A DAY-IN-THE-LIFE OF THE CUSTOMER SERVICE DESK

A CASE STUDY OF THE ELECTRO TECH

About Electro Tech:

Electro Tech is a multimillion-dollar manufacturer of industrial electrical components and

factory automation products. It has been in business since the late 1950s,
demonstrating consistent growth through the ‘60s, ‘70s, and ‘80s. Electro Tech is not
unique in the success it has had or the problems it faces. Declining customer
satisfaction with delayed shipments, high quality failure rates, and increasing inventory
levels are just a few of the difficulties facing Electro Tech.

The Company History

Electro Tech is a Midwestern company. Its corporate office housing the Controlling
Management, Customer Service Organization, MIS functions, and R&D activities is
located in Cincinnati, OH. Four manufacturing facilities are spread throughout the
Midwest with the largest plant located in Anderson, IN. From the four facilities, they
service customers across the U.S. and in Europe.

Electro Tech originally sprang from engineering roots through the development of low
priced, long lasting electrical components. As the company grew, top engineers moved
into management and supervisory positions dealing with manufacturing, quality
management, and even human resources.

Over time, inevitably, there was a need for information. Early attempts were made by
the Management Information Systems department to capture Electro Tech’s key
information. Homespun programs written in COBOL or FORTRAN for mainframe
systems allowed specific groupings of information to be collected. Due to budgetary
constraints and staffing limitations, systems for each department were constructed at
different times, often in varying program code or on varying hardware platforms. Data
collection was empowered, but cross-functional integration was lost.

Understanding the Customer Service Desk

As you look at the Customer Service department of Electro Tech, you see a typical
business environment-an open area full of cubicles, each equipped with a dumb terminal
attached to the mainframe and a multilane telephone. The outer will contain the offices
of managers for varying customer service functions. The Electro Tech Customer
Service department is open Monday through Friday 7.00 a.m. to 8.00 p.m. EST. An
over utilized emergency number is available to Electro Tech’s “A” customers on
evenings and weeks.

1
Looking at a typical day in the Customer Service department, you meet Bop Peters. Bob
has been working at the order desk of Electro Tech for about five years after working for
Electro Tech as a summer intern. He was involved in the latest upgrade of the
Customer First projects that added some badly needed functions to Electro Tech’s
home-grown Order Management system-simply called Order It.

About five years ago, customers began to complain that they never knew for certain
when they would receive their orders. The CSR would give a customer a delivery date,
but when the buyers called in to ask about their orders, often another seven days was
added to the delivery time. The causes of these delays varied and often seemed
complex, but the bottom line was customer dissatisfaction.

Bob was part of the team that developed an improvement to the system. Today, every
production run scheduled at the factory over the succeeding two weeks is sent to the
order clerks by fax. Along with this report, the MIS department prints out the daily plan
and distribution center inventory report for each of the order clerks. Now, when the
customers call, Bob is armed with the latest inventory and the latest production
schedule. It is a “perfect” system. Customer complaints were cut in half and every time
a customer called on a status of the order, Bob could give a specific date, not just the
typical “five working days from tomorrow” that he relied in the past.

The Players

The following is a list of the employees involved in the Electro Tech customer service
example.

• Bop Peters – Customer Service Representative

• Sam Soot – Customer from Reliable Manufactures
• Bryan Luther-Plant Production Scheduler
• Frank Brewer-Quality Control Analyst
• Brad Tuttle-Technical Services Manager
• Laurie Stewart-Warehouse and Ship Dock Manager

The Situation

On this Monday morning, Bob arrives at his desk about 15 minutes before his shift.
Because it’s Midwestern Company, the early order desk shift covers East Coast time.
The second shift is set up to cover orders later in the day arriving from the West Coast.

Gradually, the rest of the early shift arrives and arms themselves for the day. Bob pulls
the latest copy of the plant inventory report off the printer, cuts the margins off so he can
fit it on his desk, and pulls out his red, green, and yellow market so that he can mark up
the report once customer calls and plant changes are called in. This is necessary
because the Order It system is not integrated with the production scheduling or inventory
systems that the manufacturing facilities use.

Bob answers his phone and finds himself talking to Sam Soot of Reliable Manufactures.
Sam is calling to check the status of order SH1000655 at the request of his
manufacturing manager. Apparently, Reliable’s customer requested an emergency

2
shipment in five days, but the equipment used to manufacture Reliable’s best-selling
product is down due to automation system problems. The parts necessary to fix the
problems were included in order SH1000655, which is now a week late.

