Project Title

Managerial analysis of customer care, Mobilink

Project Team:
Project Leader: Salman Qureshi (EMBA-Fall2010-003)

Team Members: Muhammad Jawad Ali (Ex/M-Fall2010-025)

Muhammad Umer Malik (Ex/M-Fall2010-031) Jawad Toor (Ex/M-Fall2010-027)

Project Location:
Customer Care Services Department of Mobilink, Lahore

Duration of project:
Approximately Three Months

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
All praise be for Allah who commands the entire universe & without who consent not, even a leaf can flutter. All thanks be for Allah who has given us life, strength and sound mind to get education and opportunities to research. All respects are for his Holy Prophet Muhammad (P.B.U.H.) who enabled us to recognize our creator and gave us the knowledge to choose between right and wrong, evil & kind. We acknowledge with sincere gratitude the help of Mr. Dr. Ali Sajid; without his guidance & suggestions it would have been next to impossible to get there the ordeal. He is absolutely a legend in the field of Management. In spite of his business being chairman of the department, he arranged a number of meetings with us which proved to be very useful on our part. Besides we also feel highly indebted to all related staff of Mobilink Customer care especially to Awan Zia Raja(Contact Center Manager) , Yasir Naqvi(Floor manager) , Mr. Muhammad Ehtisham (Team Lead) , Mr. Salamn Qureshi for his kind support during our whole project. We are extremely grateful to them for devoting their precious time in completing our final year project. May Allah bless them with health & life.

Abstract
The report reflects an improvement program which elaborates a complete audit of Mobilink customer care service through several management tools like SWOT Analysis, McKinsey 7S , Porter 5 Forces , Balanced score card and pest analysis. The project begins with the introduction of Mobilink and its customer care services. Then we have analyzed the internal factors which effect Mobilink and its customer care, factors like its strengths and weaknesses and its external factors like the opportunities currently Mobilink have and also the threats that Mobilink is currently facing even being the market leader. Then we discussed the Mobilink customer services under the light of Mckinsey 7S model. This elaborates various aspects of Mobilink and analyzes its structure and the managerial processes within the Mobilink Customer Care Department. Further in the report we designed the balanced score card for the Mobilink with respect to its customer services. This technique addressed various roles and responsibities issues with respect to their objective and also defined the targets in accordance to the initiatives. Then the Mobilink I analyzed under the filter of PEST Analysis which discussed various environmental factors and external factors usually are beyond the firm's control and sometimes present themselves as threats. An effective implementation of the findings from various tools will increase the reliability and profitability of the Moblink customer care department. In short it was a good experience to do work on such a practical project.

Table of Contents

1.1. 1.2. 1.3. 1.4. 1.5. 1.6. 2. 2.1. 2.2. 3. 4. 4.1. 4.2. 4.3. 4.4. 4.5. 4.6. 5. 5.1. 5.2. 5.3. 5.4. 6. 6.1. 6.2. 6.3. 6.4. 6.5.

Principal area of Business: ................................................................................................................ 8 Ownership Structure: ........................................................................................................................ 9 Branch Offices: ................................................................................................................................ 11 MISSION STATEMENT ..................................................................................................................... 11 Mobilinks Vision ............................................................................................................................. 12 Goals and Objectives:...................................................................................................................... 12 Introduction to Customer Care Department: ..................................................................................... 14 Vision Statement: ............................................................................................................................ 14 Mission Statement: ......................................................................................................................... 14 Analysis & Findings: ............................................................................................................................ 15 McKinsey 7S Framework: .................................................................................................................... 16 Style:................................................................................................................................................ 16 Staff (Human Resource) .................................................................................................................. 16 Structure: ........................................................................................................................................ 17 Skills: ............................................................................................................................................... 18 Shared Values: ................................................................................................................................ 18 Strategy: .......................................................................................................................................... 19 SWOT ANALYSIS .................................................................................................................................. 22 Strengths ......................................................................................................................................... 23 WEAKNESSES................................................................................................................................... 25 OPPORTUNITIES .............................................................................................................................. 26 THREATS .......................................................................................................................................... 27 Porters 5 Forces Model ...................................................................................................................... 29 Power of Buyers: ............................................................................................................................. 29 Power of Suppliers: ......................................................................................................................... 30 Threats of new Entrants:................................................................................................................. 31 Threats of Substitute:...................................................................................................................... 34 Rivalry:............................................................................................................................................. 35 4

7. 7.1. 8. 8.1. 8.2. 8.3. 8.4.

Balanced Score card ............................................................................................................................ 38 Financial Objectives ........................................................................................................................ 38 PEST Analysis ....................................................................................................................................... 52 Political Factors ............................................................................................................................... 52 Economic Factors ............................................................................................................................ 52 Socio-Cultural Factors ..................................................................................................................... 53 Technological Factors...................................................................................................................... 53

Introduction
In Pakistan, the Pakistan Mobile communications Ltd (Mobilink) started its operations in 1994 and, until early 2001, had a market share of 40%. In April 2001, OTH took over management control of the company. As the market leader, Mobilink serves more than 31.6 million subscribers, representing a market share of 31.5% (as of Nov 2009).

Mobilink, a subsidiary of the Orascom Telecom Group is Pakistans leading cellular service and market leader with an unmatched customer base of over 31+ million subscribers.

Mobilink has successfully achieved a record subscriber growth of 40 % in 2007 and with over 6000 cell sites, has coverage in over 10,000 cities, towns, and villages, through out Pakistan. International roaming is available in over 127 countries with more than 300
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partner operators, and the companys investment to date, is over US $3.3 billion. It directly employs over 4,500 people, and facilitated through an integrated technology infrastructure, has the largest distribution network of over 200,000 retail outlets across Pakistan. The company is a carrier-class nationwide connecting service with its 6,500 kilometers fiber optic backbone, and is leading the Mobile Commerce revolution with its first lifestyle application, Through The Mobilink Foundation, the companys corporate social responsibility program contributes significantly in the areas of health and education.

