ePROCEEDINGS FOR 2011 INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH CONFERENCE AND COLLOQUIUM Contemporary Research Issues and Challenges in Emerging Economies

DETERMINANTS OF CUSTOMER CHURN BEHAVIOR ON TELECOM MOBILE

Ms. Rajewari, P.S Asst. Prof., School of Management, SRM University, Kattankulathur psrajee_2003@yahoo.co.in Dr. Ravilochanan, P Professor, School of Management, SRM University, Kattankulathur ravilochanan@gmail.com ABSTRACT Mobile telecommunications customers are becoming more mobile every day, cancelling contracts and switching providers at the first sign of discontent. Customer churn happens to be the most challenging issue for mobile industry irrespective of their rapid growth. The rate of attrition with regard to the subscribers are also growing vibrantly and the churn rate (i.e. the rate at which a subscriber switches his/her operator) is expected to exceed 59% in 2013 from the current rate of 53%.Churn rate increases pungently in parallel to the growth of mobile subscribers. As churn cuts across all areas of an organization, the key to successfully reducing customer churn lies in adopting holistic, modular approach. Customer retention, therefore, is becoming critical to retain customer base. In this regard it is essential to infiltrate the basis for switching of the mobile users in India. KEYWORDS- Churn management ,Telecom analytics, Customer value, customer lifecycle analysis, Market Basket analysis, Customer profiling, Data mining, customer focus groups, Mind mapping, up selling, cross selling, switching cost INTRODUCTION Back ground: The Indian telecommunications Industry is one of the fastest proliferating sectors in the World and India is projected to be the second largest telecom market globally by 2011. Indicators are clearly representing the increased competition and that induced the customers to hop for low cost 1 options . This in turn entangled with disloyalty and as the industry saturates, it become imperative for the mobile operators to shift their focus from rapid acquisition strategies to strategies which helps to maintain and enhance margins from existing customer base. The highly competitive scenario is characterised by mobile users switching cellular providers. While teenagers are attracted by goodies such as free SMS, for executives it is the free long distance minutes and value-adds. Though gaining new customers is good news for any telecommunications, the flip side is the loss of customers or churn, in industry parlance. So mobile companies are putting churn management systems in place, which helps to predict the behaviour of fickle customers. In simple terms churn refers to customers cancelling their existing
1

http://www.destinationcrm.com/Articles/Web-Exclusives/Viewpoints/The-Secret-toSuccessful-Customer-Analytics-43814.aspx

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ePROCEEDINGS FOR 2011 INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH CONFERENCE AND COLLOQUIUM Contemporary Research Issues and Challenges in Emerging Economies

contract only to embark on a relationship with a competing mobile service provider. Cut-throat competition has ensured that there is not much difference between the tariff plans offered by different mobile operators. This is where customer service and value-added services come into play. If an operator doesnt anticipate market needs or does not provide value -added services offered by the competitor, then the customer is likely to churn. It is highly critical for every telecom marketer to reckon customer profile, customer lifecycle and customer values through proper Customer Analytics and to sustain their Data warehouse. Impact of the problem Though many service industries are affected by the churn phenomenon, the problem is extremely acute in the telecom industry, with customers joining and quitting in short periods. According to research firm Gartner, Indias churn rate is anywhere between 3.5 percent to 6 percent per month, one of the highest in the Asia-Pacific region. Considering that the cost of acquiring a new customer is as high as Rs 3,000, the losses are immense. Other dimension of the problem, the mobile operators have to update their technology to remain in the market, which warrants continuous investments. Investments in turn depend on the revenue from the business. If the customer churn keep on going at an alarming rate, then the mobile operators will be constrained to limit their expansion plans and advancement of technology. Over a period of two years, it will pose a threat to the business itself. Customer churn and its significance Research is all about Customer churn analytics focusing on Indian cellular market, is a process by which data from customer behaviour is aggregated and analysed to gain customer mind map, enabling each business to help make better and quicker business decisions. This information is used by the cellular businesses for direct marketing and customer relationship management. Recent statistics depicts very high churn in this Industry, is mainly rooted by the Youth segment Hence this study of customer analytics is mainly focusing on Youth segment. It facilitates to assess the Customer profitability index and Customer lifecycle. Customer analytics enables an operator to gain a better understanding of the variables that influence customer churn. It enables the mobile operators to understand which customer is likely to leave and why, which in turn can help the company take the necessary measures to counter it. Extract of customer analytics provides the telecom company with a sliced and diced view of the customer base, thereby empowering it to treat each customer differently as per needs. The customer attributes typically considered in a churn analysis can be broadly categorised into customer demographics, contractual data, technical quality data, billing and usage data and events-type data. The Predictive information enhances the cross selling and upselling process and also for Hybrid channels. Subject Area As the main focus is to identify the determinants of churn behaviour of the customers, data relating to customer profile, level of satisfaction, customer loyalty and their buying behavior with regard to mobile telecom providers are used.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY Problem Focus Mobile operators are constrained by the customer churn. This is inspite of introducing various new schemes with customer-friendly features which assure customer benefits. With the cost of

