Virgin Media company

Virgin Media company

            Virgin Media is one of the largest fixed home phone providers in the UK and Ireland. The company was started in 2006 after NTL and Telewest merged into now the Virgin media. In 2010, it started trials to deliver television and broadband services through telegraph poles in Berkshire, which successfully connected more than one million homes in the UK. It was the first company in Britain to offer services such as broadband, TV, mobile, and home phone services all in one package and has won many awards after its establishment. Today, Virgin Media continues to offer exclusive products with improved connection network speeds of up to 300Mbps. The mega company’s head office is located in Hook, Hampshire, with around 1500 people on the site and has all the support operations, including finance, legal, communications, and IT departments. Virgin media company has many branches, such as in Wythenshawe, Swansea, Sheffield, and Bellshill.

This company has established operating goals, which were set in 2015 referred to as “5 in 5”, which include transforming lives of the disadvantaged people through digital platforms, boosting small scale businesses to grow, and to offer better products and services to improve the sustainability performance of every new product. Also, the company aims to lower the carbon levels’ impact into the atmosphere and to become more inclusive by nurturing the workforce, which represents the company’s diversity of the customers and community (Shichilenge, E. N. (2013). The ultimate mission of the company is to invest in the network and its people to explore the possibilities of giving the people communication, entertainment, and connectivity they need.

Most of the Virgin Media customers directly seek their various products. These customers order home appliances, for example, digital TVs, mobile phones, home phones, and broadband services by connecting with the company customer care services through their online network platforms. Often, after-sales, customers drop their reviews on the kind of services they received from the company and feedback. In this case, there is an online interaction with the clients where, after services, they are asked to rate the company’s customer care services. Another group of customers work from home and use the internet for business. These customers seek internet connectivity services for their personal computers and mobile phones from the company. A close examination of the customer reviews points out that there are issues that the customers needs, for instance, one of the customers’ requests the company to send a network provider to rectify slow network speeds in her house where the broadband services were down. Also, another one enquires why the charges for network connectivity was quite high, despite not using the router for some time. On the other hand, customers who buy goods directly are more satisfied with the company’s products. At times, the company’s offers on goods attract more customers, which increases their sales.

A SWOT analysis of the Virgin Media company includes the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, which may directly or indirectly affect its performance.

Strengths

The company’s name is branded on all products and services, including consumer services, which improves the public relations between the company and outside factors, implying more customers will be attracted to the business. Cable infrastructure meets the needs of most customers and, therefore they get satisfied, which is one of the company’s goals. Virgin media branding strategy also promotes impulse buying, as customers will buy gadgets that use cables for internet connectivity, even if they are not interested. This company owns and operates its optical fiber in the UK, therefore standing out as the best (Policy, 2006). In this digital era, the numerous TV and radio channels attract a large number of customers, hence widening the customer base.

Weaknesses

The integration of office acquisitions to reach out to more customers affects the daily operations of the Virgin Media business. Also, the inclusion of IT installation in the back office is an additional expense, which is not necessary for digital platforms. Also, the costs of operation of the business are quite high, compared to the profit margins expected.

Opportunities

Internet television calls for the provision of installation services to customers. This opportunity provides a chance for installing internet routers, cable infrastructure, thus developing more services to customers. Also, the existence of different internet services providers opens up for outsourcing from diverse corporations, which invites economies of scale.

Threats

The Virgin Media’s survival in the industry calls for techniques to outdo competition from other similar companies. Competition pokes a company to improve on service provision and updated operational services. The government may pose a risk to this company if the policies established adversely influence its operations, for instance, policies on waste disposal may add costs to the company. Besides, job cutting is another threat to the company, where workers are laid off to cut expenses when the profit margin is low.