The company is also the official cellular service of the Pakistan Cricket Board and the leading Blackberry communication services provider in Pakistan.

The Mobilink team is dedicatedly working each day to connect the unconnected and achieve milestones that make history. Each Mobilink moment entails a new challenge, a new moment of happiness, a new sense of achievement and a new success.

1.1.

Principal area of Business:

Mobilink have two products

Jazz

Indigo

1.2.

Ownership Structure:

Management

President and CEO Rashid Khan

Chief Strategy Officer Tariq Rashid

Vice President Marketing Bilal Munir Sheikh

Vice President Customer Care Irfan Akram

Vice President Corporate Affairs Agha Qasim

Chief Technical Officer Ramy Reyad Kamel

Vice President Sales Jahanzeb Taj

Chief Information Officer Irfan Farooq

Head of Human Resources & Administration Sadia Ahmad

Chief Financial Officer Andis Locmelis

Head of Business Analysis and Planning Farid Ahmed

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1.3.

Branch Offices:

Its branch offices are located in Lahore, Karachi, Faisalabad, Rahim Yar Khan, Sukkur, Peshwar, Quetta, Swat, and Kohat. Moblink has three main contact centers in three regions of Pakistan.

1.4.

MISSION STATEMENT

To be the unmatchable mobile system of communications in Pakistan this provides the best value to its customers, employees, business partners and shareholders Customer: Company mission Statement Company wants every common man to be its customer. Product and services: In addition to provide advance voice communication services, Mobilink also offers cost efficient data services to its customers. Keeping in mind the customer convenience company also deals in mobile handsets sold either independently or bundled. Technology: Company operates on a 100 % digital GSM technology in Pakistan. Concern or survival for growth: Keeping in view the growth potential of the cellular industry Mobilink having a strong focus on maintaining high quality of services, which is always a benchmark of Mobilink increasing usage and exploring new revenue. Philosophy: Company believes there is no compromise for the Services in order to remain portent force in cellular industry. Self-concept: Mobilink has largest Network provider, Excellent Customer Services, Highest Customer base which is its own identity.

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Concern for employees: Company is very conscious about its employees and its striving for provision of attractive salary package, connivance facility , medical allowances and Telephonic facilities

Concern for Public: Company offers tariff plans that are exclusively designed to cater to the communication needs of a diverse group of people, taking into account occasional user to businessmen. To achieve its objective it offers both post-paid (Indigo) and prepaid (Jazz) to the customers

1.5.

Mobilinks Vision
To be the leading telecommunication services provider in Pakistan by offering innovative communication solutions of our customers while exceeding shareholder value and employee expectations

1.6.

Goals and Objectives:

Corporate Objectives 31+ Million Subscriber base to retain and come up with new promos to control churn. Best customer services providing across the country. Remain on market leader with innovative communication solution.

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Departmental Goals Smooth operations Departmental coordination to ensure timely delivery Cost intimation Ensure offering Ambiance and decor Providing full office related products

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2. Introduction to Customer Care Department:

It provides services to customers pre and post purchase to ensure that customer expectations are exceeded. It is the largest division in the company. The main sub areas of this division include:

Customer services operations (front end) Customer services systems (contact center) Quality assurance, standardization & training

2.1.

Vision Statement:

To be the most friendly and easily accessible Customer Services Team committed to Total Customer Satisfaction with Passion for Business Excellence.

2.2.

Mission Statement:
To promote Customer Services as a Mobilink Brand. Every Customer Interaction to be a Pleasant Experience. To promote MOBILINK as a truly Customer Oriented Organization.

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3. Analysis & Findings:

We have used various management tools to analyze the customer services department of Mobilink with respects to its management, administration, innovation and customer delight. Following management tools are used to conduct the analysis of customer services of Mobilink. Mckinsey 7S Framework SWOT ANALYSIS Porters 5 Forces Model Balance Scorecard PEST Analysis

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4. McKinsey 7S Framework:
The McKinsey 7S Framework is a management model developed by well-known business consultants Waterman and Peters (who also developed the MBWA-"Management By Walking Around" motif, and authored "In Search of Excellence") in the 1980s. This was a strategic vision for groups, to include businesses, business units, and teams. The 7S are structure, strategy, systems, skills, style, staff and shared values. The model is most often used as a tool to assess and monitor changes in the internal situation of an organization.

4.1.

Style:

Mobilink strongly believe in leadership style, which is one of the most essential ingredients in its success. Leadership and top management is based on high business vision and predominant supportive style. There is emphasis on developing leadership qualities among employees at every level. For this purpose, workshops and trainings are being conducted time-to-time and strong follow up for monitoring of the qualities also carried out by HR team through external companies like Possibilities etc. Top management maintain open door policy, continuous sharing of on going company and departmental development, takes input from employees in decision-makings. CC department management has habit of develop future managers by providing them space to lean and develop through innovation and decision making.

4.2.

Staff (Human Resource)

Human resource is the biggest asset and focuses on quality staff thats what Mobilink believe. Staff at CC of Mobilink is very professional. Out of total
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personnel 90 percent of the employees have background of business studies and mass communication while rest includes IT and other professionals plus interns. The department strongly emphasizes on training and development of its employees on continuous basis and spends around 2% of departmental budget on up gradation of employee skills. There is a strong system developed for hiring a new employee as emphasize given to the candidate having superior academic records and professional skills.

4.3.

Structure:

The company follows a hierarchical structure as follow:

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The department further contacts other departments through an online web-based portal for problem resolution. Internally, teams are internally connected and a smooth process of handovers of customer complaints and info sharing done due to open environment.

4.4.

