Problem
Identify problem affecting the business and develop strategies to solve those problems.
Customer service is an important aspect of business operation and poor customer service result in low quality and bad company reputation. Telstra telecommunication has been on the receiving end due to continuous service outage experienced in the recent past. Some of the serious problems that are currently facing the company include poor Telstra reputation in the market, continuous service outage and poor customer relation management resulting from poor service. The main aim of the report is to explore the problems that are affecting Telstra and possible strategies to solve these problems. Therefore, this report presents the problems, strategies to solve them and recommended projects to deliver strategies.
Defining the problem
Maintaining reputation resulting from service outage is an important problem that Telstra need to tackle. This problem can be divided into three and these include poor customer relation management, service outage and maintaining reputation. Firstly, for a long period of time network service outage has been a problem of Telstra with leading to dissatisfaction and hence poor rating among customers. This is evidence of the poor customer relationship management that has rocked the company in the recent past (Graham, 2018). Secondly, the company is also currently faced with the problem of maintaining its reputation within the Australian market. The problem of network outage has threatened the company to bring down the reputation of the company as many customers think of moving to a close competitor Telco-Dodo. Thirdly, service outage is the final problem that has resulted in the above problems. Service provision is number one priority factor that enables the company to keep its market share and this has failed with several network outage witnessed in the company. Service outage problem has been ongoing for quite some time with several occurrences being from last year and more recent 1st May 2018 (ABC News, 2018).
Evidence of the problem
There are several cited cause of the service outage that has resulted in declining reputation of the company. Firstly, as reported by Jackson (2016), the company experienced the service outage was caused by technical changes that were made to upgrade the system. Secondly, September last year the company also experienced service outage caused by a fire at Chatswood exchange leading to compromised SMS services. These have resulted in poor customer rating and negative comments from customers. In addition, the negative customer comments and rating affects the company’s reputation in the Australian telecommunication market (Stanojevic, 2017).
Timing considerations
Timing considerations
The maintain reputation problem caused by service outage requires quick solution since the company might suffer customer reduction. Firstly, the quality of the service is continuously reducing with a number of Australians unable to make or receive calls during these service outage moments. This is detrimental to both company and customers that some fully depend on services offered by Telstra. Secondly, declining reputation of the company has raised concerns over the fear that the company might end up being outcompeted by other companies leading to declining in overall company performance. For instance, some customers cited an example of Vodafone that was almost out of the market due to poor service (Greenberg, 2009).
Solving the problem of service outage and declining reputation will help the company to continue operating within the market, offers good quality service and continuing giving services to Australian citizens. Firstly, maintain reputation within the market is an important business factor that makes the company strives within a competitive Australian telecommunication market. Secondly, solving the problem of service outage is tied to the high quality of service that meets customer expectation and satisfies customers. Thirdly, solving the company’s problem ensures that the company continuous its operation within the market and hence continuous giving service to its huge number of customers (Jackson, 2016).
Solving service outage and declining reputation also are important to the government that gets revenue from Telstra. The Australian government is a beneficiary of the company through taxes and the company also offers employment to many Australians as part of government employment initiative. Solving the service outage problem, for instance, make the company continue giving service to customers and this also ensures that the company meets government service requirement. Currently, the Australian government has tried to improve the living standard of citizens and the government through its policies seeks to ensure that key business players such as Telstra offer quality service to citizens. In addition, the government wants to create equal employment opportunities to citizens and this can be possible by current employment opportunities offered by the company. This implies that declining reputation and service outage threaten the company’s future survival in the market (Greenberg, 2017).
Customer service and good reputation are two main factors that make a company survive in the market and are tied to good continuous customer service. Solving these three problems require the business to consider some strategic options. Firstly, improving customer relationship management is one area that can bring back customer trust for the company. Secondly, improving company IT infrastructure is another area that will ensure that the business continues to give customer service. This will also help in restoring the service outage problem that has rocked the organization in the recent past. Thirdly, good reputation development is another way that will ensure the company has a good reputation within the market (Nirpaz & Pizarro, 2016).
Benefits
There are many different options that can be used to solve the problem affecting the company.
System monitoring
In the modern digital era, real-time system monitoring is important for solving service outage problem. The sys solving them monitoring software serves to be an important intervention that shows the potential of solving service outage. In addition, the monitoring software is installed onto the system to detect any anomaly in the system that may result in service outage (Nadel, 2014).