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operations becoming a challenge, the increasing role of TRAI enforcing discipline among the operators in terms of rates and regulation on operation, each mobile operator need to evolve strategies to arrest churn rate. For this purpose, the operators have to understand and identify factors which influence the customer churn. As is always said the primary task of every business is not only to find new customers, but most important is to retain the existing customers. Hence, study of churn rate will enable the mobile operators to design and implement strategies to achieve a higher rate of customer retention. Research purpose The purpose of this research is to perform customer analytics for churn behavior by identifying the operational factors that are influencing customer buying behavior, level of satisfaction and loyalty with regard to Indian Mobile telecommunications. Research Objective Recent trend line shows the growth and prospects of youth marketing and especially in the field of Telecommunications, they are marking tremendous development. In any business, the fundamental rule is to retain the young customers, as that will ensure continuous business. When indicators are highlighting very high churn rate in this Youth segment, the mobile operators have to regularly assess the situation to protect their business. Hence this Research focuses on Youth segment to help the operators to evolve suitable strategies to maintain a healthy customer retention. Hence this research has the following objectives : 1. To analyze the behavior pattern of Mobile users with respect to Youth segment. 2. To identify the factors influencing the customer churn with respect to Indian mobile operators. 3. To determine the level of customer satisfaction with regard to their perceived product quality, services and values. Research Design Research design adopted for this study is Exploratory type of research. Data collection The research uses both Primary and Secondary data. Primary Data Survey method was adopted for collecting the primary data. Questionnaire was designed in the structured objective pattern, focusing on the Research objectives. Findings of the survey were also cross verified through informal interviews with the mobile users. Secondary Data The secondary data had been collected from the earlier Research findings, scholarly reports, telecommunication reports, respective marketing departments of mobile operators and through the different sources of literature such as journals, , articles etc. Sampling plan
2

http://www.mobileyouth.org/post/mobileyouth-tv-4/

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Simple Random sampling has been adopted by the researcher Sample size To get a cross section scenario, the targeted respondents were classified in to three age group segments, Totally 200 respondents are selected within the age group of 18 to 34. (Of this 113 belonged to the age group 18- 23, 81 respondents were from the age group 23 to 25 and remaining 6 were above the age of 25). The sample distribution indicated that majority of the respondents belong to the youth segment [18 -25 yrs]. RELIABILITY & VALIDITY Reliability Reliability is the consistency of a measurement. Through SPSS package, reliability was tested. The value of Cronbach alpha was 0.782 indicated the reliability of the questionnaire was satisfactory. Validity Internal and external validity were checked with the respective sources and every hypothesis is backed by questions in the questionnaire so that they could be tested and measured. Pilot study The questionnaires were distributed to 30 of the samples to determine the research directives. Process of data analysis SPSS 18.0 for basic statistical analysis combined with Excel was used. Chi square method was applied for testing the hypothesis. For determining the level of satisfaction of the respondents, weighted average method was used. Multiple regression technique was also used to identify the factors influencing the customer loyalty and churn behaviour. In linear regression, the model specification is that the dependent variable, yi is a linear combination of the parameters (but need not be linear in the independent variables)., n data points there is one independent variable: xi, and two parameters, 0 and 1:

