The Challenges of Bayside Call Centre

Bayside call centre is an upcoming business that was established recently and has grown rapidly over the last five years amidst numerous challenges. From the list of the problems faced by the company, two internal challenges are evident; that is inadequate infrastructure and specialisation of the staff in single clients. 

The problem of infrastructure arises since the company bought its machinery through second hand. These machines often break down, and the staff has forwarded this issue continuously to the management to fix. The mechanism such as the computers and seats play a significant role in the way the workers deliver their output. For instance, it limits motivation since one has to contend with the available infrastructure. Technology is always on the change, with newer, better and more efficient systems that are more interactive and have more human-friendly interfaces. The chairs too minimize comfort and result in a negative attitude toward the financial position of the company. The chairs are not portable; they are stationary; thus the employee is forced to maintain the same sitting posture all day long, which is a very tiring experience. In any business, for maximum profits, the employees must be motivated in the right way and charged with a profound exuberance towards their jobs. This way, they can effectively deal with any other issue that may come up within the company in the line of duty especially a case of dilemmas. The company, therefore, should invest in infrastructure; replace the machines as well as the chairs. Moreover, this ensures that the representatives of the company work in a friendly environment that is free of hazards. Finally, a system upgrade would promote data security of the company.

The company has experienced growth, and therefore raised the number of its employees. These employ, however, work with single clients each. One is made to know everything about just one client with whom they shall be operating. An employee from another area is therefore useless in another department or in dealing with another client. The original illustrations of such are during the times when one of the members is away on leave. The remaining member can help a situation that requires a deeper understanding of the case or scenario. This is inconveniencing to those employees whose leave, or reason for absence could be an official one; thus a member could be busy, hence unreachable. Such a situation impairs the working of the company and the charity that it interacts with. Therefore, there is a great need for the company to train their staff to be all round and hence capable of working anywhere within the organisation in spite of the possible high cost. Training improves the quality of services offered and thus the overall output as depicted in the rise of profit margins. This could equally boost the professional and ethical representation of the clients.

PART B

The company has upgraded their chain of command system from an open setup to a formal setup. This means therefore that the present means of communication should be an official one that displays a high level of professionalism. The best communication strategies for this involve official letters to all the relevant persons within the system that reaches out to all the target audience of the message. Equally, the letters can be in the form of a memo where each receives the copy of the word. The notes should be followed by meetings where general questions regarding the working of the newly proposed system changes are raised.

The assessment tool for the transitions is based on the quality of customer service delivery. This is founded on the notion that in an increase in the quality of the customer experience, there is an increase in the overall productivity and loyalty of the customer, hence, leading to more profits to the company. Furthermore, the concept is also tied to the ideology that a staff that is fully equipped both psychologically and physically concerning the proper infrastructure, is highly motivated hence advances the customer experience and quality of output per individual worker.

Establishing communication strategies is an important step, and it involves keeping all the stakeholders in the loop, defining the type of information to deliver, the recipient, format of communication, and time of releasing and distributing the information. An effective communication strategy outlines the message, the target audience, communication channels, resources, and feedback methods. The business ideas, investing in mobile banking and solar energy, are not new ideas in the market. However, the level of investment is low in Australia. The recipients of the message are organisational stakeholders such as the CEO, Senior Management, and Project Teams. The program manager will communicate the progress of the ideas through individual project updates, project status reports, and project executive summaries to ensure each stakeholder understand the development of each business idea.

PART C

After an evaluation of the systems and determining the applicability and relevance of the new transition, the implementation process begins. The ideas for improving the company require resources, primarily financial; thus it is necessary to calculate the overall expenses to be incurred during the shift. Several adjustments can be made to get the lowest price possible for the items and training without compromising quality.  A thorough analysis is therefore of utmost significance.

Additionally, there are other factors like time frames. For instance, the company should conduct a study on how long the training of the employees will take, as well as attempt exploring other hidden advantages that come with a staff that is whole rounded. In this manner, the transition is fully maximised. This analysis is essential during the decision-making process to determine the mode that best fits for the company. This is because, for long extensive pieces of training, the company suffers more losses due to the higher amount of resources required for more time.

Implementation Plan

ASSESSMENT TASK 3

Report

Executive summary

Bayside Call Center is a company that specializes in collecting donations for charity organizations from their clients or well-wishers. The company was established by the CEO about half a decade ago and has since grown to the present level with the current number of employees. The company, just like any other upcoming company, has to struggle with obstacles on its way to the top. Some of the challenges that the company face is can be divided into two primarily; which are inherent shortcomings and obvious limitations. The, however, focuses on the internal factors that limit the company from maximizing, since it is easier to deal with this set of problems first before embarking on the external issues that the company has very little control over (Pfeffer, 2005).

