A Case Study of Grameenphone Service Satisfaction Analysis from the Customer Point of View

A Case Study of Grameenphone Service Satisfaction Analysis from the Customer Point of View

The Organization

GrameenPhone Ltd. is the leading organization of mobile telecommunication industry of Bangladesh. This is the first organization that brought GSM technology in mobile telecommunication for the general people of Bangladesh. The organization is not only leading the telecommunication industry, but also it has significance activities in social and cultural sector. The head office of the organization is located at – Celebration Point, Plot No. 3 & 5, Road No. 113/A, Gulshan-2, Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh. At present the organization has 5 Customer Care centers, 82 GrameenPhone Centers, 25 GrameenPhone Distribution Centers and 651 GrameenPhone Service Desks all over the countries, which are working as branch offices.

In 1996, Bangladesh was preparing to auction off private cell phone licenses to four companies. So at the behest of Dr. Muhammad Yunus (Grameen Bank’s founder) but completely independent of Grameen Bank, a not-for-profit private company called Grameen Telecom was created. Grameen Telecom, in turn, created a for-profit company called GrameenPhone, found a foreign partner, and put in a bid; GrameenPhone received one of the four licenses on November 28, 1996 which was offered by the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications of Bangladesh. GrameenPhone’s total capitalization was US$120,000,000, including around US$50 million from IFC/CDC, and the Asian Development Bank (ADB). It also received US$60 million in equity from the four GrameenPhone private partners. These were the Norwegian Telenor with a 51% share, Marubeni of Japan with a 9.5% share, and the American Gonophone at 4.5%. GrameenPhone’s fourth partner is Grameen Telecom (with 35%), and Grameen Telecom borrowed US$10.6 million from the Open Society

Institute to set up Village Phone. The organization launched its service on March 26, 1997, the Independence Day of Bangladesh and after 9 years of its successful operation the organization could achieve the trust of more than 10 million subscribers.

Perception about GrameenPhone prevailing in the industry

Market Leader: GrameenPhone is the leading telecommunication service provider in the country as measured by number of subscribers, network coverage, long-term relationship and profitability.

Affordable: With a low startup cost GrameenPhone has tried to achieve the main purpose of its existence which is bringing telecommunication within the reach of the mass people of Bangladesh

Innovative: To be the trendsetter; GrameenPhone is open and receptive to new ideas. They continuously find new and better ways to serve customers through technology and service and have even introduced products that did not exist in the telecommunication industry previously.

Financially sound: GrameenPhone has sound financial health due to foreign investment and massive expansion.

The Culture

GrameenPhone has a conducive and safe working environment. Besides focusing on customers and communities, they are committed to treating their employees with integrity,

dignity and respect. The organization’s intent is to establish good working relationship through a mutual understanding of expectations.

GrameenPhone believes in working in a team and demonstrate the team spirit to maximize and excel in standard quality service to their valued subscribers in the area of telecommunication.

Beside this, employees work in an environment where they feel valued, responsible and supported by the authority as well as by their colleagues.

Products and Services

GP has developed a number of product packages to suit different calling needs. Products and services that offered by Grameen Phone are Smile, Djuice, Apon, Sohoj Bondhu, Baadhon, Ekota, Business Solution Prepaid, Business Solution Post paid, Internet Sim Pre paid and Internet Sim Post paid, Xplore, Gp Public ( GPPP), village Phone ( VP) and Bangladesh post office ( BPO).

Products

Smile- This product can reach the local T&T, NWD, ISD, and all mobiles across the country in both incoming and out going way..

Village Pay Phone – Village Pay Phone program began from a social commitment made by the shareholders of GrameenPhone that “Good Development is Good Business”. The program is implemented by Grameen Telecom (GTC) in cooperation with Grameen Bank, the internationally renowned micro- credit lending institution. This is a special type of product of GrameenPhone, distributed through Grameen Bank. This product is sold only for business purpose and especially to underdeveloped village people. They are subsidized through half billing rate in comparison to others. Its features are mostly common with GP Public Phone. .

