Project Complete!

[city02 63]

Since its a 50 pager (!), here are some excerpts from our research project:

CUSTOMER SURVEY RESULTS

1. Research Objectives

The primary goals of our survey are:

• Finding out the loyalty of current Reliance customers (probability of churn)
  
• Determining the user satisfaction with the services provided vis a vis the competitors
  
• Profiling the ‘average’ RIM user vs. other mobile customers
  

2. Methodology

We followed the questionnaire method. Most of the questions were multiple choice with some open ended ones also. Demographic information was collected at the end of each survey. Analysis and reporting was done using a combination of MS Excel and SPSS.

2a. Data Sources

Secondary Data: List of websites and magazines used are provided in the References section at the back.

Primary Data: Online and offline surveys were conducted and their results are also provided in the Appendix.

2b. Methods

Personal interviews were conducted with the aid of printed questionnaires. Online anonymous surveys were also conducted at a site dedicated to discussing RIM related issues (RIMweb.com).

2c. Sample Size

25 ‘offline’ surveys were conducted based on the questionnaire provided in the Appendix. No sampling technique was employed as a convenience sample was used since this was a small class project.

ANALYSIS OF SURVEY RESULTS (PRIMARY DATA)

Weaknesses / Limitations

All the participants are English speaking middle to upper-middle class urban residents. The big missing areas are: Rural & Semi-urban dwellers, lower middle class households, non-English speakers, etc. Most of the respondents lived in suburbs of Mumbai and the results will be skewed accordingly heavily leaning towards their personal experiences/tastes/preferences.

Anonymous Online Polling

We also conducted 15 polls on the RIMweb unofficial customer’s discussion group. The results for all the anonymous online polls are included in the appendix at the back of this report. We got 7-17 unique responses with a ‘hit rate’ of 14-43% over periods of 3-15 days which is quite good for online polling (often it is difficult to get anything beyond 10-20% response rates without offering some kind of incentives). The graphs for each poll question are provided in the appendix. Each poll ran on the site and was then closed. No more than one poll was posted daily to maximize the response rates and avoid boredom/fatigue. Since there was no mechanism to link multiple polls into a single survey, each of the samples/participants could be different.

OTHER FEEDBACK ON INFOCOMM SERVICES (QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS)

The respondents had a lot of additional feedback regarding their RIM services that has been summarized here:

1. Network coverage / quality

a. Incorrect error messages

Often customers have received error messages like ‘Your call could not be completed due to congestion on ANOTHER network’ when they were calling RIM customer care (*333) itself

b. Sexist messages

The standard messages assume the customer is male instead of making all announcements gender neutral, e.g., ‘… the customer has switched off HIS mobile …’

c. Dropped calls

Calls are still getting dropped in major suburbs like Powai and Vashi not just while traveling at high speeds but also when simply walking around.

d. Congested network

The very fast ramp-up of new customers has clogged the infrastructure and reduced not just billing opportunities for RIM but also service quality/availability for the subscribers

e. Can’t call toll free or pager numbers

4 digit pager numbers (e.g., 9xxx) cannot be called from any RIM but can from a RIP and other GSM mobiles. Even toll free numbers (e.g., 1-600-xxx-xxx) cannot yet be called and customer service has been saying that this will be fixed for the last 6 months.

2. Voice Mail

a. Too small for daily users

The size of the mailbox is limited to only 5 messages, which is impractical for many corporate users. There should be a premium voice mail service offered to higher volume users for a nominal monthly charge (currently there is no additional monthly charge for VAS  like voice mail or CLID . Currently even blank messages (when the caller just hangs up after listening to the greeting) count towards this 5 message limit. The interim solution could be to keep the mailbox space (Kb of storage) or time based (number of min of recording time) instead of number of messages based.

b. Auto deletion of new/unheard messages!

