Risk Management Action Plan: Training Customer Service at Telstra

This report identifies key risks in Telstra's customer service operations and proposes a risk management action plan centered around comprehensive training programs for customer service representatives. It explores both on-the-job and off-the-job training methods, including tactic knowledge acquisition, observational learning, special lectures, and simulations. The report emphasizes the importance of staff participation in training, discusses the costs and duration of training programs, and highlights the expected outcomes, such as improved customer perception and company success. Further assessed risks, such as staff attrition due to lack of professional development, are addressed with recommendations for ongoing professional development initiatives and guidance from senior management. The report concludes that continuous training and strong leadership are essential for Telstra to enhance customer satisfaction and strengthen its market position. Desklib provides access to similar solved assignments and study tools for students.

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Risk Management Action Plan
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1RISK MANAGEMENT ACTION PLAN
Abstract
The following report focusses on the major identified risks at Telstra with respect to customer
services. Thus, the importance to train the customer service representatives are pointed out
with the possible training methods including on job and off job training modes. The
implementation strategy of this training methods is hence discussed and in the later part of
the report the role of the senior management of the company is also pointed out in order to
retain the staffs in the company by playing their respective roles for the company’s success.

2RISK MANAGEMENT ACTION PLAN
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Discussion..................................................................................................................................3
Identified risk in the organization:.........................................................................................3
Potential training options for customer service representatives:............................................3
Recommendations for staffs to participate in the training programs:....................................3
Cost for the training programs:..............................................................................................3
Duration for the training programs:.......................................................................................3
Outcomes of the staff training:...............................................................................................3
Further assessed risk from the training:.................................................................................3
Measure to the risk:................................................................................................................3
Recommendations on future actions:.....................................................................................4
Conclusion:................................................................................................................................4
References:.................................................................................................................................4

3RISK MANAGEMENT ACTION PLAN
Introduction
The leading telecommunication company, Telstra focusses primarily on the customer
services offered by them and announces for a major growth of service to the customers over
the social media with a 24/7 attention (Atluri, Dietz & Henke, 2017). The company’s
customer service representatives face about more than 140,000 of live chats with a growing
rate of services of about 600% pa. As a result of this wide range of customer allowance,
Telstra announced to expand its workforce to about 600 more representatives providing
services to its customers.
Discussion
Identified risk in the organization
In spite of Telstra’s such announcement of increasing their workforce the major risk
that is identified with the process is that the company is unable to attract qualified and
knowledgeable staffs to manage their new retail stores. The reason behind the identified risk
is due to the absence of sufficient managerial skills and knowledge among the customer
representatives.
Potential training options for customer service representatives
Training the customer service representatives of an organisation plays a vital role for
making the system effective. Training the customer service representatives means training the
employees to improve the customer support by improving their teaching skills to serve the
customers better (Amadi, 2014). There may be two types of training options for the customer
service representatives-

4RISK MANAGEMENT ACTION PLAN
On-job training options: The type of training in which an individual gains experience by
joining the job process in the office is known as On job training. On job training has a
number of variations such as-
1. Tactic knowledge: Tactic knowledge is the capacity to learn while experiencing the
job. This includes undertaking tasks which includes soft skills while the staff is still
under training.
2. Observational learning: This type of training means learning while observing
situations like the ability to negotiate with customers (Di Stefano eta al., 2014).
3. Trial by fire: This area of on job training often trains an employee to deal with the
pressures and anxieties that are faced while dealing with the customers.
4. Immersion: This mode of on job training makes an employee learn about the culture
of the company and the characteristics of the role of a customer representative.
5. Situated knowledge: With the help of this mode of on job training the former
customer representatives would get an idea about the tricks and tips to impress the
customer that would be beneficial in the long run.
Off-job training options: Besides the on-job training options there exists some of the off-job
training options too that includes-
1. Special lectures: In this type of training the staffs are given lectures about their job
roles, requirements and the important skills that are needed to be implemented in the
profession.
2. Simulation: This mode of off job training provides the employee to learn about the
operation of a customer representative by providing them to work with actual
machines

