Report

On
GrameenPhone

Report

On
Grameen Phone

Topic: Customer Satisfaction of

GrameenPhone

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Date of Submission: October 17 July 2007

Augst 15, 2007

Masud Ibna Rahman
Assistant Professor
Faculty of Business & Economics
Daffodil International University
102- Sukrabad, Dhanmondi, Dhaka-1207
Sub: submission of term paper on Customer Satisfaction of Grameen phone
Ltd.
Dear Sir:
It is a great pleasure for me for me to submit my report on the topic Customer
Satisfaction of Grameen Phone Ltds.
I have prepared this term paper, as a fulfillment of the course requirement. To
make this term paper up to the standard, I have tried my level best to fulfill the
requirements. I hope that this will help me in my future practical life.
I believe that you will be pleased to see my work. I also believe that this report
will be able to fulfill your expectation.
Sincerely yours,
.
MD: Feroz Alam
ID: 042-18-426

Ack nowledgement

First I would like to thank my supervisor Masud Ibn Rahman, Assistant

Professor, Faculty of business & Economics who has provided me an attention
grabbing course that exposed one more transparently to know users reaction of
telecommunication sector (Grameen Phone Customer Satisfaction of
Bangladesh Ltd.).I am also thankful to those respondents who filled up the
questionnaire, which helped me to make this paper. Without their help,
collecting primary data for users reaction would have been difficult. I extend
my thanks to the personal working in BGP customer satisfaction to provide me
some important information. I am ever thankful to my suspected teacher of
Daffodil International University from whom, I have been learning
continuously.

Executive Summery
As a market leader, GrameenPhone is continuously coming up with new ideas regarding its
products and services. Recently, the company is mainly focusing on the non-voice services.
Because, the company knows in near future, voice based services will reach to the maturity
stage which will make the business growth constant to some extents. Hence, the company is
trying to maintain the leading position in non-voices services as well like SMS, Push-Pull,
and Information related services at the early growing stage. These services are working as a
building block to increase GPs service value.
Coming up with innovative service is easier than making subscribers aware of services.
Hence through this internship report I have tried to analyze the present situation of the
cellular phone industry in Bangladesh and GPs position there in, find out the services that
Grameen phone is presently providing to its valued customers & their satisfaction level. 15
million people out of 140 million total citizen of Bangladesh are presently using cell phone; it
means that out of every 9 people one is using cell phone. In the third world country like
Bangladesh the amount of users is amazing. Grameenphone holds almost 61% market share
of telecom industry that is out of every 10 users 6 belongs to Grameenphone. So
GrameenPhone marketing strategy should be Profitable growth & expanding market share
through satisfying existing customers. I have also made a comparative service analysis of
various cellular phone companies in Bangladesh and drawn some valuable recommendation
to GrameenPhone to be the market leader in future in this competitive market.
A comprehensive survey was conducted to know about GPs present position in the market
and its present service condition that is providing to its valued customers. The survey report
shows that Grameen phone is still a market leader in this industry but as it is becoming more
competitive day by day so Grameen phone should revise its service packages, quality with
more conveniently for the customers.
Among the other cellular phone companies GrameenPhone has some unique competitive
advantages in this industry in Bangladesh so if it is possible for GP to provide better services
with continuous innovative products it will add value to the company. Otherwise, in the long
run new innovation services will not give its ultimate success.

Table of Contents

Topics
Executive Summary
Chapter -1

Page
No.
1-5

Introduction
Chapter -2

Chapter -3

6-11
Situation Analysis: An overview of the
Wireless Phone Industry

12-29

Company Profile
Chapter -4

30-56
Customer Management Division

Chapter -5

Chapter -6

57-66
A comparison of service among the wireless
phone operators

67-78

Customer Satisfaction & survey findings

Chapter -7

79-84
Recommendation & Conclusion
Appendix-1

85-86

Appendix-2

87

Appendix-3

88-89

INTRODUCTION
GrameenPhone (GP) today is apparently the largest mobile telecommunication industry in
Bangladesh. It operates its function with an aim to accomplish two principal targets. Firstly,
as with other commercial organizations, it operates in such a manner that it receives a good
economic return on the investment. Nonetheless, secondly, it contributes significantly to the
economic development of the country in making telecommunication a popular medium for
exchange of information.
GP, in its operation, has to address a large number of customers throughout the country. It is
therefore imperative to get to the customers to know their impression on the services of this
important communication medium. This encouraged the researcher to choose the topic of this
internship programme as Customer satisfaction of GrameenPhone.