This is a highly unusual option automatically deletes new/unheard messages after 3-4 days which no other voice mail systems do. Important messages could be lost if the customer travels abroad for 1-2 weeks. The proper way to handle this is simply to start deleting blank messages and then all heard/saved messages but never new ones. It should simply announce ‘Sorry, this mailbox is full, please send an SMS instead’.

c. Incorrect format in SMS notification

While SMS notifications of new voice mails is a good idea; the numbers are incorrectly formatted (skipping the 0 before the STD code) so it can’t be dialed back. Either the SMS format should be changed or the switches should support calling numbers without the 0 prefix (much harder).

3. Kyocera SmartPhone

a. Dirty & Crowded Kyocera Service Centre

The entire NCR  is covered by a single small handset service center manned by one person. Detailed feedback on the center is provided in the appendix.

b. Delhi Roaming disabled since Unified Licensing

Ironically, after unification came into effect, Kyocera users suffered worse service/coverage in a major metro like Delhi. A complaint letter to this effect has also been attached with permission of the customer in the appendix.

c. No accountability

We have just pasted a copy of an email complaint here:

I've been getting the run-around from all the regular channels for my handset problem.

I was wondering if you happened to know whom I could escalate this issue to.

RIM blames Kyocera since all the other handsets can roam in Delhi properly.

Kyocera blames RIM/network since their handsets can roam in every other major city (e.g., Chennai, Bangalore, etc).

Before unified licensing, the handset worked fine in Delhi with TSS .The full copy of the email is also enclosed in the appendix.

d. SIM transfer from GSM

This has been promised over 6 months ago but is still not possible even a full year after ‘soft launch’. This allows GSM users to transfer their contact/address books to their CDMA handsets by reading the data off their SIMs.

4. Customer Care

a. Inconsistent interfaces (IVR )

Sometimes you have to press 0 and others 9 to speak directly to a customer service rep. All the help-lines should switch to 0 to speak to a person, which is the international default/convention.

b. Conflicting/confused reps

The reps are often not aware of what’s on the company website in terms of product/service announcements which is compounded by the fact that they are not allowed Internet access from their desktops. Many times they refer you to the nearest WebWorld, which in turn asks you to call customer service directly.

c. Silo mentality

Not only is each product (e.g., RIM vs. RIP) treated as different companies (different phone numbers, e.g., *333 vs. *366), even different groups/depts. are not connected to each other. You have to hang up and call back if you want to deal with billing or VAS or RWorld/Rconnect, which is absurd. They should be able to forward your call to the relevant dept. This is a classic case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing.

5. Billing

a. Timeliness

This was a major issue for over 6 months after commercial launch in May ’03. Now most bills have been dispatched and are also available online after logging into the company site. Post-paid customers accrued huge amounts that were due at one time, which caused significant collection problems. Many customers were upset by charges they were led to believe had been waived and cancelled their accounts.

b. Accuracy

Many billing disputes arose when the bills were finally sent out and some corporate customers refused to pay any bills until a statement was mailed to then as per the agreements (some small 25-50 person Pvt. Ltd. companies have yet to get a single bill physically even though it is available online). A late fee of 2.5%/month is now being assessed which has triggered another round of disputes with enterprise customers.

c. High monthly charges for ISP (Rconnect)

Currently it’s at Rs. 0.40/min or Rs. 24/hour plus taxes and Rs.100-200/month depending on your plan. The monthly charges should be waived for high volume users (e.g., if your ISP charges are over Rs. 200 or 10 hours usage monthly).

6. Accessories availability

Despite repeated assurances, flagship handsets like the Kyocera still don’t have basic accessories like travel/extra AC chargers so if you lose/damage the supplied one, your fancy SmartPhone will simply become a very expensive paperweight. This kind of option simply goes without saying in this day and age.

