Professional Documents
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Report on-
Prepared for:
Prof. G. M. Chowdhury Chairperson, Internship & Placement Program Institute of Business Administration University of Dhaka
Prepared by:
Letter of transmittal:
Prof. G. M. Chowdhury Chairperson, Internship & Placement Program Institute of Business Administration University of Dhaka Subject: Letter of Transmittal Dear Sir: Please find attached the Internship report titled Customer Service as a Differentiator A Cross-Sectional Study of the Mobile Market of Bangladesh. This report is the culmination of my 12-weeks of internship at Grameenphone Ltd. My special gratitude to Prof. Nurur Rahman, Prof. GM Chowdhury and Mr. Ferdous Ahmed (my supervisor at Grameenphone), whose guidance helped me to complete this final chapter of MBA degree. For any further clarification, I will be more than glad to comply. With Regards & Sincerity,
Acknowledgement:
In preparing this report, support from a number of individuals were invaluable. Following few names, I must quote individually for special citationProf. Nurur Rahman My academic supervisor, whose guidance and care inspired me. Prof. GM Chowdhury Chairperson of Internship & Placement Program, who guided me about the pitfalls and key points of Internship well before the start of the Internship program. Mr. Ferdous Ahmed, Additional General Manager, CMD, Grameenphone Ltd. My organizational supervisor, who despite his over-demanded schedule, always found some time to advice & guide me in the right direction. A group of 20 young members of Grameenphone who helped me tremendously in completing my survey within a reasonable time. My sincere gratitude toward all of them. Besides, I must express my thanks to numerous academics and publishers whose papers I used to prepare the secondary analysis.
Table of Content:
Dhaka 1000..............................................................................................................................2 Letter of transmittal:...................................................................................................................3 MBA 38th (Evening) .................................................................................................................3 Acknowledgement:.....................................................................................................................4 Table of Content:........................................................................................................................5 1. Background of the Study:.......................................................................................................6 1.1 Findings of qualitative study.............................................................................................7 1.2 The big question:...............................................................................................................7 1.3 Rationale of the study.......................................................................................................8 1.3 Objectives of the Research................................................................................................8 1.4 Hypothesis.........................................................................................................................8 2. Executive Summary:...............................................................................................................9 3. Methodology:........................................................................................................................11 3.1 Scope:..............................................................................................................................11 3.2 Limitations:.....................................................................................................................11 3.3 Sampling type:................................................................................................................12 3.4 Sample size: ...................................................................................................................12 3.5 Field survey method: ......................................................................................................12 4. Contribution of research: .....................................................................................................12 5. Analysis techniques used:.....................................................................................................12 6. Findings & Recommendations:.............................................................................................13 6.1 Reliability:.......................................................................................................................13 6.2 Distribution of Sample....................................................................................................14 6.3 What is Quality Customer Service?................................................................................16 6.4 Relationship between Quality of Customer Service & Impression about Operator.......18 Correlations # 1.................................................................................................................18 Correlations # 2.................................................................................................................19 Correlations # 3.................................................................................................................20 6.5 Quality of Customer Service: Determining the Key Components..................................21 6.5 Quality of Customer Service Determines Degree of Customer Retention ....................22 6.7 Perceptual position of the four operators (in eyes of the customers):.............................24 7. Recommendations:................................................................................................................26 7.1 Limitations:.....................................................................................................................26 8. Conclusion:...........................................................................................................................27 Appendix:..................................................................................................................................28 Appendix- 1: Sample Structure ............................................................................................28 Appendix-2: Copy of Questionnaire.....................................................................................28 5
that one characteristic that sets the service apart from competitors. (Prof. Ferhat Anwar, Undated) Dimensions of Customer Service: Availability of product or service (to what extent products & services of a company are available) Lead time (difference between time of placing the order and delivery-time) variability System recovery (if something goes wrong, how quickly system can recover) Presence of shadow system [ability to cater to the specialized needs of favored customers] Availability of system information [includes, information availability, quickness, accuracy and completeness] Post sale support system [accessories, maintenance, follow-up etc.]
