Gaps in classroom learning and experiential learning. 17 Telecommunication Industry Profile: Telecommunications industry in Pakistan definesthe overall setting for the growth of mobile telecommunication, telephone andinternet market. The mobile industry of Pakistan has gotten remarkable growthin recent years. Increase in mobile Industry directly influences the telecomindustry. Changing in the technologies make this industry tough for thecompetition but the entry for new competitors is not easy. Manyanalysts believe that Pakistan is one of the fastest rising telecom markets inthe world.
Pakistan’s telecommunicationsinfrastructure is intensely refining with foreign and native investment infixed and mobile networks . Fiber systems are being built across the country to support network growth. Themobile telecommunications segment is seeing very large year-to-year growing inPakistan.
Approximately 90 percent of Pakistanis live within areas that havecell phone coverage and more than half of all Pakistanis have access to a cellphone. With 118 million mobile subscribers, Pakistan has the peak mobile diffusionrate in the South Asian region. PakistanTelecommunication Authority (PTA) is administration agency accountable for theestablishing, process and maintenance of telecommunications in Pakistan.
Referingto the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), Mobilink carry on to leadthe market with 35. 7 million subscribers, trailed by Telenor by 29. 3 million, Ufone by 23. 1 million, Zong by 15. 6 million, and Warid Telecom by 14. 3 million.
Lately warid and jazz merged. Telecommunication is growing day by day with theimmense growth. Competitor wants to capture all the new customers and retainthe old one. Telenor Profile: TelenorPakistan is 100% possess by Telenor Group. This is a provider of quality voicedata, content, and communication services in 12 markets in Europe and Asia. With a footmark covering all over the country, it has a subscriber base of over 40 Million constructing it the second largestmobile operator in Pakistan.
In April2004 Telenor get the license for delivering GSM services in Pakistan, and in 15March 2005 launched its services commercially in Islamabad, Rawalpindi andKarachi. Telenor underway its services in Lahore, Faisalabad and Hyderabad. Telenor has its company head office in Islamabad, with regional offices inKarachi and Lahore. Proceeding further in January 28, 2005, Telenor establishedits first call Centre in Lahore for the customer care. Telenor is the 2ndlargest network of Pakistan after Mobilink. Theofficial foundation was held in Islamabad with the President of PakistanGeneral Pervez Musharraf as the guest of honor and a Telenor delegation headedby CEO Telenor Jon Fredrik Baksaas along with CEO Telenor Pakistan ToreJohnsen. The inauguration call was made by President Pervez Musharaf to thePrime Minister of Norway. Now Irfan Wahab Khan is new ceo of Telenor Pakistan.
Vision statementWe providethe power of digital communication, enabling everyone to improve their lives, build societies and secure a better future for all. Our vision to empowersocieties is a clear call to action. We bring vital infrastructure, newservices and products that stimulate progress, change and improvement. Missionstatement We exist tohelp our customers get the full benefit of being connected. Our success ismeasured by how passionately they promote us. Telenor Processes: Communicationprocess is essential part of every organization.
Organization cannot function withouteffective communication. There is two type of communication that occurs in anorganization which is internal and external structure. Telenor uses a various formal and informal forms of communication howeverexchanging information with people inside and outside the company. Telenor use the intranet for this purpose andfor the feedback or any query or report they use the email. Every employee hasan access to the intranet of Telenor. Company use Siebel for the Customer Relationship management. For the data entryTelenor use the Phoenix Software inwhich they enter their sales data entries or some other variables.
Intranetthey use get new updates related to the products and also new scheme ofcompensation in the form of competition. There is a competition held in theregion by the Telenor for the Franchise. Winner will get gift or price moneythat distributes equally in the franchise. Distribution channel in the Telnore franchisewhich is handling by the Distribution manager Mr. Adil. The working of thedepartment explains in departmental functions part.
