MOBILE USERS' SATISFACTION SURVEY: A Sigh of Satisfaction

Results reflect performances. Performances, upon comparison, throw more
interesting results. 

The Mobile Users Satisfaction Survey 2003 had seen service providers perform
poorly on overall satisfaction scale. This year's survey shows them making
remarkable improvements.

Last year, no operator had come anywhere close to the TRAI-recommended
benchmark of 95 percent. In fact, the top scorer, BPL, had fallen short of that
by a huge 15.2 percentage points. This time, at lease two GSM operators are at
or above 95 percent, while the lowest GSM score is 87.3 percent.

In the CDMA category, even though the TRAI benchmark has not been breached,
the improvement is equally good. Three out of six operators have achieved 92
percent or more on the satisfaction scale.

That's the simpler part of the story.

The Zigzag

Looking closely at specific touch points of user satisfaction, the more
complex patterns start showing up. Billing is one such touch point.

As compared to 9 billing complaints per one hundred users last year, which in
itself was an alarmingly high figure, the survey reports an unprecedented 23
complaints per hundred users this year.

Interestingly, it's not just a repeat performance by operators who had a
high incidence of such complaints last year. The slide is noticeable across all
operators, with even the likes of Aircel Cellular and Hutch getting hit by the
bug in the GSM category.

Consider, for example, Aircel Cellular, which tops the overall satisfaction
scale but also has the third highest number of billing-related complaints as per
the survey. The survey reports 28 percent complaints for the Tamil Nadu-based
operator.

Reliance users in both GSM and CDMA categories reported the maximum number of
billing-related complaints-35 percent and 32 percent, respectively.

Looking at the cross-section of complaints, across all operators, 44 percent
pertain to wrong/double charges, which is an improvement over the previous year's
52 percent.

However, reports pertaining to 'non-refund' and 'non-reflection of
payment' have gone up steeply as per the survey. As compared to 4 percent and
6 percent in 2003, the incidences are 10.5 percent and 11 percent this year,
respectively.

Rise in non-refund related reports, however, also points to a rise in churn,
which incidentally, 2.6 percent more users admitted to.

Loyalty-Fewer Care

More than 80 percent users-80.6 percent to be exact-said they had
switched to other service providers. Also, almost 30 percent of the respondents
said they were satisfied and yet likely to shift.

The top consideration for users while choosing a service provider remains
network quality (72.3 percent), but brand awareness emerged a close second (71.4
percent).

Service quality remains the third most important criterion for selection.

Study Facts Source: V&D-IDC CyberMedia Research  OBJECTIVE To measure the satisfaction level of mobile users across all GSM and CDMA service circles PERIOD: November 2004 SAMPLE SIZE: 2,245 CITIES: 14 Base: 2,245

Percentage points scored by 'availability of dealers' criterion have gone
up significantly, from 37 percent last year to 49.5 percent this year. Since
dealer availability directly helps increase brand awareness, the rise is worth
noting.

Put together, the pieces give the picture that operators' efforts on brand
building are yielding results in the right direction.

Surprise Bits

Coming to handsets, there are some surprises. The biggest success story is
Nokia in the CDMA segment. From a non-existent market share just a year ago, the
Finnish giant is the choice of more than 22 percent CDMA mobile users today.

Nokia's GSM share seems to have eroded somewhat. Only 56.6 percent users
reported using Nokia phones, as against 64.8 percent last year.

Base: 778 Base: 791 Weightages: Pre-Sales/Sales (19.3%); network availability, performance and reliability (20.8%); customer care (21.9%); value-added services (17.6%); billing integrity (20.5%) Weightages: Pre-Sales/Sales (20.1%); network availability, performance and reliability (21.6%); customer care (22.2%); value-added services (18%); billing integrity (18.2%) Nothing can stop an Idea whose time has come. Especially when the users are aware, elite, and somewhat rich-as they are in the metros. Except for the small Garuda, all CDMA players are below the industry average The metros are saturated. B and C circles are yet to catch up. A category circles are where most of the growth is happening now. They are the most pampered lot and, not surprisingly, their satisfaction level is the highest Source: V&D-IDC CyberMedia ResearchÂ

The major gainers in the GSM segment have been LG and Samsung. In fact, the
survey reported more LG users than Samsung in the GSM as well as CDMA
categories.

LG's success story in the GSM segment is much similar to that of Nokia in
the CDMA segment.

Brands seem to be playing a growing role in service or handset selection.
However, the overall user satisfaction is more dependent on factors like network
quality and customer care.

Base: 676 Weightages: Pre-Sales/Sales (20.1%); network availability, performance and reliability (24.6%); customer care (22.4%); value-added services (13.1%); billing (19.8%) Idea, which rules the metros, also topped the B and C circles. How can a company co-owned by Tatas and Birlas forget the real India? Source: V&D-IDC CyberMedia Research

That's the reason why all the three VOICI&DATA—IDC surveys have so
far found smaller, niche players high on user satisfaction. Last year, it was
BPL and this year it's Aircel Cellular.

