Term paper On Customer satisfaction of Grameenphone limited

Term paper On Customer satisfaction of Grameenphone limited

Submitted to
Md. Moktar Ali Associate professor Department of Marketing University of Dhaka

Submitted by
Md. Masum-ul-Hoque ID: Md. Ehsanul Hoque ID: 41018044 Md. Amin ID: Department of Marketing University of Dhaka

Date of submission: 8 August, 2011

Letter of Transmittal
08 August, 2011. Md. Moktar Ali Associate professor Department of Marketing Faculty of Business Studies University of Dhaka Sub: Request for acceptance of the term-paper Sir, We are very pleased to be able to submit the term-paper on Customer satisfaction of Grameenphone limited. In developing the report, we have followed the format and instructions given by you. In every sphere of the report, we have tried our level best to make a good combination of learning from the Business statistics. We also tried to match the theoretical knowledge and the direct experience gathered during the preparation of the term-paper. In this report, we have tried to be as descriptive as possible for the convenience for the reader. Any clarification required & query needed regarding my report will be gratefully acknowledged.

The obediently Md. Masum-ul Hoque ID No. 41018003 Md. Amin ID No. 41018043 Md. Ehsanul Hoque ID No. 41018044

Executive Summary
This Project Work has been prepared as partial fulfillment of requirements for the Business statistics course. Due to increasing of excessive competition in business environment customer care is getting more preference day by day. Now a day the concept of customer service is widely used with the service of mobile phone companies. At the point of view of Bangladesh essentiality of customer service in telecom sector is in rising demand. When a product or service is introduced in the market in order to inform the customer about the product and service as well as to provide after sales service the most feasible way is customer care service. Customer care center is indispensable part for the service provider since most of the people of our country are illiterate. As a market leader, GrameenPhone is continuously coming up with new ideas regarding its products and services. Recently, the company is mainly focusing on the non-voice services. Because, the company knows in near future, voice based services will reach to the maturity stage which will make the business growth constant to some extents. Hence, the company is trying to maintain the leading position in non-voices services as well like SMS, Push-Pull, and Information related services at the early growing stage. These services are working as a building block to increase GPs service value. Coming up with innovative service is easier than making subscribers aware of services. Hence through this report I have tried to find out GPs position in cellular phone industry and the services that Grameen phone is presently providing to its valued customers & their satisfaction level. 15 million people out of 140 million total citizen of Bangladesh are presently using cell phone; it means that out of every 9 people one is using cell phone. In the third world country like Bangladesh the amount of users is amazing. Grameenphone holds almost 61% market share of telecom industry that is out of every 10 users 6 belongs to Grameenphone. So GrameenPhone marketing strategy should be Profitable growth & expanding market share through satisfying existing customers. A comprehensive survey was conducted to know about GPs present service condition that is providing to its valued customers. Grameen phone as a market leader in this industry should revise its service packages, quality with more conveniently for the customers. Otherwise, in the long run new innovation services will not give its ultimate success.

Introduction

GSM technology was introduced in Bangladesh from 26th march 1997 by GrameenPhone. The first year after the GrameenPhone was launched, there were no other operators using the GSM technology. From 1998 Robi started their operation using the same technology to serve the subscribers of Chittagong. With time both the operator extended their coverage and service feature. Within a short period of time SHEBA Telecom joined the market which is now named as Banglalink with a new management called Orascom. GrameenPhone is the market leader having more than 2.4 million subscribers; Robi is the market follower having 1 million subscribers. Banglalink is also increasing its market share by providing various types of attractive offers to capture the existing market. As the socioeconomic status of the country does not provide further possibilities to increase the growth of the industry, market followers are trying to attract other operators subscriber. So, there is an emergence of studying the related factors of the customer loyalty in the context of Bangladesh GSM telecommunication system for GrameenPhone to preserve its market share.