Telenor call off their sales and servicescenter. They are now only focusing on the franchise system strategy. There areregional manager those check the performance of the franchise in there region.
They visit franchise anytime which is unplanned to check they franchise don’tmanipulate the working condition before his visit. Departmental Functions: There aretotal 3 departments in the franchise of Telenor where I work as an internee. Walk in Customers (WIC), Distribution and Finance. And there is a franchisemanager Mr.
Shahid . Walk in customers (WIC) department Manger which is alsoknown as Customer relation Officer (CRO) is Mr. Atiq ur Rehman. And thedistribution Manger is Mr.
Adil. I work for both the department WIC andDistribution. Walk incustomer deprtment do doffernt task which includes: new sim connection whichrequire some data from the customer to be filled or provide first. Change ofownership is also the require the same data from the customer to change the simowner. Providing the customer information about the new or old packages ofinternet, sms, and call. Handling thecustomer complaint is also the duty of Customer relation department and resolvesthese complaints.
Sim replacement is another part which they do there. Mostlycustomer replace there sim because of advancement in the technology that the Telenorchange to 4g. Easy load and bill paymentis also there which I find most difficult task because most of time just onedigit sends the easy load to other customer which shows the irresponsibility. Change in packages also done there which are quite simple and appreciated workfor the employees. Telenor have the easy paisa for the transfer of money fromone place to another in no time. Inwhich Telenor is leading now.
These tasks are done in Walk in Customerdepartment. Distribution department handle theexternal customer which are like the mobile shop which have the easy load ofTelenor provide by the distributor of Telenor. They place there small shop inthe city for the sales of new sim. And Finance department handle the financialstatement of the franchise. Compensation and salary also the task which haveto done by this department in Telenorfranchise. Personal Experience: Thisinternship was totally new experience for me. Get to know lots of thing in the Telenor.
The task which was assigned tome is that provide new connections to the customers. Which I found quite easywork. Required data or process for that: A customeris required to select a sim number from a given list. Then a CRO (CustomerRelation Officer) fill a form.
The form contains the following claws: Customer first name Customer last name Date of birth. Customer CNIC number Fathers name Permanent address Temporary address Sim card number Sim registration number Fee Customer signature and thumb CRO signature Office stamp Afterbuying the new sim, a buyer is then required to register the sim on his ownname. For this, a customer will call to 789 and will press button 2. After afew seconds, the Telenor operator will query the customer CINC number, customername, father name, mother name, and the place of birth. The data which given by the customer is thenmatch with the NADRA record, if it is correct then representative will registerthe sim, or if not he will reject it and the customer will have to register thesim on another CNIC. ProvideINFORMATION TO CUSTOMERS: Task that Idid in the office was to provide information to the customers about theservices and packages such as Telenor talkshawk, postpaid tariff, internationalcall rates etc.
I also provide information of how registered of change thefriends and family numbers and about the mobile number portability facilitywhich process is written in our systems. Daily I was faces new customers with newproblems so I gain a lot of experience through this internship. Some customerbehaviors were extremely rude and were very hard to control myself in somesituation, but we were strictly restricted to behave just as that we have notany anger sense. CUSTOMERCOMPLAINTS: Working ona front desk, I was also assigned to handle the customer’s complaints in verywell-organized manners. Listen to the customer complaints carefully and givequickly response so that the customer satisfied and go happily. Following weresome customer complaints: Message downloaded error Message not sending Call disconnection Billing problem in postpaid connections Coverage Wrong calls Voice quality Change of ownershipWhile doingthese tasks I feel a sense of responsibility and enjoy my work.
The most challenging task in my internshipwas the Handling the customer complaint. Manger told me that customer iseverything for us doesn’t lose your temper even if customer abuse or slap you. That thing I feel weird but after sometime I realize the pressure on theManger. Most of the time customer are inhurry they want to there work done in no time and If not they start behavingaggressively.