List of Variables taken for the determining the factors influencing customer loyalty and churn behavior: Totally 9 Dependent variables and 13 Independent variables are taken for the analysis and they 3 are , Dependent variables:1. Service quality-quality of phone calls(Y1) 2. Service quality-quality of SMS (Y2) 3. Service quality-quality of network (Y3) 4. Service quality-quality of convenience & reliability(Y4) 5. Service quality-quality of service centre and hotline(Y5)
3

www.bth.se/.../How%20to%20Promote%20Customer%20Loyalty

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6. Service quality-Advertisement(Y6) Independent Variables:1. Satisfactory level over performance-in general(x1) 2. Satisfactory level over performance-customer services(x2) 3. Satisfactory level over performance-billing system /RCV(x3) 4. Satisfactory level over performance-tariff rates(x4) 5. Satisfactory level over performance-call connectivity(x5) 6. Satisfactory level over performance-network coverage(x6) 7. Satisfactory level over performance-subscription easiness(x7) 8. Satisfactory level over performance-SMS, MMS, VAS(x8) 9. Satisfactory level over performance-offers, discounts(x9) 10. Satisfactory level over performance-internet services(x10) 11. Satisfactory level over performance-ringtones, caller tones(x11) 12. Satisfactory level over performance-social responsibility(x12) 13. Satisfactory level over performance-ad and other promotional activities(x13) In accordance with the extensive analysis on review of literature, the factors are listed below for testing the hypothesis to identify their association. The operational definitions and variables are summarized and represented below for the validation of research hypotheses. Table-1 Operational definition and measurement of variables Variable Operational definition (Research hypotheses) Call quality Customer Satisfaction Perceived quality(H1) SMS quality Network quality The convenience and reliability of Inquiring phone fee system Perceived quality(H2) service Service quality of service center and hotline customer Rating price of given quality Advertisements about corporate image social responsibility product Coverage of area Measurement Variables

Perceived value(H3)

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Demographic profile(H4) Demographics

Gender Income Mobile Experience

Definition and testing of research hypotheses Operational variables are conceived as per the earlier research findings. Perceived product quality (H1) that can be measured by Call quality, Coverage of area, SMS quality and Network quality . Perceived service quality (H2) can be measured by the convenience and reliability of Inquiring phone fee system and Service quality of service center and hotline. Perceived customer value can be measured through Rating price of given quality, the Advertisements about corporate image and their involvement on social responsibility. H0 1: There is no significant relationship between customer loyalty and perceived product quality. H0 2: There is no significant relationship between customer loyalty and perceived service quality. H0 3: There is no significant relationship between customer loyalty and perceived customer value. H0 4: There is no significant relationship between customer loyalty and demographic profile of the respondents. Statistical tools Descriptive statistics, data reduction tools, hypothesis testing tools, association and variation detection techniques. DATA ANALYSIS Findings Data analysis was performed using SPSS 18.0 .The hypotheses formed above were tested using Chi square method and results are summarized below.

Table 2 Results of Hypotheses tested Null Hypotheses H0 1: There is no significant relationship between Chi square value Result

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customer loyalty and perceived product quality Call quality Coverage of area H01 SMS quality Network quality H0 2: There is no significant relationship between customer loyalty and perceived service quality The convenience and reliability of Inquiring phone fee system H02 Service quality of service center and hotline 104.350* 106.700* Ho Rejected 255.800* 160.550* 196.300* 114.000* All null rejected hypotheses

H0 3: There is no significant relationship between customer loyalty and perceived customer value.

H03

Rating price of given quality Advertisements about corporate image Social responsibility

167.950* 117.500* 132.200* relationship Ho Rejected

H0 4:

There is no significant

between customer loyalty and demographic profile of the respondents. Gender HO4 Income level Mobile Experience *at 0.05 significance level Source: Primary data 32.000* 39.050* 667.550* Ho Rejected

From the above table it is very clear that all the null hypotheses are rejected and so alternative hypotheses are accepted. It has been proved that customer perception on quality, services and values of the mobile service are influencing their buying behavior and creating impact on customer loyalty. Moreover gender, income, customization of the respondents also found significant in sustaining the loyalty. So Marketers need to closely monitor youth attitudes towards media, products, shopping, health, career, relationships and technology. Hence the option is participative marketing campaign to understand their perception on product attributes. Marketing

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campaigns should have functional, educational and emotional components built-in to successfully to persuade the youth. Having clarified the relationship among the selected variable the next was to ascertain the level of satisfaction of customers over the mobile service provided for mapping their mind. The following table portrays the level of satisfaction of the respondents.

