Module 2 Project Gap Analysis Strategy

for Team 2
7/10/16

Project Description
Based on the information we were given from PJ Enterprisesprovided to us, they
PJ Enterprises are expectsing their business to continue to grow at the rate that it is
currently growing at. While growing at a rapid pace, they company executives
would like to maintain profitability, improve their customer-service scores by 10%,
and make sure they PJ Enterprises hasve a quality work environment including
staff development.
One major area PJ Enterprises you are is strugglinges with is their in customer
service. Our project will be to design, develop, and deliver a learning program for
the telephone operators. The client There are currently 25 telephone operators.
They are all female, generally have a high school or equivalent education, and
range in age from 18 to 50s and 60s. Currently, there is a dedicated training room
with a projector available, as well as individual employee workstations. Each
workstation is equipped with a computer (without sound card). Workstations are
located in a single room, without dividers between stations.
PJ Enterprises would like to train CS supervisors and telephone operators on each
catalog item we will plan accordingly pending the needs assessment. By
providing proper training, management company stakeholders believes that catalog
sales will increase and customer complaints will decrease.

Information Needed
We will begin by conducting a business analysis to see how PJ Enterprises'
practices and performance compare with other industry norms. We will then work
internally by interviewing senior management, as well as the HR department, and
various other department managers that work closely with the catalogs and CS
team. Finally, we will focus on the Telephone Operators studying their jobs and
analyzing their calls to identify any trends or negative habits that can be corrected
with our training.

Team Strategy
We will be using a variety of methods to determine the root cause of this
performance issue including: interviews, surveys, job shadowing, analyzing call
recordings, and conducting a business analysis.

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Analysis Plan
Research Method

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Target Audience

Information You Hope to Gain

Team Member Responsible

1.

Interview

Human Resources

The purpose of this interview is to

gain further insights into the
recruiting, selection, hiring, training,
and onboarding processes at PJ
Enterprises. Also, to learn more about
the potential causes of the high
turnover rates of the staff.

Abbie Weispfenning

2.

Interview

Sr. Management

The purpose of this interview is to

learn more about why senior
management is proposing a new
training for telephone operators.
Understand why this training is
important, how does it contribute to
the company goals, and what success
would look like.

Abbie Weispfenning

3.

Interview

Customer Service
Supervisors

The purpose of the interviews is to try

and determine why the customer
service is so poor. What factors are
contributing to the time of the calls
and the poor phone etiquette.

Kristen Smith

4.

Interview

Merchandising
Manager & Catalog
Director

The reasoning behind interviewing the

Merchandise Manager and the Catalog
Director is to determine if there is any
confusion on the part of the customer
service reps that would hinder the
sales procedure.

Kristen Smith

Research Method
5.

6.

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Target Audience

Information You Hope to Gain

Surveying the telephone operators will
provide an opportunity to elicit
information about their daily activities,
prior experience, knowledge, and skills
required to perform the job. Besides, the
staff is will be able to gain an awareness
regarding the problems that their unit
currently faces and be able to identify
how they could receive support to
produce better work quality.

Team Member Responsible

Survey

Telephone Operators

Call Recording
Analysis

Telephone Operators

Listen to calls to determine any trends

or issues occurring both with the
operators and with the customers' call
concerns

Claire Unnerstall

Job Shadow

Telephone Operators

Shadow both the day and night

Telephone Operators to identify errors
or habits that can be corrected with
proper training.

Claire Unnerstall

Business
Analysis

Business Journals/
Research

Determine how PJ Enterprises

practices and performance compares
to industry norms and leaders

Matt Pearsall

Alaba Agbatogun

Activity 1 Interview of HR [AMW]

Details of Activity/Method
Interviews will be conducted with members of the Human Resources team at PJ
Enterprises to gain further information about recruiting, selection, hiring, training,
and onboarding processes as well as turnover rates.

Questions to Ask
Recruitment

How many recruiters do you currently have on the HR team?

