SIX SIGMA DMAIC Approach to increase the number of Daily

customer visits, to increase the portfolio visit coverage ratio and

thereby to increase customer satisfaction.
(Dated: 01.12.2012) by Tawhid Reaz

Define:
Project Charter
Title:

To Apply Six Sigma DMAIC methodology to improve Account Managers Number of Client

Visits/Day and thereby to improve Portfolio visit Coverage model.

Business Gap: Account Managers are not maintaining the visit matrix; thereby it has been assumed
that they are not giving regular 4 visits per day (as per business model). As a result most of the
customers are not being visited as defined or directed in visit matrix and thereby clients are being
dissatisfied.
Client Visits are directly related with the business opportunity creation and better customer service
provision. Account Managers supposed to give 4 Visits per day, to make sure at list 70 visits per month
and thereby to ensure better portfolio coverage which is directly related to Customer Satisfaction,
retention and sales (new/up) opportunity creation.

Customer:
External- B2B Clients of Company $ inc.
Internal- Supervisors and Account managers of Company $ inc.

Defects & Metrics:

Defects:

Less Visit / Day

Ineffective Utilization of Visit Matrix.
Customers are not being visited as they are supposed to be visited as defined in visit
coverage model.

Secondary: - CEX Index of B2B Segment.

Problem Statement:

No. of Visit/ AM/ Day is less than 3, most of the clients are not being visited

in a month and clients are not being visited priority wise.

Objective Statement:

Proper utilization of visit matrix and to maintain at least 4Visit/ day or

70Visit/ month.

Milestone/ Timeline:

Define Tollgate Review

Measure Tollgate Review
Analyze Tollgate Review
Improve Tollgate Review
Control Tollgate Review

Project Scope/ Boundaries:

In Scope:- To Find out the root cause of why the numbers of visits/per day is less than
required and give recommendations how it can be increased.
Out Of Scope:- To reduce inter departmental problems is completely out of the scope of
this research.
Reference Company Name: $ inc. (Changed for valid reasons).

VOC (Voice of Customer): Since some of the customers have not seen account managers for
long i.e. for few months they are not satisfied with $ inc. services and some of them silently
switched to other operator. Most of the customers want the AMs to be present whenever they
requested for availing any service or products.

VOC (Voice of Business): B2B Revenue and KPI of $ inc. directly depend on the retention
of existing clients, to ensure the revenue increase from the existing portfolio and to get
new clients and to hunt for new businesses and opportunities. All these things are not
possible without direct interaction with clients i.e. client visit.

Some important Notes:

Portfolio:
B2B of $ inc. has 6000+ clients have been distributed among 80 Account/Key Account
Managers. Mostly 300 Clients have been distributed among 22 Key Account managers. Other
almost 6000 Clients are allocated among 58 Account Managers. So, most of them have portfolio
of 100+ clients on an average.

Visit Coverage Model: As per the business model of B2B of $ inc., Apart from 251 Key Accounts
and Strategic Clients other 6000+ clients have been categorized (Last updated on 2010-2011)
into four Different Client categories for B2B Account Managers.
1.
2.
3.
4.

Large
High Medium
Medium
Small/Soho

Now as per the coverage model, to ensure better customer experience and to retain these
clients in our portfolio, Large Clients need to be visited at least once in every two weeks. While
High Medium clients need to be visited thrice in two month. On the other hand, Medium clients
need to be visited once in a month.

Number of Visits:
Since most of the account managers have 100+ corporate accounts in their portfolio, it has
been observed that some of the clients never been visited in last few months. To make sure all
the clients are being visited as per the business coverage model, number of daily visits should
primarily fixed as at least 3/day. But since numbers of corporate accounts per AM has been
increased at least 70 visits per month has to be ensured for proper portfolio management.

SIPOC:
Input:-

Process:-

Vehicles

Visit

Portfolio

Visit Matrix

Supplier:

Visit Plan

Proper Visit Plan

Account
Manager

Vehicle
Utilization
Schedule

Output: -

Timely
Allocation Of
Vehicle

4 Visits/ Day.

Emergency Client
Call

Vehicle
Utilization
Schedule

Delivery

Customer: B2B
Cuctomers

Measure:
As is process

Random Visit
Emergency Call
Service Requirement
Sudden Visit
Portfolio Visit
Priority wide Visit
Reactive Visit

Current Performance Analysis:

Criteria
No. of Visits in a Week
No. of Visits/Day
Sales Visit
Service Visit
Planned Visit
Unplanned Visit
Coverage in 3 Months
Avg. Coverage in 1 Month
Visited in July by one AM
Coverage in July by one AM
Long term Sigma Level in No of Visits

Qty/Percentage
12
2.4
25%
75%
15%
85%
60%
22%
2.6
40%

Improvement Requirement
Yes
Yes
Out of Scope
Out of Scope
Yes

1.9307

Yes

1.2467

Yes

Yes
Yes
Yes
OK

Considering 75 Visits per month/AM

Opportunities for defects

Defects

1350
450

Long term Sigma Level in Coverage Model

Considering Total Client Base of Business market

Considered Two Months Time

Opportunities for defects
Defects

600
360

Analyze:

Sl.
No.