Statement of the problem

In the GSM mobile telephone sector in Bangladesh vast competition has emerged. So, the subscribers now have various alternatives to choose according to their convenience. Therefore, to maintain the leading position in the market GrameenPhone has to identify the factors related to customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Purpose of the study

The purpose of the study was to present the relationship between service quality, switching cost and trust with customer satisfaction and customer loyalty in GrameenPhone, the leading GSM mobile telephone system in Bangladesh. A relational study on service quality, customer satisfaction and customer loyalty

Hypothesis
Service quality has a significant positive influence on increasing customer satisfaction

Methodology

Interview Method:
. To gather Primary data questionnaire will be developed. The questionnaire survey will be the most effective method to collect data for our study.

For this research the survey will be conducted on 20 respondents. It will not be possible to
conduct personal interview because of time limitation. Therefore, questionnaire survey will be the most appropriate one for this study. For secondary data, web site of Grameenphone Ltd. Will be helpful and the Annual reports and internal official information if accessible. After getting all the questionnaires filled up, the data will be analyzed with SPSS. Data Collection
Data were gathered from both primary and secondary sources. Collection of data was not that difficult as GrameenPhone Ltd is a leading fast generation private telecommunication Industry in the country.

All the necessary data for this project will be collected by making a survey on people who are using the Grameenphones service and also who are working for GrameenPhone by asking them to fill up the questionnaire. Data Analysis For the analysis of the collected data a primary or rough analysis will be conducted to validate the questionnaire for gathering the adequate information. If the gathered information is not up to the mark, further change in the questionnaire will be made. The data analysis will be conducted using SPSS. The results will be represented through Bar charts, Pie charts and written interpretations.

Limitations of the study

The study was limited by a number of factors. Firstly, the research was limited only in Dhaka city. Secondly, sample size was very small to present the proposed scenario. Thirdly, time constraint led to get narrower outcomes and finally, the knowledge constraint of the researcher was another limitation for this study.

Research timeline
From May 9, 2011 to August 1, 2011

Literature of review

Service quality According to Berry et al. (1988), service quality has become a significant differentiator and the most powerful competitive weapon which all the service organizations want to possess. Definitions of service quality hold that this is the result of an evaluation process where customers compare their expectations about a service with their perception of the service to be received (Lewis & Booms, 1983; Lehtinen & Lehtinen, 1982; Gronroos, 1984; Parasuraman et al., 1985, 1988, 1994). They also added that service quality can be split into technical quality which means what is done and functional quality which means how it is done. Lehtinen and Lehtinen (1982) gave a three-dimensional view of service quality consisting interaction, physical, and corporate quality. Numerous researches have been delineated service quality as forms of attitude a long run overall evaluation, and the two constructs (service quality and attitude) are viewed as similar (Parasuraman et al., 1988; Bitner, Booms, & Tetreault, 1990; Bolton and Drew, 1991; Cronin & Taylor, 1992; Bitner & Hubert, 1994). Allport (1935) defined attitude as a learned predisposition to respond to an object in a consistently favorable or an unfavorable way. As perceived service quality portrays a general overall appraisal of service, i.e. a global value judgment on the superiority of overall satisfaction with the service, it is viewed as similar to attitude (Sureshchandar et al., 2002). Parasuraman et al. (1988) have developed a service quality measure, SERVQUAL which reasonable of the overall service quality dimensions. The researchers developed ten general dimensions named- tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, competence, courtesy, credibility, security, access, communications, and understanding. SERVQUAL was revised later by Parasuraman et al. (1991) based on the result of an empirical study on five service companies. They noticed that some of the ten dimensions were correlated. They refined it and finalized the instrument composed of five dimensions include reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy, and tangibles. In this present study these dimensions will be used to measure the service quality.

Dimensions of service quality

Reliability According to Philip Kotler (1999); Bitner, M. J., and Zeithaml, V. A. (2003) the ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately is the reliability. Gilbert A. Churchill, Jr. & J. Paul peter (1999) added that customers want performance to be consistent and dependable.