Skills:

At Mobilink Customers cares there are distinctive teams with specific tools of skill sets. Every individual is proficient in its specific area of interest. Followings are the teams name based on their capabilities and skill sets. Contact Center Team Black Berry and GPRS CRBT/PRBT Value Added Services (VAS) Tariff and Billing Corporate Clients

Mobilink CC has unique attributes of having CC system and representatives serving in one international and four local languages (Urdu, Punjabi, Sindhi and Pashto) for customer delight.

4.5.

Shared Values:

Values are important part of organizational culture. In fact its tagline depicts how much emphasis it lays on core values. These values are practiced and focused in entire Mobilink and breaching any of these values result in termination of employee.

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Total Customer Satisfaction Surpassing customer expectation

Trust and Integrity Ethical, sincere and open in external and internal dealings

Business Excellence Strive relentlessly to constantly improve as teams and as company and services so as to be the best

Respect for People Likeable attributes

Corporate social responsibility Account able towards the social environment

4.6.

Strategy:

Mobilink Customer care has adopted a Customer-focused strategy, where customers segmented with respect to their revenue form Class A to Class D. Highest priority is given to A-Class while least to Class-D in certain cases. Teams segments to deal with different customer, Pre-Paid and Post-Paid Corporate Clients IRU GPRS/BB Clients Broad Band Unit

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Another strategy of catering and responding timely to a complain is followed by

Fig. Flow Chart of Problem Resolution Strategy

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Geographical Expansion of CC center: Mobilink has planned to open more customer care center nation wide to further enhanced its biggest customer support center in Pakistan and bring more convenience to customer. Inter Connection of Nationwide call Centers: All call centers (Help line) are internally connected so customers have more access available to the help line representative. Term and Condition relief: Term and condition relief provided to the new businessman for opening new franchise nationwide. Customer Follow-up: The Customer is contacted by the CC team for acknowledgement of resolution of there problems.

4.7.

Systems:

Every organization has some systems or internal processes to support and implement the strategy and run day-to-day affairs. At Customer services and contact center of Mobilink more a bureaucratic styled where major decision are taken by the top management however decision making authority also give at lower level (Associates, experts) to the extent so they can run day to day activities keeping organization norm, values and customer delight focused. In major organizational or structural changes the management also takes feedback from subordinates and acknowledges their positive contribution towards decision making. Initiatives for better problem solving strategy performance also highly encouraged.

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5. SWOT ANALYSIS
An important step in situational analysis, which access your company's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, is known as SWOT analysis. Strategic situation analysis is divided into two types Internal analysis (strengths and weaknesses) and external analysis (opportunities and threats). Internal analyses are those factors that are internal to the organization; you can easily control these factors, while external factors are the factors that are outside the organization and affecting your business directly or indirectly.

SWOT analysis is used to analyze: Attributes of the company that are helpful to accomplishing the goals and objectives, attributes of the company that are harmful in achieving the goals, external environment that is useful in accomplishing your company's goals and objectives and upcoming external condition, which are harmful in achieving your goals and objectives. SWOT analysis is a powerful tool that helps investors to judge, whether, the company is capable enough to achieve different objectives or not. While writing SWOT analysis makes sure, the data you are writing must contain relevant material.

Strengths: Strengths are defined as the positive attributes of the organization, which are within the organization's control. Such as, specialist marketing and advertising skills, patents, introduction of new and innovative product or service, site of your business, cost benefit through proprietary knowledge, strong reputation, exclusive access to natural resources, quality development and procedures, etc.

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Weaknesses: Factors that are within the organization control and can easily be improved. It is necessary to take care of your weaknesses because these factors can detract you in achieving your goals and objectives. These factors are: lack or advertising and marketing skills, site of your business, poor quality of your product and service (i.e. in relation to your competitors), damage reputation, distribution channel, limited resources, etc. Opportunities: Opportunities are the external factors that are providing benefit your business directly or indirectly. Such as, market growth, careful research about market, market size, etc.

Threats: These are also the external factors, which are not in organization's control, but they can seriously damage your organization mission. Threats include: competition, economic crises, earthquakes, competition, price war, new regulations, tax policy, etc.

SWOT ANALYSIS of Mobilink

5.1.

Strengths

Mobilink has network coverage in more than 10,000 cities, towns and across all major highways of the country.

Mobilink provides International Roaming facility with more than 150 international operators across 79 countries.

Mobilink is proud to have an efficient and friendly customer service through 20 company-owned Sales & Customer Service Centers and nearly 3119 franchisees across the country.

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Mobilink has always believed in a solid commitment to growth, security and reliability. Therefore, Mobilink has always balanced its expansion efforts and quality of service. With a total current investment of $3.3 billion.

As mobile users in the country have reached over 78 million at a very rapid pace, Mobilink has maintained itself as the largest cellular operator in Pakistan with a subscriber base of around 31.6 million and a market share of nearly 31.5%.

While keeping its tradition of being the trend setter in the industry, Mobilink changed the image of mobile phones from a luxury only affordable by the elite, to a necessity affordable by the common man.

Mobilink increased its focus on the youth segment (which comprises 50% of the population), with the Prepay brand.

Mobilink has the ability to retain its existing customer base with a high level of customer satisfaction via optimum network service and a 24 hour call center facility.

It has the post paid service that is normally to attract the Business class people.

Most of the business and elite class people use post paid and other services offered by the Mobilink. Mobilink was the first cellular Company in Pakistan that introduced the service of GPRS and hence took the competitive advantage. Mobilink post paid is also offering black berry set that is useful and tempting for the Business class.

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5.2.

WEAKNESSES

Mobilink does not have the proper lists of its customers. It has the list but this list is not authentic which is increasing the unauthorized use of its sim specially pre pay. Mobilink have to take serious steps to properly list its customers to ensure that there is no misuse.

Mobilink has many franchises in the whole country but as its customers are increasing day by day so its present franchises are not enough to fulfill the needs of it customers.

Mobilink also face problems and its network get jammed on special occasions like Eid, Christmas, New year etc.

Mobilink has the problem of voice quality. Though its coverage area is vast and it covers more than 10,000 towns and cities in Pakistan but the voice quality is not as good as it should be.

