Nov

28

Mobile Carriers in India- What next? part2

Filed Under Emerging Sectors, India Business, India Investment Opportunities, Indian Companies, Internet in India, Metros, Mobile Telecom, New Media, Tier-2 Cities, Tier-3 Cities 

Let’s continue the discussion from the previous post. The continued rapid growth of the mobile subscriber base in India presents a variety of management challenges, and as an observer, it is sometimes visible which company’s management is performing better.

So far, Airtel and Vodafone have been engaged in a battle of Call Rates, Lifetime validity schemes, Recharge Coupons, everything to do with a financial benefit to the consumer. Here are a few interesting facts, from the International Data Corp(IDC) survey conducted on the ‘Mobile Service Usage and Satisfaction’:

  • The average waiting time to speak to a customer support agent is a little below three minutes.
  • When probed on billing, nearly one in every six (18 per cent) mobile users was dissatisfied with the billing system of his/her service provider. This is way off the TRAI guideline that billing errors should be less than 0.1 per cent.
  • More than half the users with a billing related problem perceive ‘wrong amount being charged by the operator’ as the prime reason for dissatisfaction.

All these refer to Customer Service problems.

Let’s draw an analogy here: Mobil Oil was in a price war for long at its US Refueling Stations. Mobil’s management always considered price as the single most important criterion for a customer to walk into a station. In a market survey conducted in the 90’s they realized that 80% of its customers had customer service as top priority, and only 20% wanted price to be a factor. Mobil then went into a major program to reorganize a Refueling Station into a more customer-friendly place.

They contacted a Formula 1 team for speed in refueling, and to understand how the team in a Pit Stop worked so well together. They visited Ritz Carlton Hotels to get more know how on how to treat a customer better, and lastly visited Home Depot- a specialty US retailer, to understand how to build long term relations with customers.

On the face of it, an oil company has nothing to do with any of the 3 companies just mentioned, but within a year of making changes, customer satisfaction rating went above 95%. Just imagine!

Now even the Indian mobile carriers want the same high levels of customer loyalty – but don’t seem to be taking specific steps to make it happen. If some action is already being taken, then it’s weak and not visible. After all, given the pending number portability policy that will be implemented it seems logical for the companies to make every effort to hold on to existing customers.

And for these reasons, the biggest opportunity for any Mobile Wireless Carrier in India today is in building a better Customer Service Infrastructure. As surveys worldwide have shown, it’s 5 to 10 times more expensive to get a new customer than to keep an existing one - Business Management 101!

About the Author: Ishan Sethi is a Sales & Marketing professional with keen interest in emerging sectors and India business opportunities. He is an alumnus of Indraprastha University and IIM Lucknow. He can be reached via the Contact page.

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