Customer-Centered Telecommunications Services - Example

Customer Business Journal Student Name: Student P number: Module: Module code: Submission deadline: Introduction Telecommunication service providers play a paramount role in the shaping up of economies on a global scale. For developing countries, telecommunication service providers are projected to be the key factor in elevating these nations to a developed state. In most of the developing nations, telecommunication infrastructures account to big percentage during national budget allocation. It is without a doubt that, communication is the driving force of all nations. On the other hand, as far as developed nations are concerned, these nations push for better means of communications. Developed nations always seek for means that are reliable, economical and efficient from a business point of view. Unlike tangible goods, telecommunication services are not physically accessed. However, their impacts on our daily lives are clear in practically all aspects. From a consumer point of view, the need to communicate is essential for their entire livelihoods. Businesses organizations use the communication as a strategic aspect in all their practices. Ultimately, telecommunication is more than needed in practically all aspects of live in the current era (Doom, 2010). Consumer Services Consumers of telecommunication or rather consumers who use information technology infrastructure for communicating with others ought to acquire these services from telecommunication service providers. Dubbed service providers, telecommunication service providers, facilitate the availability and use of these communication services to the ground level. In our today world, information is among the top most valuable assets. The need to inform and be informed is a priority. Consumers are going an extra mile to ensure they have the capability to communicate on a twenty-four hour basis. In addition, service providers are back on consumers’ heels to ensure they get the service they expect (Mody, 2006). Types of consumers Telecommunication consumers come from the entire telecommunication supply chain. Service providers are consumers. They obtain business licenses to provide communication services to other consumers. Furthermore, smaller service providers obtain rights from bigger service providers to disseminate telecommunication services to other consumers. Other consumers such as individuals, corporations and businesses come last in the distribution chain. Dubbed as the end users, they use the services provided to them for communication amongst their peers, colleagues and associates (Doom, 2010). Types of Services Telecommunication services are numerous, and the extent to which they are used is dependent on specific users. However, service providers only provide access to communication of various multimedia services. Their consumers/customers commonly know these telephone service providers for the provision of telephony services. Telephony services were the initial and most reliable means of communication prior to data services. Initially before the introduction of computer networks, telephone services were the most preferred means of communication seconded my mailing systems. After the invention of the computer network and internet, data communication was invented. This revolutionized the way consumers communicate. What started as a lining of networks for remote sharing of information for research purposes has transpired to be one of the biggest inventions of all. Over the years, after the invention of the World Wide Web the use of the internet has advances to great lengths. Furthermore, more inventions are still coming up based on the communication protocols on the internet. Soon after the invention, there was emailing technology. Individuals could send softcopy data and documents to any part of the world in seconds. The consumers, mostly business organizations, greatly and quickly adapted emails. Ideally, it was the fastest means of communication. Despite emailing being favorable, they came with an initial cost of acquisition of internet services for the organization seeking the emailing services. Moreover, data communications have advanced from basic email to multimedia communication. VoIP (voice over internet protocol) is a means of communication via available internet protocol. Despite being limited to audio communication only, VoIP comes at no extra cost except for the data charges imposed. After VoIP, came video conferencing and teleconferencing. These modes of communication revolutionized the mode of communication and brought great positive economic advantages. Despite these modes of communication requiring high bandwidth for smooth communication, their benefits outweigh their cons. Further utilization of telecommunication consumer services come from a social point of view. Social media are projected to be among the top factors that consumers seek data telecommunication services. Consumers have adapted to a new trend of online socialization. The portals for accessing these online social media are vast. From online gaming, online social websites, online chats and IM (instant messaging) and video calls to mention but a few. In addition, television and radio broadcasting has gone an extra mile to utilize the available telecommunication technology to reach its intended consumers. Form satellite (cable) television to online streaming of radio and television sets, all consumers have to do is ensure they subscribe for these available services at their convenience (Mody, 2006). Conclusion Most consumers of telecommunication services have from various options to choose from as far as telecommunication service providers are concerned. Therefore, consumers go for the service providers that best suits their needs. In addition, government should ensure that adequate and reliable infrastructure in in place to necessitate their telecommunication services. Business Services Telecommunication service suppliers are business operatives that distribute or rather allocate telecommunication services to consumers are