Basic Reason

Detail Reason

Freq.

Impact
on Visit

Impact on
Business

80

252

320

Total

Account Manager's Unwillingness

Account Manager's Unwillingness

Account Manager's Unwillingness

Tired of Monotonous Job.

Dont have passion for Sales/Account
Management.
Not fully comfortable with regular visits and
meeting with clients.

Account Manager's Unwillingness

De motivated on Job.

162

Account Manager's Unwillingness

Afraid to handle difficult customers.

80

Account Manager's Unwillingness

56

Account Manager's Unwillingness

Not aware of all the technical details.

Sometimes to teach the contact person
regarding the importance of AM.

0.5

4.5

Account Manager's Unwillingness

Perception of less Gain while giving more effort.

315

Account Manager's Unwillingness

42

10

Account Manager's Unwillingness

Local AMs try to avoid known/relative clients.

Sometime deliberate avoidance of visit since the
system is not working properly.

18

11

Account Manager's Unwillingness

Bog Down with Service/Back Office
Work
Bog Down with Service/Back Office
Work
Bog Down with Service/Back Office
Work
Bog Down with Service/Back Office
Work
Bog Down with Service/Back Office
Work
Bog Down with Service/Back Office
Work
Bog Down with Service/Back Office
Work

Feeling Sick/Tired/mentally disturbed

168

Paper related work.

280

Reporting and other Ad hoc Works

210

Software and system inputs

150

All the Service inputs

150

Service though phone.

All the mail correspondents with clients and
other units

100

150

Correspondents with other units through phone.

Non Value added works (To visit clients to
provide subscription papers/sim replacement
forms).
Preparations of sales order/paper
submission/scanning etc.

63

280

280

New Payment Policy

168

New Product Lifting/move order/transfer policy

84

Stock Closing

42

12
13
14
15
16
17
18

22

Bog Down with Service/Back Office

Work
Bog Down with Service/Back Office
Work
Bog Down with Service/Back Office
Work
Bog Down with Service/Back Office
Work

23

Bog Down with Service/Back Office

19
20
21

Work
24

Inefficient Utilization of Vehicles

Late Submission of Vehicle Requisition

432

25

Inefficient Utilization of Vehicles

Improper synchronization of Visit Plan

384

26

Inefficient Utilization of Vehicles

Drop related problem of Vehicles

378

27

Inefficient Utilization of Vehicles

Schedule to come back to office for lunch.

245

28

Inefficient Utilization of Vehicles

Dependency on other AMs Visit.

240

29

Improper Planning of Visits

Visits are not preplanned

392

30

Improper Planning of Visits

252

31

Improper Planning of Visits

Emergency Visits (Service/Delivery)

Visits are not synchronized with other account
managers visit plan

252

32

Improper Planning of Visits

210

33

Problem With Clients End

Meeting Synchronization problem

Clients are not maintaining exact meeting
schedule

175

34

Waiting time for a single client is high

160

288

120

37

Distance of Visit

189

38

Distance of Visit

Improper Area Demarkation/Portfolio Allocation

Too many clients to handle by a single AM which
loses the the focus
Sometimes Distances are the barrier to increase
number of visits
Some of the clients locations are so distant that
frequent visit is not possible.

36

Problem With Clients End

Improper Area Demarcation/Portfolio
Allocation
Improper Area Demarcation/Portfolio
Allocation

189

39

Disturbances

Traffic Jam

200

40

Disturbances

Weather/Climate Related disturbances

0.5

31.5

41

Disturbances

126

42

Disturbances

Political Disturbances
Employee movements in Business locations (Like
EPZ, BSCIC etc.)

63

43

Others

To Involve into Personal Work

56

44

Others

Problem with Transport

224

45

Others

Meeting in Office/Head Office/other units

63

46

Others

Restriction on stock lifting

0.5

32

47

Others

Drivers lunch + Prayer +... time.