Responsiveness According to Philip Kotler (1999); Bitner, M. J., and Zeithaml, V. A. (2003) responsiveness is the willingness to help customers and provide prompt service. Gilbert A. Churchill, Jr. & J. Paul peter (1999) added that customer must see service provider as ready and willing to perform. Tangibles According to Philip Kotler (1999); Bitner, M. J., and Zeithaml, V. A. (2003), the appearance of physical facilities, equipment, personnel, and communication material of an organization is the tangibles. Gilbert A. Churchill, Jr. & J. Paul peter (1999) added that customer look for quality in the equipment, facilities, and communication materials used to provide the service. Empathy According to Philip Kotler (1999); Bitner, M. J., and Zeithaml, V. A. (2003), empathy means the provision of caring, individualized attention to the customer. Assurance According to Philip Kotler (1999); Bitner, M. J., and Zeithaml, V. A. (2003), assurance means the knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to convey trust and confidence. Trust Trust is consistently related to the vulnerability of the trustor (Bigley and Pearce, 1998; Singh and Sirdeshmukh, 2000), because without vulnerability of the trustor upon the trustee, trust becomes irrelevant. In business studies, trust has been found to be important for building and maintaining long-term relationships (e.g. Geyskens et al., 1996; Rousseau et al., 1998; Singh and Sirdeshmukh, 2000). Anderson and Narus (1990) postulated that, if one party believes that the actions of a third party will bring positive outcomes to him, trust can be build. Trust was viewed as one of the most relevant antecedents of stable and collaborative relationships. The centrality of trust in market a relationship is made evident by the many research and some wide literature review are already available (Castaldo, 1995; Blois, 1999). Doney and Cannon (1997) added that the third party also must have the ability to continue to meet its obligations within the cost-benefits relationship. Therefore, the customer should not only perceive positive outcomes but also believe that these positive outcomes will continue in the future. According to Lau and Lee (1999), as one party trusts another and develop positive behavioral intentions towards the other, when customers trust brands they also form positive buying intentions towards those brands. Trust is sometimes conceived of

having two components, performance or credibility trust and benevolence trust, as Ganesan (1994) pointed out in a business-to-business context.

Customer loyalty
Customer loyalty represents the repeat purchase, and referring the company to other customers (Heskett et al. 1994). He also sated that customer loyalty is a figure that may be measured directly as measuring the actual repeated sales to customers. According to Duffy (2003) loyalty is the feeling that a customer has about a brand which ultimately generates positive and measurable financial results. Improvements in retention and increasing in the share of the company are the obvious economic benefits of customer loyalty. According to Feick and Lee (2001), customer loyalty has been measured as the long-term choice probability for a brand or as a minimum differential needed for switching. Several earlier studies identified customer loyalty in several ways such as attitudinal approaches focused mainly on brand recommendations, resistance to superior products (Narayandas, 1996), repurchase intention (Cronin & Taylor, 1992) and willingness to pay a price premium (Bitner & Zeithaml, 2003). Czepiel and Gilmore (1987), define service loyalty as a specific attitude to continue in an exchange relationship based on past experiences. Their definition implies that levels of service loyalty can be assessed by attitudinal measures such as the ones based on intentions to repatronize a service provider. Such attitudinal measures have an advantage over behavioral measures (e.g. repeat patronage) in that they can provide greater understanding of the factors associated with the development and modification of loyalty (Oliva et al., 1992).