Background of the Industry:

In a highly populated country like Bangladesh, telecommunication can play a vital role to
boost the economy and social level of people. The introduction of cellular phones has
dramatically changed the lives of businesses and individuals.
As there is a growing trend of workers turning from farming to other occupations, the need
for mobiles is increasing among the thousands of impoverished villages. The overall
efficiency of other business has increased as an aftermath of the government'
s decision of
deregulating the telecommunications sector, which until the late 1980s had been a state
monopoly.
Privatization of the telecommunications sector began in 1989, when Sheba and BRTA were
awarded 25-year licenses to install and operate fixed-wire lines and wireless services in rural
areas. The same year, Pacific Telecom Bangladesh got the government'
s permission to launch
the country'
s first cellular phone and paging service sold under brand name CityCell in
collaboration with a Hong Kong-based company. The company targeted only the higher class
of the society. During that time price of mobile was above Tk 50,000/=. Naturally, the growth
of the industry was too slow. CityCell had a virtual monopoly until 1996, when the
government gave licenses to three more companies to operate cell phones in Bangladesh. So,
the government decided to bring more companies in the market and break the monopoly.
After careful evaluation the government decided to provide three licenses to GrameenPhone,
TM International (AkTel), and Sheba Telecom (Banglalink). Only CityCell is

using Code

Division Multiple Access (CDMA) technology, AkTel, GrameenPhone, Banglalink these

three companies are using GSM (Global System for Mobile) technology. GSM is the most
popular mobile telecommunication technology in the world. About 60% of the cell phone
users of the world use GSM technology.
These three new companies entered the market, not only helped trim down over-dependence
on BTTB'
s fixed-line system, but also made mobile phones cheaper and easier to get. The

price of a cell phone came down from $2,000 to as low as $100, depending on the features of
the handset and SIM price is only Tk.200-300.
A definite development has been observed in the Business Market with comparatively high
expectations. Customer maturity and anticipation regarding technology has increased over
time.

Rumors regarding new entrants have groomed expectations in the market.

Consequently, people are expecting cheaper handsets with lowered airtime.

The existing Cellular phone companies in Bangladesh are CityCell (Pacific Bangladesh
Telecom Limited), GrameenPhone Ltd., AkTel Ltd. Banglalink and TeleTalk. Among these
company GrameenPhone, AkTel and Banglalink adopted GSM technology and Citycell the
market pioneer started with CDMA technology.

Objectives of the Study:

This Programme was designed to accomplish three objectives. The objectives were identified
through a closer interaction and exchange of views with the management of CMD. The
objectives are:
To find out the satisfaction level of GrameenPhone subscribers.
To locate specific areas of dissatisfaction of the GP users.
To analysis the year-wise contribution of GrameenPhone to the national

treasury.

METHODOLOGY

Based on the topic chosen, the researcher was assigned the task in the Customer Management
Division (CMD) in GP. This divisions consists of a big team of about 1500 employees. Its
functions relate with the customer service after the sales occur. Prime functions and activities
of the GP Customer Management Divisions cater to all after-sales services starting from
activation of subscriptions, all customer contacts (Centralized Call Center, Customer
Relations Centers, and centralized Customer Communications), billing, bank communication,
bill collection throughout the country, helpline services, GPSDs etc.

Limitations of the Study:

GrameenPhone basic strategy is widening its market through its emerging countrywide
network. As a result of this strategy, the subscribers are from different segments or from
different income levels. Moreover, the subscribers are scattered all over the country.
The time constraint confined the study mostly on the data collected in Dhaka zone. Moreover,
it was not possible to get all required internal information of the company as these are treated
as confidential to the company.
The outcome of the study can thus be regarded exploratory, and may not be treated as
absolute for the whole country. In latter case a more comprehensive study is required.

