Factors Affecting Customers’ Satisfaction Towards Services Provided by Telecom Sector: A Study of Haryana

Factors Affecting Customers’ Satisfaction Towards Services Provided by Telecom Sector: A Study of Haryana

Dr. Kapil Kumar1

1Assistant Professor, Department of Management Studies,

Bhagat Phool Singh MahilaVishwavidyalaya, Khanpur Kalan, Sonipat

1. INTRODUCTION

   The Reliance Jios introduction has changed the equation of Indian telecom industry. The Indian telecom industry is the worlds fastest growing telecom industry. It is also the second largest telecommunication network in the world in terms of numbers of wireless connection after china. India s leading Mobile Service operator, Vodafone has added a total of 3.68 million GSM subscribers which is the highest number of new mobile subscribers additions in the month of March 2011. Vodafones GSM subscriber base has now reached 134.5 million, as per the COAI data. After the launch of Mobile Number Portability in India, a few users had switched to new operators but the leading players have been attracting new customers as in the pre-MNP era. In total 14.5 million new GSM subscribers were added in March at a monthly growth rate of 2.61% taking the all- India GSM cellular subscriber base to 559.55 million. Among the GSM Mobile Service Operators, Bharti Airtel notched up 3.20 million new subscribers during the month, taking its total base to 162 million. Indias national telecom backbone and Pan India 3G Mobile service operator Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) added up 1.3 million new users in March-2011, taking its total subscriber base to 86.4 million. Idea Cellular Company added 2.7 million new customers, boosting its subscriber base to 89.5 million, while Aircel increased its base by over 1.3 million customers to take its subscriber base to 54.8 million. Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) added 20,720 new users during the month, boosting its total subscriber base to 5.19 million at the end of March,2011. Uninor, one of the youngest GSM operators in India has added 1.2mn GSM subscriber while Videocon added 5,41,877 subscribers The quality of service provided are directly proportional to the customer satisfaction and word mouth as each customer generally compares the tangible services with their own expectation and if the tangible one falls below their expectation, the customer generally is disappointed and that affects his loyalty towards the company.This paper aims to find the customers satisfaction level towards services provided by telecom sector in Haryana (India). Through this paper, we will know how the telecom companies provide various services

   to its customers and the customers reaction to these services. The customers feedback is taken by using questionnaire.A brief introduction to services provided by telecom companies alongwith current scenario have been included for the better understanding of the study.

2. LITERATURE REVIEW

   According to Kotler and Armstrong (2010) price is an amount of money charged for a product or service. Chakraborty and Sengupta (2014), Santouridis and Trivellas (2010) found pricing structure is one of the major determinants of affecting customer satisfaction for any organization to build a sustainable competitive differentiation. Customer satisfaction are normally measured based on the desired services and price level they are willing to pay for. Additionally, customer satisfaction is closely related with fair pricing on product or a service that leads to customer loyalty towards organization (Martin- Consuegra et al., 2007). Similarly, both price level and price fairness influences on customer satisfaction (Hermann et al., 2007; Malina Hanum et al., 2012).

   Wang and Lo (2002) studied cellular mobile services on service quality & concluded after sales services and network to be most important factors. Ranaweera and Neely (2003) studied and researched on the fixed line telephone services and their impact on service quality. This paper present ED a holistic model of customer retention incorporating service quality perceptions, price perceptions, customer indifference and inertia. Data from a large-scale postal survey of telephone users in England showed that perceptions of service quality have a direct linear relationship with customer retention even in mass services with low customer contact. Price perceptions and customer indifference too were found to have a direct linear effect on retention. Furthermore, it was also seen how both price perceptions and customer indifference moderated the relationship between service quality perceptions and customer retention. A linear relationship between inertia and customer retention was not found. Furthermore, there was evidence to indicate that inertia was a relatively unstable condition and that reliance by service providers on inertia to retain customers could indeed be a risky strategy. Kim, Park and Jeong (2004) studied cellular mobile

   services and expectations and perception of customers towards service quality & concluded innovation and network to be of prime importance. In the light of the preceding review of the studies carried out in this area, we find that there are very few studies focusing on a comparative analysis of services quality expectations and perceptions of customers of mobile service providers in the Indian context. So this study tried to compare the expectations and perceptions of customers of mobile service providers.

3. NEED FOR THE STUDY

   Since the use of telecom service provided by telecom companies play a major role worldwide and in india. In India, it has been introduced many years before, but there and then its use was only limited, through the study of various reviews I am keen to find the customers satisfaction towards telecom services in Haryana .

