Internship Report On Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited

Chapter # 07
BRIEF ON MY INTERNSHIP WORK

During my internship at PTCL I worked in fallowing department of PTCL:

• Marketing department
• Customer Care & Customer Services department
• HR department
• Revenue department
Now we move department wise and give brief introduction of each department, and I will
explain the work flow of these departments.

Marketing Department
Marketing Department is called a revenue-generating department of an
organization. Marketing Department undertakes market research and gives feedback to
management about customers needs and wants on the basis of which, products and
services are developed and positioned to give value to the customers. Thus Marketing
department of an organization plays a pivotal role in its business development, growth &
expansion.
During my internship I worked with PTCL marketing department. Through working there
I gain so much practical knowledge that will help me during my practical life. For
understanding the work flow and the operation of the department we have to move in
certain manner. We have to look the key operation the structure of the department and in
the end the focus will be on the critical analysis.
So we will move in the pattern describe below:
• Marketing strategy of PTCL
• Market segmentation of PTCL
• Marketing mix of PTCL
• Promotional strategy of PTCL

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1. Marketing Strategy of PTCL

For understanding the marketing department work flow and its function we must
have clear picture of the PTCL’s marketing strategy. For developing clear understanding
of marketing strategy of PTCL there is no one line statement or clear vision of marketing
department so we have to move traditionally .Classically, Marketing has been all about
the “four P’s”: Product, Place, Price and Promotion. The marketer identifies a target
market, defines the product and Pricing to appeal to this market and a strategy to deliver
the product to the market. Thus the marketer is the steward of the value proposition,
ensuring that the firm is delivering maximum value to its customers.
We will briefly discuss below the marketing strategy, product planning, development &
management, Pricing strategy, distribution strategy and promotional strategy:

Marketing Strategy
Normally, a marketing strategy identifies the target markets, the desired position
in each market and the marketing mix that will persuade those target markets to part with
their money. Market is targeted through market segmentation. Segmentation can be done
on four types i.e. Demographic Segmentation (age, gender, race/ethnicity, household
type, home ownership, education, employment, income etc.), Geographic segmentation.
Positioning oneself by product can do positioning differentiation, positioning by product
usage, positioning against a particular competitor, positioning against an entire product
category, positioning by association and positioning by problem, Marketing Mix includes
P’s i.e. Product, Price, Promotion and place.

Target Market
PTCL’s 80% revenue comes from just 20% customers, who are corporate
customers and other big and small business organizations. The main focus of PTCL
marketing efforts is on retaining and satisfying that 20% chunk of key customers at any
cost. For this purpose, PTCL is now established Corporate Customer Services Centers in
major cities to take care of these vital customers. Apart from these important customers,
PTCL targets general public and other small business companies for sale of its landline

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telecom services like telephone, fax, Internet, as well as other services like CLI, VMS,
and Digital Facilities etc.

2. Market Segmentation
Basically PTCL segmented its market on two bases
• To better implement customer services features, segment the market on a
customer basis:
– Corporate
– Resident ional
On the basis of services as:
– Telephony
– Data
– Video
PTCL has segmented its market for its services and products to effectively deal with its
customers. Some of its services like Universal Access Number, Co-Location centers and
virtual private network are specially targeted at corporate customers and business
concerns. The other services like new telephone connections, digital services etc. are
meant for mass market. The services like Internet, fax facility etc. are targeted at both the
corporate and general customers.

Positioning Strategy:
As PTCL is the sole provider of the landline telecom services in the country; it is
the market leader in providing these services because there are no competitors to
challenge its market leader status. Thus presently PTCL is facing no problems in
positioning its services in the market as a market leader because it enjoys monopoly in
the industry. However, with the deregulation of telecom sector PTCL is gearing up itself
to maintain this market leader position, on the other hand competitors are doing to
challenge it.

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3. MARKETING MIX

Product Planning:
In PTCL, so far products had been planned and developed by the engineering
department and marketing professionals had no role in product planning as there was no
marketing department in the Company. But now marketing professionals have been
inducted in the Company and they will definitely have a close coordination with
engineering department in planning and development of products to satisfy customers’
desires. It should also be kept in mind that PTCL is a technical organization enjoying
state-of-the-art telecom technology. The services offered by PTCL are built in the
technology and with the passage of time; PTCL rolls out these products in the market.
Even many products, which have become obsolete in developed countries, are launched
as new products by PTCL. But we cannot deny the fact that being monopolist, PTCL is
depriving customers of many digital services that are available free in many other
countries. However, as the Marketing department has been established now, it is expected
that in future there will be close coordination and liaison between marketing
professionals and engineers for planning and developing customers oriented products.
PTCL is also in the process of hiring brand Managers to manage its different products in
a thorough professional way.

