International Journal of Innovative Technology and Exploring Engineering (IJITEE)
ISSN: 2278-3075, Volume-8 Issue-8, June, 2019
2841
Retrieval Number H7013068819/19©BEIESP
Published By:
Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering &
Sciences Publication
Abstract: India is home of the biggest telecom growing country
with more than 1.20 billion customers. This sector has shown
tremendous growth in last decade with a remarkable growth in
the number of users and high internet penetration. As a result,
the competition has also intensified among various local and
international players. It has thus become very important for the
telecom industry to fulfill the requirement of its subscribers as
well as employees to retain in the market. The present research
intended to study how the quality of service will influence on
customer satisfaction and loyalty in the Indian telecom providers.
The present research has identify and analyze five factors that
are tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy
in service quality. For this purpose, 200 customers of four
telecom service providers in India were surveyed using a close
ended questionnaire, in Delhi-NCR region. The findings of the
survey indicated that quality services in telecom industry has not
only positive however a very substantial impact on the customer’s
satisfaction and loyalty.
Keywords: customer’s satisfaction, loyalty, service quality,
telecommunication and Delhi-NCR
I. INTRODUCTION
Digital age has created a great need base of services
related to telecom industry, such as calling, messaging,
internet and internet related applications that require a
telecom connection [1]. The number of telecom customers
in India have grown in past few years, and the expansion of
telecom industry has given birth to immense competition.
To become the market leader, the service providers sell their
services at low cost, increase their coverage areas, invest in
customer service, and tailor-make their services as per the
needs of the customers. This competition has prompted an
improvement in the quality of services from telecom
providers so that customer satisfaction achieved can retain
customers. Services offered to the subscribers in India from
telecom service providers have indeed increased in quantity
and quality. For the service providers the customer
satisfaction is a priority for telecom providers in order to
survive. Further, if customers are satisfied, they will become
loyal to the service providers[2].
Revised Manuscript Received on June 15, 2019.
Kuldeep Kumaris Research Scholar, Amity Business School, Amity
University Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India.
Dr. R. S. Raiis Professor, Decision Sciences and Deputy Director,
Research Planning and Statistical Services at Amity University Uttar
Pradesh.
Dr. Anurag Dugaris Assistant Professor at Indian, Institute of
Management Shillong, Meghalaya, India.
This will contribute to increase in long term success and
profits of the provider. Though, many other cases such as
4G internet running at 2G or 3G speed, call drops, busy
networks, and many other quality related issues need to be
assessed in terms of the impact they have on the customers,
and their sense of contentment and faithfulness[3]. This
research is needed to evaluate the customer contentment and
faithfulness towards the current service provider in Delhi-
NCR
II. LITERATURE REVIEW
The Indian service provider has one of the instantaneous
growing market with a subscriber base touching up to
742.12 million in the year 2010 and a tele-density of
62.51
million and rising [4]. With such an increase in the
service demand, it is only natural that the companies are at
rivalries in competing to maintain and conquer their share in
the market. With this rise in the competition, the companies
have realized the need to retain their customers. A major
challenge which the marketers face in today’s time is how to
secure and retain loyal customers in order to ensure long
term profit and therefore, it is very crucial to identify and
understand the factors that are important for the customers
to be brand loyal for an in-service[5]. According to[6], if we
go by the price of enticing new subscribers is five times to
the price of retaining old subscribers, and hence, customer
loyalty is basic for business success.
Again, Oliver in the year 1980 put forward a theory called
the “Disconfirmation of Expectation” where the author
claims that customer satisfaction is achieved as the
performance of end product surpasses the customer
expectations [7]. On the other hand, a consumer is unhappy
when the performance is less than expected value. However,
[7]author presents the criticism to the theory of
Disconfirmation on the grounds that this theory do not take
into account the existence of other complexities and that
measuring customer satisfaction is not as simple as it has
been perceived to be the expectations of the customer.
Rather, it is completely as a result of the personal
experiences of consumption and that it can vary from one
customer to the other. Similarly, [8] implicated further
channels on the complexities and that numerous components
of a product affect the customer in different ways.
Service Quality is a major component of competitiveness
and it has incepted much interest in researchers and
academicians as it has been difficult to quantify and define
service quality [9].
