Customer Satisifaction Towards Mobileservice Providers

PROJECT REPORT ON “CUSTOMER SATISIFACTION ON MOBILE SERVICE PROVIDER NETWORKS”

IN

IMRB INTERNATIONAL, HYDERABAD. By CH.KARTHIK (08M009) (Marketing/Finance)

Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Award of the Post Graduation Diploma in Business Management

DHRUVA COLLEGE OF MANAGEMENT MEDCHAL HYDERABAD.

CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that the dissertation entitled “CUSTOMER SATISIFACTION ON MOBILE NETWORKS” in IMRB INTERNATIONAL ,HYDERABAD. that is being submitted by Mr CH.KARTHIK in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of degree of PGDM in MARKETING & FINANCE in Dhruva College of Management is a bonafied work carried out by him under the guidance and supervision of the undersigned. The results embodied in this dissertation have not been submitted to any other university or institution for the award of any degree or diploma.

Date: Place:

Supervisor’s Signature and designation

DECLARATION

I hereby declare that the dissertation entitled “A REPORT ON CUSTOMER SATISIFACTION ON MOBILE SERVICE PROVIDERS NETWORKS” that is being submitted by me in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of the degree of PGDM in FINANCE & MARKETING to Dhruva College of Management is a record of bonafied work carried out by me. The results embodied in this dissertation have not been submitted to any other university or institution for the award of any degree or diploma.

Date: Place: Signature of the student

Internal supervisor

Examiner (s) 1 ……………………………… 2 ………………………………

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The authorship of a monograph is usually attributed to one person but a report on the internship or a project work like this one is a joint affair. I am indebted to all who have directly and indirectly been of great help to me in doing and writing this project report. Firstly, I am thankful and express my gratitude to Mr. SRIKANTH(SUPERVISIOR) who inspired me and guided me throughout the period of Project Work that enabled me to successful completion the project . I am also grateful to Dr. Satya Prasad, Faculty DCM - Hyderabad for his continuous and deliberate discussion on the topic and indeterminable burden taken by him in helping me during the project. I extend my thanks to Dr. S Pratap Reddy (Chairman – DCM) and for providing all the necessary facilities in bringing out this project report Special regard and greatest appreciation is reserved for all the Executives and Employees of IMRB INTERNATIONAL,Hyderabad whose honest feedbacks, ideas and thoughts helped me navigate through the most difficult phases of the project work. Last, but not least I am thankful to my parents who motivated me throughout this project work, The preparation of this report would not have been an easy task without the help and support of my parents. I am pleased to say that the whole report is just the presentation of the facts that have been found during the projects through different sources and its each sentence is an exact representation of the information obtained and the analysis thereof. I hope that I have manifested my sincere attempts to represent all the information and other things to the best of ability.

(CH.KARTHIK)

Abstract: Keywords: Price, Perceived quality, Perceived sacrifice, Perceived value, purchase intention, mobile phones. Mobile phone service provider markets are one of the most unstable market atmospheres ,now adays due to increased competition and change in the market. Thus, the growing concern requires the marketers to strictly look at customer buying decision and satisifying process and more focus on the factors such as Prices, Perceived quality, Perceived sacrifice, Perceived value, and Purchase intention that subsequently determine willingness to purchase between different mobile phones and networks. On this basis, this research deals with consumers’ sacrifice and willingness to purchase criteria in mobile phone service providers markets by studying factors that influence customer perceived value and satisifying intention to acquire new mobile phones on one hand and factors that influence on mobile network change on the other hand. It was found that althoughthe willingness to measure satisifaction by customer on mobile service providers is a subjective choice situation, thereare some general factors that seem to guide the willingness to buy. The studyshows that while technical problems are the basic reason to change mobilephone &network among consumers, prices, brands, interface, and properties are theinfluential factors affecting the actual choice among brands. Overall profiling ofcustomer is also done to find out the requirement of customers.In addition, the results show customers sensitively emphasize on prices butsacrifice and also less willing to purchase mobile phone&satisfying . Accordingly, it is useful to consider the age, gender, income, and education of consumers topredict consumer satisifaction more precisely.

Acknowledgement………………………………………………. Abstract …………………………………………………………. Company profile 1) INTRODUCTION …………………………………………………………………......4 Background ……………………………………………………………………….……6 Research Objectives…………………………………………………………………….6 Research Limitation……………………………………………………………………..6 Research Flow…………………………………………………………………………..6 2) MAIN TEXT LITERATURE REVIEW………………………………………………….8 Consumer Buying Behavior……………………………………………………………..9 Consumer Buying Decision Process…………………………………………………….10 Industry Overview……………………………………………………………………….21 Industry Structure………………………………………………………………………..22 Cellular Service………………………………………………………………………….26 3) Research Methodology…………………………………………………………………..29 Research Definition………………………………………………………………………30 Research Methodology…………………………………………………………………..30 Research Design………………………………………………………………………….31 Data Collection…………………………………………………………………………...31 Data Preparation………………………………………………………………………….32 4) Data ANALYSIS ………………………………………………………………………...33 Missing Value Analysis…………………………………………………………………..34 Regression Analysis for service provider………………………………………………...36 Regression Analysis for Handset Maker…………………………………………………44 Factor Analysis …………………………………………………………...58 5) Conclusion.....................................................................................................................92 6) References......................................................................................................................93 7) Glossary.........................................................................................................................94 Appendices

Company profile

Established in 1971 and with over three decades of market research experience, IMRB International is a pioneer in India in various research areas. Associated with a group of international market companies such as the British Market Research Bureau (BMRB) and Millward Brown International, IMRB International operates out of thirteen cities in India and has associate offices in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal. The 1200 member strong IMRB International promises high quality conceptualization, strategic thinking, execution and interpretation skills on all its clients' research needs. IMRB International is the only research company in India today that offers the entire range of research based services to its clients. IMRB International’s specialized areas includes consumer market research both quantitative and qualitative, industrial market research, business to business market research, social and rural market research, media research, retail research, and consumer panels. IMRB International is the market research wing of J Walter Thompson (JWT) - the leading advertising agency in India. JWT in turn belongs to the Kantar Group, which in turn is a part of the WPP Group - the largest advertising group in the world. IMRB International provides specialist research services to its clients in India and overseas on products and services covering the entire gamut of business and industry. IMRB International today, operates out of its five full service offices in Mumbai, Delhi, Calcutta, Chennai and Bangalore and is supported by 15 other regional centers for collection of survey information that literally span the entire country. KANTAR GROUP The Kantar group was established in 1993, a London based holding company responsible for WPP's worldwide information and consultancy interests. Kantar is the world's largest survey organization and is ranked 3rd overall. It comprises three global research businesses - Research International, Millward Brown and Kantar Media Research and four regional ones - BMRB International, IMRB International, Goldfarb and Winona. Each is a leader in its own area of expertise or specialization. The research studies in over 130 countries.

