Introduction
Caught in the global web, one cannot possibly abstain from online interactions, hence the need to use numerous Internet-related services. Therefore, the significance of the organizations providing the related services, from the basic access to the Internet to the advanced options, cannot be doubted. The UAE technological and business environment offers the services of numerous organizations, yet several companies stand out of the range of the existing services.
The Etisalat Company (“Etisalat” par. 1) is currently at the helm of the industry, although Saudi Oger also manages to keep up with the pace set by its competitor (“Saudi Oger” par. 2). Although both organizations are viewed as legitimate services, personal experience with each has shown that the customer service at Oger leaves much to be desired, which means that Oger may need focus on its approach toward customer relations.
Overview
Etisalat
Although the NAT IP searching issue has been around for quite a while, I had not encountered it up until recently. At some point, I noticed that, when using Google services, particularly, Google Search, I was asked to enter a CAPTCHA before my query was answered (see Fig. 1). A CAPTCHA, which is rendered as the “Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart” (“CAPTCHA: Telling Humans and Computers Apart Automatically” par. 1), is typically used to protect sites from bots (Yan and Ahmad 2).
At first, I blamed CAPTCHA on the hiccups in the Google services and did not pay much attention to it. However, soon enough, I was blocked from Google completely, with the following lonely notice over the screen of my computer: “We’re sorry… but your computer or network may be sending automated queries. To protect our users, we can’t process your request right now” (“Google Automated Queries” par. 3).
After contacting the company’s support team, I was instructed thoroughly on the subject of the available tools for troubleshooting, including checking the browser for any VPN-related extension, identifying VPN-related software that could have been active at the moment, etc. After every other possibility was exhausted, the staff member that I referred to ran a check on my IP address and suggested that one of the users included in the NAT that my IP belonged to as well could have malware installed. Afterward, the office worker stated that the problem had been identified and that I would be provided with a whitelist IP address.
Saudi Oger
Before transferring to the Etisalat Internet Services, I was a customer of Saudi Oger, also known as Oger Telecom. After about a year of using their Internet connection services, I realized that the speed of the connection was dropping greatly. Therefore, the money paid for the 100 Mbps was wasted on about 30 Mbps. Contacting the organization did not resolve the issue; although the support members that I communicated with were polite enough, they seemed eerily disinterested in the feedback that I provided. More importantly, the actions that they advised me to take did not result in any further improvements. Several unsuccessful attempts to resolve the issue later, I decided to choose a different services provider.
Concepts
Among the key concepts that can be mentioned in the above cases, responsiveness should be named first. The two scenarios described above showcase two entirely different levels of responsiveness, the first one being rather high, whereas the second one being moderate at best.
Another concept worth mentioning, the phenomenon of competency needs to be brought up. At this point, one must admit that both representatives of the company displayed a rather insufficient competency level. Whereas in the first case, the IP issue should have been brought up earlier, in the second one, the care for the needs of the customers was absent. While the first scenario could be deemed as acceptable, the second one needs improvements (Mandal 240).
Alternative
Speaking of the first incident, if I were the service provided, I would have probably addressed the situation in the same manner as the support team member above did. At first, the possible issues that the user might have been having with their PC had to be identified. However, when it became evident that it was the company to blame, I would have accepted the responsibility. Also, instead of wallowing in remorse, one should address the problem to meet the customer demands, which was exactly what the staff member above did, and what I consider the most sensible course of action. In other words, the first scenario can be viewed as a model workplace behavior.
While claiming that the entire company’s staff is incompetent based on several negative experiences with the organization would be wrong, one still has to admit that the current approach toward customer communication needs to be reconsidered at Oger. Whereas at Etisalat, the Support Service member seemed to be willing to address the problem no matter whether it was caused by my actions or the hiccups in the company’s operations the Oger Support Team member seemed detached and disinterested in my problems.
The lack of enthusiasm displayed by the above employee pointed to the fact that the organization could update its current customer relationship model. Also, the lack of enthusiasm of the employee could be attributed to a poor Organizational Behavior model and the lack of a proper leadership approach.
Therefore, it could be suggested that the very framework of the company’s operations should be reconsidered and a new principle of customer relationships should be promoted at the firm. Thus, entrepreneurship would benefit from increased loyalty rates among the target audience.
The Etisalat Organization, in its turn, can be viewed as a rather positive example of managing both the internal processes and customer relations. It could be suggested, though, that the competency rates should be updated among the staff members. Thus, the speed of managing a problem and locating the appropriate decision could be increased significantly, thus, leading to a rapid rise in the company’s profitability.
Providing services of high quality and keeping customers satisfied is a challenging task due to the number of objectives that need to be completed. Apart from catering to the needs of the target audience as the primary goal of an organization, both companies should consider improving the communication process and, therefore, establishing better customer relations with their clients. As soon as both organizations start viewing customer satisfaction as their priority, they are expected to experience significant economic growth. The above change, however, will have to be carried out by changing the processes management at Etisalat and redesigning the ethics and values at Saudi Oger.
As soon as both companies recognize their weaknesses and establish a framework that will allow them to manage the essential operations more successfully, they are bound to attain success in the designated area.
Works Cited
CAPTCHA: Telling Humans and Computers Apart Automatically, n. d. Web.
Google Automated Queries, n. d. Web.
Etisalat, n. d. Web.
Mandal, Pumendu. Proceedings of the International Conference on Managing the Asian Century: ICMAC 2013. New York, NY: Springer, 2014. Print.
Saudi Oger, n. d. Web.
Yan, Jeff, and Ahmad Salah El Ahmad. Usability of CAPTCHAs or Usability Issues in CAPTCHA Design. Pittsburg, PA: SOPUS, 2010. Print.