technology made this business transformation possible, as all sales,
scheduling for services, payments to nurses, and billing statements to
customers were made from this single, highly automated service center.
The impact model in Table 4.8 depicts the three major staff roles:
service representatives, account technicians, and shift supervisors (the
call center operated on 24/7 shifts). In the second column, the key sys-
tem capabilities for each role are shown. The next two columns show
how the system capabilities were to be put into action by the employ-
ees as well as the expected key job results. The final three columns of
the model show the process measures, business objectives for the call
center, and overall strategic goals to which the jobs were to contribute.
Our SC inquiry was intended to assess how well the very earliest
implementation efforts were working, hoping to identify especially
quickly and accurately those workplace factors that were helping suc-
cessful performers and hindering those who were less successful.
Because the system was carefully planned in detail, the job behaviors in
this impact model were very specific—unlike the previous impact
model in Table 4.7—and represented a precise prescription for how
employees were to use the new system methods and tools.
A Final Note on Impact Models
In most cases, impact models are not a final “deliverable” for an evalu-
ation. In almost all instances, the purpose of the impact model is to
help the evaluator (or evaluation team) understand and confirm their
understanding of the program’s intended applications and results. This
understanding enables the researcher to focus the inquiry in the survey
and interview phases of the evaluation.
In some cases, the impact model is a final result of the evaluation.
This is the case when the purpose of the evaluation is to discover and
document details of actual uses and applications such as in the “pio-
Envisioning Success: Creating an Impact Model
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The Success Case Method
94
Table 4.8
Impact Model for Home Healthcare Service (HHS) Center Operations
Employees Key System
Capabilities
Critical Applications Key Job Results Process Measures Business Objectives Strategic Goal
Service
Representatives
Account Technicians
Shift Supervisors
Customer service skills
Selling skills
System skills
Product knowledge
System skills
Service pricing knowledge
Ability to retrieve record
data in response to service
representative queries
Ability to identify/correct
billing invoice
Ability to identify/resolve
disparities between billing
data and service records
Knowledge of how system
drives business processes
Ability to use system data for
performance improvement
Ability to provide on system
operations
Sell appropriate services
Assign qualified caregivers
to customers
Input all service record
changes
Send statements on time
Identify and resolve billing
and service record
discrepancies
Send timely and accurate
payments to caregivers
Use system data to
identify emerging
problems and provide
effective coaching
Train new service reps
Sales of HHS services
Qualified caregivers
assigned to client cases
Accurate and up-to-date
service records
Timely customer
statements
Timely and accurate
caregiver payments
Competent staff
performance
Timely resolution of
performance problems
One of eight calls
converted to sales
Increase high-tech sales
to 60% of services sold
100% accurate
statements issued within
twelve hours of end of
service week
100% of caregivers paid
accurately within five
business days of end of
service week
95% achievement of
monthly sales target
Cases staffed on
customer start request
Reduce daily sales
outstanding to less than
3%
Achieve high-tech
services sales proportion
of 45%
Maintain adequate
caregiver pool
Achieve reputation as
industry leader in
Total service quality
High-tech home care
sales and quality
neering” work done by the early implementers of the laptop initiative
referred to earlier. When the impact model is a final deliverable, then it
is important to pay particular attention to its format and structure to be
sure it employs the correct terminology that the client will find accept-
able. When the impact model is not a final deliverable, it can be less for-
mal, because once it is developed and used for understanding, it can be
discarded. We have, for example, created impact models using Post-it
notes, index cards, newsprint, chalkboards, and even in some cases,
cocktail napkins, and beer glass coasters.
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