2011

Customer Retention Challenges

(with respect to Reliance Communication.)

By:- Ujjwal Chandra Chand and Akhilesh

Kumar
Sibar, Kondhwa
 CONTENTS

1. Abstract ---- 3
2. Objectives ---- 4
3. Introduction ---- 5-9
4. Research Methodology ---- 10
5. Data representation and analysis ---- 11 - 20
6. Conclusion ---- 21
7. Bibliography ---- 21
8. Questionnaire ---- 22-23

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 ABSTRCT

Customer is one for whom any organization is functioning. Every organization has its own
goals to maximize profits with minimum cost and for this every organization wants to have
maximum number of customers. In the current scenario retaining a customer is more difficult
than to get a new customer, because an old customer is like an asset to the organization.
Customer loyalty is very important in any business. If your business wants to grow in the future
it has to provide quality customer management and effective strategies to realize all its goals.
An old customer works as a communicator to the target market with reference to– informing
about the features, qualities, reliability and the most important feature is the resolution of the
customer queries, and this plays a very vital role in retaining the customers.

Successful customer retention starts with the first contact which

an organization has with a customer and continuous throughout the entire lifetime of a
relationship. A company’s ability to attract and retain new customers, is not only related to its
product or services, but strongly related to the way its services its existing customers and the
reputation it creates within and across the marketplace. There is very close relationship between
customer retention and customer satisfaction. If a customer is satisfied with the products and
services offer by the company then there is higher probability rate that the customer will buy
the product and service again. But on the other hand it is also true that giving a satisfying
product and service is difficult for a company and this could be a challenge because of the
competition in the market with various competitors and the dynamic behaviour of the market.

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 OBJECTIVE

 Main objective

o To identify the strategies to retaining customers

o To understand the challenges faced by marketers in retaining customers.

 Sub objectives
o To identify the competitors
o To identify the factors to customer retaining

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 Introduction

As communications service providers (CSPs) continue to engage in fierce customer acquisition

and customer poaching programs, they themselves are increasingly feeling the pinch of
customer churn within their base. Given the increasing number of players in the market
(traditional telecom, cable, broadband phone providers) and the increasing number of options
(wireless, fixed PSTN, VoIP), CSPs are being forced to devote more resources to their
customer retention strategies. As a result, increased focus has been placed on customer service
as a both a competitive strategy and a survival strategy, perhaps more intensively here than in
any other industry.

Some companies have even dedicated entire contact center operations exclusively to save at-
risk customers. However, as critical as contact center operations have become to customer
retention strategies, most companies still face major operational issues, such as efficiency and
productivity obstacles, which traditional contact center technology has failed to address.

One such company, Vodafone UK, one of the leading wireless providers, is continually trying
to perfect its retention process. Most recently it created a single contact center devoted
exclusively to customer retention. By using Jacada® Fusion, the Vodafone “SAVES” group
has increased customer and agent satisfaction levels by dramatically decreasing overall call
handle time – and as a side benefit, was able to completely eliminate after call wrap-up,
resulting in a significant reduction in operational costs.

The customer lifecycle is made up of three core customer management processes: customer
acquisition, customer retention and customer development. The processes of customer
retention and development are the focus of this chapter.
A customer retention strategy aims to keep a high proportion of valuable customers by reducing
customer defections (churn), and a customer development strategy aims to increase the value
of those retained customers to the company. Just as customer acquisition is focused on
particular prospects, retention and development also focus on particular customers. Focus is
necessary because not all customers are worth retaining and not all customers have potential
for development.
We will deal with the issue of retention first, before turning to development.
A number of important questions have to be answered when a company puts together a
customer retention strategy.

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  Which customers will be targeted for retention?
 What customer retention strategies will be used?
 How will the customer retention performance be measured?
We believe that these issues need to be carefully considered and programmed into a properly
resourced customer retention plan. Many companies, perhaps as many as six out of ten, have
no explicit customer retention plan in place. 1 Most companies spend a majority of their time,
energy and resources chasing new business, with 75 per cent or more of marketing budgets
being earmarked for customer acquisition.

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 CONCEPT OF RELIANCE COMMUNICATION

“My vision is to provide the latest telecommunication facilities to every Indian

at the price of a post card” – Dhirubhai Ambani.
Reliance Infocomm was launched as a very ambitious project. The project was
conceived at the convergence of communication and information technology. It was designed
to connect every home and office in India with each other and the world.

On Thursday, August 09, 2007

Anil Ambani has chosen as “ Telecom person of the year 2007 “

His marketing strategy has made millions of Indians happy, they got the best mobile
tariffs in the world-local call costs at 15 paise/minute, and STD call at 40 paise/minute .

As per its expansion plan, Reliance Communications will have the single largest wireless
network in the world, covering over 950 mn Indians or more than 5% of the global population.
It will cover 23,300 towns or every single Indian habitation with a population of over 1,000.
Reliance Communications will cover almost 100% of all rail routes, providing seamless voice,
video, radio, and Internet connectivity to 14 mn commuters every day. It will also cover almost
100% of all national highways, and 84% of all state highways, giving millions of users the
power to talk, text, surf, play, chat or simply stay in touch across nearly the entire length of
India's 2,00,000-km-long road network.

Having achieved tremendous growth, the main challenge for Reliance Communications is
to improve quality of service and ARPU. Its enterprise business is also not in a position to
compete with the global majors. Stock market valuations may boost the fortunes of an
entrepreneur, but Ambani needs to address the issues faced by the growing mobile customer
base, especially in India, where bureaucracy takes pride in checking the businessman.

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 SWOT Analysis of Reliance Com.

