Repairing jobs that fail to satisfy

Repairing jobs that fail to satisfy

Learning goals

Companies

often

divide

up work

as

a

way

to

improve

efficiency,

but

specialization

can

lead

to

negative consequences. DrainFlow is a company that has effectively used specialization to reduce

costs

relative to its competitors’ costs for years, but rising customer complaints suggest the firm’s

strong position may be slipping. After reading the case you will suggest some ways it can create

more interesting work for employees. You’ll also tackle the pro

blem of finding people qualified

and ready to perform the multiple responsibilities required in these jobs.

Major topic areas

?

Job design

?

Job satisfaction

?

Personality

?

Emotional labor

The scenario

DrainFlow is a large residential and commercial plumbing maintenance firm that operates around

the United States. It has been a major player in residential plumbing for decades, and its familiar

rhyming motto. “When Your Drain Won’t Go, Call DrainFlow,” has been plastered on billboards

since the 1960s.

Lee Reynaldo has been a regional manager at DrainFlow for about 2 years. She used to work for a

newer

competing

chain,

Lightning

Plumber

that

has

been

drawing

more

customers

from

DrainFlow. Although her job at DrainFlow pays

more,

Lee isn’t happy with the way things ar

e

going. She’s noticed the work environment just isn’t as vital or energetic as the environment she

saw at Lightning.

Lee thinks the problem is that employees aren’t motivated to provide the type of customer service

Lightning Plumber employees offer. She recently sent surveys to customers to collect information

about performance, and the data confirmed her fears. Although 60 percent of respondents said they

were

satisfied

with

their

experience

and

would

use

DrainFlow

again,

40

percent

felt

their

experience was not good, and 30 percent said they would use a competitor the next time they had

a plumbing problem.

Lee

is

wondering

whether

DrainFlow’s

job

design

might

be

contributing

to

its

problems

in

retaining customers. DrainFlow has about 2,000 employees in four basic job categories: plumbers,

plumber’s

assistants,

order

processors,

and

billing

representatives.

This

structure

is

designed

to

keep costs as low as possible Plumbers make very high wages, whereas plumber’s assistants make

about

one-quarter

of

what

a

licensed

plumber

makes.

Using

plumber’s

assistants

is

therefore

a

very cost-effective strategy that has enabled DrainFlow to easily undercut the competition when it

comes

to

price.

Order

processors

make

even

less

than

assistants

but

about

the

same

as

billing

processors.

All

work

is

very

specialized,

but

employees

are

often

dependent

on

another

job

category to perform at their most efficient level.

Like most plumbing companies, DrainFlow gets business mostly from the Yellow Pages and the

internet. Customers either call in to describe a plumbing problem or submit an online request for

plumbing

services,

receiving

a

return

call

with

information

within

24

hours.

In

either

case,

DrainFlow’s

order

processors

listen

to

the

customer’s

description

of

the

problem

to

determine

whether a plumber or a plumber’s assistant should make the service call. The job is then assigned

accordingly, and a service provider goes to the location when the job has been completed, via cell

phone a billing representative relays the fee to the service rep, who presents a bill to the customer

for payment. Billing representatives can take customer’s credit card payments by phone or e

-mail

an invoice for online payment.

The problem

Although specialization does cut costs significantly, Lee is worried about customer dissatisfaction.

According to her survey, about 23 percent of customer contacts ended in no service call because

customer were confused by the diagnostic questions the order processors asked and because the

order processors did not have sufficient knowledge or skill to explain the situation. That means

fully one in four people who call DrainFlow to hire a plumber are worse than dissatisfied: they

aren’t

customers

at

all!

The

remaining

75

percent

of

calls

that

did

end

in

a

customer

service

encounter resulted in other problems.

The most frequent complaints Lee found in the Customer surveys were about response time and

cost, especially when the wrong person was sent to a job. A plumber’s assistant cannot complete a

more technically complicated job. The appointment has been

rescheduled, and the customer’s time

and

the

staff’s

time

have

been

wasted.

The

resulting

delay

often

caused

customers

in

these

situations to decline further contact with DrainFlow-many of them decided to go with Lightning

Plumber.

“When I arrive at a job I can’t take care of,” says plumber’s assistant Jim Larson, “the customer

gets ticked off. They thought they were getting a licensed plumber, since they were calling for a

plumber. Telling them they have to have someone el

se come out doesn’t go over well.”

