Customer Satisfaction Grameen Phone Bangladesh

Report On GrameenPhone

Report

On Grameen Phone

Topic: Customer Satisfaction of GrameenPhone

Prepared For:Masud Ibne Rahman Professor Department of Business & Economics Daffodils International University

Prepared By: Md. Firoz Alam ID : 04218426 BBA 4th Batch Department of Business & Economics Daffodils International University

Date of Submission: October 17 July 2007

Augst 15, 2007 Masud Ibna Rahman Assistant Professor Faculty of Business & Economics Daffodil International University 102- Sukrabad, Dhanmondi, Dhaka-1207 Sub: submission of term paper on Customer Satisfaction of Grameen phone Ltd. Dear Sir: It is a great pleasure for me for me to submit my report on the topic “Customer Satisfaction of Grameen Phone Ltds.” I have prepared this term paper, as a fulfillment of the course requirement. To make this term paper up to the standard, I have tried my level best to fulfill the requirements. I hope that this will help me in my future practical life. I believe that you will be pleased to see my work. I also believe that this report will be able to fulfill your expectation. Sincerely yours, …………………. MD: Feroz Alam ID: 042-18-426

Ack nowledgement

First I would like to thank my supervisor Masud Ibn Rahman, Assistant Professor, Faculty of business & Economics who has provided me an attention grabbing course that exposed one more transparently to know users reaction of telecommunication sector (Grameen Phone Customer Satisfaction of Bangladesh Ltd.).I am also thankful to those respondents who filled up the questionnaire, which helped me to make this paper. Without their help, collecting primary data for user’s reaction would have been difficult. I extend my thanks to the personal working in BGP customer satisfaction to provide me some important information. I am ever thankful to my suspected teacher of Daffodil International University from whom, I have been learning continuously.

Executive Summery As a market leader, GrameenPhone is continuously coming up with new ideas regarding its products and services. Recently, the company is mainly focusing on the non-voice services. Because, the company knows in near future, voice based services will reach to the maturity stage which will make the business growth constant to some extents. Hence, the company is trying to maintain the leading position in non-voices services as well like SMS, Push-Pull, and Information related services at the early growing stage. These services are working as a building block to increase GP’s service value. Coming up with innovative service is easier than making subscribers aware of services. Hence through this internship report I have tried to analyze the present situation of the cellular phone industry in Bangladesh and GP’s position there in, find out the services that Grameen phone is presently providing to its valued customers & their satisfaction level. 15 million people out of 140 million total citizen of Bangladesh are presently using cell phone; it means that out of every 9 people one is using cell phone. In the third world country like Bangladesh the amount of users is amazing. Grameenphone holds almost 61% market share of telecom industry that is out of every 10 users 6 belongs to Grameenphone. So GrameenPhone marketing strategy should be “Profitable growth & expanding market share through satisfying existing customers”. I have also made a comparative service analysis of various cellular phone companies in Bangladesh and drawn some valuable recommendation to GrameenPhone to be the market leader in future in this competitive market. A comprehensive survey was conducted to know about GP’s present position in the market and its present service condition that is providing to its valued customers. The survey report shows that Grameen phone is still a market leader in this industry but as it is becoming more competitive day by day so Grameen phone should revise its service packages, quality with more conveniently for the customers. Among the other cellular phone companies GrameenPhone has some unique competitive advantages in this industry in Bangladesh so if it is possible for GP to provide better services with continuous innovative products it will add value to the company. Otherwise, in the long run new innovation services will not give its ultimate success.

Table of Contents

Topics

Page No.

Executive Summary Chapter -1

1-5 Introduction

Chapter -2

6-11 Situation Analysis: An overview of the Wireless Phone Industry

Chapter -3

12-29 Company Profile

Chapter -4

30-56 Customer Management Division

Chapter -5

57-66 A comparison of service among the wireless phone operators

Chapter -6

67-78 Customer Satisfaction & survey findings

Chapter -7

79-84 Recommendation & Conclusion Appendix-1

85-86

Appendix-2

87

Appendix-3

88-89

INTRODUCTION

GrameenPhone (GP) today is apparently the largest mobile telecommunication industry in Bangladesh. It operates its function with an aim to accomplish two principal targets. Firstly, as with other commercial organizations, it operates in such a manner that it receives a good economic return on the investment. Nonetheless, secondly, it contributes significantly to the economic development of the country in making telecommunication a popular medium for exchange of information. GP, in its operation, has to address a large number of customers throughout the country. It is therefore imperative to get to the customers to know their impression on the services of this important communication medium. This encouraged the researcher to choose the topic of this internship programme as “Customer satisfaction of GrameenPhone”.

