Problem Solution: Intersect Investments

Running head: PROBLEM SOLUTION: INTERSECT INVESTMENTS

Problem Solution: Intersect Investments

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Problem Solution: Intersect Investments

Intersect investments CEO Frank Jeffers recognizes the changes in the financial service industry and realizes his company needs change. Companies that try cost-cutting tactics by increase number of service calls and reducing the average call time are losing customers and employees at a quicker rate then in the past years. Frank's Vice President of Marketing Joel Contino has benchmarked data from IT solutions providers and the telecommunications industry and found companies which the customer intimacy model cause more growth at a faster rate then those who don't use. Data from Western Telecom showed reps got 20 percent more revenues a day and calls where longer. After this data, Frank Jeffers now has created a vision that will change Intersect Investment Services to a company who will provide products and services using a model of customer intimacy to build trust, value, and relationships with its customers.

Much of the situation at Intersect Investment has to do with the workforce. The culture at Intersect Investment has been totally a state of confusion for quite some time now. People love working for the company but never know what direction the company is going. This is because too many of the leaders and management has sent mixed signals. One manager is trying to cut corners by reducing cost, which the result is causing lower quality of services. Another leader wants to improve quality no matter what the charts say. CEO Frank Jeffers has organized a team that he feels will be able to carry out his one vision to "Provide a broad set of products and services to consumers and small business customers using a model of customer intimacy that will build long-term relationships based on trust and value to the customers (University of Phoenix, 2005)." The bottom line on this company is to improve relationships with customers, promote sales, and decrease much of the employee turnover that is leading to extra costs. They have done their homework, and know this is the direction they will need. Good background.

Situation Analysis

Issue and Opportunity Identification

There are issues with the employees at Intersect Investment. Some of them are stubborn and feel they do not need to change because they have had good success in the past. Some of them just do not know what kind of company they are, they are told two different things. Many service employees feel a sense of Cognitive Dissonance. Cognitive dissonance is a psychological tension that occurs when people perceive an inconsistency between their beliefs, feelings, and behavior (McShane, Von Glinow, 2004). They feel this because they do not know what there vision is. True. They are told to make more calls with less call time which lowers the quality of the service also. Then they are told to have more customer intimacy. If the employees have a clear vision to go after, they will no longer feel any cognitive dissonance. We can turn this into an opportunity instilling Intersect Investment’s new vision to every employee at Intersect Investment. By doing this at Intersect Investment, every employee will be more enthusiastic for his or her duties and promote good work. The new vision will also decrease employee turn around and increase employee health.

“Happy workers are more productive workers (Judge, Thoresen, Bono, 2001).” According to Betty Gilliam, an executive at the Care Group, says “If our employees are satisfied, then our patients are satisfied (McShane, Glinow, 2004, ch.4). We also know from recent studies that increasing employee satisfaction and loyalty results in higher customer perception of value, which improves the company’s profitability (Hesket, Sasser, Schlesinger, 2001). Its common sense when you figure out that happy employees bring happy attitudes for customers which results in the feeling we call customer intimacy. All these positive results start by getting ride of cognitive dissonance.

Another issue is the team at Intersect Investments. Some of the team members feel that others should not be on the workforce because they are not cooperative. The challenge is to keep current employees and turn there attitudes around. A good manager will be able to retain most of his or her employees and have them adapt to the companies needs. One very stubborn employee in a leadership position is Lyn Chen. She is Vice President of Sales and has been with Intersect