Service Marketing Problems

within

T-Mobile Network, U.K.

MODULEMODULE : : SERVICE MARKETINGSERVICE MARKETING

SUBMISSION DATESUBMISSION DATE : : 31/07/200831/07/2008

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SUBMITTED BYSUBMITTED BY : : DHAVAL PATELDHAVAL PATEL

Table of ContentTable of Content

CONTENTS PAGE

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY………………………………………………………………………...2

INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………………………….....3

Company background………………………………………………………………3

Why I choose T-Mobile …………………………………………………………...4

Marketing Problem of T-Mobile …………………………………………………..4

LITERATURE REVIEW:

Service Market concept of Quality……...………………………………………………………….5

Customer Orientation ……………………………………………………………………………………......6

The dynamic nature of adequate expectations ........................................................................................6

Service Quality…….……………………………………………………….……………….……6-7

Dimensions of service quality………………………………………………...……………………7

Service quality Expectation……………………………………………………………………...7-8

Determinants of perceived Service Quality…………………...…………………………………8-9

Characteristics of service delivery at T-Mobile…………………………………………………....9

Grönroos's Service Quality Model………………………………………………………………..10

Dimensions of service quality………………………………………………………………....10-11

Measuring Service Quality (SERVQUAL)………………………………………….………...11-12

Service quality Gap…………………………………………………………………………....12-13

Limitation…………………………………………………………………………………………13

Causes of poor service delivery at T-Mobile……………………………………………………..14

Solutions…………………………………………………………………………………………..14

CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………………………………...16

REFERENCES……………………………….…………………………………….……………..17

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Executive SummaryThe aim of this report is to identify the marketing issues and problems currently facing T-Mobile

Network, U.K. T-Mobile has recorded a number of complaints from its customers and the

industry regulator, (OFCOM) regarding its poor services being rendered to its customers which

falls below their expectations. As a result, this has branded the company in a negative public

image. In an industry where competition is fierce and intense, it becomes ultimately necessary for

any service organization to provide service delivery and satisfaction to its customers in terms of

quality at all times. As customers’ expectations rise, they expect the best from the brand they are

loyal to and T-Mobile Network seems to have lost customer Orientated focus and losing its

market share in the industry due to unhappy customers leaving.

The service marketing problems publicly facing T-Mobile was identified as prolonged customer

service delays, poor Broadband service, and poor customer service delivery by employees and

Overcharged billing systems. An analysis of service quality gap was also investigated to

determine the customer expectations and how T-Mobile should exceed them. The service quality

gap models will help T-Mobile to analyze their areas of weakness. The ServQual model was also

used to measure the quality of service rendered by T- Mobile to its customers.

This report also examines the causes of poor customer service delivery at T-Mobile in order to

devise customer recovery expectation strategies to solve them. In order to convert their

weaknesses into strength, T-Mobile must embark on customer oriented programs such as Market

research, training of employees and Innovating product services at the best possible standardized

manner to satisfy customers at the right time.

Recommendations and different strategies such as investing in Market research, High speed

Down link Packet Access (HSDPA), 4G technology were finally suggested to eradicate these

problems to satisfy customer expectations as this will go a long way in improving brand image

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Introduction

This report is discusses a retail store type customer service relationship at T-Mobile network, where ‘frontline’ employees, such as shop assistants / customer service staff interact directly with customers. T-Mobile has recorded a high level of customer and regulatory body complaints about the dissatisfaction of customers about their rendered services. T-Mobile seem to have lost customer focus and this is beginning to reflect on sales and customer retention. The aim of this report is to hereby identify service quality gaps and devise solutions to restore customer loyalty and brand image.Services includes any activity of benefit that one party can offer to another that is essentially intangible and does not result in the ownership of anything. Its production may and may not be tied to a physical product, Kotler (2002). Service organizations differ from those of manufacturing in that unlike goods, service are characterized by their intangibility and the quality of the service is therefore more difficult for the customer to evaluate (Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry 1991).