5RISK MANAGEMENT ACTION PLAN
3. Vestibule training: This type of off job training is often given to customer
representatives who deals with the technical issues with the customers.
Recommendations for staffs to participate in the training programs
The entire customer service industry depends on two important roles- one is the
customers and the other is the representatives who are serving them. Thus, it is recommended
that the staffs should take up both the on job and off job trainings to build up strategies to
gain customer trust (Sloman, 2017). Staffs are the first people that customers come across so
it is recommended to provide suitable training to the before they handle customers efficiently.
Cost for the training programs
By implementing e-learning in providing training program to the staffs reduces major
of the costs between $40 to $80 per employee (Chang, 2016). By implementing customer
service training software also can reduce the cost of training starting as low as $80 per disc
and may go up to $1,000 at the maximum.
Duration for the training programs
Customer service representatives should undergo regular training even after they are
working in the team for a long period of time. However, the new employees those who are
being recruited for the role needs special training. A quarterly or half-yearly training is a
good time period for conducting the training to make them acquainted with the work.
Outcomes of the staff training
Training the customer representatives of an organization changes the customer’s
perception towards the organization and thus helps to reach out to a wide range of population
with their advanced services bringing in success of the company.

6RISK MANAGEMENT ACTION PLAN
Further assessed risk from the training
In spite of training the representatives with proper managerial skills and knowledge, it
is reported that many of the staffs left the company due to lack of professional development
and improper guidance from the senior management.
Measure to the risk
Ongoing professional development: On going professional development is an important
aspect of training programs and thus cannot be ignored. Regular survey among the staffs
should be ensured to focus on the demands and ideas of the customer representatives
(Cummings & Worley, 2014). Besides regular feedback should be taken from the
representatives about setting up the customer service forums using new features.
Guidance from the senior management about the expectation of the job: While the
customer service representatives play the major role in satisfying the customer by their
services but setting up the expectations and making big decisions lies within the sole
responsibility of the senior management (Aier, 2014). The managers can only analyze the
customer needs and the ratings thus it is their responsibility to set up expectations and convey
the same to the representatives.
Recommendations on future actions
In order to improve the relationship with the customers it is thus recommended to
improve the customer services by providing appropriate training to the representatives by the
possible training methods (Mishra, Boynton & Mishra, 2014). It is important for the customer
representatives to retain patience in order to handle customers. It is recommended to take
actions to improve employee engagement by setting up appropriate strategies to improve the
customer feedbacks.

7RISK MANAGEMENT ACTION PLAN
Conclusion
The main objective of Telstra is to improve their customer advocacy and thus in doing
so regular training to the customer representatives is required to provide efficient service to
them. Thus, it can be concluded that customer satisfaction is an important part of any
company to strengthen their foundation and it can be achieved with various types of trainings
and regular guidance from the senior management of the organization.

8RISK MANAGEMENT ACTION PLAN
References
Aier, S. (2014). The role of organizational culture for grounding, management, guidance and
effectiveness of enterprise architecture principles. Information Systems and E-
Business Management, 12(1), 43-70.
Amadi, E. J. (2014). The effect of training and development on Employees’ performance; at
Safaricom limited Call centre. Unpublished MBA Project.
Atluri, V., Dietz, M., & Henke, N. (2017). Competing in a world of sectors without
borders. McKinsey Quarterly, July.
Chang, V. (2016). Review and discussion: E-learning for academia and
industry. International Journal of Information Management, 36(3), 476-485.
Cummings, T. G., & Worley, C. G. (2014). Organization development and change. Cengage
learning.
Di Stefano, G., Gino, F., Pisano, G. P., Staats, B., & Di-Stefano, G. (2014). Learning by
thinking: How reflection aids performance. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School.
Mishra, K., Boynton, L., & Mishra, A. (2014). Driving employee engagement: The expanded
role of internal communications. International Journal of Business
Communication, 51(2), 183-202.
Sloman, M. (2017). A handbook for training strategy. Routledge.