Djuice – This package is especially targeted towards the young generation. Price of this package is 900 taka. In this package out going call charge to any mobile number beside Djuice numbers during the pick hour (8am to 11.59 am) is 2 taka/minute and Djuice to Djuice mobile number is .49 taka/minute. During the off pick hour (12 pm to 4pm) and (12 am to 8 am) out going call charges to any Gp number is .49 taka/minute. Off peak hour for other Operator (12 am to 8 am) call rate is 1 tk / minute.

Djuice subscribers can also choose two GrameenPhone number as fnf number in which they can call at .49 taka/minute rate all day long. Beside these, the special features of this package are 50 free Short Message Service, reduced Short Message Service charge to Djuice numbers and a variety of other value added services.

Pre-paid mobile to mobile product targeted at the youth segment.

Xtra Khatir: benefits/discounts on selective Youth oriented shops and concerts

Group Messaging + SMS Chat and SIM Card: 200 Contacts can be saved (3 numbers/ each Contact).

Djuice SIM would be able to store up to 40 SMS messages at a time.

Djuice brings a website (http://www.djuice.com.bd/) only for the youth.

Business Solution – Business Solutions is a high quality and fully integrated telecommunications service from GrameenPhone, especially designed for the business entities of Bangladesh. As the largest and most customer centric telecommunication service provider in the country, GrameenPhone provides customer oriented and customized telecommunications solutions through a highly consultative approach. What they offer is a suite of specialized products and services covering all communication needs for professionals, small, medium-sized enterprises to large companies.

Comprising of modern mobile telecommunications services for any business needs, GrameenPhone provides voice services, messaging services and mobile data and internet services. They also provide a complete Mobile Office solution, including mobile e-mail, mobile high speed data access, internet access, mobile fax and more, giving subscribers the freedom to work from anywhere they want to.

Business Solution contains both Post-paid and Pre-paid packages. The Post-paid package is divided into two categories – Post-paid SME and Post-paid Corporate. Subscribers of Post-paid Corporate and SME do not need to provide any monthly access fee. Both Post-paid subscribers of Business Solution package get 3 friends and family numbers in which they can add one other operator number as fnf call at 0.49 taka rate per minute gp fnf number call rate for other operator fnf no is .080 tk/minute all day long. .

The best customer service

Xplore : This is the post paid Sim for the customer the main benefit of this package is 1 sec pulse and as the same time the customer get 4 fnf no facility ( only gp no). Another facility the customer able to use unlimited Internet package p2 service. The customers get 500 tk as their credit limit. Internet and other value add service charges are added last of the month with their bill. Bill cycle is 10 or 24 of the month. Other call rate are given below

Gp Public Phone (GPPP): Postpaid with Prepaid payment mode (Credit Organizer with zero ’0’ Credit Limit), No monthly access fee. No monthly commitment fee from – 15th March, 2008. Before 15th March, 2008 Monthly Minimum Commitment Fee was BDT 1200

Based on invoice amount; USAGE on INVOICE includes MO/MT charges for –

Air part, Land Part (local + NWD + ISD), Both MO and MT, All services (telephony + EDGE + SMS + MMS + VSMS etc.). 10 % discount will be applicable if airtime usage is BDT TK 4000 and above (Excluding vat). Both way BTTB connectivity (outgoing & incoming) with Local/NWD/ISD options. Outgoing Pulse to GP and other operator is 1 sec. from 1st minute onwards from – 15th March, 2008. For prepaid GPPPthe customer will get 10 % bonus each 50 tk recharge. Tariff is given below

BPO: This sim is mainly given through the Post Office. The customer can get GPPP facility as well as Flexi load facility. subscriber enjoys 10% bonus on monthly airtime usage of Tk. 4000 or above. The bonus will be disbursed within maximum 7 days period of next month in the dedicated account. Bonus can be used in both on-net, off-net and VSMS (on net + Off-net).

