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PROJECT REPORT

SUBMITTED BY:

Ahmad Ali (04151713016)

Jibran Habib (04151713022)
Aitazaz Ullah (04151713018)

BSBA VIII-B

Session 2017-2021

SUBMITTED TO:

Dr. Ali Raza

Quaid-e-Azam School of Management Sciences

Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad
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Executive Summary

This document provides a detailed analysis report on exploring service gaps within
PTCL Broadband service. Pakistan Telecommunication Ltd. (PTCL) is the biggest
information and communications technology company in Pakistan which was founded
in 1947 as the national telecommunication company of the country.

For a very long time, PTCL has been providing complete telecommunication and
internet services in Pakistan and has the greatest legacy in the IT sector as the
company holds the position of monopoly in the industry. Despite the great services in
the field of landline, PTCL has dealt with severely bad word of mouth about the
company over the past decades due to the lack of customer satisfaction in the
broadband business.

This report focuses on exploring the gaps in the services of PTCL Broadband and
understand the reasons for the lack of service quality level which is expected by the
customers in Pakistan. Although PTCL has had an unpleasant history, the company
still holds a significant share in the Business-to-consumer market as the company
strives to improve its quality of service gradually.

In our analysis, we have found that PTCL is now actively working on filling the gaps
in their services, however, the company is still lacking in overcoming some major
issues due to which they still have a long way to go in filling the gaps of listening,
service performance and communication.

The document also discusses the possible strategies for overcoming the identified gaps
and provides detailed service blueprints of the proposed strategy and also discusses the
procedures associated with the strategy.
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Table of CONTENTS
Executive Summary.........................................................................................................................2
About Pakistan Telecommunication Landline................................................................................4
Vision and mission statement of
PTCL…………………………………………………………...4
Review on Performance and Perception of PTCL – Broadband.....................................................5
Identified Gaps in PTCL Broadband
Services………………………………………………….6-7
Strategy to overcome Gaps:...........................................................................................................8
Comparison of Service Blueprints.................................................................................................9
Service delivery
roles…………………………………………………………………………….11
Strategies to operate in Covid-19 Era............................................................................................13
Strategy to include employee training, retention, and demand measurement...............................15
Company environment of Pakistan Telecommunication Ltd........................................................11
Conclusion:....................................................................................................................................17
References.....................................................................................................................................18
Appendix.......................................................................................................................................19
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About Pakistan Telecommunication Landline

PTCL (Pakistan Telecommunication Company) is the biggest company in the country

when it comes to Information Communication Technology. It was established as a
basic voice telephony provider, privatized in year 1991. Today it offers the most
advanced telecommunication and digital services throughout the country. Some of its
products include Internet Broadband, 4G, Smart TV, wireless internet, IPTV
applications, and a variety of digital content. It is also one of the top brands when it
comes to B2B communication with satellite services. It also has one of the largest
fiber-optic networks connecting Pakistan to the rest of the world with submarine
cables. It has become a brand and identity of Pakistan and plays a huge role in the
development and prosperity of the Nation.

Vision 
To be the leading and most admired Telecom and ICT provider in and for Pakistan.

Mission
To be the partner of choice for our customers, to develop our people, and to deliver value
to our shareholders.
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Review on Performance and Perception of PTCL – Broadband

PTCL is the largest Information & Communication business has always been known
for its worst service performance ever in this industry. We conducted detailed internet
research to discover the public perception of the PTCL broadband services and we
found some articles discussing the poor service quality of the company along with
several customer reviews and feedback mentioning their individual poor experiences
with the brand.

Not only was that back in 2010 PTCL was also issued a show-cause notice by the
Pakistan telecommunication authority for the poor quality of services. The company
also has a very poor perception in the gaming industry where individuals require high-
quality internet to connect with local and global servers and play online. It is known in
the gaming industry that PTCL internet is not suitable for online gaming needs and
hence gaming community completely avoids PTCL broadband despite the recent
efforts by the company to improve their service quality.

