Triangle Situation

The standard principal-agent model often takes on a triangle shape when one member must answer to both a superior as well as a client.  This can produce a series of issues and challenges. It can be difficult to please everyone involved in a triangle relationship due to differing in opinions, to conflicting viewpoints.  My experience working in a member service job showed me firsthand the struggles of a triangle principal-agent model. 

In high school, I worked at a Tennis Club for my town. It was a member only tennis club and I worked as a member services representative. My main responsibilities included working retail in our pro-shop as well as helping schedule tennis lessons with the members and tennis pros. The tennis club had many different levels of tennis professionals to take lessons with as well as different types of lessons. The club offered different types of lessons like a group, private, one-on-one, team and more. The lessons were taught by different tennis professionals and their prices varied on their skill and certification level as well as the amount of time the lesson was. Some tennis pros were better at developing new talent and some were better at developing high-level tennis players. The tennis pros needed to have a certain amount of lessons scheduled each week or they would not meet the quota. Some tennis pros had better reputations at the club than others for certain types of lessons, for example, one pro was better at small private group lessons than the other pro who specialized in one-on-one lessons. A conflict would often arise from a triangle situations when members of the club wanted to schedule lessons that did not have a tennis pro in mind.


The Tennis Club wanted to give its members the best tennis experience. They wanted all of their members to be able to utilize the club and the tennis professionals and improve their game. Tennis pros often felt pressure because what management expected and what the club member needed were often different. When new members or members that had not taken lessons before wanted to schedule a lesson. Management preferred recommending the new lesson takers to the most expensive tennis pro and lesson type. The new lesson takers wanted to take lessons from a pro that would best help them improve their tennis game. This left the tennis pros stuck in the middle trying to find the happy medium between the two groups. The tennis pros could take the new lessons and try adapting the new lesson type, however they risked their reputation at the club as well as their current client base. I think the largest factor of this situation was the lack of communication between the three groups. If there was some sort of form that the customer could complete prior to scheduling a lesson that showed factors such as budget, current skill level, lesson type, experience they want, any other preferences, it would help all three groups find the happy medium that would satisfy everyone’s needs. This information could help reduce the ambiguity and conflict between management and the tennis pros. It would also help the tennis lesson taker have a better experience since they know that they are working with a pro that wants to help their tennis game vs a tennis pro that is looking to make their lesson quota.

Comments

  1. Professor ArvanDecember 6, 2017 at 10:27 AM

    You posted this on Monday, so before class. But I am only seeing it now. Here is a brief comment.

    You described the discord between management and the tennis pros, but it was unclear to me why management wanted this. Let me describe two different possibilities. One has to do with revenue. Management takes a cut of whatever the pros get. The other has to do with negative externalities and tennis court etiquette. It might be that members dislike having a newbie on the next court over, as that interferes with their game.

    These two explanations suggest, whichever is right, or possibly still some third explanation that doesn't occur to me now, matter as to how the triangle might be resolved. So it would be helpful to pin that down som.

    ReplyDelete

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