Sir_Exx

Problems Faced By Verizon FiOSBackground

Verizon Communications (“the company”) is a telecommunications corporation that has various branches of business, including the Verizon FiOS Internet (“FiOS”) brand of high speed internet service. The FiOS service uses fiber-optic communication lines to deliver higher speed and high quality signals to the consumer (Verizon Communications, 2015).

Problem Statement

While FiOS is known for its speed and reliability, the company is notorious for their bad customer service, lack of availability, and their use of contracts - which many customers do not want (Consumers Unified, 2015). These corporate practices hurt the company’s profit margin and its viability in the internet service provider market.

Objectives

· Evaluate the company’s corporate practices with regard to FiOS.

· Evaluate alternative measures the company can take to increase FiOS customer satisfaction.

· Evaluate alternative measures the company can take to increase FiOS availability.

Alternatives

To find innovative alternatives and work through creative difficulties, it is helpful to perform a TRIZ analysis to the problems at hand by defining contradictions, resolving the contrasts, and focusing on the issues exposed (Hanrahan, 2014).

Contradictions:

The following are the contradictions found:

· FiOS is a fast internet connection but lacks good customer service (Leswing, 2013).

· FiOS is a reliable product sought after by many consumers but it requires a reimplementation of infrastructure, making it unavailable in many areas (Sims, 2015).

Strengths, Weaknesses, and TRIZ Parameters:

In TRIZ analysis, a contradiction’s strength is known as an improving parameter. Likewise, a contradiction’s weakness is known as a degrading parameter (Hanrahan, 2014). The following are the restated contradiction statements, italicized improving parameters, and italicized degrading parameters (Kudrowiz, 2015):

· FiOS is a fast internet connection but lacks good customer service.

· TRIZ Parameters:

· Improving Parameter: 9. Speed

· Degrading Parameter: 34. Ease of repair (quality of product characteristics)

· FiOS is a reliable product sought after by many consumers but it requires a reimplementation of infrastructure (making it unavailable in many areas).

· TRIZ Parameters:

· Improving Parameter: 27. Reliability

· Degrading Parameter: 33. Ease of operation

Results and Evaluation of Alternatives

The following are the restated contradiction statements, results, and evaluation of the alternatives from using a TRIZ Matrix (Time To Innovate, 2013):

· FiOS is a fast internet connection but lacks good customer service.

· TRIZ Matrix Results:

· 34. Rejecting and regeneration of parts (A. If a part of an object that has delivered its function had become unnecessary or undesired, eliminate it so that the interfering property will cease to exist, B. Restore consumable parts of the object during operation – 40.00%): As applied to the problem, this could be interpreted as:

· A: Removing the internal dynamic that is causing the negative customer service, as in a change of management or removal of problematic employees.

· B: Rehire staff, and retrain them to achieve a high standard of customer service.

· 28. Mechanical principle replacement (A. Replace principle behind the system or object with another principle – 20.00%): As applied to the problem, this could be interpreted as altering the problematic customer service metrics with a new set of metrics that produces a more-positive experience for the customer and a minimum of frustration for the representative trying to help them.

· FiOS is a reliable product sought after by many consumers but it requires a reimplementation of infrastructure (making it unavailable in many areas).

· TRIZ Matrix Results:

· 27. Cheap short-life instead of costly long-life (Replace an expensive object with a multitude of cheap ones – 44.44%): As applied to the problem, this could be interpreted as using the existing infrastructure and reimplementing the line signal technology (such as using a variation of packet encoding or alternating the existing signal band). This is a lower-cost alternative to laying new fiber optic cables.

· 17. Another dimension (If the object moves along a line, consider movement within multi-dimensional space – 33.33%): As applied to the problem, this could be interpreted as replacing the use of physical communication lines with wireless (or satellite) technology that communicates through various nodes.

Consequences/Recommendations

There are consequences for every business decision. Based on the alternatives presented, the following are the recommended courses of action the company should take (with respect to the problems stated):

· FiOS is a fast internet connection but lacks good customer service:

· Bring in expert consultants to identify and formulate a new customer service call metric for the customer demographic. The metric should be effective, yet simple for the representative to use in various customer service issues.

· Identify and remove problematic management and employees.

· Issue a general statement and re-interview each manager for the position they currently hold, with an emphasis on restructuring the customer service call center operations.

· Once the core set of desired employees and management have been identified, rehire them with modified job descriptions which state future evaluations and employment is contingent on adherence to the new customer service metric and customer satisfaction.

· FiOS is a reliable product sought after by many consumers but it requires a reimplementation of infrastructure (making it unavailable in many areas):

· Reevaluate the FiOS fiber optic technology costs versus benefits.

· If cost-effective, implement a software change in signal attenuation, packet-encoding, or other technology in the existing infrastructure to avoid having to lay more fiber optic cabling. This would increase product availability.

· If the existing infrastructure cannot use a software modification, investigate non-linear use of line-of-sight, cellular, and satellite-based technology.

· If cost-effective, implement the non-linear technology (in phases) while leaving implemented fiber optic technology in use.

Uncertainty

A good product is only as good as the people standing behind it – this is hurting the company’s bottom line with investors as well (Lappin, 2012). While there is a degree of risk involved in the above recommendations, the long term loss of revenue the stated problems are causing is unsustainable.

Risk Tolerance

Given that the company has the annual revenue in the billions of dollars, the risk tolerance would be high (Verizon Communications, 2014). We believe the assumption of the proposed changes are advantageous to the company with respect to the FiOS service.

References Consumers Unified. (2015, November). Verizon Fios. Retrieved from Consumer Affairs Internet Service Providers: http://www.consumeraffairs.com/internet/verizon_fios.html Hanrahan, P. (2014, May 30). TRIZ: A Tool for Creative Problem-Solving. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQxlIJQCxJo Kudrowiz, B. (2015). PDES 3701 Creativity. Retrieved from University of Minnesota: http://product.design.umn.edu/courses/pdes3701/documents/TRIZ39Parameters.doc Lappin, J. (2012, July 29). Everybody Loves Verizon Except Its Customers. Retrieved from Forbes: http://www.forbes.com/sites/joanlappin/2012/07/29/everybody-loves-verizon-except-its-customers/ Leswing, K. (2013, March 28). Verizon FiOS Is The Best Cable Bundle, Says Consumer Reports. Retrieved from Gizmodo: http://gizmodo.com/5992744/verizon-fios-is-the-best-cable-bundle-says-consumer-reports Sims, J. (2015, September 20). Verizon Fios vs Cablevision (Optimum): What’s Right for You? Retrieved from High Speed Experts: http://www.highspeedexperts.com/verizon-fios-vs-cablevision-whats-right-for-you/ Time To Innovate. (2013). Online TRIZ Matrix. Retrieved from Time To Innovate: http://www.time-to-innovate.com/en/steps_matrix Verizon Communications. (2014, December 31). Financial and Corporate Highlights. Retrieved from Verizon: http://www.verizon.com/about/sites/default/files/annual/financial-and-corporate-highlights-2014.html Verizon Communications. (2015). Compare. Retrieved from Fios by Verizon: http://fios.verizon.com/compare.html