Introduction & Business Context

Upon discussion with Sheila James, Compupaye Bureau’s Director; Problems in the day-to-day operations of the business were identified. It was discussed that in previous research and observations made by the Compupaye management team, clients found that communications could be more efficient and effective. As there was no official handover of the current website from the previous director there are features and content which is both dated and inaccessible – Compupaye had already started the project of a new website being produced to replace the current one, due for completion during my placement with Compupaye. This new website will have a portal for clients to login and gain access to online payroll reports, both current and historical with the aim to reduce the number of queries that the office receives, reduce time spent by staff producing the hard copies of the reports and reducing the amount of paper used and wasted by the office so that they can continue to possess the ISO 14001 environmental management certificate.

A large amount of Compupaye’s client database has been generated through word of mouth due to the close relationships between the practices they specialise in providing for; therefore it is very much in the interest of the company to react to displeasure, or queries about their various streams affecting client relations.

Along with the lack of access to website features, Compupayes overall online presence is also “tired”, with many aspects of its design not adhering to what would be considered modern or appealing (See Appendix A). This is a secondary reason that Compupaye has decided to employ a designer to develop a new website – aiming to improve business relations with clients and potentially increase word of mouth as a result.

This report will research into communication theory, providing reasoning for the current failures in this aspect of Compupayes current client relationship management. There will also be a competitor analysis undertaken, analysing online services and seeing what Compupaye could do to differentiate themselves in a highly competitive market. Findings will

then be built upon with a thorough analysis of the improvements likely to be brought about by the new client portal once the website and its features are all complete; this will be taking into consideration the views of both clients and employees with the aim of reducing unnecessary interaction and increasing employee efficiency.

Project Objectives

In the first 3 weeks of the placement I will be taking on the role of Project Manager, liaising with and directing the website designers to ensure that the final product has a user friendly interface with all the functionality and information so that the other objectives can be met.
Upon launch of the website access to monthly reports and documents, previously requiring 3 stages of communication (contact, internal administration and sending the documents to the client) will be made available simply by logging into the clients personal portal space via the website.
Reducing the current concerns and queries coming from clients via telephone and email regarding poor communication.

Key Research Questions

By how much could telephone communications reduce over 2 months after the portal and new website launch?
Will having a new website increase clients desire and willingness to search for answers to their queries?
What else could Compupaye offer to their clients to increase communication efficiency?

Literature Review

Due to communication management linking very closely with customer relationship management, both areas of research will be covered in this literature review, focusing on where they overlap and how the new Compupaye Bureau website might go towards reducing the exposure to the risks related to them.

Due to the sensitive nature of the data and information that Compupaye handles, security is a vital factor influencing their reputation. Should a companies end of year reports regarding its employees pay go missing, Compupaye may not only face losing the client involved, but due to the nature of their business development model – where many came in through word of mouth, many other clients may feel that they can no longer trust Compupaye to handle the outsourcing of their payroll and take their business to a competitor.

Communication management involves the planning, implementing, monitoring and revision of all aspects of communication within the company and with other companies throughout their network (Tripathi, 2009). This includes all channels in which a company may operate and requires constant updating of technology and the knowledge to operate the technology effectively and efficiently (Walker, 2011).

The act of competently communicating requires the communication to be both effective and also appropriate (Dainton and Zelley, 2014). The effectiveness of communication is measured by the action producing the required objectives, whilst, the appropriateness of communication takes into consideration whether or not the method of communication is considered morally and ethically correct (Grunig, 2008).

The Shannon-Weaver Model, a communication theory that suggests the various stages of communication, based around the idea that unless a message is received then communication is incomplete (Chaturvedi and Chaturvedi, 2011) is a model central to this project.

There are 5 main stages to the Shannon-Weaver Model which may affect the quality of communication taking place, those are; Information Source, Encoding Process, Channel, Decoding Process and Destination (Wood, 2014).

Currently there are various interferences, which could be considered as noise affecting the efficiency of Compupayes communication with its clients. Due to not having an up to date tracker online so clients can be aware of what stage their payroll and report production is at, phone calls and emails often occur with clients simply asking for an update. This is interfering with the operations as employees are having to leave their current schedule to gain answers for this ad-hoc queries. As a result the encoding stage is breaking down, sometimes additional reports are sent and other instances necessary reports are missing. There is also often problems with the postal system (channel), during strikes or delayed postal service in general clients become concerned about the location of their information – were this online this problem would be eradicated.

The aim of the new website is to reduce the queries from customers as a result of more readily available resources, reducing time spent by staff on the phone and emailing clients; in relation to the Shannon-Weaver Model, this will be achieved by reducing the levels of “noise” in the channel of

communication which may harm the accuracy of information received, as a result requiring less feedback and reducing the need of staffing for this.

In the 2010 Decision Influence Index study by Fleishman-Hillard and Harris Interactive found that 40% of respondents considered the internet to have a much greater influence and importance when it comes to businesses communicating with its clients over the following years (Lowenstein, 2011). With Compupaye currently operating primarily with a paper based service, the embracing of the internet in this manner, facilitating their website with a portal capable of producing the reports required would enable its employees to spend their time more effectively, potentially reducing their own staffing needs and in doing so releasing money to further streamline its communication model.

