Read the scenario: Allendale Technology is a startup company that has been in business for about six months. They have three Customer Service Representatives (CSRs) that answer the phones and social media inquiries between the hours of 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET Monday through Friday. The CSRs do have an additional means of getting help through the CSR center in India, but most are reticent to reach out for help. These CSRs only know minimal information about social media and have not had formal customer service training. Customers are complaining about the long time lag between when an email is sent to the company and when the customer receives a reply.

Additionally, the customers have been complaining on the corporate blog about excessive wait times when calling on the phone to the company. One customer posted on Facebook® and Twitter® that they were so frustrated that they planned to change companies.

Conversely, the CSRs may be frustrated themselves since several customers commented something similar to this customer who remarked, "I contact you to get service not attitude!" Other comments from customers were, "After waiting for 10 minutes, when they finally answered the call, they were unable to help me anyway...what's the use!"

The CSRs report to the human resource manager and do not have a dedicated customer service manager available for assistance. Many company employees have overheard conversations between some of the CSRs complaining about the lack of training, benefits and specific policies and procedures for their department. As a result of these complaints, employee morale is low.

In a PowerPoint presentation of a minimum of 7 slides (and an additional reference and title slide) discuss the scenario and the CSR skills that will be needed to improve service which you can include below each slide in the notes section. Be sure to include information about what management should do to improve the situation as well.

Respond to the items below:

Checklist:

What are the overall problems at the CSR center? List them and explain briefly concerning each one.

Using the CSR skills checklist, explain how you would apply CSR skills from the checklist to address the problems with the CSR's interactions with customers. Be sure to refer to the customer experience life cycle and customer touch points (from the Learning Activities) as well in your explanation, but without copying it.

Based on your previous response, how would this application of the CSR skills improve the customer experience? Explain.

Here is a list of just some of the skills generally expected of CSRs:

Communication skills

Anger management skills

Networking skills

Negotiation skills

Relationship skills

Ability to multi-task

Listening skills

Problem-solving skills

Computer skills