Value added Services

GrameenPhone offers the following core and value added services along with the above mentioned products to its subscribers:

International Roaming – Grameen Phone is providing international roaming facility to Xplore and Business Solution Post paid Sim. . These subscribers can avail this facility after fulfilling of some requirements. In March 1999, Grameenphone introduced this premium service for the first time in Bangladesh and now provides International Roaming service to its own subscribers traveling abroad as well as to foreign operators’ subscribers traveling in Bangladesh. For the first time in Bangladesh in July 2006, Grameenphone launched Roaming Services (both GSM and EDGE/GPRS) . With Camel phase 2 for prepaid in bound customer. Grameenphone has unique ‘One to One’ relationship with all its International Roaming partner operators. As of May 2009, Grameenphone has 357 GSM partner operators in 120 countries in 6 continents and 137 EDGE/GPRS partner operators in 55 countries.

Short Message Service (SMS) – With this service, GrameenPhone subscribers can send text messages (160 characters each) to any mobile number. The service comes with all of the products, free of monthly charges. The charge of sending SMS is 2 taka per 160 characters for abroad.

Fax / Data – Fax and data services are available in post-paid packages for corporate clients. The service enables users to send/receive fax and data through their handsets by connecting to a PC/Laptop.

Voice Mail Service (VMS) – This service works like an answering machine. Anyone calling a GrameenPhone subscriber who is out of reach at that moment can leave a message, which the subscriber can retrieve later. The service comes with all of the products, free of monthly charge and it is provided to the subscribers based on their request for the service. Though it does not have any monthly charge, still subscribers are to pay charge which is equal to their per minute outgoing call charge when they will listen the stored voice mails in their voice mail box.

Grameenphone offers you the Voice Mail service so that you do not miss any of your important calls. Voice Mail is a type of answering machine. It allows you to have incoming messages recorded when your mobile is:

ü Busy

ü Switched Off

ü Out of Coverage

ü Or the call is not picked up (no reply)

You can retrieve the messages from the Voice Mail Center later at your convenient time.

Voice Mail Box Service Features

This service is available for all GrameenPhone subscribers.

Standard GSM Features – Caller Identification, Call Barring, Call Holding, Call Conference, and Call Forwarding services are available in both Pre-paid and Post-paid packages. These GSM feature can be activated or deactivated free of cost.

Call Forwarding:

Allows subscribers to forward their incoming calls to any number* when their mobile is off, unreachable or they don’t want to be disturbed. Call forwarding can be enabled from the handset, or subscribers can use the following short codes:

Forward Cases		To Activate	To Deactivate
CFNRC		Forward when Not Reachable	* * 62 * phone number #
CFB		Forward when phone is Busy	* * 67 * phone number #
CFNRY		Forward when there is No Reply	* * 61 * phone number #
CFU		Forward All Calls	* * 21 * phone number #
		Forward All Calls	002[Phone Number]#
		Forward all calls that match the 4 condition	004[Phone Number]#

* Again if the diverted number is a FnF number, in that case divert calling charge will be as usual GP to GP

calling charge
				# # 002 #
	Divert Cancel

To Cancel All sorts of call forwarding

# # 002 #

Call Waiting: Enables subscribers to put a current call on hold (without disconnecting it) and make or receive another call. They can swap between one caller to another while the other callers are put on hold. Subscribers will be able to put maximum of three callers on hold (at a time). Call waiting can be activated from the handset, or subscribers can use the following short codes:

OSS	Case Name	To Activate	To Deactivate
	CAW	Call Waiting	*43#

EDGE Service – GrameenPhone is providing EDGE services under which a subscriber can use internet, multi media message and WAP services. But for using EDGE, the hand set of the subscriber should be EDGE software supportable. There are two packages for EDGE. In package 1 (P1), subscribers have to pay .02 taka for per kilo byte browsing. But for package 2 (P2), subscriber will pay 1000 taka per month and against that, he/she can have unlimited browsing. But for both of the packages, download changes for any content are applicable. P4 is only for prepaid customer he or she will get 150 megabyte Internet browsing facility for 24 hours charge will be 60 tk , Latest two Internet package is P5 and P6 both prepaid and post paid customer will able to use this two package P5 package the customer will able to get 3 Gb internet facility for 30 days and the charge will be 700 tk, P6 package the customer will be able to get 1 Gb internet facility for 30 days and the charge will be 300 tk.

