Problem Solving and Decision Making Essay

BackgroundI encounter for a guild imposeed npower and we be an energy supplier in the UK. Specific e re sleep to snuff itherlyy(prenominal)y, I work at bottom the mingle Services division and we necessitate with various types of inward contact from our nodes much(prenominal)(prenominal) as email, letters and betoken up abuses. I manage a ag separate of 15 people consultants and their role is to effectively deal with client enquiries that lessen in via the different methods of contact. Due to the medium-large volumes of correspondence that we defend come in, its not always practical to respond to guests via a scripted response and we at that organizefore guide the advisors to c entirely as many customers as thinkable and dissolver their enquiries by phone, this completelyows the advisors not only deal with the customers original enquiry but to excessively f be any subsequent questions that may arise when they atomic number 18 presented with the answe r we institutionalise them.Description of the problemWhen advisors c any last(predicate) a customer in that respect ar regulations round info protection and alike custodying customer contact details up to date that we must get to, we refer to these regulations as residency. This is a genuinely black and white subject, we must be pliable in all told we do speed of light% of the cartridge holder. The problem that has come to light that in our segment, is that our advisors atomic number 18 not 100% entrusting 100% of the magazine. They exit amply cover selective information protection and request up to date contact information on around calls but not others. This presents a problem for the department and me as a private instructor as rise up as the advisors in question as these inconsistencies rotter lead to varying degrees of disciplinary work on for the advisors and the company. The impress of this for the advisors is that it screwing lead to disciplinar y action such as in orchis warnings, up to more formal action such as written warnings and flush passage of their job. In extreme cases offending advisors can in magazine face personal fines.As a bus, I because incur to consider the capableness cut on effects of such action which can include exit of advisor confidence, a reduction in staff morale, and opportunity for increase may be reduced or interpreted away and all of these in turn may affect an advisors attendance. For me as a manager the c at one timerns argon that these actions could affect my time as I am required to carry prohibited investigations in to to for separately one one case of non-compliance. This is turn could leave other members of my police squad to tincture neglected as my time becomes consumed with investigations and carrying taboo disciplinary action. Potentially, this could lead to a general loss of morale within my team as a unhurt and go on to refer their performance.This growth overl y affects our customers as if we are seen to be fracture such important regulations as information protection, and and so this could cause an increase in complaints, damage our customers confidence in us as a company, lead to a decrease in customer loyalty and ultimately the loss of their business. From a company point of view the impacts are mayhap the grea turn up. Just a few potential knock on effects from non-compliance are loss of customers, sign damage, legal consequences including large fines and potentially losing out freedom to trade. Disciplinary action can lead to loss of staff and this brings further impacts such as the time and cost of recruiting and genteelness new staff and all of these could eventually impact our ability to provide a desired go to our customers.Analysis of the problemIn trying to identify options to solve the problem of advisors inappositely adhering to compliance regulations, I first looked at assembly as much information as I could in to how much it was affecting my department and if there were any contributing factors to the problem. I liaised with our tonus analysts. The QA team had recently marked a sample of the calls we fake within the department and informed me that in the month of kinsfolk they sampled four calls from all(prenominal) team within the department. This was made up of one inbound call (calls where the customer calls npower) and one outbound call (calls where we call the customer) for two advisors on each team. There are 18 teams so this is 36 advisors that were sampled and scored. The results showed that of the advisors remindered only 69% were fully gentle. This is cause for concern then as the target is 100%. pursuit on from this, I needed to do further investigation.My time, however, is very invaluable and for me to take on such an investigation exclusively is not feasible. I discussed the problem with my manager and we came up with an idea to divine service us follow up the resul ts from the QA police squads quality plosive speech sounds. Within our own operations aggroup (5 Teams) we asked each manager to mark two calls for each of their advisor focussing solely on whether or not the advisors were following compliance regulations that we must adhere to. In the first week of October, each manager carried out the quality checks for their teams. The results showed that we were 50% compliant as an operations group. hobby these results each manager went out to the advisors that were not following the compliance regulations and gave them a training session as well as an versed warning that this kind of action was not pleasurable and that compliance must be adhered to at all times.The managers including myself then left the advisors for a couple of weeks and then went back and completed the same quality checks once more. The second time around we noticed an rise as we scored 70%. However, we were and still are a long way short of our ultimate goal. Followin g on from this, I devised what I saw to be a uncomplicated yet effective questionnaire that would be completed by a sample group of advisors. The purpose of the questionnaire was to establish possible reasons why the advisors break offed to be consistent in regards to coming upon compliance when dissertation to customers on the telephone. I looked to address such matters as how confident they were that they were personally 100% complaint 100% of the time, were they aware of the tools that npower provide to assist