On the other hand, when a plumber responds to a job easily handled by a plumber’s assistant, the

customer is still charged at the plumber’s higher pay rate. Licensed plumber Luis Berger also does

not like being in the position of gi

ving customers bad news. “If I get called out to do something

like snake a drain, the customer isn’t expecting a hefty bill. I’m caught between a rock and a hard

place-

I

don’t

set

the

rates

or

make

the

appointments,

but

I’m

the

one

who

gets

it

from

the

customer.” Plumbers also resent being sent to do such simple work.

Susie

McCarty

is

one

of

DrainFlow’s

order

processors.

She’s

frustrated

too

when

the

wrong

person is sent to a job but feels she and the other order processors are doing the best th

ey can. “We

have a survey we’re supposed to follow with the calls to find out what the problem is and who

needs to take the job,” she explains. “The customers don’t know that we have a standard form, so

they think we can answer all their questions. Most of

us don’t know any

more about plumbing

than the caller. If they don’t use the term on the survey, we don’t unde

r

stand what they’re

talking

about. A plumber would, but we’re not plumbers; we just take the calls.”

Customer

service

issues

also

involve

the

billing

representatives.

They

are

the

one

who

have

to

keep

contacting

customers

about

payment.

“It’s

not

my

fault

the

wrong

guy

was

sent,”

says

Elizabeth

Monty.

“If

two

guys

went

out,

that’s

two

trips.

If

a

plumber

did

the

work,

you

pay

plumber rates. Some of

these customers don’t get that

I didn’t take

their first call,

and so I get

yelled at.” The billing

representatives also complain that they see only the tail end of the process,

so they didn’t know what the original call entailed. The job is fairly impersonal, and much of work

is recording customer complaints. Remember-

40 percent of customers aren’t satisfied, and it’s the

billing representatives who take the brunt of their negative reactions on the phone.

As you can probably tell, all employees have to engage in emotional labor, as described in your

textbook,

and

many

lack

the

skills

or

personality

trains

to

complete

the

customer

interaction

component of their jobs. They aren’t trained to provide customer service, and they see their work

mostly in technical, or mechanical, terms. Quite a few are actually anxious about speaking directly

with

customers.

The

office

staff

(order

processors

and

billing

representatives)

realize

customer

service is part of their job, but they also find dealing with negative feedback from customers and

co-workers taxing.

A couple of years ago a management consulting company was hired to survey DrainFlow worker

attitudes. The result showed they were less satisfied than workers in other comparable jobs. The

fowling

table

provides

a

breakdown

of

respondent

satisfaction

levels

across

a

number

of

categories:

The

information

about

average

plumbers

and

average

office

workers

is

taken

from

the

management

consulting

company’s

records

of

other

companies.

They

aren’t

exactly

surprising,

given

some

of

the

complaints

DrainFlow

employees

have

made.

Top

management

is

worried

about these results but they haven’t been able to formul

ate a solution. The traditional DrainFlow

culture

has

been

focused

on

cost

containment,

and

the

“soft

stuff”

like

employee

satisfaction

hasn’t been a major issue.

DrainFlow

Plumbers

DrainFlow

Plumber

Assistants

2.5

DrainFlow

Office

Workers

2.5

Average

Plumbers

4.3

Average

Office

Workers

3.5

I

am

satisfied

with

3.7

the

work

I

am

asked

to do.

I

am

satisfied

with

3.8

my

working

conditions.

I

am

satisfied

with

3.5

my

interactions

with

co-workers.

I

am

satisfied

with

2.5

my

interactions

with

my supervisor

2.4

3.7

4.1

4.2

3.2

2.7

3.8

3.9

2.3

2.2

3.5

3.4

The proposed solution

The company is in trouble, and as revenues shrink and the cost savings that were supposed to be

achieved by dividing up work fail to materialize, a change seems to be in order.

Lee

is

proposing

using

cash

rewards

to

improve

performance

among

employees.

She

thinks

if

employees were paid based on work outcomes, they’d

work harder to satisfy customers. Because

it’s not easy to measure how satisfied people are with the initial call

-in, Lee would like to give the

order processors a small reward for every 20 calls successfully completed. For the hands-on work,

she’d like to have each billing representative collect information about customer satisfaction for

each completed call. If no complaints are made and the job is handled promptly, a moderate cash

reward

would

be

given

to

the

plumber

or

plumber’s

assistant.

If

the

customer

indicates

real

satisfaction with the service, a larger cash reward would be provided.

Lee

also

wants

to

find

people

who

are

better

fit

with

the

company’s

new

goals.

Current

hiring

procedure

relies

on

unstructured

interviews

with

each

location’s

general

manager

choose