System upgrade and update
There is need to upgrade infrastructure is also a recipe for solving service outage within Telstra. Telstra is the largest telecommunication company in Australia need to consider improving its infrastructure to accommodate the rising number of customers within Australia and internationally. High service load is one of the problems that affect the Telstra and there is need to upgrade infrastructure to support this load (Ryan, 2017).
The software update is another problem that has been reported by the company as the source of the problem that resulted in the service outage that occurred on March 17, 2016. When the service outage occurred the company reported that the problem was due to a software update that behaved anomaly that this, therefore, needs a more updated system that will not crush. Periodic software update and upgrade are essential for the better operation and customer service (Nadel, 2014).
System recovery procedure
System recovery framework needs to be developed to help in restoring the system in case of an outage. When first major service outage occurred in February 2016, a wrong procedure was cited as the main reason for the failure of the system to restore. This was attributed to human error and there is a need for the development of recovery procedure or framework that will help in responding to the system is out of service. There is a need for the development of a clear and comprehensive response and recovery procedure to prevent any future service outage (Bettina, 2017).
Backup System
Another intervention is system backup that is set standby for any eventuality that may occur in the course of operation. This backup system is good for testing software before using in the main system. In case of update or upgrade, parallel backup is used when the other system is out of service. This will ensure that there is no complete service outage that has been experienced in the past (Jackson, 2016).
Strategy options
System forecasting
In the current digital era, system forecasting is important for maintenance of quality service. One way of system forecasting that has system modeling and virtual reality service forecasting. System forecasting important for predicting any problem within the system or likelihood of problems occurring when changes in the system. System modeling is also helpful in predicting the behavior of new software used in the system before actual usage in the system (Bettina, 2017).
Customer relationship management
Customer relationship management is an intervention that aims to restore customer trust in the company. Since the onset of service outage, many customers have taken to social media platforms to show their dissatisfaction with the company. This implies that the company is most likely to lose its reputation in the Australian market. Improving customer service is another important intervention that has the prospect of improving customer relationship (Avery, 2014).
Quality management
The quality monitoring system is another customer trust restoration intervention following quality comment made by the customer after several service outages. Many customers expressed their concern about the quality of service offered by Telstra and there is need to monitor quality to ensure that quality of service remains high. The quality intervention also aims to improve the customer service manager that will restore the trust of the customer in the Australian market (Craig & Glascoff, 2014).
Project options
There are many project options that can be sued to build the customer reputation restoration. Firstly, public relations that will involve activities to build a customer relationship with Telstra and restore public confidence are one project option (Breakenridge, 2012). A strong public relation is important to maintain the reputation of Telstra in Australian telecommunication market. Telecommunication market is currently questioning Telstra quality of service and this can be corrected based on the public relation. Moreover, public relationship offers a solution of establishing a good relationship with customers throughout Australia. Evaluation of public relation is based on feedback from the customer and general customer rating of the company (Stuart, 2012).
Secondly, a real-time monitoring system that involves various inspection systems and evaluation strategies is another project option. The real-time monitoring system will include monitoring systems, forecasting systems and modeling systems that work to inspect the system continuously and forecast any unexpected behaviors in the system. The monitoring system includes software with capabilities of simulating the real system and hence evaluates the system to prevent any service outage (Ryan, 2017).
Strategic options analysis
A sustainable management system that aims to betters business operation of the company in the market environment. The sustainability project is based on social, economic and environmentally sustainable practices. This project will employ various environmental practices that improve the overall performance of Telstra in Australia. Secondly, economically sustainable practices that set economic situations in the country and providing customer services that will improve lives of Australians (Tavana, Fili, Tohidy, Vaghari & Kakouie, 2013).
Stakeholders
There are many different stakeholders that will be part of the project and some of these are customers, government, companies, and shareholders. Customers will take part various Telstra activities that include evaluation and public relations activities. Government forms the regulatory body that certifies those activities. Companies are core customers and suppliers of the Telstra and also a participant of public relations. Shareholders are part of financing agencies that form part of management and evaluation of Telstra (Delimiter, 2010).