Background of the Industry:

In a highly populated country like Bangladesh, telecommunication can play a vital role to boost the economy and social level of people. The introduction of cellular phones has dramatically changed the lives of businesses and individuals. As there is a growing trend of workers turning from farming to other occupations, the need for mobiles is increasing among the thousands of impoverished villages. The overall efficiency of other business has increased as an aftermath of the government's decision of deregulating the telecommunications sector, which until the late 1980s had been a state monopoly. Privatization of the telecommunications sector began in 1989, when Sheba and BRTA were awarded 25-year licenses to install and operate fixed-wire lines and wireless services in rural areas. The same year, Pacific Telecom Bangladesh got the government's permission to launch the country's first cellular phone and paging service sold under brand name CityCell in collaboration with a Hong Kong-based company. The company targeted only the higher class of the society. During that time price of mobile was above Tk 50,000/=. Naturally, the growth of the industry was too slow. CityCell had a virtual monopoly until 1996, when the government gave licenses to three more companies to operate cell phones in Bangladesh. So, the government decided to bring more companies in the market and break the monopoly. After careful evaluation the government decided to provide three licenses to GrameenPhone, TM International (AkTel), and Sheba Telecom (Banglalink). Only CityCell is

using Code

Division Multiple Access (CDMA) technology, AkTel, GrameenPhone, Banglalink these three companies are using GSM (Global System for Mobile) technology. GSM is the most popular mobile telecommunication technology in the world. About 60% of the cell phone users of the world use GSM technology. These three new companies entered the market, not only helped trim down over-dependence on BTTB's fixed-line system, but also made mobile phones cheaper and easier to get. The

price of a cell phone came down from $2,000 to as low as $100, depending on the features of the handset and SIM price is only Tk.200-300. A definite development has been observed in the Business Market with comparatively high expectations. Customer maturity and anticipation regarding technology has increased over time.

Rumors regarding new entrants have groomed expectations in the market.

Consequently, people are expecting cheaper handsets with lowered airtime. The existing Cellular phone companies in Bangladesh are CityCell (Pacific Bangladesh Telecom Limited), GrameenPhone Ltd., AkTel Ltd. Banglalink and TeleTalk. Among these company GrameenPhone, AkTel and Banglalink adopted GSM technology and Citycell the market pioneer started with CDMA technology.

Objectives of the Study:

This Programme was designed to accomplish three objectives. The objectives were identified through a closer interaction and exchange of views with the management of CMD. The objectives are: To find out the satisfaction level of GrameenPhone subscribers. To locate specific areas of dissatisfaction of the GP users. To analysis the year-wise contribution of GrameenPhone to the national

treasury.

METHODOLOGY

Based on the topic chosen, the researcher was assigned the task in the Customer Management Division (CMD) in GP. This divisions consists of a big team of about 1500 employees. Its functions relate with the customer service after the sales occur. Prime functions and activities of the GP Customer Management Divisions cater to all after-sales services starting from activation of subscriptions, all customer contacts (Centralized Call Center, Customer Relations Centers, and centralized Customer Communications), billing, bank communication, bill collection throughout the country, helpline services, GPSDs etc.

Limitations of the Study:

GrameenPhone basic strategy is widening its market through its emerging countrywide network. As a result of this strategy, the subscribers are from different segments or from different income levels. Moreover, the subscribers are scattered all over the country. The time constraint confined the study mostly on the data collected in Dhaka zone. Moreover, it was not possible to get all required internal information of the company as these are treated as confidential to the company. The outcome of the study can thus be regarded exploratory, and may not be treated as absolute for the whole country. In latter case a more comprehensive study is required.