Mobilink though has some unique and distinct services but it has not yet given many innovative services as compared to other cellular companies.

Mobilink was the first to introduce the SMS packages but their packages are not flexible enough and its charges are only on monthly bases while it should be on both monthly and daily basis.

Call rates from Mobilink to Mobilink is very cheap but to other networks its rates are expensive.

Its coverage on Southern part of Pakistan is quite good but in northern areas its coverage is a bit poor.

In Mobilink web support is not available.

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5.3.

OPPORTUNITIES

MOBILINK could develop some new and innovative services to attract customers and some of the suggestions are as under which will help them to increase their revenues: They should also introduce some International call packages to Middle Eastern countries because there are lots of Pakistanis who are living in those countries so people will definitely be tempted towards such package. Mobilink should develop some new franchises in remote areas so that people will get more and more benefit from it and it will help to increase their customers. As in Pakistan Youth is almost the 50% of the population so Mobilink can take advantage of this demographic situation and should introduce more and more services and packages that attracts youth towards it. Should extend its network coverage area to Northern part of the country as well because in that part not too many companies are giving services and if Mobilink give its service there then it will definitely attract people and its number of customers will shoot like a rocket. It should also introduce some packages for internet users on mobile if it do so then many people will switch from other networks towards it. If Mobilink should enhance its voice quality then definitely it would be prefer more by customers. Mobilink should import technological equipments from China because they are giving the best technology at very low rates so it will not only help Mobilink to be ahead technologically but also will help Mobilink to decrease its cost.

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Mobilink can surprise its competitors by introducing Mobilink kiosk. These will be ATM like machines and that will give 24-hour service to Mobilink subscribers to load the balance just like they take money from ATM.

5.4.

THREATS

As Mobilink is cellular company and there is cut throat competition among cellular companies in Pakistan. There are four other companies also working in Pakistan so Mobilink would have to face some growing competitive pressures.

Pakistan is facing some serious economic problems now days so that would also affect Mobilink. The current recession in market is not good for any kind of business including telecommunication.

In Balochistan and FATA where Mobilink already has network coverage is in danger because of critical situation and operation being held there. Investment of Mobilink is in danger.

Mobilink penetrated in the market from 2005 to 2006 quite rapidly but since then it is experiencing a bit slower growth.

By the arrival of China Mobile Company (Zong) in cellular industry of Pakistan the Mobilink and other companies now have to face the severe competition. As Zong is introducing some various attractive packages of both SMS and calls to attract customers. Mobilink have to develop strategies to counter their strategy and to survive in the market.

The key threat to Mobilink is also some adverse Government policies of implementing Tax on telecommunication industry that will ultimately affect the revenues.
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Telenor is giving more benefits to its employees as compared to Mobilink so many of its skillful and competent employees are going there. That will affect the companys profitability in the long run.

Some Pressure groups are protesting on the Towers that are installed in residential areas. Their opinion is that it is not good for health of people to have such towers near their homes that cause radiations.

Mobilink have to revise the list of subscribers who are legal and authorized. Because now the Government has warn to take strict action if any company would not keep such record.

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6. Porters 5 Forces Model

This model helps us define and realize our business and its surroundings and identify threats and opportunities to focus on.

The Porter Model consists of 5 elements which together comprises the environment business operate in. These elements are: suppliers power, customers power, new entrants, existing competitors and the rivalry.

By assessing every one of these elements we get the whole picture of our company within the market and the rating helps us target the key areas.

6.1.

Power of Buyers:

6.1.1. Corporate buyers There are corporate buyers of Mobilink which squeeze the business profit by bargaining on their favor. This factor is draw back for Mobilink that the organization is not in state to loose its customer so customer bargain power is high. Individual clients has no bargain power, rather they switch to other network. 6.1.2. Bargain for more offers Corporate clients bargain for more offers like reduce call/sms rates, wave off some percentage in huge calling bills, wavier in line rents and Mobilink has to take care of such offers. Such offers are provided to corporate customer but in limited ways. The same offer provide to individual customer through promotion run by the Mobilink at certain period in a year (during mid of year).

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6.1.3. Quality of service When customers are not being provided what they demand in terms of promotion and other benefits, the bargaining increases but Mobilink compensate its corporate customer by giving them rebate by offering them easy packages of their choice to cater such issues.

6.2.

Power of Suppliers:

6.2.1. Human Resource Supplier Mobilink is hiring some of the percentage of their employees from outsourcing through HRGS. They have low bargaining power because switching cost is too low as there are so many competitors available who are providing human resources. 6.2.2. Handouts & Literature Suppliers They have low bargaining power because switching cost is too low as there are so many competitors available who are providing such kind of material. 6.2.3. Handheld Devices Suppliers These are the suppliers providing specific handheld devices like BlackBerry, Samsung and Motorolla and they have also low bargaining power since only Mobilink is offering their products with their brand tag. 6.2.4. High Tech Software Suppliers These are the suppliers providing softwares used in Customer care centers. Nowadays Moblink is upgrading their software from (E.Point) to Sibel. So they have high bargaining power as they now that it is a basic need of

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Mobilink to upgrade their technology from older one to compete in the market. 6.2.5. Backbone IT/Access Networks These are the switching/network equipment suppliers and have low bargaining power as multi-vendor/manufacture equipment is available at low cost.

6.3.

