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Case preparation: The “chatty” accusation at the customer support call center.

Questions
1. What is Jennifer Ames trying to achieve? Is the team charter framed correctly?
Jennifer’s Goal: To ensure that all the team members are operating and collaborating
effectively; to ensure customers inquiries are answered within appropriate time, as many
customers are responded to as possible and new strategies are developed to increase
customers satisfaction.
Team Charter: Using Rustin Meyers metrics for a strong situation; clarity, consistency
constrained and consequences we would analyze the charter of Ames. There was a clear
definition of what the teams’ goal in dealing with customers was; adequate reply to
inquiries. There was lack of consistency in the team. The charter did not set out procedures
to be followed when dealing with customers. Employees relied on their personal skills and
as such the Americans tried to stick to time while the Latina operated on a personal level
with customers. There were no constraints on the employees’ behavior and as such they
were free to deal with customers at their own discretion. There was however a consequence
for exceeding average time of seven minutes (salary deduction). The charter had a rigid
structure that did not consider different individual behavior/ personalities and sensitivity to
context in dealing with customers’. So, although the charter was clear but was not well-
defined to structure the employees’ behavior.
The teams should have drawn a map assessing each other’s personality traits.
In this step, teams assess each member’s characteristics on the selected dimensions.
Teams can map their difference profiles on their own, for example as guided by the
Appendix, or tap the expertise of their human resource departments (Distefano, J. J., &
Maznevski, M. L., 2000).

2. As a consultant to Ames, how would you recommend that she address her (A) short-
term problems, B) long-term problems, and C) ability to be an effective leader of his
team?
Recommendations

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Short term problems: reducing time per customer call is a short-term problem. Based on
Table 1 in the case, we see that Sonia is the only employee exceeding the seven minutes
benchmark.
 One way of preventing this is to increase the penalties for exceeding seven minutes
by more than just $1 per minute. Although the total salaries of employees were not
disclosed, the $1 fine may be inconsequential in the grand scheme of things by
employees.
 All employees should be given training on effective customer services. Three
employees have average customers satisfaction ratings. This may imply that
customers are barley satisfied the service of the representatives. As stated in the
case, customers are more willing to patronize a company that they speak directly to
and not rely on third party support (training videos). For a company who has this
type of information, customers satisfaction with call support should be rated higher.
Sales representatives, who though deal with customers, do not automatically
qualify as customers support staffs, who are there to help customers and not just to
sell products. The tactics used to deal with customers need to be adjusted.
Long term problems: One of Ames long term problem would be ensuring collaboration
and effective integration among all the employees.
 Assimilation vs integration. To prevent conflict within the group there is a need for
adaptation, communication and patience on the part of all parties. Sonia needs to
learn to integrate and not assimilate (her distinct personality as made her a high rate
customer support staff) her “Chatty Latina” personality with the communication
style of the America organizational culture she works in. She needs to reduce or
eliminate (if possible) any form of personal conversation with the customers. The
American employees on the other hand, should learn to adapt to the difference in
style of communication and help in ensuring effective communication. They can
do this by possibly having ways to raise a signal to each other when someone is
getting off topic or service requirement. If possible a guideline of answers to
possible customer inquiries scenarios should be developed, taking into
consideration the cultural norms of the customers.

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 Individual Vs. Collective. Employees are currently being rewarded individually; by
commission, but punished collectively. One way to prevent conflict among
employees going forward, is to change the policy of punishing the group for the
failure of some; in this case Sonia. What this approach does is create resentment.
Although the aim was to ensure collaborate effort, salaries should be docked
individually and not as collectively. Alternatively, average minutes per customer
can also be increased. Subsequently, other modes of encouraging collaborative
efforts such as providing each other with feedback of performance can be worked
out. The use of stereotypes within employees should also be avoided (E.g. Chatty
Latina).

Effectively lead the team:


 Greater emphasis should be placed on the call centers contribution to organizational
goal. Employees should understand the organizations reward system to individual
department’s participation. Encourage the development of superordinate goal and
capitalize diversity amongst team members.
 The collaborative effort to conflict negotiation should be taken and not
compromised. Jennifer should ensure integrative solutions that take into
consideration the complaints of all sides. This would prevent conflicts in the long
run but may take time to implement in the short term. Gain commitment of all
parties to team goal, as it develops new levels of understanding and improves
quality of solution.
 Train employees to be interculturally competent. Being a call center that provides
support to Latinas, there is always going to be a form of cultural diversity on the
team. Employees should possess behavioral flexibility, interpersonal sensitivity,
personal self-awareness and tolerance of differences.

3. Based on the readings “Creating value with diverse teams in global management”
discuss Ames performance as a team leader.

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Jennifer during the planning stage of the call center failed to map the differences between
the Latin American and the American culture. The models she used as a basis for
developing hers, were based on American communication culture. The estimates
developed was for a closed structure communication style that does not fit the Latin
American culture. On the flip side, she considered a lot of factors; customers forecast, sales
team estimate and different customer scenarios in developing the customer support model.
Subsequently, there is an assumption that she did not communicate this difference in
communication style to the team members. No effort to integrate the group as one was
made, instead there was a continuous deduction of salaries. She only listened to complaints
and made no efforts to resolve the disagreements that ensued.
Ames should have helped build a bridge between all the team members by decentering. To
decenter, members of the team take what they know about each other’s differences from
mapping and apply it to adapt their own behavior and thinking. They change their
conversation style and adapt their interaction behaviors according to the culture of the
people they’re working with (Distefano, J. J., & Maznevski, M. L., 2000).

References
Distefano, J. J., & Maznevski, M. L. (2000). Creating value with diverse teams in global
management. Organizational Dynamics, 29(1), 45-63. doi:10.1016/s0090-2616(00)00012-
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