Small and medium businesses are more likely to take longer to adopt the use of technology than that of a large enterprise, however keeping up with current technologies and approaches allow for much greater growth in the small and medium enterprises (Haddon, Loos and Mante-Meijer, 2008).

Along with Communication theory, it is also paramount for this report to understand the importance of website design, specifically when you have a niche target audience. With Compupaye largely focused on GP practices, the points of contact with the clients tend to be of a slightly older generation, as a result there has been resistance against adopting technology, this would pose a threat to the targeted objectives of the new client portal area and so when designing the website, the clients preferences need to be considered.

In a thesis by Paul. R Lawrence (1969) for the Harvard Business Review, research was made into the reasons behind resistance to technical change; with the nature of the new portal being so different to what Compupaye’s clients are used to there is a risk of this happening. Lawrence states that often it isn’t actually the technical change which is resisted but the social change, that being the change in the human relationships that comes along with it. It is also argued that a popular way to minimise this resistance is by introducing the likely resistors to the change at its infancy,

before its introduction and inviting them to participate in the development and implementation of it. Although resistance to new portal as a means of communication from clients is the problem which may be most obvious, employees may also resist, falling back into previous methods through comfort and familiarity.

In a case study about a Western European University written for the Journal of Organisational Change Management (Diefenbach, 2006), it was argued that if you create the desire for change within the employees before it is implemented there is more likelihood of that change firstly being successful and secondly, less resistance to the change. This may be something Compupaye’s management could consider in the development process of the portal.

When it comes to marketing, it is important that you not only know your target customer but you also understand them and as a result communicate with them appropriately (Fill, 2013). According to Stephanie Walden (2013), if you have an online presence it isn’t only your current clients you need to know about but the people who access and read your pages too. This idea is supported by both Alan Hall (2012) and Lloyd Thomas (2014), who suggest that online web analytics are a vital part of marketing research.

Peter Drucker: “Marketing is the business as seen from the customers’ point of view” (Kumar and Reinartz, 2012).

Customer Relationship Management (CRM); is the building of relationships with customers with the aim of building brand loyalty and avoid them moving their purchases to a substitute product or service, is vitally important to marketers (Rosman and Stuhura, 2013). SCRM, which is the use of social media for driving CRM generally lead to increased sales and reduced costs if implemented correctly as it is cheaper than traditional advertising methods and relationship building techniques yet the reach can be as big as the effort you put into the campaign (Woodcock, Green and Starkey, 2011). Although advertisement is the most obvious use of social media it is important to remember that this is not its only function and to

make best use of its benefits, other considerations need to be made; it is essential to also interact, respond, socialise and build relationships with customers (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010., and Chan and Guillet, 2011). Embracing this and communicating with customers not only gives them a better understanding on a personal level of what you can do for them but also allows for you to explore further avenues of their interests (Funk, 2012) this may allow for you to build your product base or develop further features to existing ones.

An influencer in regards to social media is defined as someone with a large following (Carter, 2013), gaining the right type of influencers to follow and share your activities can lead to exponential growth of your business (Comm, 2010). Finding influencers to share Compupayes activities with a backing of HMRC or payroll awards provider followers may as a result build Compupayes image in the market.

When it comes to carrying out this research a very strict strategy must be followed, to explain how this strategy will be set out, the use of Saunders’ research onion can be used (Saunders and Tosey, 2013). John Creswell (2014), states that the entire rationality of the research is dependent on selecting a feasible and appropriate approach to your methodology.

Philosophies

The philosophy taken when carrying out this research will be that of a pragmatist nature. The reason this philosophy is the best fit for this project is because it aims to deal with a real problem directly; that being the communication issues currently experienced by Compupaye’s clients. This philosophy focuses on results rather than the principles of the research, and due to the project launch and observations following, this is the best philosophical mindset to approach the research with. The reason this approach is best is, as Saunders and Tosey (2013) state, a pragmatic

approach is best when the research is focused on the practical consequences of the finding, in this instance, the reduced amount of queries and increased autonomy of clients.

Approach

This research project will take an inductive and deductive approach, using empirical research to find the results. With inductive approaches usually taking the form of qualitative research, focusing on something very specific, in the case of this project, the online portal and coming to a generalised conclusion around the results. Along with these qualitative results, quantitative data will be collected and analysed separately.

As mentioned, the research in this project will be both qualitative and quantitative, however, due to the short period of time this project is taking place over there is a potential risk that clients will not immediately take to the new system, with the majority of them being doctor surgeries they may prefer more traditional methods of communication such as mail and may resist the change, this would be very harmful to the projects findings.

Strategy

The strategy of this project will be somewhat mixed, primarily however it will encompass an ethnographic approach, having myself fully immersed into the company, producing research from an on-site location. Due to being on-site a personal observation can be made, identifying the operational changes that come about as a result of the new website portal. The survey previously mentioned will be sent to all clients receiving a monthly service after being informed about the new method of report generation.