This report aims to discuss the poor service delivery at T-Mobile and initiate strategies and recommendations to improve service delivery standards. This report as been structured below in the following manner to solve the service related problems facing T-Mobile:

Literature review on Service quality. Modelling concept and service quality measurement (ServQual Model). Service Marketing issues being faced by T-Mobile. Causes of poor service delivery to consumers. Strategies to create and sustain customer satisfaction. Recommendations and conclusion for meeting customer expectations.

Company Background:

T-Mobile is mobile Operator founded in 1990 and headquartered in Bonn, Germany. It is a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom. T-Mobile (U.K) is the UK network of T-Mobile International, the wireless division of Deutsche Telekom, the third largest telecommunications company in the world. Launched on 7th September 1993 under the name of One 2 One, the company was the UK's first fully digital mobile communications network. T-Mobile is now the United Kingdom's third largest mobile network, behind O2 (UK) and Vodafone (UK), with over 19.2 million subscribers.use the network, which covers over 99% of the UK population. T-Mobile holds one of the five 3G UMTS (Universal Mobile Telephone Service) licenses awarded in the UK, bought for £4 billion in the UK government's auction. T-Mobile’s U.K headquarters are in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, and in total they employ over 6,500 people across the UK. T-Mobile has 101 million subscribers, making it the world's sixth largest mobile phone service provider. T-Mobile

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uses technologies such as GPRS, UMTS, W-LAN and offers pay as you go and monthly contract tariffs to their customers via internet marketing and retail outlets.

Choice of T-Mobile U.K as a Case study:

T-Mobile U.K has been chosen because this company fulfils the research requirements of service marketing and is one of the best mobile phone operators in Europe. T-Mobile Network U.K, as an important service provider in a technologically intense industry is a classic example of how service in its self is been innovated and delivered to satisfy customer expectations. Unfortunately, T-Mobile is facing frequent complaints from the customers and regulators thereby losing market share as a result of their poor service quality delivery and customers churning.

Service marketing issues at T-Mobile :

a) Prolonged and poor customer service delivery by employees: Issues of long delays in solving customer service problems by staff of T-Mobile was reported. Customers were dissatisfied with the long hours they had to wait before being attended to. Customers were put on hold for several hours on the telephone, they also complained about the staff of T-Mobile as being less sensitive and rude during their interaction with them.

b) Delayed and Inadequate resolution to customer queries : Customers complained about the slow response of staff to their enquiries and queries. Feedback forms were not checked and resolved timely. Customers were not given any feedback or information regarding their situations. Sometimes it took months before customers could get any information about their related issues. This was very unsatisfactory to the customers of T-Mobile.

c) Poor quality of broadband service: Customers complained about not being able access the internet for days and still had to pay for it. They also complained about the slow speed and quality of the broadband service provided by T-Mobile.

d) Not standing by their insurance package promise: T-Mobile was accused of not replacing lost or stolen mobile phones with insurance policy packages on time. Customers complained that that the procedures took longer than promised by T-Mobile. They complained that extensive procedures were undertaken which left consumers let down and frustrated as T-Mobile did not keep and fulfil promise

The large outcry by consumers of mobile phone operators such as T-Mobile as therefore, prompted my research that being an important service provider operating in a vital industry, it is necessary to identify where the problem lies and find solutions to them.

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LITERATURE REVIEW

Most literature on consumer expectation recognizes the importance of input from customers in producing the service (cf., Solomon et al. 1985; Zeithaml, Berry, and Parasuraman 1988); few discuss how input from customers and customer contact personnel is communicated from customer contact personnel at the organizational boundaries to managers who can make decisions regarding policies and procedures. The importance of communication in the delivery of services has been noted by Zeithaml, Berry, and Parasuraman (1988) who examined the gap between consumer expectations and management perceptions of consumer expectations and identified upward communication within the organization as a factor which tends to close this gap. This understanding becomes particularly important in some service organizations in which, due to intangibility and simultaneous production and consumption of the service (Bateson 1979), the customer may have repeated contacts with many different employees. Thus, marketers in service organizations have the opportunity to supplement information obtained from marketing research with marketing intelligence provided by customer contact personnel.

