Worksheet: Take the routine work off the reps

Reps answer delivery queries and fill in forms because it is quicker than explaining. This sheet lists that work and gives each piece another home. It builds the Competent step of the check:

The routine things customers ring about and the paperwork reps do have been listed, and everything that does not need a rep has a home that is not the rep.

Step 1. List the work

Ask each rep about last week. Count customer requests and internal paperwork separately.

Task	Customer request or paperwork	Times a week, whole team	Minutes each	Needs a rep?	New home
e.g. Delivery date query	Customer request	90	6	No	Customer service, with tracking online

Homes to consider: online self-service, an inside-sales desk, customer service, a sales-support person, or a system that does the task.

Step 2. Move it and tell customers once

Task	New home	Who sets it up	How customers are told	Date

Step 3. Check again in three months

Task	Times a week before	Times a week still reaching reps	Why it came back

Done when: the list exists, and every task that does not need a rep has a named home that is not the rep.

Adapted from our own profit-improvement suite (PSP, 2003).