Verizon Organizational Behavior
Verizon Communications: Creating a Positive Work culture
GM591 Leadership and Organizational Behavior
Professor Barbara Ward
June 18, 2011
Introduction
Verizon Communications Inc. is a global broadband and telecommunications company based in New York. Verizon originated in 1983 as Bell Atlantic, operating from New Jersey to Virginia and NYNEX, covering New York to Maine as a result of the AT&T breakup into seven “baby bells” in 1984 (Hoovers, 2011). The name was changed to Verizon in June 2000 because of the merger of GTE and Bell Atlantic (Hoovers, 2011).
Verizon is the number two telecom service provider in the United States with 2010 annual sales of over $106 billion and has 194,400 employees (Hoovers, 2011). Verizon is …show more content…
Calls are strictly monitored to ensure that employees are following proper protocols. While some of this is due to strict regulations by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the requirement that employees offer on every call is about producing bottom line results. Even if a customer calls and is angry about their bill being too high, or needing their services repaired, some type of sales attempt must be made. As of February, every member of my team was on some form of discipline. This was a fact my coach, Mark Price, bragged about, and even stated that improved numbers must be because of the discipline. In speaking with senior team members it was determined that this is the case with almost the entire call center being on some form of disciplinary …show more content…
In addition, a sales attempt must be made on every call, regardless of whether the customer has all three primary products that Verizon offers (phone, internet, and television). In that case, the Verizon agent is required to offer a value added service or an upgrade. Due to the long hold times customers experience, they are often reluctant, or even irate when sales attempts are made before there problem can be resolved. Due to a complicated voice response system, customers are often times misdirected to the billing and sales queue; they may have been misdirected several times before and do not intend to listen to a sales pitch. This dissonance creates further stress on the employee. The most often misdirected call is a repair call. Many times the customer goes through the entire problem with a billing agent only to learn that they are not talking to a repair representative. At that time, their frustration understandably rises, as they have to wait on hold and go over the problem with another agent. Many customers have told me they pressed repair only to be routed to sales. It causes the appearance that Verizon intentionally routes repair calls to billing so that a sales attempt may be made on their
GM591 Leadership and Organizational Behavior
Professor Barbara Ward
June 18, 2011
Introduction
Verizon Communications Inc. is a global broadband and telecommunications company based in New York. Verizon originated in 1983 as Bell Atlantic, operating from New Jersey to Virginia and NYNEX, covering New York to Maine as a result of the AT&T breakup into seven “baby bells” in 1984 (Hoovers, 2011). The name was changed to Verizon in June 2000 because of the merger of GTE and Bell Atlantic (Hoovers, 2011).
Verizon is the number two telecom service provider in the United States with 2010 annual sales of over $106 billion and has 194,400 employees (Hoovers, 2011). Verizon is …show more content…
Calls are strictly monitored to ensure that employees are following proper protocols. While some of this is due to strict regulations by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the requirement that employees offer on every call is about producing bottom line results. Even if a customer calls and is angry about their bill being too high, or needing their services repaired, some type of sales attempt must be made. As of February, every member of my team was on some form of discipline. This was a fact my coach, Mark Price, bragged about, and even stated that improved numbers must be because of the discipline. In speaking with senior team members it was determined that this is the case with almost the entire call center being on some form of disciplinary …show more content…
In addition, a sales attempt must be made on every call, regardless of whether the customer has all three primary products that Verizon offers (phone, internet, and television). In that case, the Verizon agent is required to offer a value added service or an upgrade. Due to the long hold times customers experience, they are often reluctant, or even irate when sales attempts are made before there problem can be resolved. Due to a complicated voice response system, customers are often times misdirected to the billing and sales queue; they may have been misdirected several times before and do not intend to listen to a sales pitch. This dissonance creates further stress on the employee. The most often misdirected call is a repair call. Many times the customer goes through the entire problem with a billing agent only to learn that they are not talking to a repair representative. At that time, their frustration understandably rises, as they have to wait on hold and go over the problem with another agent. Many customers have told me they pressed repair only to be routed to sales. It causes the appearance that Verizon intentionally routes repair calls to billing so that a sales attempt may be made on their