Priority goals:

Expand sales and service business, especially via repeat customers and word-of-mouth recommendations.

This mid-size auto dealership sells late model used automobiles, many of which are recently off-lease cars the owner gets from large new-car dealers in a southwestern city. IAS is owned by Stephany and Lee Bergen, a husband-and-wife team. They have been in business for 15 years and have a positive reputation for honesty. Many of their sales come from referrals from past customers. Competing with other new- and used-car dealerships is always a battle. New cars are sometimes being offered with zero interest loan incentives. IAS, however, can almost always offer a much better purchase price, especially on two- or three-year-old cars with some mileage on them.

With a difficult economy and reduced sales of cars, Steph and Lee have decided to emphasize their repair services in addition to sales. They have three full-time mechanics on duty. The service manager is Ray, a man with good skills but not much of a personality. Nevertheless, repairs now account for about 15 percent of IAS revenues.

In addition, IAS has been cultivating additional business-to-business (B2B) sales efforts. They recently got a contract to provide servicing for the vehicles owned by their local city government as well as a major building contractor. This increase in service business has posed some problems due to lack of repair staff. Sometimes Ray promises more than he can deliver or misses deadlines. IAS is recruiting qualified mechanics to meet this need. They are also on the lookout for good salespeople.

Answer all three questions (including all sub-questions) completely-your response should be at least 200 words, properly formatted, clearly written and organized, and checked for spelling and grammar. Make sure to include a title page.

1.How could you improve the overall quality of telephone use in your organization? Assuming you have authority to do so, what would you do?

Describe specific training you could develop. What suggestions would you have for greeting callers? What are some key phrases you would encourage all employees to use? What taboos-words and phrases you would forbid-might be useful?

2. How could you develop guidelines for handling unhappy customers? Draft such a "cheat sheet" for employee reference. Make it long enough to cover most concerns but not so long that it is too complicated.

3. What kinds of routine calls do your company handle most often? Describe these and offer brief guidelines (or checklists) for handling these in ways that provide excellent service.