Service Quality and Consumer Perception:
A study of Telecom Service Providers
Authors:
Aprajita Rana
Dr. Kapil Arora
Service QualityBitner, Booms and Mohr -‘the consumer’s
overall impression of the relative inferiority / superiority of the organisation and its services’
Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry- ‘a function of the differences between expectation and performance along the quality dimensions’
Indian telecom Industry960.90 million subscribers929.37 Million wireless Mobile Number Portability (MNP) launched on
20th January, 2011Mobile Number Portability requests from 50.16
Million wireless subscribersDeclining Average Revenue Per User (ARPU)MP Consumer Base–Idea highest 143,30,482, then Reliance, Airtel, BSNL, Tata (TRAI May 12)
ObjectivesTo compare the consumer perception of
service quality of the five popular telecom service providers –Airtel, BSNL, Idea, Tata Docomo and Reliance
Compare the service quality of the five service providers along five dimensions: reliability, responsiveness, responsiveness, assurance, empathy, and tangibles
Literature ReviewParasuraman, et. al (1988) conducted empirical
studies in several industry sectors to develop and refine SERVQUAL, a multiple-item instrument to quantify customers’ assessment of a company’s SQ
Van-der-Wal, et. Al (2002) used SERVQUAL to investigate service quality in mobile telecommunication in South Africa. They concluded that the instrument was reliable and could be used to assess service quality in telecommunication industry.
Stafford (1999)- critical to the improvement of service quality is the determination of those service quality characteristics considered important by customers.
Bolton and Drew (1991)- customer-perceived service quality is an important success factors of business competition.
SERVQUALMultiple-item instrument to quantify
customers’ assessment of a company’s SQ. Measures SQ along five dimensions:Tangibles: Physical facilities, equipment
and appearance of personnel.Reliability: Ability to perform the promised
service dependably and accurately.Responsiveness: Willingness to help
customers and provide prompt service.Assurance: Knowledge and courtesy of
employees and their ability to inspire trust and confidence.
Empathy: Caring, individualised attention the firm provides its customers.
Research Methodology SERVQUAL: 22-item scale was employed147 respondentsCronbach alpha: 0.888, indicating good
consistency among the itemsConsumers of Airtel, BSNL, TATA, Reliance
and Idea surveyedOne-way ANOVA used to compare SQ of these
service providers
Distribution of RespondentsService Providers No. of respondents Percent
Bharti Airtel 41 27.9
Idea Cellular 33 22.4
Tata Docomo 20 13.6Reliance
Communication 27 18.4
BSNL 26 17.7
Total 147 100.0
41
3320
27
26Airtel
Idea
Tata Docomo
Reliance
BSNL
Demographic characteristicsGender No. of respondents Percent
Male 79 53.7Female 68 46.3Total 147 100.0
EducationNo. of
respondents PercentUnder graduate 55 37.4
Graduate 28 19.0
Post Graduate 64 43.5
Total 147 100.0
79
68
No. of Re-spondents
Male Female
55
28
64 Under graduate-55 Graduate-28 Post Graduate-64
ResultsService
ProvidersService Quality Mean
Score
Bharti Airtel 110.2195
Idea 106.4242
Tata Docomo 104.1000
BSNL 87.8462
Reliance Comm. 86.6296
Results:
Service Quality
Mean Score
0
40
80
120
Airtel
Idea
Tata Docomo
BSNL
Reliance
ResultsNo significant difference in the
quality perception of Airtel, Idea and Tata Docomo consumers. (Group A)
No significant difference in SQ perception of BSNL and Reliance consumers. (Group B)
Significant difference in SQ perception between Airtel, Idea, Tata (Group A) and BSNL, Reliance (Group B) consumers.
ResultsTangibles: Similar result, Idea had highest
values, BSNL the lowestReliability: Similar result, Airtel –best and BSNL
worstResponsiveness: Tata Docomo-best and Reliance
worstAssurance: Airtel and Idea- Better, Reliance
provides least assurance (Airtel, Idea, BSNL and Tata Docomo significantly differ from Reliance)
Empathy: Airtel –best and Reliance worst
ConclusionAirtel, Idea and Tata Docomo customers
perceive better service quality than BSNL and Reliance customers.
BSNL and Reliance need to focus on customer-oriented services.
MNP provides a way out to customers perceiving poor service quality
Declining Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) and increase in MNP requests are threats to the providers which can only be overcome by efforts to improve the service quality perceptions
Thank you