That thing was real challenge for me. In this internship I alsoget to know that retaining the customer is not an easy task. Communicationis the main skill is learned there.
Reading books about the communication skills and the practically bothare differ because on spot or situational factors are there which influence thecommunication. Organization interaction was not new for me because I also doneinternship in Packages pvt. ltd before.
But the learning the franchise andcompany end policies are totally different. Management skills are learned after doing this internship. How to managethe different tasks in different circumstances practically. Problem solving skill is learned by doing thecustomer complaint task. I get to knowwhere lack of is so that due this I get to know about the self-improvement. Andafter that self-correction practically done that again and then access it again.
The problemwhich I identified is that there is no HR department in the franchise due towhich I found out the lack of motivation in the employees. Most of the time Ifound out that the employees doesn’t even know about their performance andcompensation. There is no performance appraisal is used which is bad for theFranchise, they only check the performance of employee by looking at his/hersales. Anotherproblem was there is no proper recruitment process.
Every employee there is onsome reference. The pay system is also not according to the Labor law. Laborlaw sets the 15 thousand minimum basic salaries. They are not fulfilling therequirement the basic salary of the Manger is 12 thousand and then they ad onthe compensation/Incentives which I feel bad for the janitorial staff. Becausethe manager make their salary 30 thousand plus after the sales incentives, butjanitorial staff get only basic salary which I guess well less than 15thousand. Everyone ispunctual and always on time there franchise open at 9 o’clock and close at5oclock.
They also did some extra time work without any extra time bonus when theyare not done with the monthly or weekly sales. The interesting thing is that Company doesn’t clear its check if thefranchise fails to achieve its target. And if franchise fails to achieve its target 3 months in a row theyfinish their contract with the franchise. After observing lots of things I findout that the employees are very skilled but are not loyal. They just work whenmanager is there if He is on leave or not there, they don’t bother to takeresponsibility. Everyone isthere very cooperative with me.
I learn many things from them like how tobehave with the customers and peers. That was the point where I practically getto know about the Organization behavior. Every new employee trained by itsColleagues or sometimes manager.
Recommendations: Should be proper recruitment systems. This should beon the basis of his/her qualifications and skills. Not on the basis ofreference. There should be a HR department in every franchise formonitoring the different matters or performances.
There should be a proper performance appraisal inwhich employee also include and different variables include. The salary packages need to be modified a lot. Such system should be designed that every employee whohas some problems with his supervisors can communicate it to the highermanagement and some steps must be taken to improve that. When a new employee becomes a part of Telenor, he/she isnot properly oriented. Telenor has this policy of orientation but it onlyincludes visits to departments and knowing about the policies and rules of thecompany.
New Employee should also get the proper training fromthe Regional office or headquarter from the Telenor of 10-15 days then send to franchise. The late seating of employees has been observed inTelenor franchise distribution department and many employees work overtimeafter office hours. They should be properly compensated for their work especiallyduring the overtime period. This would be encouraging for all the employees. There are just 3 employees including the manger in thecustomer care department are over-burden with work and responsibility. Thecustomer care department requires more employees. Telenor should provide training to its employees. Gaps in classroom learning and theexperiential learning: After doingthe internship I see vaster than before.
Classroom learning has its ownimportance but the experience is what we do practically, which is moreimportant than classroom. When we enter corporate world, thing are changed fromwhat we anticipated. We are supposed to apply the knowledge and use skillswhich we learned in our classroom. But many of us fail because there are somesituations where our skills and knowledge are useless. We are not thought howto react or handle stressful situations, how to deal with work burden and thecomplexity of organizational culture. This gapcan be removed if students in class are given role plays, where they have toact in certain situations. They should be given more case studies so that theyknow what is going around.
The internship should be compulsory in every summerand providing that internship will be the University responsibility . By this Ibelieve we get much aware of the corporate world. In this ways they might havesome idea how things works and they know what should be done in unexpectedsituations.