Question:
Northwoods Backpackers is a mail-order operation specializing in outdoor camping and hiking equipment and clothing. In addition to its normal pool of telephone operators to take customer orders, the company has a group of customer service operators to respond to customer complaints and product-related inquiries. The time required for customer service operators to handle customer calls differs, based on an operator’s ability to think fast and quickly recall from memory product information (without using product description screens on the computer). The company wants to determine the standard time required for a customer service operator to complete a call without having to resort to a time study. Instead, management had a work sampling study of an operator conducted during an eight-hour workday that included 160 observations. The study showed the operator was talking to customers only 78% of the time, and call records indicated that the operator handled 120 customer calls during the day. The customer service manager has indicated that the particular operator that was studied performs at about 110% compared with a normal operator. Company policy allows 15% personal time on the job for lunch, breaks, and so on. Determine the standard time per customer call.