Services Marketing Concepts of Quality

One of the most remarkable features of Service Quality Management is the way in which it has drawn practising managers from many parts of an organisation to work together across traditional functional boundaries to improve quality and productivity. This points up a rather simple yet dramatic link that has not yet been widely brought to attention. It is this quality thus has become an integrating concept between production-orientation and marketing-orientation (Gummesson 1988). This is especially the case in service quality management where production, delivery and consumption can occur simultaneously. The concept of quality referred to here is simply the match between what T-Mobile customers expect and what they experience. This is perceived quality. Any mismatch between these two is a “quality gap”. As perceived quality is always a judgement by the customer, whatever the customer thinks is reality, is reality. In effect, quality is whatever the T-Mobile customers experience and says it is. The service quality management is to narrow the “quality gap”. This not only facilitates getting customers, but keeping them. As quality goes up, non-value wastes and time related costs come down (Leonard and Sasser 1982).

The quality gap between customer’s service expectations and service experience is seductive territory for marketing research but few researchers with the notable exception of Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry, have attempted to categorically define the generic determinants of service

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quality and the kinds of quality gaps that lead to quality shortfalls. (Parasuramant al, 1985, 1988). The difficulty is that customers are continually experiencing and evaluating service performances in particular settings. They are continually “adjusting” their perceptions of customer service. Once something is “fixed” or “improved,” the other important service issues will naturally emerge. And when one among many critical service issues is resolved the priority levels naturally change places.

Customer orientation

Customer orientation is defined as the degree to which an organization emphasizes meeting customer needs and expectations for service quality (Schneider et al., 1998). Customer orientation is a major component of service climate, where service climate is defined as the: employee perceptions of the practices, procedures, and behaviors that get rewarded, supported, and expected with regard to customer service and customer service quality (Schneider et al., 1998, p. 151). Thus, it seems T-Mobile has a lost focus with its customers as their requirements have been no longer satisfied. T-Mobile needs to obtain vital information about their customer needs and customer expectations in order to satisfy them profitably. Thus, it seems likely that customer orientation will demonstrate a link to service quality. Further, as service quality evaluations are dynamic and influenced by changing customer expectations (Boulding et al., 1993), it is proposed that customer orientation will be associated with expectations.

The dynamic nature of adequate expectations

In the service quality and customer satisfaction literatures, expectations are interpreted differently. In service quality, expectations have a normative role, are based on past experience, and they provide the consumer’s view of what should happen. In the customer satisfaction literature, expectations are usually linked to what consumers forecast, that is, they have a more predictive role and they relate to what will happen (Zeithaml et al., 1993). The role of expectations in service quality is made more complex by theory suggesting that different levels of normative expectations exist (the customer’s “zone of tolerance”) and that the expectations associated with service quality and customer satisfaction interact (Oliver, 1993; Zeithaml et al., 1993). The zone of tolerance (ZOT) is based on the assumption that customers recognise and are willing to accept a degree of heterogeneity in service quality (Johnston, 1995; Liljander and Strandvik, 1993b; Parasuraman et al., 1991; Zeithaml et al., 1993). The ZOT is represented by a range between what is “desired” and what is considered “adequate” (Zeithaml et al., 1993, p. 6). Desired service is defined as the blend of what can and should be provided whereas the “adequate” service quality level is defined as the minimum level of service performance customers consider adequate (Parasuraman et al., 1994a, b).

