Assignment+Two

 ** Five Tasks: ** i) Purpose – Customers know you are there to help them, deteriorate theft, keep a friendly atmosphere in the store. ii) Functions – You need to approach the customer and make them feel welcome. You also remind them that you are here to help if need be. This task is necessary because it ensures that customers know you are aware of them, which aids in deteriorating theft. It also helps retain customer loyalty because customers will return for a certain environment. iii) Objects – None, sometimes coupons are given out. iv) Roles – You can do this task on your own, however, other people often repeat it. v) Links – Yes, it is linked to helping locate items and recommend and locate books. When customers are greeted and engaged they ask questions as to where certain items are located.  vi) Constraints – Sometimes customers ignore you and don’t want to talk with you at all. vii) Issues – Some customers really want to be left alone. i) Purpose – To keep a tidy and organized environment for customers ii) Functions – Keep books on tables in neat piles, books on shelves in good order. Any books laying around the store should be put back into the proper spot.  iii) Objects – Shelves, tables, book ends, book displays, computer system to double check locations iv) Roles – Just individuals at all times v) Links – It effects all processes because if a book is in the wrong location, it could be lost for a very long time. vi) Constraints - None vii) Issues - None i) Purpose – Put out product on the service floor ii) Functions – Taking books that have come in and put them out on the sales floor. iii) Objects – Books and sometimes a stool to sit on. iv) Roles – No other people need to be involved. Often individual work. v) Links – It is linked to everything. vi) Constraints – Making shelf space sometimes for new product. vii) Issues – Not having enough room or having to little of a high demand product.  i) Purpose – Increase sale of books, satisfy customer demands. ii) Functions – Looking up books in the system, finding location in store, finding book by author name, ordering items we do not carry for customers. iii) Objects – System kiosk, Chapters/Indigo database. iv) Roles – These is often individual  v) Links – This is linked to most tasks as it is the main focus of the job. vi) Constraints – Sometimes items are completely out of stock and can’t even be ordered into the store. Other times, the item they are looking for is not even sold in the country. vii) Issues – Books are divided by genre even in fiction. Also, sometimes there are multiple authors leading to misfiling or being unable to search for an item. i) Purpose – Customers can get what they want from the store, increase sales. ii) Functions – Finding the sub-section of the store the book is in and searching through the shelves by alphabetical order. If the book is not there, to check the backroom to see if it is there or not. iii) Objects – Chapters Kiosk to check location iv) Roles – This is often just individual v) Links – It is a task linked to Look-up books, tidying (to ensure books are where they are supposed to be) and shelving (ensuring at least two copies of the book are on the sales floor). vi) Constraints – Sometimes books are just lost or stolen but the system says we still have them. vii) Issues- Miss shelving, customers moving books around, not enough of a book, system is updated every 24 hours. 
 * Engage and Greet Customers **
 * Tidy Books **
 * Shelve Books **
 * Recommend and Look-up Books **
 * Locate Books For Customers **

The process I wanted to focus on possibly improving and making more efficient is my current job as a Customer Experience Representative and Indigo Books and Music Inc. The job entitles a lot of looking up of books and trying to locate them in shelves which can be surprisingly be harder than it seams with people shelving books incorrectly on a regular basis. All the while we are expected to re-shelve books people leave lying around and keep the store looking neat and tidy. Problems often also occur when customers have their patience tested by the inability to locate an item they really want. Often times they are looking for something that has some alternative options, which is where the premise of my proposal for improvement. The problems occur at Indigo when we often do not find books customers have requested even though it says we have them in stock sometimes due to these practices. This could be for a vary of reasons including someone is walking around with it, its been stolen, it has been shelved wrong and more. Nevertheless, no matter how hard we try, that is something that is a common issue in all stores that sell books or similar items. However, one thing we can change is that when we print out the location of an item, we can also print out the information on similar items as well. This eliminates the problem of when you cannot find the item you are looking for you can immediately offer an alternative product to pitch to the customer without having to go back to the computer kiosk and looking up if similar items are in the store. This basically makes a better attempt to not test the customer’s patience. While the customer looks at the other similar books you can go to the back and see if the book is there but it keeps them distracted and does not test their patience. This works simply because people like more options and if they find something they better like they will still make a purchase. In the back finding books is very hard as they are only organized by genre. This results in a lot of times one cannot find the book in question and thus the need for offering an alternative is there again. If the alternatives are presented earlier and the customer has a chance to browse through them will be less hesitant to purchase it whereas when we show them an alternative early on, they have time to go through it and feel like pressured to settle. In conclusion, eliminating the task of finding alternatives later makes the process more efficient and quicker. It also gives the customer more options and creates a more satisfying experience and promotes products that may previously get no promotion somewhat like the Amazon’s “You’d like this too” feature. It will possibly increase sales of self-help books as people often like options when purchasing those as well non-fiction. While in fiction it will expose customers to new authors and books by authors they already love but may not have read yet.