Voice SMS – GrameenPhone provides voice sms service in which a subscriber can leave a voice message of 2 minutes to any GrameenPhone mobile number. Last 10 voice sms are kept in GrameenPhone server. To listen voice sms for the first time, there is no charge. But subscribers are to pay 1 taka/minute if they want to listen any previous voice sms.

Welcome Tune – A newly introduced service where subscribers can purchase any song or music from the welcome tune list and can save it as their default tunes. Once the tune(s) is/are set, subscribers who are calling from the other end will hear the tune(s). First time activation charge of this service takes around 36.8 to 55.6 taka. The service has a monthly charge which is 30 taka and subscribers are to pay 15 taka for each song or music they purchase.

Mobile Backup:

Mobile Backup is a service that ensures a safe and secure way of storing important data of your mobile phone including Contacts, SMS, Photos, Music, etc. The Mobile Backup service saves your mobile phone’s data to Grameenphone’s secure server, and also enables you to restore the saved data back in your phone, whether it is new or existing

CellBazaar is a service from Grameenphone that allows you to buy or sell over your mobile phone. If you want to sell something, post the information on CellBazaar through Grameenphone, and buyers will contact you. If you are looking for something to buy, or a service (e.g., tutor), you can look for it on CellBazaar and contact the seller directly. When buyers sees an item they like, they can call the seller, get additional information, and meet the seller to complete the transaction. CellBazaar is a platform for buyers and sellers to find each other.

Cricket Updates: Now, you can get latest cricket scores via your GrameenPhone mobile phone. Just choose the option convenient for you. For latest score updates, simply DIAL 2002 and Press 1 for cricket updates Charge is BDT 2.0 per minute excluding VAT

11 Mission, Vision, objectives and Strategies

Mission – GrameenPhone Ltd. aims to provide reliable, widespread, conveniently-mobile and cost effective telephone services to the people in Bangladesh irrespective of where they live. Such services will also help Bangladesh keep space with other countries including those in South Asia region and reduce her existing disparity in telecom services between urban and rural areas.

Vision – We are here to help.

Objectives – The main objective of GrameenPhone is to cover both urban and rural areas, whole of Bangladesh. For this to happen the company has a dual strategy of good business and at the same time good development of the country. With this objective in mind GrameenPhone plans to achieve economies of scale as well as healthy profit and at the same time serve the people of the country with good connectivity and other economic development.

Strategies – Grameen Phone’s basic strategy is to coverage of both urban and rural areas. In contrast to the “island” strategy followed by some companies, which involves connecting isolated islands of urban coverage through transmission links, GrameenPhone builds continuous coverage, ‘cell after cell’. While the intensity of coverage may vary from area to area depending on market conditions, the basic strategy of cell-to-cell coverage is applied throughout Grameen Phone’s network.

Functional Level Strategy – GrameenPhone’s focus is on efficiency, quality, innovation, and customer responsiveness. This enables the organization to earn competitive advantage over the competitors.

Business Level Strategy – GrameenPhone mainly applies cost leadership strategy. In addition, they also apply differentiation strategy as their business level strategy.

Corporate Level Strategy – GrameenPhone follows related diversification as their corporate level strategy. It enables them to keep the cost low and earn better expertise

ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE

Chart 1: GrameenPhoneOrganizational Structure

DIVISIONs AND DEPARTMENTS:

Recently management has brought a change in the organizational structure in view of need of time. As of the recent change, line function of the company comprises of the 7 major tasks. These are:

§ Technical

§ Administration

§ Marketing

§ Sales & Distribution

§ Customer Management

§ Human Resource

§ Finance

§ Information Technology

13.6 Customer Management Division

Customer Management Division as the name implies that it deals with the customers directly other than Sales division. Once a product is out in the market the characteristics and the other features of the product is known. As soon as the product gets well settled in the market and the customers avail the service they face lots of problems and come up with many different kind questions and varieties of queries. Now it’s the objective of the CMD to meet, fulfill and meet all kinds of queries from customers and provide the optimum solutions. It works to ensure customers’ satisfaction and also to motivate the people in GrameenPhone service.