The Model
Availability
System information
1.4 Hypothesis
Ho: Quality of Pre- & Post-sale customer service has direct relationship with the retention rate of customers.
2. Executive Summary:
Findings from the study:
There was not reasonable ground to disprove the null hypothesis that quality of customer service directly related to the retention rate of a customer (time with an operator). In other words, Quality of customer service has reasonable relationship with the retention of customers. Besides, other key findings of the study are: Perception of customer service is strongly dependent on eight independent parameters - Ease of use and customer friendly, Cost effectiveness of customer service, Easy & cheap information about products & services, Behavior of customer service people, Lead time variability, Availability & reach of customer service points, Readiness to go the extra mile, Ease of access to customer service people Quality of customer service can help build positive impression about the operator in the perception of the customer Quality of customer service can help build loyalty and attachment within the customer. However, this relationship does not hold true if we try to incorporate timelength of subscription in the equation. As the correlation # 3 shows, people who have been longer with a particular operator have shown less favorable attitude about the respective operator The principal component analysis identifies the following 06 components to be consistent with the factor analysis (in order the importance): a) Ease of access to customer service people, b) Easy & cheap information about products & services, c) Cost effectiveness of customer service, d) Availability & reach of customer service points, e) Readiness to go the extra mile, f) Behavior of customer service people.
Recommendations:
Grameenphone should continue in its path to emphasizing customer service as a key differentiator while positioning itself apart from other operators. The key components while defining customer service are- a) Ease of access to customer service people, b) Easy & cheap information about products & services, c) Cost effectiveness of customer service, d) Availability & reach of customer service points, e) Readiness to go the extra mile, f) Behavior of customer service people. Appeal of a particular service might wear off with the length of time a customer sticks with a particular operator. So, Grameenphone should continue to redefine the 6-factors customer service with new features and facilities. On a more general note, the operator instead of concentrating on price basedcompetition should focus on a qualitative positioning. Otherwise they might soon find their profit base eroding rapidly. Grameenphone should identify customer service as a core competence area (in addition to network quality and value-based services) and continue build on that.
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3. Methodology:
3.1 Scope:
The primary scope is to find the answers to the specific objectives as described above The research will reflect the perception of mobile phone subscribers of Bangladesh The report will reflect the opinion of the respondents, and findings will be based on those sampled opinion The mobile subscribes living within Dhaka city have been taken as the sample frame of the study; however, the background of the study encompasses the whole mobile industry of Bangladesh. Only the subscribers of five operators (GP, Aktel, CityCell, BanglaLink and Tele Talk) have been considered for the study. Subscribers of any other fringe operators were not considered.
3.2 Limitations:
Sample sizes for Tele Talk and City Cell subscribers are short of the planned number (30); so any deductions based on these samples regarding Tele Talk and City Cell might not be statistically correct Many of the findings & concepts from the qualitative study could not be accommodated. Some of them (as following) were dropped from quantitative survey:o Development of new features in mobile packages o Role of pricing in customer perception etc. Customer service (a comprehensive construct) was replaced by 6 parameters product/service availability, lead time variability, availability of shadow system, system recovery time, availability of system information, and availability of post sales support service. Respondents of the quantitative survey have shown a tendency to over state the time for which they are using the current operator
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4. Contribution of research:
Individual: As a student of marketing, I am getting a hands-on learning in the pros & cons of research. Learning to apply the tools & techniques from classroom to the applied world of real-life business problems. Organizational: findings and learning from the study can be used by the mobile operators of Bangladesh to focus their attention to specific marketing issues like differentiation, competition and customer satisfaction. Society: Maybe the learning are minute and fraught with mistakes (of an apprentice), however, it will add to the total understanding of mobile service marketing in Bangladesh as very little have been done in areas of differentiation and per se.