SITUATION ANALYSIS An Overview of the Wireless Phone Industry

Telecom Market Growth: At the initial stage of the mobile telecom industry because of high startup cost and high tariff there was only a few numbers of subscribers. In 1997 there were approximately 23,000 mobile subscribers around the country with a low market penetration rate (.02%). At present, the number of mobile users in the country is approximately 5.87 million and among them GP’s subscribers are over 3.5 million. Right now, in mobile industry, Bangladesh has four private companies and newly TeleTalk a sister concern of BTTB has entered in the market with a target to get 0.25 million subscribers by first 6 months of launch and 1 million by 2006. TeleTalk has offered lower rate with PSTN connection all over the country. The total number of districts covered in mobile industry has been increased to 61 in 2004 from 1in 1997. The total telecom growth has increased to 55% in 2004 from 19% in 1998. Initially, mobile growth rate was too high which was 178% in 1998 and now it is come into 67% in 2004. That means this industry is now going to its maturity stage. From the comparison of different operators’ subscriber base, it can be concluded that GP is still leading the way with a sharp distance. Though Citycell is the first mobile operator in Bangladesh, it is not doing its business so good. It is increasing its subscriber from 2000 in 1997 to 6149111 in 2005. On the other hand, AkTel is growing its subscribers faster than Citycell which is from 3000 in 1997 to 3000000 in 2005.

Market Penetration Districts Covered Mobile Growth

1999 0.02

2000 0.05

2001 0.10

%

%

%

1

2

26

36

40

49

59

61

96%

121%

149%

65%

116%

67%

17%

34%

66%

42%

40%

55%

1

rate Telecom Growth

78% 19%

Rate

Grameen

Phone Citycell

AkTel

TeleTalk

0.21%

2003 0.53 %

Subscribers base 18,00 30,00 60,00 191,69 471,3 0 2,000 3,000

BanglaLink

2002

0 19,00

0 26,20

0 0 12,00 28,50 0

-

3,000

-

-

0 11,00 0 -

0 33,500 34,200 19,000 -

2004

2005

0.87% 1.88%

2007 3.61%

2006 3.13%

61 120% 65%

775,31 1878,0

2424,1

615911

71 100,0

0 00 160,00 225000

77 370,00

1 35000

00 96,00

0 0 150,00 300,00

0 1000,0

00 28000

00 100,00

00 10000

0 -

00 60000

0 27,00 0 -

0

0

60,000 70,000 -

-

Table : Development of the Telecom Market 1997-2005 The penetration rate of mobile phone industry in Bangladesh is increasing rapidly. The rate was increasing slowly from 1997 to 1999. After that, the rate was increasing faster and now till Nov” 05 the penetration rate is 3.61% and only GrameenPhone’s penetration rate is 2.12%. Fixed network penetration is .72%.

Market Share of Mobile Operators: The mobile phone market consists of five operators. Out of which, 61% share of the market belongs to GP, 3% to CityCell, 28% to AkTel, 7% to Banglalink and the rest of 1% to TeleTalk as of Nov, 05. GP holding the major share maintains a ‘market leader’ strategy to all other players in the market. The telecom market intends to grow at penetration rate of more than 3.48%; where GP has already penetrated at 2.12%.

Market Share of Mobile Operators (2005)

28%

7% 61%

3% 1% TeleTalk TeleTal

Competitive Position of the mobile operator: Table : Relative position of mobile phone operators

Target Custome r

Price & Tariff

Quality

Technology

Corporate / Individua

Network Low

Deteriorati ng services

CDMA

l

Individua

Competitiv e

Very affordable

l Corporate / SME/ Individua

quality service but

Increase GSM

limited

quality and limited

Increase GSM

To maintain

Good e

l

with wider coverage

coverage and Market share

coverage

Competitiv network

coverage and market share

coverage Low

Corporate Individua

attractive

High

l

/SME/

expansion & products

Corporate /SME/

Strategy

the no. 1 GSM

position as a cell phone operator

Target customers are almost same for the four mobile operators. Regarding to price and tariff, AkTel and GrameenPhone are very much competitive. Banglalink’s price and tariff is very affordable and Citycell is able to give low price to its subscribers. In case of service quality and network coverage, GrameenPhone is leading the number one position among them. Only Citycell use CDMA technology and others three use GSM technology. By this, Citycell differentiates its products from the others. Except GP, Other operators’ recent strategy is increase coverage and market share through attractive products. On the other hand, GP’s strategy is to maintain its number one position.

Highlights of Competitive Positioning of Mobile Operators:

 The operators have been engaged in intense competition in terms of start-up cost and tariff. Most of the competitors of GP has adopted and will adopt network expansion strategy.