The Kantar group specialized in: ➢Qualitative and quantitative research ➢Tracking studies ➢International research ➢Predictive modelling ➢Media measurement ➢Data capture and handling ➢Strategic research ➢Customer handling J WALTER THOMPSON COMPANY The world's first global brand communication company that provides its clients with both short term sales success and long term brand value. J.Walter Thompson was founded in 1864, with 246 offices globally and more than 9200 employees. JWT's proprietary planning process, Thomson total branding in now installed in all offices worldwide guarantying a uniform level of excellence in the development of Brand Vision, a Branding Idea and Total Communication Plan. MILLWARD BROWN INTERNATIONAL (MBI) IMRB International is the licensee for all Millward Brown products in South Asia (India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Bangladesh). Walker Information Global Network (WIGN):- Customer Satisfaction Management & Measurement (CSMM), one of the specialist units of IMRB International, is an exclusive-member of Walker Information Global Network (WIGN) in the Indian subcontinent. Walker Information Global Network is the only international partnership dedicated exclusively to stakeholder measurement and management. CSMM uses proprietary tools developed by Walker Information, the recognized pioneer in customer satisfaction. RESEARCH INTERNATIONAL (RI) Research International is a world's largest custom market research agency. It has more offices in more than 50 countries and has an experience of working in over 130 countries. Research International specialized in: ➢ Branding and Communication ➢ Innovation and Product Development ➢ Category Management ➢ Consumer strategy ➢ Customer Relationship

➢ Service measurement ABACUS FIELD Abacus Field handles the field operations for all the business divisions in IMRB. Abacus Field has a network of 15 regional offices spread across the country that gives IMRB the capability to run pan India research projects smoothly & effectively. Abacus Field is consistently striving to exceed client expectations, through high quality work, integrity, innovativeness and building a culture which promotes professional and personal growth opportunities. IMRB International has acted as a catalyst in the development of market research infrastructure in neighbouring countries. They work with associate companies in Sri Lanka (Lanka Market Research Bureau) and in the Middle East (Arab Market Research Bureau), and through affiliates in Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Egypt, Tunisia, Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Myanmar.

3.2) DIVISIONS IMRB has five specialist units to serve the diverse needs of their clients: ➢Probe Qualitative Research (PQR) ➢Social and Rural Research Institute (SRI) ➢Media & Panel Research Group ➢Customer Satisfaction Management & Measurement (CSMM) ➢Business & Industrial Research Division (BIRD) PROBE QUALITATIVE RESEARCH (PQR) Probe Qualitative Research (PQR) was established in 1979, in the belief that qualitative research demands expertise and training inputs of an exceptional kind. From its inception PQR has been associated with leading international qualitative research organizations. It is the largest and fastest growing qualitative research organization in the country. PQR provides research which is analytical and actionable, seeking to resolve particular client problems and questions and providing future direction. It also provides high quality insight and multi-disciplinary exploration of consumer motivation and behavior through a strong base of multilingual research executives and moderators. SOCIAL & RURAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE (SRI)

The Social and Rural Research Institute (SRI) was set up in 1990. SRI uses a combination of desk research, qualitative research techniques such as focus group discussions and participatory research as well as quantitative research techniques. In addition SRI approaches each research subject with an open mind and adapts market research techniques to suit the special requirements of illiteracy, poor articulation, several languages and dialects. SRI has two distinct missions that guide its operations: To study social issues with commitment, expertise, objectivity and an orientation towards action ability, and to set up databases and research expertise with regard to marketing in rural India , where hitherto there has been a paucity of data. SRI guided by its mission specializes in conducting Social research and rural research. Social research deals with research on causes and issues that can contribute to action which would bring about social change. Rural research pertains to research in, of and for rural areas, both for social issues as well as for rural marketing. SRI takes pride in having the resources to conduct data collection in almost any part of the country. It can undertake nationwide surveys almost simultaneously and much faster than others. MEDIA & PANEL RESEARCH GROUP IMRB International has been a pioneer in conducting large scale Media and continuous panel research in India. It has historically been associated with the National Readership Surveys (NRS) conducted in India since 1978. The Television Rating Points System (TRP) from IMRB International is India's only continuous Television Audience Measurement service since 1986, the year in which television in India went commercial in a major way. The TRP ratings are the official "currency" for air time transactions in the country. Currently, the TRP Diary System is in the process of changing over to People Meter based audience measurement service. In addition, the Media & Panel Research Group also operates Consumer Purchase Panels in both urban and rural India which monitors the purchase of FMCGs, toiletries, personal products and OTC medicinal products.

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION MANAGEMENT & MEASUREMENT (CSMM) Customer Satisfaction Management & Measurement (CSMM) is an independent, specialist unit of IMRB International and the exclusive member of the Walker Information Global Network (WIGN) in the Indian subcontinent. As a specialist unit of IMRB International, CSMM provides the widest field coverage with five full service offices and 13 field offices in Delhi, Calcutta, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Cochin, Pune, Patna, Ahmedabad, Guwahati, Bhubaneswar and Lucknow. CSMM services clients in India and neighbouring countries (Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Nepal) and this diverse network has made CSMM the leading provider of stakeholder products and services in South Asia. As the exclusive member of the Walker Information Global Network (WIGN) in South Asia, CSMM uses the proprietary tools developed by Walker Information, the recognized pioneers in Stakeholder Measurement and Management with over 30 years experience. The network offers the world's most thoroughly tested and proven system and also provides appropriate benchmarks through the WIGN Normative Database TM. CSMM provides a range of consulting products and services to manage external customer satisfaction and employee commitment to integrate stakeholder measurement and management efforts into the company's decision-making process at all levels. Working with over 80 clients from diverse sectors, including financial services, hotels, telecommunications, retailing, consumer products, automotive and engineering/industrial goods, CSMM provides strategic information services to enhance customer loyalty amongst both end customers and trade channel customers as well as to build employee commitment. CSMM offers a team of highly trained and experienced consultants with multidisciplinary backgrounds. BUSINESS & INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH DIVISIONS (BIRD) ➢ Oil & Gas : Higher-end telecommunication services and products for business use including products and services for integrated networking of voice and data products and services that enhance productivity and efficiency of offices such as copiers, computers, printers, etc. The steel sector both for measuring quality of service as well as recommending an appropriate product mix in the emerging private enterprise scenario Chemicals and Petrochemicals, Core sectors such as

power, coal, etc., Electrical Equipment , Machinery-heavy and light. ➢ e TECHNOLOGY GROUP@IMRB INTERNATIONAL : "It took 50 years for the world to have 50 million telephones and only 5 years for Internet to reach 50 million users." The various products and services researched under the eTechnology group@IMRB International are: Telecom ➢ Basic telephone services ➢ Cellular Phones ➢ Cable T.V. services ➢ Calling card services ➢ Call collect services ➢ Cordless telephones ➢ Electronic push button telephones ➢ E-mailing & value-added services ➢ EPABX ➢ Facsimile machines ➢ FM-RDS Pagers ➢ Internet ➢ Leased lines ➢ One-number services ➢ Radio Paging services ➢ Radio Trunked services ➢ Toll free services ➢ Transceivers/Two-way radios ➢ Videotext services ➢ Video conferencing ➢ Voicemail ➢ Virtual telephone networks ➢ VSATs - TDMA/DAMA and Bandwidth on Demand applications ➢ WAP devices & services IT/ Internet ➢ PC ➢ Servers ➢ Networking devices ➢ Peripherals ➢ UPS ➢ Packaged software ➢ Application software development ➢ ISPs ➢ B2B services (Steel, Plastics etc.) ➢ B2C services ➢ Ecommerce sites ➢ Backbone bandwidth requirement

CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION

Introduction

The Indian Telecommunications network with 110.01 million connections is the fifth largest in the world and the second largest among the emerging economies of Asia. Today, it is the fastest growing market in the world and represents unique opportunities for U.S. companies in the stagnant global scenario. The total subscriber base, which has grown by 40% in 2005, is expected to reach 250 million in 2007. According to Broadband Policy 2004, Government of India aims at 9 million broadband connections and 18 million internet connections by 2007. The wireless subscriber base has jumped from 33.69 million in 2004 to 62.57 million in FY20042005. In the last 3 years, two out of every three new telephone subscribers were wireless subscribers. Consequently, wireless now accounts for 54.6% of the total telephone subscriber base, as compared to only 40% in 2003. Wireless subscriber growth is expected to bypass 2.5 million new subscribers per month by 2007. The wireless technologies currently in use are Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) and Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA). There are primarily 9 GSM and 5 CDMA operators providing mobile services in 19 telecom circles and 4 metro cities, covering 2000 towns across the country. Evolution of the industry-Important Milestones Year 1851

First operational land lines were laid by the government near Calcutta (seat of British power)

1881

Telephone service introduced in India

1883

Merger with the postal system

1923

Formation of Indian Radio Telegraph Company (IRT)

1932

Merger of ETC and IRT into the Indian Radio and Cable Communication Company (IRCC)

1947

Nationalization of all foreign telecommunication companies to form the Posts, Telephone and Telegraph (PTT), a monopoly run by the government's Ministry of Communications

1985

Department of Telecommunications (DOT) established, an exclusive provider of domestic and long-distance service that would be its own regulator (separate from the postal system)

1986

Conversion of DOT into two wholly government-owned companies: the Videsh Sanchar Nigam telecommunications

Limited

(VSNL)

for

international

and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) for service in metropolitan areas.

