Convincing Features
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CASE STUDY 4: Performance Management at KS Cleaners
KS Cleaners (KSC) is a small company that provides several services to its customers: dry cleaning of clothes, laundry, ironing, and some clothing repair work. KSC specializes in low-cost volume, promising that dry cleaning will be returned to its customers the day after it is turned in. The charge is $2.25 for each dry-cleaned item; there is an extra charge for ironing, although ironing is usually unnecessary because the items are placed on clothes hangers immediately after being removed from the dryers. Laundry is $1.50 per item, with an extra charge for ironing, if desired. Clothing repair, such as hemming, replacement of buttons and zippers, and so on, is charged by the hour.
In addition to Kevin, the owner, and manager, there are eight employees: two dry cleaners, a seamstress, and five general duty employees, who rotate where they are needed among front counter customer service and sorting clothes, loading the machines, removing clothes from machines, folding or hanging up the items, and preparing them for pickup. Kevin has found that he can hire teenagers for general duty positions because these duties do not
require much training. The company needs employees who are focused on customer satisfaction and quick turnaround; when there are slow times, however, these high school students often work on homework, socialize, or spend time on their smartphones, which is acceptable behavior as long as the work gets done and the customers are happy. Pay ranges from minimum wage for the general duty employees to $20 per hour for the dry cleaners.
The seamstress is paid on a negotiated piecework basis, depending on the complexity of the task. This shop has been doing so well that Kevin is thinking about opening another one. He has done some research and realizes that he will need to formalize procedures that he has run almost by instinct. A new manager will need to operate the new shop in a fashion that is ide n tical to the successful way he has in his current shop. Although he dreads the
process, he recognizes that it is time to document procedures and to formalize job descriptions.
