Customer Relationship - Case Study Example

Relationship of Lebara and Lyca Table of Contents Introduction 3 Lebara Group 4 Relationship of Lebara 6 Lyca Mobile 8 Relationship of Lycamobile 9 Comparative Study 11 Conclusion 12 References 13 Introduction Change is the only constant word and phenomenon in the modern world of today. The tricks and the modus operandi of the business as well as life are on ever changing mode. The traditional ways of doing business like that of more research on the product that the company produced can not be solely banked upon. The emergence of the service industry and the service allied activities have played significant role in changing the process and procedures of today's business. The service industry has increasingly focussed on the customer's individual perception as the deciding factor in terms of business. Abrupt usage of such principles had ultimately made customer the king in the global economy of today. As almost all of the market follows the perfect competition, so the decision precisely depends upon the buyer to choose the services of which company they want to purchase. As the customer has been the most important aspect that has to be cared by the companies, the concept of customer relationship becomes immensely important. The present day companies try and develop stable and trust worthy relationship with the esteemed customers so that the relationship is maintained and retained. The modern theory suggests that it is very difficult to have a new customer in favour of a company due to increased competition. Therefore, the onus lies on the companies to develop a mutually benefitting relationship so that the customers as well as the organisations benefit and the existing customers are retained apart from attracting newer customers. Lebara Group Established in 2001, the Lebara Group had objective to offer exciting and innovating telecom solutions to the families and the friends of the customer. The group falls under the greater preview of Lebara Foundation, which is a charitable trust with the aim to assist the deprived children all across the globe. The vision and the mission statement of the organisation says that the charitable trust aims to provide good life to the deprived children in terms of basic necessities like that of food, shelter, treatment (for both mental as well as physical illness), education and various skill sets required to get settled in life. Lebara Mobile was first launched in 2004 in the land of Netherlands as the low cost international mobile service. The group offers prepaid mobile SIM cards in at least eight European nations which include the advanced nations like Netherlands, Australia, Denmark, Norway, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom and Sweden. The various unique selling propositions of the products of the company include: Very low rates Instant connections High quality networks Multilingual customer services Reliable service No access codes No hidden charges No lost minutes (Lebara, n.d.) The company claims to have 24 X 7 reliability monitoring. Also it has a dedicated routing and switching teams to retain the high quality. But the most important factor of the Lebara Telecom Group is that of its low cost. And the factor is guaranteed by its team of global carrier. The international calls of the mobile group are routed by the London Network Operations Centre. Customer Relationship of Lebara The customer relationship of Lebara Group is quite commendable. As the group has presence in more than 8 countries, also the policies adopted by the group are aimed to retain the existing customers along with attracting new clients. The group has declared objective of providing the customers with value for money along with ensuring all of its connections with the best possible quality. As the objective of the group is to connect the customers with their friends and relatives all across the globe, so it takes special measure to ensure that the customers get the convenience of direct-dial international mobile calling. To help the customers so that they do not have to face any hassles, the methodology of the mobile usage is also made 'easy - to - use' along with the pricing of the tariffs which is also made quite simpler for the customers to use. The group has the unique proposition of being empathetic towards the diversified communities among the eight different nations of Europe and strives to build the relationship with the customers on the basis of mutual trust (Lebara, n.d.). The measures taken to have a long and ever lasting relationship with the customer, the Lebara Group also have rewarding Switchless Reseller Programmes. The major attributes of the programme includes that of lower risk without any CAPEX. There are also no carrier contracts without any hassle. The wholesale rates of the company are much lower compared to the industry standards and are highly competitive. With more to offer the company even goes to the extent to advise the individual resellers, the best practices of the industry as the part of the consultancy services (Lebara, n.d.). In order to have long lasting relationship with the esteemed customers, the group has never compromised with the strategic and the business partners. Lebara Group has taken extra load to have the best partner