YAKKATECH, INC. By Steven L. McShane, University of Newcastle (Australia) YakkaTech, Inc. is an information technology services firm to the department where the issue best applies. The query is employing 1,500 people throughout Washington and given a "ticket" number and assigned to the next available Oregon. Yakka Tech has a consulting division, which mainly employee in that department. Individual employees are installs and upgrades enterprise software systems and re solely responsible for the tickets assigned to them. The em- lated hardware on the client's site. Yakka Tech also has a ployee investigates and corrects the issue, and the ticket is customer service division that consists of four customer "closed" when the client agrees that the problem has been contact centers serving clients within each region. resolved. Each customer service center consists of a half-dozen If the client experiences the same problem again, even a departments representing functional specializations (com few days later, a new ticket is issued and sent whichever puter systems, intranet infrastructure, storage systems, en- employee is available to receive the ticket. A client's prob- terprise software systems, customer billing, etc.). These lems are almost always handled by different employees each centers typically have more than two dozen employees in time, even when the issue is sent to the same department. each department. When a client submits a problem to the Furthermore, when a customer center department is heavily backlogged, clients are redirected to the same department center using the online form, the message or call is directed at another regional center, where the problem can be ad- dressed more quickly. At one time, YakkaTech operated more than a dozen small customer contact centers throughout the region, be cause client problems had to be diagnosed and resolved on- site. Today, employees can investigate most software and hardware system faults from the center through remote monitoring systems, rather than personally visit the client. Consequently, eight years ago, YakkaTech amalgamated its customer service operations into four large regional centers. Customer service staff work entirely within the center. When a client visit is required, the ticket is transferred to an individual or team in the consulting business, who then visits the client. Yakka Tech's customer service business has nearly dou- bled over the past five years, but with this growth has come increasing customer complaints regarding poor quality ser- vice. Many say that employees seem indifferent to the cli- ent's problems. Others have commented on the slow response to their problems where the issue requires the in- volvement of more than one department. Several clients have also complained that they are continually educating YakkaTech's customer service employees about the details of their unique IT systems infrastructure.Another concern is that about 18 months ago, Yakka Tech's voluntary employee quit rates in the contact centers had risen above the industry average. This shift increased labor costs due to the cost of recruiting new technical staff and the lower productivity of new employees. According to results of an employee survey two years ago (as well as informal comments since then), many employees felt that their work is monotonous. Some also said that they felt disconnected from the consequences of their work. A few also complained about ongoing conflicts with people in other departments and the stress of serving dissatisfied In response, Yakka Tech's executive team decided to raise pay rates for its customer service staff to become among the highest in the industry around the Pacific Northwest. The assumption was that the high pay rates would improve mo- rale and reduce turnover, thereby reducing hiring costs and improving productivity. In addition, YakkaTech introduced a vested profit-sharing plan, in which employees received the profit-sharing bonus only if they remained with the company for two years after the bonus was awarded. Employees who quit or were fired for just cause before the vesting period forfeited the bonus. Employee turnover rates dropped dramatically, leading the executive team to conclude that customer service qual- ity and productivity would improve. Instead, customer complaints and productivity remain below expectations and, in some cases, have worsened. Experienced employ- ces continue to complain about the work. There have been a few disturbing incidents in which employees have been careless in solving client problems or did not bother to forward tickets that should have been assigned to another department. Employee referrals (where staff recommend friends to join the company) have become rare events, whereas at one time they represented a significant source of qualified job applicants. Furthermore, a few executives have recently overheard employees say that they would like to work elsewhere but can't afford to leave Yakka Tech.thereby reducing hiring costs and improving productivity. In addition, YakkaTech introduced a vested profit-sharing plan, in which employees received the profit-sharing bonus only if they remained with the company for two years after the bonus was awarded. Employees who quit or were fired for just cause before the vesting period forfeited the bonus. Employee turnover rates dropped dramatically, leading the executive team to conclude that customer service qual- ity and productivity would improve. Instead, customer complaints and productivity remain below expectations and, in some cases, have worsened. Experienced employ- ces continue to complain about the work. There have been a few disturbing incidents in which employees have been careless in solving client problems or did not bother to forward tickets that should have been assigned to another department. Employee referrals (where staff recommend friends to join the company) have become rare events, whereas at one time they represented a significant source of qualified job applicants. Furthermore, a few executives have recently overheard employees say that they would like to work elsewhere but can't afford to leave Yakka Tech.thereby reducing hiring costs and improving productivity. In addition, YakkaTech introduced a vested profit-sharing plan, in which employees received the profit-sharing bonus only if they remained with the company for two years after the bonus was awarded. Employees who quit or were fired for just cause before the vesting period forfeited the bonus. Employee turnover rates dropped dramatically, leading the executive team to conclude that customer service qual- ity and productivity would improve. Instead, customer complaints and productivity remain below expectations and, in some cases, have worsened. Experienced employ- ces continue to complain about the work. There have been a few disturbing incidents in which employees have been careless in solving client problems or did not bother to forward tickets that should have been assigned to another department. Employee referrals (where staff recommend friends to join the company) have become rare events, whereas at one time they represented a significant source of qualified job applicants. Furthermore, a few executives have recently overheard employees say that they would like to work elsewhere but can't afford to leave Yakka Tech.

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