalog orders
should be incentive to do a good job.
Employees feel managers are not easy to approach or
communicate with.

Expectations

There are communicated during interview, which is a


very stressful time for employees.
The primary responsibility of the TOs is to answer
calls and take orders however they are also expected
to cross and upsell. Expectations are not clearly

Performance Report

defined.

Incentives

Discounted prices for one week which results in


employees purchasing products they may not want or
need as well as less take home pay. No raises for
longevity are given.

Trainers

Trainers are negative toward other employees. They


feel trainees dont try hard enough, dont work hard
enough to learn the products and dont take good
notes. Feel that they (the trainers) know the products
well enough, they are experts and dont need manuals.
Repeatedly state that they are the product experts.
They dont use the product guides during training
because we know the products so well; we dont
need a guide. The training went fine, but people just
dont remember. People dont always pay attention
in class. Maybe were just not hiring the right
people. Plan to keep delivering the training because
after all I know these products better than anyone.
Im doing fine.

Environment/equipment

Headsets are provided but if the TO wants something


different they have to provide it themselves. Loud
work area could impact ability to hear customer
requests clearly. TOs are able to ask each other
questions about products- ineffective work station set
up: seated close together in rows.

Customer survey

22% complain about waiting in queue.


48% complain about etiquette.
30% complain about product knowledge.

Performance Report

Data Summary: Survey Results


Question: I would feel more successful in my job if:
TRUE

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FALSE

Question: Preferred Learning Methods


TRUE

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FALSE

Data Summary: Customer Complaints


Customer Survey figures indicate an increase of 30 percent in customer complaints with telephone
operators as compared to the same period last year

Data Summary: Business Plan Goals


Overall business goals is to focus on quality and customer service with 10 % improvement on
customer- service scores and to maintain profitability

Data Summary: [zzz] [xxx initials]

Performance Report

Data Summary: Telephone System Capacity


The present system is designed to answer 90% of all customer inquiries within two minutes and to
ensure that the customer kept happy. Currently the telephone system is used at only 85% capacity.

Performance Report

Findings, Needs, and Recommended Solutions


After a thorough evaluation and analysis, below are our findings and recommended solutions.
Finding
Need
The product guide is A better guide is needed.
inadequate. The
current paper guide
gets tattered and torn
from use. It is difficult
to search for the
products. The product
descriptions may not
contain enough
information to answer
the customers
questions.

Recommended Solution
WW Consulting, IT and Sheena Perez should work together to
implement an electronic product guide that meets all of the following:
Match the catalog information in the product guide to contain all
information about the product including dimensions, washing
instructions, sizes, available colors, etc.
Electronically available
Uniformly organized
Easy to use
Easy to read (bulleted where possible, not paragraphs)
Easy to search according to the catalog
Quick to search
Display estimated shipping
Display estimated shipping times
Display photos of the product
Integrated with the ordering system
Telephone operators Integrate the product guide with the Implement an update to the current order entry system to add a product
spend time looking up order entry system. The overall
guide. Note: According to IT, this is a possible future improvement.
information in the
time to service the customer must be
product guide then
reduced, thus reducing customer
have to look it up
complaints and increasing sales.
again in the ordering
system.
The catalog is
An improved catalog. Improving Sheena Perez should direct the catalog vendor to add photos,
inadequate.
the catalog will reduce customer
dimensions, sizes, colors, and estimated shipping cost, and estimated
questions, which will reduce
delivery times to the catalog.
customer hold time and complaints.

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An integrated
An integrated electronic ordering Once the product guide and catalog are improved, and the product guide
electronic catalog and system available to customers.
is implemented with the ordering system, PJ Enterprises IT should
ordering system is not Giving customers the ability to
make the integrated ordering system available to customers online.
available to customers. place orders without assistance will
decreases call volume and wait time.
Staff turnover is high. Staff turnover needs to be reduced. Management should hold regular mandatory staff meetings on paid
company time to inform staff of customer feedback.
The current staff
Improve incentives. Staff should be Management should revise the current staff incentive process to include
incentives do not
rewarded with meaningful rewards pay for performance, vacation days after certain amount of time on the
incentivize the staff. that rewards and incentivizes good job, and bonuses for sales volumes and/or low complaints.
performance.
The current
Improve the performance evaluation Management should write new performance criteria based on
performance
process.
meaningful and measurable metrics. Supervisors should gather the
evaluation process is
metric and evaluate each telephone operators performance. Supervisors
inadequate.
should review the performance evaluation with staff.
The current training Improve telephone operator training.Develop a product training program.
for telephone operators
Assuming a new electronic product guide is implemented, the training
is inadequate.
will focus on how to use the new electronic product guide. The training
will be chunked to include detailed product training of only 10 products
per day for sufficient retention.
The training will contain activities to reinforce retention.
PJ Enterprises will deliver the training once a day for a few days in a
row, during the days leading up to the day the catalog is issued to
improve retention.
The training will include activities and assessments.
Items will be placed on display in the telephone operators work area so
they can see, handle, and review the items. New items should be
brought in and old items brought out daily.
Order entry training is Improve the order entry training. Develop improved order entry training that includes the following:
limited with no guide
An electronic, online procedure guideline for the order entry system.
given to the learner.
Guided practice opportunities for new hires.
Assessment and performance feedback to new hires.
Basic customer service Customer service training.
Develop customer service training that will include the following:
skill training is not
Prewritten scripts for answering calls, transferring calls, placing calls on

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provided.

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hold. Tips and procedures for handling difficult customers.

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Proposed Solutions for Consulting Firm to Carry Out


We have carefully considered our recommendations and have prioritized them below. We feel
that implementing our first 5 priorities will solve the current state performance gaps and enable
PJ Enterprises to meet your business objectives in relation to catalog sales and the telephone
operators and supervisors.

Priority
1

Solution
Telephone Operator Training

Description
IT will create an online catalog,
or WW Consulting will set up a
SharePoint or shared directory
accessible by all telephone
operators and supervisors. This
SharePoint will display the
current product guide in
electronic format.
We will develop telephone
operator training which will
include the following:
* Order entry system training
* Customer service training
including call scripts, scenario
examples, practice scenario
activities
* Electronic Product Guide
training

Supervisor Training

In addition to training the


electronic product catalog, we
will develop a standardized
evaluation process for the
supervisors to administer to the
telephone operators.

Management Training

We will deliver a workshop on


Effective Management
Techniques

Monthly Ongoing Communication

We will work with management

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Initiative

to develop a system of
communicating company
information to the employees

Evaluation Plan
We will conduct evaluations to assess the effectiveness of the training in meeting the business
goals of PJ Enterprises. This evaluation will occur 6 months and one year after the training
measures are implemented. Evaluations may include complaint statistics, surveys of telephone
operators for job satisfaction, employee retention rates, and/ or assessment of training standards.

Request for Proposal


WW Consulting has showcased its expertise using qualitative and quantitative data. We have
been able to demonstrate the value in assisting PJ Enterprises with all phases of this project. WW
Consulting is especially skilled in developing training, assessments, and certifications. At your
request, WW Consulting would be happy to submit a proposal to carry out the solutions outlined
in the section of our contractual agreement.

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