so that the customers of the group gets the benefit of the widest SIM card product and also that of the airtime availability in the countries where the group has its presence. The group also takes the comparatively tougher path to deal with the customers directly through its various brand communication strategies like that of marketing campaigns, street sales, various public relations and targeted advertising and other promotional events. Dealing with the customers directly with the customers has its own benefits and demerits. Benefits include the crucial factor that the company can get in touch with the customers directly and get the first hand account of the wants and requirements of the esteemed customers and focus on the research, development and marketing techniques that would help the group to fulfil such needs. The disadvantage is that as the customers get the representatives of the company with in periphery, they are bound to question them about various promises made over the time. If such executives of the company fail to provide trustworthy replies to the target groups, the company would sure face the chin music and would lose its acceptance. The Lebara Group of Europe has also came up with online support to its clients on their own terms as well as tailored customer services that too in wide range of languages so that the existing as well as prospective customers from all the eight countries can be equally benefitted. Lyca Mobile Lyca Mobile comes from the famous telecom group, Lycatel. The mobile service was launched in 2006 and already has covered four million customer bases which are truly commendable. The group has the unique feature of 'Pay As You Sim'. Presently, having its network in eight countries, the group plans to launch itself in more nations to have diversified customer base by this year of 2009. The group has the broader objective of having seven million customers under its service by 2011. The group proudly declares its mission statement to be the market leader in the global period MVNO and hope to be the benchmark in this particular segment of the operations. It also missions to provide the broadest possible distribution network and the highest possible quality services at the lowest cost especially in the international cellular calling market (Lycamobile, n.d.). The major advantage of Lyca Telecom Group compared to other contemporary mobile service groups is its association with the brand of Lycatel. The Lyca Group can easily leverage itself with the attributes that are associated with the bigger brand. The special features that have been really beneficial for Lyca Group has been that of the distribution and termination capabilities so that it can offer highest quality services to the international calls at the lowest possible price. Also, the associated services of the telecom group is much better for the customers as the prepaid vouchers and top-up vouchers can easily be collected at the top brands like Esso, British Petroleum, Albert Heijn, Carrefour, Sainsbury, Shell, Kiosk, Swiss Post and other major retail chains (Lycamobile, n.d.). Apart from these, the group also claims to provide best possible mobile technology solutions like MSC, HLR, CAMEL IN, SMSC and Prepaid Intelligent Platforms. Customer Relationship of Lycamobile The customer is undoubtedly the king in the present market scenario with the booming globalisation and technological innovation. As more and more players get involved in the industry, the customers get the broader choice of choosing the service provider. Therefore, the competition is intense than ever. All the competitors with in the industry strive to provide highest quality services at the lowest possible prices. Lycamobile is no different. The other methods of gaining the preference of the customers are to have strategic partnerships with the industry leaders of various fields and to have continuous contact with the customers at the ground or the root level. It has already been discussed that Lycamobile has the support of the Lycatel in its distribution and technology among other fields. The group has also taken major steps like slashing rates for those affected in the credit crunch and global melt down. The group went to slash the UK national calls, SMS rates and on net calls so that they could fight the blues of credit crunch. Also, it made the intra services free with in the geographical location of United Kingdom. The group provided for 50% extra talk time on top-ups (Lycamobile, 2009). In the Netherlands too, the group came up with many schemes to benefit the customers and improve their relationship. The group had strategic partnership with Vodafone Netherlands. The two blue chip mobile service providers joined hands to launch a low - cost - pay - as - you -go SIM cards. The Lycamobile claims that the pre-paid SIM cards and the top-up vouchers of the group would be made available for the customers from more than 30,000 retail outlets to benefit the customers. The group also plans to introduce 'improved product functionality for Lycamobile customers'. The service provider commits itself to the outer world to provide high quality call services and leverage its network to other blue-chip carriers so that the company can reap the benefit of flexible interconnect architecture