How are the telephone operators and customer service supervisor jobs
advertised to candidates?

Do the recruiters do more active or passive recruitment? (ex: wait for

candidates to apply or search and reach out to potential candidates)

Explain the recruitment process from posting the jobs to hiring the
candidate.

Selection

What are the education and experience requirements for the telephone
operators and customer service supervisors?

What are the key competencies you look for in a telephone operator and
customer service supervisor candidate?

Are the candidates provided with a realistic job preview?

Are candidates given the opportunity to job shadow the role they are
applying for?

Are any assessment tools used in the selection process?

What does an ideal candidate look like for the telephone operator and
customer service supervisor roles?

Hiring

How many individuals are involved in the hiring process? (ex: HR, Hiring
Manager, current employee, etc.)

How many telephone operators and customer service supervisors are hired
in a year?

Training/ Onboarding

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What trainings are currently being conducted for telephone operators and
customer services supervisors?
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What trainings are conducted for new hires? (telephone operators and
customer services supervisors)

What delivery methods are used for the trainings?

Are training evaluations being conducted?

Is there a formal onboarding process in place for new employees? If so,

what does it entail?

Turnover

Are exit interviews conducted when an employee voluntarily resigns? If

so, what types of feedback have you received? What is the main reason
employees are leaving?

If involuntary terminations are occurring, what are the main reasons for
this? Does this occur in certain roles over others?

What do you think might be causing the increase in turnover?

What do you think would help to reduce the turnover?

Activity 2 Interview of Sr. Management [AMW]

(Mike Merrill, Bruce Bennett, Tsien Yun, Lucy Feldman)
Details of Activity/Method
Interviews will be conducted with members of the senior management team to
understand why they think a new training for telephone operators is important as
well as how it will contribute to the company goals and what success will look
like.

Questions to Ask
Why Training?

Why is this training important?

How will this training help the company reach their goals?

Current State

What are the business challenges you are facing that makes this training
important?

What is keeping telephone operators from having the level of success you
want them to have?

Future State

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If we are successful in designing this training, what will the telephone

operators be doing differently or better?

What specific behaviors do you want to observe in the participants after

the training?

What specific knowledge, skills, and attitudes do telephone operators need

to perform the behaviors identified?

Activity 3 Interviewing of Customer Service Supervisor [KS]

Details of Activity/Method
Due to the fact that there are several concerns about the customer service department at
PJ Enterprises; it is important to hear everyones side regarding the situation.

Questions to Ask

As Customer Service Supervisor, what are your job responsibilities?

During a shift are there any technical problems with the phone order
system? If so, how often do they occur?
If there is a technical problem is it easily fixed?
How long does it take to get a technical problem fixed?
Are the operators familiar with all of the capabilities of the phone order
system?
Describe what happens during a typical shift?
How many phone calls are received during each shift?
How long is the average call?
How many items are in the usual order?
How many complaints or problems are passed to you during a shift?
During what time of the time, which shift, experiences the most
complaints?
What are the top 3 complaints?
Do you believe that the complaints are warranted?
Why do you believe there are so many complaints?

Activity 4- Interviewing of Merchandise Manager and Catalog

Director [KS]
Details of Activity/Method
The merchandise manager and catalog director are in charge of all of the items that are
sold through PJ Enterprise. Due to the fact that this is basically the business; it is
important to figure out if any of the issues are directly related to the catalog or the
amount of merchandise that they contain; therefore interviews will be conducted to
clarify any concerns.

Questions to Ask

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How many products are contained in each catalog?

Are the same products found in all of the catalogs or are they unique to
one specific catalog?
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Are the items grouped in the catalogs in any specific order? (all jewelry
together, childrens toys)
How long are the descriptions for each of the products?
Are the operators allowed to have a hard copy of the catalog while they are
taking orders from customers?
Are the products themselves available for the operators to see?
Is the PowerPoint presentation available as a hard copy for the operators to
refer to as needed? Can it be accessed online?
Are the products in the catalogs given some type of numerical
identification for easy reference?
Are the pages of the catalogs color coded or ordered in specific way?
Are the pictures of the products individual or are they in a collage with
other products around them?