PTCL Broadband has recently upgraded its network infrastructure across many parts
of the country and now the company is offering higher bandwidth packages back by
fiber optic technology which has resolved a major issue with the quality of service
however, the company is still struggling with overcoming the bad reputation in the
industry due to the fact of gaps in the services.
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Identified Gaps in PTCL Broadband Services

Listening Gap:

The listening gap refers to the situation where there is a difference between the
customer’s expectation of the service and the company’s understanding of those
expectations. A similar situation is found in the service of PTCL Broadband in terms
of service recovery.

Customers of PTCL prefer high-speed internet without disruptions so that they can
effectively carry out their routine tasks online. The company has recently started
investing in disruption-free service by installing modern fiber-optic equipment across
many urban areas of the country, however, the company is still somehow struggling
with improving its standard up to the level of customer expectations. Apart from that,
we also learned in our session with Mr. Sheeraz Ahmed that in the occurrence of a
disconnection event, PTCL takes around 6 to 8 hours to fix the issue whereas the
customers expect prompt service from the company. In today’s situation of the Covid
era where the world has gone online and almost every business is targeting digital
operations and where education has completely been shifted to the internet, people
cannot afford to have 6 hours of disrupted internet service. Hence we note that the
company is unable to understand the expectations of the people and not focusing on
improving their traditional ways of resolving customer complaints.
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Service Performance Gap:

The service performance gaps of PTCL Broadband are few but the company is facing
losses due to these gaps. Overall Performance of PTCL Broadband is now much better
and they are moving towards a positive and prosperous future. They have shifted from
their old infrastructure to a new Fiber Optics infrastructure in some urban areas of
Pakistan. However, they are installing is this new infrastructure in other areas and aim
to shift the whole network of Pakistan to Fiber Optics. By this, they will be able to
provide high-speed internet to the whole country.

The gaps in the service performance of PTCL Broadband lie in their after-sales
services. These services include resolving issues of customers, providing bandwidth as
promised at the time to purchase of service, complaint service, and others. For
example, few of the customers shared their

reviews on social media platforms that they did not receive the amount of bandwidth
that was promised by PTCL or was shown on the package that they subscribed to.
One of the customers said that they have a connection of failure once in which they
were receiving 500 KBS speed however, the actual connection was to 6 MBS. The
other major gap in service performance is that the customer’s support system is not
well organized as they take a lot of time in resolving the issues of customers. Another
gap lies in the same department of customer support that the customer support
representatives sometimes do not deal with the customers as they should. For
example, the customer of PTCL Broadband told that he launched a complaint to
PTCL customer support and their representative was not accepting their fault and was
blaming the customer for the issue.
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we discovered that PTCL is not putting adequate efforts into improving the several
elements of the communication gap. Firstly, the company does not put any effort into
avoiding over-promising service, however since PTCL Broadband has had a very
poor service background in the past due to which the customers do not trust the
claims of the company based on their prior experiences. The company keeps on
overpromising their services in campaigns but eventually, they get leverage on their
past performance where the customer is already aware of their quality of service.

Apart from that, we also found on the internet that the company is failing in
communicating the same message across the board within the organization, hence
customers are often misguided by the employees of the company.

Strategy to overcome Gaps:

We have already noted in the above discussion that PTCL is the largest internet
service provider of Pakistan with its operations expanded all over the country and
having a great legacy of being operative in the industry ever since the independence
of the Nation. Also, in our discussion with Mr. Sheeraz Ahmed a former PTCL
employee, we found out that PTCL has always been dominating the internet
broadband industry for it has excessive resources to match greater demand levels
nationwide. Due to this major competitive advantage over its competitors, PTCL has
always been able to price its products below those of competitors’ prices.