Strength Weakness

 Low Price  Branding Image

 Network  Marketing problem
 Connectivity  Limited reach of wire lines.
 Flexible plans  Slowest Activation Process
 Cheap VAS Services  Limited Budget for Sales Promotion
 Reputed Brand Name

Opportunity Threat

 Preference of Flexible wired plans  Political destabilization.

 IPTV introduction  New Entrants
 Rural Telephony  IT Development
 New Market, Vertical, Horizontal  Market Demand
 Competitors` Vulnerabilities  Seasonality, Weather Effects
 New Product development by
competitors

PROBLEM BEING FACED

 Competitors
 Not Proper Communication of Customers Complaint to the company
 Lack of instant complaint solving due to the lengthy documentation and entertainment
of complaint

WHAT DOES COMPANY EXPECT TO DO BY SOLVING THE PROBLEM

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 Customer Satisfaction

 Customer Retention
 Increase in Sale
 Service Excellence
 Increase in Revenue by Broadband Department

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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research methodology is a way to systematically do the job. It may be understood as a
science of studying how research is done scientifically. The most desirable approach with
regards to the selection of the research methodology depends on the nature of particular work,
time and resources available along with the desire level of accuracy.

 Research Type Descriptive Research

 Data Source Primary Data and Secondary data
 Research Instrument Questionnaire design
 Type of Questionnaire Structured
 Sample Size 50
 Sampling Method Judgmental
 Contact Method Personal Interview

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 DATA ANALYSIS
Questions put up to the customers:-

Q 1. Most Influencing factor of consideration while purchasing products of Reliance

comm.?

35
30
30
25
25
20
20
15
15
10
10

0
Brand name Flexibility in tariff Price Easy availability Aafter sale service
plan

By the help of the graph shown above we can conclude that 25 % of people influence by
price only and the major role is played by after sales service.

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Q 2. What is the nature of problem you face with Reliance comm.?

60
55

50

40

30
30

20

10
10
5

0
Service level Claim level Product availability Product awareness

By the help of the graph shown above we can conclude that 55 % of people are facing the
problem in service level and the other most effective part is at claim level.

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Q 3. Are you aware about new scheme of Reliance comm.?

32

Yes
No

68

By the help of the graph shown above we can conclude that 68 % of people are aware of the
schemes of reliance.

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Q 4. Which type of problem you face with Reliance comm.?

45

45

40

35 30
30

25

20
13 12
15

10

0
Call drop Echo Network failure Voice clarity

By the help of the graph shown above we can conclude that 45 % of people are facing the
problem of Network failure and the other most effective part is the call drop.

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Q 5. How you rate Reliance as a service Provider?

12
18

Poor
Average
26
Good
Excellent

44

By the help of the graph shown above we can conclude that 44 % of people rate Reliance as
Good where as 26 % of people rate as Average.

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Questions put up to the Reliance Comm. people:-

Q 1. How frequently your company comes up with new offers?

12

26

Yearly
19
Within 6 months
Within 3 months
Monthly

43

By the help of the graph shown above we can conclude that 43 % time Reliance comes up
with a new offer within three months and 26% in monthly.

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Q 2. Does this help in retaining the consumer?

27

Yes
No

73

By the help of the graph shown above we can conclude that 68 % of people are aware of the
schemes of reliance.

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Q 3. What do you do for retaining the customers?

10

Giving extra schemes

24
Giving proper expected
solution on time
By showing empathy to
customers
66

By the help of the graph shown above we can conclude that 66% time company retains
customers by showing empathy to the customers.

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Q 4. What type of customers usually comes to you?

16
20

Flirty
Irate
Abusing
Normal
22

42

By the help of the graph shown above we can conclude that 42% of the customers that comes
are irate customers.

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Q 5. Which helps more in retaining the customer?

18
Good service
Price
54 Product quality
Others
23

By the help of the graph shown above we can conclude that 54% of the customers are
retained just by providing good services and next major part is played by price.

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Conclusion
From the above research it can be concluded that customers of Reliance are more inclined
towards the price part. Reliance is still facing some network issues and many of the
customers rate Reliance as a good service provider.

Where as from the companies prospective new offers does help in retaining the new
customers and showing empathy to the customer also helps in many of the situations while
retaining.

Bibliography

BOOKS

Marketing Management - Phillip Kotler

MAGAZINE

Business Today

NEWSPAPERS

Economic Times

Hindustan Times

WEBSITE

www.COAI.in

www.trai.co.in

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 Questionnaire for Customers

1. Most Influencing factor of consideration while purchasing products of Reliance comm.?

•

a. brand name
b. flexibility in tariff plan
c. price
d. easy availability
e. after sale service

2. What is the nature of problem you face with Reliance comm.?

a. Service level
b. Claim level
c. Product availability
d. Product awareness
3. Are you aware about new scheme of Reliance comm.?
•

•
a. Yes
b. No

4. Which type of problem you face with Reliance comm.?

a. Call drop
b. Echo
c. Network failure
d. Voice clarity

5. How you rate Reliance as a service Provider?

a. Poor
b. Average
c. Good
d. Excellent

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 Questionnaire for Reliance Comm. Employees

1. How frequently your company comes up with new offers?

a. Yearly b. Within 6 months c. Within 3 months d. Monthly

2. Does this help in retaining the consumer?

a. Yes b. No

3. What do you do for retaining the customers?

a. Giving extra schemes
b. Giving proper expected solution on time
c. By showing empathy to customers

4. What type of customers usually comes to you?

a. Flirty b. Irate c. Abusing d. Normal

5. Which helps more in retaining the customer?

a. Good service b. Price c. Product quality
d. Others ( Specify___________)

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