 The mobile phone market consists of four operators, out of which, 61% share (End of 2005) of the market belongs to GP.

 Good relationship with regularity authority is strength of some of the other mobile operators while GP has achieved it to some extent by abiding by laws and showing positive results.

10. Network And Network Coverage OF Grameen Phone:

GrameenPhone aims to build a full range of service all over the country. The company has targeted to build extensive network all over the country. For better coverage, GP has taken 1600 Km fiber optic cable network leased from Bangladesh Railway. In April 2004, GP had 750 base stations. Now till Oct’05, it has 1750 base stations. Furthermore, considering the subscribers’ need of quality network and extensive coverage, the company is planning to set up another thousand base stations in the following year. Recently GP has doubled its speech quality 900GSM MHz to 1800GSm MHz. Already the company has expanded its network to 61 districts out of 64 districts and 400 upazillas out of 460 upazillas. It’s the only company which covers the most of the land areas with its net work. Approximately 52% land area is covered by GrameenPhone’s network. In over all, GrameenPhone offers the most competitive network facility to its subscribers, and continue improving it. Existing coverage areas are divided into six zones according to the divisional boundary. These are •

Dhaka

•

Sylhet

•

Chittagong

•

Rajshahi

•

Khulna

•

Barisal

District Covered 70 60

Districts

50 40 30 20 26

10 0

1

2

1997

1998

1999

36

40

2000

2001 Year

Figure : GrameenPhone’s district coverage.

60

61

61

2003

2004

Mar' 05

47

2002

Area under GP net work covered Figure : Net Work coverage of GrameenPhone. The zone in which a subscriber is registered with GrameenPhone is that subscriber's Home Zone, and all other zones are Remote Zones.

CUSTOMER MANAGEMENT DIVISION The Customer Management Division of GrameenPhone Ltd. provides a full range of aftersales service customized to the needs of the valued customers. Efforts are made to offer complete service through all the contact points dedicated for GP customers at every opportunity through Call Center, Customer Management Centers and Customer Communication. The Slogan Of CMD is: “We believe in Involve & Evolve” Give sustaining positive experience to the customers by understanding and fulfilling/exceeding their service expectations at appropriate time and prices. Make the customer experience as the main differentiator to stand tall in the market. The organgram of Customer Management Division:

Customer Management division Communicati

Human Training & Competence Development Process Improvement

Service Quality Technology for Customer Experiance Budget and Follow up

Program

Calling Center

Call Center Post paid

Call Center Pre Paid

Customer Management Center

Collection Credit and Management Banking

Corporate customer

Figure: Organogram of Customer Management Division

IR Customer Customer Demographic Service and Activation

Products and services that have been successful 

GP-Regular, the oldest product of GrameenPhone retains its popularity through its full connectivity to all networks including fixed line telephony services.



EASY Pre-Paid, because of Low flat tariff and nationwide mobility, it’s a Pre-paid service, no monthly rent required and instant use due to pre-activation, no hassles of bill payment.



Information Service through mobile because of easy access, interesting theme, and reasonable rate and for being new and innovative.



Village phone because of use of Grameen Bank’s borrower network and for having access to BTTB & ISD. Subscription Unit

Customer Management Division (CMD) of GrameenPhone Limited is consists of 15 units; Subscription Unit is one on them. This is the unit that remains very close to the customer and always busy to meet the satisfaction of GPs’ valued customer. Subscription Services Subscription Unit is the unit that performs its job in touch with all other divisions. The following figure [Fig-3.1] shows us the subscription services in a whole. i)

Sales and Marketing Sales and marketing is one of the important services of subscription. Among the services they allocate phone number for various packages. They planed for new product and packages. They receive the subscription papers all over the country from the dealers.

ii)

Technical Subscription unit also has some technical responsibilities. Among them quality assurance of the SIM features, testing the SIM, SIM problem is important.

iii)

Legal Subscription service also deals with the legal issue and various legal procedures.

iv)

IT Subscription Unit also has IT services. This service mainly develop the customize software for maintaining the customer database and other soft wares to maintain efficient customer relation. All the Customer Relation Centers all over the country

are connected with central database. This network maintenance is also a subscription unit’s service.

