Volume 2, Number 1, January–March’ 2013 ISSN (P):2279-0977, (O):2279-0985

International Journal of Applied Services Marketing Perspectives © Pezzottaite Journals 310 | P a g e

A STUDY OF CUSTOMER SATISFACTION IN BIHAR TELECOM CIRCLE

Md. Mahmood Ul Farid1

ABSTRACT

Customer satisfaction is very important concepts that companies must understand if they want to remain competitive and

grow. In today’s competitive environment customer satisfaction is a positive effect on an organization’s profitability. Satisfied

customers form the foundation of any successful business as customer satisfaction leads to repeat purchase, brand loyalty, and

positive word of mouth. The aim of this research is to apply the Kano model in the context of telecommunication in Bihar to

describe how customers perceive service quality and whether they are satisfied with services offered. A random survey was

conducted to the customer of telecommunication in Bihar. From the analysis carried out, it was found out that the overall

customers were not satisfied with service.

KEYWORDS

Customer Satisfaction, Kano Model, Telecom, Bihar etc.

INTRODUCTION

In today’s competitive environment delivering high quality service is the key for a sustainable competitive advantage. Since

subscriber base in India is increasing manifold and the country has emerged as the fastest growing telecom market in the world.

Competition is huge in the industry. Customer satisfaction has a positive effect on an organization’s profitability. Satisfied

customers form the foundation of any successful business; since customer satisfaction leads to repeat purchases, brand loyalty,

and positive word of mouth. There are numerous studies that have looked at the impact of customer satisfaction on repeat

purchases, loyalty and retention. Kotler (2000) defined satisfaction as: “a person’s feelings of pleasure or disappointment resulting

from comparing a product perceived performance (or outcome) in relation to his or her expectations”.

KANO MODEL OF CUSTOMER SATISFACTION

The Kano Model of Customer Satisfaction classifies service attributes based on how they are perceived by customers and on how

they affect customer satisfaction. The Kano Model was developed in the 1980’s by Professor Noriaki Kano. His simple ranking

scheme distinguishes between essential and differentiating attributes related to concepts of customer quality.

Chart-1

Sources: Authors Compilation

Kano determined that attributes of services are divided into three categories: a) Threshold Attributes (Basic Attributes), b)

Performance Attributes, and c) Excitement Attributes. When developing Customer Satisfaction Survey, these three attributes are

critical points to consider and review when determining the specific questions and level of detail in questionnaire.

Threshold Attributes

Threshold attributes are the basics of the product or service. In telecom voice calling and short messaging services is called basic

requirements. Putting extra effort into improving these basics might yield diminishing returns, in terms of customer satisfaction.

However, if any of the basic necessities are missing, it will produce strong customer dissatisfaction.

Performance Attributes

Performance attributes are those for which more is better. Improving these attributes contributes to improving customer

satisfaction. An absence of these attributes, or reduction in performance, will reduce customer satisfaction. In telecom voice

quality, network quality and availability, would all be considered performance attributes.

1Research Scholar, University Department of Commerce and Business Administration, T.M. Bhagalpur University, Bihar, India,

mahmood.mba@gmail.com

Volume 2, Number 1, January–March’ 2013 ISSN (P):2279-0977, (O):2279-0985

International Journal of Applied Services Marketing Perspectives © Pezzottaite Journals 311 | P a g e

Excitement Attributes

Excitement attributes are unexpected by customers and can result in high levels of customer satisfaction. Because they are not

expected, absence of these extras does not lead to dissatisfaction. In telecom VAS could be called excitement attributes. Over

time, excitement attributes are added to more and more competing products and services, and become mainstream performance

attributes. Over more time, some performance attributes become threshold attributes, as the marketing of products and services

strive to keep ahead of the competition.

METHODOLOGY USED IN STUDY

In order to answer the core of the research problem, Customer Satisfaction with Service Quality of Telecom Sector, the

information from the customer perspectives play an important role. Quantitative data collection methods were used to collect all

the necessary data needed for answering the core research questions and problems of the research. Therefore, a structured

questionnaire was conducted with the close-ended questions to customers of the telecom sector in Bihar. All the findings were

collected from the Primary data which is collected from the use of questionnaires. In this study structured questions were used to

collect data from respondents. The survey questions should find respondents’ feelings about overall customer satisfaction,

satisfaction for dimensions service quality, and the importance of service quality dimensions. In order to measure the overall

satisfaction of customers with products and services of telecom service providers, the score was derived from the following

questions, each rated on a different 1-5 scale:

1. How did you rate Customer care services of your service provider?

2. How did you rate Message service of your service provider?

3. How did you rate Network of your service provider?

4. How did you rate Voice clarity of your service provider?

5. How did you rate Value added services of your service provider?

6. What is your overall satisfaction with your mobile service delivery?

CALCULATION OF SATISFACTORY SCORES

The respondents were asked to state their level of satisfaction relating to their service provider. Based on their responses the

satisfaction score obtained by each respondent was found out. A five-point Likert scale and five different scores were used to

represent the five-point scale: 1= Very Dissatisfied, 2 = Dissatisfied, 3 = Neutral, 4 = Satisfied, 5 = Very Satisfied.