Threats of new Entrants:

6.3.1. High call rates The call rates of Mobilink general packages (local and International) like Jazz and Indigo are slightly higher. This might be a threat to Mobilink for competition. 6.3.2. High SMS rates (local & international) Another threat is that there are no special offers in Mobilink for SMS packages for attracting the customer. 6.3.3. Advanced Technology Required (3G) There is need of advance technology in Mobilink. Having this technology we are able to make video calls. But its license is very expensive. 6.3.4. Less Network availability Some times, customers have complaints that we have no service in our area or we have no coverage inside of our office. To cater this problem, the customer services department should have strong interaction with the technical departments and the call centers. When such complaint arises, the

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call center should provide the on ground realities to customer at first process. This will increase trust and good quality of service. 6.3.5. Minimum CS centers across cities Mobilink have less customer service centers across cities in Pakistan. For example in Lahore there are Mobilink House Customer care Eden Center Customer care

6.3.6. No CS Center in rural areas Mobilink has no customer care centers in rural areas of Pakistan. Mostly there are franchisees which are usually indirect part of company and are not fully equipped. 6.3.7. Strict Policies from PTA for security measures Mobilink abide by the rules and regulations from PTA for security measures and due to this the product sales effect the business of Mobilink but barrier has low impact as all companies have to follow the rules and regulation imposed by PTA for example no new SIM or duplicate SIM will be issued to customer without original CNIC seen. So this might be a barrier for new entrants. 6.3.8. New technology required at Technical End The customer care department some time faces complaints of poor quality of service but not from customer center point of view but indirectly technical point of view. Mobilink is using some old technology at certain areas across Pakistan as it is oldest telecom company so some times, the connections between operators could not be established and this is due to adopting old
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technology used technical core.

6.3.9. Dedicated Enthusiastic staff Mobilink has dedicated and enthusiastic staff in customer care department and call center department who work very hard to except the challenges and tried hard to facilitate the customer on priority. We had visited customer services for examine its working and found that every employee work out of the way to meet the customer needs. Employees work 24 * 7 for handing customers requirements. So it can also be a barrier for new entrants. 6.3.10. Complaint handling on priority

Another barrier for the new entrants is that, in Mobilink the complaints handling department work efficiently and Mobilink have extra experienced and specialized staff appointed to solve the customer complaints. 6.3.11. Regional language support

To understand the customer needs, Mobilink have innovatively emphasis on language to meet the customer needs. The language support at 111 is as follows: Urdu, English, Punjabi, Pushto, Sindhi

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6.4.

Threats of Substitute:

6.4.1. Poor Quality of services If poor quality of service is given to customers, they might not use our product. Mobilink has draw back for not providing its product after 5:30 pm which is too early to be closed. Mobilink should focus on how to operate at late working hours to meet the substitute targets. 6.4.2. Use of old technology The technology (software) at customer care Mobilink is old and most of the work like complaints handling is done manually. While in zong, when you register your complaint, you will receive the track number of your complaint through sms and complaint status can be checked any time any where. 6.4.3. Less customer care locations in rural areas As already discussed that as there are less number of customer care location of Mobilink, they might have loose business and their competitors might take place through other marketing techniques. 6.4.4. Few staff at CC for complaint handling As Mobilink have special and experienced staff for critical complaint handling but the staff is very few as compared to zong and telenor who have staff of 6 and 9 person respectively, while at Mobilink customer care only 4 persons handle critical customer complaints.

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6.4.5. Extra cost for reissuance of SIM Although all telecom operators have SIM reissuance charges but some operators have raising campaign for some times when customer can reissue his/her SIM (stolen & damaged) with out any cost. 6.4.6. High internet charges This factor is not in favor of the Mobilink as Mobilink internet charges are higher than those of telenor and zong. Warid has same charges like Mobilink. 6.4.7. Poor signal strength at rural areas Due to use of old technology of equipment by Mobilink in some rural areas, this will decrease signal strength in rain and fog which impact the service and have better chance for other operators to take over the customer.

6.5.

Rivalry:

6.5.1. Innovative offers The innovative offers which are being offered at Mobilink are packages, customer services and other features like bolo sms and many more are an additional aid for making Mobilink favorite cellular network across Pakistan. 6.5.2. Commercials The Mobilink has a variety of its commercial which is representing Mobilink culture and innovative ideas which reflects the dedication and hard work of its marketing department, with coordination of customer care department which give the marketing department, feedback from the customers.

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6.5.3. Coverage of cities It was communicated earlier that Mobilink has a wide coverage area across Pakistan. As per data collection from Mobilink customer care, Mobilink have five regions that are Central 1, Central 2, Central 3, North and south region. There are 8000 cell sites across Pakistan which covers almost all major cities of Pakistan including rural areas. The need for more cell sites is required at rural areas as customer increases with the passage of time. This is in favor of Mobilink as Mobilink has wider coverage range. The second coverage network is Telenor, third one is Ufone and so forth. 6.5.4. Advance technology (3G) Mobilink is trying hard to get the 3G license to give its customers a unique experience in telecom industry. As per Mobilink officials, for purchase of license, we had talk to Orascom Telecom and they are making certain changes before implementation and deployment of 3G at Mobilink network. Right now Mobilink is working on technology improvement plans which are compatible with 3G network equipment. In first phase the old technology in some regions have been upgraded from Motorola to Huawei and in 2nd phase the mobilink starts deploying the interface modules which are compatible with 3G equipment. 6.5.5. Low call rates This is also major feature which is being used by the customers. The count recorded on Mobilink portal was 189763 minutes per day. This is very attractive service which is provided by all operators in Pakistan. Customer care department is trying hard to work in reducing rates of call and negotiate with PTA officials for the promotion of the Mobilink and to compete with other rivalries.

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6.5.6. Low SMS rates This is another major feature which is being used by most of the customers. The SMS count recorded on Mobilink portal was 482347 in C1 region. This is very attractive service which is provided by all operators in Pakistan. Customer care department is trying hard to work in reducing rates of sms and negotiate with PTA officials for the promotion of the Mobilink and to compete with other rivalries. 6.5.7. Quality of service The quality of services is an important factor among competitors. Mobilink is now improving its network and provide quality of service to its customers. Mobilink technical is deploying mini cell sites at shopping malls and other congested areas where Mobilink signal strength is weak.

