Case Analysis

As a consultant for AtheleticEdge must help to advice Tammy Mountains on what is wrong with her department, Telemarketing. As I oversaw the department these are some of the problems that I found:

* Customers complain about receiving the wrong items.

* Customers are on hold for at least five minutes

* 8% of orders are in some form wrong

CONTRIBUTING FACTORS:

* Meetings aren’t held infrequently, have no purpose and are scheduled inappropriately. Meetings are held early in the morning before the eight to five shifts, only once or twice a year for the company as a whole. The purpose of the meetings is for the company to have a feeling of “solidarity”, though they don’t have this feeling. Telemarketers are invited to quarterly meetings outside of work.

* Training for the company is held by the wrong person for an inappropriate amount of time. Training for the company is done by someone in Human Resources. They conduct training in any and all subjects of the company. Trainers meet with telemarketers once or twice a year, unless there is a new hire. As a result there have been problems with those who have had recent training, such as Jeff Montana. Jeff was only provided with three days of training, watching videos of managers in supervisory situations, giving him literature on the products they company provides, telling him how to schedule and motivate employees and coaching him on-the-job for just a half-day.

* Cliques have been formed inside the department, closing out some employees. Most employees in Telemarketing, especially on Jeff’s shift, are women in their mid-twenties who have been there since their teens. Though they may have worked up or over from assembly lines, they are a tight-knit group with lots of joking around. They really like joking about Steve: the “crabby old guy” who they say has “such a great physique”. Lelace DeLoach, who was always a “gifted” student doesn’t feel included in their camaraderie and humor the other girls...