Analysis on Cango Procedures

Analysis on CanGo Procedures

APEX Consultants

September 26, 2010

Analysis made by:

As consultants for business it is our mission of APEX to help lead company's success to the highest point of innovation. We recognize that at this point for your company, innovation and improvement in processes may be necessary to maintain a competitive advantage and help your company thrive in growth. Making the right decisions and applying business principles or strategy is how we'll make your firm dominant in the marketplace.

As APEX researched and reviewed all aspects of CanGo, we were able to narrow down some issues that required attention. There were six issues that APEX found to need attention: 1) Customer Retention, 2) Lack of Communication and Trust, 3) Employee Utilization, 4) Lack of Focus on Asset base, 5) More research on AS/RS for Board of Directors, and 6) Questions on Expanding Market.

In the following paragraphs APEX outlined the issues and their resolutions in order of precedence.

#1 Customer Retention

An issue that APEX found that needed the most attention was customer retention. Your company was able to find that statistics showed that 75% of all customers that shop online get to the point of buying and then stop when it is time to click and buy; your percentage was not that high but quite close that it needs to be attended to. There is also an issue with keeping customers on the customer service lines too long; this is a problem because customers want great customer service or they will leave the company for another that will fit their needs.

CanGo needs to conduct demographical research and buying tendencies. This will give your company insights on how customers view your website and the areas to improve. CanGo can drop the percentage of customers who shop but do not buy by using appropriate marketing techniques such as incentives. CanGo can offer rewards, discounts, promotions, and holiday gifts to its customers if they buy through them. This helps the customer become more inclined to buy now and also return to buy again.

The customer service line has a long waiting time that will eventually cause customers from staying with your company. The less waiting a customer has to do to find the answer to their questions or problem the more apt they are to call again when they are experiencing difficulties with any orders. Your company would need to resolve this issue by added more employees to the lines, change the automated system to answer questions, get customers to a customer service representative quicker, and answer questions in a manner of respect for the customers problems. When improving the process of buying items online and creating a better customer experience to online shopping, your company can enlarge their sales to current and any future customers.

#2 Lacks of Communication and Trust

It is a great accomplishment when a company can say that the employees and management have tight relationships and a bond like a family. Your company has this and it is important to have this type of bond. One thing that APEX found was that CanGo management and employees have no structured communication lines. Your company has extremely good people who are determined to do their part in the organization but the chain of communication seems to be too friendly and in need of more authority.

The best way to handle this issue is to set up procedures in how communication lines are set up. This answers the questions of who an employee or manager needs to talk to in any type of business venture. The more organized the procedures are, the more open the lines of communication become and the less confusion about what is going and on and who is responsible for what. Another great way to improve the authority figures in your company would be to set up management training. You want your managers to be in authority but still respect the employees; same with the employees, you want them to respect and be open with the managers but still understand that the manager is the boss. By creating certain guidelines this will help the whole staff communicate and trust each other better.

#3 Employee Utilization

Above all, it is the people affiliated with your organization that makes the company successful. Technology is a great asset useful tool to enhance business functions, however it is your employees that work the processes and support your profitable reward. Therefore employee utilization is a vital component for the direction of your firm. It is necessary, now, to begin to generate ideas as to what you are going to do with those in positions that may be overtaken by the AS/RS. It will be of the utmost concern to the board to remain productive and provide for the employee base, while creating ways to generate revenue.

One of the main problems of CanGo's busiest time of the year last year was complaints. It would be beneficial and productive to increase the strength of their customer service team. Often, callers wait up to ten minutes to receive a response towards a solution and that time could be reduced by adding workers to those areas. Solutions and added feedback will only help create a positive regard to CanGo and increase customer retention, something the entire organization wants.

Another resolution would be to set up procedures that the employees would need to follow when they are assigned projects or jobs. Your company needs to use more experienced employees for certain projects of specialty fields, this would require the employee to have training or additional training to obtain these types of projects. The more visual the plans for the procedures, the more management and employees will understand and adapt to their responsibilities and learning styles.

#4 Lack of Focus on Asset-base

One issue of concern for your company that was analyzed is the lack of focus on a particular asset-base. The new AS/RS system that has been portrayed for the company covers both volume and variety. Our question to you is, "Does CanGo incline to continue to sell by volume or by customized orders, or both?" This makes a big difference and should be considered as it creates a method of either job shop or continuous process that must be implemented. CanGo must identify the major portion of sales emphasis, in volume, or variety.

Our recommendation to you is to emphasize what creates the most sales revenue, best sellers, yet be able