1997

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India created.

1999

Cellular Services are launched in India. New National Telecom Policy is adopted.

2000

DoT becomes a corporation, BSNL

A large population, low telephony penetration levels, and a rise in consumers' income and spending owing to strong economic growth have helped make India the fastest-

growing telecom market in the world. The first and largest operator is the state-owned incumbent BSNL, which is also the 7th largest telecom company in the world in terms of its number of subscribers. BSNL was created by corporatization of the erstwhile DTS (Department of Telecommunication Services), a government unit responsible for provision of telephony services. Subsequently, after the telecommunication policies were revised to allow private operators, companies such as Bharti Telecom, TATA Indicom, Vodafone, MTNL, Idea,Vodafone and BPL have entered the space. major operators in India. However, rural India still lacks strong infrastructure. In 2007, an article by Businessweek magazine reported that India's mobile phone market is the fastest growing in the world, with companies adding some 6 million new customers a month. The total number of telephones in the country crossed the 300 million mark on June 18 2008The overall tele-density has increased to 36.98% in March 2009 In the wireless segment, 15.87 million subscribers have been added in March 2009. The total wireless subscribers (GSM, CDMA & WLL (F)) base is more than 391.76 million now. The wireline segment subscriber base stood at 38.22 million with a decline of 0.13 million in October 2008. Market shares of public and Private Players Both fixed line and mobile segments serve the basic needs of local calls, long distance calls and the international calls, with the provision of broadband services in the fixed line segment and GPRS in the mobile arena. Traditional telephones have been replaced by the codeless and the wireless instruments. Mobile phone providers have also come up with GPRSenabled multimedia messaging, Internet surfing, and mobile-commerce. The muchawaited 3G mobile technology is soon going to enter the Indian telecom market. The GSM, CDMA, WLL service providers are all upgrading them to provide 3G mobile services. Along with improvement in telecom services, there is also an improvement in manufacturing. In the beginning, there were only the Siemens handsets in India but now a whole series of new handsets, such as Nokia's latest N-series, Sony Ericsson's W-series, Motorola's PDA phones, etc. have come up. Touch screen and advanced technological handsets are gaining popularity. Radio services have also been incorporated in the mobile handsets, along with other applications like high storage memory, multimedia applications, multimedia games, MP3 Players, video generators, Camera's, etc. The value added services provided by the mobile service operators contribute more than 10% of the total revenue. Global telecom sector

Earnings visibility Earnings growth is being driven by improving pricing conditions, stabilizing operating trends, aggressive cost cutting initiatives, a positive regulatory environment, strong wireless growth, and new market opportunities. This has translated into greater visibility of forward earnings as evidenced by recent increased analyst upgrades within the sector.

Merger synergies Given the substantial amount of excess capital available in the sector and in private equity we expect to see additional merger and acquisition activity, albeit at a slower pace than recently witnessed. Global telecom M&A deals over the past two years have reflected market expansion but have also had a positive effect on the buyers’ balance sheets. Partnering companies have begun realizing their synergies through cost reductions and economies of scale. In the US, the largest three companies now account for over 70% of the sector market cap; this compares to 34% in 1990. Trends in bundled services are also paving the way for additional M&A activity. Sector consolidation will further increase the importance of stock selection. Growth While cost-cutting has been a major source of earnings growth, we have seen top-line pressures decreasing which will help revenues become a larger driver of earnings growth again. We see growth within the sector coming from a number of areas including: broadband, 3G (third generation) technology, expansion in emerging markets. Broadband penetration has been accelerating as internet customers are seeking faster downloads for audio and video files. 3G services, which facilitate the simultaneous transfer of both voice and non-voice (i.e. video, downloads, SMS, etc.) data are providing mobile users with a much more robust communication platform and should finally begin to realize their growth potential in 2007. Emerging market companies benefit from low penetration rates and also tend to have lower leverage, higher margins and higher growth than most developed markets telecom companies.

Global opportunities It has become less difficult to find attractive telecom investment opportunities globally than it was a year ago. As the fog has lifted from the sector, there are increased opportunities within both the growth and value spaces. In the US, improved clarity in the regulatory environment has opened the door for a number of players.

Within Europe the risk of negative news flow remains a potential detractor but there is valuation support from attractively priced stocks. There is little difference between the European and US integrated carriers making it more of a stock call than a regional call. Within Asia we see high revenue growth and return on assets. Overall, emerging markets continue to be the fastest growing region within the sector and offer the largest valuation discount. Additionally, the healthy macro environment in emerging markets coupled with increasing domestic wealth is creating a positive consumer environment in the local markets. Fortis Investments: Telecom sector strategy Our strategy is to create a more focused portfolio of diversified high conviction ideas. In the current environment we continue to be sensitive to relative valuations and positive earnings momentum. Our portfolio is largely levered to growth. We have positioned ourselves in companies that will provide synergies as well as margin expansion through wireless exposure. We recognize the sensitivity of the regulatory environment in some markets and have minimized our exposure to those markets. We also continue to overweight our exposure toniche players within developed markets as well as to emerging markets which have low penetration rates and more growth opportunities.

Definition of Cellular/Mobile phone www.wikipedia defines cellular phone as: The Cellular telephone (commonly "mobile phone" or "cell phone" or "handphone") is a long-range,portable electronic device used for mobile communication. In addition to the standard voice functionof a telephone, current mobile phones can support many additional services such as SMS for textmessaging, email, packet switching for access to the Internet, and MMS for sending and receivingphotos and video. Most current mobile phones connect to a cellular network of base stations (cellsites), which is in turn interconnected to the public switched telephone network (PSTN) (the exception is satellite phones. Cellular telephone is also defined as a type of short-wave analog or digitaltelecommunication in which asubscriberhasawirelessconnection from a mobile telephone to arelatively nearby transmitter. The transmitter's span of coverage is called a cell. Generally, cellulartelephone service is available in urban areas and along major highways. As the cellular telephone usermoves from one cell or area of coverage to another, the telephone is effectively passed on to the localcell transmitter. A cellular telephone is not to be confused with a cordless telephone (which is simply aphone with a very short wireless connection to a local phone outlet). A newer service similar tocellular is personal communications services (PCS).