Customer Management Division of GrameenPhone has different units that are involved in ensuring all post sale services to their valued customers. Next page contains a brief description of the activities of these units —

§ Call Management Center — The call management center handles all calls made by the customers to provide quality post-sales services time round the clock.

§ Credit & Collection Management — This unit identifies all accounts that exceeded credit limits or are very close to the credit limit and send them appropriate messages. They also bar, unbar lines of default accounts as well as identifying fraudulent activities. Beside these, this unit is further involved in collecting payments and other related activities like refund, adjustments, and proper reporting.

§ International Roaming Unit — The primary responsibilities of this unit are to generate the bills for the Roaming customers, keeping update of the roamers, provide instant services over roaming hotline, distribute the bill, roaming bill collection and other relevant activities of International Roaming.

§ Revenue Assurance Unit — This unit is involved in profiling customers according to their usage, payment habit, etc. Other then generating Bill Cycle End Report, Inactive Bar Report, Barred Account Report, and Revenue Outstanding Report, they also reconcile monthly reports with actual data regarding barred account, SIM changes, and Transfer of ownership.

§ Bad Debt Recovery — This unit handles all default customers through classifying the defaulter, designing recovery plan, processing legal actions, etc.

§ Corporate Customer Service— This unit is responsible for providing all post-sale services to corporate accounts. They also look after the Village Phone Services in coordination with Grameen Telecom (GTC).

§ Subscription Service- Subscription Services take care of all kind of after sales services including activation of new sim subscription. This unit consists of four parts:

1. Post Paid – Deals with new activation, SIM change, migration, reconnection, international roaming, friends and family, data fax facility, quality check.

2. Pre Paid – Deals with SIM change, migration reconnection, data-fax facilities, etc. for pre paid subscriber.

3. Instant service – Takes care of subscription forms archive, verifying signature of subscribers, maintaining electronic filing, information filing, sending SMS, transfer of ownership and supporting other units through hot line.

4. Dealer Management – Directly gives support to dealers through Hot Line 155 & 477.

§ Customer Communication Unit— The communication unit’s activities are to work as the middle tier between the different units and the customers. All physical data from the customers are received by this unit and communicated to the relevant units in this process they also handle legal issue.

Chart 6: Organizational Chart of Customer Management Division

COMPETATIVE ANALYSIS

Though GrameenPhone is leading the telecommunication industry of Bangladesh, others mobile companies are also doing well. Three other competitors of GrameenPhone are City Cell, AKTEL, Bangla Link and Tele Talk. The approximate percentage of market share of these organizations are given below –

Figure 2 shows the competitive position of GrameenPhone in the telecommunication industry of Bangladesh. At the same time it also shows the considerable growth of its competitors.

In terms of connectivity, GrameenPhone is able to provide better services because it has large number of base station (Tower). Still the network coverage of GrameenPhone is the widest one which has covered almost every districts and upazillas of Bangladesh. The nearest competitor Bangla Link has the coverage of 57 districts. Here one thing should be mentioned that is, Bangla Link covers this area within very short span of time. City Cell and AKTEL have better services in metro politan area. But their service level in rural area is not so appreciable. Tele Talk has the best connectivity with the land phone operator and Tele Talk to Tele Talk. But connectivity of other operator from Tele Talk is not so good.

In term of promotional activities, Bangla Link follows aggressive strategy. For promotion, they focus on mainly press and media publications. On the other hand, GrameenPhone focuses on sponsorships beside the press and media publication. Others operator have their own promotional activities, but not so aggressive like GrameenPhone and Bangla Link.