Reliability of data Distribution of sample Quality of customer service Relationship between customer service & impression about operator Test of null hypothesis Key components for customer service
Cronbachs Alpha Descriptive statistics, graphs Regression model and ANOVA table Correlation Paired sample t-test and descriptive statistics Key component factor analysis
Cases
31 23.2 ed(a) Total 132 100.0 A List wise deletion based on all variables in the procedure. Reliability Statistics
Valid Exclud
Cronbach's Alpha Cronbach's Alpha .649 Based on Standardized Items N of Items .746 17 Scale Statistics Std. Mean 51.3619 Variance Deviation 49.5601 7.0399 N Items 17 of
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60
Reference numb er
40
20
Reference Category
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Reference Category
Aktel BanglaLink City Cell Grameenphone Tele Talk Pies show counts
Interpretation: As the above pie-chart shows, Grameenphone has clearly lead the
pack in terms of retaining their customers over the years followed by Aktel. On the other hand, BanglaLink has majority of their subscribers for less than 1 year. This fact is consistent with the core hypothesis, as Grameenphone has been spending heavily on customer service over the years; and currently has more than 600 customer contact points through out Bangladesh, which provides an edge over its competitors.
15
40
30
Percent
15-25 yrs 10 0 Aktel BanglaLink City Cell Tele Talk Grameenphone 26-35 yrs 35+ yrs
Reference Category
Interpretation: Both Aktel and BanglaLink have majority of their subscribers
coming from the age group of 15-25 year; where as Grameenphone has substantial number of customers who are older than 25 years this fact can have important implication regarding retention & loyalty as young people are generally more inquisitive and less loyal; and whenever any new offers come along they are the first to jump ship. 6.3 What is Quality Customer Service?
Customer Service, to the best of understanding, is a construct, which can mean both pre- & post- sales services. But, when customers talk about quality of service, they usually mean speed, convenience, availability and other related concepts. So, for our analysis, customer service has been replaced by the following 8 parameters or concepts: a) Ease of use and customer friendly, b) Cost effectiveness of customer service, c) Easy & cheap information about products & services, d) Behavior of customer service people, e) Lead 16
time variability, f) Availability & reach of customer service points, g) Readiness to go the extra mile, h) Ease of access to customer service people The following regression model tries to understand the strength and direction of relationship between these eight parameters (independent variables) and perception about customer service based on survey results. Model Summary Std. Error of R Adjusted the Square R Square Estimate Change Statistics R Square F Change Change
Mode l R
. 11 678( .460 .422 .729 .460 12.042 8 .000 3 a) a Predictors: (Constant), Ease of use and customer friendly, Cost effectiveness of customer service, Easy & cheap information about products & services, Behavior of customer service people, Lead time variability, Availability & reach of customer service points, Readiness to go the extra mile, Ease of access to customer service people ANOVA(b)
Model 1
Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig. 51.228 8 6.403 12.042 .000(a) 60.092 113 .532 111.320 121 Ease of use and customer friendly, Cost effectiveness of customer
service, Easy & cheap information about products & services, Behavior of customer service people, Lead time variability, Availability & reach of customer service points, Readiness to go the extra mile, Ease of access to customer service people b Dependent Variable: Overall impression about customer service of current operator
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Interpretation: From the above regression model, the R score (0.678) and the
level of significance imply perception of customer service is strongly dependent on eight independent parameters. However, there might be other factors (apart from these 8) to consider as the ANOVA table shows Residual values constitute a significant portion of the total sum of squares value. 6.4 Relationship between Quality of Customer Service & Impression about Operator
Mean Overall impression about current 3.18 operator Overall impression about customer 3.39 service of current operator Correlations
N 128
.968
127
Overall impression Overall impression about about current customer service of operator current operator Overall impression about Pearson current operator Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) N Overall impression about Pearson customer service of current Correlation operator 1 . 128 .591(**) .591(**) .000 126 1
18
Sig. (2-tailed) N
.000
. 127
about current operator and overall impression about customer service of current operator have strong correlation (0.591) and they are both unidirectional. Thus, it can said based on this analysis that quality of customer service can help build positive impression about the operator in the perception of the customer.
