Abhinav
International Monthly Refereed Journal of Research In Management & Technology
Volume II, January’13

ISSN – 2320-0073

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION AND EXPECTATION
TOWARDS AIRCEL: A RESEARCH CONDUCTED IN
WEST MIDNAPORE
Debarun Chakraborty
Sr. Lecturer, NIPS School of Management (NIPS Group), Kolkata
Email: debarun84@gmail.com

ABSTRACT
The present study is aimed to determine the customer satisfaction & expectation towards a telecommunication company in West Midnapore which is a district of West Bengal. A descriptive study was conducted to achieve the objectives. In total 250 respondents filled a well-structured questionnaire having a list of statements pertaining to products, services & facilities provided by the service provider. Results reveal that the dimensions which influence the satisfaction level of customer’s are: Core services (like good coverage, good connectivity and network quality) and call rate. Further results show that there is a significant relation between the brand name and the preference of customers. Hence, it has been recommended that telecom companies should focus on connectivity, call rate, coverage and network quality.
Keywords: Customer Satisfaction & Expectation, Customer Preference, Product Quality,
Value for Money, Analysis of Strengths & Weaknesses of the Product.
INTRODUCTION
The breathtaking growth of the telecommunication companies in India over the last twenty years has made a history. The economic resurgence affected in the early 1990s brought around a paradigm shift on the overall business scenario of India. With the arrival of private telecommunication companies in India, the industry observed introduction of mobile phones into the Indian market and it became extremely popular amongst the Indian masses.
India's telecom sector has shown huge expansion in the recent years in all respects of industrial growth due to liberalization in Government policies after 1991. Removal of restrictions on foreign capital investment and industrial de-licensing has allowed various private players to enter into the Indian telecommunication market.
The Indian telecom market is regulated by Telecommunication Regulatory Authority of
India (TRAI) which acts as an independent regulator was set up in 1997 by the Indian
Government. Despite several controversies, the TRAI has earned a reputation for transparency and competency. Today two types of mobile phone service providers operates in the Indian market, they are •

Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM)

•

Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA)

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Abhinav
International Monthly Refereed Journal of Research In Management & Technology
ISSN – 2320-0073

Volume II, January’13

Presently India has nearly 200 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 the world. Three types of service providers exist in the Indian telecommunication sector, like the following • State owned companies like - Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd, Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd.
• Private Indian owned companies like - Reliance Infocomm and Tata Teleservices.
• Foreign invested companies like - Vodafone, Bharti Tele-Ventures, Idea Cellular,
BPL Mobile, Spice Communications etc.
This project has been carried out to study the scope of Aircel with an aim to popularize & meet the expectation level of the consumer. Research activities with the help of wellstructured questionnaire have been carried out to interact with the customers for their feedback and also concentrated on a comparative study of Aircel with its competitors through direct interview method. The project also covered the opinion of the distributors and dealers among with different types of customers of different industrial sectors and households. Due to increasing competition among various players allowed the prices drastically down by making the mobile facility accessible to the urban middle class population, and to a great extends in the rural areas.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Meeting and exceeding expectations of clients and customers is a perspective that has gained most attraction. This concept is all inclusive and cuts across service domains, but expectations change and experiences with alternate service providers could shape the customers’ expectations. The important research gap here is attaining customers’ expectation towards a particular service. A gap is the difference, imbalance or disparity which is determined to exist between customers’ perception of firm performance and their prior expectation. Service quality (SQ) perceived by customers is therefore as a result of a comparison of customers’ expectation (E) of services that the organization should offer versus their perception of the performance (P) delivered by the service organization.
Service Quality (SQ) = Customer’s Perception (P) – Customer’s Expectations (E).
Management of service quality largely focuses on managing the gaps between expectations and perceptions of customers. The goal of the firm is to minimize the gap between (P) and
(E).
In this context, Leonard L. Berry and A. Parasuraman (1991) showed that inspired leadership, a customer-centered corporate culture, exceptional service-system design and perfect use of information and technology are vital for attaining superior service quality and service marketing.
Ruth M. Bolton and James H. Drew (1991) developed a model of how customers with prior experiences and expectations assess service performance levels, overall service quality and service value.