Customer satisfaction
The most common interpretations reflect the notion that satisfaction is a feeling which results from a process of evaluating what was received against that expected, the purchase decision itself and the fulfillment of needs or want (Armstrong & Kotler, 1996; Berkowitz et al.1999). Kotler (1999) also noted that satisfaction is a function of perceived performance and expectations which identifies feelings of a person resulting from comparing a products perceived performance in relation to his or her expectations. Bitner and Zeithaml (2003) stated that satisfaction is the customers evaluation of a product or service in terms of whether that product or service has met their needs and expectations. Fe and Ikova (2004) added that the perception of the word

"satisfaction" influences the activities which we conduct to achieve it. Researchers have also identified customer satisfaction from a multi dimensional nature and view overall satisfaction as a function of satisfaction with multiple experiences with the service provider (Sureshchandar et al., 2002).

Relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction

The empirical studies show that two constructs service quality and customer satisfactions are conceptually distinct (Bitner, 1990; Boulding, Kalra, Staelin, & Zeithaml, 1993). Sureshchandar et al, (2002) identify that the survey result shows that there are high relationships between service quality and customer satisfaction. Sureshchandar et al (2002), have emphasized that the two constructs service quality and customer satisfaction do exhibit the independence and are indeed different constructs from the customers point of view. In more recent studies Spreng and Mackoy (1996) addressed the relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction by using the model developed by Oliver et al (1992). The model integrates the two constructs and suggests, among other things that perceived service quality is an antecedent to satisfaction. Spreng and Mackoy (1996) showed that service quality leads to customer satisfaction. Bitner (1990) developed a model of service encounter evaluation and empirically supported the effect of satisfaction on service quality. Bolton and Drew (1991) also proposed that satisfaction leads to service quality. Earlier, Woodside et al. (1989), supported the causal relation of service quality and satisfaction with data collected in the area of health care.

Relationship between service quality and customer loyalty

The relationship between service quality and customer preference loyalty has been examined, among others, by Boulding et al. (1993) and Cronin and Taylor (1992). Cronin and Taylor (1992) focused solely on repurchase intentions, whereas Boulding et al. (1993) focused on the elements of repurchasing and willingness to recommend. In the study by Cronin and Taylor service quality did not appear to have a significant (positive) effect on repurchase intentions (in contrast to the significant positive relation between satisfaction and repurchase intention), while Boulding et al. (1993) found positive relationships between service quality and repurchase intentions and willingness to recommend. Furthermore, it has been argued that actually responding to dissatisfaction (e.g. complaining directly to the company or complaining to a third party) is

negatively related to the level of service quality (Beardon et al., 1979; Yi, 1990). Rust and Zahorik (1993) related service quality perceptions to consumer loyalty in banking, Crosby and Stephens (1987) investigated loyalty in the insurance industry and with regard to retailing, customer patronage was investigated in relation to service encounter failures by Kelley et al. (1993).

History of the company

GrameenPhone Ltd. (GP) is the market leader in the mobile telecommunication industry of Bangladesh. The address of its Head Office is: GP HOUSE. Bashundhara, Baridhara Dhaka 1229, Bangladesh. GP is a joint venture between Bangladesh and Norway. Major shareholders were Telenor (68%) and Grameen Telecom (32%). In 2008 it went public. Presently the shareholder status of the company is Telenor (61.2%), Grameen Telecom (28.8%), Institute (5%), and Public (5%). Telenor is the state owned telecommunication company of Norway. It has operations in different countries of the world. On the other hand, Grameen Telecom is the sister concern of Grameen Bank, one of the biggest Non Government Organizations of Bangladesh. Principally GP was established in 1995. But due to government policy, GP did not permission to start their operation. The license agreement was signed on October 31, 1996. They started the hard work of the developing the infrastructure facilities in the country. GP did not take much time to start its operations. The commercial launch was on March 26, 1997. Bangladesh is a developing country. Per capita income here is very low. Very few people have access to telecommunication. In this situation GP started their operation here. GPs aim was to develop one GSM cellular mobile communications network in Bangladesh in competition with two other GSM operators and one AMPS (Advanced Mobile Phone System) operator. GP aims to provide the best possible technical quality, customer service, and coverage also in the rural areas at the most favorable prices, to as many customers possible in Bangladesh. GP has a dynamic management composed of business people with a profile drive, prepared to take calculative risk. The shareholders of the company are stable, established companies with solid international reputation. They have already made approximately $125 million investment to GP and will reinvest their profit share to GP.

