Listen-Up.Com Case-Operations Management
Operations Management
Listen-Up.com
Case introduction
Mai Chen, fresh from business school, has been hired by Listen-Up.com, a small, start-up manufacturer of hearing aids, to resolve the difficulties within its customer service group.
The company’s products are sold over the Internet or phoned in using the company’s toll-free telephone lines, but telephone orders is the main and growing sales channel.
During its three years of existence the company has experienced rapid growth with the number of units produced more than doubling each year, but now faces a problem, scheduling its customer service staff and to optimize its toll free line capacity, in order to satisfy customers.
The issue is that during the peak period of 7:30 am to 2:00 pm the average waiting time is over 127 seconds. Approximately 76% of all callers have to wait. Customers now have been telling the Listen-Up.com sales staff that it is next to impossible to get through to ask questions and place orders.
The customer service department has eight customer service representatives (CSR 's) and a supervisor. There are 12 incoming phone lines. The phone system automatically assigns an incoming call to an available CSR. If no CSR is available, the caller waits as the call is placed in a queue for the next available CSR on a “first-come, first-serve basis.” Sometimes, when all 12 lines are in use (e.g. 8 having CSR 's assisting customers and 4 customers holding in queue) the caller receives a busy signal.
Incoming calls can be classified into one of six categories: standard product order, custom order, order status check, new account creation, hearing aid supply order and information request.
1. What is the average arrival rate, λ, for incoming calls during a typical day?
Average arrival rate stands for the number of customers calling in a certain time. If we assume the unit time is hour, the calculations are as follows. * Sum up the Average No. Calls (Figure 1 in
Listen-Up.com
Case introduction
Mai Chen, fresh from business school, has been hired by Listen-Up.com, a small, start-up manufacturer of hearing aids, to resolve the difficulties within its customer service group.
The company’s products are sold over the Internet or phoned in using the company’s toll-free telephone lines, but telephone orders is the main and growing sales channel.
During its three years of existence the company has experienced rapid growth with the number of units produced more than doubling each year, but now faces a problem, scheduling its customer service staff and to optimize its toll free line capacity, in order to satisfy customers.
The issue is that during the peak period of 7:30 am to 2:00 pm the average waiting time is over 127 seconds. Approximately 76% of all callers have to wait. Customers now have been telling the Listen-Up.com sales staff that it is next to impossible to get through to ask questions and place orders.
The customer service department has eight customer service representatives (CSR 's) and a supervisor. There are 12 incoming phone lines. The phone system automatically assigns an incoming call to an available CSR. If no CSR is available, the caller waits as the call is placed in a queue for the next available CSR on a “first-come, first-serve basis.” Sometimes, when all 12 lines are in use (e.g. 8 having CSR 's assisting customers and 4 customers holding in queue) the caller receives a busy signal.
Incoming calls can be classified into one of six categories: standard product order, custom order, order status check, new account creation, hearing aid supply order and information request.
1. What is the average arrival rate, λ, for incoming calls during a typical day?
Average arrival rate stands for the number of customers calling in a certain time. If we assume the unit time is hour, the calculations are as follows. * Sum up the Average No. Calls (Figure 1 in