Impact of the project
Firstly, the consumer involvement will help in building consumer social responsibility that has an impact on the perception of the consumer. Perception of customers is an important factor in building company’s reputation in the telecommunication (Kelleher, 2018). The project serves to build customer trust for Telstra and focus building customer participation in the delivery of services. Secondly, the project will improve the environment in two different areas that include business environment and natural environment. Market environment will have an impact on Telstra through its customer service improvement. Thirdly, the project has an economic impact on both customers and the government since there will be reduced service outage and taxes to the government. Service will improve and lives of many Australians will be improved through the project. In addition, the project is promising on the economic basis since the project aims to maintain the reputation of Australia firm hence continuing to provide employment (Nirpaz & Pizarro, 2016).
Financial impact of the innovation
The cost of the project can be divided into three depending on the aspects of the project and these include cost of public relations, cost of development of monitor system and sustainable management system. Firstly, the public relations entail various activities such as public events, press release and client events totaling to $22,600. Secondly, the cost of monitoring system is the most expensive with approximately $57,500 per year of successful monitoring system. Thirdly, the cost of sustainable management system is almost similar to the cost of public relation with a combine cost of $19,400. The total cost of the whole innovation will be $99500 and include other cost that are on human resource though it is assumed that human resource are current employees of the organization (Javier 2016).
Strategic interventions
The solution can be delivered through some recommended steps. Telstra needs to review its system and come up with software that monitors system. There is some software on the market that currently monitors telecommunication systems to ensure everything is working normally. Some of the software includes performance monitor software, virtual reality software, system monitor software and server monitoring and management software (Stanojevic, 2017). Secondly, one of the public relation activities to help restore the trust of the customer is organizing some social activities and community services (Greenberg, 2009). Some of the community activities also make the company increase its sustainability approach to the environment. One activity involving customers in service delivery process of the company where customers are allowed to suggest areas that need improvement and how to improve those areas. Another activity that will help in sustainability is organizing trees planting day and taking part in the event help restore the public relation (Belz & Peattie 2010).
Conclusion
In conclusion, the paper identified Telstra as an organization that has been experiencing low reputation in the market caused by the occasional service outage. Service outage is a significant problem that affects the company and seriously need to be addressed through management and innovative means. Some the ways identified for tackling the problem include system monitoring, public relation, and sustainable management practice. To deliver these solutions software that monitor system, public relation activities and environmental activities that restore the trust of customers on the company.
References
ABC News, (1 May 2018) Telstra says outage affecting 4G and NBN customers across Australia has been resolved. Retrieved from https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-05-01/telstra-outage-affecting-customers-nationwide/9716166
Avery, J. (2014). Unlock the Mysteries of Your Customer Relationships, Harvard Business Review. August 2014. https://hbr.org/2014/07/unlock-the-mysteries-of-your-customer-relationships
Belz, F-M. & Peattie, K. (2010). Sustainability Marketing. West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Bettina, W. (2017). Problem with Quality Management Process orientation, controllability, and zero-defect processes as modern myths. Walsrode. Retrieved from https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/992993108
Breckenridge, D. (2012). Social media and public relations: Eight new practices for the pr professional, New Jersey: FT Press
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Jackson, K. (August 11, 2016). Lessons Learned from the Telstra Network Outages. Retrieved from https://www.helpsystems.com/intermapper/resources/articles/lessons-learned-telstra-outages
Javier, J. (2016) Is it worth installing a monitoring system: a cost analysis, Pandora FMS review by RedesZone. Retrieved from https://blog.pandorafms.org/is-it-worth-installing-a-monitoring-system/
Graham, B. (May 1, 2018). Reports of a major Telstra outage across Australia: CUSTOMERS are slamming Telstra after a major outage affected its 4G network and impacted thousands of voice calls across Australia. Retrieved from https://www.news.com.au/technology/innovation/reports-of-a-major-telstra-outage-across-australia/news-story/e9ac80bb10cee6ce97e680d0c1cf6d5e
Kelleher, T. (2018). Public Relations (1st ed.). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
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Nirpaz, G. & Pizarro, F. (March 2016). Farm Don’t Hunt: The Definitive Guide to Customer Success, p. 101.
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Stuart, E. (March 1, 2012). Public Relations Defined, After an Energetic Public Discussion. New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/02/business/media/public-relations-a-topic-that-is-tricky-to-define.html
Tavana, A.F..; Fili, S., Tohidy, A., Vaghari, R.. & Kakouie, S. (November 2013). Theoretical Models of Customer Relationship Management in Organizations. International Journal of Business and Behavioral Sciences. 3 (11)
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