The GrameenPhone network is designed with latest computer assisted design technology. GP has reached its breakeven point in the year 2000, in the fourth year of its operation. The company made its first net profit of $ 3.7 million during the year ending in December 2000. Grameen is the leading celluluer Net provider in Bangladesh. . GrameenPhone started their business approximately 11 years. Since then GrameenPhone has been operating in the market for a long time. During this time GrameenPhone went for different types of mergers as well as acquisitions. They gained success from the very beginning of their operation and were capable enough to hold the success year after year. GrameenPhone main competitors are ROBI, BANGLALINK, CITYCELL, AIRTEL & TELETALK. One of the strongest sides of GrameenPhone is its customers service and relationship. GrameenPhone was awarded license to operate as a mobile telecommunication service provider in Bangladesh on 28th of November 1996. It officially launched its network on 26th of March 1997 and went into commercial operation on 15th of April.

Company vision
We are here to help. The key to achieve this vision is a mindset where every one of us works together. Making it easy to buy and use our services. Delivering on our promises. Being respectful of differences. Inspiring people to find new ways. Get this right and Telenor will be a driving force in modern communications and customer satisfaction.

Mission statement
Grameen Phone Ltd. aims at providing reliable, widespread, convenient mobile and cost effective telephone services to the people in Bangladesh irrespective of where they live. Such services will also help Bangladesh keep pace with other countries which will help in reducing existing disparity in telecom services between urban and rural areas. This vision will be achieved by: Knowing customer Expectations Knowing us

Organizing us Connecting Bangladesh with ease and care. Being user friendly.

Values
Make it Easy Were practical. We don't over complicate things. Everything we produce should be easy to understand and use. No waste. No jargon. Because we never forget we're trying to make customers' lives easier. Keep Promises Everything we set out to do should work, or if you don't get it, we're here to help. We're about delivery, not over promising actions not words. Be Inspiring We are creative. We strive to bring energy into the things we do. Everything we produce should look good, modern and fresh. We are passionate about our business and customers. Be Respectful We acknowledge and respect local cultures. We do not impose one formula worldwide. We want to be a part of local communities wherever we operate. We believe loyalty has to be earned.

SWOT analysis Strengths

Good Owner Structure GrameenPhone has the best owner structure in the telecommunication industry of Bangladesh. Telenor is one of the largest company, which is operating in different countries around the world. Again, in Bangladesh, Grameen Bank is one of the largest NGO, which has the better communication all over the country. Market Leader GrameenPhone is the first organization in Bangladesh, which have reached to the general people. Though City Cell had started their operation beforehand, but they were unable to reach the general people. So, the people are being used to with GrameenPhone. This is a huge advantage of GrameenPhone.

Network Availability GrameenPhone has widest network coverage and a large number of BTS station (Tower) all over Bangladesh. Thats why the company can provide better connectivity in most of the area of the country. Brand Name of Grameen Image Grameen Bank is well known all over the country because of its appreciable activities in financial sector for poor people in Bangladesh. So, when the name Grameen has been added with this telephone company, the organization gets a huge exposure due to this Grameen image. Financial Soundness Because of effective planning, GrameenPhone is able to earn a healthy amount of revenue, which gives them financial soundness. Skilled Human Resource All the staff, which are related to GrameenPhone are skilled and effective in their own job responsibility. The reason behind this is the Human Resource department of GrameenPhone follows ethical strategy to recruit new employees. Effective Support Organization GrameenPhone have shared the idea from the employees of Bangladesh Railway and Grameen Bank, who are experienced and was able to provide precious guideline for the operation of GrameenPhone. Access to the Widest Rural Network through Grameen Bank Through the help of Grameen Bank, this was easier to GrameenPhone to reach the rural area of Bangladesh. High Ethical Standard To keep the quality of service, GrameenPhone is strict to follow its ethical standard.

