In the residential fixed-call voice market, BT Retail has stabilised market share at 73 per cent, with the figure remaining at the same level for more than a year.
As you can see from looking at the profits and the number of employees that Bt employed at those times in the early eighties that they were not very efficient, by using the ratio
Profit/the number of employees = the profit that each employee contribute.
As the profits were increasing in the early 1990s, the number of employees that were being employed were decreasing, several reasons can be identified for this with the main reason being widespread use of computerised equipment being implemented throughout the company that enabled the company to maintain better levels of efficiency that had been seen in the previous decade.
Looking at the slide which represents the number of Uk lines that Bt operates, it can be seen that over the past two decades the number of Uk lines has increased at a steady rate of approximately 5 per cent every year. Does this increase mean that BT is being effective in its operations??? One argument would be yes they are and it could be noted that BT adopted several aggressive marketing campaigns over this period that might have raised awareness amongst its potential customers but on the other hand, it could be argued that it was natural technological progression that had nothing to do with what BT was offering and had more to do with how the world was changing its attitudes to technology.
To enable Bt to operate its services effectively, it has to rely heavily on call-centres to support its customers. There are several measures of efficiency that can be used to identify how efficient or inefficient they are. One obvious ratio would be :
Number of calls per hour / number of operators available = Number of calls per hour per operator.
However it has to be said that these figures would be different depending on what department is being looked at, for instance someone who was working in the faults department would take considerably less calls than for say someone working in directory enquiries who on average would be taking a call every 20 seconds. By analysing the number of calls that are taken throughout the day, the managers at BT could establish how many operators are needed at differing times throughout the day, for example, the demand for the 151 service which is the business customer service department would be significantly lower at the evenings and weekend and for BT to effectively use its Labour, it would reduce the number of people working at those times.
A department such as Faults would have a different efficiency target to try to achieve, the promise that Bt makes to its residential customers is that if they have a fault, by the next working day they will have fixed it. This is not always going to be possible and when this promise is not met it will result in complaints and people generally not being happy with the service that has been offered. Ways in which Bt could try to improve this is by training more engineers to be able to do the job, although it could be said that this would result in improved effectiveness because more customers would be happy
Unpopular as it is, a way of increasing efficiency levels within an organisation can be achieved with job cuts which in turn would lead to more work for the workers that are left, but another way in increasing efficiency levels within call centres can be seen by paying lower wages to workers in countries such as India, the business would be getting the same labour for cheaper rates but would this be as effective as employing workers in your own country??
For any company that operates in the service industry, being efficient cannot be looked at being the only priority that the business has. The customers perceptions and expectations of the business are what make the business effective, for example if the company has a good reputation of customer service, this in turn will be effective because this will attract customers to the business who enjoy certain levels of good customer service.
Ways in which a company like BT could measure its effectiveness with regards to its customers and prospective customers is by using one of two ratios :
Number of new customers/total number of customers = percentage of customers that are New.
Or
Number of customers leaving BT/total number of customers = percentage of customers that have left BT for a competitor.
The first ratio that looks at the number of new customers that BT might have gained throughout a year could be for a number of reasons such as a successful marketing campaign, price cuts or competitors not being able to satisfy those customers needs.
The ratio that looks at the number of customers leaving BT is more important than the number of new customers that Bt may attract, this is because those customers are leaving BT for a reason, it would be crucial for a company like BT to identify those reasons and attempt to rectify them if possible. It has been said that it costs 5 times as much to attract a new customer than it does to keep an existing customer, by identifying the reasons that makes customers feel disgruntled and eventually leave.
Research done by the company themselves has found that :
Customers do not find the companies processes simple or flexible
50% of customers do not believe they are kept informed
Approximately 40 % of customers do not believe that promises are kept by the company
40% of customers say it is unacceptable to contact Bt more than once for the same enquiry.
To try to rectify these problems, it would be advisable for the different departments within BT to :
Be friendly.
Show that you understand.
Give the customer the benefit of the doubt.
Don’t be afraid to say sorry.
Don’t leave the customer in the dark.
Don’t blame another part of BT
And most importantly take responsibility and keep any promises that are made.