Improving Customer Service Level: Indosat Case Study

Preface

Competition in telecommunication industry is very unique. In Indonesia, there are several companies that provide telecommunication services. They offer special services to the customers such as low cost for phone call, text messaging, internet service and so on. On the other hand, from the consumers side, those services give many advantages and benefits. Therefore, the competition is really interesting to be learned.

Customer service is important key to survive in the competition, especially in the telecommunication industry. It is related to the nature of the service industry that needs high and reliable service to the customers. Consequently, the companies must be equipped by excellent support systems as well human resources to improve the customer service level.

As the response to the customer service issue, the companies provide some strategies to manage the relationship with the customers. They need to maintain the customers by using several ways such as Customer Relationship Management, service management etc. They don’t want lose their customers.

We will learn and analyze the case study from Indosat. This case is taken from Accenture Bloggers and Journalists Competition

As a response to telecommunication deregulation, Indosat formed a merger with Satelindo and IM3, which had caused the combination of several complex systems supporting its different types of products. The various systems include highly customized CRM systems and other supporting systems for the registration and activation of customers’ services. In addition, this merger had also caused multiple cards and voucher inventory systems causing complication in reconciliation and reporting. As the business becomes more dynamic, changes to the systems become more complex and tedious, thus causing long turn-around time during issues resolutions or new product creation. In addition, the reliability of these systems is also one of the biggest concerns within the business. As the complexity of the systems grew, the legacy systems have become unreliable, impacting the customers service level.

Accenture helped Indosat to solve those problems.

Using the Accenture Communication Solutions, based on telecommunication industry best practices, Accenture implemented an integrated customer care and cards inventory management systems that combined all the wireless products within Indosat Accenture managed the project by working closely with the users to understand the business concerns and practices. In addition, the project was set-up with a combination of strong local resources combined skilled people from the region and skilled resources from Accenture’s delivery center. As a result, the systems implemented had been stable, and had been able to provide better service level to the subscribers. In addition, the project also consolidated Indosat’s products within a single system, which enabled the client to provide bundled services. Indosat in turn is able to effectively track its cards inventory and distribution, resulting in a higher accuracy of SIM cards inventory.

Improving Customer Service Level

Customer service level is the main concern for a company. It is because the company must ensure that the customer is satisfied with the service. Beside that, the relationship between customer service level, customer satisfaction can affect the customer loyalty. Thus, the company need to pay attention to the customer service level.

Another important thing is the company must aware with the problems that can be an obstacle to improve customer service level. Consequently, the company should monitor the entire problem and give solutions. The research must be done to examine the problem and solution.

Based on the short explanation and Indosat case study above, there are some issues that must be discussed. The problems can be analyzed into several parts.

1. The combination of several complex systems supporting its different types of products. The various systems include highly customized CRM systems and other supporting systems for the registration and activation of customers’ services.
2. Multiple cards and voucher inventory systems causing complication in reconciliation and reporting
3. As the business becomes more dynamic, changes to the systems become more complex and tedious, thus causing long turn-around time during issues resolutions or new product creation
4. The reliability of these systems is also one of the biggest concerns within the business. As the complexity of the systems grew, the legacy systems have become unreliable, impacting the customers service level.

Analysis of the Solution

As mentioned above, service quality level is important. A company must provide excellent service quality to the customer. Based on Indosat case study, Accenture has delivered some solutions that answered the Indosat problems. The analysis will be continued with some steps that Indosat’s problems can be solved from Accenture’s solutions.

As a response to telecommunication deregulation, Indosat formed a merger with Satelindo and IM3, which had caused the combination of several complex systems supporting its different types of products. The various systems include highly customized CRM systems and other supporting systems for the registration and activation of customers’ services. This is a serious problem if Indosat didn’t solve it. It can decrease the Indosat performance and service quality level. CRM helps companies to plan and analyse their marketing campaigns, to identify sales leads and to manage their customer contacts and call centers (McKinsey 2004). Therefore, Indosat should manage its Customer Relationship Management as well as the system to minimize the problem of change and to reduce the complain from Indosat customers.

Hence, Accenture helped Indosat based on the problem. Accenture has implemented an integrated customer care and cards inventory management systems that combined all the wireless products within Indosat. Accenture has taken precise solution for Indosat because Indosat must integrate two different kinds of product and the system after the merger. Absolutely, Indosat must manage the change because multiple cards and voucher inventory systems causing complication in reconciliation and reporting. It can probably make the costumer confused and reduce the performance of Indosat. Therefore, Accenture helped Indosat to solve the problem effectively. The solution can improve the customer service level of Indosat.

As the business becomes more dynamic, changes to the systems become more complex and tedious, thus causing long turn-around time during issues resolutions or new product creation. It also must be managed because the effect can be bad for the Indosat performance as well as the creation of new product. Consequently, Indosat have to be concern to this matter since the complexity and pressure of the competitor in the telecommunication industry.

In addition, Accenture managed the project by working closely with the users to understand the business concerns and practices. Marketing research, customer satisfaction and service quality survey are really necessary to know the customer perception and the situation of the market. Research must be done to examine the performance and service quality of Indosat. Customer satisfaction is tied directly to profitability. If your customers are happy, they tend to be loyal. And if they’re loyal they not only buy more, they refer other customers (Conklin 2006). Additionally, the excellent service quality is also supported by a combination of strong local resources combined skilled people from the region and skilled resources from Accenture’s delivery centre.

Another important thing that must be remembered in service quality is how to improve 5 dimensions of service quality; tangible, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy (See Singh and Dinesh 2010). Indosat must consider to increase those aspect to improve customer service level.

Conclusion

Indosat has succeeded to solve the deregulation and merger issues. Some problems must be answered to improve the customer service level. Accenture helped Indosat to fight with the problem of change and managed the customer service level. As a result, the systems implemented had been stable, and had been able to provide better service level to the subscribers. In addition, the project also consolidated Indosat’s products within a single system, which enabled the client to provide bundled services. Indosat in turn is able to effectively track its cards inventory and distribution, resulting in a higher accuracy of SIM cards inventory.

References

Conklin, Michael. 2006. Measuring and Tracking Customer Satisfaction. MarketTools, Inc. The white paper can be downloaded at https://sites.google.com/a/abizinabox.com/developmentsite/abizinabox-technolog/salesforce-com-crm-platform/zoomerang-surveys-for-salesforce

Singh, Rajdeep and Dinesh Khanduja. 2010. SERVQUAL and Model of Service Quality Gaps: A Framework for Determining and Prioritizing Critical Factors from Faculty Perspective in Higher Education. International Journal of Engineering Science and Technology. Vol. 2 (7), 2010, 3297-3304. The paper can be downloaded at http://www.ijest.info/docs/IJEST10-02-07-01.pdf

McKinsey. 2004. Organizing for CRM. The McKinsey Quarterly. The paper can be downloaded at http://www.mckinsey.com/practices/marketing/ourknowledge/pdf/McKinsey_on_Marketing-Organizing_for_CRM.pdf