Activity 5 - Survey Telephone Operators [AO]

Details of Activity/Method
The survey designed for the telephone operators will be administered through the
online Survey Monkey tool. All the telephone operators will be required to participate
in the survey. In order to elicit appropriate information for determining the business
requirements for solving JP PJ Enterprises' business needs, survey items are focused on
staff's job satisfaction, professional development, additional training, and performance
incentives.

Questions to Ask
Kindly choose one option for each question in this section. Your response will be treated
anonymously and with utmost confidentiality.
1. How long have you been in your current role at PJ Enterprises?
1.
0-9 months
2.
9 months -2 years
3.
2-4 years
4.
More than 4 years
2. What is the average amount of time you spend on a call?
1.
0-3 minutes
2.
4-7 minutes
3.
8-10 minutes
4.
More than 10 minutes
3. When did you last receive training on the use of product catalog to assist customers?
1.
Less than 6 months ago
2.
6 months -1 year ago
3.
1-3 years ago
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4.
5.

More than 3 years ago

I have never received any training.

4. How would you rate your ability to assist customers with questions from the product catalog?
1.
Excellent
2.
Very Good
3.
Good
4.
Fair
5.
Poor
Please indicate your level of agreement with each of the statements below using the following: Strong
Agree, Agree, Neutral, Strong Disagree, Disagree.
5. I always see a clear link between your my performance as a telephone operator and the overall
success of JP Enterprises
6. I am given adequate feedback about my performance.
7. I am satisfied with the overall quality of service that I provide.
8. I have adequate opportunities for professional growth in this organization.
9. I received adequate orientation and training I need to do my job well.
10. My manager is actively interested in my professional development and advancement.
11. My work group consistently provides courteous service even when the client is unreasonable
12. Doing my job well gives me a sense of personal satisfaction.
13. I am paid fairly for the work I do.
14. My benefit package is commensurate with the quality of my efforts.
15. I have all the information I need to do my job effectively.
16. I am actively looking for a job outside this organization.
17. When a customer is dissatisfied, I can usually correct the problem to their satisfaction.
18. I respond quickly and courteously to fulfill customers needs
19. JP PJ Enterprises is flexible with respect to my family responsibilities
20. Overall, I am satisfied with my job.
Kindly provide your candid opinion to the following questions
What suggestions do you have for the improvement of JP
Enterprises?----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------What other issues not included in this survey need to be addressed in this
organization?--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------What would help you to be more productive and provide higher quality
service?------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Activity 6 Call Recording Analysis Telephone

Operators [CEU]
Details of Activity/Method
For each of the 25 Telephone Operators, we would pull a sample of calls to
review. While reviewing the calls, we will look for trends with each
individual Telephone Operator, and for the department as a whole. We will
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also examine the calls for any major reoccurring concerns coming from the
customers. The call analysis will also be key to identify if there are hours
that have higher call volumes, where there needs to be more staff. This
activity will act as a precursor to the Job Shadowing activity, and will allow
us to create specific questions based off of the call analysis.

Questions to Ask
What times have the highest and lowest call volume?
What are the top 3 concerns customers call in about?
What is the average time a Telephone Operator stays on a call?
What are common practices heard with each Telephone Operator?

Activity 7 - Job Shadow Telephone Operators [CEU]

Details of Activity/Method
Once the call recording analysis activity has been completed, and we have
identified trends within the Telephone Operator team, we will conduct two
job shadowing sessions. The first session will be with the day-time workers,
and the second will be with the evening workers. During our time of job
shadowing, we will sit with each Telephone Operator, for an amount of time
that will be determined based off of our findings about the average call
length determined in Activity 6. We will also analyze the work environment
as a whole to determine if any improvements can be made to decrease the
turnover rate.