Some of these problems include the use of machines and equipment that the company had bought from another company that was shutting down. These pieces of equipment are not first hand. Furthermore, the pieces of equipment are not up to date with the present technological state. Equally, the majority of the workforce is young, with young families hence they often need some time away from work to be with their families. The workforce also is only specialized in handling single clients, which results in challenges when other members are not available, for instance in the event where there is a need for reference. Thus, to allow the company to progress without any internal inhibitors, these challenges need to be addressed. The company, therefore, should train its staff and upgrade its infrastructure.

Introduction

The report is based on the two innovative ideas. The report examines their relevance and applicability within the system. The advantages of the suggestions are exhaustively assessed, and the analysis suggests further probe into them, during the implementation process. Thus the comprehensive report attempts to credit the already mentioned proposal that Bayside call center should implement to better their progress as a company.

Analysis

Based on the challenges experienced by the company, I came up with innovative ideas that can fix some of these issues. The designs are founded on the shortcomings that require the attention of the management which will have a direct impact on the overall productivity of the company as well as improve efficiency. The ideas include upgrading the infrastructure of the organization and training of the staff to become all-rounded employees who can fit in any segment of the organization. The infrastructural upgrade is a complete transition that changes the entire outlook of the system from the machines to the other necessary infrastructure like comfortable chairs according to the preference of the staff.

The ideas stand to benefit the company enormously. For instance, with advanced technology, the company will help regarding better storage and protection of its information and that of clients; that is both the charity donor and the recipient organizations. Newer systems with the current technology will automate most of their operations, and as of such, the company may even disband the other idea of training since the information will be readily available to any member of the staff, for example, information about a particular client making inquiries.  The advancement in technology will solve other issues like the state of the majority of the employees who happen to be people in young families thus always needing extra time to attend to personal family business. The young staff can be covered by offering the remote working window, where one does not have to be present at the office to execute their duties. The upgrade of technology into the newer system makes the company stand out due to the competitive advantage achieved through better and more efficient up to date technology (Wagner & Hollenbeck, 2014). Moreover, with a new system, there will be a reduced gap in communication; that is both within the organization between staff and management and outside the organization between the employees and the clients. The overall productivity of the company is also multiplied.

Equally, the training of the staff to adapt to the new technology and adjusting their roles will enable them to fit in every section of the company. When this is achieved, the working conditions of the employees is improved since the rights of employees are taken into consideration, as well as promoting equity since every member shares the same skills. The shared skills create a sense of belonging thereby boosting the rate of productivity and minimized supervision of the staff (Sekaran & Bougie, 2016). Some other advantages surrounding training programs within an organization are that both parties benefit directly. The individuals undergoing the training get to grow, both regarding their skills and their other personal development in life. The training programs boost their career profiles, their confidence in both the company and themselves as well as build a broader sense of loyalty in the company. Commitment comes with better service delivery, hence greater customer satisfaction which leads to higher profits and therefore stability.

The ideas can be disseminated to the other employees through emailing letters to them or through a meeting chaired by the management. They can respond to the various emails or react to each of the ideas verbally during the sessions. Additionally, during the awards period can be used to pass the content of the innovative ideas for transition effect. The testing and evaluation of the concept can take place in varied forms. One of such forms includes sampling a small section of the employees and training them, and then rates them against the untrained employees then evaluating the outcomes.  The evaluation process of these employees is dependent on the set criteria, ability to blend in all the aspects of the organization, and being able to fit in all spheres. A similar method can be applied in testing the relevance of upgrading technology and infrastructure within the system. The results from either of the tests will determine the level of training or support to come up, one that will be of monumental impact on the system.

Conclusion

From the analysis of the challenges faced by the company, the proposed ideas can help solve some of the problems. When the company upgrades its systems and trains the employees, the results are enormously advantageous to the company. The transition process holds the key to the surge of the company’s profit margin. However, the company should be extremely cautious in the way in which it implements the transition phase. There is a need for a more insightful analysis of the ideas to determine a better way of applying them, to minimize the possible high expenses that the company will undergo in the implementation. The transitions should factor in the financial status of the company so that it does not run bankrupt after training its employees thereby closing down. For instance, the technological shift can be a slow process, where the machinery is bough one by one, in chronological order following level of importance and the available funds to work on it. Training can start from the top, the management before descending to the other employees in the organization

Reference

Pfeffer, J. (2005). Producing sustainable competitive advantage through the effective management of people. Academy of Management Perspectives, 19(4), 95-106.

Sekaran, U., & Bougie, R. (2016). Research methods for business: A skill building approach. John Wiley & Sons.

Wagner III, J. A., & Hollenbeck, J. R. (2014). Organizational behavior: Securing a competitive advantage. Routledge.