The Global Cellular Mobile Industry: The global mobile phone industry is based on many different manufacturers and operators. The industry is based on advanced technology and many of the manufacturers are operating in differentindustries, where they use their technological skills, distribution network, market knowledge and brand name. Four large manufacturers of mobile phones are today dominating the global mobile phoneindustry&networks; Nokia, Sony Ericson, Samsung and Motorola . Airtel,Bsnl,tataindicom,Vodafone,relaiance,others.In addition to these companies there are manymanufacturers that operate globally and locally. Telecom Industry in India  The telecom industry is one of the fastest growing industries in India. India has nearly200 million telephone lines making it the third largest network in the world after China and USA.  With a growth rate of 45%, Indian telecom industry has the highest growth rate in the8world.  Much of the growth in Asia Pacific Wireless Telecommunication Market is spurred bythe growth in demand in countries like India and China.  India‘s mobile phone subscriber base is growing at a rate of 82.2%.  China is the biggest market in Asia Pacific with a subscriber base of 48% of thetotal subscribers in Asia Pacific.  Compared to that India’s share in Asia Pacific Mobile Phone market is 6.4%. Considering the fact that India and China have almost comparable populations, India’slow mobile penetration offers huge scope for growth. History of Indian Telecommunications Started in 1851 when the first operational land lines were laid by the government near Calcutta (seat ofBritish power). Telephone services were introduced in India in 1881. In 1883 telephone services weremerged with the postal system. Indian Radio Telegraph Company (IRT) was formed in 1923. Afterindependence in 1947, all the foreign telecommunication companies were

nationalized to form thePosts, Telephone and Telegraph (PTT), a monopoly run by the government's Ministry ofCommunications. Telecom sector was considered as a strategic service and the government consideredit best to bring under state's control.The first wind of reforms in telecommunications sector began to flow in 1980s when the private sectorwas allowed in telecommunications equipment manufacturing. In 1985, Department of Telecommunications (DOT) was established. It was an exclusive provider of domestic and longdistanceservice that would be its own regulator (separate from the postal system). In 1986, two whollygovernment-owned companies were created: the Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL) forinternational telecommunications and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) for service inmetropolitan areas. In 1990s, telecommunications sector benefited from the general opening up of theeconomy. Also, examples of telecom revolution in many other countries, which resulted in better quality of service and lower tariffs, led Indian policy makers to initiate a change process finallyresulting in opening up of telecom services sector for the private sector. National Telecom Policy(NTP) 1994 was the first attempt to give a comprehensive roadmap for the Indian telecommunications sector. In 1997, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) was created. TRAI was formed to actas a regulator to facilitate the growth of the telecom sector. New National Telecom Policy was adoptedin 1999 and cellular services were also launched in the same year. Telecommunication sector in Indiacan be divided into two segments: Fixed Service Provider (FSPs), and Cellular Services. Fixed lineservices consist of basic services, national or domestic long distance and international long distanceservices. The state operators (BSNL and MTNL), account for almost 90 per cent of revenues from basicservices. Private sector services are presently available in selective urban areas, and collectively account for less than 5 per cent of subscriptions. However, private services focus on thebusiness/corporate sector, and offer reliable, high- end services, such as leased lines, ISDN, closed usergroup and videoconferencing. Cellular services can be further divided into two categories: GlobalSystem for Mobile Communications (GSM) and Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA). The GSMsector is dominated by Airtel, Vodfone-Essar, and Idea Cellular, while the CDMA sector is dominatedby Reliance and Tata Indicom. Opening up of international and domestic long distance telephonyservices are the major growth drivers for cellular industry. Cellular operators get substantial revenuefrom these services, and compensate them for reduction in tariffs on airtime, which along with rental was the main source of revenue. The reduction in tariffs for airtime, national long distance,international long distance, and handset prices has driven demand. Classification of Telecommunication services

1. Basic services 2. Cellular services 3. Internet Service Provider (ISP) Research Objective :

Objective of this project is “customer satisifaction on mobile networks& buying mobile and servicesby different users.” This project is done in order to analyze all the factors affecting the customer’sdecision made before and after the purchase of mobile phone service provider.Mobile phones are incomplete product. An Incomplete product is a product that needs furtherinvestment by customer in order to get the utility of a product. For example automobile they requirepetrol, VCD players need video CD to give its core benefit to customers without these add on anincomplete products is of no use to user .Can we imagine an automobile without petrol? No it is noteven giving its core benefit, which is transportations, to its user and therefore mobile is also an incomplete product because without service provider it is of no use. Therefore a complete buyingbehavior cannot be studied by considering both aspects separately. A complete picture of factorsaffecting buying decision can emerge only when pre and post decision of buying mobile set is taken under considerationThe underlying problem in predicting customer choice resides much more in the fact that purchasingdecisions are made on the basis of many different criteria simultaneously, including brand, quality,performance, price, features, and so on. This problem is further confounded in service applications,where customers may consider intangible features and characteristics of the market offerings for e.g.,service quality, safety, and trust; interactions between service providers and customers.Thus,incorporating customer preferences and choices into day-to-day managerial decisions is extremelyimportant for today’s highly competitive environment, because their customers evaluate them onmore than one criterion. In such a scenario, it is worthwhile to find out the satisifaction mobile phone and service purchase decision of various user groups.

Research Flow process Introduction ⇓

Literature review

⇓ ⇓ ⇓ ⇓ ⇓

Research design methodology Research result and Analysis Discussion Conclusion

LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY • • • •

The internet information can be irrelevant. Time will be a major constraint. Financial constraints The respondent may be biased

CHAPTER TWO

MAIN TEXTLITERATURE REVIEW

3.1 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Customer Satisfaction

The buyer’s satisfaction after purchases depends on the offers performance in relation to the buyer’s expectations. According to Philip Kotler, “satisfaction is a person’s feelings of pressure or disappointment resulting from product’s perceived performance (outcome) in relation to his or her expectations. Customer satisfaction is the level of a person’s felt state resulting from comparing a product’s perceived performance (outcome) in relation to the person’s expectations”.1 This satisfaction level is a function of difference between perceived performance and expectations. If the product’s performance, exceed expectation the customer highly satisfied or delighted. If the performance matches the expectations the customer is satisfied. If the products performance fall shorts of expectations the customer is dissatisfied. Many companies are aiming for high satisfaction because customers who are just satisfied still find it easy to switch when a better offer comes along. High satisfaction or delight creates an emotional affinity with brand. 1

Kotler Philip, “Marketing Management”, 2003. Eleventh Edition, Pearson Education (Singapore) Pte ltd, pp61.62

Variety of factors that affect customer satisfaction includes product quality, product availability and after sales support such as warranties and services. Customer satisfaction is seen as a proof of delivering a quality product or service. It is believed that customer satisfaction brings sales growth, and market share. A company can always increase customer satisfaction by lowering its price or increasing its services but this may result in lower profits. Thus the purpose of marketing is to generate customer value profitability. India is on the threshold of a new millennium. India chose for global economy, exposing her to winds of change in the market place, which has expanded vastly and become fiercely competitive. In the changed environment, decision makers view the marketing concept as the key to success. Marketing in practice has to manage products, pricing, promotion and distribution. A successful product can be developed by exploding these opportunities. While delivering the value of the consumer we make use of marketing support. This support is based on the knowledge of consumers and distribution. Marketing support both at the introduction of products and maturing is considered Marketing, as suggested by the American Marketing Association is "an organizational function and a set of processes for creating, communicating and delivering value to customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stakeholders".

The two major factors of marketing are the recruitment of new customers (acquisition) and the retention and expansion of relationships with existing customers (base management). Marketing methods are informed by many of the social, particularly psychology, sociology, and economics. Anthropology is also a small, but growing, influence. Market research underpins these activities. Through advertising, it is also related to many of the creative arts.

For a marketing plan to be successful, the mix of the four "Ps"2 i.e. product, price, place, promotion must reflect the wants and desires of the consumers in the target market. Trying to convince a market segment to buy something they don't want is extremely 2

Earlier Project Report, “A study on viewers Perception with special reference to Indiavision satellite communication ltd, Calicut “ 2007

expensive and seldom successful. Marketers depend on marketing research, both formal and informal, to determine what consumers want and what they are willing to pay for. Marketers hope that this process will give them a sustainable competitive advantage. Marketing management is the practical application of this process. The offer is also an important addition to the 4P's theory.

2.2 Skills of Marketers Marketers have 4 main skill sets that they bring to an enterprise: 2.2.1 Opportunity Identification True marketing begins before there is a product to sell. Many people think marketing is just selling whatever comes out of the manufacturing plant. It's the job of marketing to decide WHAT comes out of the manufacturing plant in the first place. Before a business can make money there must be opportunities for money to be made and it's marketing's job to define what those opportunities are. Marketers analyze markets, market gaps, trends, products, competition, and distribution channels to come up with opportunities to make money.