1. Concerning customer care services respondent had to answer the research question:

Rate your customer care satisfaction level of your service provider.

2. Concerning network quality respondent had to answer the research question:

Rate your network quality satisfaction level of your service provider.

3. Concerning message service quality respondent had to answer the research question:

Rate your message service quality satisfaction level of your service provider.

4. Concerning availability respondent had to answer the research question:

Rate your availability satisfaction level of your service provider.

5. Concerning voice quality respondent had to answer the research question:

Rate your voice quality satisfaction level of your service provider.

6. Concerning Overall Customer Satisfaction respondents had to answer the research question: Rate your overall

satisfaction level of your service provider.

Customers must have been satisfied or unsatisfied with their perception of services. Thus, the hypothesized test value in our study

is 4 and it can split customers into satisfied and unsatisfied. In this way the null hypothesis could be specified as follow:

1. Null hypothesis Ho: μ ≥4 “Customers are satisfied with Customer care service quality”.

2. Null hypothesis Ho: μ ≥4 “Customers are satisfied with network quality of their service providers”.

3. Null hypothesis Ho: μ ≥4 “Customers are satisfied with message service quality”.

4. Null hypothesis Ho: μ ≥4 “Customers are satisfied with availability of their service provider”.

5. Null hypothesis Ho: μ ≥4 “Customers are satisfied voice quality of their service providers”.

6. Null hypothesis Ho: μ ≥4 “Customers are satisfied with over all service quality of their service provider”.

One Sample ‘T’ Test was used to analyze customer expectation. The one-sample t test shows whether a mean of a single variable

differs from a specified constant.

Table-2: One-Sample Statistics

N Mean Std. Deviation Std. Error Mean

Customer Care Rating 99 2.97 .984 .099

Network Rating 100 3.48 .979 .098

Message Service Rating 93 3.06 1.041 .108

Availability Rating 100 3.57 .795 .079

Voice Clarity Rating 100 3.52 .835 .083

Satisfaction Level Rating 100 3.48 .990 .099

Sources: Authors Compilation

Volume 2, Number 1, January–March’ 2013 ISSN (P):2279-0977, (O):2279-0985

International Journal of Applied Services Marketing Perspectives © Pezzottaite Journals 312 | P a g e

The one-sample statistics table shows the mean, the standard deviation, and the number of participants in each condition.

Table-3: One-Sample Test

Test Value = 4

95% Confidence Interval of Difference

t Df Sig. (2-tailed) Mean Difference Lower Upper

Customer Care Rating -10.417 98 .000 -1.030 -1.23 -.83

Network Rating -5.309 99 .000 -.520 -.71 -.33

Message Service Rating -8.670 92 .000 -.935 -1.15 -.72

Availability Rating -5.411 99 .000 -.430 -.59 -.27

Voice Clarity Rating -5.751 99 .000 -.480 -.65 -.31

Satisfaction Level Rating -5.254 99 .000 -.520 -.72 -.32

Sources: Authors Compilation

As shown in Table 3, service scores had negative value, which means that service quality was not close to the service quality that

satisfies customers. Therefore, the null hypothesis was rejected, that means that customers were not satisfied with service quality.

Table 3 also indicates that the p-value .000 is lower than the significant level .05, denoting that there is a significance difference

between customer satisfaction with service quality, and service quality delivered.

Therefore, we can conclude that:

1. Customers are not satisfied with Customer care services provided by their telecom service provider.

2. Customers are not satisfied with Network provided by their telecom service provider.

3. Customers are not satisfied with Message Service provided by their telecom service provider.

4. Customers are not satisfied with Availability of their telecom service provider.

5. Customers are not satisfied with Voice Clarity of their telecom service provider.

6. Customers are not satisfied with overall services provided by their telecom service provider.

7. Customers are not satisfied with overall services provided by their telecom service provider.

CONCLUSIONS

Customer supports are the mandatory for the service organization and in this study customers are satisfied from the support

services, touch points, speed of complaint processing, friendliness while reporting complaints. Price which is understood very

critical to measure the satisfaction level, has been found significant with the customer satisfaction.

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