The telecommunication industry is a key player in the development of a sustainable and well-equipped society. Proper communication channels are key contributors to the effective link between the message sender and the recipient. AT&T has been one of the modes by which people use to transmit information to each other (Salop, 2018). It is a multimillion telecommunication corporate that serves millions of American citizens. The company has employed thousands of people to help in serving customers and making sure that the business meets its goals in the long run. However, despite the large labor force to improve service delivery, AT&T lags behind its rivals in the customer care unit hence the need to find other alternative means to improve the section and make its customers more satisfied.
AT&T is a key player in the United States telecommunication industry and has among the largest number of wireless and wired subscribers. The company has over 200,000 employees due to the huge number of customers. The company’s headquarter offices are in Dallas, Texas, and mainly invests in new and current technologies such as drones and connected cars about communication systems. In 1968, AT&T in conjunction with the Federal Communications Commission created the 911 emergency contact line since it is an easy number to cram and fest to dial (Salop, 2018). The company has a great history of its contribution to the development of robust communication technology systems and how it helps people in the daily operations of the consumers.
Current Status of the Customer Care Service
The customer care unit is an important department in every business since it handles issues concerning the satisfaction levels of the consumers. Our customer care section as AT&T has a strong workforce that always listens to the consumer’s demands. However, the majority of the customers are disappointed by the department. Many of the customers have rated the customer care service of AT&T as a poor performer and as one that lacks sincere practicality (Salop, 2018). The customer care unit fails to respond to the complaints and people have to call more frequently to air their complaints. The company is a poor performer despite having a strong brand name and manpower that is enough to handle the customer’s queries. AT&T’s management must work tirelessly towards improving the speed and willingness to respond to consumer demands in time to prevent a loss in the market share.
Additionally, the customer care status an AT&T is poorly executed by the response team since they repeatedly increase the costs of communication without the consent of the customers. The company charges unfair prices to its customers and lacks a uniform system for doing so. The customers are always ranting about the inconsistent charges that the company enforces on them hence creating commotion in the daily operations. More customers complain about the unfair introduction of taxes by the company to cover the unnecessary costs incurred in the complaining process. The company forces the customers that complain frequently to pay extra costs that lack informational support on why the company imposes them on the complainants. Moreover, the customers are always ranting about the high charges by the network operator for normal calls and data bundles compared to other smaller firms that rival AT&T. Unfair treatment of customers by the company leads to a rise in the need to find solutions for the high unethical treatment in the pricing.
Activities to Improve Customer Service
The customer is the most important asset for every company and must thus be treated by the employees in a manner that improves their relationship with the company and motivates them to increase their consumption of the company products. A satisfied client remains loyal to the company whereas an unsatisfied one keeps shifting from one brand to another seeking more quality products and better treatment. Therefore, the company must understand its consumer’s choices and preferences to generate more activities that promote the consumption of their brand by the customer. Ensuring that the consumer is satisfied with the products and the treatment they receive from the employees helps improve the brand image and provides a competitive advantage over other rivaling companies. Thus, AT&T company must improve its customer care unit to ensure that the consumers remain in the company and enjoy the services that it offers.
The first strategy that the company may emulate in its operations is to increase the number of attendees receiving the complaints. It must have more people working through its social media platforms continuously receiving the customer pleas and responding to them creating assurance to react to the problem and solve it. The social media response team must be present on platforms such as Twitter and Facebook to collect the areas that need correction within the system (Mousavi et al., 2020). The availability of a robust social media response team helps the company to eliminate the wrangles within the departments and ensures that the customer receives instant assurance of their needs are being taken care of by the company. Therefore, an online media response group is necessary to conduct enormous changes in the manner of response.
Another strategy that the company must involve in its departments is integrating the systems within them. Linking the groups together through a unified communication system helps the company to have an efficient flow of information from the customer care unit to other departments that respond to the demands instantly. Lack of integrated systems within the business is one of the factors leading to a lowly efficient team degrading the general performance of the company in maintaining its employees. Joining various departments together using appropriate similar systems helps in record keeping and sharing within the units hence helping in identifying the sources of the problem the consumer’s face and thus motivates speedy response towards the matter at hand. For example, the company may link the finance department with the customer care unit hence helping the receiver of the complaint by identifying the charges that the customer uses in their communication history and hence evaluating whether the rants about being overcharged are true.
Additionally, the business may focus on improving the workforce’s understanding of the main issues concerning customer care through activities such as training. Exposing the employees to more realistic methods of dealing with the consumer helps the company to improve its brand image since it preserves professionalism in its operations. Training more employees on methods of handling the complaints reduces confrontations between the company and its customers and reduces court cases hence helping the company to focus on its short-term and long-term delivery of services to the customers.
Results of the Implementation of these Strategies
An effective complaints response team within business organizations is very critical since it helps the company to increase consumer satisfaction. The implementation process of these strategies helps the business to control the employees leading in its response to the customer’s demands by empowering the employees to serve the customers more efficiently and swiftly. Training the employees improves the quality of services that the company renders to the customers and helps the management to create more innovative measures to regulate the number of consumers dissatisfied with the services available. Increased focus on consumer satisfaction increases the number of customers that the company retains and creates a smooth environment for strongly founded relationships between the customers and the company hence increasing loyalty.
Another benefit that the company enjoys from the implementation of the strategies is enabling fast verification of the customer’s complaints. An integrated system within the organization is critical since it improves the speed at which the customer care department verifies whether the customer’s accusations are true or false (Lim, 2020). The customer care personnel manage to maneuver through the filing systems and easily examine the complaints since they can access the data systems at a highly efficient rate. After obtaining the necessary information regarding the accusations, the team responds to them at a fast and highly efficient rate. The customer care unit becomes an efficient mode for the customer airing their views and helps the company to gain a competitive advantage by helping it to cater to the customer needs hence retaining them at a higher rate than the rivals. The communications department within the organization fully utilizes its resources and significantly contributes to increasing the number of new customers.
Moreover, the business enjoys a higher number of sales since more customers get attracted to the offers since there is a strong response team to view their demands and react to them more satisfactorily. The business gains a strong market share and may increase its output levels by empowering its employees and customers more. Implementing the strategies helps the business to expand its operations and creates a conducive environment for the customers to air their complaints.
Conclusion
The company enjoys an enormous number of subscribers and has contributed to the growth of the communication industry in the United States. AT&T Company is a multimillion telecommunication corporate that serves millions of American citizens. In addition, the company has extended its operations to cater to various innovations and technological advancements by attracting federal government institutions to liaise with it to create call lines that help in improving the state of the nation hence contributing to its long-term service delivery to customers. However, despite being successful in delivering these offers, the company has repeatedly failed in improving its customer care unit leading to a high number of dissatisfied clients. The customers complain about the high charge rates that the company imposes on them and extend their complaints to the lack of an effective customer care unit leads to a slow response to their demands.
I therefore recommend integration of the communication systems within the organization, training the employees on better ways of responding to the consumer’s demands, and increasing the number of people in the response team as some of the few strategies to implement to expand our consumer base.
References
Mousavi, R., Johar, M., & Mookerjee, V. S. (2020). The voice of the customer: Managing customer care on Twitter. Information Systems Research, 31(2), 340-360.
Lim, W. M. (2021). A marketing mix typology for integrated care: The 10 Ps. Journal of Strategic Marketing, 29(5), 453-469.
Salop, S. C. (2018). The AT&T/time Warner merger: How judge Leon garbled professor Nash.