Besdie the strong network coverage GrameenPhone’s another major competitive advantage is its customer service that the other telecommunication organizations still could not achieve. At present 5 Customer Care centers, 13 GrameenPhone Centers, 25 GrameenPhone Distribution Centers and 651 GrameenPhone Service Desks all over the countries are working as branch office to bring the service to the doors of its subscribers.

SWOAT ANALYSIS

The SWOT analysis makes an attempt to analyze the internal strength and weakness of a plan or a company as well as the external threats and opportunities. Such an analysis enables a company to identify and enhance its strengths further, to determine its drawbacks and ways to overcome those.

15.1 Strength

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. Gonofone is also network base telecommunication organization, which has good reputation in USA. Marubini is called one of the Asian tiger organizations for its expansion of Business.

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. That’s 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.

15.2 Weakness

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. That’s why; some times 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.

No International SMS – GrameenPhone does not ensure international SMS, which brings dissatisfaction of international roamer.

15.3 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 AKTEL, 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.

15.4 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, that’s 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.

Non-co-operation 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.

Price War – Recently this has become the most important concern for any mobile operator. To remain competitive in the market, operators have to reduce prices, which causes of reduction of revenue.

PROBLEMS Faced by the Company Concerning Strategic, Operational and Legal Issues

Organizations often do have the privilege for not revealing the internal information by the excuse of corporate secrets. A company like GrameenPhone is also not likely to express the incidents of hustles and tussles with its competitors or its bargaining with parties. The out of record facts from the grapevines and some cover stories give us the idea that management has got some predetermined treatments on anticipated problems in internal sectors of strategic and operational fields. In case of external dealing, the company approaches with the protocol used by the firms. As GrameenPhone is a privet Ltd corporation, legislative affairs are treated according to the company Act. Some of the disputes have been solved through the “Arbitration Act” as well. However, for keeping confidential the organization never uncover its strategies or plan of actions in the public. The internal matters of a organization are always a hard nut to crack where GrameenPhone restricts outsiders. This is why; complete information could not have been traced out in this regard.

ORGANIZATION’S Current State of Operations and Future Plans

Since its launching nine years ego, GrameenPhone has grown steadily in spite of numerous obstacles. It crossed 6 million subscribers at the beginning of the year 2006. Along the year 2006, GrameenPhone has successfully headed towards the goal of another 3.5 million. At this time GP has:

§ Around 5263 Point of Sales

§ More than 345 Customer Service Points

§ More than 3590 Base Stations

§ Network Coverage at 439 Thanas

§ Around 9.5 million subscribes

§ 115 Roaming Countries with 309 Operators

§ Largest subscriber base

§ Widest network coverage

§ Instant and effective customer service

§ More than 2600 skilled and dedicated employees

Grameen Phone expects the expansion to continue and extend the coverage to all 460 Thanas, by 2007. New products and services will continue to be launched in the coming years that will ensure maximum customer satisfaction.

The recent market of telecommunication industry in Bangladesh is very competitive. To focus on the competitive market, GrameenPhone has developed its future plan. In the future plan, GrameenPhone mainly concentrated on pricing, services and human resources.

17.1 Pricing

In the price war of competitive telecommunicationindustry of Bangladesh, each mobile company takes the price as an issue of competition. GrameenPhone has developed a plan to reduce the price in competitive manner with other operator which would also adjust with the revenue of the organization.

17.2Upgrading the Technology

To provide better services to subscribers, GrameenPhone have planned to upgrade its technology, specially the BTS stations, Billing Servers, office automation and internal communication among the departments. These upgradations will give pace to the day to day operation of GrameenPhone and thus provide better customer service.

17.3 More Value Added Services

To attract the customer, GrameenPhone will providemore GSM feature and value added services. For example, using the mobile phone subscribers will know the latest news of sports and current issues sitting at their home.

17.4 SEGMENTED Brand Name

Though GrameenPhone has a good brand name, the organization wants to establish segmented brand name for different market segment such as Djuice, which is only launched for the younger segment of GrameenPhone. So, for DJuice, the advertisement, the pricing, the marketing plan all are targeted toward the young generation. In near future, Like Djuice, GrameenPhone will launch new products, which will be targeted towards different segments like Corporate, Women, and Students etc.

