Back to the Results Page
Some changes can't be anticipated. The introduction of a single new element to a market can necessitate anything from a small organizational adjustment to the complete strategic refocusing of a corporation.
In 1993, one new element became prominent in the business telecommunications marketplace. It was "portability" -- and it meant that for the first time, consumers of 800 number services could switch to another provider without changing their 800 number. This one change provoked what was commonly called "The Marketing War of the Century" between AT&T, Sprint, and MCI.
AT&T, in particular, faced the prospect of losing millions of dollars of business overnight. They launched many new initiatives and accelerated others in an effort to prevent the losses. The results were not positive: AT&T became occupied with so many efforts that the staff was stretched and stressed beyond their capacity. AT&T simply did not know how to focus on the key areas that would enable them to win.
Tor Dahl & Associates then became involved to help provide AT&T with the ability to do the right things in the right way in order to achieve a competitive breakthrough.
Tor Dahl & Associates, working closely with AT&T's Inbound Maintenance group, gathered information from diverse business units such as AT&T Bell Labs, Marketing and Sales, and Billing, among others. Key customers and major stakeholders, such as American Express and Exxon, were called upon to give their input. By the fourth month of the process, all major opportunities to ensure customer retention and growth had been weighted and documented.
Through the use of Tor Dahl and Associates' methodology, the Inbound Maintenance group uncovered the secrets to providing seamless 800 service and a true competitive advantage for AT&T. The breakthrough appeared on a double page ad in the Wall Street Journal within the week.
Before the project started, AT&T had provided service assurance to its 800 customers at a level of 30 minutes (the time from service breakdown to full recovery). Now they were able to offer service at 5 minutes. Three months after the Tor Dahl Boot Camp, the service assurance level was two and a half minutes, and today AT&T has developing a new proactive maintenance process and a new systems platform which have eliminated service downtime altogether.
So, instead of losing a 20% market share from "portability" as anticipated, AT&T only lost a 2% market share while dramatically improving its service capability and growth potential for the future.
Back to the Results Page