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Service Quality

Service quality is a concept that has aroused considerable interest and debate in the research literature because of the difficulties in both defining it and measuring it with no overall consensus emerging on either (Wisniewski, 2001). There are a number of different "definitions" as to what is meant by service quality. One that is commonly used defines service quality as the extent to which a service meets customers’ needs or expectations (Lewis and Mitchell, 1990; Dotchin and Oakland, 1994a; Asubonteng et al., 1996; Wisniewski and Donnelly, 1996). Service quality can thus be defined as the difference between customer expectations of service and perceived service.

As a result T-Mobile must embark on innovative strategies to develop services that will cater to meet the requirements of their customers profitably. The quality of services provided by T-Mobile will have an adverse effect on customer loyalty and their brand image. If expectations are greater than performance, then perceived quality is less than satisfactory and hence customer dissatisfaction occurs (Parasuraman et al., 1985; Lewis and Mitchell, 1990).

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Service Quality Expectations

Service quality as the consumer’s judgment about an entity’s excellence or superiority, parasuramen et al (1988) allege that customers evaluate quality by comparing their expectations with their perceptions of the service performance. Customers of T-Mobile expect high quality network reception along with excellent customer service which they do not seem to be experiencing at the moment. Top managers at T-Mobile network must emphases the importance of understanding and managing expectations to assist in diagnosing problems and to create and sustain long-term relationships Walker & Baker (2000).

Customer expectations serve as standards, so when the service received falls short of expectations, dissatisfaction occurs. Grönroos (1984) suggested that the quality of a service as perceived by customers consists of two major dimensions:

Determinants of perceived Service Quality

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Source: Parasuramen et al (1985).

The model created by Grönroos (1984b) attempts to understand how the quality of a given service is perceived by customers. It divides the customer's perception of any particular service into two dimensions:

1. Technical quality - What the consumer receives the technical outcome of the process. This relates to the quality mobile phone transmission and broadband services provided by T-Mobile.

2. Functional quality - How the consumer receives the technical outcome, what Grönroos calls the "expressive performance of a service" (Grönroos 1984b, p. 39). This relates to the expertise of employees of T-Mobile and how they deliver the services rendered successfully.

Characteristics of service delivery at T-Mobile

Technical aspect of Quality: This involves what customer gets as a result of their experience with T-Mobile network product service. For example the clarity of mobile service reception transmitted from T-Mobile network satellite and stations. T-Mobile network must ensure the use of advanced technology, quality raw materials associated with high standards of supply chain management to deliver desired results to their customers.

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Functional aspect of Quality: This relates to how the service is provided by staff of T-Mobile network to its customers. It relates to the direct interaction between staff of T-Mobile network and their customers. Customers of T-Mobile have complained about staff being rude, having the wrong attitude, unpleasant less sensitive.

I. Relationship between employees of T-Mobile at work: This involves whether the relationship amongst employees is cordial, professional and if they practice knowledge management, assists each other whilst serving the customers. Employees must appear to know their role in a team and the function of their colleagues as well as whom to refer customer’s to in case of the need for more specialized information.

II. Appearance and personality of T-Mobile employees’: T-Mobile network must train its employees on desired dress codes and required attitude needed during encounters with customer. Employees must look well presented, clean and portray a positive image. Approachability and accessibility of employees at T-Mobile: Employees must be polite, friendly and welcoming to customer enquiries and queries.

Grönroos (1984b, p. 41) suggested that, in the context of services, functional quality is generally perceived to be more important than technical quality, assuming that the service is provided at a technically satisfactory level. He also points out that the functional quality dimension can be perceived in a very subjective manner as shown in the diagram below.

Grönroos's Service Quality Model

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Source: Grönroos (1984b:42)

Dimensions of service quality

MacNeill (1994) suggests that to meet customer needs and understand customer perceptions, employees should have the ability to concentrate on specific needs, wants, or problems customers are experiencing in order to extend to the customer feasible options to suit the specific situation. He proposes the following quality dimensions and the service standards required to meet and even exceed customer expectations. T-Mobile has failed in this area with the quality their standard of service being compromised as shown below.