Bob has been through this so many times that he instinctively goes into his routine. He
explains that order SH1000655 is delayed because part number A1Z1, a current sensor
with relay output used in automation systems, is behind manufacturing schedule but is
due off the line later today. Bob guesses and adds one day for packaging and test time,
and then tells Sam the order could be shipped the day after tomorrow (Wednesday).

Sam says, “Excuse me, but we’ve called two times in the last week and have received
the same treatment. You guys either don’t know what is going on or you feel you
can treat us customers as if we don’t have customers that we care about. I’II take
that date, but you better make sure that the stuff gets to us or it’s the last order you
get from us. We are already evaluating alternate vendors”.

Bob had been through this before as well. His training had been very effective in
pointing out that the Order Desk is the most important part of the company-the buck
stops there. He is personally and professionally responsible for appeasing the
customer-making the customer feel that Electro Tech is looking at him or her as if he or
she is the only customer Electro Tech has.

Bob apologizes and explains that all of his reports show that this order is going to be
there. He assures Sam that he will make a special call to the plant to ensure that
everything is OK. He confirms Sam’s telephone number and tells him he will call if there
are any problems with the order. Bob then thanks Sam for calling and assures him that
Reliable is an honored customer.

After Bob enters the new delivery date in the system, he fills out his log. Bob’s biggest
decision is whether to use the yellow pen for a caution or the red pen for alert. Bob
decides on the yellow pen.

The morning progresses at a similar pace. Bob enters several new orders and deals
with other customers’ concerns about delivery dates and quality problems. He calls
Bryan Luther, the Plant Production Scheduler, to check on the orders in question so far.

Bryan is the main point of contact for CSRs with questions about the plant’s schedule.
In his production scheduling role, he has to balance the sales order demand with the
plant’s production. Bob begins to run down his list of red and yellow line items when
Bryan informs him that preventive maintenance over the weekend has them a day and a
half behind schedule in the department that manufactures the A1Z1 current sensors with
relay output.

After a long pause, Bob says, “You can’t be serious, Bryan. I just got off the phone with
the buyer at Reliable and assured him that we’d have the order to them. Can you shut
down the maintenance until we get the order out?” Bryan explains that it’s too late. “The
maintenance is almost complete now, but it will take most of the remainder of the day to
get the equipment buttoned up and running.” He also reminds Bob that the preventive
maintenance will help prevent future problems and more order delays.

3
Bob has been down this road before and knows that his only chance is the off-spec. list.
This is a special list generated from the plant inventory system. Every Friday, the plant
QC department reviews the inventory of material that is marginally off-spec and places a
potential distribution on it. Sometimes, if the right customer called, it is possible to match
the customer requirements with some production make off-spec.

Bob finds the list and begins to review the pages of material for the product A1Z1.
Finally, a lucky break. The off-spec report shows lot 970114A of 50 pieces on quality
hold. Bob looks at the distribution and finds Frank Brewer as the QC Analyst of Record.
Bob picks up the phone and hits the speed dial for the plant QC Lab.

At the other end of the line Bob hears, “QC Lab, this is Frank, “Bob says, “Hi Frank, it’s s
Bob Peters. I need your help with a lot of A1Z1s that are on the off-spec report.” This is
a familiar conversation: in fact, too familiar to both Bob and Frank. Bob explains his
dilemma with Reliable and steers Frank to the lot of A1Z is he has listed on the off-spec
report. Normally, the lab tries to provide possible outlets for marginal material when it is
listed on the off-spec report, but occasionally no outlet can be determined so the QC
Analyst of Record is listed. This allows CSRs to contact the correct person in shortage
situations. The specific details of the shortage and marginal material can be reviewed to
see if they fit together.

Frank accesses the QC computer system to determine the problem with lot 970114A.
The current sensors have specifications related to their capability to detect and react to
changes in current load. The specification problem is related to the sensitivity of the
sensors. They have an adjustable trip set point that is listed to have a +/-2%range.
Frank explains that the lot in question tested +2% and –2.3%. Bob says that seems like
minor difference and asks if the units can be released for Reliable. Frank explains that
the variance in the spec may be acceptable to Reliable, but he can’t release the lot
without speaking to the technical service representative to Reliable.

