Customer Benefit Packages

Question:

Discuss about the Operations Management of Telstra and Google Pixel Phone.

Customer benefit packages and value chain design and analysis are two important concepts for every business organization. Both the concepts form a significant part of Operations Management toolkit of an organization. This report compares and contrasts the customer benefit packages of two companies, one is product and another one is service based. The organizations, which are chosen for this discussion, are Google Pixel Phone (product-based) and Telstra (Service based) organization. Both of the companies are working in telecommunications industry. The major objective of this analysis is to compare the value chain and customer benefits of both organizations. Furthermore, it includes the operation strategy of the organizations.

Customer benefit packages are an important part of the operations management of an organization. It includes a set of tangible and intangible goods, i.e. products and services, which the customers buy and use. Customer benefit package of the company can be a perceived or real value, which a customer believes and experiences, when she/he gets via dealing with the organization. When the organization combines its primary products with extra products, then it defines the total product of customer (Aviv, Lariviere & Terwiesch, 2009). It can be said that CBP is the mixture of goods and services, which adds value to the core product, which is purchased by the customers.

Thus, to become successful in today’s competitive environment, each and every company makes efforts to offer the best customer benefit package to its customers. It helps in gaining competitive advantage against its core competitors. So, each and every organization should provide primary goods and services with the peripheral goods and services, so it can have the loyalty of customers.

Google Pixel Phone is the android phone by Google, which was wanted by everyone in the customer base. Google released the Google Pixel Phone, which is the newest in the range of smartphones. This phone by Google is the first phone to install the Google Assistant, which is built-in, having benefits of improvements, the organization has executed in the artificial intelligence and machine learning space. Great specifications and innovations make the phones of this organization different from other smartphone providers (Sathe, 2016). The people can get the Google Pixel Phones through Telstra, which is the exclusive telecom partner for the smartphones and handsets. Pixel phone also contain best camera in smartphones, which is ever made and it is developed for mobile virtual authenticity.

Google Pixel Phone’s Benefit Packages

The customer benefit package of Google Pixel phone is given below;

At Google Pixel Phone, the primary product is its smartphone, which has very unique and best specifications in it. The diagram shows all the primary and peripheral products, like; accessories of smartphones. Apart from this, there are some other benefits, which the organization provides to its customers, such as; 24/7 customer call and chat support, pre-order and booking of smartphones, replacing the accessories, warranty card with the smartphone (Clemmer, 2017s). The red blocks in the diagram indicate two important peripheral products of the Google Pixel, i.e. Google Assistant and Day Dream headset. By looking at the above diagram, this can be regarded as a complete customer benefit package of Google Pixel Phone.

Telstra is the largest telecommunication service provider in Australia, which offers a variety of telecom services throughout the country. The organization offers basic access services to businesses and homes, local and other call services, internet and mobile services. There are so many mobile companies, like; Samsung, Google Pixel, whose mobile phones have access of Telstra network. It is one of the successful organizations in telecommunication industry in Australia. There are so many competitors in the industry, like; Vodafone, Optus etc. but customer benefit package of makes it best in the industry. Telstra is considered as an exclusive telecom company for Google Pixel in Australia (Simpson, 2016). This organization thinks that their network services will connect perfectly with the Google Pixel Phones that is the first to provide Google Assistant. It is the best network for this phone, as it is the fastest 4G network in Australia.

Compare and contrast Customer Benefit Packages of Google Pixel Phone and Telstra

However, both of these companies are operating their business in the similar industry, i.e. telecommunication industry, but the nature of work and products and services, which are offered to the customers, are very different. The above diagrams show the customer benefit packages of Google Pixel Phone and Telstra. Both CBP are very different from each other (Krajewski, Ritzman and Malhotra, 2013). Google Pixel is primarily emphasized on products and major focus of the company is on developing smartphones with unique specifications and latest and in-built software, i.e. Google assistant and Smart Storage. By this, the company can have the competitive advantage over its competitors.

On the other hand, Telstra is focused on offering the services to its potential customers and tried to meeting their satisfaction level. With this, organization is focusing on the community development programs and e-health system. It is supporting various events financially by sponsoring them. The CBP of the company shows that its highly expert staff resolves the network issues quickly. The peripheral activities of Telstra can support its customers in understanding new technologies in telecom industry (Welch, 2016). The company also deals in other products, so it implements the approach according to the purposes.

Telstra’s Benefit Packages

Value Chain Analysis

A value chain analysis includes various activities, which a company operating in any specific industry, acts for delivering a valuable service or product for the market. It includes primary and secondary activities.

Value Chain of Google Pixel Phone

For an organization, it is very important to have a successful value chain (Arline, 2015). The below-plotted figures show the value chain analysis of Google Pixel Phone.

Primary Activities

Inbound Logistics	Operations	Outbound Logistics	Marketing and Sales	Service
Receiving of materials from suppliers	Operations in Australia	Warehousing and distribution of Google pixel phones	4P’s of Marketing Product Price Promotion Place Google online store Retailers and wholesalers	Customer Service

Supporting Activities

The above diagrams show that Google Pixel Organization has highly qualified man power and they are using advanced technology and innovation in the smartphones. They are installing new software and hardware in the phones (Wynn et al, 2016). There are some new and unique features in the phone. Its supporting activities assist in generating profits and revenues to the organization. The primary activities can be seen from the above table. It includes all the activities from manufacturing to handling the materials and finished products.

