Our major ISP is fumbling around, only competition will wake GTT

Dear Editor,

Many of us often have cause to suspend our TV or Internet Services for many reasons such as short travel away from home. I recently had cause to suspend both my television (E-Networks) service and my Internet (GTT Blaze) service which provided an opportunity to compare the experiences with these two service providers. I made a request via WhatsApp to E-Networks for temporary suspension in service. The response from E-Networks was swift and efficient, implemented via WhatsApp. E-Networks use a ticketing system which informed me within 24 hours via a message on WhatsApp that my request for suspension was received and the account was suspended.

To suspend GTT Blaze services, on the other hand, requires one to make an application online via the company’s website — older technology than WhatsApp. I made the application, received an application number and that was it. I guessed that the service was suspended because the billing showed some changes. One has to pay a monthly equipment rental service, with or without internet service, so if the monthly billing amount is significantly reduced one can infer that the suspension is in effect. Trying to ‘resume’ the services revealed some more significant differences between these two companies. In order to resume the E-Networks TV service, I made a visit to their Camp St location, paid in advance for a month’s service, and the TV Service was on by the time I arrived home (within an hour). A close neighbour who uses E-networks Internet service confirmed similar experiences with their Internet service — almost no delay between payment and service resumption.

Don’t try this with GTT, however, and especially not if your family’s happiness or personal life or your career or education or national GDP depends on it. At GTT, in order to resume internet service which had been formally suspended, one is required to make an application online for resumption of service. Once again, an application # is provided and then one is expected to make inquiries to a customer service number for ‘follow up’. If one has common sense, one would also go to the nearest GTT Office and make a payment to clear any outstanding balance. It was my misfortune that I applied for resumption of Blaze Internet service on a Thursday and paid outstanding balances on a Friday before a long weekend. On the Friday, I was promised that the service would be resumed within three (3) hours of payment. After three hours passed and more data plans to support essential internet access in the interim, I called the customer service (on a mobile number, incurring more personal costs) to inquire and was again promised within three (3) hours. Saturday arrived, and still no Internet access. However, conversation with the customer service agent (via my mobile phone again) revealed that GTT has some serious internal problems — what are referred to as inefficient business processes. The customer service agent explained that another department deals with the ‘suspension and resumption’ process, and they don’t work on Saturdays. I asked to speak to her supervisor, and she said even the Supervisor can’t help. I must wait until after the long weekend.

As an Information Systems Professional and a Lecturer in Management Information Systems, I could see clear evidence of misalignment: that GTT’s information systems and its business practices are not able to support excellent customer service, though this seems to be a goal of the company. If the customer service department does not have access to essential data from other departments, then this is a fundamental information sharing problem. Some business process reengineering also seems to be needed urgently, as is often the case with older bureaucratic organisations. In today’s competitive business environment, businesses who care to remain competitive by improving customer-supplier intimacy are using CRMs (Customer Relationship Management Systems) to give them a 360 degree view of their interaction with their customers: sales, marketing and support. If GTT was using state of the art information systems aligned with cutting edge business practices, they would be able to offer better customer service.

So Emancipation weekend passed, Tuesday arrived and I was hopeful that the Internet would just magically come on during the course of the day. No such luck, however. I visited a GTT location again and was told that I need to call the customer service number again and that there is a problem with my account that no one can solve except a certain special department. As this blog is being written, it is past 8 pm on Tuesday night and the big red light on the Zhone device remains red. There is one thing that I am 100% certain about — there isn’t a single person at GTT who is bothered that there is a customer without Internet Access for days upon end. Nobody at GTT truly understands the significance of internet access in today’s environment, because if they did, the effect of their leadership would be felt by customers. And perhaps this is the greatest difference between E-Networks and GTT — at E-Networks their leadership cares because a company does not excel by accident. E-Networks is a company that surprises its customers with reduction in prices, no unnecessary fees and general ease of doing business. That certainly compensates for any lapses by technical support. I am personally happy to see their expansion projects and wish them all success. I look forward to seeing more competition in this sector because in today’s environment, where we depend on internet access in every aspect of our life — for business, for banking, for work, for school, for entertainment, for shopping, for health care, for accessing government services and for communication — we cannot make progress as a society if our major ISP is just fumbling around. Only competition will wake GTT up.

Sincerely,

Sandra Khan