However, despite having this great advantage over competitors PTCL’s biggest
problem has always been the higher churn rate. The company loses more customers
every month than it acquires due the poor customer service. The competitors of
PTCL Broadband are competing only with their quality of service where they
outperform the company. To this date, PTCL has lost more than 60,000 customers to
Optix, over 100,000 to Cybernet (stormfiber), over a million to local cables, and more Page | 9
than ten million to mobile broadband.

To overcome the above-discussed scenario, the strategy that we have formed for
PTCL is to introduce a Local Area Network which shall resolve one of their biggest
problems of delay in service recovery, poor customer service, and slow connection
problem. The local distributors available in town are proactive in resolving
customers’ complaints and stay actively connected with the customers. PTCL
encounters the problem of lineman shortage for service recovery due to which the
company’s service recovery time lies within the range of 6 to 8 hours. This issue will
be resolved by outsourcing LAN business to local distributors as these distributors
are widely spread all across the major cities and each distributor does not provide
service to more than 100 to 150 households. This business model of local distributors
allows them to quickly resolve any problems encountered by the customers

Comparison of Service Blueprints

Broadband Model:
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Local Area Network Model:

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SERVICE DELIVERY ROLES

How to manage a successful business, should be synonymous with the delivery of perfect
services. As with all businesses that provide services to successfully compete for these
services, and this is a major differentiating factor between the model and the ability to
implement it. The design of a service delivery system needs to focus on what creates
value for organizations, and how the recruitment of additional staff to provide a high
level of customer service. Employees are the most important factor for lasting success in
business enterprises. They are also responsible for understanding the needs of the
customer and understand their needs in real-time. By focusing on the most important part
of the service, the employees, and the development of strategies that lead to effective and
customer-focused service, organizations can reduce the difference is in the service of
productivity.

To cater to this, we have four major roles including Service Quality Analyst, Service
Delivery Manager, and Customer Relationship Manager.

Service Quality Analyst

Mr. Jibran Habib would work as a Service Quality Analyst.
Mr. Jibran Habib as a quality analyst will focus on designing, creating plans, and ensure Page | 12
whether the quality requirements adhere to the organization’s policies. He will be
responsible for implementing a plan with errors being fixed. He also ensures whether the
plan is appropriate considering its performance, reliability, functionality, and
compatibility. Hw has to collect all the essential statistics required and identify the root
cause analysis method to identify the defects.

Service Delivery Manager

Mr. Ahmed Ali will work as Service Delivery Manager.
Mr. Ahmed Ali as a Service Delivery Manager will be monitoring and managing desktop
support, IT services desk, and VIP support functions to ensure optimal service He will
also be maintaining high-performance levels for service-related processes and
implementing improvement activities wherever necessary. He also ensures that systems,
procedures, and methodologies are in place to support outstanding service delivery and
he has to develop a deep understanding of projects to gain insights into the scope of
service delivery. He will be accountable for service delivery performance, meeting
customer expectations, and driving future demand. He analyzes third-party as well as
internal processes, and creating strategies for service delivery optimization.

Customer Relationship Manager

Mr. Aitazazullah will work as Customer Relationship Manager.
Mr. Aitazazullah as a Customer Relationship Manager has the responsibility to
develop and implement initiatives to improve customer services, analyze and
summarize customer issues to prepare appropriate solutions to respond to customers.
He has to evaluate and prioritize customer inquiries to better serve the customers. To
deliver prompt and professional solutions for customer inquires he will use different
forums like phone, email, online chat, etc. He has to maintain history records and
related problem documentation for future reference. Maintain relationships with
other internal departments as well as client base to improve business performance
through conducting training to internal staffs on company products and services. He
also has to analyze customer issues to develop tools and processes to increase Page | 13
customer satisfaction.