Weaknesses
Culture Gap: In GrameenPhone management, employees from different country are existed. Suppose, The Managing director is a Norwegian, Director from technical is Indian and many more employees come from different country. Thats why; sometimes there may be lack of understanding due to cultural gap. Different Ideas create problem: In Grameen Phone, this is highly encouraged to apply new strategy for the better performance. Sometimes it creates problem because employees are used to with the previous strategy.

Complicated Pricing Structure: GrameenPhone has lots of products. The pricing of these products and their billing policies are different which also difficult for a user to understand. Incomplete Messages through Promotional Activities Most of the time the advertisement of GrameenPhone do no clear the appropriate messages. Not only that, most of them are also so confusing to understand. As a result subscribers get the wrong meaning of what has been said to them. Problem Contained Offers Recently all most all of the new offers of GrameenPhone are having some technical problems. Either they are not working at all or part of the services of those offers is disabled. Not only that, GrameenPhone is also delaying to solve those problems which is only raising the dissatisfaction level of its subscribers. Different Departments are not Working Together The interconnection of the department is little bit weak. The reason behind this, there is no exchange program for employees to work between departments.

Opportunities
Economic Growth of Bangladesh The economic growth of the country will increase the expansion of telecommunication industry. From 1995 to 2006, there is a huge change in telecommunication sector. New and Better Interconnect Agreement GrameenPhone is going to have agreement with T&T to have better connection from land phone. The organization has agreement with other operators like ROBI, City Cell or Bangla Link to have better internal connectivity. Huge Demand for Telecom Services The market of telecommunication is expanding. So, this is easy for GrameenPhone to achieve the major portion of expanded market because of its leading position. Increased Intentional Activities in Bangladesh As international activities increased in the country, people need the connectivity not only in the country, but also out side of the country. So, the market for outside of the country is also expanding.

Declining Prices for Handsets Few years ago the people of low income could not effort mobile phone services due to the high price of handsets. Now the price of handset has decreased and the low income people want to get connected through mobile phone. New International Gateway As BTTB has established new gateway to connect internationally, this is easy for mobile phone companies to provide services of ISD call and international roaming. Flexibility of Mobile Phone Communication through mobile phone is popular because the land phone connection between inter city is costly. Mobile phones are also easier to carry and because of its lower cost and portability, people are getting more dependent on mobile phones than land phones. So there is a chance to achieve more subscribers and more market share.

Threats
More Rigid Government Regulations Government is becoming restricted for taking away currency from the country. So, Foreign Company are threatened because they may have risk to back their investment to the country. The government also put restriction for the work permit of foreign employee. Upgraded Technology Used by Competitors New mobile phone operator like Bangla Link are establishing their channel with latest technology. Whereas GrameenPhone using the stations which are five years old. So, this is the disadvantages for GrameenPhone. Political Instability Political instability is another threat because, with the change of Government, policies are also changed. So, this is difficult for any multinational organization to cope with new policies. Devaluation of Taka As the investments occurs in foreign currency, thats why the devaluation of Taka decrease profit from financial point of view. Risky Position of Valuable Resource The organizations have a large number of BTS stations which are spread all over the country. Any one can make damage to these BTS station and this is also difficult to arrange proper security for these stations. Noncooperation of Government for the Revenue of BTTB Government des not want to provide the better services from BTTB to other operator due to remain competitive