Watch out the space for the next year's top scorer.

Deepak Kumar

Handsets

Overall Handset Score

Base: 2,245

Though Nokia's share dropped from last year's, it still controls the market. Interestingly, Kyocera had a bigger market share than Alcatel

CyberMedia Research

Base: 1,606

GSM Handsets

CyberMedia Research

Base: 639

CDMA Handsets

CyberMedia Research

The Methodology

Entering the Relationship!

Choosing a Mobile Service Provider

CyberMedia Research

Base: 2,245

CyberMedia Research

CyberMedia Research

Sales/Presales

CyberMedia Research

Overall Sales/Presales Satisfaction

Base: 2,245

We considered five parameters-ease of locating dealer network, time taken for getting a working connection (post-paid), activation time (pre-paid), easy understanding of offers and schemes, and satisfaction with the tariff

CyberMedia Research

Network Quality

Network-related Problems

Base: 2,245 

Multiple responses allowed

Basic network availability is still a major issue. Combine it with the fact that network quality is what most people go by for deciding their service provider: it is not a great situation for the operators to be in

CyberMedia Research

Overall Network-quality Satisfaction

Base: 2,245

There is not much to choose from among the operators, though GSM operators are clearly ahead

CyberMedia Research

Customer Care

Customer Care Satisfaction (Overall)

 

Base: 2,245

Satisfaction was calculated on five parameters-getting the customer-care phone number, comfort with the
IVR, total waiting time before speaking to an agent, knowledge level of executives

CyberMedia Research

Put on Hold

Base: 1,505

Waiting time is the dark spot of customer care. Imagine someone holding the line for more than seven minutes to report his problem/satisfy his information needs. About 15 percent of the users are used to this wait!

CyberMedia Research

Reasons for Calling

Base: 2,407

Many of the respondents do not remember why they called customer service. Those who did remember said that it was for network-related problems and not billing problems

CyberMedia Research

Billing

Overall Billing Satisfaction 

Base: 2,245

CyberMedia Research

Billing Complaints

Base: 887

And TRAI says billing errors should be less than 0.1 percent!

CyberMedia Research

Type of Billing Complaints

Base: 372

Around 52 percent of the complaints ca me under the wrong-charges/double-charges category

CyberMedia Research

Resolving Time

Base: 224

The time taken for resolving billing disputes is quite high. About 31 percent of the disputes took more than four days or could not be resolved

CyberMedia Research

Value-added Services

Overall VAS Satisfaction 

Base: 1,579

Multiple responses allowed

Four parameters were considered-overall satisfaction with: value-added services, voicemail, roaming services, and SMS

CyberMedia Research

Awareness and VAS Usage

Base: 2,245

The high rise in plain SMS is understandable. But high awareness of ringtone downloads, at more than 80 percent, is good news for operators in the days to come. One lesson is that you cannot do it all. The reason for high awareness of ringtone downloads is aggressive marketing from the content providers

CyberMedia Research

Loyalty

Satisfaction vs Shift

Base: 2,245

It was a good show for the operators, no matter from which angle you look at it. In a market like India, having just seven percent dissatisfied customers is an achievement. Though, there is scope for improvement

CyberMedia Research

Shift vs Recommend

Base: 2,245

CyberMedia Research

SMS

SMS Awareness vs Usage

Base: 1,579

SMS awareness is on the higher side (say 97 percent), of which around 84 percent are currently using the services

CyberMedia Research

No. of SMSs Sent vs Received

Base: 1,681

Sent

Received

Base: 1,832

Almost everyone uses SMS. And those who did not, television shows like Indian Idol will ensure that they do in the future

CyberMedia Research

SMS has caught users' imagination. Yet, problems remain. With premium SMS (contest/content) becoming popular, the cost to user of lost SMS could be very high. Without more reliable service quality, SMS-based services may not take off the way operators expect them to

Source: V&D-IDC CyberMedia Research

CyberMedia Research

The Methodology

The VOICE&DATA-IDC Mobile Users' Satisfaction Survey was conducted by
taking a sample of 2,245 mobile users spread across different circles. We have
gone for a city-based approach, covering 14 cities including all the metros
(Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai) as well as A, B and C category circles.
Five cities (Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Pune and Coimbatore) were covered
from the A category circles and four cities (Chandigarh, Meerut, Jaipur and
Indore) from the B category circles. Among C category cities, we covered Dhanbad.
The fieldwork for the survey was conducted in November 2004.

In order to analyze the overall satisfaction of the subscribers with their
current service provider, we took up five broad areas that contributes to
overall satisfaction-presales/sales; network availability, performance, and
reliability; customer care; value-added services and billing integrity. By
considering overall satisfaction as a function of the above parameters, we
arrived at different weights for these parameters. These weights were then
applied on the stated scores for satisfaction to arrive at the final scores for
satisfaction.