2.2.2 Competitive strategy/positioning Markets consist of groups of competitors competing for a customer's business. The job of marketing is to decide how to create a defensible sustainable competitive advantage against competitors. Marketers conceive strategies, tactics, and business models to make it hard if not impossible for competition to take away customers from their business.

2.2.3 Demand generation/management It's the job of marketing to create and sustain demand for a company's products. Marketers manage demand for a company's products by influencing the probability and frequency of their customer's purchase behavior.

2.2.4 Sales The ultimate goal of marketing is to make money for a business. In most company’s sales is a different discipline and department from marketing. But in order for salespeople to

have any long term success in a company they must be led by marketing. The better job a company does of identifying opportunities, creating a differential sustainable competitive advantage, and generating demand for their products the easier it will be for salespeople to make sales.

2.3 Method to measure customer satisfaction. Companies use the following methods to measure customer satisfaction. 2.3.1 Complaints and suggestion system 2.3.2 Customer satisfaction surveys Responsive companies obtain a direct measure of customer satisfaction by periodic surveys. They send questionnaires to random sample of their customers to find out how they feel about various aspects of the company’s performance and also solicit views on their competitor’s performance. It is useful to measure the customer’s willingness to recommend the company and brand to other persons.

2.3.3 Lost Customer Analysis. Companies should contact customers who have stopped buying or who have switched to another supplier to learn why this happened.

2.3.4 Consumer Behavior Vs Consumption Behavior Consumer behavior refers to the manner in which an individual reaches decision related to the selection, purchases and use of goods and services. Walters and Paul says that, consumer behavior is the process where by the individuals decides what, when, how and from whom to purchase goods & services. Consumer behavior relates to an individual person (Micro behavior) where as consumption behavior relates to and to the mass or aggregate of individuals (Macro behavior) consumers behavior as a study focuses on the decision process of the individual consumer or consuming unit such as the family.

In contrast the consumption behavior as a study is to do with the explanation of the behavior of the aggregate of consumers or the consuming unit. Consumer is a pivot, around which the entire system of marketing revolves. The study of buyer behavior is one of the most important keys to successful marketing.

2.4 Factors Influencing the Buyer Behavior Consumer purchase is influenced strongly by cultural, social, personal and psychological characteristics as shown in the figure below.

Factors Influencing Buying Process

(FIGURE 2.1)

OPERATIONAL DEFINITON There are two key players involved in any purchase/buying or subscribing process. They are people and the competitive products. Within the scope of our work they can be classified as television viewers and competing TV channels like Manorama, Asianet and Kairali. The above figure lists out the main factors that influence the viewers to subscribe (purchase decision) to a particular TV channel. They are socio-cultural, economic/ business interests and family backgrounds etc. Let it be news, food or fashion, people from different regions has diverse idea about this. Even people from the same region may have different tastes based on their economic status and family traditions. Apart from these influences that every buyer has, there are certain other elements that decide the final purchase decision. They are ‘real need’ for the commodity, ‘proper motivation’ to purchase, ‘attitude, learning style and perception’ of the individual. In short the central process of subscribing to a news channel by an individual is decided by various external influence factors shown figure plus intrinsic personal traits of the individual.

What is Customer Satisfaction?

Customer satisfaction or dissatisfaction is the feeling derived by the consumer when he compares the product’s actual performance with the performance that he expects out of it. Customers make their expectations from the service quality, service delivery, communications, past experiences and references. These all are to be judged correctly by the management so that their perceptions match with customer expectations. If any of these factors are wrongly interpreted then the expected level of customer satisfaction cannot be reached. Customer satisfaction is a combination of six terms: 1) Customer Grievances 2) Customer Focus 3) Customer Property 4) Customer Feedback 5) Timely Supply 6) Special Requirement of Customer

2.1) OBJECTIVES ➢ To assess the needs, requirements and expectations of the customers in order to assess their current satisfaction levels. ➢ Gauge the drivers behind their choice of products. ➢ Learn to complete time bound multi-disciplinary and goal-oriented assignment involving team work. ➢ Learn to deal with insufficient data parameters and uncertain situations. ➢ To know the attitude, enthusiasm regarding the service provided to customers. ➢ To understand the performance of different brands in the market on various parameters like product quality, performance of the customer relationship officer (CRO), service quality, range and selection of products available. ➢ To know and understand the performance of the competitors brand in the market on various parameters like product quality, service quality, performance of the CRO, availability of the product in the market. ➢ Benchmark performance with competition. ➢ Track change in performance from last year. ➢ Understand the levels of satisfaction of various customers.

➢ Understand the levels of satisfaction among Employees of the different brand outlets. ➢ To analyze the survey data and to draw a suitable model for improving the future performance. ➢ To analyze the key important factor that influences the buying behavior of a customer. ➢ To analyze the effect of advertisement, promotional campaign, discount scheme and various other offers on the customers buying behavior. ➢ To analyze and draw the correct picture of a particular brand performance in the market in comparison with its competitors. ➢ To conclude the research study with reliable and authenticated data.

1) Brand selection

The research study tiltled “factors affecting the brand decision in the mobile service provider industry” in Asia by Liu 2002.This study found that the choice of a cellular phone is characterized by two attitudes to brands : attitude towards the mobile phone brand on one hand and attitude towards the network on the other. While price and regularity of service were found to dominate choice between network providers, choices between mobile phone brands were affected by new technology features such as memory capacity and SMS – options, more than size. The brand will actually be not towards smaller phones but towards phones with better capability and larger screen. 2) Consumer satisfaction This study is conducted by TRAI. It assesses the satisfaction level of consumers encompassing quality of technical service, quality and operational aspects of gadgets and social /psychological costs due to unsolicited promotional calls /SMS. The analysis in this report shows that the consumption behavior of the mobile phone users in hyderabad and covers the aspects like usage pattern of the mobile phone services, assessment of the level of satisfaction, preference for various attributes and functionalities of gadgets .

3) Consumer behavior The titled named “consumer buying behavior” by Martin Tina; Sam Manaberi [2005] discussed the industrial purchasing stands for more than half of the whole economic activity in industrialized countries. Therefore it is important to understand how industries perform buying activities. The telecommunication industry is a fast growing industry and therefore interesting to investigate. The purpose of this study was to investigate the characteristics of industrial buying behaviour in the telecommunication industry. The purpose has been further developed in forms of research questions dealing with the buying process, buying center and choice criteria. A case study was made with a customer, to the telecom supplier Ericsson, from the company HI3G Access, also known as 3. A highly topical company in the third generation telecom networks with Ericsson as one of their primary suppliers. The conducted telephone interview indicates a swift buying process, influenced by word of mouth. Additional findings involve a small buying center, which is mainly controlled by the technical and procurement staff and the importance of price as a selection criteria as the product is becoming a commodity. 4) Consumer behavior The article named “consumer buying behavior in mobile phone market in Finland” by EMAC conference, Track : New Technologies and E – Marketing. The survey conducted with 397 consumers and looked at their motives to purchase new mobile phones on one hand and factors affecting operator choice on the other. The results indicate that while price and properties were the most influencial factors affecting the purchase of a new mobile phone, price, audibility and friends operator were regarded as the most important in the choice of the mobile phone operator. This paper concludes with a discussion of contributions and purposes ideas for future studies in this under researched area. 5) Customer buying behavior

The project study titled “customer buying behavior of mobile phone brands” by Riquelme (2001. She conducted an experiment with 94 consumers to identify the amount of self – knowledge consumers have when choosing between mobile phone brands. The study was build upon six key attributes like telephone features, connection fee , access cost , mobile to mobile phone rates call rates and free calls related to mobile phone purchasing respondents had to

importance rate. The research shows that consumers with prior experience about a product can predict their choices relatively well but customers tended to overestimate the importance of features, call rates, and free call and underestimates the importance of a monthly access fee, mobile to mobile phones rates and the connection fee.