smaller service providers. Bottom line is, any party that disseminates these services to others to use with a business intention can be deemed as a service provider. Ideally, numerous services come with telecommunication. Multimedia data, data services, voice and video and television and or radio broadcasting services are among the common ones. It is up to the service provider and their resources that determine the type of service a provider can issue to their targeted consumers (Filipe, 2008). The most commonly used type of telecommunication business services are data services. They are used in entirely 96 percent of all telecommunication consumers. Data services primarily entail having internet services. Charges imposed on data services by consumers are mostly in respect to the amount of data accessed (uploaded or downloaded). However, some service providers can choose to impose or rather implement deferent scheme for charging their clients. Therefore, from a business point of view, revenue generated from the selling of these telecommunication services sums up the business point of view. There are sets of standards that service providers have to adhere to, and mostly they are towards their customers (Hiles, 2011). Service Quality: There has been a conceptualization of service quality. There are the expectations of the user and the perception of the quality of service provided to the user by their respective quality services. In previous times, service quality was the extent to which service providers meet their consumers/customers’ expectations or rather their needs. In addition, the perception of the relative superiority or inferiority of the services provided to them. Service Quality Dimensions: There are five common identification dimensions of qualities of telecommunication services. These dimensions are reliability, empathy, responsiveness, tangibles and assurance. Reliability is the extent to which subscribed consumers can relay of services they have subscribed. Tangibles are physical facilities of the service provider. They are the infrastructural equipment or appearance of personnel. Assurance is the presence of courtesy and the ability of the service provider to demonstrate trust and confidence to her customers. Finally, yet importantly is empathy. It entails caring for customers by the service provider. In addition, empathy is the ability for the service provider to portray individualized attention to its customers. Trust: Service providers and their customers ought to have trust in one another. Trust is among the relevant aspects between the provider-consumer relationships. With trust, long-term relationships are easy to nurture. Trust between the service provider and the customer is dependent on integrity and reliability on one party to the other (Strouse, 2004). Customer Satisfaction: This is a commonly known concept practically in any business environment. It is believed that a happy customer always comes back, and for service providers they should ensure their clients are happy. This prevents their customers from changing providers in search for better services. Considering that telecommunication is integral in our livelihood its priority should never be questioned ant any point. It is eminent that service provides retain as many customers as they can have in order to have a competitive advantage over their counterparts (Strouse, 2004). Customer Loyalty: It is believed that customers’ loyalty is made up of both their attitudes and behaviors. In details, customer’s attitude is characterized by their purchasing habits. If customers repurchases or purchases additional telecommunication services and or products from the same service provider then they are deemed as loyal. In addition, customers will have a tendency of recommending others to seek their service provider products or services. Furthermore, the customers will be reluctant to switching from their current service provider to another. All these are character traits of loyal customers (Strouse, 2004). Conclusively the relation between customer satisfaction and service quality is a conceptually distinct construct. Ideally, this tight relationship falls in the perception of the customer. However, customers can pick from to numerous service providers. Furthermore, service providers always feel they provide the best service they can offer and power are in the customers’ hands. As more infrastructures are developed, and new service providers invade the market, qualities of services are bound to improve. Furthermore, prices will fall due to competitions in the market. With net invention and technology popping up on a daily basis, the future for telecommunication is promising. Newer ways of accessing information, saving and retrieval of information, socializing and living keep getting interesting and efficient thanks to telecommunication. Developing nations are on the forefront to catch up with their developed counterparts. Ideally, acquisition of adequate infrastructures to facilitate or rather boost their current telecommunication structures is eminent. Most developing countries are allocating many funds to the acquisition of information technology infrastructure among other investments. Finally, yet importantly, telecommunication is the driving force for most nations. The extent to which economies have grown thanks to telecommunication is indefinable. It is paramount that we all embrace and appreciate telecommunication as an integral part of our lives (Filipe, 2008) . References Filipe, J. (2008). E-Business and Telecommunication Networks: Third International Conference; Selected Papers. Berlin, Springer. Doom, C. (2010). An Introduction to Business Information Management. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. Strouse, K. G. (2004). Customer-centered telecommunications services marketing. Boston, Artech House. Mody, B. (2006). International and development communication: a 21st-century perspective. Thousand Oaks, Sage. Hiles, A. (2011). The definitive handbook of business continuity management. 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