Technical ● Quality Assurance ● Test SIM ● Pre Paid Reconnection ● SIM Problem

Sales & Marketing ● Number allocation ● Activation Papers ● International Roaming ● Subscription Paper Receiving ● Product and Planning ● Test SIM

Legal ● Procedure

SUBSCRIPTI ON

IT ● Software Development ● Networking between all CRC

Finance ● International Roaming

Fig : Subscription Services Finance Another important service of subscription unit is to monitor the international roaming facilities of the subscriber as well as the credit of the subscriber. This is the flow of subscription services.

Information Center

Subscriber

Fax or courier Services

Instant Services

Activation, Migration, SIM Change, International Roaming, WAP

Dealers or Agents Corporate Care

Check, Provisioning, Quality Check

Sales Center Sales and Marketing

Number allocation

Hotline- 155

Sorting

Electronic Filing

Manual filing

Fig: Subscription Services flow Chart

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION The Customers are in the mainstream of sales oriented services. The success of such companies largely depends on the satisfaction of the customers .The buyers are happy if the product and/or the services meet their expectations. If their requirements do not meet the expectations the buyers become discontented, they are delighted when the performance fulfils their requirements. Customers’ past buying experiences, the opinion of friends, associates, marketer, competitor information and promises lead to the expectations. Marketer must be careful to set the right level of expectations. If they set expectations too low, they may satisfy those who buy but fail to attract enough buyers. In contrast, if they raise expectations too high, buyers are likely to bedisappointed. Dissatisfaction can arise either from a decrease in product and service quality or from an increase in customer expectations. In either case, it presents an opportunity for companies that can deliver superior customer value and satisfaction. To-day most successful companies have taken the strategy of are raising expectations and delivering performance to match. Such companies track their customers’ expectations, perceived company performance, and customer satisfaction. Highly satisfied customers produce several benefits for the company. Satisfied customers are fewer prices sensitive remain customers for a longer period and talk favorably to others about the company and its products and services. Although the customer centered firm seeks to deliver high customer satisfaction relative to its competitors, it does not attempt to maximize customer satisfaction. A company can always increase customer satisfaction by lowering its price and increasing its services, but it may result in lower profits. Thus, the purpose of marketing is to generate customer value profitably. Now, we have a very good idea regarding the importance of customer satisfaction. So, it is also important for the company to know about the satisfaction level of the customers. When any problem is identified, it becomes easier to solve the problem.

The next part of this paper

has focused on the “Customer Satisfaction Factors of

GrameenPhone”. It is done through a research survey to find out the customer satisfaction level of GrameenPhone. Customer Satisfaction Factors of GP: GrameenPhone is a fast growing mobile company. In mobile telecommunication industry, there are direct and indirect factors that influence customer satisfaction. Here focus on the most important factors that influence customer satisfaction at GrameenPhone which relates with after sales services. Airtime: Air time is the core offering of GrameenPhone, So, quality of communication network availability, etc, are the most important customer satisfaction factors, quality of airtime depends on the ratio of subscribers and transmission base station. It the numbers of subscribers are increased without developing the network, quality of airtime goes down After Sales Services: After sales services is very important in the mobile telecommunication industry. GP has extensive after sales customer care tools. Here foucus on these step by step. 1. Helpline: GP is the first company that introduced 24hours helpline in Bangladesh. In this part of my paper I tried to focus on the existing operations of the helpline service of GP.which will enable us to understand the importance of the helpline service. A GP subscriber needs to dial 122, 121,148 to reach Grameen Phone Helpline. It is a computer aided information base to afford immediate access to the information about the subscribers, but the operations are done manually. After dialing 122, 121,148 subscribers are first welcomed by an automated and standarilized process. Then he needs to wait for few seconds. After that the subscriber reaches the Customer Manager. CM starts the conversation with a greeting. The subscriber explains his/her problems to the CM (some basic queries are enclosed in Appendix-2)