Quality Customer Experience Reliability - Performances of services delivered by

employees are inconsistent.- Attending to customers at the right time is a

major problem at T-Mobile.- T-Mobile has been accused of not Upholding

promises of services provided such as broadband and insurance packages.

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Credibility - T-Mobile must ensure that their adverts and services rendered are based on facts

- Employees at T-Mobile are deemed less helpful and incompetent hence not trust worthy.

Tangibles - T-Mobile generated a reputation of not conducting their business/services professionally.

- Office premises and areas of physical evidence sometimes appeared less spacious thereby packed up and rowdy.

Responsiveness - T-Mobile employees did not attend to customer queries promptly and in some cases feedback were not communicated back to customers at all.

Empathy - Customers complained about employees being less motivated and less caring about their issues.

While training employees on delivering quality customer services, top management at T-Mobile network must take into consideration of these five major dimensions to meet customer’s expectations.Using those 10 or 5 dimensions as the evaluation criteria the specification of service quality becomes the gap between customers’ expectations and their perceptions (Parasuraman et al1985). This performance-expectation model was also adopted by other authors (e.g. Brown and Swartz, 1989). Models for measuring service quality is either viewed as a measure of the degree of discrepancy between consumers’ perceptions and expectations (e.g. Parasuraman et al., 1985) or a tool for assessing the perceived quality (Teas, 1993).

Measuring Service Quality (SERVQUAL Model)

The most generally accepted and discussed method for the measurement of service quality is the SERVQUAL instrument, developed by Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry (1996; 1998). SERVQUAL measures perceived service quality by asking customers to compare their perceptions of the service process and outcome against what they expected to receive from the service encounter. There are five dimensions by which consumers evaluate service quality:

Tangibles (appearance of physical elements e.g., physical facilities, personnel, equipment and Communications materials at T-Mobile offices)

Reliability (how accurate and dependable the performance of T-Mobile employees are)

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Responsiveness (promptness and helpfulness) Assurance (courtesy, credibility, security and competence of T-Mobile employees’) Empathy (good communications, customer understanding and easy access).

Model of Service Quality Gaps

There are seven major gaps in the service quality concept, which are shown in Figure 1. The model is an extension of Parasuraman et al. (1985). According to the following explanation (ASI Quality Systems, 1992; Curry, 1999; Luk and Layton, 2002), the three important gaps, which are more associated with the external customers, are Gap1, Gap5 and Gap6; since they have a direct relationship with customers. As a result T-Mobile must ensure that these gaps are adequately catered for with the use of differentiated innovations and positive customer care programmes and procedures.

· Gap1: Customers’ expectations / management perceptions: as a result of the lack of a marketing research orientation, inadequate upward communication and too many layers of management, T-Mobile has compromised the importance of their customers’ needs.

· Gap2: Management perceptions / service specifications: as a result of inadequate commitment to service quality, a perception of unfeasibility, inadequate task standardisation and an absence of goal setting was a major problem at T-Mobile. They recorded series of customer complaints about their poor speed and quality of their broadband and network coverage which they found to be true.

· Gap3: Service specifications / service delivery: as a result of role ambiguity and conflict, poor employee-job fit and poor technology-job fit, inappropriate supervisory control systems, lack of perceived control and lack of teamwork at T-Mobile, it was clear that employee needed to be re-trained to deliver expected customer services satisfactorily.

· Gap4: Service delivery / external communication: as a result of inadequate horizontal communications and propensity to over-promise. In this case, customer expectations are influenced by the extent of needs, word of mouth recommendation and past service experiences. The services rendered by T-Mobile fell short of their adverts and promises communicated to customers before their purchase.

· Gap5: The discrepancy between customer expectations / perceptions of the service delivered: as a result of the influences exerted from the customer side and the shortfalls (gaps) on the part of the T-Mobile. T-Mobile promised several insurance packages, speed levels and quality of broadband services which were not fulfilled.

