Mateo is COO of the company We-Do-Your-Taxes (WDYT). WDYT typically prepares taxes for physicians in three steps: step 1 involves a customer service representative (CSR) talking with a customer physician and receiving all relevant financial information (pay stubs, expenses, etc.); in step 2 another employee takes all the data from the CSR and fills out all relevant tax statements. Finally, in step 3, a third employee compiles all tax statements, and does a final quality check for completeness and mails out the tax statements to the governmental agency (the IRS) and a copy to the customer.
Mateo is considering restructuring the WDYT business process around a "single-point-of-contact" in which a single employee would perform all three tasks of a customers tax preparation and filing.
a) What are the benefit(s) and disadvantage(s) of the single-point-of-contact process and why?
b) Mateo is also considering "Plan G" (G for growth) to expand the business by going after a more diversified clientele. Under Plan G, WDYT would also serve other professionals, including small business owners, in addition to the current customer base of physicians. Under Plan G, Mateo would authorize more hiring and expand capacity proportional to the increase in business (in terms of number of taxes prepared per month). How would Plan G impact the quality of service?