7. RIM Prepaid

Due to heavy demand, dealers have started unofficially ‘unbundling’ the basic offer of Rs. 3,500 with 10 coupons and Motorola handset. The customers want low outgoing offers so the cost of a handset with the 2 preloaded coupons is down to about Rs. 1,800 – 1,900 in Powai and Thane respectively with rumors that its headed lower to around 1,500. RIM should simply recognize this latent demand at a lower price point and launch prepaid offers with fewer coupons officially.

Update:

As this project was being completed, RIM Prepaid actually launched some new price plans with only one preloaded coupon driving down the official cost to about Rs. 3,000 (from Rs. 6,500 for the LG & Nokia handsets). This would certainly help in curbing the unbundling issue but not eliminate it entirely since the cheapest handset (the Motorola) is not part of the single coupon offer (and it should be).

8. Handset upgrades / certified used handsets

There is no better way to increase customer handset upgrades and decrease the cost of handsets for first time mobile users than by allowing exchange offers and reselling the used/reconditioned handsets with a shorter warranty (e.g., 6 months instead of the usual 1 year). Both the high end and low-end customers would stand to benefit with this scheme. This would be very similar to Maruti’s True Value offer that increases customer loyalty also.

CONCLUSION

As dual mode handsets (both GSM and CDMA) become the next wave, traditional distribution channels for handsets will only become a more attractive option, as customers would like to trade-up their existing devices to get international roaming facilities.

Number portability, which would allow consumers to switch mobile operators without giving up their phone number, would serve to further blur the distinction between CDMA and GSM networks. At the end of the day people don’t really care about the technology as they do about pricing, value, and good customer service.

The challenges faced by Infocomm in the first 6 months after soft-launch were mostly network/coverage related. Then it was dominated by billing (mostly delayed) for the next 6 months. Now the majority are collections/fraud related issues, which would probably be addressed by the first half of this year. After that it should be smoother sailing for the largest mobile operator in the country. Currently it has provisioned about 10-15% of gross revenues or approx. Rs. 425-435 crores for bad debts .

A host of innovative applications have been launched on the R-World platform  (used often by over a quarter of all its subscribers), which include online auctions  (baazee.com), matrimonials (shaadi.com), classifieds, travel reservations  for trains and airlines, etc. All such features will help differentiate the plain vanilla voice service offering from its competitors and establish its reputation as a leading edge provider for the masses (‘aam admi’).

Summary of Findings

1. Loyalty to RIM

Compared to other operators, there was very low customer loyalty towards Infocomm. This implies a high potential for churn/defections. This was indicated in the results for questions 9, 12, and 13 from the questionnaire.

2. Customer satisfaction with Infocomm

The lowest satisfaction was with Billing (1.0/5.0) and the highest was with VAS (3.6). Customer care was the next lowest (2.0). These should be the key areas of focus for the company going forward.

3. Profile of Reliance subscribers

Mostly middle to upper middle class customers seemed to have RIM but this data was skewed due to the small sample size and the fact the survey was conducted online. This implied having a PC, internet access, and being an English speaker which would explain the demographic.

In the corporate circles (working class) respondents have clearly indicated that they have selected Reliance as a service provider not because they like to but because of the company requirements. These were again the respondents who showed inclination to switch over to a new service provider. This throws light on the user loyalty. The clear differentiation that Reliance has presumed to achieve through its Rworld data services/applications over the competition will not hold for long as the customer has different perceptions of the service. The customer perceives value as anything that is need based. The moment a value added service is chargeable and the customer does not perceive the service as needful and they stop using that service. This indicates that Reliance might have to rethink its differentiator strategies. The customer satisfaction results show that Reliance is way behind in the service quality it offers (a combination of network and customer care). It is at par with its competitors in the way a customer prioritise value for money but is yet not a preferred service provider .The spends on the average mobile bills seems to be a budgeted allocation and can be linked to customer satisfaction (e.g. a customer whose monthly bills are well inside his budgeted amount is least likely to consider switching over). Thus innovative schemes should be the key for retention of such customers. The new pre-paid offer with single pre-loaded coupons is a good step in response to market demands but clearly not enough.

