A services company offers a range of software services for its customers. The company has a large number of service offerings and has been increasing the offerings with new versions every year. The customers typically face several issues after buying the service that needs a little bit of hand holding to iron out some issues.

The company has a wide network of franchisees, who are required to work with the customers in addressing these issues. It has a large sales & support staff to handle the customer complaints.

However, the customer satisfaction surveys have indicated that the customers are unhappy with the companys nature of services offered. In particular, they expressed that the services offered are out of sync with their expectations. In response to this situation the company did the following:

(a) It invested in modern technology that allows it to interface with the customer seamlessly.

(b) It mapped the typical process of franchisee dealing with the customer request for a standard process that normally requires 45 minutes to sort out, and found the following:

Sl. No.	Process Step Description	Average Elapsed Time	Process Owner
1	Customer calls the Centralized Complaint Management System (CCMS) Representative to register the Complaint	2 minutes	CCMS
2	The CCMS provides a tracking number to the customer after registering the complaint	1 minute	CCMS
3	The CCMS sends the request to Marketing Division for action on the complaint	5 minutes	CCMS
4	Marketing representative registers the complaint in their system for tracking and evaluation purposes	40 minutes	MKTG
5	The complaint is passed on to the area franchisee for action	10 minutes	MKTG
6	Franchisee calls the customer and schedules for an appointment	1 day	FRNC
7	The Franchisee attends to the customer complaint by providing the required assistance	60 minutes	FRNC
8	The Franchisee logs the details of the complaint addressed back to Marketing Office	30 minutes	MKTG
9	CCMS calls the customer after 1 hour to take feedback	62 minutes	CCMS
10	30% of the occasions the customer reports that the problem is not solved		CCMS
11	CCMS initiates another request with a new tracking number and goes through steps 2 to 9		CCMS

Despite all these efforts, both the top line (sales) and the bottom line (net margins) of the company has been shrinking over years. The company is now contemplating on the next steps to take in order to address the problem.

In view of these information, answer the questions below by selecting an appropriate option.

Question 1

There is a situation of productivity paradox in this example because____________.

The customers are simply not happy with the companys service offerings

The invested technology has not contributed to the increase in sales

The franchisee is not able to solve customer complaints in one go even when spending more time on customer complaints

Question 2

What is the lead time to work content ratio in this process for servicing a satisfied customer in the first call itself?

(Please round off your answer to two decimal points)

Question 3

What does the lead time to work content measure indicate about the customer complaint resolution process in the organization?

The organization needs to recruit more people to keep customers happy

The organization should handle fewer questions

The franchisee must develop a better process so that overheads and costs of servicing can come down

The waste in the process are low on account of better planning and interface of the franchisees with the customers

Question 4

How will you describe the investment in the new technology in the context of the problem?

It will bring down the lead time to work content ratio dramatically

The customers overall satisfaction about the company and its offerings will not go up significantly

It will not be able to remove any of the non-value added activities in the process

This is a good example to demonstrate how investments in technology can lead to better image and positioning of the company in the minds of the customers

Question 5

Which of the following activities may be counted as value adding for the process of addressing the customer complaints?

Marketing representative registers the complaint in their system for tracking and evaluation purposes

The CCMS sends the request to Marketing Division for action on the complaint

The Franchisee attends to the customer complaint by providing the required assistance

The Franchisee logs the details of the complaint addressed back to Marketing Office