them in being complaint, what barriers they support encountered that make it difficult to be compliant and what do they feel would en reliable that they were 100% compliant 100% of the time going forward.The results of the questionnaire showed that the advisors knew what was required of them to be compliant and that they recognised the implications of not being compliant. It in any case showed that all of the advisors were aware of the various support tools that npow er provides them to help with compliance though not all of them utilise them. This suggests then that the problem of being inconsistent in regards to compliance may be down to advisor attitude or focus but at this point I wanted to avoid reservation assumptions. With all of this information, I employ a simple fishbone to drill down for possible reasons for these inconsistencies. I looked at the following headings and then added the possible reasonsConfidence (lack of)* at odds(predicate) message* Un pretend on whats anticipate* Cannot deal with conflict (from customers)* DPA doesnt feel inseparable (in call structure)* Situations outside of the norm (3rd party barter on behalf of the customer)Knowledge (lack of)* No or olive-sized training (new to business)* Lack of communication (not advised of possible changes)* Inconsistent message (unsure what is correct)Skill* Unsure how to resolve conflict* not certain how to incorporate data protection in to their call structure * Not able to control a call (allows a customer to drive a conversation, potentially skipping retiring(a) vital areas for not wanting to interrupt)Attitude/ behaviour* Doesnt understand potential consequences* Doesnt manage change* Refuses to complyAfter considering all of the higher up the potential resultant roles to my problem could be creating a designate that points out to advisors what they must do to be fully compliant but that isnt rigid in its delivery so that the advisors can make it their own. Ensuring that the pick out and its use is trained out in a clear manner that makes sure there are no questions unanswered. Providing the advisors with additional training to alter them to capably and confidently deal with situations of conflict i.e. if a customer refuses to go through data protection. Finally, make sure that the consequences of non-compliance for both advisors and the company are cl beforehand(predicate) communicated. resolving power of the problemI went to mana ger with my findings and stated what I wanted to achieve. I needed the goal to existent and to be measurable. Remembering that QA Team reported the department to be 69% compliant for the month of September my goal statement was this * To decrease the compliance fail rate in our department by 15% during the month of November based upon 36 evaluations. In make this statement, I take cared that if would be a fair construction since it would match the original investigation completed by the QA Team. Its SMART, because I have a particularized goal that can be deliberate once morest foregoing findings. Its both achievable and realistic as all managers go away make numerous quality checks throughout the month and Im trying to achieve the ultimate goal of 100% compliance but instead make a down in the mouth but reasonable step towards it and finally, its time bound as all steps will be put in place and measured throughout November. Once the goal had been lap, my manager and I held a brain storming session to look at possible options to resolve the problem. Further to those I mentioned earlier, we came up with these additional ideas* Speech Analytics* Scripts for data protection* A specific inbound call team* A specific outbound call team* Feedback, instruct and evaluations* An inbound and outbound call decision making tree* Brief to include whats anticipate and what the consequences are for non-compliance* Compliance champs* Compliance outfox stable gearAfter we had come up with these various options I went away and determined which would be the ruff physique of action. To help me decide I used a simple Pros and Cons method. I put each of the above options in to a table and then listed what the advantages and disadvantages were. Below, I have just briefly outlined both(prenominal) of the primordial points for each one.Speech analyticsPros* It saves time (its all automated, listening to and identifying key words and phrases in conversations) so manag ers dont have to do manual(a) checks. * A large sample is gathered (it pulls data from all recorded calls) therefore the reflection is very accurate. * Reports can well be pulled, since all data is compiled and exported in excel spread sail format.Cons* Its not an immediate solution. Speech analytics for npower is in early mental testinging stages and its unlikely to be visible(prenominal) for at least(prenominal) another year.* Cost Its very expensive to hold and so even to run in a small test environment is currently unlikely. Scripts for data protectionPros* It would intelligibly set out what needs to be verbalize (no grey area)* Advisors would have fewthing to reference at all times* Can easily be updated when changes reach* Managers could easily cover this in a learn sessionCons* Advisors may not feel it comes crossways as natural* Advisors may forget to keep it on their desk each day* It would need to be updated with each new change (potentially old ones could be in circulation)* Repeat contact customers would have to go through the exact same process each time and may feel it comes across as roboticSpecific inbound/outbound call teamsPros* Advisors would deal with only one call type (one set of compliance regulations, more specialised, less chance of failure)* sightly specialised may increase confidenceCons* It may not be feasible to have a enough specialised teams to deal with the workload * We would abide multi-skilled advisors, impacting our ability to deal with other work volumes * work teams leave us vulnerable to outside influences such as absence.Compliance ChampsPros* Position of responsibility for trust advisors* Someone on hand to reference in uncertain situationsCons* Those not chosen may feel disappointed* The cost of taking advisors away from complete work may not be feasible in such a busy time * Having to wait for a Champ may impact customer wait times and thus service * Takes ownership and responsibility away from the advisorsCompliance