Impact of Service Quality on Customer
Satisfaction and Loyalty in the Sector of
Telecom Service Provider in Delhi-NCR
Kumar, Kuldeep, Rai, R.S., Dugar, Anurag
Impact of Service Quality on Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty in the Sector of Telecom Service Provider in
Delhi-NCR
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Published By:
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& Sciences Publication
Retrieval Number H7013068819/19©BEIESP
In 1988, Zeithaml, Berry and Parasuraman developed a
model called the SERVQUAL for evaluating quality of
services [10]. The SERVQUAL has 22 item scale under
which five factors; tangibles, assurance, reliability,
responsiveness, empathy. These five factors evaluate the
service quality by measuring the customers’ outlooks and
insights. It provides explanation of quality of service and
therefore it has led to its usage extensively [11]. [4] has
opined that the SERVQUAL model as a decipherer of
satisfaction and loyalty of customer. All researches which
run through the SERVQUAL model are able to conclude
that the gaps can be traced easily when the differences in the
expectation and perception is figured out [10].
[12] conducted a study which focused on the factors of
quality of service along with their relation to customer
contentment. The author assessed the Yemen mobile
services market through surveying customers of mobile
services by applying a structured questionnaire. The
research utilized structural equation modelling and the
results were assessed through five factors of service quality,
i.e. empathy, reliability, tangibles, assurance, and
responsiveness. The study showed that quality of service
dimensions positively impacted consumer satisfaction and
that the impact was significant, which then affected the
consumer loyalty. The outcome indicated that customer
satisfaction further positively affected customer loyalty.
Keeping these finding in view, below is proposed :
HA1: There is significant effect of quality services on the
customer satisfaction in service Industry in Delhi-NCR.
Thorough research has evidenced that the subscriber
perceive the service quality in multidimensional way [13].
These multi-dimensions of SERVQUAL help to track the
service quality and are applicable across variety of service
contexts. On the other hand, [14] author implicated
consumer faithfulness as a strongly held assurance to
‘rebury or repatronise’ a favored services regularly, which
results in the continuous purchasing even during
circumstantial influence and the selling efforts which might
lead to a switching action.
In the research conducted by[15]on consumer satisfaction
of the telecom customers in Pakistan, it was found that
consumer satisfaction and loyalty are related. It was also
observed that consumer satisfaction leads to consumer
loyalty. The research identified service quality to possess a
significant positive association with consumer satisfaction,
with the increase trust in consumer loyalty. Finally,
perceived prices by the customers of services also has a
substantial effect on the consumer satisfaction.
Another research was conducted by[11]who wanted to
understand how gaps in quality of service would impact the
consumer loyalty. The research was conducted on telecom
providers BSNL and Airtel in the J&K region; this research
was run through the SERVQUAL model where its five
components were assessed. The outcomes reflected that the
gaps in quality of service led to an affirmative effect on
consumer loyalty, such that if the telecom providers did not
have good quality in their services, the loyalty of the
customers decreased significantly. The study also
recommended that service providers upgrade their service
technology and provide customers with modern equipment.
Based on above, following is the proposal :
HA2: There is significant effect of quality services on the
customer loyalty in Telecom Industry of Delhi-NCR.
The current research is an attempt to furnish an
understanding on SERVQUAL model service dimensions,
and will thus work to analyze their effect on satisfaction and
loyalty among customers of Delhi-NCR telecom service
providers.
The conceptual framework for the study is presented below.
Figure 1: Conceptual Framework[7]
III. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The main objective of the study is to understand the effect
of quality of service provided by the Indian mobile
providers on the customer’s satisfaction and loyalty.
To achieve this aim, a survey via questionnaire was
conducted . The respondents for the research are the
Telecom customers who are using services of Four telecom
service providers of Delhi-NCR, India. The inclusion
criteria of the study for the customers was that these
customers should be users of such services for three or more
than three years based in Delhi-NCR region. The
questionnaire enquired about the quality of the service of
these providers and how it impacts their satisfaction and
loyalty towards these service providers. The questionnaire
was designed using Likert scale, where 1 is equal to
Strongly agree and 5 is Strongly disagree. Elements of
quality of service, customer loyalty and satisfaction, which
are covered in the questionnaire as a main research
variables. The response of survey questionnaire were
analyzed quantitatively using SPSS 21.0. Further hypothesis
has been tested and correlation analysis was done to
understand the relation between the variables. Finally,
regression analysis was carried out to study the effect of
service quality on customer loyalty and satisfaction.