· Gap6: The discrepancy between customer expectations / employees’ perceptions: as a result the differences in the understanding of customer expectations by front-line service providers. Employees at the retail outlet failed to realise the

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importance of assisting customers accurately and promptly to achieve customer loyalty. Employee of T-Mobile failed to

· Gap7: The discrepancy between employee’s perceptions and management perceptions: as a result of the differences in the understanding of customer expectations between managers and service providers. For some reason employees at T-Mobile did not perform diligently, thereby portraying a negative image for the top management as a result of poor knowledge management and not working towards a collective goal.

Limitations

The criticism of note to this study is the point that SERVQUAL focuses on the service delivery process and does not address the service-encounter outcomes (Grönroos, 1990; Mangold and Babakus, 1991). It is interesting to note that the developers of SERVQUAL initially suggested that service quality consists of functional (process) and technical (outcome) dimensions (Parasuraman et al., 1985). However, the SERVQUAL instrument does not include any measure of the technical quality dimension. Essentially, technical quality has been neglected in efforts to study and measure service quality

At the same time, one criticism of SERVQUAL has been the point that the instrument mainly focuses on the service delivery process (Grönroos, 1990; Mangold and Babakus, 1991; Richard and Allaway, 1993). However, it is also true that there is no general agreement as to the nature or content of the service quality dimensions (Brady and Cronin, 2001). Nevertheless, there is a general perspective that service quality is a multidimensional or multi-attribute construct (Cronin and Taylor, 1992; Grönroos, 1990; Parasuraman et al., 1985, 1988). That is, while the contemporary studies on service quality seemingly focused on the process of service delivery, additional aspects to be considered have already been suggested, especially by European scholars. For example, the semantic differences in each dimension notwithstanding, Grönroos (1982, 1990) and Lehtinen and Lehtinen (1982) noted that the quality of a service as perceived by customers has three dimensions: functional (or process) dimension, technical (or outcome) dimension, and image. Further, Richard and Allaway (1993) argued that utilizing only functional quality attributes to explain and/or predict consumers' behavior might be a misspecification of service quality and have low predictive validity.

Reasons of Poor Service delivery at T-Mobile Network

- Lack of internal marketing concepts : As a result of the poor performances recorded at T-Mobile, customer focus seem to have been compromised top management appear to have

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neglected the need for employees to work collectively at the best interest of satisfying their customers and hence increase customer loyalty and profitability.

- Inadequate employee training: Employees were deemed to be lacking the required knowledge to supply customers with enough information to assist and educate them on their product services. They were also accused of being unprofessional and unfriendly.

- Poor recruitment procedures: Some employees at T-Mobile did not have the right attitude towards their job roles and therefore affected their interaction with customers.

- Lack of Customer orientation: Some of the product services such as broadband services, mobile phones and customer service procedures were not up to the customers expected standards. This is because customer opinions were not adequately catered for.

- Poor technology and innovated product service: Orange broadband and billing systems were faulty; as a result they were of low quality and fell short of customer expectation.

- Inadequate Monitoring and control systems : As a result of the high level of customer

complaints and increased time of solving complaints, it was clear that top management were not taking necessary monitoring measures of customer feedback, complaint management and employee appraisals seriously. This is very vital for customer satisfaction and employee development.

Solutions and way forward at T-Mobile Network

a) Recruiting the right employees: T-Mobile must ensure the use of vigorous selection and recruitment techniques such as competence, aptitude and special attribute tests as a procedure for employing the right employees who can deliver first class customer assistance the first time consistently. This goes a long way in portraying professionalism and effectiveness in eyes of their customers. As a result this will improve the brand image of T-Mobile organization as a whole, generate customer loyalty and satisfaction. T-Mobile must also adequately employ more work forces in their retail outlets to accommodate the problems of long queues and waiting periods of customers.

b) Innovation of differentiated product services : Today launched what it claims is the UK's first nationwide High-Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA) mobile

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broadband network, offering its mobile customers upload speeds of up to 1.4 (megabits per second) Mbps. Using HSUPA option, the Bytton router enables mobile data uplinks at speeds of up to 1.44 Mbps. In this way, the users of this equipment take the advantage to access the 3G broadband mobile data services at speeds of up to 7.2 Mbps across all 3G network coverage and to enjoy more services and better communication experiences.