Interpretation: The following correlation tries to measure the degree of correlation between the variables feel love & pride to do business with current operator and overall impression about customer service of current operator. Result of this test also shows quality of customer service can help build loyalty and attachment within the customer (correlation score 0.548). However, this relationship does not hold true if we try to incorporate time-length of subscription in the equation. As the correlation # 3 shows, people who have been longer with a particular operator have shown less favorable attitude about the respective operator (negative correlation). Correlations # 2 Descriptive Statistics Mean Feel love & pride to do business with 3.13 current operator Overall impression about service of current operator customer 3.39 Std. Deviation .956 .968 N 128 127
Correlations
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Overall impression Feel love & pride to about customer do business with service of current current operator operator Feel love & pride to do Pearson Correlation business with current operator Sig. (2-tailed) N Overall impression about Pearson Correlation customer service of current operator Sig. (2-tailed) N 1 . 128 .548(**) .000 .548(**) .000 123 1 . 127
Feel love & pride to do business with current operator Feel love & pride to do Pearson business with current Correlation operator Sig. (2-tailed) N Overall impression about Pearson current operator Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) N Time with the current Pearson operator Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) N 1 . 128 .491(**) .000 125 -.278(**) .001 128
Overall impression Time with about current the current operator operator .491(**) .000 125 1 . 128 -.033 .710 128 -.278(**) .001 128 -.033 .710 128 1 . 132
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Sl 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08
Lead time variability Ease of use and customer friendly Behavior of customer service people Readiness to go the extra mile Availability & reach of customer service points Cost effectiveness of customer service Easy & cheap information about products & services Ease of access to customer service people
Interpretation: The principal component analysis identifies the following 06 components to be consistent with the factor analysis (in order the importance): a) Ease of access to customer service people, b) Easy & cheap information about products & services, c) Cost effectiveness of customer service, d) Availability & reach of customer service points, e) Readiness to go the extra mile, f) Behavior of customer service people. Thus, we can conclude a model for determining the quality of customer service: Customer Service = f (Ease of access to customer service people, b) Easy & cheap information about products & services, c) Cost effectiveness of customer service, d) Availability & reach of customer service points, e) Readiness to go the extra mile, f) Behavior of customer service people)
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Test of HypothesisHo: Quality of Pre- & Post-sale customer service has direct relationship with the retention rate of customers (time with current operator). Decision rule: If the mean value of the variable time with current operator is not significantly different from the mean value of variable overall impression about the current operator, then there is not sufficient ground to disprove the null hypothesis. Paired Sample t- Test: T-Test Variables compared= longevity with current operator and Overall impression about customer service of current operator
Paired Samples Statistics
Mean Pair 1 Time with the current 3.09 operator Overall impression about customer service 3.39 of current operator
Paired Samples Correlations
N 127 127
Pair 1
N Time with the current operator & Overall impression about customer 127 service of current operator
Correlation .022
Sig. .808
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Paired Differences Std. Error Mean 95% Confidence Interval of the Difference Low Upp er er
df
Sig. (2tailed)
Mea n
Std. Deviation
Pair 1
Time with the current operator Overall impression -.30 about customer service of current operator
1.696
.151
-.60
.00
-1.988 126
.05
Interpretation: The level of significance for T-test is low but not lower than the
critical point (0.05). The Lower and upper limit of the confidence interval contains zero among them. So, there is not enough evidence to disprove the null hypothesis. So, quality of customer service has reasonable relationship with the retention of customers. However, the correlation value of the paired sample variables show a weak (0.22) relationship among the two variables.
