CASE 2 Four Customers in Search of Solutions

CHRISTOPHER LOVELOCK
Four telephone subscribers from suburban Toronto call their telephone company to complain
about a variety of problems. How should the company respond in each instance?

Among the many customers of Bell Canada in Toronto, Ontario, are four individuals
living on Willow Street in a middle-class suburb of the city. Each of them has a
telephone-related problem and decides to call the company about it.

Winston Chen
Winston Chen grumbles constantly about the amount of his home telephone bill
(which is, in fact, in the top 2 percent of all household phone bills in Ontario). There
are many calls to countries in Southeast Asia on weekday evenings, almost daily
calls to Kingston (a smaller city not far from Toronto) around midday, and calls to
Vancouver, British Columbia, most weekends. Mr. Chen uses the same company for
his telephone and internet broadband needs. One day, Mr. Chen receives a telephone
bill which is even larger than usual. On reviewing the bill, he is convinced that he
has been overcharged, so he calls the phone company to complain and request an
adjustment.

Marie Portillo
Marie Portillo has missed several important calls recently because the caller received a
busy signal. She phones the customer service department to determine possible solu-
tions to this problem. Ms. Portillo’s telephone bill is at the median level for a household
subscriber. (The median is the point at which 50 percent of all bills are higher and
50 percent are lower.) Most of the calls from her house are local, but there are occasional
international calls to Mexico or to countries in South America. She does not subscribe to
any value-added services.

Eleanor Vanderbilt
During the past several weeks, Mrs. Vanderbilt has been distressed to receive a
series of obscene telephone calls. It sounds like the same person each time. She calls
the telephone company to see if they can put a stop to this harassment. Her phone
bill is in the bottom 10 percent of all household subscriber bills and almost all calls
are local.

Richard Robbins
For more than a week, the phone line at Rich Robbins’ house has been making
strange humming and crackling noises, making it difficult to hear what the other per-
son is saying. After two of his friends comment on these distracting noises,
Mr. Robbins calls to report the problem. His guess is that it is caused by the answer-
ing machine, which is getting old and sometimes loses messages. Mr. Robbins’ phone
bill is in the 75th percentile for a household subscriber. Most calls are made to loca-
tions within Canada, usually at evenings and weekends, although there are a few
calls to the United States, too. He studied for his undergraduate degree at NYU and
he likes to keep in touch with some of his former classmates.

© 2009 Christopher H. Lovelock, updated by Jochen Wirtz, 2010.

446
 Case 2 • Four Customers in Search of Solutions 447

Study Questions
1. Based strictly on the information in the case, how many possibilities do you see to
segment the telecommunications market?
2. As a customer service rep, how would you address each of the problems and
complaints reported?
3. As a marketing manager, do you see any marketing opportunities for the telephone
company in any of these complaints?