More Service Points and Expanded Network Coverage

GrameenPhone will continue to make additional investment to further expand the coverage and increase the capacity of its network. With this, the organization will also increase the number of its services points so that service can reach the subscribers instead of subscribers come to the service. This will be done because the organization is committed to provide quality service all over Bangladesh and render towards having a satisfied group of customers.

Recommendations:

From the Questionnaire analysis we see that customers overall satisfaction will decrease if Cost of waiting time increase day by that means when customer call their respective operator’s hotline number that time they reach the customer manager after waiting long time. For example if the customer call their particular operator’s hotline number in any time except mid night then they have to wait 3 to 4 minutes to reach the customer manager. So Grameenphone should increase the manpower of call center and introduce new technology and upgrade software which may reduce the call waiting time and customer reach the customer manager right after they call.

One more important point is, from my analysis I identify that most of the subscriber of Grameenphone think that the Call rate for hotline number is not suitable. They think this is very much costly for them when they call their customer care number. Because GP charges for calling their hotline number per minute 1 taka. And in addition they have to wait more than 3-4 minutes to reach the customer manager. Which create a negative impact on customer mind. Because for solve a single problem they have to spend 6 to 7 taka. So Grameenphone suppose to reduce their call rate for their hotline or customer service number. But they have to reduce it up to an optimum level. Because if they reduce the call rate at minimum level then ultimately the call pressure increase dynamically. Then also Cost of waiting time increase substantially.

Another reason of customer overall satisfaction decrease is take long time to solve the problem. That means when the customer give the complain about their line and other value added service, the mobile operator company take long time to solve their problem. For example overcharging, friends and family number correction, missed call alert problem.

Then the companies take 72 hours from customer to solve that particular problem. To achieve the higher customer rate they need to reduce the time gap. And this can be possible when they use high technological software which has higher analytical capability.

Its also mentionable that one more things there are some other factors which are directly involve with customer satisfaction rate. These points are Service attitude of Customer Manager and The solution or outcome of the conversation bring some positive result. The service quality also depends on the key person who deals with the customer over the phone. So the companies need to trained their employees such a way that they serve each customer as their first customer. And try to increase their analytical power so they can understand the customer problem within a very short time.

And other important factor like length of the conversation, understanding capability of Customer Manager, positive behavior from Customer Manager end are acting as a vital role to maintain the company’s overall customer satisfaction rate. So companies must create more efficiency to maintain the customer satisfaction.

Conclusion:

Customer service process is a set of strategies, processes, and associated technology enablers designed to improve the interactions and engagement of customers. It involves not only the use of these systems, but also corporate cultural transformation and ongoing programs with the appropriate organizational framework.

Customer service and support is the main issue of service delivery process It helps the companies to retain their present customer, and make a strong bondage with the customer which make more profit for the company. For better delivery process GP introduce CRM software which reduce the call waiting time at the same time customer get the service instantly.

But here one important thing is GP need to increase their number of employees in their call center and also they need to introduce new technology which has higher analytical power. By this they can increase their customer satisfaction rate more and more As the same time service delivery process will be more faster.

Bibliography:

Texts:

1. Principles of Marketing: By Philip Kotler & Gary Armstrong(13e)

2. Marketing Management: By Philip Kotler (Millennium e)

3. Marketing Research: By Naresh K Malhotra (7^th e)

4. Consumer behavior: By Hawkins Del I, Roger Best and Kenet A Coney

5. Marketing Communication: By Michael e Belch & George A Belch (7e)

6. Customer Relationship Management: Getting It Right by Judith W. Kincaid

7. The CRM Handbook Author(s): Jill Dyché, Publisher and Imprint: Addison Wesley Professional,

8. Annual Report of Grameenphone: 2008 and 2009

9. And Various Hand out of Course teacher of ASAUB

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