6) Consumer perception The article titled “consumer perception and its choice mobile telecom service provider in Malaysia,Journal of International Business and Economics, May, 2007 by Ahasanul Haque, Ali Khatibi, Abdur Raquib, Shameem Al Mahmud. The study aims to find out what are critical factors those are playing an important role to select the telecommunication service provider. Result provides a comprehensive analysis of the important factors for playing an important role for the customer to select the telecommunication service provider. The analysis confirms the significant positive relationship of price, service quality, product quality and availability, and promotional offer for consumer perception. These factors are expected to have a great role during the time to choose telecommunication service provider. In conclusion, practitioners can be deriving a better understanding of the activities that are being played a vital role for the consumer perception. 3.2 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

Consumer An individual who buys products or services for personal use and not for manufacture or resale. A consumer is someone who can make the decision whether or not to purchase an item at the store, and someone who can be influenced by marketing and advertisements Customer A person, company, or other entity which buys goods and services produced by another person, company, or other entity Customer service According to Turban et al “customer service is a series of activities designed to enhance the level of customer satisfaction that is, the feeling that aproduct or service has met the customer expectation.

The needs, wants and preconceived ideas of a customer about a product or service. Customer expectation will be influenced by a customer’s perception of the product or service and can be created by previous experience, advertising , hearsay, awareness of competitors and brand image. The level of customer service is also a factor and a customer might expect to encounter efficiency, helpfulness, reliability, confidence in the staff and a personal interest in his / her patronage.

The main objectives of customer services are : • Learn to identify and analyze customer needs and problems • Recognize the most common reasons for customer complaints • Discover techniques to cultivate and maintain special customer relationships • Assess your communication style and use two – way communication skills to level with people, to accept feedback from them, and to discuss problems • Identify specific problems in your customer service program and apply treatment. Customer satisfaction Customer satisfaction is a measure of how products and services supplied by the company meet or surpass customer expectation. Satisfaction is a person’s feelings of pleasure or disappointment resulting from comparing a product’s perceived performance in relation to his or her expectation. • Encourage face to face dealing • Be friendly and approachable • Respond to messages promptly and keep your client informed • Have a clear defined customer service policy • Attention to detail • Anticipate your client’s needs and go out of your way to help them out • Honour your promises

Kano's model of customer satisfaction distinguishes six categories of quality attributes, from which the first three actually influence customer satisfaction: •

•

•

• • •

Basic Factors. (Dissatisfiers. Must have.) - The minimum requirements which will cause dissatisfaction if they are not fulfilled, but do not cause customer satisfaction if they are fulfilled (or are exceeded). The customer regards these as prerequisites and takes these for granted. Basic factors establish a market entry 'threshold'. Excitement Factors. (Satisfiers. Attractive.) - The factors that increase customer satisfaction if delivered but do not cause dissatisfaction if they are not delivered. These factors surprise the customer and generate 'delight'. Using these factors, a company can really distinguish itself from its competitors in a positive way. Performance Factors. The factors that cause satisfaction if the performance is high, and they cause dissatisfaction if the performance is low. Here, the attribute performance-overall satisfaction is linear and symmetric. Typically these factors are directly connected to customers' explicit needs and desires and a company should try to be competitive here. Indifferent attributes. The customer does not care about this feature. Questionable attributes. It is unclear whether this attribute is expected by the customer. Reverse attributes. The reverse of this product feature was expected by the customer.

Five facts for improving productivity • As senior managers, only know about the tip of the iceberg, a small fraction of all the problems your customers encounter. • Service can be a major marketing tool • Customer problems can cost not only an immediate lost sale, but also future purchases by that customer and by other customers as a result of negative word-ofmouth behavior. • We can and must quantify the expected payback from service and/or quality improvements. • The market transaction (sale) often is not the key point of customer pain and lost revenue. DOING THE JOB RIGHT THE FIRST TIME + EFFECTIVE CUSTOMER SERVICE = MAXIMUM CUSTOMER SATISFACTION/LOYALTY

Customer oriented organization chart

In this pyramid shows customers will be the top most priority and next in importance are front line people who meet, serve and satisfy customers ; under them are the middle managers, whose job is to support the front – line people so they can serve customers well and at the base is top management, whose job is to hire and support good middle managers. Customer behavior Customer behavior is to know about the customer’s way to obtain, use and dispose products. It's important for marketing to know the customer behavior by using different strategies. There are so many different ways to influence customers like new products, promotions, advertisement, good quality and price etc. Customer behavior analysis is based on consumer buying behaviour, with the customer playing the three distinct roles of user, payer and buyer. Relationship marketing is an influential asset for customer behaviour analysis as it has a keen interest in the re-discovery of the true meaning of marketing through the re-affirmation of the importance of the customer or buyer. Customer behaviour analysis aims to ultimately improve business performance through an understanding of past and present customers so as to determine and identify future customers and their behaviour. Customer-Focused Marketing

All marketing is done with the customer in mind. Marketing can in fact be referred to as an on-going conversation occuring between business and customer. It is therefore necessary for businesses to gain in-depth knowledge of their relative customers so that the best marketing strategies can be employed in order to attract these potential buyers. This can effectively be done by performing activities such as customer behaviors analysis to ensure customer retention. Listed below are a number of tips to aid businesses striving towards customer retention through marketing efforts: 1. Marketing as a Conversation:Direct interaction with customers is

necessary to essentially find out what it is that they are wanting. This marketing conversation involves a process running from action - reaction - feedback - repeat. Businesses need to be willing to take the time to listen to their customers as this can ensure a business of putting something up for offer which is of great worth amongst their targeted consumers, and is relative to their particular needs and desires. It is required for businesses to constantly perform marketing promotion so that these customers will come back for more. Giving satisfaction to first-time buyers can prove effective for a business in the long-run for the reason that by giving customers what they desire the first time round, customer retention is encouraged through this form of customer loyalty. 2. Active Customers:

Making customers feel as though they are in control is an effective strategy in customer-focused marketing. This is done by transforming consumers into active customers who are given the ability to make choices for themselves by actively engaging in promotions and, hereby, deciding on the best possible products and services their money can buy. Customer retention is encouraged through this interaction with customers which aids in customer loyalty. Businesses need to make each and every one of their customers feel good about themselves by giving themsomething to do. Therefore, retaining customers means keeping them happy by keeping them active.

3. Determining Future Customer Behaviour:This is most

effectively done through an analysis of the actual behaviour of past and present customers. Actual behaviour needs to be differentiated from demographic behaviours (which are implied consumer characteristics). Actual behaviour is, as such, better at predicting the future which is done by keeping a watch over the actions customers perform with regard to online purchases and the products they purchase over the Internet.

5. Allocating Resources for Marketing: Businesses need to take their budget into consideration when allocating resources for promotions. It is well-known amongst businesses that some marketing activities will generate higher profits than others and data therefore needs to be created by interacting with customers in order to consequentially identify the most profitable promotions, which will be delivered to the right customer at the right time, without wasting time or money. Hereby, effectivemarketing means avoiding unprofitable promotion which will as such mean not reaching the right customers and wasting money. Customer buying behaviourProcess by which individual search for select, purchase, use and dispose of goods and services, in satisfaction of their needs and wants. Types Minor new purchase – these purchases represent something new to a consumer but in the customer’s mind is not a very important purchase in terms of need, money or other reason. 

Minor re- purchase – these are the most routine of all purchase and often the consumer returns to purchase the same product without giving much thought to other product options. 

Major new purchase – these purchases are the most difficult of all purchase because the product being purchased is important to the consumer but the consumer has little or no previous experience making new decisions. The consumer’s lack of confidence in making this type of decision often requires the consumer to engage in an extensive decision making process 



Major repurchase – the purchase decision are also important to the consumer

feels confident in making these decisions since they have previous experience purchasing the product

Stages of the Consumer Buying Process

Six Stages to the Consumer Buying Decision Process .