Customer service division

GrameenPhone follows a 3-layer management philosophy in Bangladesh. These are Directors, Managers and Officers. The CEO is the top most authority of all the levels. Directors are the departmental heads that are responsible for the activities of their departments. Managers have the authority next to directors. These two layers represent the management level of GrameenPhone. Officers are the next persons to stand in the hierarchy list. They are the typical mid-level employees of Grameenphones organizational hierarchy. These officers are responsible for managing the operational activities and operating level employees. Customer Service is dedicated to serve the valued customers of Grameenphone round the- clock, 365 days a year. The division is the main bridge for reaching the customers and providing them all sorts of reactive and proactive after sales service, information and greater sales focus through advanced telephony and written interactions. Our strategic focus areas ahead are: Customer Operational Excellence People Sales This will certainly facilitate our endeavor to improve business and organizational efficiency, customer and employee satisfaction and contribute to meet our ambition: to b e the best - in- class Cus tomer Servie in Asia to gain competitive advantage for Grameenphone in the market place

Customer Satisfaction Factors of GP

GrameenPhone is a fast growing mobile company. In mobile telecommunication industry, there are direct and indirect factors that influence customer satisfaction. Here focus on the most important factors that influence customer satisfaction at GrameenPhone which relates with after sales services.

Airtime
Air time is the core offering of GrameenPhone, So, quality of communication network availability, etc, are the most important customer satisfaction factors, quality of airtime depends on the ratio of subscribers and transmission base station. It the numbers of subscribers are increased without developing the network, quality of airtime goes down.

After Sales Services

After sales services is very important in the mobile telecommunication industry. GP has extensive after sales customer care tools. Here focus on these step by step. 1. Helpline: GP is the first company that introduced 24hours helpline in Bangladesh. In this part of my paper I tried to focus on the existing operations of the helpline service of GP. This will enable us to understand the importance of the helpline service. A GP subscriber needs to dial 122, 121,148 to reach GrameenPhone Helpline. It is a computer aided information base to afford immediate access to the information about the subscribers, but the operations are done manually. After dialing 122, 121,148 subscribers are first welcomed by an automated and standardized process. Then he needs to wait for few seconds. After that the subscriber reaches the Customer Manager. CM starts the conversation with a greeting. The subscriber explains his/her problems to the CM If the inquiry is regarding general information, the customer relations officer does not need to take help of information system. She/he just provides the information and the subscriber keep the phone. There are some queries that are much more personalized and the CM needs to get into the account of that particular subscriber to provide the service. In some case, the subscriber just keeps the complaint/ request and later action is needed to be taken.

2 Interactive Voice Responses (IVR): This newly introduced service by GrameenPhone. This is automated helpline service. A GP subscriber needs to dial 123 to reach this service. After that she/he can get information regarding the bill, usage, credit policy, bank name that receives GPs bill and so on by choosing different options. Its free of charge for the first minute, from the second minute the subscriber needs to pay tk.2 per minute.

3. Information Centers: Most of the problems of the subscribers are solved by the helpline service. But there are some problems that cannot be solved there. Subscriber need to come physically to deal with that problem. GrameenPhone has seven customer relation centers and 380 GPSDs which Provide services all over the country. These Customer Relation Centers are situated in the prime divisional head quarters like Dhaka, Chittagong, Sylhet, Rajshahi and Khulna and GPSDs situated all most everywhere in Bangladesh. In these information centers the subscribers can come directly with their problems like billing, address change, SIM change, handset problems, etc. These after sales services are very crucial to keep subscribers satisfied regarding GrameenPhone.

Survey Findings
In order to measure the satisfaction of the customers a series of questions were asked to the customers with the help of a questionnaire, the data from these questions are tabulated below. For clear understanding, the overall satisfaction has been divided into satisfaction with the package and satisfaction with the after sales service. As already mentioned, the survey was conducted among twenty GrameenPhone subscribers, it was conducted in the information center as subscribers from different areas in Dhaka come to this center.

