• Title: Recreating a High Performing Customer Service Team at TechPro Solutions TechPro Solutions, a leading tech manufacturer of mobile device software, is located in a campus setting near Austin. The company is widely regarded as the world's best provider of mobile phone software used to drive multitasking on different social media apps. Think: Recording a Tik Tok dance while applying for a job on Linked In. The company has very high standards of performance and, accordingly, pays its employees above market compensation. All employees are expected to be high performers- it does not matter where they work- coding, sales, customer service or janitorial- average performance is not tolerated. The company has recently faced a surge in customer complaints about its latest software program updates. It is not uncommon to experience software bugs when new versions are released, and most issues are quickly and professionally handled by one of the top performing customer service teams in the industry. Each complaint is logged as a "ticket" and each of these is carefully tracked to ensure accurate and timely completion. The team is known for working the tickets quickly and getting the coders to fix bugs quickly, primarily due to their ability to function as a cohesive team focused on high performance and client delight. Recently, however, performance has declined as new team members have joined and as existing team members altered longstanding approaches to completing the assigned work. Ticket completion has been delayed, employee absences have been on the increase and tension among the team members has increased resulting in more time dealing with HR. The decrease in quality was significant enough to warrant a special review of the team by the CEO and Board of Directors. The Customer Service Division operates under the leadership of Mr. John Turner, a 20 employee of the company that started in the customer service department straight out of college. He has enjoyed the success of the team and the accolades and title promotions that resulted. Lately though he seems burned out- no longer stimulated by maintaining his high-performance team and has even offered to resign if senior leadership feels that is appropriate. Among the other team members, there are notable differences in experience and approach to work: 1. **Susan:** - Position: Team Lead - Age: 40 - Experience: 15 years in customer service - Susan is a seasoned team lead with a wealth of experience. However, her authoritative approach has led to strained relationships with some team members. -Weak delegation skills. Susan likes to keep regular work items on her own desk and sometimes- these could be handled by other team members but Susan likes to be "busy".2. **Chris:** - Position: Senior Customer Service Representative - Age: 28 - Experience: 5 years in customer service - Chris is a high-performing individual but tends to work independently, often neglecting collaboration with team members. This has resulted in a lack of knowledge sharing around developing issues that require help from other members of the team. - It is rumored that Chris has applied for a job at the new factory in town---- Tesla. 3. **Alex:** - Position: Customer Service Representative - Age: 32 - Experience: 8 years in customer service - Alex is known for being technically helpful on a broad range of issues but struggles presenting a professional demeanor when communicating with customers. This has led to delays in issue resolution and also has consumed Susan's time as she normally steps in to calm irritated clients. 4. **Natalie:** - Position: Junior Customer Service Representative - Age: 26 - Experience: 2 years in customer service - Natalie is the youngest team member and feels disregarded by her more experienced colleagues. This has affected her confidence and performance. She spends a great deal of time trying to build relationships with her teammates instead of focusing on clearing tickets, making the team fall further behind.5. **Michael:** - Position: Customer Service Trainee - Age: 23 - Experience: Entry-level - Michael is a recent addition to the team and feels overwhelmed by the existing dynamics. He lacks clarity on the customer service procedures and seeks guidance. Mostly Michael wonders if everything he heard about this being a high performing team was ever true. 6. **OPEN POSITION** - Experience Customer Service Representative - Internal or External candidates will be considered - Position has been open for 3 months Without admitting it to anyone, Mr. Turner recognized that the current state of the team is hindering its ability to address customer complaints effectively. He knows improvements such as fostering a collaborative environment, enhancing communication, and streamlining customer service processes to name a few, are all critical items. He seems frozen in place- not knowing what to do. Was the high performance in the past just a fluke? What was he doing to make the team performance deteriorate? He didn't have the answers. It was time to ask for help

• Current status of the company/team--- what's going on? This should be your own analysis and NOT simply a recap of the content in the case study.
• How do each of the team members and the team leader fit in? Evaluate each on a separate slide. The individual slides should have your own analysis- not a recap of provided team content. Each slide should also apply and discuss Lencioni's Five Dysfunctions to illustrate where the employee has gaps. What dysfunctions does each team member have?
• What recommendations do you make to bring the team back to high performance? Make slides for each recommendation. These need to be specific, detailed and be based on your analysis of the situation.
• What KPIs will you use to measure improvement and success? List and discuss each in detail.