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Term paper of Consumer Behaviour

On the topic

“Student perception
towards Airtel Customer
Care Services”

Submitted to:-

Mr. Ajay Chandel

Lecturer LSB
LPU Phagwara

Submitted by:-

Ahmad Mustafa
Roll No. RR1801A16
Reg. No. 10811688
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Course: MBA 3rd Semester

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Table of contents

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY...............................................3
INTRODUCTION........................................................4
LITERATURE REVIEW.................................................5
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY.........................................9
HYPOTHESIS..........................................................10
DATA ANALYSIS & INTERPRETATION..........................11
FINDINGS..............................................................25
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS......................25
ANNEXURE............................................................26
QUESTIONNAIRE...............................................................26
REFERENCES.........................................................29
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Executive summary

This project has been done on the permission of Mr. Ajay Chandel. The topic was also
assigned to me by him as “student perception towards Airtel customer care services”. I
selected the university campus as the location of my project. A structured questionnaire was
filled by 30 students of LSB who were using Airtel mobile services. Since the place of
project was known to me being the student here as well, i consulted the respective faculty
member who guided me at all steps with humble approach as good as a best friend. I would
like to thank Mr. Ajay sir who supported me while drafting and designing the Questionnaire.
There were lot of constraints faced while filling questionnaire but i managed the situations
and completed my project successfully.

The literature review articles were wholly downloaded from different websites where as
much focus was devoted towards primary data which was collected through questionnaire.
After collecting the data from 14 questions comprising questionnaire, i used my data analysis
and interpretation skills through MS Word And MS Excel Application Software’s of MS
Office 2007.

At the end of this project i gave some important conclusions and recommendations based on
my research.

Ahmad Mustafa
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Introduction

Type A Public company, Listed on BSE

Founded In 1985
Headquarters At New Delhi, India
Key people CEO Sunil Mittal
Industry i.e. Telecom
Products Both Mobile & Fixed-Line Telecommunication
operator
Revenue above $6 Billion
Slogan Express Yourself
Website visit: www.airtel.in

Promise:-
“To help the customer as quickly and as efficiently as possible at
first point of contact by email directly, useful telephone numbers,
quick links to store locations, payment centres and much more.”
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Literature Review

The Company Bharti Airtel is divided into 3 business units that are:
• Broadband & Telephone (B&T) services
• Enterprise services
• Mobile services

For decades, companies relied on push marketing to sell their products and services. Then in
the 1990s, the emphasis shifted to relationship marketing, as “customer care” and slogans
like “delight your customers” became the mantra of many marketers. But those tactics have
been loosing their effectiveness, innovative companies are now trying a different approach:
they are providing customer with open, honest, and complete information (Glen L. Urban,
1984).
To exist and flourish in the today’s competitive market a company needs to have a basis of
competitive advantage. The search for and nourishment of such advantage may be found in
superior products that customer value, by effective cost or differentiation strategies or
financial aptitude Customer satisfaction and service quality should be entrenched within the
chapter principles of a business. This value enables an organisation to distribute the services
to the client in a strategic and an incorporated approach, and in a sustainable manner. Over
the past decade, the nation has moved into a service economy, and organizations everywhere
are becoming customer focused and customer driven.
However since customer satisfaction has become a significant determinant as an element of
assessing an organization performance. It was first found in Sweden in 1992, with the
establishment of the Swedish customer satisfaction index. Other developments have taken
place in Germany, USA, UK, and gradually world wide awareness has been shown.
Customer service is a gradually becoming more and more significant focuses for
administration attention, since it generates wealth for the company by adding together at the
same time value for the customers (Christopher, 1992; LaLonde et al., 1994).
Firms are now aware of the need to preserve their existing customer and to create customer
loyalty but first there is a need to make a clear terminology. Customer may be loyal because
of the absence of substitutes, or due to of some incentives but, given real and more numerous
competitive alternatives; loyal customers are best achieving by delivering customer
satisfaction. Customer satisfaction can be measured but it is not a management activity.
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Rather, it is a measure of customer awareness to marketing stimuli in a known competitive