Strategies to operate in Covid-19 Era

As the Covid19 Pandemic took over the world, each country and nation took
precautionary measures to prevent their citizens from being infected by the virus. One
of the most effective and widely implemented measures was the lockdown. In
Pakistan, by the end of February 2020, the government implemented a countrywide
lockdown as a precautionary measure to stop the spread of the disease. This
lockdown, stopped the way of life, the whole country shifted to digital platforms, as
the students of schools, colleges, and universities had to shift to an online-medium
education. Also, offices were shut down which led to work from home. Even the
markets were closed and strict restrictions were implemented therefore they shifted
their stores to online retailing.

This sudden shift of physical to digital medium increased the internet traffic
immensely. PTCL did not take any extra measure or created SOP’s or crisis
management strategies to tackle and handle this extra surge. This led to many
breakdowns of the internet and a massive reduction in internet speeds. As the
majority of the people before the pandemic used their household internet connections
as a medium of entertainment so minor lags and breakdowns were not an issue. But
now as the whole life is shifted to internet-oriented mediums it is a necessity to have
a steady and fast internet connection. PTCL was not able to meet the customers’
expectations in this period which increased the churn rate of PTCL. Many PTCL
users shifted to their local competitors especially Storm fiber and local net
distributors.
The strategies that PTCL should have implemented to overcome this issue would Page | 14
have been; they should have immediately formed a crisis management team that
would have consisted of employees from all departments of PTCL Broadband. This
particular team then would have done a brainstorming on the problems that they
might face in this lockdown and increase in internet traffic. After listing all the
problems that they might have faced, they should have created counter-strategies or
standard operating procedures for each of the problems. After that, they should have
distributed these sops to all the departments, levels, and management of PTCL
Broadband. By this, they would have been able to resolve an issue in the time that
their customers expected which would have led to better quality service and
customers of PTCL Broadband not going for other options in the market.

Strategy to include employee training, retention, and demand

measurement

Employee Training:

PTCL claims to provide all training facilities and services to its employees on the
regular basis to cater to the ever-changing customer demands. The training and
development department of PTCL constantly works to polish their employee’s skills.
At the time of joining, orientation is given to the recruits with adequate information
with both on and off-the-job training. According to one of their former employee
(Sheeraz Ahmed), PTCL has proper training centers in place, however, since the
world got hit by the covid19 pandemic PTCL has been constantly working to train
their staff to follow standard operating procedures strictly and to be more flexible for
challenges like a digital workplace setup. Their smart shops and representatives both
have been well informed and trained to comply with the government-set standard
operating procedures.

PTCL certainly needs to condition its employees to the digital world as soon as
possible considering the constant uncertainty around the technological industry.
Employees must be trained to work on technologically advanced software and Page | 15
applications whether virtually or physically, a training outsourcing plan or
collaboration with an IT firm could potentially make this shift swift for PTCL.

Customer Retention:

PTCL has become the face of Pakistan’s Information, Communication, and

Technology with its services throughout the years. It has been able to gain the trust of
its customers with its strong brand image. They can continuously attract customers
with their loyalty rewards program, proper customer feedback, and a customer
relationship management system in place. Despite receiving some backlash from
certain groups of customers recently, PTCL still has several loyal customers,
especially those who were presented with lifetime relationship awards for using
PTCL services for over 30 years in 2020. Most commonly known for its cheaper rates
and connection available in the majority of the cities of the country it can draw a lot
of customers regardless of the competition for many of its products.

PTCL promises to keep a regular check up on its customers and its services with a
proper feedback system to maintain a strong relationship with its customers and
minimize the possibility of facing quality-related issues in the future. Lastly, they
have multiple agents and representatives deployed area and traffic-wise to cater to
customer queries physically and virtually at all times.

Their customer acquisition and retention policy are really strong, however, PTCL still
is unable to take control of its churn, as it loses more customers to its competitors
annually compared to what it acquires. They must improve on its customer services
as they have all programs in place however customers get left unattended or
dissatisfied.