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7. Balanced Score card

Customer support organizations are asked to perform a difficult balancing act. Mobilink Customer Care Balanced Scorecard for Customer Support recognizes the strains placed on the organization by including apparently contradictory outcomes such as reduced cost and increased customer loyalty in the same model. It also highlights the business processes that provide the key leverage points for improving performance for customer care against the scorecard. The Objectives and Metrics The scorecard provides Mobilink customer care objectives in each area: financial, customer, process, and capability of the Customer Care department. Because objectives are only meaningful if performance against them can be measured, weve included metrics for each.

7.1.

Financial Objectives
Department exist to make the business concern more profitable by the following: ensuring customer repeat purchases boosting the reputation of the company and its products in the marketplace helping customers receive value from their purchase Maximizing their lifetime revenue and profitability

7.1.1. Increased profitability. At the highest level, in Mobilinks Customer Care

Additionally, because franchises are increasingly being managed as profit centers, support offerings themselves must be as profitable as possible.

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7.1.2. Increased revenue. Mobilink exists to drive top-line revenue for the business which should be reflected in more bottom-line profit. Similarly, increased revenue for support offerings is a measure of their value to the market, and good customer service at the same time 7.1.3. Lower cost Whether a profit or cost center, Mobilink is delivering each unit of support at a lower cost than before. Lower cost is the exclusive focus of traditional ROI analyses, and it remains a mandatory test for most investments

7.2.

Customer Objectives:

7.2.1. Customer Loyalty. The most important driver of lifetime customer value is loyalty or what author Chip Bell calls customer love. Loyal customers have an emotional connection with the company and are proud to be its customer. While a perfectly satisfied customer might be willing to switch suppliers for the right offer, a loyal customer wont. One of the most important drivers of loyalty is customer interactions, especially when something has gone wrong. Thats why Mobilink is in such a good position to drive customer loyalty, and why it must be measured on the loyalty it creates 7.2.2. Satisfaction with Support Experiences. When we ask customer support executives what their highest priority is, the answer we hear most often is customer satisfaction. Fundamentally, it is their teams job to satisfy customers by fixing their problems quickly, giving them the information they need to use products effectively, helping them avoid problems, and even empowering them to be better informed buyers. However, satisfaction is no substitute for loyalty. So Mobilink is focusing not on average satisfaction scores but on customer dissatisfaction and delight:
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the customers who are so unhappy that theyre going to create problems in the market, or the customers whose extremely high satisfaction leads to loyalty. Transforming the objective from raising 7.2.3. Perceived Value of the Solution. The product that people purchase extends beyond the specific device or software thats shipped from the vendor: people really buy a whole product that includes all the complementary hardware and software, system integration, training, and perhaps most importantly, support needed to get value out of the product. So, as part of the whole product, customer support organizations need to add to the product's value as perceived by customers. In the simplest sense, this is done by fixing problems quickly and accurately, making them go away. However, support can deliver value far beyond this reactive function by providing feedback to the development organization to make products better for customers, providing information to help customers use products more effectively, and proactively telling customers how to avoid problems. Therefore Mobilink perceives as a whole product (or solution) rather than a connection, especially a solution in which availability is a key value proposition, the more opportunity the support organization has to increase the value of the solution to the customer. And, higher perceived value translates to higher loyalty, revenue, and profit.

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7.3. Business Process Objectives 7.3.1. More Effective Incident Resolution. Mobilinks handling incidents is the customer care business process of the support organization, and support executives have devoted significant attention to optimizing the routing, management, and resolution of issues through hiring practices, training, process improvements, and technology investments. However, the key opportunity for improving incident handling is by supporting problem resolution itself

7.4.

Organizational Capability Objectives

7.4.1. Better Knowledge Base. The knowledge managed and structured in Mobilink for their customer support is their key intellectual property asset. There are many measures of the quality of the knowledge base, but the core objective is to capture as much of the tacit knowledge held in the heads of support staff, product specialists, and customers as possible to prevent problems for customers and expensive re-work for staff
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7.4.2. More Effective Knowledge Transfer. When we asked one support executive what his goal was, he answered, no reply should be on an island. He then articulated a powerful vision of a support center in which each employee was as effective as the best and was supported by all the knowledge, explicit and tacit, within the organization. We agree with him that this knowledge (which may or may not be in a knowledge base) is the basis of an organizations ability to deliver support, and that the more that it is transferred to each support engineer, whether proactively or just-in-time, the more effective the organization will be in meeting its other objectives. 7.4.3. Motivated and Trained Staff. Mobilinks ability to deliver is completely dependent on having staff with the right attitude and expertise. Economic climate has lowered voluntary employee turnover, which has somewhat reduced management interest in training as traditionally defined. Yet, as product lines evolve and grow more complex, new products are produced or acquired and old ones are end-oflife, training and knowledge transfer continues to be important. And, employees still need motivation to perform at their best.

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Of the balanced scorecard elements weve just gone through, Mobilink customer care capability objectives are the ones that support organizations most directly control. So, a plan for successfully applying technology to improve the balanced scorecard must focus on these objectives, and especially on the business processes of problem resolution. Obviously, problem resolution in high-tech support is a creative cognitive process for customer support and cant be completely automated like a robotic assembly line. Thats why the customer care problem resolution process is using technology later than more mechanistic processes such as entitlement, routing, and case management. Still, given that its not possible to automate problem resolution, is it possible to augment human intelligence by applying automation effectively.

7.5.