Table 3 Frequency table represents the level of satisfaction of the respondents with respect to the various aspects of the Mobile telecommunications. Highly satisfied 13.0% somewhat satisfied 36.5% Highly Dissatisfied 3.0%

Factors Customer services In General BillingRecharge vouchers AD & Promotional activities social Responsibility Tariff plans call connectivity Network coverage Subscription Easiness Value added services Offers and discounts

Satisfied 37.0%

Dissatisfied 10.5%

16.5%

55%

25.5%

1.5%

1.5%

21%

56.5%

18.5%

2.5%

1.5%

15% 13.5% 9% 18.5% 18.5% 9.5% 17.5% 15%

43% 40.5% 36% 45% 48% 44.5% 56% 43% 10.5% 38%

29.5% 31% 42.5% 30.5% 24.5% 36.5% 19% 29.5% 26.5% 38%

8.5% 12.5% 9% 6% 7% 6.5% 5.5% 10.5% 41% 9.5%

4% 2.5% 3.5% 0% 2% 3% 2% 2% 18% 0.5%

Ringtones and caller tones 4% Internet services 14% Source: Primary data

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From the above it is inferred that majority of the respondents have not been satisfied with the above mentioned features of operators and it is imperative that the Telecom Operators have to design the innovative promotional strategies for persuading the youth segment to attain the higher level of satisfaction The next step was to identify the determinants of customer churn in the mobile industry. For this purpose first a basic study of the churn rate over the past five years was undertaken. The detailed are furnished in Table 4

Table 4 Circle wise Churn base of Mobile segment from 2011 to 2007 Churn in 2011( in Crs) 0.11 0.005 0.03 0.08 0.15 0.01 0.09 0.005 0.11 0.06 0.04 0.10 0.10 0.07 0.005 0.03 0.07 0.12 0.12 0.11 Churn in 2010( in Crs) 0.10 0.003 0.03 0.07 0.13 0.01 0.08 0.003 0.07 0.04 0.08 0.08 0.09 0.06 0.003 0.03 0.06 0.11 0.11 0.10 Churn in 2009( in Crs) 0.04 0.002 0.01 0.05 0.04 0.02 0.03 0.002 0.06 0.003 0.003 0.14 0.07 0.003 0.002 0.06 0.03 0.11 0.03 0.13 Churn in 2008( in Crs) 0.04 0.001 0.04 0.03 0.06 0.02 0.15 0.001 0.06 0.002 0.002 0.13 0.06 0.002 0.001 0.05 0.03 0.10 0.03 0.12

Circle wise Operators Andhra Pradesh Assam Bihar Delhi Gujarat Himachal Pradesh Haryana J&K Karnataka Kerala Kolkotta Madhya Pradesh Maharashtr a Mumbai North East Orissa Punjab Rajasthan Tamil Nadu UP East

Churn in 2007 ( in Crs) 0.02 0.001 0.00 0.02 0.04 0.00 0.02 0.001 0.03 0.01 0.001 0.02 0.02 0.02 0.001 0.00 0.02 0.02 0.02 0.02 0.01 0.01

UP West 0.05 0.05 0.04 0.04 West Bengal 0.04 0.04 0.03 0.03 Source: Secondary data, Extracted from TRAI report 2011 to 2007