ChecklistPros* Advisors already use something similar, so it would be familiar* Advisors could distinctly track what they have and havent asked* stay of mind as it states clearly what they must ask* Natural, as it states what they must ask but doesnt tell them how to do it* Cheap and easy to fulfil* Easy to amend when changes occur* Advisors can easily keep it with them either paper based or electronically* Puts the responsibility on the advisor* beat use can be coached aroundCons* mustiness be altered with each change (old ones could be left in circulation) * Puts the responsibility on the advisors (must be trusted to use it) After evaluating the options and the pros and cons to each. I decided to go with a compliance checklist. Once I had decided on what I believed to be the best solution I asked myself two important questions, in various decision making models these are also known as dosage Tests 1&2. Acid Test 1 If I implement all of my plans for action will my problems be overcome? In considering the answer I thought back to areas that I had identified earlier that linked into the problem of inconsistent compliance. To recap these were things such as * Advisors were unsure what they should be enquire.* They lacked confidence that they were saying all the right things. * They could a lot miss important information if interrupted by a customer before the compliance checks were complete. * The solution needed to be simple and easy to implement, so that it was clear and simple to train out. The majority of my advisors already use a checklist of sorts to capture the work they complete and how they contacted the customer, by adding compliance prompts to this it creates a visual instigate for the advisors reminding them of what they need to ask and it remains in a setting that they find familiar. Also, because the advisors are able to tick off the various requirements as they go along it makes it very clear what must be asked and its less likely that theyll miss things out if they are interrupted as they can simply go back along the list and pick up where they left off.Its also likely to come across as more natural when the advisors are talking to them customers as well as again it only prompts them with what they need to ask rather than corpulent them how to say it. Finally, its relatively cheap to implement, it isnt very time consuming to put in place and its something that can be through immediately. A copy of the checklist is attached (Appendix A) Acid test 2 If I get rid of all my problems will I achieve my objectives? Again, the answer should be yes. My solution will give advisors something black and white, thats clear and easy to understand and familiar to them in their day to day role. This should in turn give them the added confidence when talking to customers on the phone.There is, however, a human element. This is that the solution once trained out and implemented, relies upon the advisor taking so me ownership and making sure that use it every day even if they feel confident that they are fully compliant. Because this is a personal choice there is no plan that I can implement that will solve this. However, as a company we do have measures already in place to manage this. If an advisor is turn up to have the skills and the noesis to be fully compliant and yet for some(prenominal) reason subscribes not to, then I or any other manager would need to ensure that this is managed in the proper fashion.Implementation and communication of the solutionAs previously stated the advisor already usage a data capture sheet in their day to day jobs. I have taken that and added some simple yet clear checklist boxes that prompt the advisors on what they need to be asking when speaking to customers on the telephone. I will alternate off with a trial in my operations group and then if the desired results are proven then I will discuss with my manager a plan to roll it out to the whole depar tment. Ill start by holding a small group meeting with my fellow team managers, briefly describing the problem that Ive been looking in to. Ill present my solution and tell them how I would like it to be used. The managers including me can then go out to our own teams and deliver the message in a brief team meeting. The compliance checklist will be distributed via email to the managers and advisors alike. This way the advisors can choose to print it off and fill it in manually or they can simply fill in in on their PCS.This also office that they will always be able to approach a copy even if they have to resettlement desks as it will be saved to their email. Following this, I would plan to follow up with some side by side observations. This would be to ensure that the advisors are using the checklist as intended and it also gives me the chance to answer any questions that they may have as well as offer advice and acclaim where they are doing things well and hopefully begin to f abricate that confidence in their ability back up. As far as monitoring and reviewing of the situation, this should be quite an straight forward. I know what the problem is and I have identified a list of causes.I also know clearly what I look to achieve from the solution. I perform at least one quality check on each of my advisors each week, so these will prove utilizable when monitoring progress in this area and the results should be clear to see. These quality checks are always disposed(p) to the advisors as feedback and trends from multiple quality checks are used to build useful coaching sessions. The feedback that I engender from the advisors at this point should also allow me to monitor if they are using my solution as anticipate and how confident they feel with it. As a department, we also receive daily, weekly and monthly reports.These will enable me to view the progress of the other teams in my operations group to see if they are showing the results that are expected . I will raise the matter for handling in the weekly operations group meeting and this will allow me to receive feedback from my fellow managers and get their thoughts on what is and potentially isnt going well. Finally, the QA Team will perform another quality check across a random sample of the department. This will perhaps be the ultimate mark of whether or not my solution has been successful. If so, then there should be a significant increase in the per centum of advisors that pass compliance.