Introduction
Global Tea was founded in 1985 in Los Angeles by three sisters who shared profound love for fine teas. Tea and More (TAM) outsourced the tea business and experienced challenges of unreliability and shipment sizes. Although the company registered success in the early periods, poor customer service, low brand attractiveness, stock outages, detrimental debt collection schedules, and the creation of economic value from experiments adversely affected its performance.
Major Facts and Problem
TAM is experiencing operational challenges stemming from various business areas, such as marketing plans, long-term strategic development, and supply chain management. Moreover, the firm has difficulties in dealing with contracted customer service representatives. As a result, the company must make radical interventions, which will remodel its functionality, guarantee sustainable growth, and ensure profitability. However, TAM’s fundamental problem is poor customer service, which has resulted in declining sales.
Possible Solutions
TAM can streamline the operations of permanent and contracted staff for increased efficiency and an enhanced customer-centered approach. Additionally, the management can improve its supply chain by adding another supplier and procuring the selected teas directly from the source, to reduce overreliance on partners (Atnafu et al., 2018). The organization should also ensure sufficient funding for its marketing operations to generate crucial cash flows and restore brand attractiveness (McAlister et al., 2016). These strategies can help restore TAM’s sales volume, brand attractiveness, and profitability.
Advantages and Disadvantages of the Possible Solutions
Streamlining the operations of contracted and full-time customer service employees will improve the efficiency and consistency in the quality of engagement with clients. However, this may require automation of functions, which would further constrain the firm’s finances. Moreover, converting the contracted customer service staff to full-time employees will increase their commitment to the firm, improving their productivity and performance (Osborne & Hammoud, 2017). The disadvantage of this solution is the potential escalation in workers’ salaries and benefits. Further, enhancing the managerial relationship with the contracted workers would create a collaborative work environment, leading to a highly motivated workforce. However, this strategy could be detrimental to the workers’ productivity due to the potential of undermining managerial authority.
Choice and Rationale
The selected solution of streamlining customer service operations has been chosen due to its impact on TAM’s sales and the potential of enhancing the firm’s overall effectiveness. For instance, inefficiencies in the organization’s customer-facing employees have increasingly frustrated clients, potentially exposing them to acquisition by other brands. The flawless and effective functioning of the customer service department is critical in promoting clients’ retention and the ultimate growth in the firm’s revenues.
Converting Contracted Employees to Permanent
TAM should inform the contracted personnel of the intention to terminate their contractual engagement and suggest the transition to the position of a permanent employee. This would be followed by negotiating the conversion terms, including the remuneration, applicable benefits, and performance expectations. Once the employees accept the offer, TAM will provide a one-off conversion fee based on the duration the workers have been engaged. This will mark the commencement of the employees’ engagement on permanent terms.
References
Atnafu, D., Balda, A., & Liu, S. (2018). The impact of inventory management practice on firms’ competitiveness and organizational performance: Empirical evidence from micro and small enterprises in Ethiopia. Cogent Business & Management, 5(1), 1–16.
Kumari, P., & Thapliyal, S. (2017). Studying the impact of organizational citizenship behavior on organizational effectiveness. International Academic Journal of Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management, 4(1), 9–21.
Lianto, B., Dachyar, M., & Soemardi, T. (2018). Continuous innovation: A literature review and future perspective. International Journal on Advanced Science, Engineering and Information Technology, 8(3), 771–779.
McAlister, L., Srinivasan, R., Jindal, N., & Cannella, A. (2016). Advertising effectiveness: The moderating effect of firm strategy. Journal of Marketing Research, 53(2), 207–224. Web.
Osborne, S., & Hammoud, M. S. (2017). Effective employee engagement in the workplace. International Journal of Applied Management and Technology, 16(1), 50–67.