environment. Customer service can be defined as a seller initiated attempt which has value
for the buyers, therefore growing customer satisfaction and encouraging patronage and
loyalty. This definition has been reflected in the literature as customer service has changed
from an action to a procedure and business beliefs (Bill Donaldson, 1995).
The various mobile service industries are trying to attain greater customer satisfaction by
focusing on the quality of their products and services supplied. Maintaining a uniform
level of customer satisfaction is not easy task, it involves observing and calculating
multiple, as well as simultaneous moment of truth for each and every consumer. Figure
illustrates all the key elements which influence customer satisfaction in an organization.
Now a days Researchers and practitioners has given a significant amount of attention to the
service quality in an organization It has been defined as a type of an approach, associated but
not corresponding to satisfaction. This results from the evaluation of probable service levels
with perceived performance (Parasuraman et al., 1998; Bolton and Drew, 1998; Cronin
and Taylor, 1998).
In short, customers enter a consumption experience expecting a positive level of service.
Throughout that consumption experience, they monitor genuine service performance. The
customer’s subjective assessment of how well (or badly) that actual performance compares
to probable performance results in the perceived service quality. There is substantial proof
that service quality works as an antecedent to customer satisfaction. In addition, it should be
noted that the high levels of consumer satisfaction leads to better consumer loyalty.
According to Parasuraman outstanding service is a lucrative strategy, as it results in
additional new customers, smaller amount lost customers, more trade with existing one,
smaller number mistakes requiring the re-performance of services and more insulation from
price competition. Profit impact of market strategy (PIMS) research has pointed out that the
companies that present better-quality of service are able to charge 8 per cent more for their
services, while attaining higher than normal market share growth and profitability.
Therefore, offering better-quality service can help the companies to become more cost-
effective and helped them to sustain a competitive advantage in their supplied markets.
However, prior to service up gradation programs are introduced, present service quality
levels needs to be dealt with (Berry, 1999). These judgments should identify the strengths
and weaknesses of the service quality at present being delivered. Furthermore, approaches
concerning how to distinguish through enhanced service quality that is to achieve a
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competitive advantage, involves evaluating quality assessments to those of competitors,

(Berry and Parasuraman, 1999).
Such a contrast offers a strategic lens by helping to create priorities for the improvement
of the service quality as well as categorizing which service quality attribute to highlight in
distinguishing the company’s service offer. In today’s competitive environment, the search
of service quality is now considered to be an essential business strategy. Nowadays,
contributing a better-quality product is no longer satisfactory, as companies in the new era
compete on a much broader platform. An outstanding product is no longer the ticket to
global market supremacy, but merely the entrance fee to compete. Quality of service in a
cellular industry market is likely to become especially prevalent as the global economy
becomes increasingly service oriented with competition well established. When competition
exists, customer can set aside old loyalties and choose the service provider which best serves
their need. Potential and actual competitors will have a vital interest in identifying areas of
quality where there is potential to gain or sustain competitive advantage and subsequently set
their quality levels and prices accordingly. In this competitive environment, it will be
essential to ensure that each customer is getting value for money. The concept of ‘value’ has
already been identified as being a major factor in determining customers’ purchasing
preferences, and a major component of value is quality. Customers are also beginning to
realize that they have a major role to playing setting quality levels within the cellular
industry and also in determining what
New services should be introduced. Customers are beginning to come together to form an
organization and thus increasing the volume and power of their voice within the industry.
➢ Bharti Airtel bags ‘Best Global Wholesale Carrier’
award
The country’s top telecom company, Bharti Airtel has bagged the “Best Global Wholesale
Carrier for 2009” award at the Telecoms World Awards Middle East held in Dubai.
Telecoms World is an annual award function of Terrapin, a business media organization for
global telecom carriers and services provider. The citation is recognition of Bharti Airtel’s
leadership in creating and delivering innovative wholesale solutions for global markets.
➢ The Great Interactive Services of Airtel Digital TV

The Great Interactive Services of Airtel Digital TV has brought for its hi-end customers a
wide range of interactive services. Now with the help of television, we can do anything for
instance, shopping, planning of our holidays, see our horoscope, booking of movie tickets,
watching news and much more. For availing all these services, we should require to press the
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iTV key from our remote for entering in the world of Interactive services. We can select our
favorite program from a variety of applications designed according to our requirements. The
following are some great interactive services of Airtel digital TV.