SITUATION ANALYSIS
An Overview of the Wireless Phone Industry

Telecom Market Growth:

At the initial stage of the mobile telecom industry because of high startup cost and high tariff
there was only a few numbers of subscribers. In 1997 there were approximately 23,000
mobile subscribers around the country with a low market penetration rate (.02%). At present,
the number of mobile users in the country is approximately 5.87 million and among them
GPs subscribers are over 3.5 million. Right now, in mobile industry, Bangladesh has four
private companies and newly TeleTalk a sister concern of BTTB has entered in the market
with a target to get 0.25 million subscribers by first 6 months of launch and 1 million by
2006. TeleTalk has offered lower rate with PSTN connection all over the country. The total
number of districts covered in mobile industry has been increased to 61 in 2004 from 1in
1997. The total telecom growth has increased to 55% in 2004 from 19% in 1998. Initially,
mobile growth rate was too high which was 178% in 1998 and now it is come into 67% in
2004. That means this industry is now going to its maturity stage. From the comparison of
different operators subscriber base, it can be concluded that GP is still leading the way with
a sharp distance. Though Citycell is the first mobile operator in Bangladesh, it is not doing its
business so good. It is increasing its subscriber from 2000 in 1997 to 6149111 in 2005. On
the other hand, AkTel is growing its subscribers faster than Citycell which is from 3000 in
1997 to 3000000 in 2005.

1999

2000

2001

Market

0.02

0.05

0.10

Penetration

26

36

40

49

59

61

96%

121%

149%

65%

116%

67%

17%

34%

66%

42%

40%

55%

Districts
Covered
Mobile Growth

178

rate

Telecom Growth

19%

Rate

2002
0.21%

2003
0.53
%

2004

2005

0.87% 1.88%

2006
3.13%

2007
3.61%
61
120%
65%

Subscribers base
Grameen
Phone

18,00 30,00 60,00 191,69

0

Citycell
AkTel

2,000
3,000

BanglaLink
TeleTalk

19,00

26,20

12,00 28,50
0

3,000

0
11,00
0

0
33,500
34,200
19,000

471,3
71
100,0
00
96,00
0
27,00
0
-

775,31 1878,0
0

00

160,00 225000
0

150,00 300,00
0

60,000 70,000
-

2424,1

61591

77

11

370,00

35000

00

1000,0

28000

00

00

100,00

10000

00

60000

Table : Development of the Telecom Market 1997-2005

The penetration rate of mobile phone industry in Bangladesh is increasing rapidly. The rate
was increasing slowly from 1997 to 1999. After that, the rate was increasing faster and now
till Nov 05 the penetration rate is 3.61% and only GrameenPhones penetration rate is
2.12%. Fixed network penetration is .72%.

Market Share of Mobile Operators:

The mobile phone market consists of five operators. Out of which, 61% share of the market
belongs to GP, 3% to CityCell, 28% to AkTel, 7% to Banglalink and the rest of 1% to
TeleTalk as of Nov, 05. GP holding the major share maintains a market leader strategy to
all other players in the market. The telecom market intends to grow at penetration rate of
more than 3.48%; where GP has already penetrated at 2.12%.

Market Share of Mobile Operators (2005)

28%

7%
61%

3%
1%
TeleT
TeleTal

Competitive Position of the mobile operator:

Table : Relative position of mobile phone operators

Target
Custome
r

Price &
Tariff

Quality

Technology

Corporate
/
Individua

Network
Low

Deteriorati
ng services

CDMA

Individua

Competitiv
e

Very
affordable

Individua
l

GSM

coverage and
market share

limited

quality and
limited

Increase
GSM

To maintain

Good
Competitiv network
e

with wider
coverage

coverage and
Market share

coverage

Corporate
SME/

service but

Increase

Low

l
/

quality

coverage

Corporate
Individua

attractive

High

/SME/

expansion &
products

Corporate
/SME/

Strategy

the no. 1
GSM

position as a
cell phone
operator

Target customers are almost same for the four mobile operators. Regarding to price and tariff,
AkTel and GrameenPhone are very much competitive. Banglalinks price and tariff is very
affordable and Citycell is able to give low price to its subscribers. In case of service quality
and network coverage, GrameenPhone is leading the number one position among them. Only
Citycell use CDMA technology and others three use GSM technology. By this, Citycell

differentiates its products from the others. Except GP, Other operators recent strategy is
increase coverage and market share through attractive products. On the other hand, GPs
strategy is to maintain its number one position.