Questions to Ask
What is the Telephone Operator work environment like?
What are the Telephone Operators' perceived attitudes towards their job?
What would you consider to be a successful call?

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Activity 8 Analysis of industry trade publications and

research [MP]
Details of Activity/Method
The business analyst will conduct a review of industry journals and business
publications for fields related to JP PJ Enterprises mail order catalog
business. We will be seeking information that will inform the instructional
design team on how the companys current performance in call center
performance compares with industry norms and industry leaders. Where JP
PJ industrys Enterprises performance differs significantly from the norm
(for better or for worse) further analysis will be conducted to what, if
anything, JP PJ Enterprises is doing differently from other mail order
catalog companies that could account for the discrepancy.

Questions to Ask
The stated efficiency of the phone system is 90%. Is this figure accurate, or
do users generally find a different efficiency level? How does the 85%
efficiency JP PJ Industries Enterprises gets compare to others experiences?
If it is different, how does JP Industries usage of the system differ from
other users.
What is the industry norm for number of calls a particular operator should
handle in an hour? How does this compare to PJ Enterprises JP Industries
rate of 3 calls/hour? If it is different, how do PJ Enterprises JP Industries
practices differ from other companies in the field?
How does PJ EnterprisesPJ Industries customer satisfaction data
(percentage of unsatisfied customers, categories of complaints, percentage
who indicate they would not shop with the company in the future) compare
to industry norms and industry leaders? If there are differences, how do PJ
Enterprises JP Industries practices differ from other companies in the
field?
How does the average order, total call volume, and offered customer
benefits compare to other companies in the field?
1. How does PJ Enterprises JP Industries incentive programs for
customer service and warehouse staff compare to other companies in the
field?
2. How does PJ EnterprisesJP Industries current training program for
telephone operators compare to other companies in the field?
3. What industry standards, if any, exist for telephone operator training?
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Roadblocks & Dependencies

[Potential roadblocks or dependencies that could impact the success of conducting
the gap analysis, not the entire project just the analysis; list roadblocks and
dependencies with mitigation strategies]
Roadblocks / Dependencies

Mitigation Strategies

HR not having the level of details

needed regarding the processes
discussed

The interviewer will send the list of

topics that will be discussed in
advance so the HR member has time
to prepare any details

Resistance of interviewees to
participate in the analysis interviews

The CEO of PJ Enterprises will send

out communication to interview
participants emphasizing the
importance of participating in the
analysis.

Some the questions for the

interviews require data acquired
during a shift, the interviewee may
not know the information.
Some of the telephone operators may
have or little or no knowledge about
how to use Survey Monkey. As such
they may either be intimidated or
frustrated by the survey process.
Moreover, some of the participants
may be scared of being victimized by
their supervisors or the management;
hence, they may not wish to provide
facts. .

The interviewer will send the

needed data to the interviewee prior
to the meeting.
The participants will be provided with
further instructions that explain into
detail about to participate in Survey
Monkey-driven questionnaire. Their
confidence will also be reinforced by
letting them know how confidential the
information they provide would be.
Furthermore, they will be informed
that only members of Team 2 will have
access to their responses, but that the
management of JP Enterprises would
have access to the results of the
analyzed data.
Participants would be told how the
data gathered would help to improve
their working conditions in term of
future training, and improved job
performance as telephone operators.

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For Job Shadowing, the calls may

be seasonal depending on when
catalogs go out, which may affect
the data we receive.

Take a larger call recording sample

to determine if call volume differs
based on seasonality or when the
catalogs are delivered.

For the business analysis, relevant

data might not be publicly shared by
other companies.

Look for academic research that has

been published that has comparable
data

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Roadblocks / Dependencies
For the business analysis,
commonly recognized industry
norms may not exist.

Mitigation Strategies
Gather data from several other
comparable companies and identify
general trends in the data.
Compare results to data from
recognized industry leaders such as
Zappos or Zulily.

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