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L Case on Drainflow company F P e th to vi th fo The Scenario DrainFlow is a large residential and commercial plumb- ing maintenance firm that operates around the United States. It has been a major player in residential plumb- ing for decades, and its familiar rhyming motto, "When Your Drain Won't Go, Call DrainFlow," has been plas- tered on billboards since the 1960s. Lee Reynaldo has been a regional manager at Drain- Flow for about 2 years. She used to work for a newer competing chain, Lightning Plumber, that has been drawing more and more customers from DrainFlow. Al- though her job at Drain Flow pays more, Reynaldo isn't happy with the way things are going. She's noticed the work environment just isn't as vital or energetic as the environment she saw at Lightning. Reynaldo thinks the problem is that employees aren't motivated to provide the type of customer service Light- ning Plumber employees offer. She recently sent surveys to customers to collect information about performance, and the data confirmed her fears. Although 60 percent of respondents said they were satisfied with their expe- rience and would use DrainFlow again. 10 percent felt their experience was not good, and 30 percent said they T . RE Ac CO we pr dic the wh would use a competitor the next time they had a plumb ing problem. Reynaldo is wondering whether DrainFlow's job design might be contributing to its problems in re taining customers. DrainFlow has about 2,000 employ ees in four basic job categories: plumbers, plumber's assistants, order processors, and billing representa- tives. This structure is designed to keep costs as low as possible. Plumbers make very high wages, whereas plumber's assistants make about one-quarter of what a licensed plumber makes. Using plumber's assistants is therefore a very cost-effective strategy that has enabled DrainFlow to easily undercut the competition when it comes to price. Order processors make even less than am assistants but about the same as billing processors. All work is very specialized, but employees are often de- pendent on another job category to perform at their most efficient level. Like most plumbing companies, DrainFlow gets business mostly from the Yellow Pages and the Inter- net. Customers either call in to describe a plumbing problem or submit an online request for plumbing services, receiving a return call with information within 24 hours. In either case, Drain Flow's order processors listen to the customer's description of the problem to determine whether a plumber or a plumb- er's assistant should make the service call. The job is then assigned accordingly, and a service provider goes to the location. When the job has been completed, via cell phone a billing representative relays the fee to the service rep. who presents a bill to the customer for payment. Billing representatives can take customers credit card payments by phone or e-mail an invoice for online payment. The Problem Although specialization does cut costs significantly, Reynaldo is worried about customer dissatisfaction. According to her survey, about 25 percent of customer contacts ended in no service call because customers were confused by the diagnostic questions the order processors asked and because the order processors did not have sufficient knowledge or skill to explain the situation. That means fully one in four people who call DrainFlow to hire a plumber are worse than dissatisfied: they aren't customers at alll The remaining 75 percent of calls that did end in a customer service encounter resulted in other problems. The most frequent complaints Reynaldo found in the customer surveys were about response time and cost, especially when the wrong person was sent to a job. A plumber's assistant cannot complete a more techni- cally complicated job. The appointment has to be re- scheduled, and the customer's time and the staff's time have been wasted. The resulting delay often caused customers in these situations to decline further con- tact with DrainFlow-many of them decided to go with Lightning Plumber. "When I arrive at a job I can't take care of," says plumber's assistant Jim Larson, "the customer gets ticked off. They thought they were getting a licensed plumber, since they were calling for a plumber. Telling them they have to have someone else come out doesn't go over well." On the other hand, when a plumber responds to a job easily handled by a plumber's assistant, the cus- tomer is still charged at the plumber's higher pay rate. Licensed plumber Luis Berger also does not like being in the position of giving customers bad news. "If I get called out to do something like snake a drain, the cus- tomer isn't expecting a hefty bill. I'm caught between a rock and a hard place I don't set the rates or make appointments, but I'm the one who gets it from the customer." Plumbers also resent being sent to do such simple work the tomer isn't expecting a hefty bill. I'm caught between a rock and a hard place I don't set the rates or make the appointments, but I'm the one who gets it from the customer." Plumbers also resent being sent to do such simple work. Susie McCarty is one of DrainFlow's order proces- sors. She's frustrated too when the wrong person is sent to a job but feels she and the other order proces- sors are doing the best they can. We have a survey we're supposed to follow with the calls to find out what the problem is and who needs to take the job, she explains. "The customers don't know that we have a standard form, so they think we can answer all their Drai PI questions. Most of us don't know any more about plumbing than the caller. If they don't use the terms on the survey, we don't understand what they're talk- ing about. A plumber would, but we're not plumbers; we just take the calls." Customer service issues also involve the billing rep- resentatives. They are the ones who have to keep con- tacting customers about payment. "It's not my fault the wrong guy was sent," says Elizabeth Monty. "If two guys went out, that's two trips. If a plumber did the work, you pay plumber rates. Some of these customers don't get that I didn't take their first call, and so I get yelled at." The billing representatives also complain that they see only the tail end of the process, so they don't know what the original call entailed. The job is fairly impersonal, and much of the work is recording customer complaints. Remember-40 percent of cus- tomers aren't satisfied, and it's the billing representa tives who take the brunt of their negative reactions on the phone. As you can probably tell, all employees have to engage in emotional labor, as described in this text- book, and many lack the skills or personality traits to complete the customer interaction component of their jobs. They aren't trained to provide customer service, and they see their work mostly in technical. or mechanical, terms. Quite a few are actually anxious about speaking directly with customers. The office Staff As you can probably tell, all employees have to engage in emotional labor, as described in this text- book, and many lack the skills or personality traits to complete the customer interaction component of their jobs. They aren't trained to provide customer service, and they see their work mostly in technical, or mechanical, terms. Quite a few are actually anxious about speaking directly with customers. The office staff (order processors and billing representatives) realize customer service is part of their job, but they also find dealing with negative feedback from custom- ers and coworkers taxing. A couple of years ago a management consulting company was hired to survey Drain Flow worker auti- tudes. The results showed they were less satisfied than workers in other comparable jobs. The following table provides a breakdown of respondent satisfaction levels across a number of categories: DrainFlow Plumber Assistants 2.5 DrainFlow Plumbers 8.7 DrainFlow Office Workers 2.5 Average Office Workers Average Plumber 4.8 8.5 2.1 8.8 3.7 4.2 4.1 I am satisfied with the work I am asked to do. I am satisfied with my working conditions. I am satisfied with my interactions with coworkers. I am satisfied with my interactions with my supervisor 3,5 8.2 2.7 3.8 3.9 2.5 29 2.2 3.5 The information about average plumbers and aver- age office workers is taken from the management con- sulting company's records of other companies. They aren't exactly surprising, given some of the complaints DrainFlow employees have made. Top management is worried about these results, but they haven't been able to formulate a solution. The traditional DrainFlow cul- ture has been focused on cost containment, and the "soft stuff" like employee satisfaction hasn't been a major issue. Q3) What types of hiring recommendations would you make to find people better suited for these jobs? Which Big Five Personality traits (two) would be useful for the customer service responsibilities & Why