4. OBJECTIVES

   1. To study the demographic factors affecting customer satisfaction towards telecom services provided by telecom operators in Haryana.

   2. To analyse the impact of demographic factors affecting consumers satisfaction towards telecom services provided by telecom operators in Haryana.

5. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

   In this research paper descriptive study has been used. To achieve the objectives sample of 300 customers using telecom services was taken and the tool used to analyse data are SPSS and MS-excel. The data was collected from various region of Haryana using convenient sampling was done. The data was collected using primary data in the form of questionnaire that is filled by the customers. The secondary data was collected from internet and other resources.

6. DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS (HYPOTHESES TESTING)

   H1.1: Age of consumer significantly impacts on customers satisfaction towards telecom services.

   Table 1.1 Consumers Response Variations For satisfaction towards telecom services Across Different Age Groups

   ANOVA

   The results shows that Age as one of the variables of demographic factor does impact usage of e-banking services.

   H1.2: Gender of consumer significantly impacts on customers satisfaction towards telecom services

   Table 1.2 Consumers Response Variations satisfaction towards telecom services Across Different Gender Groups

   ANOVA

   td>

   		Sum of Squares	df	Mean Square	F	Sig.
   Network	Between Groups	25.074	3	8.358	32.04 9	.000
   	Within Groups	25.036	96	.261
   	Total	50.110	99
   Price (Tarrif)	Between Groups Within Groups Total	4.430	3	1.477	3.306	.023
   		42.880	96	.447
   		47.310	99
   Customer Support	Between Groups Within Groups	54.791 61.799	3 96	18.264 .644	28.37 1	.000
   	Total	116.590	99

   The results show that Gender as one of the variables of demographics factor does impact on customers satisfaction towards telecom services. The result may be documented to the reason that females are more impulsive buyers as compared to males and are more likely to be attracted towards the promotional schemes offered by the online retailers and therefore gender has a significant impact on frequently of on-line.

   H1.3: Education of consumer significantly impacts on customers satisfaction towards telecom services.

   	Sum of Squares	df	Mean Square	F	Sig.
   Network Betwee		3 96 99	10.772 .185	58.118	.000
   n	32.316
   Groups
   Within Groups	17.794
   Total	50.110
   Price(Tar Betwee		3 96 99	3.515 .383	9.178	.000
   rif) n	10.545
   Groups
   Within Groups	36.765
   Total	47.310
   Customer Betwee		3 96 99	25.441 .419	60.652	.000
   Support n	76.322
   Groups
   Within Groups	40.268
   Total	116.590

   Table 1.3 Consumers Response Variations satisfaction towards telecom services Across Different Education Groups ANOVA

   		Sum of Squares	df	Mean Square	F	Sig.
   Network	Between Groups	14.110	2	7.055	19.009	.000
   	Within Groups	36.000	97	.371
   	Total	50.110	99
   Price(Tarrif)	Between Groups	15.630	2	7.815	23.929	.000
   	Within Groups	31.680	97	.327
   	Total	47.310	99
   Customer Support	Between Groups	12.910	2	6.455	6.039	.003
   	Within Groups	103.680	97	1.069
   	Total	116.590	99

   H1.4: Occupation of consumer significantly impacts on customers satisfaction towards telecom services.

   Table 1.4 Consumers Response Variations satisfaction towards telecom services Across Different Occupation

   Groups

   ANOVA

   		Sum of Squares	df	Mean Square	F	Sig.
   Network	Between Groups Within Groups Total	4.402	2	2.201	4.671	.012
   		45.708	97	.471
   		50.110	99
   Price(Tarrif )	Between Groups Within Groups Total	4.900	2	2.450	5.604	.005
   		42.410	97	.437
   		47.310	99
   Customer Support	Between Groups Within Groups	4.145 112.445	2 97	2.073 1.159	1.788	.023
   	Total	116.590	99

   The results show that occupation as one of the variables of demographics factor does have any significant impact on customers satisfaction towards telecom services like Network, Price(Tarrif), Customer Support etc.

7. CONCLUSION

The results for consumers response from different demographics factors shows that gender does impact customers satisfaction towards telecom services. The overall results shows that the now people are perceiving towards using bankings electronic services like online transactions. This justifies the growth of online shopping market. The frequency of using telecom services may be less today but it is certainly increasing day by day. Specially after demonetization by Indian govt, use of e-services is bound to increase. Online shopping organizations need to understand this and can apply the relevant variables and factors to make strategies and tactics. The organizations can categorise the products on gender basis. The results can also be used by telecom companies to identify the target customer segments.

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