224

35

Reason Vs Total Business Impact

450
400
350
300
250
200
150
100
50
0

Frequency of Occurance
Problem With
Clients End
5%

Account Manager's
Unwillingness
15%

Others
5%

Inefficient
Utilization of
Vehicles
21%

Bog Down with

Service/Back Office
Work
27%

Improper Planning
of Visits
15%

Improper Area
Demarkation/Portf
olio Allocation Disturbances Distance of Visit
3%
4%
5%
Problem With
Clients End
4%

Total Impact on Business

Others
7%
Inefficient
Utilization of
Vehicles
20%
Imprope
r
Planning
of Visits
Improper
Area
13%
Demarkation/Portf
olio Allocation
5%

Account
Manager's
Unwillingness
18%
Bog Down with
Service/Back
Office Work
23%

Disturbances Distance of Visit

5%
5%

Fish Bone Analysis:

Improve:
Recommendations:
Pre Visit Planning:
1. Visit Plan should be made in the previous day and should be synchronized with the other AM
with whom the next day visit schedule is there.
2. If any sudden visit is required, visit plan should be synchronized accordingly along with the
relevant account manager.
3. Visit plan should be synchronized time wise and location based. This will decrease the area wise
vehicle allocation problem and unnecessary vehicle movement.

Area Wise Portfolio demarcation:

In Chittagong (where this pilot took place), most of the accounts and organizations are
concentrated on Agrabad and EPZ area, to maintain the portfolio balance area wise
demarcation did not implemented. But from next year, we can introduce area wise portfolio
alignments though not full-fledged. But for the new leads we can introduce area wise
allocation.

Vehicle Management:
1. Vehicles should also be allocated area wise, where Account Managers will be availing area wise
assigned vehicles whenever required. But preplanning and synchronization should be made in
the previous day evening.
2. Already Vehicles users schedules are being circulated and they are maintaining the daily routine
of vehicle utilization.
3. It has been observed that, most of the users are giving requisition on every morning. And
because of that, everyday one or two hours time wastes happen. If the vehicle requisition is
submitted previous day the time wastage will be reduced.
4. No one should come back to lunch from visit just for the sake of having lunch in office, unless
and otherwise it is required for office works and next visit. For the hygiene and health purpose
they can carry their lunch.
5. Drivers can also carry their lunch with them. It has been observed that, some of the drivers also
come back to office to have their lunch. To come back to office to have lunch means wastage of
one to two hours time a day.
6. Most of the cars are assigned for employee Drop service, but to align with that drop service
vehicles do have to come back one hour early, which hampers daily visit schedule. We should
have a coordination meeting with local Human Resource Department. Which is already done,

few mitigation has been observed but still we can request for those cars which are not assigned
for Drop service. After 5 PM most of the visits are emergency visits. Those vehicles which are not
assigned for Drop can be used with proper synchronization.
Account Managers Willingness:
1. Reward system should be there for daily numbers of visit and effective coverage of Portfolio. In
Monthly PMP tasks can be allocated for this purpose.
2. If the unnecessary and non value added tasks are taken away from the responsibility of the
account managers.
3. We are trying to decrease the paper related works from the shoulder of AM. Already Interns,
third party agents are trying to assist them.
4. We need to align our customers regarding service availability from 121, STP, GPC and GPCF. We
have to be aware of the SLAs with those touch points.

Criteria
No. of Visits in a Week
No. of Visits/Day
Sales Visit
Service Visit
Planned Visit
Unplanned Visit
Coverage in 3 Months
Avg. Coverage in 1 Month
Visited in July by one AM
Coverage in July by one AM
Long term Sigma Level in No of Visits
Considering 75 Visits per month/AM as Expected
Considered Three Months Time

Opportunities for defects

Defects

Qty/
Percentage
12
2.4
25%
75%
15%
85%
60%
22%
2.6
40%

Improvement
Requirement
Yes
Yes
Out of Scope
Out of Scope
Yes

1.9307

Yes

1.2467

Yes

Yes
Yes
Yes
OK

1350
450

Long term Sigma Level in Coverage Model

Considering Total Client Base of Business market

Considered Two Months Time

Opportunities for defects
Defects

600
360

After
Improvement

Control
Monitoring and Control:
Tools for Visit and Portfolio Coverage Model:

Already a visit matrix sheet as been developed, the effective utilization of this model will ensure
the exact calculation of number of visits account mangers gives daily and the ration of coverage
they use to cover within their portfolio.

SMS Based/Mobile Application Based visit reporting systems can be developed, where Account
Managers can easily give visit inputs which will be automatically loaded in the CRM application.

Monitoring and Control:

If Account Managers are unable or not interested to submit regular visit inputs then their
supervisors can submit inputs regularly.
Since in Monthly PMP the tasks will be allocated, whether account managers are maintaining
portfolio coverage model effectively or not, his/ her supervisor will seat with him in the
dialogue session.