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From the above table it is clear that the mobile churn is increasing along with the growth of subscription. In 2010-2011, the churn base is very crucial because of the implementation of 4 Mobile Number Portability . According to an estimate in 2011, one in five of the worlds mobile owning youth will live in India a market that if considered as a standalone country would be larger than the entire population of the US. The growth curve in revenues, however, takes a different shape; youth mobile spend will plateau in 2012 as the market becomes saturated in the 5 20-29 age group . Coupled with the knowledge on churn rate behaviour, a number of key facts have emerged from the analysis of churn rate in the past studies. These are summarized as under. 1. India is the worlds biggest mobile youth market (based on activations) with 281 million accounts (compared to China with 255 million) 2. The Indian youth mobile market is valued at $21 billion. 3.1 in 5 mobile owning youth will live in India by 2011 4.. The mobile youth market in India has reached saturation. Mobile penetration among 20-24 year olds in India crosses 100% in 2010. Penetration rates among 25-29 year olds will cross 100% in 2011. Indian Operators lose $6 Billion from Youth Churn and in 2010 as a result of switching, inactivity and secondary accounts. Nearly 145 million mobile youth accounts will be churned in 2010 and Indian Mobile Youth Revenues Plateau at $24 Billion. 6 . Indian Youth mobile spend will plateau in 2012 as the market becomes saturated in the 20-29 age group. ARPU of $6.5 for mobile youth in India is well below China's $10 figure. About 281 Million Mobile Youth are in India; Mobile Youth in India will spend $7.7 billion on data in 2010 as per an estimate. 7. In 2010, operators will earn $7.7 billion from data usage by mobile youth in India. By 2012, 6 youth in India will spend more than $9 billion on mobile internet usage . Table 5 Critical Decelerators Influencing Customer Churn Rank I II III IV V VI VII Decelerators Ringtones and caller tones Social Responsibility Customer services AD & Promotional activities, Tariff plans, Offers and discounts Internet services Subscription Easiness Network coverage

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telecommunications_Statistics_in_India"
http://www.mobileyouth.org/post/281-million-mobile-youth-india/ ibid

5 6

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IX X XI XII

Value added services call connectivity Billing-Recharge vouchers In General

Source: Primary data As the topic of the research is focusing on customer churn, the list of factors involved in customer dissatisfaction are percolated and ranked as per their percentage of influence. Hence the above mentioned table has been developed and extracted from T able 3. Respondents expressed their higher level of dissatisfaction on one particular factor called Caller and ring tones. As this survey is on Youth segment, Mobile service providers have to concentrate this factor for tapping this segment .They can come out with varieties of ringtones with promotional schemes as like Recharge vouchers to impress with the youth segments. Telecom operators have to improve customer relationship design in a better way to establish their interest on social responsibility and to render robust customer care services. It is better to implement social awareness program and rural welfare campaigns for building Corporate Telecom marketers have to improvise their performance in the areas of Internet services, and in promoting the Tariff plans effectively through certain offers. They can mind map their customers and based on that they can come out with differentiated marketing strategies in designing their tariff plans. They have to strengthen their portfolio on customer services. Recent market survey indicates 97.3% of customer churn 7 happens due to poor customer services . They have to strengthen them to enhance their Network connectivity. The secondary data had been collected from the previous Research findings, scholarly reports, telecommunication reports, respective marketing departments and through the different sources of literature such as journals, articles etc. Multiple Regression Step 1:-Performed correlation, by taking each one of the dependent variables with all the Independent variables and list of Independent variables extracted from the correlation matrix whose value was below 0.5. This is mainly due to avoid multi-collinearity among the predictor variables, as these extracted Independent variables are subjected to Multiple Regression analysis. Step 2:-By performing Multiple Regression for each Dependent variable, the list of Independent variables are selected as per their statistical significance Regression Equation 1 Y1 = 3.355 - 0.172*X1 (t =2.618) - 0.120 .663) + 0.103
NS NS NS

X2 (t=-1.945) + .028

NS

X3( t = .402) + 0.044

NS

X4 ( t =
NS

X5 (t = 1.405) +. 0169* X6 (t = 2.557) - 0.101 X9 (t = 1.504) - 0.009

NS NS

NS

X7( t = - 1.615) + 0.055 X8 (t =

2

0.898) + 0.091

X10 (t = - 0.150) + 0.110* X11 (t = 2.069) + - 0.012 F=2.933** ,R =0.170

X12 (t = - 0.184) + 0.050

X13 (T = 0.855) + 0.363

Interpretation:It is very Clear that service quality of Phone calls is influenced by three independent variables namely Satisfactory level on Overall performance (X1), Network coverage (X6) and on Ringtones (X11). Thus For every unit of change in Satisfactory level on Overall performance, Network coverage and on Ringtones influences, the service quality of phone calls by 0.172,0.169 and 0.110 units respectively. Obviously when the service quality improves, the customers would
7

www.mobileyouth.org

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prefer to retain the connection. When a customer buys a connection his minimum expectation is that network coverage should be good and he also considers the type of ringtones should also be novel. By attending to these expectations of the customer, it is possible for the operators to improve their customer loyalty rate. Regression Equation 2 Y2=2.417+0.096
NS

