Description of the Team, Purpose, Context, Constituency, Dynamics and Development - Essay Example

? TEAM ANALYSIS PAPER of the team, purpose, context, constituency, dynamics and development During the work as a retail sales trainee, a situation was encountered while working in the retail sales team. The work function as a retail sales trainee involved assisting customers and restocking of merchandise. The other functions as a sales trainee involved assisting the cashier in the time of congestion. It was required to bag the merchandise items sold to the customers and dispatched after billing. All the other functions of the retail were dependent on the trainee as the trainee was inducted for the purpose of learning through on job training and had to perform any of the roles in retail sales. As a part of customer service, it was required to assist the customers to select the merchandize and offer them suitable products as per their needs. In terms of handling the complaints of the customers, the role had to comply with the company policies of no refund but only exchange. Thus the entire team was dynamic in its work functions with specific purpose of adhering to the company policies and in maintaining the overall profitability of the retail business. This was achieved through improved customer service that played the role of attracting the customers time and again to the retail store. A situation was encountered when the customer wanted a refund of money due to the non-receipt of a free product that was offered with the product. It was found that the stock of the free product was depleted in the retail store for which it could not be provided while selling the primary product to the customer. However, the customer had a non-negotiable approach on his demand. This created an undesired situation which occurred due to lack of effective communication and non-fulfillment of roles and responsibilities of the team. Analysis of team activity: overall effectiveness, limitations, challenges, interactions with other teams The analysis of the overall effectiveness of the team activity has been given below. The activities in the retail sales in the store demand healthy interaction of the different functions of the retail sales. The spontaneous interactions lead to strong co-ordination between the teams and its members. Due to exchange of information, the areas of concern within the team could be addressed. The experience encountered was solely due to lack of co-ordination among the team members and non-availability of updated information on the product sold to the customer. The non-availability of stock of the free offerings with the product was not communicated to the sales person by the store manager who did not inform the same to the customer. The customer after buying the product checked later on to find that the free offer was not packed with the sold item by the retail store. This created a sense within the customer of being cheated. For this reason, the customer wanted a refund from the store as the contract of buying and selling was breached by the retail store. This shows the limitations of overall effectiveness of the retail business in dealing with their customers. This is a challenge faced by the team as the there was no free exchange of information. The integral function of the retail store is an aggregation of the individual retail functions (Brannick, Salas and Prince, 1997). The communication with other teams is thus important for delivering effective customer service and in sustaining the profitability of their business. Key recommendations for improvement In order to deal with such situation in the future, the key recommendations for improvement of the retail operations are given below. There should be respect among the team members for each other and they should be aligned to overall retail sales activity. The alignment of the roles towards common interest of the overall work of retail sales triggers action from the individual roles that are aimed to make the system error free. In this experience in retail sales, the team members should have exchanged information on the current product offerings and should have designed strategies to meet the challenges and gaps in the process of merchandizing. The information on non-availability of the product should have been communicated and prior information should have been given to the customer at the time of selling the product. As a part of the customer service, the retail store should also undertake actions to provide the customer with the free product when available. When the customer confronted after purchase due to dissatisfaction, the complaint should been handled in an effective manner by adopting ways that provide value for money to the customer. The senior member of the retail team should have apologized first due to the inconvenience caused and then offer a suitable substitute product in exchange. Apart from resolving the customer complaint, the customer relationship manager should also follow the company policies of no refund. Thus the vertical communication and horizontal communication in team work are equally important to achieve overall effectiveness of team functions. Key lessons learnt from the experience/ observation The key lessons learnt from the experience and observation establishes the importance of constituent functions of a team, the significance of effective communication between the different team members and the importance of adherence of the company policies in order to improve the overall effectiveness of the team work. The various functions should maintain a good co-ordination among themselves in order to allow free exchange of information on the updates of team activities. This helps the team to deal with operational challenges and limitations in an effective manner. The vertical and horizontal aspects of communication within the team should be equally emphasized to avoid unfavorable situation and to reduce customer complaints. The importance of customer service was established through the experience on the above mentioned situation. The employees should be properly trained in order to provide better customer service. The training of staffs provides a benchmark of expectations from the activities of the team. The deliverables of the staffs are thus standardized through training. Apart from providing effective customer service, the retail sales functions of the organization should also give due importance to the aspect of complying with the policies of the company. References Brannick, M. T., Salas, E. and Prince, C. (1997). Team Performance Assessment and Measurement: Theory, Methods, and Applications. USA: Routledge. Read More