Employee Frustration Drives Customer Dissatisfaction

Case Study by:

Kim Betty

Ashley Bouey

The Mager Model

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A series of steps used to figure out how to solve any given performance problem.

Applied to AMRE Insurance Company problem.

Kickoff Email from client:

New customer data system Too many mistakes Costing time and money

Company BackgroundAMRE Insurance Company

“AMRE makes traveling through life safe and convenient.”

ServicesCompany sizeAverage wages

What’s the Problem?

Whose Performanceis concerning you?

DescribeDiscrepancy

What’s the Problem?Percentage of errors in frontline

employee data entry:

20% error rate

February March

Total Records 140,128 155,789

Errors 26,387 31,283

Is it Worth Solving?

Worth Pursuing?

NODone

Is it Worth Solving?Use the following information to find the

company’s monetary loss: 1.8 million customers 20% error rate 5 minutes taken to find and correct error

Hundreds of thousands of dollars lost each year!

Yearly Losses # of Customers X Error Rate = Amount of Errors

1.8 million X (.20) = 360,000

Amount of Errors X Amount of time to correct = Minutes

360,000 X 5 minutes = 1.8 million minutes

Minutes ÷ 60 Minutes/Hour = Wasted hours/Year

1.8 million minutes ÷ 60 = 30,000 wasted hours/Year

Average Salary X Wasted Hours/Year = Total Loss $/Year

$21.00 X 30,000 = $630,000 Lost every year

Can we apply Fast Fixes?Expectations

Clear

ClarifyExpectations

ResourcesAdequate

ProvideResources

PerformanceQualityVisible

ProvideFeedback

ProblemSufficiently

Solved

NO

NO

NO

YES

YES

YES

YES

Done

Can we apply Fast Fixes?Observations

Resources

SurveyExpectationsFeedback

Are Consequences Appropriate?Is Desired

Performance Punishing?

Remove Punishment

Is Poor Performance Rewarding?

Remove Rewards

Are Performance Consequences Used

Effectively?

Provide / Rearrange Consequences

Problem Sufficiently

Solved?

NO

NO

NO

YES

YES

YES

NO

YES

Are Consequences Appropriate?

Erica Burns: “People, we can’t afford to be making such petty mistakes all the time! You all need to figure out how to input the information correctly. I mean, come on, you have manuals; isn’t that enough!?!”

Joyce Reynolds: “But, I didn’t do anything wrong, why are you mad at me?”

Erica Burns: “I don’t care if it wasn’t you, there’s enough mistakes to go around!”

Do They Already Know How?Genuine Skill Deficiency?

Did It In the Past?

Used Often?

Provide Feedback

Provide Practice

NO

YES /NOT SURE

NO

YESYES

NO

Do They Already Know How?• Anonymous records:

Test Score Monthly Errors

Emp 1 85% 10

Emp 2 81% 9

Emp 3 93% 12

Emp 4 91% 7

Emp 5 79% 8

Emp 6 88% 13

Emp 7 74% 12

Emp 8 98% 10

Emp 9 83% 6

Emp 10 96% 6

Are There More Clues?Can Task BeMade Easier?

SimplifyTask

Any OtherObstacles?

RemoveObstacles

PersonHas PotentialTo Change?

ReplacePerson

Train

YES

YES

YES

NO

NO

NO

Are There More Clues?You: “Why do you feel this job is being poorly

performed?”

Rick: “I can’t think of anything in particular that would be a problem. You may want to ask the Manager of the frontline employees though.”

You: “Why was the new system implemented?”

Rick: ”We were pretty out of date when it came to the frontline system and we needed to input data quicker in order to keep up with competitors.”

Select And Implement Solutions

CalculateCosts

SelectBest

Solutions

DraftActionPlan

ImplementAnd

Monitor

Done

Solutions Four feasible

solutions:Job AidFeedback SystemReward SystemTraining on each

system (feedback, reward)

Job Aid

Feedback System

Reward System

Training on Reward/Feedback

System