Case Study: Yakkatech

Pty Ltd

Report

Done By:
Alan Chu

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 Table of Contents

Content Page

Introduction 3

YakkaTech Pvt Ltd Background 3

Analysis 4

Recommendations 5

Conclusion 6

References 7

Introduction
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The case is based on the present situation at Yakkatech Pvt Ltd. Yakkatech is an Information
Technology Services firm whose operations are spread throughout Australia and New
Zealand. Yakkatech is facing issues in handling its human resources – its customer service
personnel and declining quality of service offered by its customer service centres. The aim of
this report will analyse the situation at YakkaTech with reference to management literature
and develop a solution which will reduce the employee attrition rate and improve customer
service quality levels.

YakkaTech Pvt Ltd Background

YakkaTech Pty Ltd is an Information Technology services firm which consults companies on
installing enterprise software systems and hardware. It undertakes contracts on
implementing these systems on the client’s site. It operates four customer service centres to
service clients across these regions. YakkaTech is a company in its growth phase and its
customer service has doubled over the last five years. However this rapid expansion at
YakkaTech has brought with it issues.

The first issue is one of the quality of customer service offered by YakkaTech executives.
There has been an increase in the number of complaints regarding poor quality of service by
the executives. The complaints state that the response time to the client problems is slow
and many of YakkaTech executives have to be educated on the details problems experiences
because of their distinctive IT systems infrastructure. The system of resolving customer
complaints works on a “ticket” system. The customer complaint or query is issued a ticket
number and forwarded to the next available employee department which is best suited to
resolve that issue. An employee is responsible for resolving that ticket and once the issue is
resolved the ticket is closed. However when the client experiences the same issue or
problem with the system again a new ticket is issued and the ticket is forwarded to
whichever employee is available in the department. This results in the client’s problems
managed by different employees almost every time the customer service department is
contacted by the client.

The second issue is a high employee attrition rate which exceeds the industry average. The
attrition rate at YakkaTech can be explained by the monotonous nature of the work, stress
of serving dissatisfied customers and internal conflicts and politics. The management policy
of changing the compensation system and raising pay rates to reduce employee turnover
has worked in reducing the employee turnover rate but the service quality and productivity
of the employees has declined even further.

Analysis

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The first issue of poor service quality offered by the YakkaTech customer service executives
is because of a problem in the chain of responsibility. There is no proper division of labour at
the customer contact centres. There is a fundamental issue of responsibility which means
that executives do not get punished for the mistakes that they commit. The concept which
underlies the problem faced at Yakkatech is one of an absence of horizontal accountability.
Horizontal accountability is the accountability of team members to one another.

According to Ray & Elder (2007) the absence of horizontal accountability in an organization
leads to people or team members blaming each other for poor performance of the team as
a whole, passing the buck, pointing fingers at each other and avoiding conflict situations.
The degree to which these symptoms exist in an organization point to the fact that
horizontal accountability do not exist in an organization. Horizontal accountability is defined
as the extent to which people communicate with each other throughout the organization,
solve problems with all employees and teams and build a system of accountability which
leads to superior outcomes. The employees at YakkaTech will be able to improve
productivity when they can trust each other, be confident about the organizational
leadership and have a clear organizational goal.

However the concept of teamwork and horizontal accountability is different in case of call
centres. According to Van Den Broek (2004) call centres are not a conducive environment
for teamwork because of the nature of work design. The work design at call centres is
individualized and routine. It is driven by managerial and technology scripts. In Den Broek’s
study call centres from the UK and Australia were observed. He states that teams in call
centres are superficial because of the individual nature of work involved and the so called
teams are merely work groups which cater to one specific area. The level of
interdependence between the team members is low and autonomy high. Batt’s (1999)
study on the performance of call centres recommended group learning techniques and
information sharing about clients problems leading to effective performance. These
techniques of information sharing about the problems with customers and software systems
are more effective than the multiskilling and job rotation techniques at call centres. The
situation at YakkaTech is one where the employees are not engaging in group learning. The
case mentions that they have to very often educate the customer service executives on the
problems faced because of their unique IT systems infrastructure. The result is that
employees do not have enough knowledge to adequately resolve the clients problems
which lead to slow response times and client dissatisfaction.

The second issue at YakkaTech is concerned with a high employee turnover. The employee
turnover rate or rate at which people resign from YattaTech is above the industry average.
There are many reasons for employee turnover. The specific reason for employee turnover
or attrition at YakkaTech is because of employee dissatisfaction. The case mentions that the
employee’s at YakkaTech felt that their work was monotonous. The employees were
disconnected with the consequences of their work. The other reasons cited were the

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conflicts within the organization and the stress of serving dissatisfied customers. The
employee turnover is a phenomenon which has been studies many times. The primary
reason for employee turnover at YakkaTech is employee dissatisfaction. Hom & Kinicki
(2001) stated that job satisfaction was one of the factors which impacted employee
turnover. The employees form a psychological contract with their employers and workplace
and are inclined towards work which is not monotonous. The employees at YakkaTech do
not have any incentive at workplace because they do not have the satisfaction of controlling
the consequences of their actions. The key reason for this employee disconnect with the
system at YakkaTech is the flaw in the chain of responsibility.

