Telecom Regulatory Authority of India publishes a quarterly report on The Indian Telecom Services Performance Indicators. The information contained in the report is collected from various telecom operators and service providers. TRAI collects performance-oriented data from various service providers on a quarterly basis to monitor the growth trend in the sector and to decide upon pro-active and suo motto measures to fuel the growth of the telecom services in the country. Also, in exercise of the powers vested in the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) under the TRAI Act, 1997, the Authority has been conducting periodical survey of the quality of basic and cellular telephone services provided by different telecommunication service providers all over the country. The survey also covers an assessment of the level of satisfaction with the services received by subscribers of these telephone service providers.
Few other agencies also do some scanty research in the area.
Despite the surveys conducted by TRAI, the present study was deemed necessary because of the following reasons: Performance indicators captured by TRAI, particularly the surveys conducted to assess the consumer satisfaction misses out on the multifaceted nature of consumer satisfaction and thus do not capture the status of consumer satisfaction holistically. The study gives a comprehensive assessment of the satisfaction of consumers encompassing quality of technical service, quality and operational aspects of gadgets; and social / psychological costs due to unsolicited promotional calls/SMSs etc.
Sometimes, the strategies of service providers / producers to ensure customer satisfaction by serving them in a better way or providing quality gadgets use to be based on erroneous theoretical and partially tested empirical postulates. The study aims to provide inputs to testify few of such postulates in order to provide the service providers / producers afresh insights on the consumer behavior. The aim of study was to objectively understand the behavior of mobile phone users in Delhi and further capture their satisfaction level that is influenced by various technical and non technical factors. Specific aspects to be studied were: Usage pattern in terms of purpose of mobile phones for various categories of consumers
Level of the satisfaction of users
Reasons for dissatisfaction
Level of satisfaction with gadgets and added services provided
Liking for various attributes of the mobile phone instrument
Usage Pattern of functionalities and added services provided The methodology to conduct the study was composed of different tasks as follows:
1. A review of literature on consumer satisfaction in telecom industry was undertaken in order to define the comprehensive scope of the study and ensuring its objectivity.
2. Empirical research was based on a stratified random sample survey, a series of structured interviews and few focus group discussions. The sample size of 562 for the survey was drawn from various categories of consumers and thus appropriate representation of all market segments was ensured. The length of survey questionnaire was kept optimum to avoid the psychological burden of responding for the sampled consumers. The information collected through survey was supplemented by conducting a few Focus Group Discussions with consumers in the all market segments. The questionnaires and other tools used for the empirical research are provided under Appendix 2.
3. Analytical Framework for the study is aimed at getting an insight in to the behavior of consumer by analyzing the data / information gathered through empirical research.
Major findings of the study are:
The satisfaction level of users was analyzed on a five point scale ranging from 'not satisfied' to 'fully satisfied'. Only 14 percent of the consumers say that they are fully satisfied with the services, while 6 percent responded as 'not satisfied'. A major group of consumers either say that they are 'almost satisfied' (43%) or 'average satisfied' (20%). 'Very less satisfied' plus 'not satisfied' combined together comes to 20 percent of the total consumers.
The major reasons cited for dissatisfaction are poor quality of signals (42%) and higher costs (38%). Poor quality of signals means unavailability of signals, call failure, call drop downs etc. Only 4 percent complaints about billing errors while 9 percent are not happy with the quality of customer care services being provided. Many respondents cited multiple reasons for dissatisfaction.
Users' feedback on likings for various attributes of the mobile phone instrument was recorded. Operational ease (53%) and price (22%) are two attributes most valued by the customers followed by looks of the handset (11%) and multiple functionalities (10%).
Major functionalities of the handset and other added services mostly used by the consumers are making and receiving calls, SMSs/MMSs, telephone diary and auto answering. The usage of other attributes that are being added and advertised by the handset manufacturers like camera, organizer, games, and radio etc. is quite less.
Seventy seven percent of the sampled consumers receive unsolicited calls while only seventeen percent of it feel happy on getting such calls. Out of the consumere who get such calls twenty three percent stays indifferent to such calls while thirty percent accepts that they get disturbed and feel irritated. Six percent gets very angry on receiving unsolicited calls.
On getting disturbed and irritated by unsolicited calls/SMSs, ninty three percent do not complain to 'customer care' and simply ignore the calls/SMSs. Only twenty eight percent of the consumers who approach customer care against the unsolicited calls/SMSs accept that such calls get discontinued on their request while sixty four percent say that calls continue to disturb them even after their request to discontinue. Eight percent intimated that unsolicted calls/SMSs get discontinued for some time in response to their request, but the same start pouring in after a time lag.
Besides other things, there are two major questions that emerge from this study:
Is it proper to feed the customers randomly with unsolicited promotional calls/SMSs? Why not to segment the market on the basis of socio-economic attributes of the consumers and target the promotional calls to various segments as per their taste / usefulness as well as convenient hours of the day? Can such mechanism to target the promotional calls/SMSs generate more revenue to the service providers and provide useful information on products to the consumers who welcome it? Need is to explore this further
Is the technology trajectory followed by the producers of mobile phone gadgets is justified by the needs of the market? This study reveals that a very small segment of the market weigh in favour of the features like camera, games, radio etc. embedded with the mobile phone instruments and a hefty amount is spent by producers to advertise such attributes of the gadgets. Majority of consumers value the attributes like 'operational ease' and price of the gadgets most. Does this finding is an indication to the requirement of a rethought on the technology trajectory for the mobile phone gadgets?
For Research Report on the study, please click here. |
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