Verizon Wireless : The Customer Service Nightmare King

Trends in the market include the growing number of people within the 15-29 age range. Also, phones are being used for much more than just calling, other functions like texting and music playing capabilities have dominated much of a user’s data usage. As for market characteristics, the mobile industry has reached almost 50% penetration with about 130 million subscribers, and reaching its maturity. The cost structure has been very confusing for consumers, with hidden fees, overcharges, and lacks to reward users who do not use their plans to the max. And finally, channels include all service provider stores and retail consumer stores, for example, Target, Walmart, and Best Buy.

This is in response to the above-referenced complaint filed by Ms. Lisa Wadsworth, received by Verizon Wireless on March 6, 2017. Ms. Wadsworth reports her daughter visited an agent location to purchase a new phone thinking it was a direct Verizon Store. She purchased a new iPhone 6 and agreed to a device payment plan. However, the representative did not explain to her that she would also have to pay off remaining amount for her existing device payment plan. It was not until she received her next invoice that she realized she was billed for three device payment plans.

As the telecommunications industry in the United States consolidated and regional ‘Baby Bells’ began to amalgamate, Bell Atlantic, GTE, and Vodafone AirTouch merged in 2000 to form the nation’s largest wireless company, Verizon Wireless (Verizon, 2013). After establishing its headquarters in Basking Ridge, New Jersey, Verizon Wireless launched its foundational strategy of differentiating itself from the competition by building and maintaining a superior network and delivering an exceptional customer experience through its products and services (Strigl & Swiatek, 2011). As a result, Verizon established itself as the recognized industry leader in wireless and has maintained its network advantage by being the first wireless company in the United

Verizon’s employees’ wants and needs are a high priority for the company. Verizon asked an independent research firm to poll people from a wide range of Verizon’s organization. The results were very good. According to Verizon’s website (2012) “About 4 in 10 consider Verizon’s CR programs to be excellent; 8 in 10 consider them to be excellent or good.”

Verizon is a major telecommunication provider in the United States. The company is the market leader, with $110 billion revenue and $2.4 billion in profit (MSN Moneycentral, 2012). Verizon has steady revenue streams that are largely based on a subscription model. It has several business segments, including wireless (63.3% of revenues) and wireline (36.7%) (2011 Verizon Annual Report). Most of this report will therefore focus on the wireless business, not only because this is the largest business that the company operates but because it is a rapidly growing and evolving business as well, a function of the rapid pace of smartphone adoption in America.

Verizon wireless is one the top premier phone service in the United States. Formed in June of 2000, Verizon wireless was created by the merger of two major companies, Bell Atlantic and GTE. Now as one of the leading phone services in the United States, Verizon wireless consists of over 28 million customers; 63 million phone lines, and coverage in 67 of the countries’ major cities. A little over a year later, Verizon went international, creating deals that would eventually lead the company to operating in 40 different countries, creating an extra 27.5 million in customers and over $65 billion in annual revenue. As Verizon continues to grow and look towards advancing into the future, it plans to spend

According to the 10th annual Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report, 88 percent of the analyzed 1,935 breaches were accomplished through the nine attack vectors, which means that they could have been prevented if some cyber hygiene measures had been applied. It was also discovered that 81 percent of the hacking-related breaches involved either reused/stolen passwords or weak/crackable ones. Not to mention, this year there was an increase in attacks that targeted smaller businesses; 61% of breaches that occurred involved companies with fewer than 1,000 employees. The former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper suggested a few basic hygiene measures for organizations to follow such as the following: patching software, implementing

Since the early 2000’s Verizon’s network has been the strongest in coverage in the industry. Its competitors are also right behind them trying to beat them. There is a very small difference between its competitors on network coverage. If Verizon doesn’t find a new strategy to set them apart from its competitors they will fall back and will not be the best cell phone network provider. The competitors are investing a lot of money on adding more towers to get better coverage.

One dilemma Smith faces centers around the pressure Verizon is putting on Motorola to make design changes that could affect the product launch date, volume, and potential sales. Another unique challenge Smith faces is leading a team comprised of departments representing different project outcome and communication needs (Sawhney, Miniati, Junsoo, & Goodman, 2014). Smith’s ability to lead a cohesive and productive team affects a number of stakeholders including the CEO, VP of Product Development, department heads and their teams, the Verizon Droid team, and end-users.

Verizon benefits from a high customer retention rate. The company has the highest customer retention rate in the communication industry. According to a recent Consumer Intelligence Research Partners survey Verizon 's customer retention rate is greater than that of their main competitor AT&T. Customers choose to stay with Verizon due to the company 's reliable network. This reliable network gives Verizon a competitive advantage and is a result of the company 's investment in network infrastructure.

Verizon Wireless was formed as a joint venture between Bell Atlantic and Vodafone AirTouch and began operations in the United States on April 4, 2000 (Verizon, 2013). Once the GTE, Bell Atlantic merger closed three months later in July, Verizon Wireless became the largest wireless company in the nation. As the company continued to grow, Verizon launched its 3G network in 2003, which significantly increased the speed in which data could be transmitted wirelessly and laid the foundation for customers to wirelessly stream music, surf the web, and send/receive e-mails on their mobile device (Verizon, n.d.). Subsequently, over the next 5 years, the number of cell phone subscribers in the United States exploded from 158 million to 269 million and

Verizon Communications is not able to achieve its objective of becoming the market leader in delivering innovative, integrated communications solutions to its customers (management).

     In today’s telecommunication market there is a lot of competition by industry giants such as Sprint,

AT&T is one of the most successful phone company in United State; however, this articles show how the company do not always give what they promote. In September 2015, an AT&T employee called out the company’s retention practices. She explained how the manager “accidentally” miss accounting errors, so customers have to stick with their products. This a 17 years veteran employee who called the company a catastrophe. She explained in an article published in “The Dallas Morning News” that they are told to retain customer after the promotion expire and sell more promotions or products to these people. Moreover, she said “in most of the case, a customer’s bill will jump up $83 after the intro pricing

In a May, 2005, report Samsung was reported to hold the place for the wireless phone manufacturer whose devices consumers are most likely to purchase during the next 18 to 24 months for four years straight and was reported by the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) study to be the leader in customer satisfaction among cell phone manufacturers for the second year in a row. (Sprint Users, 2005, p.1)