If the inquiry is regarding general information, the customer relations officer does not need to take help of information system. She/he just provides the information and the subscriber keep the phone. There are some queries that are much more personalized and the CM needs to get into the account of that particular subscriber to provide the service. In some case, the subscriber just keeps the complaint/ request and later action is needed to be taken. Customer need to pay TK. 4 per minute to take the service from helpline. 2 Interactive Voice Responses (IVR): This newly introduced service by GrameenPhone. This is automated helpline service. A GP subscriber needs to dial 123 to reach this service. After that she/he can get information regarding the bill, usage, credit policy, bank name that receives GP’s bill and so on by choosing different options.Itisfree of charge for the first minute, from the second minute the subscriber needs to pay tk.2 per minute. 3. Information Centers: Most of the problems of the subscribers are solved by the helpline service. But there are some problems that can not be solved there. Subscriber need to come physically to deal with that problems.Grameen Phone has seven customer relation centers and 380 GPSDs which provide services all over the country. These Customer Relation Centers are situated in the prime divisional head quarters like Dhaka, Chittagone, Sylhet, Rajshahi and Khulna and GPSDs situated all most everywhere in Bangladesh. In these information centers the subscribers can come directly with their problems like billing, address change, SIM change, handset problems, etc. These after sales services are very crucial to keep subscribers satisfied regarding GrameenPhone. Survey Findings: In order to measure the satisfaction of the customers a series of questions were asked to the customers with the help of a questionnaire, the data from these questions are tabulated below. For clear understanding, the overall satisfaction has been divided into satisfaction with the package and satisfaction with the after sales service. As already mentioned, the survey was

conducted among hundred GrameenPhone subscribers, it was conducted in the information center as subscribers from different areas in Dhaka come to this center Interpretation of Survey Data: a. I use GrameenPhone because it is the best: Strongly Agree Agree Neither Agree nor Disagree Disagree Strongly Disagree

25% 55% 15% 5% 0%

Strongly Agree 15%

5%0%

25%

Agree Neither Agree nor Disagree Disagree

55%

Strongly Disagree

b. I use GP mobile as it has additional features in comparison to other operators. 29% 63% 8% 0% 0%

Strongly Disagree

Neither Agree

63% 70% 60% 50% 40% 29% 30% 20% 8% 10% 0% 0% 0% Strongly Agree

Percentage

Strongly Agree Agree Neither Agree nor Disagree Disagree Strongly Disagree

Strongly Agree Agree Neither Agree nor Disagree Disagree Strongly Disagree

Farctors

c. Price of Gramophone’s different package is affordable. Strongly Agree

4%

Agree Neither Agree nor Disagree Disagree Strongly Disagree

60%

49% 13% 23% 11%

49%

Strongly Agree

Percentage

50% 40%

Agree 23%

30%

13%

20% 10%

11%

4%

Neither Agree nor Disagree Disagree

Strongly Disagree

Disagree

Neither Agree

Agree

Strongly Agree

0%

Strongly Disagree

Farctors

d. I am satisfied with the service (quality of airtime and network availability) of GP. Strongly Agree Agree Neither Agree nor Disagree Disagree Strongly Disagree

9% 26% 24% 30% 11%

35%

30% 26%

25%

24%

Strongly Agree Agree

20% 15% 10%

11%

9%

Neither Agree nor Disagree Disagree

0%

Strongly Disagree

Neither Agree nor

Strongly Disagree

5% Strongly Agree

Percentage

30%

Farctors

e. Whenever I want to have a GP connection, I can get it. Strongly Agree Agree Neither Agree nor Disagree Disagree Strongly Disagree

13%

23% 28% 17% 19% 13%

23%

Strongly Agree 19%

Agree

17%

28%

Neither Agree nor Disagree Disagree Strongly Disagree

f. GP helpline is very helpful in meeting my queries and other needs

10% 35% 20% 15% 20%

35% Strongly Agree 20%

20% 15%

Agree Neither Agree nor Disagree

10%

Strongly Disagree

Disagree Neither Agree

40% 35% 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0%

Strongly Agree

Percentage

Strongly Agree Agree Neither Agree nor Disagree Disagree Strongly Disagree

Strongly Disagree

Farctors

g. GP helpline is very helpful in meeting my queries and other needs Strongly Agree Agree Neither Agree nor Disagree Disagree Strongly Disagree

10%

9% 40% 20% 15% 10%

Strongly Agree

9%

Agree

15% 40%

Neither Agree nor Disagree Disagree

20% Strongly Disagree

h. Billing rate of GP is low: Strongly Agree Agree Neither Agree nor Disagree Disagree

3% 18% 14% 37%

Strongly Disagree

28%

40% 35%

Percentage

30% 25% 37%

20%

28%

15% 18%

10% 5%

14%

3%

0% Strongly Agree

Agree

Neither Agree

Disagree

nor Disagree

Strongly Disagree

Factors

i. Criteria’s important while purchasing any cellular service Criteria Network Coverage International Roaming Value added Services After Sales service Easy Bill Payment System.

