dd mmmmm yyyyy
Priority of the Service Issues
I would list as follows:
Outdated and Unavailable Brochures
Delay in Answering Phone Calls
Clients Not Being Acknowledged
Store Appearance
The brochure is a powerful tool and symbol for the business and that is why companies set aside a hefty budget for the creation and printing. With its contents designed for selling, it takes the place of the salesman when he is no longer around. Just as the salesman’s skills and personality are the measure of sales competence, the quality of the brochure bespeaks of the agency’s competence overall.
The email response time reflects on the quality of service. The fact that the customer had taken the effort to write means that there is genuine interest. Customers may be annoyed by delays in phone answering but the staff can quickly compensate by a quality conversation. The same also goes for unacknowledged clients; the mood can change as soon as we engage them. The store appearance can be tolerated as long as the service is excellent.
Workflow for Provision of Brichures
The brochure goes through a regular review and updates will be compiled for the CEO’s review.
The number of copies is estimated and ordered for printing.
The copies are distributed among staff, office locations, selected customers and inventory.
For customers who come in and just want to get brochures, they will be attended to by a sales staff and asked three questions before being given the brochure.
For customers who are being attended to by staff, the brochure will be used for talking points during the discussion and will be handed to the customer afterwards.
For any bulk distribution to customers, the staff must get approval from the manager.
Action Plan for Brochures
The issue and correction on brochures can be treated like a small project which would need a framework such as an action plan. (Mind Tools)
Background of Issue
The branches are currently suffering from staff shortage and have thus missed completion of regular tasks, one of which is the updating and timely replenishment of brochures. As the area manager, I am responsible for the collecting update material but I am spending most of my time assisting the undermanned stores. For the last year, the workaround had been stapling a sheet of paper onto the old brochures; customers had hinted displeasure several times already. Due to tight finances, the ordering lead time had also been shortened by half from 2 weeks to 1 week to minimize inventory carrying cost.
The regular updating schedule has to be observed again strictly. Three months before the date, all staff who will attend the review meetings will be asked to start planning their coming activities to ensure that they will be available. If there will be events which cannot be missed, then the fallback action will be to hold the meetings on the nearest weekend before.
A better projection of brochure demand is necessary to keep the short ordering lead time. Every week, each store will be required to submit a brochure demand estimate for the next four weeks. Managers will also be strict in the approval of unplanned bulk requests from staff. A trial period will be observed if frequent estimating will control brochure consumption. For any unavailability, the fallback is for staff to print on high–quality paper.
Resources
All update materials must be ready before the review meetings. Just in case the attendee is suddenly not available because of an emergency, a senior staff who had been briefed will attend himself. The venue will be secured one week before. If it will happen on a weekend, lunch will be served. A laptop, projector, cables will be allocated for the meeting.
A clerk will be assigned to order prints and count inventory for brochures. He will receive an email every week on brochure demand estimates and will order every month based on the consolidated demand by the three stores. An Excel spreadsheet will be set-up to allow close monitoring of the order amount.
Delegation Process
I will delegate one store manager to be responsible for the year’s update activity and the three managers will take turns every year. Prior to the meeting at every staff meeting, the managers delegate their staff to contribute any necessary material for the update of the brochure. Each manager will also appoint one senior staff to his assistant wherein he should be aware of the store’s contributions in case the manager will not be available for some urgent reason. The assistant of the presiding manager will also be responsible for all the logistics of the meetings: venue, time, equipment, beverage/snacks, etc.
Each store manager will delegate to his secretary the following tasks:
Every week, email all staff to submit their brochure demand estimates.
Compute for the lead time estimate and call the printing shop if the estimate is 1 or 2 days more than the 1 week lead time.
Communication of the Workflow
I will call a meeting with the three store managers and their senior staff to discuss the action plan. In turn, they will also discuss this to their store staff. There will be a revision in the current store procedures manual and a copy will be disseminated to all staff. The document will be the material for the discussions.
There will be a trial period of three months and discussions will be maintained regarding the execution of the plan. This topic will be a regular one in the staff meetings until the time that it is clear that the procedure has been established firmly. As I do the rounds in the three branches, the status of brochure updates will always be taken up with the store managers.
Reporting
For the annual brochure update, the presiding manager will submit a report on the results of the activity to me and I will include a summary in my report to the CEO. The store managers would include a status of the brochure update materials and availability of brochures in the stores in my monthly review meetings with them.
Works Cited
Mind Tools Editorial Team. “Action Plans: Small Scale Planning”. Web. 1 August 2016. <https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newHTE_04.htm>.