Pricing Strategy:
Being a government organization, PTCL is not authorized to determine the prices
of its products itself, the Telecom Regulator Authority viz. Pakistan Telecommunication
Authority (PTA) fixes the prices of telecom services. The process is such that whenever
PTCL intends to increase or reduce the rates of its services, it submits its Proposal to
PTA for approval. PTA then calls consumers’ representatives, journalists and other
interested groups for discussion on the proposal. After listening to the viewpoints of all
the interested parties, PTA gives its decision. If PTA approves PTCL’s proposal, the new
rates are enforced. It may be mentioned here that telecom technology is only technology
whose rates are on the decline with the passage of time. PTCL also rationalizes its tariff
with the passage of time. Tariff rationalization process started in 1997 as part of GoP

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Telecom Sector policy for privatization of this sector. It was mainly focused on
rebalancing the domestic process like NWD, international, local call, line rent etc.
Rebalancing is completed by the end of 2003 (as per Tariff rates) with the objective to
position PTCL for competition.

4. Promotional Strategy
PTCL is using following components of promotional mix for the promotion and
Publicity of its product/services.

a) Advertising:
In promotional mix, PTCL’s main stress is on advertising in print and electronic
media. PTCL periodically places its advertisements in print media on services like “H/Qs
hotline 0800-44544”, “Caller line identification (CLI)”, “Voice Messaging Service”,
“Digital Facilities”, “PTCL Prepaid Calling Cards”, “Inquiry 17”, “Complaint 18”, phone
bill cards prepaid telephone etc. to remind the customers of these services. Sometimes,
corporate ads are also released to print media to mark special occasions. PTCL’s
Commercials on “Prepaid Calling Card”, “CLI”, “Voice Messaging”, “Digital Facilities”
etc. are also broadcast immediately on electronic media as reminders to Customers.

b) Sales Promotion:
PTCL charges 1/3rd rates on national calls from 06:00 pm – 07:00 am and local
calls are free from 11:00 pm to 06:00 am to promote the usage of its telecom network.
Moreover, PTCL offers special rate packages on special occasions like Ramadan Package
and EID package, which offer customer reduced rates for specific timings. For Example,
In EID Package PTCL charges half rates from 6:00am - 6:00pm and quarter
from 6:00pm – 6:00 am to attract customers to use its telephone service. These rates
result in increased revenue for PTCL and also facilitate the customers to talk to their near
and dear ones on these special occasions on affordable rates.

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C) Personal Selling
As PTCL is enjoying monopoly in fixed-line telephony, the Company has no
Professional sales force because the company has not felt any strong need to use the
Services of a sales force for increasing the sale of its products. At the moment, PTCL’s
Customer Services Centers are playing the role of sales outlets. Customers can make
telephone calls; send fax messages from these Customer Services Centers. They can also
get connected their telephone bills and get duplicate bills from these outlets. However,
with the establishment of Marketing Department in PTCL, The marketing professionals
are now in the process of inducting professional sales force for the company.

CUSTOMER CARE & CUSTOMER SERVICES DEPARTMENT

PTCL has established its Customer Services Department at different levels the
overview of the said department is as follows.

1. Corporate Customer Care Center

To facilitate Corporate Customers PTCL has established Corporate Customer
Care Centers at all Operation Regional Head Quarter Level, in all the major cities country
wide. The Corporate Customers can get their problems resolved under one roof in a one
window environment by dialing UAN 111-20 20 2. The Customer Relation Officers
register the complaints & forward these to the related office.

2. Customer Services Centers

To facilitate consumers PTCL has established Customer Services Centers at all
Tehsil Level cities/offices. Here the consumers can use Fax Facility, Voice Telephony for
Local/NWD/ISD dialing. On divisional Offices Level duplicate phone bills may also be
obtained from C.S.C’s.

3. Toll Free Help Lines

PTCL offers state-of-the-art call center network to its all type of valued customers
for convenient frequently asked Questions, Complaints regarding their services, T/No
enquiry. The following three Toll Free T/Numbers are available for this purpose.

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REVENUE DEPARTMENT
The revenue generated by the marketing department through selling the company
services/products is collected by the Revenue Department. The roles played by the
Revenue Department are following:
i. Bill Printing & Distribution
ii. Issuance of Duplicate Bills.
iii. Error correction of Bills.
iv Collection of defaulter amounts.

Bill Printing & Distribution:

The printing is basically carried out by regional billing computer center at every
regional headquarter. These printed bills are handed over to Post Office after sorting &
stapling by the Assistant Revenue Officer’s staff at Distt level.

Issuance of Duplicate Bills

In case of missing or damaged bills received to customers the correction is also
Revenue department’s responsibility. For this purpose the revenue office deputes its staff
for each Tehsil level PTCL office during the bill payment dates normally from 18th to
30th of each month.

Error Correction of Bills

In case of late payment or any other discrepancy due to missed collection by
banks the previous amount is also included in the new bill. The revenue office is
responsible for such kind of correction.

Collection of Defaulter Amounts

The amounts defaulted by the customers or the bad debts are also collected
through revenue department. Each Telecom Recovery Inspector (TRI) is assigned a target
of bad debts collection on monthly bases. Now a days as incentive is also offered on
more than 100% recovery each month.

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