Service Marketing in Banglalink

Major findings Finally, after conducting an exclusive and effective research I came to the following conclusion:

The trend of providing corporate cell phone in our country has grown up in recent years. 4 years ago, it was very poor.

Cell phone service providers have huge chunk of postpaid user in different corporate offices while the number of pre-paid corporate user is not that much attuned with the post-paid corporate user.

Majority of the corporate subscribers are using the GP connection for long duration which is 3-4 years. Banglalink, AKTEL and CityCell are very close to each other considering this specific issue.

Though banglalink is the youngest cell phone service provider of the telecom industry of Bangladesh, they got noticeable preference for private subscription beside the corporate connection. It is evident that –

High preference for private subscription from the same operator.

Preference for private subscription from banglalink by CityCell corporate subscriber is noticeable (38.9%) and by AKTEL it is 11.11% – which shows a high trend of future mobility from CityCell / AKTEL toward banglalink is perceptible.

banglalink network quality is quite behind the competition and network quality is an important tool to evaluate the service quality

banglalink is quite ahead in the competition regarding the network coverage and network coverage is an important tool to evaluate the service quality

banglalink should focus more on customer care services though banglalink customer care service quality is the benchmark for the industry.

Majority (58.2%) of the subscribers of all cell phone operators believe that call rate is the most important factor to evaluate the service quality of the cell phone operator.

Majority (35.2%) of the subscribers of all cell phone operator believe that value added services is the most important factor to evaluate the service quality of the cell phone operator.

banglalink is quite behind the competition regarding the belief of the corporate subscribers about the network quality.

banglalink is quite ahead in the competition regarding the belief of the corporate subscribers about the network coverage. GP is in the first position regarding the perception of their corporate subscribers’ satisfaction about the network coverage. banglalink has got the second position regarding the perception of their corporate subscribers’ satisfaction about the network coverage. AKTEL is positioned in the 3^rd place and with poor network coverage CityCell is in the last place in the industry.

banglalink is way behind the competition regarding the intra connectivity.

banglalink is quite behind the competition regarding the perception of the corporate subscribers about inter connectivity where AKTEL is the benchmark for the industry regarding inter connectivity.

banglalink is in the lowest condition regarding special care for the corporate users.

banglalink is quite ahead the competition regarding the issue of providing customized tariff plan for their corporate users.

On an average banglalink is trying to provide the cheap tariff rate for the corporate users.

banglalink is way behind the competition in the sense of providing adequate value added services to its subscribers.

Majority of the subscribers believe that the service providers are technologically updated. GP is in the first place regarding this issue where banglalink-the newest player of the industry is in the 2^nd position in terms of technological advancement.

banglalink is far away behind Grameen Phone and AKTEL regarding preference as the favorite cell phone provider.

Majority the service providers are maintaining a standard regarding cautiousness about sending correct itemized bill to their corporate subscribers but banglalink is away behind the industry average regarding this specific issue.

Existing banglalink corporate users who fall under the age group of 26-35 are not satisfied at all with the current service quality as majority preferred the competitors.

According to the perception of corporate users who fall under the age group of 36-45, banglalink has a satisfactory level of preference among the other competitors of the cell phone industry as its existing clients are either satisfied or preferred GP but none of them prefer AKTEL, CityCell or Teletalk.

Majority of sample of corporate cell phone subscribers get monthly bill close to 2500TK.

Average monthly household income of the corporate subscriber is 25,791 TK.

Monthly bill of the corporate subscriber depends on monthly household income and age of the corporate subscriber.

Conclusions

Recommendations

Problem definition

Back ground to the problem

Statement of the problem

Approach to the problem

Research design

For this research I have adopted the primary research design. The information about the research components are as follows –

Kind of information – For this research I found out individual respondents’ information.

Method of administering the questionnaire – I used a survey questionnaire for collecting information for the research.

Nature of questionnaire – For the research work, both open ended and close ended questions were asked. The average interviewing time was approximately 10 – 15 minutes.

Sample size –for this research work the sample size was 120.