Highlights of Competitive Positioning of Mobile Operators:

The operators have been engaged in intense competition in terms of start-up

cost and tariff. Most of the competitors of GP has adopted and will adopt
network expansion strategy.
The mobile phone market consists of four operators, out of which, 61% share
(End of 2005) of the market belongs to GP.
Good relationship with regularity authority is strength of some of the other
mobile operators while GP has achieved it to some extent by abiding by laws and
showing positive results.

10. Network And Network Coverage OF Grameen Phone:

GrameenPhone aims to build a full range of service all over the country. The company has
targeted to build extensive network all over the country. For better coverage, GP has taken
1600 Km fiber optic cable network leased from Bangladesh Railway. In April 2004, GP had
750 base stations. Now till Oct05, it has 1750 base stations. Furthermore, considering the
subscribers need of quality network and extensive coverage, the company is planning to set
up another thousand base stations in the following year. Recently GP has doubled its speech
quality 900GSM MHz to 1800GSm MHz. Already the company has expanded its network to
61 districts out of 64 districts and 400 upazillas out of 460 upazillas. Its the only company
which covers the most of the land areas with its net work. Approximately 52% land area is
covered by GrameenPhones network. In over all, GrameenPhone offers the most competitive
network facility to its subscribers, and continue improving it. Existing coverage areas are
divided into six zones according to the divisional boundary. These are

Dhaka

Sylhet

Chittagong

Rajshahi

Khulna

Barisal

District Covered
70
60
Districts

50
40
30
20
10
0

26
1

1997

1998

1999

36

40

2000

2001
Year

Figure : GrameenPhones district coverage.

60

61

61

2003

2004

Mar' 05

47

2002

Area under GP net

work covered
Figure : Net Work coverage of GrameenPhone.
The zone in which a subscriber is registered with GrameenPhone is that subscriber'
s Home
Zone, and all other zones are Remote Zones.

CUSTOMER MANAGEMENT DIVISION

The Customer Management Division of GrameenPhone Ltd. provides a full range of aftersales service customized to the needs of the valued customers. Efforts are made to offer
complete service through all the contact points dedicated for GP customers at every
opportunity through Call Center, Customer Management Centers and Customer
Communication.
The Slogan Of CMD is:
We believe in Involve & Evolve
Give sustaining positive experience to the customers by understanding and
fulfilling/exceeding their service expectations at appropriate time and prices. Make the
customer experience as the main differentiator to stand tall in the market.
The organgram of Customer Management Division:

Customer Management
division
Communicati

Human
Training &
Competence
Development
Process
Improvement

Service
Quality
Technology for
Customer
Experiance
Budget and
Follow up

Program

Calling
Center

Call
Center
Post
paid

Call
Center
Pre
Paid

Customer
Management
Center

Credit
Collection
Management
and
Banking

Corporate
customer

Figure: Organogram of Customer Management Division

Customer
IR
Customer Demographic
and
Service
Activation

Products and services that have been successful

GP-Regular, the oldest product of GrameenPhone retains its popularity through its full
connectivity to all networks including fixed line telephony services.
EASY Pre-Paid, because of Low flat tariff and nationwide mobility, its a Pre-paid
service, no monthly rent required and instant use due to pre-activation, no hassles of
bill payment.
Information Service through mobile because of easy access, interesting theme, and
reasonable rate and for being new and innovative.
Village phone because of use of Grameen Banks borrower network and for having
access to BTTB & ISD.
Subscription Unit
Customer Management Division (CMD) of GrameenPhone Limited is consists of 15 units;
Subscription Unit is one on them. This is the unit that remains very close to the customer and
always busy to meet the satisfaction of GPs valued customer.
Subscription Services
Subscription Unit is the unit that performs its job in touch with all other divisions. The
following figure [Fig-3.1] shows us the subscription services in a whole.
i)