Improving Business Processes:

7.5.1. Making Incident Resolution More Effective There are many technologies that can be effectively applied to customer care problem resolution. But typically, these capabilities are either not all on the analysts desktop, or are provided in soloed point tools, making the analyst figure out if and when to launch yet another tool. And in most cases, the knowledge environment isnt seamlessly integrated in with the case management environment the right tab doesnt know what the left tab is doing. These barriers can be more significant than we imagine, especially when analysts often have 5 to 12 separate tools running on their desktop. 7.5.2. Access to all relevant content. While traditional knowledge bases are limited to structured solutions, the reality is that support professionals need access to a far broader range of information, including content from support, engineering, professional
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services, marketing, customers, and partners. These content sources have different owners, are managed in different repositories, and typically cant be accessed through a single portal. To make incident resolution as effective as possible, all of the relevant information needs to be brought together for the support analyst, regardless of where it resides. The access must be precise to avoid overwhelming the user. Precise integrated access to all information empowers the support analyst to deliver the right answers faster. 7.5.3. Proactive Content Delivery. In Mobilink Customers are best served by not having a problem in the first place which happens if the support site proactively notifies them of content thats relevant to their products, configuration, activities, and interests so they can be guided around known issues. Not only can this find once / fix many approach help customers avoid known issues, it can help them get more value from their products by empowering them with information 7.5.4. Guidance. In Mobilink Unlike support professionals, customers dont spend much time at all thinking about products, reading support content, or diagnosing issues. They may have a fuzzy or flawed view of how products work, and little understanding of how symptoms relate to root causes. they dont know what theyre looking for, and they dont know what they dont know. This means that an effective system must step them through the process of saying what it is theyre looking for, guiding with suggested terms, concepts, or directions to investigate 7.5.5. Broad content needs. Just like support professionals, customers need precise one-click access to any relevant content, not just support solutions. For example, their how to question might be best answered by a marketing white paper, product
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documentation, or an expert forum posting. Improving Products More Effectively Although support organizations focus on helping users with problems, it would be much better if the problems never happened in the first place if products were more reliable, easier to use, and faster to diagnose and fix when a problem arises. Mobilink customer care has teams of product specialists whose responsibilities include providing structured product feedback to product management and development organizations. Yet, most support executives are frustrated by the quality of this feedback. Support statistics are too general to be useful for product teams, who need to understand the detailed root causes of service issues. Not only is data collected in the support center overly general, its often flat wrong. In Mobilink theyve worked with candidly estimates that only about 30% of incidents are accurately classified by tier one analysts. Outside of the support center, the situation is often worse. Its hard to gain insights from a click stream or a website query log there are just too many incidents and no way to analyze what they all mean. And, if that werent enough, insights from the support center arent generally integrated with insights from the website in a consistent analytical environment. 7.5.6. Root-cause analytics. In customer care a problem resolution application needs to understand, classify, aggregate, and report on all interactions through every channel. By automating the process, human error can be eliminated and website traffic can be exploited. By aggregating content across channels, a unified view of customer issues can emerge. Also, the analytics need to correlate symptoms, products, environment, user actions, and all relevant factors together for a true root-cause view of the situation. This provides automated assistance to the kind of labor-intensive deep-dive analysis product specialists often have to undertake.

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Knowledge transfer is happening in your support center. Unfortunately, most of the time, its happening in an unmanaged way. Its time to replace ad -hoc transient interactions with structured, reusable collaboration. 7.5.7. Expert Location and Collaboration. In Mobilink Customer care department the Collaboration needs to be enabled by an environment that lets people find the right experts, pull them quickly into the conversation, and capture the information they provide. Otherwise, disruptive instant messages, phone calls, and cubicle drop-ins will pester experts with the same questions again and again.

7.6.

Better Motivated and Trained Staff

There is no magic bullet that technology can provide to create staff members who are excited to come to work in the morning and who have the skills they need to do their jobs. But siloed, awkward tools that get in the

7.6.1. Avoiding frustration.

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way of solving customer problems are a source of frustration that companies following this action plan will avoid. 7.6.2. Targeting training In Mobilink Customer care Training is expensive and takes valuable resources off the line. Yet, when applied as needed, it can have an extremely high return on investment. So in customer care the problem resolution application is able to help support center managers identify areas in which specific analysts or teams are benefited from targeted training.

Checklist for Improving Organizational Capability Objective More Effective Knowledge Transfer Technology Requirements Expert location Structured collaboration Benefits Leverage what experts know Reuse collaboration sessions On-the-job training Better Knowledge Base Easier capture Flexible workflow More current, comprehensive knowledge Less staff time invested in creating, structuring, reviewing solutions Better Motivated and An integrated, effective Trained Staff application Analytics to target training Lower technology frustration More return on training investment

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7.7.

Netting It Out:
As you can see, there are many technology capabilities that can improve your performance against customer support balanced scorecard objectives. Stepping back a bit, though, some clear themes emerge. No matter what specific objectives youre going to optimize, a technology solution which is applied all across Mobilink customer care department that forms the basis of a problem resolution initiative are comprehensive, with integrated functionality; must adapt to the context of each customers situation; and have seamlessly integrate both structured support solutions and other enterprise (or partner) content. Weve spoken to many of these early adopters, and without exception they complain about the challenges of integrating separate technology together in their environment. These challenges range from the cost of buying separate applications, the IT resources to integrate them, inconsistent customer experiences, content silos.

7.7.1. The Technology Must-Haves

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7.8.

The balanced Score card

Balanced Score Card Objectives Measures Revenue from new customers and products Create New sources of revenue Targets FY 10 FY 11 20% 25% Initiatives Excellence in customer services

Prespectives

Share of wallet

100M

175 M

FINANCIAL

Increase revenue per customer Increase Customer Profitability Improve Sales Productivity Increase Customer Satisfaction Increase Customer Loyalty

Revenue Mix vs. Target

10%

15%

increase Customer Retention Guide / Educate Customers Better Forecasting techniques

Profits Per Customers

25%

30%

Cost Of Sales

Percentage of Highly Satisfied Customers Customer Retention Percentage of Business from Customer Referrals Contribution by Segment

Increase Service

5%

7%

Proper Guidance to Customer

CUSTOMER
Create Raving Fans

Special promotions

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Understand Segments Screen Unprofitable Customers Target High Value Customers

