With an abundance of phone carrier options available to choose from, it’s often difficult to even pinpoint which company has the best price after comparing all the different options included in that specific offer. It is becoming increasingly more difficult, yet imperative, than phone providers develop creative and attractive offers beyond just pricing. AT&T revealed some of their recent stand-outs, and how these have placed them in the top tier of their industry.
“There’s more to AT&T than just a wireless phone service, which is running into hurdles to further growth as the industry matures. The AT&T U-Verse TV service has become a major growth engine, bringing Internet-based entertainment to nearly 6 million American households”. By sustaining their growth model through different avenues other than simply wireless service, AT&T has managed to create a mark in the phone industry rather than become lost in the battle like some of their competitors. From an operations standpoint, this company has managed to retain their customer loyalty but continuously improving services already offered, while introducing new ones at the same time. If one was to use AT&T for their wired and wireless phone services, AT&T is able to offer a quadruple of entertainment including phone, TV, and internet services. The only company than can even compete with offering such a bundle at the moment is Verizon. In addition to offering a bundle pack of entertainment, AT&T chose to package their wireless services together, creating simplicity for their customers and a higher revenue for themselves. “AT&T’s family plans with shared data subscriptions were controversial at first, but customers have embraced the shared-data model…This is significant, because AT&T charges much more for these larger data plans”. Lastly, keeping up with smart phone prices has been a task that has left many competitors limited. AT&T has been happy to offer their customers the lowest price for new smart phones to hit the market, and an even cheaper line of “good-looking, functional devices” that attract customers for not just their price but also functionality and ability to keep up with fellow Android and iPhone users.
Acknowledging the fierce competition between industry leaders, AT&T has taken their operations from a one-track minded operation to a multi-facet organization. How do you feel their marketing has done to voice these differences? Do you feel their operational efforts have been understood by the consumer?
Article: http://www.nasdaq.com/article/5-things-att-incs-management-wants-you-to-know-cm396449
AT&T does offer many services, but their marketing is still focused mainly on their wireless service with some U-Verse sprinkled in. However, I do believe their past 2 advertising campaigns have been very successful, at least for brand recognition purposes. I feel that the content of their advertising campaigns could focus more on the services other than wireless. The new campaign with Milana Vayntrub as the AT&T store rep is a step in the right direction, but like the real-live AT&T store reps, AT&T could have her push additional services in the commercials. While Verizon may have the upper hand when it comes to service availability in remote areas of uninhabited parts of the country, they’re still a step behind in services offered and two steps ahead in unaffordability of wireless services.
Alisha I agree with you in your post. AT&T has taken great steps in the services they are offering. However, they could do a better job advertising what the services are. As Jeff mentioned, they are moving in the right direction here, but they still have work to do. Operations Managers have a lot to handle, especially in the market that AT&T is in, considering it is a mature market. Also, as Jeff mentioned, Verizon has almost priced themselves out of the market, which is a great opportunity for AT&T to capitalize. Overall, I think AT&T has done a really good job adapting to their market they just need to do a better job getting the word out.
I totally agree with Alisha. By becoming multi facet AT&T has proven to its competitors that they are good at what they do. By diversifying in to different markets it has created a name for itself not only in the mobile industry but also the tech industry in general. But I would also point out that despite having such a wide variety of cell phones their customer service is not great. You should remember that customer service differentiates one company from another. And AT&T is not doing a good job on it. It won’t matter how big the company is, if the customers are not happy the business will not work.
It’s amazing how far ATT has come from the old Bell system, and being one of the major public phone providers to being one of the major phone services in the us, and who can forget when they were the only one that had exclusive deal with iPhone. I personally deal with ATT as my internet provider. I appreciate the many bundle deals they have. On top of that, we have heard the horror story that Comcast is putting its costumers whether they want to change service or simply asking a question. ATT has phenomenal customer service this shows they are serious about evaluate each experience.
I definitely agree that ATT&T values its customers. For example, when calling customer service about adding or removing a service, the representative checks to make sure that we are getting the best deal we can. My experience with ATT&T has always gone decently well. Even when considering downgrades on services I am always offered significant discount for future periods. I believe they truly understand what it means to have customer loyalty, and they do whatever they can to continue to hold a large share of the market.