X1
NS

(t=1.357)
NS

0.075 X2
NS NS

NS

(t=-1.127)

0.056
NS

NS

X3

(t=0.750)

+
NS

0.169*X4(t=2.381) - 0.020 X8 (t=3.720) + 0.029

NS

X5 (t=-0.253) + 0.019

X6 (t=0.261) - 0.161* X7 (t=-2.394) + 0.245** X11 (t=-1.306) + 0.099

2

X9 (t=0.436) + 0.070

X10 (t=1.028) - 0.075

X12 (t=-1.445) + 0.010

X13 (t=0.152) + 0.393

F=3.307**,R =0.188

Interpretation:The above regression equation captures the statistically significant factors which together influence the service quality of sms [Y2] Among the variables included for the analysis only 3 turned out to be statistically significant viz., tariff rates (X4) subscription easiness(X7) SMS, MMS, VAS(X8) It is interesting to note that X 4 has a positive coefficient. The expected coefficient is negative implying that the customers would not favour increase in tariff rate for getting service quality. But in the current equation, the positive coefficient clearly indicate that the customers are prepared to accept even higher tariff rate if the service quality is good. So with every unit increase in tariff rate improves the service quality of sms by 0.169 unit. Another way in which this could be understood is that if the operators enjoy the customer approval for higher tariff rate, they can improve the service quality. One more observation is that as the operators make the subscription payment easy, the service quality of sms goes down. Actually the expected symbol for the coefficient is positive, but it is negative and statistically significant in the current equation. This means, when the payment of subscription becomes easy, more customers enrol but if correspondingly the network coverage does not improve the service quality of sms goes down. Hence the operators should not merely address the subscription related issues, but also the primary factor like network coverage. It could also be noted with every unit increase in the SMS. MMS and VAS offer, the service quality of sms improves by 0.245 units which helps to retain the customers. Regression Equation 3 Y3=2.055-0.108
NS

X1 (t=-1..332) - 0.072 X5 (t=0.728) - 0.042

NS

X2 (t= -0.944) + 0.066

NS

NS

X3 (t=0.790) + 0.0269** X4
NS

(t=3.331) + 0.065 0.080) - 1.41

2 NS

NS

NS

X6 (t=-0..521) - 0.079*X7 (t=-1.030) - 0.006

X8 (t= NS

X9 (t=-1.896) + 0.469** X10 (t=6.094) - 0.044

NS

X11 (t=-0.667) + 0.043

X12

(t=0.551) + 0.095

X13 (t=1.340) + 0.446

F=5.488**, R =0.277 Interpretation:Service quality of Network is influenced by satisfactory level on Internet services by the tariff rates, since for every unit of change in the satisfactory level of internet services inducing 0.4 units of change in the service quality of network. As has been already stated, the customers would not mind paying more tariff for improving the service quality of network. Hassle free connection, uninterrupted connectivity, high speed downloading support, etc., would go a long way improve the service quality of internet services, though this can happen only at a higher tariff rate. It could be noted that with every unit increase in the subscription easiness, the service quality of the network goes down by 0.079 units. This is because, the easiness of subscription motivates more customers to buy the connection, but if the operators do not correspondingly improve the network delivery, the service quality of network would go down. Similarly the service providers have to focus on the extent and range of internet services so as to exploit the advantage of

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improving the service quality of the internet services. The equation indicates that every unit increase in the satisfaction level of internet service adds to the service quality of the network by 0.469 units. Regression Equation 4 Y4=1.648 -0.016 X1(t=-0.170) +0.048 X2(t=0.547) +0.354**X3(t=3.673) -0.001 X4(t=0.014) 0.032 X5(t=-0.307) 0.072 X9(t=0.850)
NS NS NS NS NS NS NS NS

