Getting an RBOC into shape

Elizabeth Fetter, vice president and general manager of the consumer services group, is the second highest-ranking female executive at U S West. She is also the youngest, having just turned 40.

Fetter came to U S West from Pacific Bell, where she ran the consumer side more like she was at a competitive local exchange carrier than at a regional Bell operating company.

Eileen Arbues, who worked with Fetter at Pacific Bell, said that while most talk the buzzwords, Fetter changes things. "People always talk about open communication-she actually does it," Arbues said.

The group that Fetter heads controls all contact with consumers from a TV ad to a technician stopping by a customer's house to fix a line. Making approximately 2 billion contacts every year with more than 10 million customers, the group "has plenty of chances to make a good or a bad impression," Fetter said.

The way that she sees it, even a company such as U S West, which has controlled service in its area for so long, can't sit back and ride on past successes. "We don't stand still; we either slide or gain ground," she said.

This way of thinking has led Fetter to support several new programs. One of these was Buyers Advantage, which offered local and long-distance on a single bill through a deal with Qwest Communications. That offering was shut down by regulators who said U S West could not market Qwest's service until it got long-distance approval.

Another program she fronted during the last year was an integrated wireless system. The 200,000 customers that signed up for this program can use one phone number for both their home phone and wireless phone.

"Integration, innovation and the Internet" has become the company's mantra, Fetter said. "We want to be the first-choice provider, the first place people go when they are looking for telecommunications services," she said.

Through this marketing, U S West is trying to create a new brand for itself, hoping to become a customer's first choice for local, mobile and, if all works out, long-distance.

The company introduced a new ad campaign and redesigned its Web site to focus on the ideal of the West, claiming that life is better there. This strategy attempts to show U S West as part of the lifestyle, said Fetter.

Simplicity is key to other U S West ad messages. The way consumers choose advanced services rarely has anything to do with the technical side of the service, said Fetter: "[People] only want to know that Dad can be on the computer and daughter Amy can call her friends."

Another example of this lifestyle marketing is U S West's soon-to-be-introduced Webphone. E-mail has become so prolific that Fetter views it no differently from an answering machine message. Consumers should not have to go to a computer, boot it, dial in and access a mail account. "When I get home, I pour myself a glass of chardonnay, get some dinner and check my messages-in the kitchen," she said.

With Fetter's ideas seeming to shake up the way of life at U S West, some may wonder why she did not run off to the promised gold and freedom of a start-up. Fetter said that she joined U S West in January 1998 because its size "offers the opportunity for broad scale impact without having to build from scratch."

Those who work with her view her ability to deal with large organizations as her talent. Fetter can "find the weak links and fix them," said Arbues.

"I will know I have made a difference when I get unsolicited shakers and movers coming and asking to work for me," Fetter said.

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