Radioshack being a retail outlet has to maintain very high service quality levels. To begin every new employee goes through a 2 week training program on policy and procedure, there are 5 main exams that must be taken and passed before the associate is allowed to interact with customers. These exams cover selling, customer returns, customer service, TCF( Think Customers First) Quality Management,Customer Retention. Once a month employees are given a one on one review based on sales performance, returns and customer complaints. There are two inspection sources set in place to ensure great service and they are " secret shoppers" and store auditing. Each retail location is shopped twice a month and scores the store in 14 different categories. These reports give the manager a chance to continually improve there service by helping understand where the specific issues are. The shopper reports give managers a sense of the customer interpretation and the audit help managers to catch any gaps in pricing or product displays. Store Managers are encouraged to use the Deming cycle also known as PDCA.
PDCA stands for
Plan: Identify an opportunity and plan for change,
Do: Implement the change on a small scale,
Check: Use data to analyze the results of the change and determine whether it made a difference,
Act: If the change was successful, implement it on a wider scale and continuously assess your results. If the change did not work, begin the cycle again. The managers first need is to identify the issues, the best process for this in a retail envirnoment like Radioshack is to use the fish-bone diagram. This cause and effect diagram gives managers an easy to read and translate map of where corrective action must take place. The chart is broken into the following categories: Price, Promotion, People, Processes, Place , Policies, Procedures and Product. Since quality control in a service industry is not an exact science this process must constantly be reviewed and improved upon by following the Deming Cycle in "cycles". Six Sigma is also used at store level because managers are focused on increasing productivity, reducing certain transaction times and reducing " do" overs from lack of training. This Six Sigma process is related back to the Deming Cycle where the goal is to plan, do, check and act until the wanted result is attained.
Radioshack does well in training it's employees and managers do well in following up with associates and making sure plans are being followed but what lacks is employee understanding of the situation. Radioshack Managers should begin to explain at least in simple terms what is expected but also why and have the associate become involved in the process. The associate input should be request since they are the onces dealing with customers.
Radioshack being a retail outlet has to maintain very high service quality levels. To begin every new employee goes through a 2 week training program on policy and procedure, there are 5 main exams that must be taken and passed before the associate is allowed to interact with customers. These exams cover selling, customer returns, customer service, TCF( Think Customers First) Quality Management,Customer Retention. Once a month employees are given a one on one review based on sales performance, returns and customer complaints. There are two inspection sources set in place to ensure great service and they are " secret shoppers" and store auditing. Each retail location is shopped twice a month and scores the store in 14 different categories. These reports give the manager a chance to continually improve there service by helping understand where the specific issues are. The shopper reports give managers a sense of the customer interpretation and the audit help managers to catch any gaps in pricing or product displays. Store Managers are encouraged to use the Deming cycle also known as PDCA. PDCA stands for Plan: Identify an opportunity and plan for change, Do: Implement the change on a small scale, Check: Use data to analyze the results of the change and determine whether it made a difference, Act: If the change was successful, implement it on a wider scale and continuously assess your results. If the change did not work, begin the cycle again. The managers first need is to identify the issues, the best process for this in a retail envirnoment like Radioshack is to use the fish-bone diagram. This cause and effect diagram gives managers an easy to read and translate map of where corrective action must take place. The chart is broken into the following categories: Price, Promotion, People, Processes, Place , Policies, Procedures and Product. Since quality control in a service industry is not an exact science this process must constantly be reviewed and improved upon by following the Deming Cycle in "cycles". Six Sigma is also used at store level because managers are focused on increasing productivity, reducing certain transaction times and reducing " do" overs from lack of training. This Six Sigma process is related back to the Deming Cycle where the goal is to plan, do, check and act until the wanted result is attained.
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