• iPizza
• iNet
• iShop
• iTravel
• iAstro

➢ Airtel launches IPTV service

• New Delhi, Jan. 20 Airtel is in talks with leading retail players who could soon sell
their wares, such as pizzas and movie tickets, through its IPTV (Internet Protocol
Television) platform launched services. on Monday.
• With ‘Airtel Digital TV interactive’, consumers can now get fixed line telephone,
broadband (at 256 kbps) and television content through the same cable line. While
the service was launched on Monday in the NCR region, the company said that it
plans to roll it out to the top 8 cities, including Bangalore and Mumbai. It has already
tied up with Pizza Hut and PVR Cinemas for its value-added

➢ Operator services include

a) Dial-a-sevice
b) Itemised bill
c) Duplicate bill
d) Sim replacement
e) Conversion from postpaid to prepaid
f) Complimentary mobile no. Change
g) Premium numbers
h) Safe custody
i) STD/ISD codes
j) Dictionary service
k) Calling 56465
l) Calling 53030
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In all these services if customer finds any problem or difficulty, he/she immediately calls
customer care of Airtel to assist him for resolving the case. So the diversity among the
complaints regarding malfunctioning or some automatic activation of Value Added Service
etc are the key isues for which customers make calls to the C.C. executive.

Research Methodology

Sampling Plan :
a) Population : The populations interviewed in the research are students
of lpu in the campus itself.
b) Sample Size : Owing to the constraints of time & budget, the samp le
size was restricted to 30 students.
c) Sample Element :The sample element of th e research are students of
lpu.
d) Sample Unit : Lovely professional University.
e) Sample Duration : The sample duration was between Nov. 2009 and
Dec. 2009
Sampling Technique :
The sampling technique was convenience sampling .
Convience sampling
Convience sampling attempts to obtain a sample of convenient elements.
Respondents are selected because they happen to be in right place at right
time e.g. USE OF STUDENTS.

Research Design :

A research design is the detailed blue print used to guide a research study
towards its objectives. It helps to collect, measure and then analyze the data.
• Type Of Research
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The study undertaken is of “Exploratory Research ” in nature. Exploratory

research studies are those which are concerned with new hypothesis.

• Nature Of Research
The study undertaken is of “ Quali tative ” in nature. It is structured,
standardized, question based .

• Type Of Question
The type of questions asked during the study are “ Straight forward and
limited probing ”.

• Type Of Questionnaire : The type of questionnaire used during the

study is “Structured and Formalized ”.
• Type Of Analysis : The type of analysis carried out during the study
is using charts and graphs to interpret the answer of respondents.

Hypothesis

NULL HYPOTHESIS; Students are satisfied with the Airtel

-
the Customer Care Services
ALTERNATE HYPOTHESIS; - Students are not satisfied
with the Airtel Customer Care Services
Sources Of Information

The two sources of information are:-

• Secondary Sources :
In this study the secondary data is collected from internet

Primary data
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The primary source of collecting data for research is

“Questionnaire ”
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Data Analysis & Interpretation

Q. 1.

Interpretation:-

By asking this I came to know that all my respondents were

prepaid Airtel card users. Thus I infer students mostly opt for
prepaid connections so the company should more focus on
prepaid services especially for student plans keeping in mind
the limited pocket money of theirs.

After knowing that all my respondents were prepaid customers

of Airtel, I restricted my next questions towards prepaid related
only.
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Q. 2.

Interpretation:-

While probing this i came to know that all the students

were either satisfied or fully satisfied with the prevailing
services of AirTel customer care. Since it is fact about
Airtel that its customer care provides on spot solution to
the problem or may direct the call to the concerned
department. Some students said that it is not BSNL which
is taking half an hour to pick a single call. So i conclude
that Airtel is well designed in its field but for persistency to
remain the leader it should keep focussed vision on this
issue.
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Q. 3.

