Company 4 David Roy Case Study: Chapter 8 12/9/2005

Company 4 Overview 100- year old utility company Wholly-owned subsidiary or a larger energy corporation Facing brand erosion Study was done to find possible web- based marketing strategies. Anderson Report was used

Change Driver 1: Deregulation leads to competition and lower prices Change Driver 2: Technology leads to faster service and lower costs Change Driver 3: Globalization is necessary because companies need more customers to compete in the marketplace

Goal and Strategy Use technology enabled internet environment step 1: Determine the most important attributes for meeting and exceeding customers’ expectations. - customer service reps - current customer surveys - competitive benchmarking Electronic bill pay was determined to be the most important service attribute…

Step 2: Determine the important service attributes that make competitors the most vulnerable. -four gaps were identified 1.Information Gap 2.Design Gap 3.Communication Gap 4.Fulfillment Gap Customer monitoring is the best way to close these gaps.

Step 3: Determine existing and potential service capabilities of the company. Assess service competencies, resourece strengths and weaknesses, serice reputation, belief systems, and “reason for being”. 1.Resource strengths 2.Resource weaknesses 3.Competencies 4.In-competencies

Step 4. Develop a service strategy that addresses important, enduring customer needs; exploits competitor vulnerabilities; and fits the company’s capabilities and potential. -Usability studies (outside-look in) -Outsourcing

Primary Stakeholders Stakeholders Strategy Benefits Customers : Online premium customer services - Convenience and effienciency Suppliers: Online ordering and purchasing – Reduced paperwork and time Investors: Technologically enabled company – Confidence in company Employees: Online services and reduced internal costs – Convenience and efficiency

Value Bubble Attraction Engaging Retaining Learning With a plan to continually update site over time and focus on the relating phase at a later time.

Multiple technologies were used for the back-end design of the web site. Provided for a site that did not work very well. Slow servers Inadequate server space Uneven implementation of technology

Attracting Home page Design graphics and text links are in a well-organized navigation system. Introductory Flash movie w/ option to “skip intro” Customized ing Press releases

Engaging Online focus groups Participants receive discounts on utility bills The problem is that none of this happened before the website went online and “under construction” pages littered the web site. -No click stream technology

Retaining A large percentage of the pages within the web site failed. “under construction” pages should not be included in a site The webmaster link was burried Company would have been better served by a hired Web Design firm.

PG&E

Problems The planned registration should not have been set up through ColdFusion A choice was made to allow the site to fail giving visitors and consumers a negative message about the company. An alternative web site design should have considered.

Questions ???