IV. RESULTS
Table I reveals, most of the respondents are of the age
group of years 21-30 and 31-40. As far as gender is
concerned, 61.5% of the telecom users were found to be
males and remaining were females.
I. Demographic Profile
International Journal of Innovative Technology and Exploring Engineering (IJITEE)
ISSN: 2278-3075, Volume-8 Issue-8, June, 2019
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Retrieval Number H7013068819/19©BEIESP
Published By:
Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering &
Sciences Publication
The majority of the respondents are associated with the
providers from 5-7 years & 7-10 years . Further, 33% of the
telecom users are graduates following 26% of diploma
holders. Also the most of the respondents are on income
group of 8-10 lacs.
The table II depicts the statistics of the different telecom
providers and their range of services. As per the statistics,
the most used telecom connection is Reliance Jio followed
by Bharti Airtel. This can be attributed to the fact Reliance
Jio has captured large market in span of short period of time
with its low cost plans[16]. During the evaluation of the four
services that telecom industry generally provides, it is found
that most of the users are using Airtel for broadband
followed by Vodafone with 12 users out of total 50. It is also
found that Bharti Airtel is the best mobile voice service
provider with low cost calling and best network. As far as
mobile data service is concerned, Reliance Jio has shown
the massive growth in number of users and in the present
research also most of the internet users are using Reliance
Jio for data.
II. USERS OF SERVICES AND CONNECTIONS
Table III is the summarization of four questions that were
asked to the users of the telecom services related to their
satisfaction level and loyalty towards telecom connection
they are using. As per the statistics, 63.5% of the users
responded that the particular connection they are using meet
their expectations. Since most of the users were using
Reliance Jio, therefore it can be inferred that Reliance Jio
was standing by its customer’s expectations. 61.5% of the
users responded that they find their telecom connection
better than others. 50% of the users were of the opinion that
if superior service are given by other providers, they will opt
for different telecom connection. It can be inferred that 50%
of the users were ready for better options and other 50%
were satisfied with their current telecom connection. 48% of
the users claimed that their telecom connection frequently
bring in innovations to enhance the kind of service range
they are providing.
III. GENERAL CONTEXT OF RESPONDENTS
ABOUT PROVIDERS
The table IV depicts correlation between parameter of
service quality , customer loyalty and satisfaction. As per
the statistics, all the quality parameters were found to be
correlated with customer loyalty and satisfaction at
significance value i.e. .10(10% level of significance) .
IV. CORRELATION TABLE
**Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
*Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).
From table V, It is found that R2 that depicts “When a
customer has a problem, my telecom service provider will
show a sincere interest in solving it.” got the highest
correlation with both satisfaction and loyalty with Pearson
Correlation .934 and .928 respectively. It can be inferred
from this that willingness of the service provider to help
their customers to solve their problems is highly related with
customer’s satisfaction. Another significant variable is T2
that depicts “My telecom service provider is technologically
updated”. It can be inferred that customer satisfaction is
extremely related by the technical innovations and
upgradations in the range of services provided by the
telecom service providers.
Rest all other variables related to “Assurance”,
“Responsiveness” and “Empathy” are related with the
customer’s satisfaction but less than those discussed above.
Also quality of service is highly associated with the loyalty
of mobile customers. When the service provider aims at
providing quality services to their customers, customers feel
satisfied and do not tend to switch their telecom connection.
Therefore, this maintains the customer’s loyalty towards
service provider.
V. CORRELATION TABLE WITH SERVICE
QUALITY PARAMETERS
Impact of Service Quality on Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty in the Sector of Telecom Service Provider in
Delhi-NCR
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**Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
To study the impact of the quality of service offered by
the mobile service providers in Indian telecom industry on
the mobile customer’s satisfaction and loyalty, the
researcher has conducted regression independently for
customer’s loyalty and satisfaction.