-0.013 X6(t=-0.139) +0.215*X10(t=2.443)

-0.038 X7(t=-0.428) -0.047 X11(t=-0.622)

NS

-0.034**X8(t=-0.401) +0.145 X12(t=1.625)

NS

+ -

0.060 X13(t=-0.737) +0.511 F=3.244**, R2=0.184 Interpretation:From the Equation it is clear that every unit increase in the satisfaction level of billing service will improve the Service quality of convenience and reliability by 0.354 units. This clearly underscores the customers expectation about the accuracy, timely delivery, break up of all details connected with the usage, realization of the earlier bills paid by the customer, etc By addressing these aspects in billing service it is possible for every service provider to improve the service quality of convenience and reliability. The billing system should also provide for redressal of customer grievances and complaints so that the satisfied customers would retain their connection. Provision of support like sms, mms, vas, etc. help every customer to get the best from the mobile connection. But if the service quality of this service is poor, the service quality of convenience and reliability suffers, as is evidenced by this equation. With every unit increase in satisfaction level of sms, mms, vas cause a 0.401 unit decline in the service quality of convenience and quality, as the operators do not improve their network coverage and related factors along with the improvement in the offer of sms, mms, vas. This is only confirming the finding earlier. The next statistically significant factor is satisfaction level of internet services [X10] This variable has a positive impact on the service quality of convenience and reliability as every unit increase in it adds to service quality of convenience and reliability by 0.215 unit. Regression Equation 5 Y5=1.559 -.120 X1(t=- 0. 235) + .325**X2 (t=3.626)
NS NS NS NS NS NS NS

+ 0.116

NS

X3 (t=1.162) + 0.038
NS NS

NS

X4

(t=0.395) +0.108 X5(t=1.015) -0.199 X6(t=-2.078) -0..039*X7(t=-0.435) + 0.084 X8(t=0.945) 0.009 X9(t=-0.105) +0.079 X10(t=0.865) +0.034 X11(t=0.434) +0.014 X12(t=0.150) +

0.141 X13(t=1.678) +0.528 F=3.920**, R2=0.215 Interpretation:One of the essential requirements to achieve a higher service quality level of the service centers and hotline support is customer service. It is well known that in products like mobile operation a number of customer contact point exists. Right from the sale of connection, sale of mobile phones, complaint redressal, customer counselling, etc, customer contact is crucial. Customers in India expect that the service centre of the mobile operator should be available nearby their residence or office. Mere availability of the service centre is not sufficient. To what extent the people manning the counters in these service centres and the type and quality of customer service offered there will determine the ultimate customer retention or churn. In the above equation, every unit increase in satisfaction level related to customer service improve the service quality of service centres and hotline by 0.325 units. Once an operator realizes this, he / she should be careful in training the customer service personnel and improve the breadth and depth of service offering. Added to this, the quality of service centre is also impacted by subscription

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easiness as shown by this equation. Though a positive sign is expected, the presence of negative coefficient indicates that any poor satisfaction level in subscription easiness, will cause a decline in service quality of service centre and hotline support. Hence, the operators need to address the issues connected with the satisfaction of subscription easiness so as to fully exploit the vantage location of service centres and hotline. *at 0.05significance level ** at 0.01 significance level NS-Not Significant Interpretation with results: Customer analytics indicate the path way for the Indian Mobile for increasing the customer loyalty and to turn around the churn rate. For that Indian mobile operators should: (1) Keep their good performance on quality of phone call, coverage, quality of SMS and pay attention on these three areas because they are in the first level of customer rating which means they have great importance on customer loyalty. (2) Improve their performance on customer service, advertisements about corporate image, inquiring phone fee system and corporate social responsibility and pay more attention on customer service. (3) Develop the effective Customer Retention strategy to reduce the churn and to sustain the customer base. CONCLUSION The telecom industry, especially the mobile industry of India is undergoing a transformation and the number portability is bringing about imperatives worthy enough to carry out high-end research. This study is one such attempt to enhance the exposure on customer analytics and it is also expected to facilitate the marketers to design the essential operational parameters for designing the retention strategies and to enhance Customer Experience management.

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