1. Problem

Recognition(awareness of need)--difference between the desired state and the actual condition were deficient? I.E., see a commercial for a new pair of shoes, stimulates your recognition that you need a new pair of shoes. 2. Information search-Internal search, memory. External search if you need more information. Friends and relatives (word of mouth). Marketer dominated sources; comparison shopping; public sources etc. 3. Evaluation of Alternatives--need to establish criteria for evaluation, features the buyer wants or does not want. 4. Purchase decision--Choose buying alternative, includes product, package, store, method of purchase etc. 5. Purchase--May differ from decision, time lapse between 4 & o o

5, product availability.

6. Post-Purchase

Evaluation--outcome:

Satisfaction

or

Dissatisfaction. Cognitive Dissonance, have you made the right decision. This can be reduced by warranties, after sales communication etc. Buying behavior model

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

Gaining a better understanding of customers buying behaviour is based on knowing the following;

•

Awareness

•

Reasons for buying

•

How often do they buy

•

Current usage

•

Reasons for usage

•

What do they buy?

•

Where do they like to buy?

•

Where do they gather their buying information

•

Are they an exclusive customer?

Customer loyalty The term customer loyalty is used to describe the behavior of repeat customers, as well as those that offer good ratings, reviews, or testimonials. Some customers do a particular company a great service by offering favorable word of mouth publicity regarding a product, telling friends and family, thus adding them to the number of loyal customers. Ten ways to build customer loyalty: Communicate: - Whether it is an email newsletter, monthly flier, a reminder card for a tune up, or a holiday greeting card, reach out to the customers. • Customer Service: - Go the extra distance and meet customer needs. Train the staff to do the same. Customers remember being treated well. • Employee Loyalty: - Loyalty works from the top down. If managers are loyal to the employees, they will feel positively about their jobs and pass that loyalty along to customers. •

Employee Training: - Train the employees and interact with customers. Empower employees to make decisions that benefit the customer.

Customer Incentives: - Give customers a reason to return to business. Product Awareness: - Know what y steady patrons purchase and keep those items in stock. • Reliability: - If a purchase will arrive on Wednesday, deliver it on Wednesday. Be reliable. If something goes wrong, let customers know immediately and compensate them for their inconvenience. • Be Flexible: - Try to solve customer problems or complaints •

to the best of ability. •

People over Technology: - The harder it is for a customer to speak to a human being when he or she has a problem, the less likely it is that you will see that customer again.

•

Know Their Names: - Remember the theme song to the television show Cheers? Get to know the names of regular customers or at least recognize their faces.

Customer loyalty model

This model is developed by Schelsinger and Heskett (1991). In this model explains that effort spent in selecting and training employees and creating a corporate culture in which they are empowered can lead to increased employee satisfaction and employee competence. This will likely result in superior service delivery and customer satisfaction. This in turn will create customer loyalty, improved sales levels and higher profit margins.

Essentials of customer care 1)

Encourage

employees

to

deliver

high-quality

customer care.     

Make sure employees have good basic communication skills. Train employees in job-specific skills. Train all relevant personnel how to answer and deal with telephone calls. Make sure employees can handle complaints effectively. They should apologise, be sympathetic, listen, establish the facts, agree what to do and then do it

2)

Think of ways to make life easier for customers.

 Try to save the customer inconvenience.  Exceed your customers’ expectations.  Keep customers informed about any problems, and make it easy for them to contact  Use your website to give customers the services and information they want.

3) Use appropriate technology.

 A good database system can help you record, organise and plan your contact with customers.  Make sure information from your website can be transferred to your main database.  Contact management software may be a useful tool if you have a lot of high-value customer accounts.  Company will need to explain the advantages of the system to employees, and provide training and incentives for use.

4) Give customers a personalised service.

   

A common way to achieve this is by giving each customer an account manager. Personalise all communication. Personalise the email addresses of customer-facing employees If use computerised telephone systems, give customers the option of talking to an operator at any time.

Customer retention

Customer Retention is the activity that a selling organization undertakes in order to reduce customer defections. Successful customer retention starts with the first contact an organization has with a customer and continues throughout the entire lifetime of a relationship. A company’s ability to attract and retain new customers, is not only related to its product or services, but strongly related to the way it services its existing customers and the reputation it creates within and across the marketplace.

Customer retention rate: -- The customer retention rate refers to the number of customers lost over a period of time. It is normally calculated by the percentage of lost customers versus existing customers over a quarterly or annual period, without tallying new customer acquisitions Customer life time value Customer lifetime value enable an organization to calculate the net present value of the profit an organization will realize on a customer over a given period of time. Retention Rate is the percentage of the total number of customers retained in context to the customers that approached for cancellation.

Customer perception Perception is the process of selecting, organizing and interpreting information inputs to produce meaning. IE we chose what info we pay attention to, organize it and interpret it. Information inputs are the sensations received through sight, taste, hearing, smell and touch. •

Selective Exposure-select inputs to be exposed to our awareness. More likely if it is linked to an event, satisfies current needs, intensity of input changes (sharp price drop).

•

Selective Distortion-Changing/twisting current received information, inconsistent with beliefs. Selective Retention-Remember inputs that support beliefs, forgets those that don't.

•

Factors influencing perception

Factors

Factors in the

Attitudes

Factors in the perceiver

Factors in the situation

Motives Interest

Time Work setting

target Novelty Motions Sounds

Social setting

Size

Experience

ConsumerBehavior Definition: Consumer behavior refers to the mental and emotional process and the observable behavior of consumers during searching, purchasing and post consumption of a product or service. Consumerbehavior involves study of how people buy, what they buy, when they buy and why they buy. It blends the elements from psychology, sociology, socio-psychology, anthropology and economics. It also tries to assess the influence on the consumer from groups such as family, friends, reference groups and society in general. Buyer behavior has two aspects: the final purchase activity visible to any observer and the detailed or short decision process that may involve the interplay of a number of complexvariables not visible to anyone. Factors Affecting Consumer Behavior

Consumer buying behavior is influenced by the major three factors: 1. Social Factors 2. Psychological Factors 3. Personal Factors. Social Factors Social factors refer to forces that other people exert and which affect consumers’ purchase behavior.These social factors can include culture and subculture, roles and family, social class and referencegroups. Example: By taking into consideration Reference group, these can influence/ affect the consumerbuying behavior. Reference group refers to a group with whom an individual identifies herself/ himselfand the extent to which that person assumes many values, attitudes or behavior of group members.Reference groups can be family, school or college, work group, club membership; citizenship etc Reference groups serve as one of the primary agents of consumer socialization and learning and can beinfluential enough to induce not only socially acceptable consumer behavior but also sociallyunacceptable and even personal destructive behavior. For example, if fresher student joins a college /university, he/she will meet different people and form a group, in that group there can be behaviorpatterns of values, for example style of clothing, handsets which most of group member prefer or evendestructive behavior such as excessive consumption of alcohol, use of harmful and addictive drugs etc. So, according to how an individual references him / herself to that particular reference group, this willinfluence and change his/her buying behavior. Psychological Factors These are internal to an individual and generate forces within that influence her/his purchase behavior.The major forces include motives, perception, learning, attitude and personality.