Also investing in 4G technology to improve the quality of service of wireless broadband access, Multimedia Messaging Service, video chat, mobile TV, High definition TV content. A 4G system will be able to provide a comprehensive IP solution where voice, data and streamed multimedia can be given to users on an "Anytime, Anywhere" basis, and at higher data rates than previous generations. This will help T-Mobile exceed the expectation of customers as much as possible in a differentiated manner.

c) Invest in more Customer driven product services: By being more customer oriented through research and customer surveys rather than product oriented will cater adequately for customer needs and hence minimize dissatisfaction. A recent survey of British customers to see what they thought about wireless Internet access and where the access should be available showed that 20% of customers said they should be able to get Internet access everywhere. That everywhere includes places like the pub, the beach and the park. The survey also says that 37% of UK feels they should be allowed to work outside with mobile broadband rather than inside at the office. T-Mobile should always consider customer preferences with such surveys to satisfy customer needs profitably and thereby creating competitive advantage as suggested by Porter (1985).

d) Using contract binding service guarantees : T-Mobile should introduce reasonable guarantees that must be kept to reduce customers’ sense of risk and dissatisfaction by customers such as ;

- Promising to send technicians out to customers to solve their broadband issues within 48 hours.

- Stating clearly their terms and conditions of insurance claims of their product services and Committing to them promptly.

- Delivering customer feedback about their enquiries and queries within (2) days.

e) Achieve end-to-end service quality management: Successful quality management of next-generation services requires end-to-end service management across complex, multi-technology, multi vendor infrastructures. Providers need to be able to quickly assess the impact of events on the performance and availability of revenue-generating services, establish and ensure aggregate service quality levels, and provide a

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detailed analysis of an individual subscriber’s experience that correlates back to broader service quality trends. In effect, T-Mobile needs to be able to visualize service quality, prioritize their efforts and communicate relevant information to all stakeholders.

f) Effective Monitoring and control measures: T-Mobile must set up internal procedures and policies to be strictly followed by employees to help standardize the quality of their services. Such policies should include:

- Uniform greeting and interaction with customers.

- Selected teams to be responsible for customer complaints and feedback, as well as time deadlines for complaint resolutions stated

- Using mystery shoppers to assess the performance of employees.

- Standardizing work patterns for all employees to follow such as during telephone interactions with customers.

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g) Prioritize service efforts: T-Mobile needs to make business-smart decisions when deciding where to focus their efforts. If multiple issues are identified, which one will they respond to first? Which service level agreements (SLA) are most critical and/or carry the largest penalties? What is the financial impact of different priorities? By bridging operational and business views, T=Mobile can see how service issues and their responses affect the business, and identify which issues are truly most important. This allows them to prioritize service efforts in a way that delivers the greatest value and benefit to the customer and business in timely manner.

Conclusion

Quality of service and the ability to attract and retain customers dictate the success or failure of next-generation communications service providers. In today’s competitive environment, customers are quick to abandon services that do not meet expectations. The ease with which customers can switch from their current service to another, demands that providers deliver the highest possible levels of service quality and performance. To be successful, communications service providers must deliver positive customer experiences with rich, value-added services supported by comprehensive service quality management. To this effect T-Mobile has experienced the negative attributes of not being customer focused and realizes that quality is an attribute that creates customer satisfaction profitably. Therefore quality must be fused with all resources channeled towards their customers.

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