Tele Compute Case Study

Since TeleCompute handles most of its orders through telephones with the help of the operators, it definitely should remake its work flow. There are several key problems that should be solved. First one is that the operators have to fill out an order form by hand and therefore they are unable to process the calls faster. This leads to the complaints that the customers have to wait for a free operator for several minutes, because it takes a lot of time to process the calls. Second problem, which goes hand in hand with the first one, is that the operators are unable to see whether a desired product is in stock or not. If they would be able to see it immediately, they could tell the customers that unfortunately the product they would like to order is not available, so they would not be waiting for several weeks and than receive a back-order notification. Third key problem is correlated with the previous two problems. Since the orders are filled out on papers, they are being lost and the customers complain that they did not receive their products. However, the operators are unable to find any information about these customers, so they have to fill it out again and the customers have to go through the same process as before. There is no database of these customers which is not good, since once the operator gathers the information, they should be stored in some database in order to be able to work with these information. If the customer recognizes that there is no system in the work flow, or next time he will turn to another company since the competition is strong.

The possible solution would be to develop a computer system, which would be interconnected with the warehouse to have the up-to-date information about the supplies. It would enable the operators to fill out the orders within the system in a way of customer cards, and moreover, the operators would be able to see, whether the desired product is in stock or not, so the customers would be informed immediately. And the last but not least, once the operators get the information about the customers, they would not lost them, since they would be stored in the database, in a way that every customer would have its card. In case of some problems, there would be also the name of the operator, which had filled out the order, so he would be responsible for this data.

Every developed contact centre has also a switching centre for a steady call distribution. This switching centre could be interconnected with the contact centre system, so the operators for example would not have to fill out the phone number of the customer (to avoid mistakes, but also for faster call process), in case that the customer is calling from the same telephone number he wants to be contacted to in case of needs. Another advantage of this interconnection would be, that once the customer has its customer card in the system database, and he is calling again, from the same telephone number he has in his customer card, the system is able to recognize him thanks to the interconnection with the switching centre, so the operator is able to see, that the caller is already in the database, when did he called, what did he want and other information. This will also lead, that there will be no duplicity regarding of the customer cards.

Basically, the work flow would be as follows:

A customer wants to contact the contact centre and when he is calling, the switching board redirects him to the first free operator. The operator immediately sees whether it is a new customer or not thanks to the customer card. The customer says what kind of product he wants and the operator will check it in the system, whether it is in stock. If it is in stock, the operator fills out the order form. If the desired product is not in stock, the operator may ask the customer whether he would like to be contacted if the product will be available or not, and in case of need, he will fill out his customer card with a note that the customer should be contacted. The customer may also say that there is no need to contact him, just send him the product when it will be available. So the operator will fill out the customer card and send the order. As soon, as the warehouse system receives a notification, that a product is ordered, it will decrease the amount of available products, so the information about the status will be always up-to-date. This will prevent the operator to say the customer that the desired product is in stock, while in fact it would not be. The warehouse system will also receive a notification about a product that is desired but not available, so the company will know that they have a shortage of particular product. As soon, as this product would be available, it will be sent to the customer, and in his customer card it would be written that the customer's order was satisfied. However, the operators should have a list of customers, that were supposed to receive the products, and after few days they may contact them to be sure that they received the product, so they will ensure that the customer is satisfied. Since the customers would be informed in advance that they can not receive immediately a desired product since it is not in stock, they would not have to wait for it for a several weeks and than receive a notification about the back-order.

For safety's sake, there should be a back-up system for sure, so data would not be lost in case of some technical problems. Of course, for the technical problems, it may occur, that the operators will not be able to use the computers or system, therefore there should be a back-up system for processing the calls in case of need. In this case, the operators will have to fill out the orders by hand and as soon as possible they will have to enter them into the system. Since