70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0

No. of subscribers 68 11 12 16 37 Network Coverage

68

37 16 1112 No. of subscribers

International Roaming Value added Services After Sales service Easy Bill Payment System.

As we can see from the above table and the chart, maximum number of subscribers would purchase a cellular service which has a good network coverage, apart from that the other criteria which is they consider after network coverage is easy bill payment system. j. Criteria’s which were considered while purchasing GrameenPhone Criteria Network Coverage International Roaming Value added Services

No. of subscribers 68 8 7

24 hrs customer service Pre-paid facility and bill

48 37

payment facility

70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0

68

Network Coverage

37 16 1112 No. of subscribers

International Roaming Value added Services After Sales service Easy Bill Payment System.

From the chart and the table above it can be seen that most of the subscribers purchased GrameenPhone due its network coverage. Also by looking at the figures the bill payment system and the 24 hrs customer service were the other common attributes which attracted the subscribers to purchase GrameenPhone

k. Satisfaction with the after sales service  When you are faced with a problem what do you do? Criteria Call up the GP hotline Write a letter Go to the Information center

No. of subscribers 54 6 48

60 50 40 30 20 10 0

54

48

Call up the GP hotline Write a letter

6

Go to the Information center

No. of subscribers

From the above table it can be seen that most of the subscribers either call up the GP hotline or they go to the information center. l. Are the GP employees able to solve your problem regarding the following criteria’s? Criteria’s Billing Bar/ unbar line After sales service Special service (International roaming) Value Added services Total

Always 32 29 49 17

Sometimes 25 22 31 21

Never 4 2 5 2

N/A 39 47 15 60

Total 100 100 100 100

60 187

22 121

18 31

18 179

100 100

From the table above it can be seen that regarding almost every criteria, the Grameen Phone employees are able to solve the problem most of the time. But at the same time there is quite a large number who always do not get a solution to their problem this occur because for certain queries a subscriber has to go to the information center and GrameenPhone has only one information center, due to this shortage a customer is made to wait long hours in a queue. Also many times when the line takes more than a day to be reconnected.

m. Subscribers’ perception of the different Grameen Phone package

Which Grameen Phone Package do you use? Total

What is your perception of GrameenPhone? Excellen Good, but Alright, I use Bad, I am t, I am the GP because looking fully services no other for satisfied could be company alternative improved offers GP 6 34 14 0 prepaid GP regular 3 9 1 0 GPGP 1 12 2 1 Regular 0 14 1 3 GP-GP 10

69

18

3

Total

54 13 16 17 100

It can be seen from the above table that most of the subscribers from every package perceive their respective packages as good packages but they feel that the services can be improved. According to the four faces of customer loyalty by Smart Loyalty, we could consider the 10% to fall under truly loyal customers as highly satisfied, 69% of the subscribers could be considered as accessible because they feel that the services can be improved, these subscribers want to give a chance to GP to earn their loyalty. 18% could be considered as trapped because they use GrameenPhone as no other company offers them the services and only 3% fall under High-risk as these subscribers do not like the GrameenPhone services and are looking for alternatives.

n. Opinion whether GrameenPhone subscribers would remain loyal if another company came up with packages of similar features. Disagree

Neither agree or Agree Strongly disagree agree Which GP prepaid 9 17 20 8 Grameen GP regular 3 3 3 4 Negative Neither agree 5or disagree + disagree =33+203 = 53 Phoneattributes: GPGP 5 3 Positive attributes: agree + strongly agree3= 28+19 =47 package regular 8 2 4 do you GPGP use? Total 20 33 28 19

Total 54 13 16 17 100

Some Representative “Additional Comments”:  Helpline is not so easy to reach.  Behavior of helpline officers is quite rough.  Helpline gives support to solve our problem.  Info Centers take a whole day to solve a small problem.  In Dhaka city, there should be more info centers, especially in old side.  Prepaid connections are very difficult to avail.  Billing rate should be reduced, it is too high.  GrameenPhone does not think about the subscribers, their main intensions are to make money.