Interpretation of Survey Data

1. Do you get the service what you need when you go to GrameenPhone center?

Frequency Strongly Disagree Disagree 1 2

Percent 5 10

Cumulative Percent 5 15

Neutral Agree Strongly Agree

6 6 5

30 30 25

45 75 100

Responsiveness

Strongly Disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly Agree

2. Does it take long time to reach Customer Manager in 121 hotline? 3. When you buy a new service does it activated quickly? 4. Do you satisfied with the network coverage of the provider? 5. Does your provider fulfill your need with the current product and service? 6. The EDGE service of GrameenPhone is very good? 7. Does the customer manager behave well to you? 8. Does the customer manager give you right information? 9. Do you get the service quickly? 10. Price of GrameenPhones different package is affordable?

One-Sample Statistics Std. Error Mean .255 .251 .204 .213 .216 .185 .167 .176 .216 .196

N Responsiveness Tangibles Trust Speed Price Airtime Facilities Behavior Internet Utility 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20

Mean 3.60 3.00 3.75 3.80 3.25 4.05 4.15 3.90 3.25 3.85

Std. Deviation 1.142 1.124 .910 .951 .967 .826 .745 .788 .967 .875

One-Sample Test Test Value = 3 95% Confidence Interval of the Difference Responsiveness Tangibles Trust Speed Price Airtime Facilities Behavior Internet Utility t 2.349 .000 3.684 3.760 1.157 5.688 6.902 5.107 1.157 4.344 df 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 Sig. (2-tailed) .030 1.000 .002 .001 .262 .000 .000 .000 .262 .000 Mean Difference .600 .000 .750 .800 .250 1.050 1.150 .900 .250 .850 Lower .07 -.53 .32 .35 -.20 .66 .80 .53 -.20 .44 Upper 1.13 .53 1.18 1.25 .70 1.44 1.50 1.27 .70 1.26

Possible strategies to improve customer satisfaction

Analyze the market in a regular basis and find out what customers need and want in the area where subscribers are not satisfied like call rate, package speed, and moderate. Grameenphone have to take necessary action to increase customer satisfaction by lowering their call rate, offer different package, speed up their service etc.

Communicate with the customer in easiest way like sending bangle sms bangle voice service, so that subscriber can understands all the product and service, many subscribers still watch BTV and listen radio so they have to give advertisement in BTV and Bangladesh betar and in this way Grameenphone can increase customer satisfaction.

Offer various kind of package in their product so that their subscribers can match with their preference. Create strong Brand image by different promotional activities which catch peoples emotion and feelings so that subscribers will be very much loyal. Offer various services with their connection so that subscribers can enjoy various services at a single device. Fulfill corporate social responsibilities to create a good image in subscribers mind. By organizing different events, donating money, do something for the poor people; help the government to give education to the poor children.

Capacity of the helpline should be increased in the peak hours because in peak hour pressure of calls is high and customers need to wait long time to get the service which decrease customer satisfaction. So recruit more efficient customer manager to increase customer satisfaction.

Send greetings message on special occasions to the subscribers which increase customer satisfaction.

GrameenPhone has to provide different types of consumer promotions such as- they can introduce price pack and can sell the package at a reduced rate, they can offer free SMS and call services on the special occasions.

Conclusions
Although GrameenPhone is dominating the market of mobile telecommunication industry in Bangladesh with the major market shares, their customers are not fully satisfied with the companys current products, features and services. If GP does not take care of these issues then it will be difficult for GrameenPhone to keep the current market share intact. That is already reflected in their market shares with other operators in the market offering similar products. From the analysis of the survey results and Customer Satisfaction, it is clear that GPs subscribers are

dissatisfied with different services of the company. Moreover, the Customer Satisfaction is very standard in the marketplace. Therefore, I recommend some courses of action. My observations make me believe that if GP follows these recommendations, it will enable them to achieve a sustainable distinct competitive advantage and to run smoothly with loyal subscribers & market leadership. Also it will enable GP to achieve the ambition of Customer service Division of To be the best in Class Customer service in Asia to gain competitive advantage for GrameenPhone in the Market Place.