Type of research design

Information needs

Data collection from secondary sources

Data collection from primary sources

Scaling techniques

Question airy development and pretesting

Sampling techniques

Field work

Date analysis

For the analysis of the collected data I used SPSS software. Some cross-tabulations were conducted to show the difference in the service quality, brand image, and customers’ attitude toward the mobile phone services providers in Bangladesh. For the hypothesis testing I used chi-square test. In some analysis I found out frequency, and percentage. A regression analysis was also used for this research work. The analyzed date is presented both in graphical and tabulated format. Depending on the result of the analyzed data I made some recommendations which I believe would be helpful for the decision making strategy for the corporate sales department of Banglalink^TM.

Methodology

Plan of data analysis

Results

Limitation and caveats

Conclusion

Technological developments have opened up a new dimension in the deployment of creative and efficient services and customer satisfaction. Telecommunication industry is playing an important role in the communication system that has become an obvious for this modern world and the scenario is indifferent for Bangladesh telecom industry. If we look at the scenario of telecom industry of country we see that people has paid approximately 7.00 TK/minute charge for the use of their cellular phone. The scenario of the telecom industry has totally changed as Banglalink^TMentered in the industry with the aim of serving mobile phone services to the mass population of the country so that the entire communication system of Bangladesh develop dramatically. The intense competition in telecom industry is facilitating the people with reduced tariff rate. Cell phone is no more a fashion in the country rather it became a necessity. People now have more than one scheme card of different subscribers. So, considering the competitive scenario, banglalink must come up with new product and service idea that will satisfy not only the existing subscribers but also attract the potential subscribers and this is the only way how the company can sustain in the intense competitive market in the long run.

Recommendations

In a country where the mobile telephony penetration is below 9%, the best strategic move for any operator would be to concentrate on expanding the subscriber base. To expand the subscriber base and to build a brand image among the existing & potential subscribers, banglalink must concentrate on different issues with which the subscribers are not satisfied at the present condition. To survive in the competitive market and to grab majority of the corporate subscriber base, banglalink must concentrate on the following issues:

Improve network quality:

Network quality is a very important tool to evaluate the service quality of cell phone. As the existing subscribers of banglalink are not satisfied with the current network condition, so, the top level management of the company should concentrate on this issue so that they can improve the quality of the network. Banglalink technical department has to be more conscious to ensure best quality network in the country. High quality BTS (Base Transverse Station) and powerful equipments set up can increase the quality of network.

Improve coverage:

Banglalinkhas already created a positive perception among the subscribers with its fastest growing network coverage. Within a short span of 1 year operation, banglalink has covered 61 districts and 88% population base under its network coverage. Though the existing subscribers are satisfied with the network coverage, banglalink is still way behind the competitors like Grameen Phone, and AKTEL. So to ruin the position of GP or AKTEL, banglalink must keep up the track of improving its network so that 100% population base can come under its network base.

Introduce separate corporate care line:

Since the existing corporate subscribers of banglalink are not satisfied with the customer care service, so the company should introduce a separate unit in the customer care department to serve the corporate customers so that the corporate subscribers get prompt one stop solution of any sort of problem.

Add more value added services:

Banglalink must add more value added services to its line-up, such as WAP, Data & Fax, etc. recently GP and AKTEL introduced GPRS facility for its subscribers and this service is still not available with banglalink. To compete in the market, and to satisfy the customers, banglalink has to be up to date regarding the innovation and introduction of more value added services.

Ensure on time bill delivery:

If the customers do not receive the monthly bill on time, or receive wrong itemized bill, then it directly affect the image of the company. Asbanglalink is way behind the competition regarding on time bill delivery and sometimes it sends wrong itemized bill, so to survive in the competition, banglalink must solve this issue quickly, otherwise the company will lose its existing clients.

Overall improvement of service quality:

To ensure complete mobility solution with mobile phone service banglalink has to improve its overall service quality. Banglalink has to invest more in all sectors of development to ensure better quality service for its subscribers. By hiring more skilled people, and providing training to its existing employees, banglalink can ensure a superb employee base who will be eligible to provide best service to its valued subscribers.

Exhibits