Finding on Analysis

Several frequency distribution have been constructed to find the answers regarding the customers perspective of grameen phone line users. By the analysis. Some limitation of grameen providers have been identified. The most important finding of the analysis is customers have claimed some problem on their network system. It is found that some of the customer of grameen hardly got connected after calling more then 4 or 5 times. This problem happens especially in case of connecting outside Dhaka . it is found from the analysis on customers occupation that the grameen is being more used by the students. Also the have been frequently changing their choices regarding mobile service providers. By proper customer care, once they catch this group for long time,they can better perform in the market. Analysis shows that80% of the customers use prepaid lines. One of the significant finding from the analysis is that customer who use grameen , use the line because of minimum call charge compared to other. So further study is needed to understand the related problems and the company should offer more facilities to the competitors to increase their customer and present users satisfaction.

RECOMMENDATION & CONCLUSION

The means to overcome the needs of the customers have been discussed in this chapter. These lead to the various recommendations given in chapter 7. Hopefully these recommendations will create awareness to GrameenPhone authority to resolve the problems of the customers. Analysis of the Results: It is already discussed that GrameenPhone is the leading company in the mobile telecommunication industry in Bangladesh. This has been possible because it has a created a superior image in comparison to the other operators. In other words, GP has a clear advantage over competitors. GrameenPhone has some additional advantageous features in comparisons to its competitors. There is easier access to person to person contract. Another important thing is that GP users are mostly satisfied with the initial price of GP connections and handsets. Before GP’s introduction to the market, mobile phones were virtually out of reach to the major part of the current market. Moreover, GrameenPhone subscribers are happy with the country wide network. However, there is dissatisfaction among the GP users with the service of the company. Many important factors are acting as reasons behind this overall dissatisfaction. Quality of airtime and network availability is not satisfactory.Grameen Phone connections are difficult to reach sometimes. It so happens that the subscribers used to pay extra money to get the access. This is especially true for prepaid service. It is encouraging that very recently situation has improved to a certain extent bases on the findings in this report. The “Info Centers” of GP are very important for some after sales services. But, there is shortage of capacity of this service, In Dhaka “Info Centers” are located at Gulshan, Dhanmondhi, Mothijheel, Uttara, these four centers cannot cope with the demand of vastly populated Dhaka city. The GP helpline is also an important customer care tool. But it is also in shortage of capacity. Subscribers need to spend significant amount of time to reach the helpline. Behavior of the helpline CM is also sometimes unmanageable. They are to handle continuous queries. So it may so happen at times the CMs cannot keep up smiling voice and amenable behavior.

Most of the subscribers are not happy with the billing rate of GP.They think it is too high in the context of Bangladesh, But they are still using the service as GP is still more easily accessible. Many newer companies are coming up with the lower price; it is thus a great challenge to GP to face, Another significant dissatisfaction of the GP users is that most of the GP connections are mobile to mobile. Access to BTTB is rare. Wider access with BTTB will boast the subscribers. Most alarming thing is that most of the GrameenPhone users are not loyal towards the company. If BTTB or any other company comes up with same sort of services, the GP subscribers might switch to that company

References 1. James Brian Quinn, Jordan J. Baruch and Penny Cushman Paquette1987, Technology in Services, Scientific American 2. Image Guide Book & Intranet of GrameenPhone 3. Divisional Annual report(Customer Management Division)-July-2005 4. Charles W.L.Hill and Gareth R. Jones, Strategic Management 5. Cooper & Schindler, Business Research Method 6. Newsletter of GrameenPhone Limited 7. Web Site: www.grameenphone.com Annual Report

Sample Questioner

1. User’s Name:…………………………………………………… 2. Age:……………………………………………………………… 3. Occupation:………………………………………………………… 4. Length of phone use:………………………………………………. 5. Type of sim card:

6. Reason for using the line:

Pre-Paid

Post-Paid

Minimum call charge Good network Minimum pulse Special Bonus Others

7. Per month Expense:

100 – 500 1001 -2000

501 -1000 More than 2000

8. Location of user’s:

Dhaka

Out side Dhaka

9. Problems from Grsmeen use: Bad network No network in village Others No problem

10. Do you wannachange your line? Yes If yes whyOften network problem faced No voice SMS sometime charged more Others

No