Demand Measurement:
PTCL works on such a vast scale that demand measurement is one of the lowest Page | 16
items on their priority list. According to Sheeraz Ahmed PTCL’s forecasting team
handles and measures the changes in their demand based on the seasons. However,
after the emergence of covid19 PTCL has invested in the network and reached out to
other operators and companies to cater to the heavy traffic as soon as work from
home was implemented (Saad Muzaffar Waraich, Chief Technology & Information
Officer, PTCL). Thus, we’ve seen PTCL make more profit in the last 10 months as
compared to previous years.

Company environment of Pakistan Telecommunication Ltd.

Service culture in an organization addresses the behavior workers of PTCL possess

based on its organizational culture, how the employees work towards satisfying
customer needs. For a service-oriented company like PTCL (ICT), it has to provide
the best possible customer service to ensure customer acquisition and retention.
PTCL doesn’t necessarily stress its services through advertisements but its culture
and attitude towards customers throughout the years.

PTCL has always promised to give their customers high-end services but has fallen
short of expectations the majority of the time. With its high regarded feedback system
and customer support department they have failed to utilize it to minimize customer
complaints.

It still shows its roots of a government-owned organization with its Power Culture
and Person Culture where employees feel more empowered than the organization
itself. Where people have been in one position for so long without any accountability.
Only now since its privatization and receiving criticism over its service quality we
see a change in their ambition with improved services to its valued customers. Their
representatives and customer support teams make sure they resolve customer queries
within a minimum of 8 hours (Sheeraz Ahmed) depending on the availability of a
field worker in the area, which still falls way short of what other companies are ready
to offer. Their customer relationship management process enables them to keep a Page | 17
record of customer complaints and customer feedback so that they can work on
fulfilling their promise of the best services in Pakistan. They appoint representatives
to certain locations and customers to handle them individually on-site or via call if
the customers come across technical issues.

Their website and touch app provide all the relevant and necessary information
regarding its products and services to its customers especially including its payment
options through easy paisa and 24/7 customer support. Lastly, with any upgrades or
maintenance work scheduled they inform their customers beforehand and make sure
they that it’s all good from both ends once their services resume for instance during
the month of Moharram.

In a nutshell, PTCL should be looking to not only meet but exceed its customers’
expectations especially with the investments being made in the company and its
infrastructure in place.

Conclusion:
Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd is the biggest telecommunication Page | 18
company in Pakistan, they were a government-owned company but in 2006, the
government share was reduced to 62%. Still, a majority of the shares are owned by
the government of Pakistan which helps them to have their monopoly on the local
market. There is no other competitor of PTCL at their level of expansion. They have
the largest telecom network in Pakistan, by this, they can provide Broadband, GSM,
High-speed internet lines to businesses and organizations, Telephone networks, and
much more.

A few decades ago PTCL Broadband was facing a major issue of performance which
led to a bad brand image in the local market. However, now after many years, they
enhanced their performance by providing better quality service and Fiber Optics lines
which provide the internet with no lag, still, the market perception of PTCL has not
changed much. To change this perception completely and restore their customer
loyalty and brand image PTCL Broadband needs to fill few remaining gaps which are
covered in the report. These gaps of service performance, listening, and
communication can be easily resolved by PTCL as they have the most advanced
infrastructure in the telecom sector in the country and they receive information and
aid from the government as well.

The reason for these gaps can also be the fact that they are the largest company and
have a monopoly, this makes them believe that whatever gaps they have customers
will still choose them directly or indirectly and the profits will at the end of the day
lie in their pockets, as even their local competitors in Broadband like Storm Fiber and
Optix are paying PTCL to provide internet in Pakistan making them PTCL’s
customers.
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References

https://www.parhlo.com/10-things-youll-understand-if-youre-an-
unfortunate-ptcl-user/ https://www.dawn.com/news/893709/ptcl-served-
show-cause-notice

https://propakistani.pk/2019/02/28/exclusive-interview-with-syed-
shahzad-shah-evp-marketing-corporate-communication-at-ptcl/

Appendix:
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