As per Table VI, It can be observed in the present research
that coefficient of determination, R value is .943. Which
means that service quality parameters together constitute
94.3% of the deviation in customer satisfaction . The
significance value is .000 that is less than .01 (10%
significance level).
VI. REGRESSION RESULT
The F-value is chosen to test the model. The high F value
that is 662.369 inferred that research model is fit. Based on
the high F value along with significance level of .000, the
researcher has rejected the null hypothesis, and it is
concluded that service quality delivered by the Indian
mobile industry has a substantial effect on customer
satisfaction. It can be observed in the present research that
coefficient of determination, R value is .934 for customer
loyalty. Which means that service quality parameters
together constitute 93.4% of the deviation in customer
loyalty. The significance value is .000 that is less than .01
(10% significance level). The F-value is chosen to test the
model. The high F value that is 564.309 inferred that
research model is fit. Based on the high F value along with
significance level of .000, the researcher has rejected the
null hypothesis, and it is concluded that service quality
delivered by the Indian mobile industry has a substantial
effect on customer loyalty.
VII. REGRESSION ANALYSIS FOR SERVICE
DIMENSIONS
The table VII depicts four variables out of five variables are
coming out to be significant with significance value less
than .10 (10% significance level). Reliability is observed to
impact the customer’s satisfaction the most with
standardized coefficient value .942. It can be concluded that
reliable service provides ensures the timely services and
updated services to their customers which positively impacts
customer’s satisfaction level. Another major factor that have
substantial effect on the level of customer satisfaction is
responsiveness with standardized coefficient value .071
(second highest). On similar grounds, [7]conducted a study
to study the impact of service quality on customer loyalty
and satisfaction. The researcher in the above study found out
that prompt services and working as per the customer
requirements enhances the loyalty towards the telecom
provider. Being truthful to customers on the kind of services
they provide and the exact time of service benefits in
enhancing the customer’s satisfaction level. The other
elements that have substantial customer’s satisfaction
impact is assurance and empathy with significance value
.000 and .011 respectively. This can be inferred that
assurance of providing the right services on right time helps
in satisfying the customers. Also, providing convenience to
customers in approaching the service provider and
considering his interest is what brings customer’s
satisfaction the most. For customer loyalty four out of five
factors are coming out to be significant with significance
value less than .10 (10% significance level). Empathy has
significant positive impact (standardized Coefficients .363)
on the customer’s loyalty. It can be said that individual
attention to customers and working in interest of the
customers is what brings the loyalty of customers towards
the service provider. Another factor is Reliability that has
the substantial positive effect on the loyalty of mobile
customer with standardized Coefficients .959. It can be
determined that reliable mobile providers are able to hold
the customers and their loyalty towards the connection.
Assurance also has significant impact on the level of
customer’s loyalty with significance value .010. Assurance
of transactions, services on time and enhancement in the
existing services contributes towards the level of customer’s
loyalty. Another significance factor is Responsiveness with
significant value .000. Prompt responses to customer’s
enquiry and problems helps in enhancing the loyalty of
customers. As per research conducted by [17], it was found
that reliable services is an important factor that every
telecom service provider must consider in order to capture
large share in the market and
have competitive edge from
others.
International Journal of Innovative Technology and Exploring Engineering (IJITEE)
ISSN: 2278-3075, Volume-8 Issue-8, June, 2019
2845
Retrieval Number H7013068819/19©BEIESP
Published By:
Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering &
Sciences Publication
Statistically the service quality elements Tangibility,
Reliability, Empathy had substantial positive effect and
Responsiveness, Assurance had substantial negative effect
on customer’s satisfaction and loyalty.
V. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
The Indian telecom industry is expanding and initiating
its services in different domains like broadband and internet.
It has faced high competition within the country in the last
few years. Therefore, it has become crucial for service
providers to stand by the expectations of the customers and
enhance their level of satisfaction. From the literature it has
been identified that quality of service plays important role in
increasing level of customer’s satisfaction and loyalty.