Sales and Marketing

Sales and marketing is one of the important services of subscription. Among the
services they allocate phone number for various packages. They planed for new
product and packages. They receive the subscription papers all over the country
from the dealers.

ii)

Technical
Subscription unit also has some technical responsibilities. Among them quality
assurance of the SIM features, testing the SIM, SIM problem is important.

iii)

Legal
Subscription service also deals with the legal issue and various legal procedures.

iv)

IT
Subscription Unit also has IT services. This service mainly develop the customize
software for maintaining the customer database and other soft wares to maintain
efficient customer relation. All the Customer Relation Centers all over the country

are connected with central database. This network maintenance is also a

subscription units service.

Technical
Quality Assurance
Test SIM
Pre Paid Reconnection
SIM Problem

Sales & Marketing

Number allocation
Activation Papers
International Roaming
Subscription Paper Receiving
Product and Planning
Test SIM

Legal
Procedure

SUBSCRIPTI
ON
IT
Software Development
Networking between all CRC

Finance
International Roaming

Fig : Subscription Services

Finance
Another important service of subscription unit is to monitor the international
roaming facilities of the subscriber as well as the credit of the subscriber.
This is the flow of subscription services.

Information
Center

Subscriber

Fax or
courier
Services

Instant
Services

Activation,
Migration,
SIM Change,
International
Roaming,
WAP

Dealers or
Agents
Corporate
Care

Check,
Provisioning,
Quality
Check

Sales
Center
Sales and
Marketing

Number
allocation

Hotline155

Sorting

Electronic
Filing

Manual
filing

Fig: Subscription Services flow Chart

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION
The Customers are in the mainstream of sales oriented services. The success of such
companies largely depends on the satisfaction of the customers .The buyers are happy if the
product and/or the services meet their expectations. If their requirements do not meet the
expectations the buyers become discontented, they are delighted when the performance fulfils
their requirements.
Customers past buying experiences, the opinion of friends, associates, marketer, competitor
information and promises lead to the expectations. Marketer must be careful to set the right
level of expectations. If they set expectations too low, they may satisfy those who buy but fail
to attract enough buyers. In contrast, if they raise expectations too high, buyers are likely to
bedisappointed. Dissatisfaction can arise either from a decrease in product and service quality
or from an increase in customer expectations. In either case, it presents an opportunity for
companies that can deliver superior customer value and satisfaction.
To-day most successful companies have taken the strategy of are raising expectations and
delivering performance to match. Such companies track their customers expectations,
perceived company performance, and customer satisfaction. Highly satisfied customers
produce several benefits for the company. Satisfied customers are fewer prices sensitive
remain customers for a longer period and talk favorably to others about the company and its
products and services.
Although the customer centered firm seeks to deliver high customer satisfaction relative to its
competitors, it does not attempt to maximize customer satisfaction. A company can always
increase customer satisfaction by lowering its price and increasing its services, but it may
result in lower profits. Thus, the purpose of marketing is to generate customer value
profitably.
Now, we have a very good idea regarding the importance of customer satisfaction. So, it is
also important for the company to know about the satisfaction level of the customers. When
any problem is identified, it becomes easier to solve the problem.