The Virgin Media has recruited over 14000 employees in different sections and branches. The role of the employees is to fulfill the duties and responsibilities assigned to them. Employees have to report to work as early as 7 am so that they can hit the daily set targets. The management provides a conducive atmosphere for the workers and often gives incentives and benefits to the outstanding employees (Shichilenge, 2013). This appreciation motivates them and helps the company attain set targets and focus on high performance. Every activity is geared towards increasing sales, as the company stipulates the kind of standards expected, and the employees work towards attaining them. It is the responsibility of the workers to use skills and knowledge for the benefit of Virgin Media company. Occasionally, the company holds training sessions to the employees, who in turn are expected to utilize the expertise to better their performance  Training employees is a key input if good results are to be expected. Different employees are trained in their respective specializations, while other times, they are trained as an entire group. Virgin Media accrues benefits, such as improved employee performance, which results from confidence built by the employer. Also, there is improved employee satisfaction and morale, which positively modifies the workplace to have happy workers. A company training its staff addresses the weaknesses that may have been identified or not, for example, in a chain of activities, there may be delay by the employees, but after training, the issue is rectified, and workflow returns to normal. Employees who are regularly trained are more likely to stick to that company, a step that reduces employee turnover. Finally, there is an increased innovation of new strategies and products as the company offers staff training, therefore employees can find more and easier ways to perform activities in the workplace.

Customer service manager

A customer service manager receives, handles, and responds to clients to ensure that their needs are satisfactorily met. The role of the customer service manager is to establish and improve the best customer services on behalf of the organization. Many organizations have a customer service manager who deals with customer’s welfare and performs roles, such as the development and implementation of the best client policies. This organization has a desk assigned to these managers as they deal with clients. Also, these staff personnel establishes proper methods of examining customer satisfaction and improvement measures, running a team of customer service staff, and interacting with customers face to face. Depending on the utmost needs of the Virgin Media organization, there are different customer service managers, such as customer care managers, corporate services manager, customer operations manager, and customer relationship manager.

Skills of a customer service mangers in Virgin Media

As a customer services manager, especially in this growing Virgin Media business company, one needs techniques of how to gain and maintain potential consumers in the organization. The Virgin Media may succeed as a result of competent customer service managers, while other competing companies may fail to appreciate their work.

First, in Virgin Media, communication skills are paramount to customer service managers, as they use persuasive language to woo customers to join, purchase goods, or prefer the services from the business. Since talking with clients means advertising and guiding, its crucial for them to have clarity and create good rapport so that clients can be satisfied, which in turn makes profitability to the organization. Also, creative thinking skills are fundamental (Proctor, 2010). Customer service managers should come up with effective strategies to cover the customers’ ever-changing tastes and preferences, product modifications, methods of motivating more clients, and establishing policies to retain customers in the business.

Additionally, problem-solving skills are essential since customers need assistance when they encounter problems while using Virgin Media products. Customer service managers should find solutions to different issues, to defend the organization diplomatically, and to solve the cases brought to them. Besides, they should have a customer-centric attitude, which means that the customer service manager’s moves should rotate around what clients require from the company.

In the process of training the employees, the Virgin Media company should first consider the available funding (Olson, 2008). Training employees incur costs to the company, and therefore it is important to consider the availability of funds to host experts. Employees may be more, and therefore more money is needed to train all of them. Besides, if the employees need technical training om their work, then more expertise is required. The kind of equipment required for training the staff may not be readily available, thus the company needs to access it first, before holding the actual training session. Also, the length of training will determine the consistency of production. A training session that lasts a week is optimum, rather than one lasting a month, a company’s production belt might stop affecting output levels.

In conclusion, the Virgin Media company is an established organization, which carries out its operations effectively, and the quality of goods produced is high. The employees’ working atmosphere is optimum, and it ensures the smooth production of goods and services. However, there are niches in an online response to customer needs and inquiries, which should be improved in the future. The main drive of any business is the satisfaction of its customers, therefore Virgin Media should consider the roles of their employees, especially the customer services manager, who are the face of the company. Also, training employees equips them with the necessary skills, which they apply when dealing with customers and also utilize during the production process.

References

(Boothby, K. (2009). The IDM business performance awards 2008: Overall business award           winner. Journal of Direct, Data and Digital Marketing Practice, 11(1), 51-61.).

(Policy, P. (2006). A discussion paper. Federal Reserve Bank of Boston).

Olson, E. G. (2008). Creating an enterprise-level “green” strategy. Journal of business strategy,     29(2), 22-30.

Proctor, T. (2010). Creative problem solving for managers: developing skills for decision making   and innovation. Routledge.).

Shichilenge, E. N. (2013). Mergers and acquisitions: a case study on Liberty Global Inc. and         Virgin Media Inc (Doctoral dissertation)).