Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Project Description
The senior management team of PJ Enterprises has a goal of quality service delivery, but has
been experiencing high turnover of staff, job dissatisfaction, and an increase in customer
complaints. The company wishes to improve the training program for Customer Service
Supervisors and Telephone Operators to increase catalog sales and reduce customer complaints.
They have asked UWS Project Management to design, develop, and deliver a learning program
for these employees prior to the catalog mailing.
A gap analysis is needed in order to identify the perceived performance issues, determine the root
causes of the issues, and come up with a solution to the problem. The gap analysis will help
UWS analyze the current state at PJ Enterprises compared to the ideal state the senior
management envisions. The difference between the real and ideal will guide us as we
determine the best solution to the problem.
Information Needed
Employee dissatisfaction:
Daily tasks:
Basic description of tasks and activities that comprise customer-service operator and
supervisor daily duties.
Extent of use of customer-service operator job aids and product reference guides.
Organization and ease-of-use of the current jobs aids.
Technology:
UWS Project Management recognizes that the following situations exist at PJ Enterprises:
Ambitious sales goals have been set for the upcoming year, following a record year in
sales.
PJ Enterprises sales are derived from a combination of retail and catalog sales, with
catalog sales via phone calls being roughly twice retail sales
PJ Enterprises has gone from three catalogs annually to four seasonal catalogs. The
Christmas catalog was the largest to date.
The diverse number of products the telephone operators are expected to sell has greatly
increased.
Turnover among the telephone operators is currently at 30% per year.
Customer complaints about the operators has reached a 66% level.
Phone operators are currently handling three calls per hour as opposed to the required six.
Human resources challenges continue to be a management concern.
The target audience for the training(s) is females aged 18 to mid-60s.
In order to obtain the information necessary to see where and if training can solve the
performance issues and better understand the root causes of the situations described above, UWS
will use the following methods:
Interviews
Surveys
Observations
Review of the following reports:
o Sales data per product SKU.
o Customer Satisfaction Surveys.
o Phone system reports.
Details of Activity/Method
In order to determine the needs and problems associated with the current undesirable condition,
the Instructional Designers will conduct interviews with the Telephone Operators supervisors.
Interviews will be conducted in person to better facilitate discussion and will last a half an hour
to an hour. Supervisors will be interviewed individually and in private. To facilitate open, honest
responses, the interviewers will assure all participants that their responses will remain
confidential. Interviewers will schedule interviews in advance and send out reminders two days
prior to the interview date. All supervisors will be interviewed to make them feel included in the
team effort and to give them a sense of ownership over the project.
Questions to Ask
1. Who has conducted the training received to date on product, telephone system, and sales
skills?
2. Can you provide us with details about the current training?
3. Do you feel the trainings are long enough?
4. How did you determine that 30 minutes was the appropriate amount of time for questions
and answers?
5. What is the process if operators have questions during actual calls?
6. Are calls monitored?
7. What are the desired goals for the Telephone Operators and Customer Service
Supervisors?
8. Who are your best performing Telephone Operators?
9. What are the most common complaints from staff?
10. What is the system for handling complaints?
11. Is there any reward for error-free performance?
12. Is call volume rewarded?
13. What do you think is the reason for the high turnover rate? Are there enough
Telephone Operators to handle the workload?
14. What data is used to determine incentive targets?
15. What job aids do Telephone Operators have on hand?
16. In your opinion, what is the reason for the high turnover rate of Telephone
Operators?
17. Is the automatic call-distribution system easy to use?
Details of Activity/Method
The survey for the Telephone Operators will be electronically distributed, but accommodations
can be made if any employee would prefer the survey in a different format. Operators will be
given three working days to complete the survey. All employees taking the survey will be
guaranteed confidentiality to ensure results that are more accurate. The purpose of the survey is
to obtain measurable feedback regarding:
Questions to Ask
Details of Activity/Method
In an effort to uncover what is really going on, interviews with Judie Thompson (Catalog
Director) and Sheena Perez (Merchandising Manager).will be conducted. The Project Manager
and Project Coordinator from UWS Project Management Team will meet separately with these
key employees face-to-face. Prior to the interviews, UWS PM Team will review copies of their
resumes and employee records. The overarching goal of these interviews will be to determine if
the issues PJ Enterprises is experiencing can actually be resolved through training. Follow-up
meetings may take place with the copyright and professional service firms Sheena works closely
with, if needed.
Questions to Ask
1. Tell us about your background and how it prepares you to conduct training at PJ
Enterprises.
2. How do you prepare your training and how often do you revise it?
3. Do you get employee feedback at the end of training?
Details of Activity/Method
The Business Analysts (all team members) will review documentation of business activities and
internal evaluations to gain a quantitative understanding of the current state of the business. They
will also review these materials to determine whether training materials and job descriptions are
adequate for PJs current and future needs. PJ will be asked to furnish sales reports, sales data
associated with individual products and operators, customer satisfaction survey data, call volume
data, documentation related to the function of the call-distribution system, job descriptions,
annual evaluations, Human Resources data (including turnover rates from teams and
departments, participation rates in training, and employee satisfaction data), training materials,
and other materials relevant to UWSs investigation.
Questions to Ask
The UWS team should use the assembled documents to answer the following questions, to the
best of their ability:
1. What are the rankings of individual catalog items (SKU) by sales volume?
2. What are the rankings of individual catalog items (SKU) by associated number of
complaints?
3. What are the rankings of Telephone Operators by sales (average number of sales per day
or per quarter)?
4. What are the rankings of Telephone Operators by associated number of complaints?
5. What are the rankings of Telephone Operators by number of calls handled (average per
day or per quarter)?
6. What are the Telephone Operator training participation rates?
7. Comparison of job descriptions for Telephone Operators to current customer-service
needs
8. Comparison of job qualifications for Telephone Operators to current job demands
9. Comparison of job descriptions for Customer Service Supervisors to current Customer
Service and Telephone Operator needs
10. Comparison of job qualifications for Customer Service Supervisors to current job
demands
Details of Activity/Method
The Instructional Designers (IDs) will speak with Jane Mackenzie, Director of Sales Support, for
verification of milestone dates and determine how they coincide with sales goals, catalog
releases, and system installations. The IDs will also discuss with her how their training initiative
fits in with other actions leading to growth. The IDs will also try to determine where
management feels previous methods have fallen short.
The IDs will also interview Yun Tsien, the manager of the new sales installation system, to verify
his timeline, understand the abilities of the new system and to ascertain what if any training on
the system will be offered by the vendor.
When possible these interviews will be conducted in person or by phone and will follow the
protocols for privacy and brevity as outlined in activity #1.
Questions to Ask
Jane Mackenzie
1. What are the key dates and how were they selected?
2. Where does this training initiative fit in with other measures taken to achieve corporate
goals?
3. How do we measure success for specific goals within the Customer Service area?
4. What initiated this need to change things up?
Yun Tsien
Details of Activity/Method
Observers will meet with the telephone operators to inform them of the purpose of the
observations that will be conducted. Telephone Operators will be assured that observations are
being conducted for data collection purposes only and will not affect their job security.
Observers will situate themselves in unobtrusive locations, being sure to relocate periodically to
better view all operators. Observations will be conducted during all shifts for one week.
Questions to Ask
Observers will look for the following occurrences and grade them using a pre-determined rating
system: