Ufone Quality Management

INTERNATIONAL ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY Operational Management

SUBMITTED BY: Faiza Majid. Sahar Amjad. SUBMITTED TO: Sir Ishtiaq Alam.

Ufone Quality Management

Date: 30th dec.011

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S ignature

Ufone Quality Management

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Acknowledgement letter

First of all we bow our heads before Almighty Allah who enabled us to accomplish this project and granted us with his mercy, Blessings and help through out the stages of this work.

Ufone Quality Management

We are thankful to Sir Ishtiaq Alam for providing us such nice opportunity of making doing this project and this report from which we have learnt a lot. We are also thankful to our parents who supported us and helped us in making this project, as it has to be. As we are also students so mistakes, if any are purely a coincidence and we apologize for them.

Contents
COMPANY PROFILE.....................................................................................................2 MISSION..................................................................................................................2 VISION.....................................................................................................................3 Departments in Ufone.............................................................................................3 Structure of the Organization:................................................................................3 Ufones Management Strives for......................................................................4 Ufone always goes for Effectiveness because they only focus on their Goal Attainment (by Ufone personnel):.......................................................................4 Level of priority.......................................................................................................4 Quality:...................................................................................................................4 Ufone Managing Quality.............................................................................................4

Ufone Quality Management

How well the company is managing its quality?........................................................4 Landmark by Ufone:............................................................................................5 Ufone and teradata....................................................................................................6 Total Quality Management:........................................................................................7 Ufone Quality management:...................................................................................8 Benchmarks:...........................................................................................................8 Competitive advantage:.........................................................................................8 Differentiation Strategy:.........................................................................................9 Continuous improvement:......................................................................................9 Employee empowerment:.....................................................................................10 Training Of Personnel Training:.........................................................................10 MANAGEMENT CONTROL SYSTEM:........................................................................10 Franchise working Process:...............................................................................11 Reasons for customer switching:.......................................................................11 Quality Certification:.............................................................................................12 Cost of quality:......................................................................................................12 Billing system of Ufone:.....................................................................................16 Social Responsibility.............................................................................................17 Customer satisfaction...........................................................................................17 Benefits provided to loyal customers:...............................................................17 Strategies to Maintain Customer Satisfaction:...................................................17 Measurement of Customer Satisfaction:............................................................18 Measurement of Customer Satisfaction:

Ufone Quality Management

COMPANY PROFILE
The company commenced its operations under the brand name of Ufone from Islamabad on January 29 2001. Ufone expanded its coverage and has added new cities and highways to its coverage network. After the privatization of PTCL, Ufone is now owned by Etisalat. During the year, as a consequence of PTCLs privatization, 26% of its shares were acquired by Emirates Telecommunication

Ufone Quality Management

Corporation (Etisalat). Being part of PTCL, the management of Ufone has also been handed over to Etisalat. During the years, Ufone continued on the path to success. The Company further expanded its coverage and has added new cities and highways. Ufone has network coverage in more than 5885 locations and across all major highways of the country. During the year Ufone adopted the policy of simplified tariffs with no hidden charges, which resulted in positive impacts on the usage trends of subscribers as well as total subscriber base, which has increased to 19.4 million. Ufone currently caters for International Roaming to more than 230 live operators in more than 130 countries and introduced International roaming facility for Prepaid subscribers in Saudi Arabia, United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Portugal, Thailand, Cyprus, Bangladesh, Uzbekistan, Tunisia, Sri Lanka, Belgium and Kuwait with lowest rates, featuring no security deposit and activation charges. GPRS Roaming facility is available with more than 115 Live Operators across 85 countries. The company has also been awarded a new License for providing cellular services in Azad Jammu & Kashmir and Northern Areas.

MISSION
"Ufone, it's all about U! We are where you want to be At Ufone we aim to provide you with wider coverage, superior connectivity, clear signals & voice quality. Wherever you are, Ufone keeps you connected."

VISION
To be the leading telecommunication service provider in Pakistan by offering innovate communication solutions for our customers while exceeding shareholder value & employee expectation.

Departments in Ufone
The Following departments are currently working: Human Resource Management Marketing Department Commercial Department Sales Department

Ufone Quality Management

Finance Department Payroll Department Information Technology Department Engineering Department Administration Auditing Department Customer Care Sales & Services Center

Structure of the Organization:

In Ufone the hierarchy is very lean, in general the whole setup is centralized, all the matters are to be reported to the main company and all the policies and targets are approved at the higher level. But at the department level the structure is decentralized. In our point of view it has a hybrid organization structures this is the best structure which best suits fast changing industries especially cellular industry. Because to make work formally done hierarchy should be there so that people have a head on them to whom they are suppose to report , not only this lower management a lower non managerial people need leaders or someone to guide and look after them from higher level. According to Ufone personnel, in telecom industry we need creativity, speed, and execution, written communication, attitude, knowledge & skills that are why we prefer new and young talent thats why we hire fresh graduate each year. So unless and until people dont have freedom to express their views and purpose new ideas such organization cannot grow, and to support this view within each department people should have decision making power and this can be done by decentralizing.

Ufone Quality Management

Ufones Management Strives for Ufone always goes for Effectiveness because they only focus on their Goal Attainment (by Ufone personnel):

Level of priority
Low cost Value added services Packages Customer services Better quality service (connectivity and coverage)

Quality:
Quality generally refers to a certain degree or level of excellence. The American National Standards Institute and the American Society for Quality Control defined quality as; The totality of features and characteristics of a product or service that bears on its ability to satisfy given needs.

Ufone Managing Quality How well the company is managing its quality?

In Pakistan we have 5 telecom giants working at their level best. Ufone, being the second largest cellular service provider, which is famous for the interesting and enjoyable advertisements, competing really hard to gain first position. Hence in such competitive environment, quality factor counts a lot; with this the companies can easily grab its customer attention. As stated in Ufones mission statement that they are aiming to provide a quality service. Which means Ufone is poised to face

Ufone Quality Management

the ever increasing challenges of the market and is confident it will attract new customers. It has the ability to retain its existing customer base with a high level of customer satisfaction via optimum network service and a 24 hour call center facility. Ufone packages offer the most competitive prices in the market with no compromise on quality of service. Ufone face very strong competition from its competitors. It must offer lowest rates with better quality service. New features and services should be introduced to make its customers loyal, happy and satisfied. A strong focus will be on maintaining high quality of service, which is always a benchmark of Ufone, increasing usage and exploring new revenue streams on value added services, market visibility through various market initiatives to fulfill subscribers satisfaction and demand and above all to increase the value of investment for the shareholders From the day first Ufone has been listening to its customer. If you see, the progress in telecom Sector of Pakistan started a new journey with the dawn of new millennium but the year which really brought a start was 2001. At that time there were 3 cellular services providers networks were working in Pakistan, by the end of first month of the new 2001 another cellular company came into the scene, Ufone, before the launch the company, it was already in the news, the reason was the logo of the company which was chosen by the potential customers of the company in a poll and the other reason was the interesting TV advertisement of this company. Landmark by Ufone: Ufone offered free incoming call first time in Pakistan in Cellular services. It was first to launch the GPRS services First to introduce Multi-media Messaging Service (MMS) First mover in providing Prepaid roaming in Pakistan. Ufone also Nominated as Best Brand of The Year at The Telecoms World Awards Middle East

Quality of Design (quality from the point of view of customer and involves designing quality characteristics into a product.)

Ufone Quality Management

To design its service Ufone focuses on a necessity which is affordable by the common man. Since its inception, Ufone has positioned its brand for masses. In keeping with the upcoming competition and mar ket dynamics, Ufone increased its focus on the youth segment (which comprises 50% of the population), with the Prepay brand. By designing market focused products with a better quality. Ufone was successful in achieving its goals. Ufones Prepay brand is now considered to be one of the most favored brands by the youth market and is followed by other mobile operators launching their respective brands for the youth market. Ufone has been designing its services to cater almost for all type of customers like: Public Demand: Lower/Rural youth Uwon: Socio economic class 5 ka 15: Ladies Post Pay: Business Class Uth package: Youth UKissan: hard-working farmers.

Ufone introduces different unique value added services to fulfill the day to day changing needs and demands Plus Ufone Sales & Service Centers have been set up to provide its customers quality services all under one roof you can walk in to any Ufone Sales & Service Center for services like: Connection purchase, Bill payment, SIM Activation, Number blocking in case of lost or stolen SIMs, Number change, Address change , Missed Call Notification, Call Forwarding, Conference Call , FNF Activation / Change etc. Quality of conformance (quality from the manufacturer's perspective and seeks to ensure that the product is produced according to design.)

To drive excellent customer experience through high network service quality, PTCL/Ufone used Framework to transform and centralize its Network Operations Center (NOC). The project also enabled accelerated business growth: the number of broadband subscribers tripled in 2009, and the coverage area doubled.

Ufone Quality Management

Ufone and teradata: Teradata Pakistan is the world's leading Enterprise Data Warehousing solutions provider . Today, more than 60% of the world's most admired global companies use Teradata Pakistan's technology along with our proven, time-tested leadership in data warehousing, Teradata paksitan' s offers a wide variety of solutions for Customer Relationship Management, Supply and Demand Chain Management, Financial Services, Enterprise Risk Management and much more. Add accolades and awards from Gartner Intelligent Enterprise ,DM Review and many other industry experts, and Teradata Pakistan is clearly the best choice. Abdul Aziz, chief executive officer, Ufone, said, "Ufone is constantly striving to provide a very high quality of service and support to our customers across the country. We have invested in Teradata's technology to better understand our customers and gain insight into their needs to be able to respond with matching services and offerings at competitive prices." Since 2001 Ufone's analytical solutions from Teradata have provided a comprehensive platform for intelligently storing information and analyzing those information reserves. Ufone uses this information to re-invent its business to not only offer innovative services but also to continuously enhancing quality of services.

Ufone Not at its Best!

When we see PTA's stats, it is evident that Ufone has failed to produce solid sales in recent months. Along with this down turn in sales, we see a decline in company's morale that reflects through Ufone's marketing trends, promotions, advertisements and its work force interactions. If we look at stats for 2008 and first half 2009 for Ufone, you will agree that company did pretty well in grabbing customers along with it showed positive financial results. It is not just a co-incidence that departure of Asher Yaqoob and emergence of Etisalat's management marks the starting point of Ufone's decline. Ufoners will agree that Asher Yaqoob was the person who lifted Ufone back in 2007-08 when it was facing serious marketing and network issues. Under Asher, Ufone offered most VAS than ever, and it is again not a co-incidence that Ufone has stopped offering new VAS since Asher left Ufone. Etisalat's involvement in Ufone's management is causing another source of confusion amongst the employees. First Saoud Abdulaziz Bin Hadef Al Shamsi was

Ufone Quality Management

appointed as deputy CEO then Walid Irshad became group CEO of PTCL and Ufone in parallel. Ufone's management is sandwiched between Etisalat's officials, hence not given a free hand to play the game. If we look at company's attitude towards work force, a hint of strictness can easily be felt. We have seen what Etisalat's management did to PTCL and now its Ufone's turn to bear the brunt. If we talk about services, we see a major shift in Ufone's policy for monetizing in every possible way. This part is defaming the company amongst the customers. In terms of promotions, Ufone is heavily relying on SIM lagao offer and despite of the demand, we are not seeing any 30 second package from the company. (You can avail 30 second package through voice bundles, but there is no recognized offer like Zong, Telenor, Mobilink and Warid are offering)

Total Quality Management:

A philosophy of management that is driven by continual improvement and responding to customer needs and expectations The term Quality management has a specific meaning within many business sectors. This specific definition, which does not aim to assure 'good quality' by the more general definition (but rather to ensure that an organization or product is consistent), can be considered to have four main components: quality planning, quality control, quality assurance and quality improvement. Quality management is focused not only on product/service quality, but also the means to achieve it. Quality management therefore uses quality assurance and control of processes as well as products to achieve more consistent quality.

Ufone Quality management:

Ufone is doing improvement in there every field all the time. They are improving the sound quality; the management is working hard for total quality Ufone wants to give us a better and the best connection which can equal every other connection. As the Slogan of the Ufone says its all about U so it cares about its people and the members of Ufone. It wants to give the best to its customers with the best quality and minimum rate.

Ufone Quality Management

Benchmarks:
Ufone is using humorous theme in its ads which has become its benchmark. People enjoy watching, discussing and following Ufone ads the most. And it is the biggest achievement of ufone in recent times.

Competitive advantage:
Its an advantage over competitors gained by offering consumers greater value than competitors offer. Ufone strategizes to gain more and more competitive advantages. It also uses these competitive advantages well enough for its promotion. Currently Ufone is enjoying the following competitive advantages: Introduced the service of GPRS and hence took the competitive advantage. Lowest overall call rates Value added Services (VAS) Call block service Corporate color

COMPETITIVE STRATEGY:

To cope up with the growing competition, Ufone has always been a head of its competitors. In todays world, the only way to success is to gain a competitive edge. Ufones competitive strategies are Customer intimacy and Differentiation. Ufone has always taken keen interest in serving better to its users. UN matchless call and SMS rates have given an edge to Ufone against its competitors. We can consider Warid telecom as the major competitor today, because of its rates. But Ufone outclass Warid with better quality and coverage.

DIFFERENTIATION
In these days of intense competition marketers find it hard to differentiate their services from those of competitors. Now customer care about only price. An unsatisfied customer will immediately go for brand switching. Thus leaving a customer unsatisfied and not meeting his/her demands is out of question for marketers.

Differentiation Strategy:

Ufone Quality Management

Ufone satisfies its customers by providing best of the postpaid service. In postpaid Ufone differentiate itself on the basis of; Quality Price Technology

Continuous improvement:
Ufone has made an interface on their website as Complaints & Feedback page in which Ufone is actually taking feedback and complaints of its customer, by asking them to share their thoughts with Ufone and work on it because Ufone is committed to provide the highest standard of services to customers via its brand experience and sales service.

Ufone Quality Management

Customer complaint form According to an article, Ufone Gain Profits 57%, Revenues 14% in FY11 (October 11, 2011), written by Bilal Sarwari, is that regardless of unfavorable financial circumstances restricting development in Pakistan, still Ufone carried on to update its network with some other improvements as well as enhance performance in smooth sequence which results in top quality of customer satisfaction. In the past year, Ufone launched a variety of revolutionary services to eye-catching call rates serving the requirements of various users. The youth portion had been additionally increased by way of starting brand new packages and offers e.g. Uth Nonstop Offer, Uth Full Time Mufta Offer and Uth Alaa Offer. These kinds of presents received incredible reputation within the youngsters section adding significant profits. Furthermore, one of many assignments concentrating on top quality customers had been identified at international level and also Ufone had been presented with Best Customer Services Innovation award from the prestigious Global Telecoms Business.

Employee empowerment:
Changes have been brought in Ufone due to HRM Extrinsically motivated employees but for Ufone intrinsic are more important Emplyoyee satisfaction.

Empowerment is the transfer of authorities from a senior to a junior or we can say delegating powers to another person is empowerment. Ufone is a very friendly employer and lets every personnel work efficiently. It lets every individual have the authority of taking decisions and performing tasks at his own level in the best possible way. This freedom creates a sense of ownership in each employee and he becomes more concerned about his job. When the freedom level is created, employees feel happy to work with the organization and hence interact in a friendly way with the customers, thus enhancing the organizations goodwill

Ufone Quality Management

Training Of Personnel Training: Personnel mean all levels of management. Ufone has its own trainers who provide training to all levels of management. It also calls foreign trainers for maintaining international standards. This type is called outsourced training. Specific training focuses on the important things needed to be taught to the personnel. This means that this training differs from person to person. Where as general training is given to every individual working at Ufone, like personality grooming etc. Objectives of Training: After giving training to employees they will be able to handle angry customers. There performance level will increase Will be able to deal with the aggression of people They will understand the ways to manage there anger and also of customers. Group cohesiveness will increase

MANAGEMENT CONTROL SYSTEM:

Is the process of evaluating, monitoring and controlling the various sub-units of the organization so that there is effective and efficient allocation and utilization of resources in achieving the predetermined goals Ufone has got a well-established management control system, which is working under the supervision of human resource department. The responsibility of this department is to make and review the conduct rules of Ufone. Through this department they have been able to keep proper checks and balances on their employees. Ufone is basically equal employment opportunity organization. Almost 65% of its employees are male and 35% are female. The job description of each and every employee is predefined. Performance appraisal is done on annual basis. Average age of Ufone employee is between 30 to 40 years. This shows that they prefer young and energetic people for their middle and lower level management. High profile well experienced persons are considered for top-level management. The employees are indeed very satisfied and motivated

Ufone Quality Management

The human resource of Ufone is highly skillful, educated and committed towards their work. Mostly people working in Ufone are MBAs and masters in specialized fields. According to them their human resource is their biggest assets and they want committed people. Their human resource department is a well-established department working on career development and compensation of their employees. A continuous training is conducted inside and outside the organization to improve the skills of the employee. On achieving different target different intrinsic and extrinsic rewards are given. In Ufone the environment is very useful but friendly. They also prefer young and energetic people. The reason according to them for this is that young people can work for more hours. Franchise working Process: MIB: MIB is abbreviation of management information bulletin, for rules and regulation of every promotion, service or activities management route the MIB to the internal mailing system which will be followed by the whole organization including Franchise. Credit Limit: For doing activities like postpaid , prepaid activation , new connection, other service charges franchisee deposit Rs. 500,000 as security deposit. Franchise is allow to make the activities with this limit of Rs. 500,000 when limit is across then franchise is follow to more deposit of the same amount for further activities Reasons for customer switching: The reasons for customer switching can be identified as following: Pricing (High price, unfair pricing, deceptive pricing) Inconvenience (Wait for service, wait for appointment) Core service failure (Service mistakes, Billing errors) Service encounter failure (Uncaring, impolite, unresponsive behavior) Response to service failure (Negative response, no response, reluctant response)

Ufone Quality Management

Competition (Found better service) Ethical problem (Cheating, Unsafe) Involuntary switching (customer moved, provider closed) Coverage in some areas is not strong due to lack of towers in those areas. Like Narowal, Manga Mandi, Bhalwal. Ufone helpline is not efficient, subscribers are facing problems due to it Like they have to wait for the representative for a long time or the call is dropped. And the line remains busy sometimes. Abrupt induction of hefty number of new connections is resulting in adverse affects on network due to overload

Quality Certification:
Ufone is not ISO certified organization. While Mobilink have ISO 9002 quality management system certification for the billing, engineering department and customer service contact center. Maybe that is why the Ufone is at the second position in telecom industry.

Cost of quality:

Training Cost: Ufone gives proper training to its staff to focus on the communication skills, to have patience element in them and have guts to convince the customers to become the

Ufone Quality Management

loyal customers by always send them satisfied as they leave the office. This is important because if ufone loses one customer, then it loses more 100 customers. Everything from a Salam said by a guard, to Thanks for visiting Ufone by a customer relationship manager is pre-recorded in a documented form. Hiring Cost: Choosing the Right Person at Right Place in Right Time. Ufone Hire those people who are efficient in communication skills because the employee represents his company while talking to the customer. Hiring Cost is sunk cost means if who hire a wrong person the cost you have incurred on recruiting him cant be return. Ufone gives employment to those people who are efficient in communication skills like clearly speaking the words, avoiding usage of vague words and using the words which are easily understood by the customer, carefully selecting words while communicating anything to the customer because the employee represents his company while talking to the customer, having tolerance level to avoid aggressiveness while dealing with hyper customers, having good listening skills to understand the words spoken by customer as he has originally intended, etc. This means that Ufone wants everything to be perfect. UFONE is constantly working hard to introduce its Value Added Services to the market for maximum customer satisfaction. There are certain Failure Factor of VAS as well , Although Ufone Vas is very successful in market but some of the vas like UHealth, Ufone RishtaPoint, Less awareness of product in consumer. Social Reliable ( Service like UHealth, Ufone rishat, people not much relay socially) Price ( price of some product is very high)

But still Ufone is struggling hard to serve best service. Ufone has personnel directly interacting with customers, who send the customers satisfied to their homes before leaving UFONE office.Ufone, the leader in innovation, recently launched a mobile handset named the Uth Futura. Once again Ufone has proven to be a pioneer in presenting the latest technology to the Pakistani market. Till date there had been no gadget in the market professing to give the customers high speed 3G internet. With its introduction of Ufone has presented a plethora of online opportunities for customers in partnership with PTCL.

Ufone Quality Management

This unique handset has the ability to replace cutting edge technology with its unique features and hi speed internet. Uth Futura is a dual mode GSM+EVDO handset which gives the user lightning fast 3G internet speed of up to 3.1Mbps and the ability to make calls, socialise and stream online videos. Appraisal cost To further exceed their customer expectations, a maintenance charge of 1.1% is deducted on every recharge of ufone along with government taxes. At the time of account recharge, a service charge of 5% (on scratch card/utopup face value) + Government taxes, on all transactions via ULoad or scratch cards. This is just to deliver the quality service to their customers. Ufone inspectors and Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) conduct inspections, surveys, tests or performance audit of quality of Internet services of Broadband Service Providers (BSPs) in order to ensure maximum customers satisfaction in their respective coverage areas. BSPs will carry out quality testing surveys of their Internet services on quarterly in addition to telecom regulators own conducted surveys and tests in order to provide uninterrupted and speedy Internet services to the users, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority stated in draft of Broadband Quality of Service Regulations 2011. The BSP(s) shall extend full cooperation and provide all assistance to the representative/ inspecting officer (s) in carrying out the tests and surveys. The authority may engage, if circumstances so require, third party/consultants to conduct quality of service audit, the draft regulations added. The inspecting officer shall prepare an inspection report of such QoS inspections, which clearly spell out the shortfalls observed during such inspection. This report shall be provided to the BSPs. The BSPs shall immediately take all remedial measures to remove the shortfalls identified in the report and submit compliance report within 30 days by confirming that all stated shortfalls have been removed. PTA regulations will be implemented by all BSP (s) in accordance with defined the KPI(s) for Broadband services. These KPI(s) shall act as benchmarks for determining QoS standards for Broadband from the consumers perspective. The actual download speed available to the subscriber shall be measured. Keeping the reasonable loading level in the intra network links up to ISP node, and the fact that in general for normal broadband operations data rate is lower than the advertised/plan data rate, the data speed must be at least 60% of the advertised speed of broadband service plan, both download and upload, and this must be experienced at least 70% of the time. For example, if users broadband download service plan is 1000 Kbps, a pass result shall be considered if

Ufone Quality Management

data speed is 600 Kbps or better. Each BSP(s) shall maintain record of all data collected against each QoS parameter/factor tested as prescribed by the authority. The data collected in the testing phase shall be submitted to the Authority within thirty (30) days of the end of each quarter to which the data relates or at such intervals as the authority may direct from time to time and in the form and format as prescribed by the Authority. The BSP(s) shall keep a record of the said quality tests and surveys, in such form and manner as the Authority may specify. This record shall at all times be open to inspection and audit by the Authority or representative of the Authority, with or without notice to the BSP(s). Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has issued regulations for all cellular operators aimed at ensuring maximum subscribers satisfaction on the quality of GPRS and EDGE services. The regulations shall be called GPRS/EDGE Quality of Service Standards Regulations, 2010. PTA has explained the criterion of the quality of service shall be changed time to time keeping in view the emergence of new technology, demand of customers and capacity of cellular operators. All licensees providing GPRS and EDGE services shall adopt the performance standards termed mandatory requirement by the authority, which can modify, delete and add standards for rating on the basis of the extend of coverage deployment and review of new technologies, the regulations stated. All operators shall carry out quality of service testing of GPRS/ EDGE in accordance with availability network and services; link, upload and download speeds, mobility and retain-ability. The test and surveys shall be designed to meet the applicability, end-to-end testing, ease of measurement and similar treatment of rural and urban region in terms of service offers. The PTA may depute its representative for supervising quality of services surveys and testing to be carried out by operators themselves. The cellular operators shall maintain record of all data collected against each quality of service survey, testing and different factors, which will be submitted to the authority at certain intervals. All record must be safe for next three years by operators as necessary compliance. The cellular operators must update their data in analytical form so it is always open for inspection and audit of the authority or representative of authority, the regulations added. The regulations said that the authority may conduct inspections, survey, test or make surprise checks through its representative. It may also conduct performance

Ufone Quality Management

audit of operators quality of service from time tot time to ensure that users of telecommunication services get quality of services guaranteed by service providers. PTA may decide to provide information of frequency testing, geographical routes and testing times to operators in advance on the basis of consumer complain record, coverage claim of the cellular operator and previous results. The cellular operators shall extend full co-operation with all required assistance to inspecting officer of PTA in carrying out testing and surveys. The authority may engage, if required, a third party or a group of consultants to conduct a quality of service audit. The inspecting officer shall prepare an inspection report of quality of service results, which clearly spell out shortfall observed during the testing process and submitted to the operators. The cellular operators shall take all remedial measures to remove the shortfalls identified in the report and submit a compliance report within 30 days by confirming that all shortfalls have been removed. PTA will publish test or survey results and rating of the operators for information of general public. Failure cost(enternal/internal cost) According to Ufone personnel, Ufone Not at its Best , by PTA's stats, it is evident that Ufone has failed to produce solid sales in recent months. Along with this down turn in sales, there is a certain decline in company's morale that reflects through Ufone's marketing trends, promotions, advertisements and its work force interactions. Stats for 2008 and first half 2009 for Ufone, says that company did pretty well in grabbing customers along with it showed positive financial results. It is not just a co-incidence that departure of Asher Yaqoob and emergence of Etisalat's management marks the starting point of Ufone's decline. According to it, that Asher Yaqoob was the person who lifted Ufone back in 2007-08 when it was facing serious marketing and network issues. Under Asher, Ufone offered most VAS than ever, and it is again not a co-incidence that Ufone has stopped offering new VAS since Asher left Ufone. Etisalat's involvement in Ufone's management is causing another source of confusion amongst the employees. First Saoud Abdulaziz Bin Hadef Al Shamsi was appointed as deputy CEO then Walid Irshad became group CEO of PTCL and Ufone in parallel. Ufone's management is sandwiched between Etisalat's officials, hence not given a free hand to play the game. If we look at company's attitude towards work force, a hint of strictness can easily be felt. We have seen what Etisalat's management did to PTCL and now its Ufone's turn to bear the brunt. If we talk

Ufone Quality Management

about services, we see a major shift in Ufone's policy for monetizing in every possible way. This part is defaming the company amongst the customers. In terms of promotions, Ufone is heavily relying on SIM lagao offer and despite of the demand, we are not seeing any 30 second package from the company. (You can avail 30 second package through voice bundles, but there is no recognized offer like Zong, Telenor, Mobilink and Warid are offering. Lastly I will talk about advertisements, which were top notch once, but maybe Ufone needs to change the idea of hilarious scripts. If we talk about Post-Pay , Although the product is very much popular in market but there is some failure aspects of theproduct. Lack awareness about packages in consumer mind. Less advertisement about post pay. Billing system (due to delay in bill delivery is very hot issue in Ufone )

Billing system of Ufone: Powered by Huawei, Ufones billing system for postpaid customers is causing problems, as it has stopped updating records for bill payments, call records, reported by inside sources and Ufone customers. This system failure has resulted into blockage of outgoing calls and GPRS data for those who reached their credit limit. Reportedly, Ufones customers are unable to make their calls despite their bill payments. Ufones customers have informed ProPakistani (blog for telecom related news) as well that they are deprived of any outgoing calls and GPRS data. They confirmed us that they are consistently calling helpline but CSRs are not giving them any deadlines. However, CSRs are confirming that system is not available and they cant help customers in this. It merits mentioning here that this billing system was recently deployed by Huawei, but it could not deliver the required standards. It may be recalled that we have already reported increasing distance between Ufone and Huawei due to such failures. When contacted Ufones spokesman regarding Ufones billing system problems, he said that there is no such issue This is not the first time Huawei has failed to deliver services. Since, the project of US 550 Million dollars was awarded to Huawei to Ufone, we have consistently been hearing undeliverable reports. At this point of time, when Persona and Zong are agressively promoting their Post Paid packages, it would be difficult for Ufone to retain its position with such issues.

Ufone Quality Management

Ufone lost at least 300,000 call records for its post paid numbers, last month, resulting into a total damage of at least 1.7 million rupees, told us sources in the company. Data was found missing for at least 11,000 post paid numbers, while system didnt record their CDRs (Call Detailed Records), due to unknown error in Ufones billing system. It was learned that at least 300,000 CDRs were found missing including local and/or international calls. It merits mentioning here that Ufone is using Huaweis billing solutions while we know that infrastructure manufacturers (in most cases) provide after-sale support to cellular companies. When we asked about the incident, and whether Ufone, Huawei or the customer will bear the loss, Ufones spokesperson didnt respond to our query, despite several reminders. On other hands, Huaweis Spokesperson didnt confirm the situation nor denied. Ufones billing solution is facing issues since Huawei deployed it. Customers, in the past, used to receive nominal bills one month while double bills the next month, due to batch processing of records.

Social Responsibility
Ufone is not only a competitive telecom leader in the industry but an organization that has always been working towards an orderly corporate social responsibility plan including ways of supporting those in need .We asked the manager of Ufone that what Socially Responsibility they have performed recently they told us that, Employees of Ufone, one of the leading telecom companies of Pakistan, have pledged one day basic salary as humanitarian aid to the devastated victims of the conflict of Swat. Due to terrorist conflict in Swat, Dir, Buner and Malakand has begun in the affected areas with over 700,000 people have displaced while many still remain stranded. Due to continuous curfew and blocked main highways and roads leading to troubled areas, people are struggling really badly. Ufone with a unanimous decision of all the employees and management has decided to come forward yet again and share the burden of these displaced immigrants. Mr. Abdul Aziz, President & CEO Ufone Said: This gesture will not only help those in need but also be in line with Ufones tradition of being a socially responsibly entity. Ufone recently unveiled an exclusive web portal, www.pakistantumhetoho.com.pk which advocates the positive side of the nation and in time will act as a preemptive effort to counter the global negative tag associated with the country. The web portal was launched through a press conference and numerous prominent media personnel, bloggers and journalists were in attendance. Pakistan Tum He To Ho, is a unique and vibrant campaign which promotes Pakistans rich culture and heritage.

Ufone Quality Management

The web portal has a multitude of offerings which accentuate the great historical significance of Pakistani festivals, music, art, tourism, food and ancient civilizations etc. The web portal provides an opportunity for the people residing in Pakistan and abroad to come together on one platform and obtain knowledge about the country and appreciate the available content on the site which reflects the positivity and the nationalistic spirit.

Customer satisfaction
Benefits provided to loyal customers: Ufone has set a specific time period and amount spent for declaring customers as Loyal Customers. When the customers spend that particular amount of money, be it be prepay or postpay customers, or they use their Ufone SIM for a particular time period, then Ufone calls them its Loyal Customers When customers become loyal to the company, they avail door to door services from a specially maintained department consisting of Personal Executives. These customers are provided bonuses from the revenues earned from them. Also they are allowed to participate in certain campaigns and promotion programs of Ufone. These customers also avail special offers like discount on bills, free SMS and calls. Strategies to Maintain Customer Satisfaction: Ufone personnel are taught to deal with the customers with the courteous attitude. Also promotion policies are developed from time to time to retain the customers lost. This is done by Giving discounts on calls rates. Giving free SMS bundles, free minutes etc., to the customers who dont use their SIMs for 2 to 3 months. Call centre records the calls done by customers to maintain quality assurance. Greeting messages are sent to customers on religious events. Birthday messages or cards are sent to the loyal customers. Door step services are provided to the customers. These services give a competitive edge to Ufone. Measurement of Customer Satisfaction: Ufone measures its customers satisfaction by Recording their calls as they call the help line. Also, it conducts surveys, campaigns etc., that help it to know what do the customers want, what are their basic needs, and to how much extent they

Ufone Quality Management

are satisfied. It has a special department which takes necessary steps from time to time to constantly improve its quality. The best thing in Ufone is, that it accepts the complains going against it, and satisfies the customers, that those pointed out issues will be solved. It finds out the reasons that why are its customers shifting from Ufone to any other network. Then it analyses the faults in its network and takes necessary steps to minimize them.

Flow activities that are necessary to achieve the Quality

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