BUS 225 Module 4 Project One Example

Callback Problem Analysis and Recommendations

[Student Name]

Southern New Hampshire University

BUS 225: Critical Business Skills for Success

Project One

[Instructor Name]

[Date]

The organization, setting and figures below are a composite written as a model document. No real employer, client, colleague or patient is described.

Callback Problem Analysis and Recommendations

Summary

Callbacks rose from 6 to 11 percent of visits mainly because of two company decisions: the March switch to a cheaper perimeter product and the end of a text that told customers to expect some insect activity after treatment. Newer technicians and busier routes contribute smaller effects. The data do not show that technicians have become careless. Four changes, costing about $26,000 a year, should bring callbacks back to about 7 percent and cut roughly $40,000 a year from the cost of return trips, with a larger benefit from fewer cancellations.

The Problem

Over the year to August 2025, nearly one visit in nine became a free return trip, up from about one in seventeen the year before; the extra trips cost some $62,000, and the share of customers quitting each year climbed by five points to 19 percent.

How the Problem Was Investigated

Six possible causes were identified through interviews and a review of changes in the past year, organized with a cause-and-effect diagram (Ishikawa, 1986). Each was tested against 31,400 service records by comparing callback rates before and after March 2025, across service types, technician experience and route density, and by what technicians found on return visits.

Findings

Evidence on each possible cause

Knaflic (2015) recommends that analysts make the main message of a table obvious, and the message here is that the two strongest causes are both changes the company made and can reverse.

Recommendations

Recommended actions

The product test comes first because it is the largest effect and the least certain of the causes to reverse: the March change coincided with busier routes, and a two-month test on half the routes will separate the two. The text should be restored immediately since it costs almost nothing.

Why These Four and Not Others

Several other options were considered. Switching to a premium product used by some competitors would likely reduce callbacks further but would cost about $38,000 more a year than the old product, and the evidence does not yet show it is needed. Adding a follow-up visit two weeks after every perimeter treatment would catch problems early but would add about 6,000 visits a year, far more than the callbacks it would prevent. Offering customers a small credit for each callback would protect goodwill but would reward the company for failures rather than prevent them. The four recommended actions address the causes the evidence supports at the lowest cost, and the measurement plan will show whether more is needed.

Implementation

The office manager will restore the post-treatment text through the scheduling software this week; it requires only reactivating a message template. The purchasing coordinator will order the old perimeter product for half the routes, chosen so that each half includes busy and quiet routes and new and experienced technicians, and the test will run in September and October. The training lead will restore the third week of new-hire training for the two technicians starting in October. The operations manager will redesign routes to cap stops at fifteen, with a seasonal technician added from April to September. The analyst will compile results monthly and report the product test after eight weeks.

Expected Results

If the old product restores perimeter callbacks to their earlier level and the text cuts no-pests-found callbacks back to about 15 percent of callbacks, the overall rate should fall to about 7 percent, about 1,000 fewer return visits a year, worth about $48,000 in technician time and materials. After the $26,000 in added costs, net savings are about $22,000, but the larger gain is in retention: if cancellations fall back toward 14 percent, the company keeps about 300 more customers a year, worth roughly $90,000 in annual revenue.

The Proposed Bonus Penalty

The owner's proposal to cut bonuses for technicians with more than three callbacks a month rests on the carelessness explanation, which the evidence does not support. Deming (1986) argued that most quality problems arise from the system, such as materials, methods and training, rather than from individual workers, and that blaming workers for system problems damages morale without improving quality. A penalty now would fall mainly on technicians working perimeter routes with the new product, and it could push experienced technicians to leave. The owner's concern about effort is reasonable, and the measurement plan below will show whether any individual technicians stand out once the system causes are fixed.

Measurement

The company will track the callback rate monthly by service type, the share of callbacks finding no pests, the rate for new versus experienced technicians and the cancellation rate. Results from the product test will be reviewed after two months. A short monthly update will report these four numbers, with a one-paragraph note on anything unusual, and the owner and analyst will meet after the test to decide whether to adopt the old product on every route.

Conclusion

The callback rise has identifiable causes that the company can reverse at modest cost. Restoring the customer text now, testing the old product, restoring training and capping routes should cut callbacks by about a third and protect customer retention. The bonus penalty should be set aside until the data show it is needed.

References

Deming, W. E. (1986). Out of the crisis. MIT Press.

Ishikawa, K. (1986). Guide to quality control (2nd ed.). Asian Productivity Organization.

Knaflic, C. N. (2015). Storytelling with data: A data visualization guide for business professionals. Wiley.