Interpretation:-

With the changing environment in telecom sector be it

reduced tariffs or reduction in call rate or some other issue
related to its services, Airtel has always run shoulder by
shoulder with its competitors so that customers would not
feel that they lack something which other subscribers have
in advance.

From above question i can infer that the service mix for
students is very good that is why they showed very
positive response towards this question.
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Q. 4.

Interpretation:-

Students mentioned were not from financially sound

family so they show some negativity towards these value
added services, but this negativenes was not too much as
they were using rarely these services. Other 15 students
agreed with the given statement and in turn named such
services provided by Airtel about which even i was not
aware of.

So from this question i concluded that students are usually

bearing low pocket money (exceptions are there), so the
service provider (Airtel) should look over this matter in
favour of stuents.
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Q. 5.

Interpretation:-

From the intense advertising of AirTel promising to provide

clarity of voice and it’s everywhere you go, is known the
best telecom service provider in India. It is rightly said
“HAR JAGAH SAB JAGAH”.

So all the 30 respondents strongly agree with the

statement that the networking of AirTel is best.
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Q. 6.

Interpretation:-

Since Airtel provides both dial up as well as fixed landline

(broadband) connections, and being the MBA students all
of them were using internet connection and that too of
Airtel company. With the charges and service of internet
the students were very happy so they filled strongly agree
option in the questionnaire.

But some of them argued with the increased price of dial-

up connection (internet) from earlier Rs/250= to Rs/500=
now.
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Q. 7.

Interpretation:-

Here I checked the brand awareness and goodwill of the

company. All of my repondents being loyal customers
towards Airtel spoke good word of mouth. 50% of the
rspondents said they strongly agree with the statment
where as rest 50% said they also agree with the
statement.

It is all by the positive word of mouth of the company that

it has acquired no. 1 position and also its marvellous
efforts towards its vision. While talking with the
respondents which factor of Airtel strongly infleunce them
all of them reflected only one answer that its all employees
are accountable and response to any quiry comes as soon
as possible . the service no. 121 is famous in this field.
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Q. 8. Rate the given factors on 5 point scale

for a mobile service provider i.e. AirTel

Interpretation:-

Here i used 5 parameters viz. Price, Quality, Variety and

Avalibility. Regarding price all the 30 respondents sid
average, for quality they 15 out of 30 said average and
other 15 said good., for variet and availibity as given
above.

So i infer from above graph thatthe core ompetency of

Airtel according to these customers is its enormous Distant
coverage, where as quality, variety are in average range.
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Q. 9.

Interpretation:-

This question was particulary regarding dial up internet

connection service and connectivity. Here they showed
mixed response. Half of the respondents said that the
service was already activated and others said it took few
hours to connect. Since the usual phenomena of Airtel
GPRS activatio is just send an sms and you will retrieve the
service message within no time, but some times due to
mobile in-compatibility or some system error respondents
need to call customer care at that time the customer care
fist tells them some instructions on the spot, if this doent
work at all then the call is transferd to concerned GPRS
dept. Or a promise of call back offer is made with the
customer.

So talking about overall GPRS service of Airtel is good as it

gets activated within no. Time.
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Q. 10.

Interpretation:-

After all these questions i asked them (rather was written

on questionnaire) that what is the first thing which come in
their ming while somebody talks about telecom sctor
particularly Airtel, 50 % of the replied that Airtel is
customer oriented, where as few said responsive and other
said economic (for students).
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Q. 11.

Interpretation:-

There has been launched a special service on all Airtel

connections i.e. mcheck, since as i mentioned early all the
responds where not belonging to rich families so only 50 &
% respondents were aware aout this service,
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Q. 12

Interpretation:-

Due to system error 50 % of the customers have made

call to the customer care thrice, otherwise the problem
gets solved only in 4 minutes.
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Q. 13.