Therefore, this study aim to find the impact of service
quality provided by Indian telecom providers on the
satisfaction and loyalty of the Indian telecom customers. As
per the statistics of the present study, the researcher has
concluded that the impact of quality services have
substantial and positive effect on customer’s satisfaction and
loyalty. Other than that, this study also found that Reliance
Jio has given cutthroat competition to similar players in area
of internet services whereas Bharti Airtel is providing
excellent calling service. As far as broadband is concerned,
again Bharti Airtel has got the maximum users in the present
research study. Further, it is concluded that different
dimensions of each service provided has significant effect
on the customer’s satisfaction level and loyalty towards the
service provider except for tangibility. There are four major
variables that have substantial positive effect on both
customer’s satisfaction and loyalty. These variables are
Reliability, Responsiveness, Assurance and Empathy. All
the services under these dimensions/variables are majorly a
concern of all the customers in deciding upon choosing the
service provider. Reliability as a service factors ensures that
the customers are satisfied with the timely and the right
services. This also leads to increased trust in service
providers and loyalty. Responsiveness towards customers
ensures that the services are being promptly provided and
the service providers are willing to respond to the grievances
of the customers. This ultimately enhances the level of
customer’s satisfaction. Empathy towards customers and
concern towards addressing their needs is one of the key
priorities of the telecom providers in Indian mobile industry
today. Framing services as per the needs and interests of the
customers results in enhanced level of customer’s
satisfaction and loyalty. On the other hand, assurance
sometimes brings disloyalty among the customers. This
happens when the service providers establishes high
expectations of the customers through their assurance and
later fails to stand by them. This results in low level of
satisfaction and loyalty in telecom customers.In summary
this studyindicated the findingsconcerning consumers’
satisfaction and loyality toward telecom providers.
VI. RECOMMENDATIONS
Following are the recommendations that has made based
on the outcomes and statistics of the present research paper:
Improve reliability standards: Since it was found in the
present research that reliability has substantial positive
impact on satisfaction and loyalty in mobile customers.
Therefore, it is suggested to the Indian telecom providers to
focus more on reliability standards like the service providers
can provide the services on time provide the services to the
customers as per the promise without any hidden terms and
conditions. .
Practicality in terms of assurance: As per the statistics of
the present study, it is found that assurance has negative
effect on the satisfaction and loyalty of mobile customers.
Thus, it is recommended to the service providers to form
realistic expectations of the customers. Unrealistic and
impractical assurance and promises leads to small extend of
satisfaction and loyalty in mobile customers.
Foster personal relation with the customers: As per the
findings of the study, empathy have a substantial positive
impact on satisfaction and loyalty. Therefore it is
recommended to the service providers that they must fosters
their personal relation with customers and pay personal
attention to individual customers.
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Impact of Service Quality on Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty in the Sector of Telecom Service Provider in
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AUTHORS PROFILE
Kuldeep Kumaris Research Scholar, Amity Business
School, Amity University Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India.
He is B.E from MDU Rohtak, MBA from IGNOU and
currently pursuing Ph.D from Amity university, Noida.
Currently his one paper is under review in International
Journal of Business and Globalisation, and he has
attended two international conference.
Dr. R. S. Raiis Professor, Decision Sciences and
Deputy Director, Research Planning and Statistical
Services at Amity University Uttar Pradesh.
He received a B.Sc. in Statistics, Mathematics and
Physics, M.Sc. in Statistics, Masters in International
Business, Ph.D. in Statistics from MLS University
Udaipur and Green Belt in Six Sigma from Indian
Statistical Institute, Kolkata. He has made numerous
contribution to research in management utilising
statistical tools and techniques having produces research
papers in internationally indexed journals. He had been
Editor of Amity Business Review and is on editorial and
review board of other journals. Two research scholars
have received doctoral degree under his guidance and
eight research scholars are currently doing Ph.D. under
his supervision.
Dr. Anurag Dugaris Assistant Professor at Indian
Institute of Management Shillong, Meghalaya, India.
He is PGDBM in Marketing, Master of Commerce in
Business Administration, MBA in Marketing and
doctorate from Faculty of Commerce, University of
Rajasthan, Jaipur. He has made numerous contribution in
journals (national and international) and business
magazines . Also presented two articles at International
Conferences (held at IIM – Indore and IIM – Bangalore)
and at other prestigious national level conferences
(including one at IIM – Kozikode ).