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6.7 Perceptual position of the four operators (in eyes of the customers):
[Ref:
Why Aktel is Different
Differentiation
in
Mobile
significant
number
of
the
respondents did not answer this question, while asked to differentiate Aktel from other operators based on a certain factor. This can lead to the conclusion that Aktel has failed to
50
40
30
y c n u q e r F
20
create any clear position in the perception of the customers. Apart from that- low call charge, 10-second
low er rat e
r se e vic
10
0
fea tur es &
ve Ad
h& wt ro tg fas t
v co
n ive tg no
r we lo e ic pr
tq ne
f er us
& facilities
e ag er &
en m se rti
lity ua
nd rie ly
offered by the operator (Aktel) has been cited as consistent factors with Aktel. (Fig-3)
nt me lop ve de
Similarly, regarding CityCell most of the respondents position for struggled the to delineate Most a of operator.
70
50
40
y c n u q e r F
30
20
(Fig-4)
10
0
low er r
e ic rv se
ate
ne tq ua lity
fea tu re s
nt me se rti ve Ad
v co
nt re fe dif
st de ol
M D C
n ive tg no
e ic pr er w lo
ls pu
e ag er &
&
e e ag
fa cil itie s
ck pa
24
Why GP is different
most of the respondents talked about the nation-wide coverage and higher quality of network for the operator. (Fig- 5) Regarding BanglaLink, respondents could not identify any one or two area
y c n u q e r F
80
60
40
20
0 not given lower price coverage & service lower rate different package net quality features & facilities
30
Why GP is different
speculate
that
BanglaLink
although
20
vibrant & dynamic had given away to many messages cluttering the perception of the customer; from and forming forcing any the clear customers
low er ra te fe a
th
15
y c n u q e r F
10 5
0
tu re s&
r ve Ad st fa re ffe di t no v gi en
w ne er m m co
ve no
gr
lty
e tis
ow
fa cil
Table: Perceptual position of the 4 operators (in customer mind) Area of Focus GP Aktel CityCell Service, Low price, 10- CDMA Coverage & Net secod pulse and technology Quality Features & lower rate facilities BanglaLink No clear & position
ck pa nt
m t en
itie s
& v de m op el t en
25
7. Recommendations:
Grameenphone should continue in its path to emphasizing customer service as a key differentiator while positioning itself apart from other operators. The key components while defining customer service are- a) Ease of access to customer service people, b) Easy & cheap information about products & services, c) Cost effectiveness of customer service, d) Availability & reach of customer service points, e) Readiness to go the extra mile, f) Behavior of customer service people. Appeal of a particular service might wear off with the length of time a customer sticks with a particular operator. So, Grameenphone should continue to redefine the 6-factors customer service with new features and facilities. On a more general note, the operator instead of concentrating on price basedcompetition should focus on a qualitative positioning. Otherwise they might soon find their profit base eroding rapidly. Grameenphone should identify customer service as a core competence area (in addition to network quality and value-based services) and continue build on that.
7.1 Limitations:
Lack of availability of the respondents forced the study to be completed with 132 sample elements rather than the initial 182 (stipulated). However, the researcher tried to meet the 30sample mark under each category of population. At the end, the sample was more or less representational of the population groups.
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8. Conclusion:
There was not sufficient ground to disprove the hypothesis that Quality of Pre- & Post-sale customer service has direct relationship with the retention rate of customers (time with current operator). In other words, customer service can give an edge to a particular operator over its competitors. Grameenphone already has some degree of perceptual positioning distinct from its competitors (in terms of customer service and network quality). However, the problem with any service is competitors can quickly catch up with ones position and emulate Grameenphones current offerings. So, the challenge is to redefine the basic concepts of customer service (a) Ease of access to customer service people, b) Easy & cheap information about products & services, c) Cost effectiveness of customer service, d) Availability & reach of customer service points, e) Readiness to go the extra mile, f) Behavior of customer service people) with innovative offers and facilities. Only, thus, Grameenphone can stay ahead of its competitors and create a differentiated position in terms of retaining its customers.
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Appendix:
62%
18%
15%
4%
1%
Aktel (30)
BanglaLink (30)
- The percentage amounts are respective market shares of different operators. - The base sample number was 100
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