Value Chain of Telstra

The major objective of Telstra is to offer best telecom services to the customers and meet their satisfaction level. The value chain design of this company is given below;

Primary Activities

Input	Marketing & Sales	Policy Administration	Output
·         Software provider ·         Licenses ·         Network infrastructure	·         Promotion ·         Target Markets ·         Strong distribution channels	Privacy and user policy Transaction Payments	·         VAS ·         Mobile internet ·         Broadband ·         Call services

Supporting Activities

Both above diagrams show the value chain activities of the Telstra organization. It includes the primary activities like; input, marketing and sales and output. Supporting activities of the company are very effective and assisting the company. If the organization implements all the activities effectively then it will be able to attain profits in competitive environment. These all activities are beneficial for Telstra.

Compare and Contrast the Value Chain Analysis of Google Pixel Phone and Telstra

After considering the value chain of both the organizations, it is obvious that the value chain of both businesses are very different, because  Google Pixel is focusing in offering products to customers and Telstra is offering high quality services to customers. Though, the objective of both organizations is to meet the needs and expectations of customers and make them satisfied and happy. There are so many differences in the value chain (Netessine & Christopher, 2009). The primary activities of the companies are different. Telstra includes input and output also. As Telstra is offering network services, so there is need to be careful for 24 hours, while for Google Pixel, it is not necessary to be available for 24 hours. The supporting activities of both the companies are almost similar as both are telecommunication companies.

Google Pixel Phone-Strategies

As the Google has launched its own phone, so company has implemented some effective business and operation strategy to stay in the market. The company has installed very unique features in the smartphones and they are easily available online. It has used customer-focused strategies. At Google Pixel, the handset manufacturer manages the close relation and co-operation to advertise a wide range of products and unique ideas for smartphones. With this, it invested in the human and financial resources to know about the needs and expectations of customers, and then it has developed innovative strategies and enhanced the products on the basis of needs of customers (Khanna, 2015).The competitive priority of Goggle Pixel Phone is product differentiation. It has developed the smartphone, which is different from other products. It makes attractive and exceptions products.

Telstra- Strategies

As a major leader in the Australian telecom industry, the organization is very clear about the needs of customers. Telstra redesigned the incentive system and profit sharing that enhance the service quality with increased productivity. By this new system, technical staff in the company has knowledge about their tasks and responsibilities (Mahadevan, 2009). This operation strategy of company is very effective to stay competitive in today’s business environment.The competitive priority of the Telstra is to provide the better access to its network and offer the telecom services at competitive prices.

Recommendations

Both of the organizations are using effective strategies for enhancing its operations management. But there is a scope of improvement in the operations management. The companies can implement new and innovative technologies for enhancing its business operations. In addition, the organizations should hire the competent and skillful people, who can improve their business operations. As the organizations are working in the telecom industry, so they should try to be available for 24 hours. Thus, the organizations can get success in the competitive business environment.

Conclusion  

From the above analysis, it can be concluded that both the organizations are working in different manner and providing their benefits to their targeted customers. Both the organizations are offering various benefits to its customers, which can be seen and understood by looking at their customer benefit packages. The companies belong to the telecommunication industry, so they are providing network services and smartphones. The operations strategies of organizations are very effective and they can go with these recommendations to improve the operation management.

References

Arline, K, 2015, What is a Value Chain Analysis, Retrieved from https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/5678-value-chain-analysis.html.

Aviv, Y., Lariviere, M. & Terwiesch, C. 2009, “Operations management”, Management Science

Clemmer, J., 2017. Customer satisfaction is a reflection of employee satisfaction. Accessed March 6th.

Heizer, J., 2016. Operations Management, 11/e. Pearson Education India.Krajewski, L.J., Ritzman, L.P. and Malhotra, M.K., 2013. Operations management: processes and supply chains (Vol. 1). New York, NY: Pearson.

Khanna, R.B., 2015. Production and operations management. PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd.Mahadevan, B, 2009, Operation Management: Theory and Practice, Pearson Education.

Netessine, S. & Christopher S, 2009, Consumer-driven demand and operations management models : a systematic study of information-technology-enabled sales mechanisms. New York, NY: Springer. Sathe, G, 2016, Google Pixel, Pixel XL: Five Features Only Pixel Phone Users Will Get, Retrieved from https://gadgets.ndtv.com/mobiles/features/google-pixel-pixel-xl-five-features-only-pixel-phone-users-will-get-147047

Simpson, C, 2016, Telstra Is The Exclusive Telco For The Google Pixel In Australia, Retrieved from https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2016/10/telstra-is-the-exclusive-telco-for-the-google-pixel-in-australia/.

Wynn, M., Turner, P., Banik, A. and Duckworth, G., 2016. The impact of customer relationship management systems in small business enterprises. Strategic Change, 25(6), pp.659-674.

Welch, C, 2016, These are the features that make Google’s new Pixel phones special, Retrieved from https://www.theverge.com/2016/10/4/13144486/google-phone-features-pixel-software-announced.