Interpretation:-

Being the brand leader in current market (telcom) and best

service provider in this diversifieble country INDIA, all the
30 respondents showed positive word of mouth which is a
good sign for the future of company
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Q. 14

Interpretation:-

The overall view point of all the responents was that like
tata indicom and reliance competitors there is no free
night calling from Airtel to Airtel and another issue they
raised was that their is need of much more innovative
services hich exist in other countries like 3G services are
launched but still it remained confined to several cities.

Lastly they appraised the quick service delivery by Airtel

customer care and hoped thi will rather increase but not
decrease from companies point of view.
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Null hypothesis was accepted

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Findings

 From the above i found that Airtel has a full control

over the Indian population in general and now over
the students (of LPU) in particular,

 Students were not satisfied with the abrupt increase

in the dial-up GPRS from 250 to 500, as BSNL is
providing same facility for 200 Rs only.

 Airtel customer care should be given more authority

so that he would be able to solve every type of
problem hand to hand.

Conclusion and Recommendations

 Airtel is market leader in telecom industry in india.

 The customers are fully satisfied and recmends

persistency as such.

 GPRS rates should be made fair particularly for

student section of society.

 As BSNL is providing special schemes for students,

similar efforts are expected from Airtel.

 Commercialise 3G service as soon as possible so

that customers will feel the charm and zest of high
speed internet with video-conferencing.
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Annexure
QUESTIONNAIRE
Dear Student,

This questionnaire is required to accomplish the research on the topic

“student perception towards Airtel customer care services”, so please be
unbiased while filling this questionnaire. This information will be kept
confidential.

1.which kind of services do you have?

a. postpaid b. prepaid

2. How do you rate the attitude of Airtel customer care services towards
you as a customer?

a. Excellent b. Good. c. Satisfactory

d. Poor e . Very poor

3. Airtel offers a good mix of services within its category.

strongly agree agree neither agree nor disagree disagree strongly

disagree 1 2 3
4 5

4. Airtel value added services are excellent for students.

strongly agree agree neither agree nor disagree disagree strongly

disagree 1 2 3
4 5

5. Networking of Airtel is good….

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strongly agree agree neither agree nor disagree disagree strongly

disagree 1 2 3
4 5

6. Broadband services of Airtel is good?

strongly agree agree neither agree nor disagree disagree strongly

disagree 1 2 3
4 5

7. Do you think Airtel is the best telecom service provider?

Strongly agree agree neutral Disagree strongly

disagree

1 2 3 4 5

8. Rate the importance of following factors on 5 point scale in a mobile

service provider (Airtel) (1 for very poor and 5 for excellent)

Very Poor Poor Average Good Excellent

Price _________ _____ _________ ______ _________

Quality of service
(Connectivity) _________ _____ _________ ______ _________

Varieties of Services
Offered (schemes) _________ _____ _________ ______ _________

Availability in different
States (roaming) _________ _____ _________ ______ _________

9. (i) How much time it take to activate GPRS

a. within one minute b. takes 24 hrs. c. other specify………..

(ii).In your opinion how much time the service should take in order to
satisfy the needs -------------
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10. while thinking of Airtel as a telecom service provider, things that

come to my mind are……

a.. Trustworthy b. Customer oriented

c Responsive d. economic

11. How do you perceive mcheck (mobile check) services of Airtel?

Excellent

Not to your expectations

Don’t you ------------------------------

12. how many times you need calling customer care to solve the problem?

a. 1 --------- b. 2 ----- c. 3. --------- d. specify-----------

13. would you recommend Airtel to your friends?

q. yes b. no

14. What is your experience when you complain to the customer care or
frontline staff regarding your problems?

__________________________________________________________.”

THANK YOU

Name Mr./Ms.----------------------------
Mobile no -------------------------------
Department ---------------------
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Ahmad Mustafa Behrampora Rafiabad Baramulla J&K

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References

http://www.airtel.in/wps/wcm/connect/airtel.in/Airtel.In/Home/ForYou/Mobile/Post
paid/Services/

http://www.connectindia.in/posts/list/articles-the-great-interactive-services-of-
airtel-digital-tv-982107.htm