Running head: CALL CENTER MANAGEMENT FOR TIMESHARE 1

VACATIONS

Call Center Management for Timeshare Vacations

MGT 521

June 15, 2015

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Call Center Management for Timeshare Vacations

Team B consists of a group of call center managers that sell time share vacations. The

group will discuss, give examples, and justify reasoning and logic behind various tools of

reporting that are effective with this type of company. The continued efforts in stating each

aspect of all categories are beneficial to all managers when applying them to their employees.

There are various reports that are discussed that are pertinent to positive feedback or simply

tracking mechanisms. Organizational terms are discussed and deliberated that also have the same

effect for managers.

Employee Control Measures

Personal Observations

Personal observation is a form of collecting data for managers to evaluate and collect

information to make decisions accordingly. Marshal & Rossman (1989) define observation as

“the systematic description of events, behaviors, and artifacts in social setting chosen for study”

(p.79). In the call center employees are to be evaluated with job performance. Reports are done

on each employee once a week, the method mostly used is observational and gives managers

personal view of individual performance and attitude in his or her job.

For example, the manager will pick an employee and observe and analyze the form of

answering the call and will assure if he or she is warm and welcome customers with a proper

greeting. The form of answering questions is more important than the right questions and are

rated on choosing the right information given to the customer, or if the call is to transfer to the

right person. If the customer is put on hold, this is measured by how long and the reason. Also,

the end of the call is measured by the tone of the agent, as well as customer service approach.
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Personal observation is useful in research in different ways. These observations provide

researchers with ways to check for nonverbal expression of feelings and determine who interacts

with whom, grasp how participants communicate with each other, and check for how much time

is spent on various activities (Schmuck, 1997).

Statistical Reports

Statistical reports provide management a great range of hard data to compare, contrast,

and objectify many factors. As listed the benefits of statistical reports are, easy to visualize and

effective for showing relationships, and the drawbacks are that they only provide limited

information and they ignore subjective factors (Robbins & Coulter, 2012). With this being said,

there are many forms of statistical information that is helpful to management when it comes to

reporting. The drawbacks from this can leave upper management with questions about the gaps

or data that would have to be made up with the oral reports that are being presented. This takes

the paper into the next segment of oral reports.

Oral Reports

In evaluating how efficient and effective an employee is at the customer call center, a

written report is a good tool for control measurement. A written report is comprehensive, formal

and accessible (Robbins & Coulter, 2012). Managers should require employees to have a daily

log that indicates the customer’s name, telephone number, address, and if the customer has

brought the timeshare vacation. At the end of the week, employees must tally up their daily

reports and submit it to the manager. Upon review of the report by the manager, the manager will

give the employees feedback as to whether or not further actions need to be taken. For example,

if the customer indicates that he or she will consider the timeshare vacation, then the employee
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should make a follow-up call to the customer. At the end of the month, the manager will evaluate

the employees weekly reports and then create a monthly report. The monthly report will indicate

if the company has met its quota. The results of the monthly report will determine if the manager

needs to correct the actual performance or revise the standards.

Written Reports

In evaluating how efficient and effective an employee is at the customer call center, a

written report is a good tool for control measurement. A written report is comprehensive, formal

and accessible (Robbins & Coulter, 2012). Managers should require employees to have a daily

log that indicates the customer’s name, telephone number, address, and if the customer has

brought the timeshare vacation. At the end of the week, employees must tally up their daily

reports and submit it to the manager. Upon review of the report by the manager, the manager will

give the employees feedback as to whether or not further actions need to be taken. For example,

if the customer indicates that he or she will consider the timeshare vacation, then the employee

should make a follow-up call to the customer. At the end of the month, the manager will evaluate

the employee’s weekly reports and then create a monthly report. The monthly report will indicate

if the company has met its quota. The results of the monthly report will determine if the manager

needs to correct the actual performance or revise the standards, or commend employees for a job

well done.

Organizational Control Measures

Organizational Productivity

Measuring organizational productivity is important to the success of the call center.

According to Robbins & Coulter (2012), “productivity is the amount of … services produced

divided by the inputs needed to generate that output” (p. 492). A number of inputs increase the
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cost of output. For instance, an average employee is paid $10 an hour, takes 2 hours to sell a

timeshare vacation at $600, and the company overhead costs per hour are $200. In this example,

($600 profit) - ($20 wages) – ($400 overhead) = a company profit of $180 per timeshare sale.

Feedforward controls include the projection of performance goals. An employee at the

call center needs to know the performance expectations of the job. Expectations include how

long it should take to sell a timeshare, what tools are available to achieve that goal, and when the

employee should call his or her mentor for assistance.

Concurrent controls include phone monitoring by mentors, ensuring the calls are

expeditious, professional, and effective. Mentors provide ongoing coaching and feedback to keep

the employees’ performance levels in line.

Feedback controls include the gathering of client survey data, employee survey data, and

industry reports. These sources provide valuable input to the organization, identifying possible

business modifications as the timeshare market changes.

Organizational Effectiveness

The organizational effectiveness of a business establishes the organization’s team, the

ability to perform a task with ideal levels of input and output. Organizational effectiveness is

used to measure many things such as relationships between employee performance and the

organization’s profits to the relationship between manufacturing processes and production

volume. No set parameters exist for organizational effectiveness and it follows no definitive

mathematical formula -- each organization creates its own method of measuring effectiveness

(Gish, 2015). Measuring organizational effectiveness can assist businesses with determining how

well the organization can and will perform.

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Conclusion

Many facts substantiate the need to obtain all of the reporting mechanisms included in

this paper. The organizational sections of this paper also depict the effectiveness as well as

production these tools compile and how they ae beneficial. The reporting tools discussed in this

paper allowed the reader to understand the importance as well as the significance of each form of

reporting as well as when it is useful, to whom. Benefits from all these areas are endless and

highly effective in all areas of business, for growth, sustainability, and forward progress.
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References

Gish, W. (2015). Organizational Effectiveness vs. Organizational Efficiency. Retrieved from

http://smallbusiness.chron.com/organizational-effectivenss-vs-organizational-efficiency-

22413.html

Marshal, C. & Rossman, G. B. (1989). Designing qualitative research. Newbury

Park, CA: Sage

Robbins, S. P. & Coulter, M. (2012). Management (11th ed.). [University of Phoenix Custom

eBook]. Upper Saddle River: NJ. Prentice Hall. Retrieved from University of Phoenix,

MGT521 website.

Schmuck, R. (1997). Practical Action Research for change. Arlington Heights, IL: IRI/Skylt

Training and Publishing