Without a background in Payroll, this analysed findings of this research will be unbiased and all decisions will be made as a result of feedback, not personal preference.

Choices

As is often the case with ethnographic research projects, this piece will take a mixed-method approach, collecting data for analysis from various methods, managing all the processes separately, however for the same goal.

Time Horizons

Although this is an ethnographic piece, the observational period is relatively short due to time frame limitations. Consequently, although this project would produce best results over a longitudinal horizon, it will be produced over a cross-sectional part of the project, that being the launch and initial bedding period.

Techniques and Procedures

The survey will be emailed to clients so that it can be completed at their convenience. Should responses come back very low, a phone call may be made to attempt to stimulate replies.

Limitations

Due to the nature of this project, there was a risk of disruption; due to problems with the developers, the launch date of the website (which was supposed to be in April before I started working with Compupaye), was pushed back so far that the research aspect of my project was forced to change from a questionnaire handed out to clients to interviewing the employees of Compupaye.

There is also the limitating factor of time, as the work based project only runs for 9 weeks the project is now very well suited to be observed on a longitudinal basis and will have to be made into a cross-sectional case study.

June, with the website looking no closer to launch I decided to change research approach and pursue the employees views of potential improvements the new website and portal may bring about.

Ethical Considerations

Ethical Considerations and awareness’s are outlined in Appendix E.

Due to the sensitivity of data Compupaye uses restricted use of files and information was used in the production of this report.
Permission was gained from the employees who were interviewed to share their views and opinions.

Plan

To get an understanding of the employees views about the likely success of the project objectives and allow for analysis to be made towards answering the key research questions of this report the following set of questions were constructed:

How difficult do you think it will be to get clients converted to using the portal?
Do you feel yourself and the fellow employees are fully equipped for the employee side launch of the portal? i.e. do you know how to update client records etc.
Do you think the new layout and theme of the website will help increase the clients desire to use it more?
Andrew highlighted that previously queries were often dealt with via the phone and up to 20 received calls were coming in per hour in busy periods, having seen and used the new site, including the client portal; do you think clients will try to resolve their queries before calling for assistance?
By how much can you see inbound phone queries reducing over 2 months post portal launch? 10,20,30,40, 50% etc.
Any other queries you think the website could help minimise that aren’t currently addressed on it?

Question 1 addresses the issue of client adoption of the new

technology with the view of getting ideas about why clients may not initially take to the new communication format.

Question 2 aims to research how well equipped staff feel about the new launch, this information could be used by management to either hold more or reduce the amount of training offered to employees. Having a measure of their confidence in the portal will allow to show the likelihood of resistance to the changes from the employees.

Question 3 will give an idea about the website experience satisfaction from clients and will allow for projections in regards to how much further word of mouth business could be generated as a result.

Questions 4 and 5 will allow for a forecast to be made regarding the effectiveness of the new portal regarding Project Objective 3 – as the website will not be launched in time to gather sufficient data to measure its accuracy, future research could be undertaken looking back historically.

Question 6 aims at gathering information from employees (who are the main updaters to the site and portal) regarding what else could help reduce queries which haven’t already been implemented or considered. This information will be passed on to the management and may be used at their own desire. This question also allows for increased employee involvement and feel of purpose to the project, aiming to reduce resistance to change.

Upon pitching the questions to Sheila James, aimed at the employees it was decided that interviewing members of employees at various levels of hierarchy would allow for an unbiased representation of views in the feedback gained and thus the sampling selection was made on my behalf. Interviews with Sheila (Director), Andres (Pensions Manager), Mehmet (Payroll and pensions Assistant) and Junaid (Apprentice Payroll Administrator) would be made, accounting for 40% of the total full time workforce.

Measuring Key Research Questions Outcome

By how much could telephone communications reduce over 2 months after the portal and new website launch?

Research: Question 5 of the interviews will allow for a quantitative average predicted reduction to be forecast. Replies to questions 1, 3 and 4 of the interviews will allow to provide justified reasoning for this forecast.

Test: To test the forecast a rolling average can be taken on a daily basis before and post launch.

Will having a new website increase clients desire and willingness to search for answers to their queries?

Research: questions 1, 3 and 4 from the interviews will give qualitative reasoning to why clients may, or may not adopt Compupaye’s vision of communication efficiency.

Test: Through using a web analytics platform, potentially “google analytics” a measure of bounce-rate could be made, bounce-rate being the average amount of pages viewed by a visitor to the site before leaving for another site or closing their browser. Further to this a survey could be sent out via email to clients asking for feedback on the sites usability and asking how Compupaye could further provide support on the site.

What else could Compupaye offer to their clients to increase communication efficiency?

Research: Between question 6 in the interviews and an in depth analysis of competitor website communications, focusing on how they differ from Compupaye’s, from this recommendations can be made to further strengthen Compupaye’s client communication management.

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Posted on May 31, 2016Author TutorCategories Question, Questions