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Abhinav
International Monthly Refereed Journal of Research In Management & Technology
ISSN – 2320-0073

Volume II, January’13

Pratibha A. Dabholkar (1993) iterated that customer satisfaction and service quality are both important tools for creating competitive advantage. However, there is a lack of consensus on whether the two are separate constructs and how they should be measured.
Bepko (2000) says that among the areas which need to be addressed in service quality research is the nature of consumer expectations across the range of intangibility.
Carsten Fink et al. (2001) examined the liberalization of the basic telecommunications sector in Asian countries in their research paper for World Bank, with a view to identify the elements of good policy and examine how it can be promoted through multilateral negotiations. Maran et al. (2004) studied the consumer perceptions about fixed telephone lines in Chennai.
The objectives of the study was (1) to find the most influencing factor in selection of service provider, and (2) to measure customer perception and satisfaction as regards the service provided. Shanthi (2005) throws light on the telecommunications market of India (post privatization) in the scenario of falling prices, hyper-competition and increasing attrition rates. The author provides a predictive churn model for telecom segment, to allow a qualitative insight for understanding the structure and methodology of churn management in the Indian telecom sector, and also discusses the level of applicability of such models in the Indian context.
Seth et al (2008) analyzed that there is relative importance of service quality attributes and showed that responsiveness is the most importance dimension followed by reliability, customer perceived network quality, assurance, convenience, empathy and tangibles.
Customer satisfaction is a personal feeling of either pleasure or disappointment resulting from the evaluation of services provided by an organization to an individual in relation to expectations. Service providers frequently place a higher priority on customer satisfaction, because it has been seen as a prerequisite to customer retention. As a positive outcome of marketing activities, high customer satisfaction leads to repeat visitation to stores, repeat product purchases, and word-of-mouth promotion to friends, while low customer satisfaction has been associated with complaining behavior. A satisfied customer often stays loyal longer, and is likely to patronize the firm in future. Customer satisfaction can be conceptualized as either transaction-specific satisfaction or cumulative satisfaction.
Transaction-specific satisfaction is a customer’s evaluation of his or her experience and reactions to a specific company encounter. Cumulative satisfaction refers to customers overall evaluation of patronage experience from inception to date.
The literature reviewed above indicates major inadequacies in the areas like
•

Identifying the expectation-satisfaction gaps in the telephone services provided in
Indian Telecommunication industry.

•

Identifying the difference in the expectation and satisfaction levels of users of different service providers in India.

SCOPE FOR FURTHER RESEARCH
Telecommunication industry is the fastest growing industry in India. For this reason so many companies are also entering into this market segment .Naturally there are various scopes are still there for further researches. That is why the further research scope in respect of www.abhinavjournal.com 116

Abhinav
International Monthly Refereed Journal of Research In Management & Technology
ISSN – 2320-0073

Volume II, January’13

customer perception & satisfaction, brand awareness of the product, maintaining customer relationship and competitors’ analysis needs to do subsequently.
The researchers are not only conducted the research for the purpose of finding the problem but also find their corresponding remedies for the purpose of effective functioning of the organization. AIRCEL, is a big organization in telecommunication segment, has got lot of customer base for many years. Nowadays it is mandatory that an organization remains accustomed to changes and continuous development for the purpose of survival of the organization and also for maintaining the growth. Based on this background, this research will include data collection and methodology through interviews and direct observation as a tool to identify the specific problems within the organization and trying to find out the subsequent remedies for this.
RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
The key objectives of the study are:
•

To determine the consumer of cellular services.

•

To determine the influencers who are mainly influencing the consumers to buy a particular service provider.

•

To determine the usage of various service providers in the Kolkata market.

•

Competitor analysis in Kolkata market with the help of consumer preference.

•

Feedback from the consumers about the services provided by AIRCEL.