Percentage of Unprofitable Customers Number Of Strategic Accounts

42%

31%

Market Aware

10%

25%

Decrease in Time Wastage

Brand Awareness

Increase follow ups

Manage the Brand Communicate Value Proposition Acquire New Customers

Innovative Packages Enhance Communication Skills Increase prospecting

Number of Leads / Conversions

Campaign Response Rate

1M

1.75M

Customize Mass Marketing

Service Quality Rating Revenue Generated from Dealers Number of Premium Customer Percentage of Revenue from sole source Service Levels ( by Customer Revenue )

Apply Marketing Tools

Develop Dealer Networks

8000 Dealers

20000 Dealer

Special Discounts

Provide Premium Customer Service

up by 5%

up by 10%

Customer Is Always First Reduce Complexity in functions Reduce QoS Issues

INTERNAL PROCESS

Provide Service Excellence

Create Lifetime Customers

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Customer Lifetime value Number Of Products per package Hours With Customers

Cross Selling

Increase Product Awareness

Solution Selling

Focus Profitable Product

Customer Education

Service Number of Customer hits to Management Information System Customer Survey

Increase Advertisements

Develop Strategic compitencies

Use Standard Technical Tools

Attract and Retain Top Talent

Professional Trainings

LEARNING AND GROWTH

Develop Strategic CRM portfolio Create Consumerfocused culture Create Personal Goal Alignment

Analysis through E6 Software

Upgradation

Call Monitoring

Enhance Communication skills

Daily Progress Reports

Goal Setting

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8. PEST Analysis
EST analysis is an analysis of the external macro-environment that affects all firms. P.E.S.T. is an acronym for the Political, Economic, Social, and Technological factors of the external macro-environment. Such external factors usually are beyond the firm's control and sometimes present themselves as threats. For this reason, some say that "pest" is an appropriate term for these factors. However, changes in the external environment also create new opportunities and the letters sometimes are rearranged to construct the more optimistic term of STEP analysis.

8.1.

Political Factors

The political instability of the country is the main reason affecting the core subjects. The govt. regulation on mobile operators increased Taxation (GST) and high inflation affecting the internal environment of the company. No friendly investor environment, War of terror, security concerns and PTA regulation are also contributing towards high impact.

8.2.

Economic Factors

Continuous degradation in countrys economic health lessening the purchase/consuming power of the customer. Companys focus on cost cutting and downsizing is the major factor of increase in unemployment. Customer in todays world is more demanding for QoS for less expense with better quality. The poor economic sector also influencing the entire market causing competitors to work together for fighting out this chronic situation for this purpose concept of sharing of infrastructure and recourses is largely employed.

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8.3.

Socio-Cultural Factors

As Pakistan is an Islamic country and people are very strict and sensitive in case of religion, anything against the philosophy of Islam on either print or electronic media are treated as against religious dignity. Occasional activities both cultural and religious have influential effects. Similarly Pakistani society has cultural mix demography with different mind sets and demands. Customer expectations are high, customer demand more for their problem solution rather new products. Brand consciousness is one of the factors associated with demography

8.4.

Technological Factors

Technology is changing every day, Companies have technology with which they can compete in the Pakistan and now companies are investing in their infrastructure to not only expand but also to upgrade their existing structure like from 2G networks to 3G technologies for better quality and higher capacity to overcome future demands. With new infrastructure, investment also put on human resources for up gradation of their competencies through certification and trainings. Technologies also encourage competitors to work together for this integration of major companies has already been done (Nokia and Siemens) and some are in progress.

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9. CONCLUSION
Mobilink is the market leader of telecom industry in Pakistan providing the best customer services called Customer cares, which is one of their core value Total Customer Satisfaction. With the detailed analysis using different management tools, it is observed that Customer care (Contact center and customer center) has number of strengths which could be utilized to avail the opportunities and overcome its weaknesses. However, as threats to an organization are always external therefore they cannot be eradicated however they could be handled efficiently to minimize the unforeseen and forecasting problems. Mobilink facing a high level of competition from competitors specially from Telenor and Ufone in terms of better QoS, resolution of problem form CS, network coverage and low cost. The telecom customers have more choices available to avail and have segmented power of switching. Customer consider Mobilink as expensive network to be used as socio economic condition getting worst day by day it will effect even more after passage of time. The internal environment of the services center is open, friendly and professional. People at their best can be found in offices that are open and accessible to internal customers. Management follows leadership style and lead through initiative, motivation and willingness to serve. Internal environment is overall is acceptable. Since the countrys economic growth is weak, Mobilink striving to combat these external factors and has be quite successful. Technology is changing every day and customer is aware of this change and demand solution for neither their problem nor the products, hence technological change is another factor creating more opportunities for the company.

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10. Recommendations
Followings are some recommendations which are appreciated by the management of the Customer Care center at EDEN Center, Jail Rd Lahore. Quality of Technical network equipment should be improved to improve the coverage for the customers. QoS should also be improved by giving professional trainings to CSRs on communication skills which improve their ethical behavior. Should maintain a proper list for its prepaid customers to keep the detailed record for PTA. More licenses should be issued for new franchisees as the customers are increasing very rapidly day by day. Hiring of more skilled and enthusiastic CSRs to decrease the waiting time at call centers for the ease of beloved customers. Web-based access to call history should be introduced for facilitating the prepaid customers. Advanced Technology (3G) should be employed. More Innovative and Customer-Focused promotions should be offered to the customers. Customer Care Team should be pro-active in identifying problem before their occurrence.

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11. REFERNCES
Web References: www.mobilinkgms.com www.pta.gov.pk My Mobilink (Intranet Website of Mobilink)

Personal References: Mr. Muhammad Ehtisham (Team Lead Customer Care, WTC, Mobilink) Mr. Salman Qureshi (Technical Department, WTC, Mobilink) Mr. Jawad Toor (Technical Department, FRF, Mobilink) Mr. Awan Zia Raja (Contact Center Manager, WTC, Mobilink) Mr. Yasir Naqvi (Floor Manager, WTC, Mobilink)

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