Example: Attitude is an enduring organization of motivational, emotional, perceptual and cognitiveprocesses with respect to some aspect of our environment. Consumers form attitude towards a brandon the basis of their beliefs about the brand. Forexample, consumers of Sony products might have theb elief that the products offered by Sony are durable; this will influence those customers to buy Sony products due to this attitude towards the brand. Personal Factors These include those aspects that are unique to a person and influence purchase behavior. These factors include demographic factors, lifestyle, and situational factors. Example: Lifestyle is an indicator of how people live and express themselves on the basis of their activities, interests, and opinions. Lifestyle dimension provide a broader view of people about how they spend their time the importance of things in their surroundings and their beliefs on broad issues associated with life and living and themselves. This is influenced by demographic factors and personality. e.g. A CEO or Manager is likely to buy more formal clothes, ties and shoes or PDAs and less informal clothes like jeans as compared to a Mechanic or Civil engineer. So according to their lifestyle and profession, the buying behavior of people differs from one another.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY AND ANALYSIS INTERPRETATION

This are the frequencies of age groups

Vali 1 d 2 3 Tot al

Freque Percen ncy t 49 49.0 25 25.0 26 26.0 100

100.0

Cumulati Valid ve Percent Percent 49.0 49.0 25.0 74.0 26.0 100.0 100.0

Conclusion:In this age groups the major age quota is towards is15-25

Age

50

Frequency

40

30

20

10

0 1

2

Age

3

G ender

100

Frequency

80

60

40

20

0 1

2

G ender

In this 85 members are male towards the gender quota& 15 are only females are contributing towards this gender group

Crosstabs

AGE VS SATISIFACTION

satisfaction 1 Bar Chart 2 3 4

25

Count

20

15

10

5

0 1

2

3

Age

The above graph shows the major satisfaction towards is 1 age group people its between 15 to 25.so according to my view the companies should focus on early age groups that is students .companies can get more growth from this region.

Age * satisfaction Crosstabulation H0:There is a relation between age and satisifaction. H1:there is no relation between age and satisifaction Age * satisfaction Crosstabulation satisfaction 2 3 12 23 24.5% 46.9%

Total 4 1 11 49 22.4% 100.0%

50.0%

38.7%

52.3%

57.9%

2 8.0%

11 44.0%

8 32.0%

4 25 16.0% 100.0%

33.3%

35.5%

18.2%

21.1%

1 3.8%

8 30.8%

13 50.0%

4 26 15.4% 100.0%

16.7%

25.8%

29.5%

21.1%

6 6.0%

31 31.0%

44 44.0%

19 100 19.0% 100.0%

1 Age 1

2

3

Total

Count % within Age % within satisfaction Count % within Age % within satisfaction Count % within Age % within satisfaction Count % within Age % within satisfaction

3 6.1%

Pearson ChiSquare Likelihood Ratio Linear-byLinear Association N of Valid Cases

Asymp. Sig. (2sided)

df 6

.659

4.119

6

.661

.425

1

.514

100

25.0%

26.0%

100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0%

Chi-Square Tests

Value 4.133(a )

49.0%

a 5 cells (41.7%) have expected count less than 5. The minimum expected count is 1.50. Conclusion:H0 is accepted because it is less than significance level.therefore H1 is rejected. By this there is arelation between age and satisifaction towards the mobile service.

Service

VS

satisfaction

Bar Chart satisfaction

20

1 2 3 4

Count

15

10

5

0 airtel

bsnl

idea

reliance

tata indicom

vodafone

others

1 Service

Conclusion :The above graphs shows that customers

satisifaction towards airtel because the service provider quality network to the customers………

H0:There is a relation between service and satisifaction. H1:there is no relation between service and satisifaction

1 Service * satisfaction Crosstabulation 1 1 Servi ce

airtel

Count % within 1 Service % within satisfaction bsnl Count % within 1 Service % within satisfaction idea Count % within 1 Service % within satisfaction reliance Count % within 1 Service % within satisfaction tata Count indicom % within 1 Service % within satisfaction vodafone Count % within 1 Service % within satisfaction others Count % within 1

3

satisfaction 2 3 17 19

4 5

Total 1 44

6.8%

38.6%

43.2%

11.4% 100.0%

50.0%

54.8%

43.2%

26.3%

44.0%

1

2

6

4

13

7.7%

15.4%

46.2%

30.8% 100.0%

16.7%

6.5%

13.6%

21.1%

13.0%

0

7

11

5

23

.0%

30.4%

47.8%

21.7% 100.0%

.0%

22.6%

25.0%

26.3%

23.0%

0

3

0

1

4

.0%

75.0%

.0%

.0%

9.7%

.0%

5.3%

4.0%

0

0

3

0

3

25.0% 100.0%

.0%

.0% 100.0%

.0% 100.0%

.0%

.0%

6.8%

.0%

3.0%

2

2

5

3

12

16.7%

16.7%

41.7%

25.0% 100.0%

33.3%

6.5%

11.4%

15.8%

0 .0%

0 .0%

12.0%

0 1 1 .0% 100.0% 100.0%

Service % within .0% .0% .0% 5.3% 1.0% satisfaction Total Count 6 31 44 19 100 % within 1 6.0% 31.0% 44.0% 19.0% 100.0% Service % within 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% satisfaction Conclusion: In this satisfaction is towards airtel it contributes 44 customers towards this particular network

Chi-Square Tests

Value 24.461( a)

df

Asymp. Sig. (2sided)

Pearson Chi12 .018 Square Likelihood 25.351 12 .013 Ratio Linear-byLinear .154 1 .695 Association N of Valid 100 Cases a 13 cells (61.9%) have expected count less than 5. The minimum expected count is .25.

conclusion: H0 is accepted because it is less than significance level.therefore H1 is rejected. By this there is arelation between service and satisifaction towards the mobile service.

Age * 1 Service Crosstabulation

Bar Chart 1 Service

25

airtel bsnl idea reliance tata indicom vodafone others

Count

20

15

10

5

0 1

2

Age

3

__

Conclusion:In this age group major service is towards airtel and minor service towards is other networks. • 1 age group has major contribution is airtel and ideaminor is bsnl • 2nd age group has major contribution is airtel and bsnl minor is vodafone • 3rd age group has major contribution is airtel and idea minor is relaince.

Service vs brand

Bar Chart 1 Service

20

airtel bsnl idea reliance tata indicom vodafone others

Count

15

10

5

0 1

2

3

4

5

Education

_

Education vs service

6

_

Bar Chart satisfaction

20

1 2 3 4

Count

15

10

5

0 1

2

3

4

5

6

Education

_ _

Education vs satisifaction Education * satisfaction Crosstabulation 1 Educati 1 on

2

3

Count % within Education % within satisfaction Count % within Education % within satisfaction Count % within Education % within

0

satisfaction 2 3 1 1

Total 1

4 0

2

.0%

50.0%

50.0%

.0% 100.0%

.0%

3.2%

2.3%

.0%

2.0%

0

1

0

0

1

.0% 100.0%

.0%

.0% 100.0%

.0%

3.2%

.0%

.0%

1.0%

0

6

7

4

17

.0%

35.3%

41.2%

23.5% 100.0%

.0%

19.4%

15.9%

21.1%

17.0%

4

5

6

Total

satisfaction Count % within Education % within satisfaction Count % within Education % within satisfaction Count % within Education % within satisfaction Count % within Education % within satisfaction

3

3

5

2

13

23.1%

23.1%

38.5%

15.4% 100.0%

50.0%

9.7%

11.4%

10.5%

13.0%

1

13

20

8

42

2.4%

31.0%

47.6%

19.0% 100.0%

16.7%

41.9%

45.5%

42.1%

42.0%

2

7

11

5

25

8.0%

28.0%

44.0%

20.0% 100.0%

33.3%

22.6%

25.0%

26.3%

25.0%

6

31

44

19

100

6.0%

31.0%

44.0%

19.0% 100.0%

100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0%

Chi-Square Tests

Value 12.367( a)

df

Asymp. Sig. (2sided)

Pearson Chi15 .651 Square Likelihood 11.567 15 .711 Ratio Linear-byLinear .177 1 .674 Association N of Valid 100 Cases a 16 cells (66.7%) have expected count less than 5. The minimum expected count is .06.