Survey Paper

Essay by xorcist316University, Bachelor'sA-, January 2010

download word file, 4 pages 0.0

Kelly's Auto (hypothetical company) has been owned and operated by Kelly Smith and her husband, John Smith, for almost 15 years. Kelly's Auto provides used automobiles of all makes and models at fair prices just above wholesale value. Because Kelly's prices are so competitive with similar automotive dealers, the business grew from one local store (with only two employees i.e. Kelly and John) to five stores (with 10 employees each) located within nearby counties. Even with this number of locations, Kelly has always personally handpicked every employee from management to customer service personnel at each location because she believes that the workers are the most valuable asset to her business.

Within recent years, with the decline in economy, Kelly's Auto has suffered significant losses in overall sales and has looked outside the norm for more sales potential. In an effort to regain sales potential and move inventory faster, Kelly has started an eBay account to auction off inventory.

While eBay sales have helped bring up sales and keep Kelly's Auto in business, store managers from the five different locations have noticed and reported a significant decline in moral and lack of production with customer service representatives.

Given that Kelly firmly believes that the workers are the most valuable asset to her business, manager reports have raised the issue of motivating and retaining present customer service personnel. The problem is that Kelly honestly has no idea of what has caused the lack of motivation to begin with. Some of the issues that managers have reported observing or overhearing include but are not limited to: Recent eBay auctions (EA) have cut into personal sales causing fear of job security.

EA has cut into commissions, and basic salaries are not enough to support a family off of.

Some sales personnel have been heard...