Reference no: EM133029711

THE CASE OF TELECOMPROS 

For large cellular service providers, maintaining their own customer-service call centers can be very expensive. Many have found that they can save money by outsourcing their customer service calls to outside companies.

TELECOMPROS is one such company that specializes in cellular phone customer service. It saves large cellular companies money by eliminating overhead costs associated with building a call center, installing additional telephone lines, and hiring and training reps and managers. Once it has been hired by a large cellular service provider, TELECOMPROS trains its own employees on the cellular providers' systems, policies, and procedures. It makes money by charging a per-hour fee for each employee.

Six months ago, TELECOMPROS acquired a contract with Cell2u, a large cellular service provider serving the western United States. In the beginning of the contract, Cell2U was very pleased. As a call center, TELECOMPROS has a computer system in place that monitors the number of calls the center receives and how quickly the calls are answered. When Cell2U received its first report, the system showed that TELECOMPROS was a very productive call center and handled the call volume very well.

A month later, however, Cell2U launched a nationwide marketing campaign. Suddenly, the call volume increased, and TELECOMPROS's customer service reps were unable to keep up. The phone monitoring system showed that some customers were on hold for 45 minutes or longer, and at any given time throughout the day there were as many as 50 customers on hold. It was clear to Cell2U that the original number of customer service reps it had contracted for was not enough. It renegotiated with upper management at TELECOMPROS and hired additional customer service reps. TELECOMPROS was pleased because it was now receiving more money from Cell2U for the extra employees, and Cell2U was happy because the call center volume was no longer overwhelming and its customers were happy with the attentive customer service.

Three months later, though, TELECOMPROS's customer service supervisors noticed a decrease in the number of customer service calls. It seemed that the reps had done such a good job that Cell2U customers had fewer problems. There were too many people and not enough calls. With little to do, some reps were playing computer games or surfing the Internet while waiting for calls to come in.

Knowing that if Cell2U analyzed its customer service needs it would want to decrease the reps to save money, TELECOMPROS's upper management made a decision. Rather than reduce its staff and lose the hourly pay from Cell2U, managers told the customer service supervisors to call the customer service line. Supervisors called in and spent enough time on the phone with reps to ensure that the computer registered the call and the time it took to "resolve" it. Then they hung up and called the center again. TELECOMPROS did not have to decrease its customer service reps, and Cell2U continued to pay for the allotted reps until the end of the contract.

Questions

1. Was the decision made by TELECOMPROS an ethical one? Why or why not?
2. If you were a manager at TELECOMPROS, what would you have done when your manager asked you to call the customer service line? What are the ramifications of your decision?
3. Where did the decision-making process at TELECOMPROS break down? Explain.
4. What alternative solutions to the problem at hand can you identify? What is your recommended solution? Explain why you selected this alternative