Frank explains that the problem is with the Certificate of Compliance that is sent out with
most shipments. The certificate typically lists the test results for trip point, and, if
Reliable is given the exact manufacturing spec, they will reject the lot upon delivery.
Frank tells Bob that the specifications that have been given to the customer are
maintained by Technical Services so he will have to call them to check Reliable’s file.

Frank hangs up the phone and immediately picks it back up to call Brad Tuttle, Technical
Services Manager for the current sensor/relay division. Brad came up through the ranks
of the company and has worked in Technical Services for the last five years. Frank
enjoys working with him because he knows Brad understands the balance between
quality, customer satisfaction, and business decisions.

Brad understands the difficult situation Bob and Frank are trying to resolve. “Let me
check the file on Reliable, Frank, “Brad says. Frank can hear the opening and closing of
file drawers and the rattling of paper work. After a moment, Frank hears Brad say,
“Good news, Frank. Reliable has a spec of plus or minus 3%. Beyond that though, they
don’t require that trip point results be reported on the Certificate of Compliance.” After
several attempt to get through to Bob, Frank leaves a voice mail that the lot of A1Z1s
can go to Reliable. Another crisis avoided, or so it seems.

4
The next business day begins with Bob checking his voice mail. He is relieved to hear
the message from Frank and makes a note to follow up and thank him. Again, the
morning progresses with nonstop action. About halfway through the morning a break in
the action occurs, and Bob gives Frank a quick call.

“Frank, thanks for the help yesterday,” says Bob. Bob goes on to explain how getting
that shipment out will save the Reliable account and that if Frank hadn’t made sure lot
970114A was sent on the shipment, nothing could have avoided a lost customer.
Frank ,puzzled by Bob’s choice of words, explains that he left the voice mail for Bob
yesterday and updated the off-spec report for printing on Friday but he hadn’t spoken to
anyone at the shipping dock. He had assumed that Bob would take care of that through
the Order It system.

Bob’s stomach begins to churn at the realization that the Reliable order hasn’t shipped
yet. “Frank, are you telling me you didn’t call the dock to tell them which lot to use?”
asks Bob, Frank explains that he didn’t realize he was expected to talk to the shipping
dock. The reason he had tried to call Bob several times, and eventually left a voice mail,
was so that Bob could talk to the appropriate people. There was more than a materials
issue involved here. The proper transportation had to be lined up for a rush shipment.
Frank didn’t know if any special packing requirements had been agreed to with Reliable.
A number of other issues could exist. Frank reminds Bob that these were issues that
Customer Service normally coordinated. Bob knows Frank is right, but is still upset by
the whole situation.

The Solution

Ending the conversation abruptly, Bob hangs up the phone and immediately calls the
manager of the warehouse and shipping dock, Laurie Stewart. Laurie is amazing to
those who know her well. She never appears rattled, even when the walls seem to be
falling in around her. And somehow, she always manages to get the job done. Laurie
listens carefully as Bob explains the situation with Reliable and how the shipment has to
go out today. Laurie takes the situation in stride and agrees to get the lot shipped as
soon as she has shipping instructions specifying the carrier and the Certificate of
Compliance from the lab. Bob agrees to have the updated order with carrier instructions
printed out in the plant’s office area and to have the lab get the Certificate of Compliance
ready. Laurie agrees to swing by the lab and office area before lunch to pick up both
documents. She assures Bob that if both items are ready by lunch, she will have no
difficulty getting the sensors sent out for overnight delivery. This is an added cost that
Electro Tech has to eat. They normally ship second-day delivery, but this shipment has
to go express.

As Laurie promised, she makes the rounds just before lunch and is able to collect the
appropriate documents. This is necessary because the mainframe system Order It can
print only on one printer at the plant. A clerk then pulls orders off the printer, faxes
copies to the lab so they can create Certificates of Compliance, and separates the
orders for the two shipping docks at the plant. The lab uses a word processor to make
the Certificates of Compliance, and the LAN that Electro Tech was installing does not yet
reach the dock. This means that two or three times a day, Laurie has to stop in the lab
to pick up the completed certificates.

5
Later that day, the control sensors are shipped and another crisis has passed. Some
unexpected cost is incurred, and a few people have jumped through hoops to get the job
done, but isn’t that what you have to do to satisfy the customer?