•

Overall response from the consumers about the company to judge the satisfaction level of the consumers of AIRCEL.

•

Consumers’ expectation from a particular service provider.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research is a common parlance refers to a search for knowledge. Here the research methodology followed is descriptive research. It includes surveys and fact-finding enquiries of different kinds. The descriptive research design must make enough provision for protection against bias and must maximize reliability.
The sample size for the study is 250. The sample unit of the study included different occupation, age, income and educational background. For the study in hand, both the primary and secondary data is collected. The primary data for the study is collected directly from target respondents through structured questionnaire and personal interviews. The secondary data for the study is collected from different sources such as technical and trade journals, articles, newspapers, magazines, internet, periodicals, books, reports, publications of associations related to mobile phone service providers. With the help of the questionnaire
I have collected the data through simple random sampling. Then I analyzed the outcomes by the answers provided by the respondents and based on the result I have made the analysis report. I have used the Percentage Analysis Method with proper charts/diagrams and weighted average method to complete the analysis report successfully. www.abhinavjournal.com 117

Abhinav
International Monthly Refereed Journal of Research In Management & Technology
ISSN – 2320-0073

Volume II, January’13

Percentage Analysis Method: Simple percentage analysis method refers to special kind of ratio. With the help of absolute figures, it will be difficult to interpret any meaning from the collected data, but when percentages are found out, and then it becomes easy to find the relative difference between two or more attributes.
Percentage = No. of Respondents/Total No. of Respondents x 100
The data collection methods, which are used for this project, are explained below.
•

Collection of data through questionnaire: This method of data collection is quite popular, particularly in case of big enquiries. In this method, the concerned person himself fills a questionnaire. A questionnaire consist of a number of questions printed or typed in a defined order on a form or set of forms. In the project the main source of collecting data was through questionnaire. For this purpose questionnaire was designed and filled by individuals.

•

Interview: The interview method of collecting data involves presentation of oralverbal stimuli and reply in terms of oral-verbal response. There are two methods of interview-personal interview and telephonic interview. Interview with the help of questionnaire was carried on with individuals. A lot of telephonic interviews were also performed in which the response was average due to time constraints.

Sampling Plan
The sampling technique, which I have used, is Random Sampling. For the survey, I have selected some areas like Midnapore town, Belda, Khargpur, Chandrakona town,
Chandrakona road, Garbeta, Balichalk as universe and the samples are randomly chosen from the universe. The sample size is 250.
Fieldwork Plan
•

I have made the questionnaire for the survey.

•

Then I personally visited some areas in West Midnapore like Midnapore Town,
Belda, Kharagpur, Chandrakona Town, Chandrakona Road, Garbeta and Balichalk.

•

I filled up the questionnaire through personal interview for both retailers and customers. •

I have also collected the opinion of the prospects without the help of company’s database. I have randomly chose people and tried to get their honest opinion.

•

Then after getting 250 responses, analyze the outcomes by different tests and based on the result I have made the analysis report.

Assumptions
During the entire project some assumptions are being made to simplify the task by reducing the variable factors as for as practicable. Some of the assumptions are as follows:
•

The information gathered through the survey is authentic.

•

The sample size taken for the research work is small which may not represent the actual population.

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Abhinav
International Monthly Refereed Journal of Research In Management & Technology
Volume II, January’13

ISSN – 2320-0073
•

The study was limited to only in Midnapore Town, Belda, Kharagpur, Chandrakona
Town, Chandrakona Road, Garbeta and Balichalk

•

The effect of any media has not taken place on the person’s opinion till the analysis and the computation of the report.

All the consumers were not very cooperative at the time of providing the information.
ANALYSIS & DISCUSSION
1. Age wise Usage of Service Provider
Age Group
60 Years
Total

No. of Respondents
15
55
52
48
30
15
13
11
7
4
250

Percentage
6%
22%
21%
19%
12%
6%
5%
4%
3%
2%
100%

AGE GROUP
2% (4)

4% (11)

3% (7)

5% (13)