Page 93 - DCAP306_DCAP511_E-COMMERCE_AND_E-BUSINESS

E-Commerce and E-Business

Reengineered Telephone Service

Case Study
G
TE, one of the largest telephone service providers in USA with its customer bases in Texas,
Florida and California, reengineered its repair and maintenance process of phones to
achieve dramatic enhancements in customer service.
Previously, when the customers faced problems with the functioning of the phone, they would contact
the organization, and the maintenance and repair process used to take place in this sequence:
1. Check whether the customer was connected to the repair clerk. The job of the repair clerk was to
note down the complaint. They were not authorized or qualified to do anything more.
2. Check whether the customer conveyed the details to the line tester. The line tester helps locate the
origin of the problem that may be at the GTE’s central office or in the customer’s line.
3. Pass the problem details to either the despatcher or the central office technician of GTE.

4. Advice the service technician to visit the customer to undertake necessary repairs.
Such an elaborate procedure was not helpful to attain customer satisfaction. Therefore, the process was
reengineered to bring in the following changes:
1. Just one individual called the Customer Care Advocate (CCA) is provided a dual responsibility of
repair and maintenance.
2. The customer contacts the CCA directly who is qualified and authorized professionally to:
(a) Test the line
(b) Alter the central office software, if required or
(c) Provide a clear picture about the issue on the network
3. In many instances, CCA resolve the issue while the customer is still on the call.

4. In case immediate rectification is not possible, CCA acts as the despatcher to check the schedules
of service technicians and notify customer of the time of visit.
Thus, the benefits of business process reengineering derived by GTE are:
1. The CCA helped solve forty percent of the issues while the customers are still on line.
2. The repair time reduced from hours to just minutes.
Questions:

1. Discuss the sequence followed by maintenance and repair process when the customer’s phone is
not functional.
2. Explain the benefits of business process reengineering derived by GTE.

Source: http://www.doc.ic.ac.uk/~nd/surprise_95/journal/vol2/tmkl/article2.html
BPR is used by organizations during periods of recession to reduce costs and regain profitability. The
danger in this process is that the organization can reduce its capacity for any future growth.

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