of technology which would invariably aim at providing best quality at a much lower cost (Lycamobile, 2009). The Lycamobile has a dedicated customer service department that looks in to various customer issues that arises time to time. Also, the group has toll-free numbers where the customer can call up for free to learn about the latest happening and the offers relating to the group. The online website of Lycamobile is much advanced and is able to handle many of the queries of the customers by itself. The tie-ups with many of the big brands like that of Pay Point, ePay, Sainsbury's, Aleef, Shell, Post Office and Tesco gives the company huge mileage because of easy availability of the vouchers and SIM cards in all the above mentioned bands along with many others. The group also offers online selling of its voucher top-up, auto top-up and calling cards through debit and credit cards. From time to time the group has various special offerings for its esteemed customers even to the extent of distributing of free SIM cards (Lycamobile, n.d.). Comparative Study It can be assessed form the above discussion that both the companies, be it Lycamobile or Lebara Telecom, are comparatively newer to the industry. But again it is also clear from the previous learning of this essay that the Lycamobile, which has the support of Lycatale, has clear edge over the Lebara Group. Being this millennium international companies and operators, both of the group understand the essence of customer satisfaction to expand their business. Though launched later than Lebara Group, Lycamobile has higher customer base than that of Lebara Telecom. Also, the initiatives that are being offered to the customers seem to be more lucrative in favour of the Lycamobile. The group have its strategic tie-ups with the bigger brands and industry leaders like Vodafone Netherlands. To assist the respected and the king-maker customers, the group has also made its top-ups and other vouchers available from whole lot of retail stores in United Kingdom and other countries. The Lycamobile has also used the online services quite beneficially in its favour. It has facilitated the online selling of various cards through debit and credit cards. The group plans to make the benchmark MVNO technology. Also, the Lycamobile has the vision of leveraging its own resources in favour of other operators with the long term planning of getting benefitted so that it can do good to its customers. Conclusion With the immense improvement in the means of communication and technology and with the ever increasing facets of globalisation, the world is becoming smaller day by day. Inter-net has done wonders and so has the mobile phones. The ever increasing need of remaining in touch not jus with the family members or the loved ones but with the professional colleague or the business partners has called for high quality services in mobile telephony. The ever increasing competition has also led to the lowering in the cost and tariffs in local, national as well as international calls. There is undoubtedly huge competition among the various service providers not only in terms of tariffs and quality of services but also on the basis of special offers and schemes along with the strategic tie-ups. To have the sustainable growth, it is essential for the companies to look forward to the future with vision and not just for immediate benefit. Lycamobile as well as Lebara Group both has bright futures ahead as it seems from the study as the overall industry of telecom is ever growing. To have the association with the customers, both the group should take more initiatives in the field of customer relationship. It can be suggested that these telecom giants can have professional help from the behavioural experts so that they can be in line with the customer perception ahead of the time and cater to their needs. References Lebara, No Date. Welcome to the Lebara Mobile. About Lebara. [Online] Availability at: http://www.lebara.com/about_lebara_mobile.html [Accessed 31 October, 2009]. Lebara, No date. Our Brand Values. About Lebara. [Online] Availability at: http://www.lebara.com/brand_values.html [Accessed 31 October, 2009]. Lebara, No Date. Switchless Reseller. About Lebara. [Online] Available at: http://www.lebara.com/switchless_reseller.html [Accessed 31 October, 2009]. Lycamobile, No Date. Our Mission. Lycamobile. [Online] Available at: http://www.lycamobile.com/mission.html [Accessed 31 October, 2009]. Lycamobile, No Date. Key Facts. Lycamobile. [Online] Available at: http://www.lycamobile.com/keyfacts.html [Accessed 31 October, 2009]. Lycamobile, 2009. Feeling the Pinch' Media Alert. [Pdf] Available at: http://www.lycamobile.com/PDFs/PR9%20January%20Reduction%20rates%20Jan%2009%20-%20FINAL.pdf [Accessed 31 October, 2009]. Lycamobile, 2009. Lycamobile teams up with Vodafone to launch low-cost Dutch SIM. TeleGeography. [Pdf] Available at: http://www.lycamobile.com/PDFs/Lycamobile%20teams%20up%20with%20Vodafone%20to%20launch%20low-cost%20Dutch%20SIM_%20CommsUpdate%20_%20TeleGeography%20Research.pdf [Accessed 31 October, 2009]. Lycamobile, No Date. Using Lycamobile is simple just click below to learn more. Frequently Asked Questions. [Online] Available at: http://www.lycamobile.co.uk/faq.aspx [accessed 31 October, 2009]. Read More