Since we had also incorporated open ended questions both in our online and offline surveys we received a lot of qualitative and descriptive feedback, which have been summarised in the report and presented fully in the appendix (e.g., the data on Kyocera handsets from online feedback).

[Ganesh 0]

absolutely true report. congrats city02

[pjthevj 1]

hi city02.really liked ur report!!! could u mail me the whole report or post it on some site(hope u dont charge!!!)...please do it soon!

mail me at:

pjthevj@yahoo.com

[city02 63]

Actually I've got multiple requests for this but I'm not sure I want to be mailing out a 50-page, 3 Mb file!

I'm open to uploading it to something like yahoo briefcase assuming that's also not blocked from work.

Keep in mind this is not an official/professional report - its for a class/educational purposes only (our sample sizes are too small to conclude anything meaningful).

Hope this works:

http://f1.pg.briefcase.yahoo.com/bc/galant...v12.zip&.src=bc

Its a 1 Mb zip file.

Hey, that just gave me a brilliant idea!

Maybe we could charge Rs. 5-10/copy and use the proceeds to support this site!!

Arun, whaddya say?

PS: can we do anything about the list/bullets formatting (above)?

it leaves too much space in between and looks weird.

[rajatng 0]

Wow city02. I went through the report.

You have really put time and effort into this.

Congrats. Great work.

[city02 63]

Wow city02. I went through the report.

You have really put time and effort into this.

Congrats. Great work.

Thanks!

As they say - anything worth doing is worth doing well.

I'm glad that others liked it - the more it circulates, the better return on our efforts.

It was a 2 person team and took us about 5-6 weeks (with me almost 'firing' my team mate for waiting till the last possible moment to get started!)

But that's another story ...

All's well that ends well.

glad to know that yahoo briefcase is working for everyone

[Tushar 0]

Well City so this was the project you kep talking of in your Polls. I should say its relly WELL COMPILED and all. Looks like you've but a gr8 hard work into it. I really appreciate your efforts making such a report is not every man's game

[city02 63]

You all are too kind!

Thanks again...

[simrabhatia 0]

hey city02, i was just goin through your project, i mean it looks a real class must say u have put in a lotta effort . I would really love to see your entire project. I tried opening the link for the brief case but its doesnt open. I was just wondering if u could mail me the project or put it again and let me no.

simran.bhatia@yahoo.co.uk

thanks

[ashoksoft 83]

me too .. mate!! a copy plz

Cheers

Ashok

[hfilvja 0]

Can u please mail me your project, i am unable to retrieve it from your briefcase.

Edited January 26, 2006 by Vishal Gupta

[supernova 47]

great work cityo2.. mail me too at jainindian@rediffmail.com

[city02 63]

Good lord!

it took me some time to pull out this almost 2 year old doc...

I could post it here but the limit is just 1.6 mb

its 2.9 mb in size...

[ashoksoft 83]

How about having it online at rapidshare or just mail me at ashok[dot]karkera[at]gmail[dot]com and I will upload it someplace for u (maybe on my web space)

Cheers

Ashok

[Arun 795]

I didn't take much time to find it from my archives

Download here: http://rapidshare.de/files/12436081/RIC_MR_v12.zip.html

zipped... its only under 900 KB!

[prakashkadam 1]

I didn't take much time to find it from my archives

Download here: http://rapidshare.de/files/12436081/RIC_MR_v12.zip.html

zipped... its only under 900 KB!

it is quite a old report, i mean atleast 2 yr old. Anything done recently, on similar lines. Is Reliance Infocomm doing anything with the findings of the report?

-prakash

[bajaj 0]

Good lord!

it took me some time to pull out this almost 2 year old doc...

I could post it here but the limit is just 1.6 mb

its 2.9 mb in size...

hi

can u pls send me the reprt at my id

i need it very urgent and jaruri

rahulbajaj.er@gmail.com