Quality & Performance Excellence 6th Edition by James Evans

Exercise 21

The Technical Support Clerk
Melissa Claire works as a technical support representative at a call center for a major computer manufacturer. Her duties include answering the telephone, answering technical questions, troubleshooting customer problems, and providing other general information and guidance to customers. Her supervisor told her to be courteous and not to rush callers. However, the supervisor also told her that she must process at least five calls per hour because of the volume of calls that typically comes in and the limited staff available. Melissa comes home each day frustrated because she cannot always find the information that she needs in the database, and she be comes stressed whenever she is told to "speed it up."
Discussion Questions
Drawing upon Deming's principles, outline a plan to improve this situation.