At YakkaTech the ticket system of resolving the customer complaints ensures that a
different customer serves the customer every time. The employee who had not resolved the
issue is not held accountable. Thus a different employee has to bear the brunt of the client’s
dissatisfaction. The employee has to resolve the issue which another employee had not
resolved. The system at YakkaTech does not punish the employee mistakes. There is no
employee ownership of client problems. The employees have to relate to the clients
problems. The employees have to be concerned about their client’s problems because in the
current system they are not concerned because if any problem does arise it would be
forwarded to some other employee and would be another employee’s problem. This is the
root of all problems which have beset Yakkatech. A new system of compensation linked to
employee performance in resolving customer issues and employee ownership of certain
clients is an initiative which can remedy the situation at YakkaTech.

Recommendations
The options which are recommended for YakkaTech Pty Ltd to resolve the critical issues of
poor service quality and employee turnover are as follows:

Firstly the management at YakkaTech Pty Ltd. should institute a system of group learning
between the team members of specific teams at YakkaTech. The analysis revealed that
group learning in call centres is a way to enable effective performance and higher
productivity amongst the team members. Jankowicz (2000) stated that an organization
should understand the difference between learning and adapting. She stated that a learning
organization’s learning will be unproductive and unfocused if it does not understand the
difference between the two concepts which are used interchangeably and often confused
with each other. YakkaTech is an organization which should adopt a system of continuous
learning and its management should implement an initiative of change. The teams at
YakkaTech four customer contact centres should undergo training sessions where a system
of teamwork is developed. The teams should gather after every shift and discuss the
challenging client issue which they resolved that particular day. This will lead to a system of
group learning where the team members will learn about the problems faced by other team
members. The different team members can leverage each other’s knowledge and thus
improve the quality of service which is offered to the clients.

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Secondly the YakkaTech management should implement a system of client issue ownership.
They should change the present system of issue client’s ticket numbers to issuing employees
client identification numbers. The team members should be assigned a certain number of
clients from a certain region and certain product function area. The employee-clients should
be segmented in a way that employees are expected to resolve the issues which are raised.
The employees should be connected to the consequences of their actions. The client issues
which are not resolved should be noted by management though the institution of a new
monitoring team. The new monitoring team should keep track of clients who have received
poor service from the customer contact centres. Hutchinson et al. (2000) states that the
technology available has led to extensive monitoring of call centre staff’s performance
possible. According to Varca (2001) there is a low level of perceive job control amongst the
call centre staff and the highly scripted nature of the interaction between the client and the
employee’s is responsible. The YakkaTech management should change the performance
indicators for it staff. The staff at YakkaTech should be measured on their accuracy of
resolving the client issues rather than the speed at which they resolve the client issues. The
performance indicator of its employes should be changed from average talk time to
percentage of client complaints to calls answered. This re-alignment of employee’s
performance indicators and presence of a monitoring team to monitor clients receiving poor
service will ensure that employees who do not perform are held responsible. It will also
ensure that the employees are connected to their consequences again.

Conclusion
The management at YakkaTech should implement the system of client ownership and also
change the performance evaluation system at YakkaTech. The present situation of
rewarding the employee’s has not worked because of the fact that employees are not
punished if they offer poor service quality to the clients. The employees have to be
monitored and their performance should be evaluated in a way which leads to higher
productivity. According to Mattila & Mount (2003) the front line employees are a primary
indicator which customers use to judge the service quality of the firm. The fact that
YakkaTech is a firm which is in its expansion phase means that it could suffer if it does not
improve the quality if the service which is offered by its customer contact centres. The front
line employees at YakkaTech are a reflection on its customer commitment. Thus the second
option or recommendation of ensuring that employees are held responsible solves both the
issues and problems faced at YakkaTech.

The system of monitoring combined with re-alignment of performance objectives will

ensure that employees are responsible and accountable. This has the effect of rewarding
the employees who are performing well. The employees who display a low average talk time
and high accuracy in resolving the client complaints should be rewarded and this will
increase the motivation level of the employees. The change in policy should be reflected in a
management by objectives policy. There is a need for a higher level of transparency at

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YakkaTech. The performance evaluation system which rewards accuracy and service quality
over talk time and other cost considerations demonstrates the commitment which
YakkaTech makes with this initiative. The management at YakkaTech should act swiftly in
implementing the stated recommendation because of the criticality of customer service
function to the business of YakkaTech.

References

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Ray, D., & Elder, D.. (2007). Managing Horizontal Accountability. The Journal for Quality and
Participation, 30(4), 24-28. Retrieved November 24, 2010, from ABI/INFORM Global.
(Document ID: 1429993971).

Van Den Broek, Diane (01/05/2004). "Teams without Teamwork? Explaining the Call Centre
Paradox". Economic and industrial democracy (0143-831X), 25 (2), p. 197

Batt, R. (1999) ‘Work Organization, Technology and Performance in Customer Service and
Sales’, Industrial and Labor Relations Review 52(4): 539–64.

Hom, P.W., Kinicki, A.J. (2001), "Toward a greater understanding of how dissatisfaction
drives employee turnover", Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 44 No.5, pp.975-87

Devi Jankowicz. (2000). From 'learning organization' to 'adaptive organization'.

Management Learning, 31(4), 471-490. Retrieved November 24, 2010, from ABI/INFORM
Global. (Document ID: 66767224).

Hutchinson, S., Purcell, J., Kinnie, N. (2000), "The challenge of the call center", Human
Resource Management International Digest, Vol. 8 pp.4-8

Varca, P.E. (2001), "Service representatives, job control, and white-collar blues", Journal of
Services Marketing, Vol. 15 No.4, pp.257-69

Mattila, A.S., Mount, D.J. (2003), "The role of call centers in mollifying disgruntled guests",
Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, Vol. 44 No.4, pp.142-50

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