The next part of this paper

has focused on the Customer Satisfaction Factors of

GrameenPhone. It is done through a research survey to find out the customer satisfaction
level of GrameenPhone.
Customer Satisfaction Factors of GP:
GrameenPhone is a fast growing mobile company. In mobile telecommunication industry,
there are direct and indirect factors that influence customer satisfaction. Here focus on the
most important factors that influence customer satisfaction at GrameenPhone which relates
with after sales services.
Airtime:
Air time is the core offering of GrameenPhone, So, quality of communication network
availability, etc, are the most important customer satisfaction factors, quality of airtime
depends on the ratio of subscribers and transmission base station. It the numbers of
subscribers are increased without developing the network, quality of airtime goes down
After Sales Services:
After sales services is very important in the mobile telecommunication industry. GP has
extensive after sales customer care tools. Here foucus on these step by step.
1. Helpline:
GP is the first company that introduced 24hours helpline in Bangladesh. In this part of my
paper I tried to focus on the existing operations of the helpline service of GP.which will
enable us to understand the importance of the helpline service.
A GP subscriber needs to dial 122, 121,148 to reach Grameen Phone Helpline. It is a
computer aided information base to afford immediate access to the information about the
subscribers, but the operations are done manually. After dialing 122, 121,148 subscribers are
first welcomed by an automated and standarilized process. Then he needs to wait for few
seconds. After that the subscriber reaches the Customer Manager. CM starts the conversation
with a greeting. The subscriber explains his/her problems to the CM (some basic queries are
enclosed in Appendix-2)

If the inquiry is regarding general information, the customer relations officer does not need to
take help of information system. She/he just provides the information and the subscriber keep
the phone.
There are some queries that are much more personalized and the CM needs to get into the
account of that particular subscriber to provide the service. In some case, the subscriber just
keeps the complaint/ request and later action is needed to be taken.
Customer need to pay TK. 4 per minute to take the service from helpline.
2 Interactive Voice Responses (IVR):
This newly introduced service by GrameenPhone. This is automated helpline service. A GP
subscriber needs to dial 123 to reach this service. After that she/he can get information
regarding the bill, usage, credit policy, bank name that receives GPs bill and so on by
choosing different options.Itisfree of charge for the first minute, from the second minute the
subscriber needs to pay tk.2 per minute.
3. Information Centers:
Most of the problems of the subscribers are solved by the helpline service. But there are
some problems that can not be solved there. Subscriber need to come physically to deal with
that problems.Grameen Phone has seven customer relation centers and 380 GPSDs which
provide services all over the country.
These Customer Relation Centers are situated in the prime divisional head quarters like
Dhaka, Chittagone, Sylhet, Rajshahi and Khulna and GPSDs situated all most everywhere in
Bangladesh. In these information centers the subscribers can come directly with their
problems like billing, address change, SIM change, handset problems, etc.
These after sales services are very crucial to keep subscribers satisfied regarding
GrameenPhone.
Survey Findings:
In order to measure the satisfaction of the customers a series of questions were asked to the
customers with the help of a questionnaire, the data from these questions are tabulated below.
For clear understanding, the overall satisfaction has been divided into satisfaction with the
package and satisfaction with the after sales service. As already mentioned, the survey was

conducted among hundred GrameenPhone subscribers, it was conducted in the information

center as subscribers from different areas in Dhaka come to this center
Interpretation of Survey Data:
a. I use GrameenPhone because it is the best:
Strongly Agree

25%

Agree

55%

Neither Agree nor Disagree 15%

Disagree

5%

Strongly Disagree

0%

Strongly Agree
15%

5%0%

25%

Agree
Neither Agree nor
Disagree
Disagree

55%

Strongly Disagree

b. I use GP mobile as it has additional features in comparison to other operators.

Strongly Agree

29%

Agree

63%

Neither Agree nor Disagree

8%

Disagree

0%

Strongly Disagree

0%

63%

70%

Strongly Agree

50%
30%

Agree
29%
Neither Agree nor Disagree

20%

8%

10%

0% 0%

Neither
Agree

0%

Farctors

Strongly
Disagree

40%

Strongly
Agree

Percentage

60%

Disagree
Strongly Disagree

c. Price of Gramophones different package is affordable.

Strongly Agree

4%

Agree

49%

Neither Agree nor Disagree

13%

Disagree

23%

Strongly Disagree

11%

60%

49%

Percentage

50%

Strongly Agree

40%

Agree
23%

30%

13%

20%

11%

4%

10%

Neither Agree nor Disagree

Disagree

Strongly
Disagree

Disagree

Neither
Agree

Agree

Strongly
Agree

0%

Strongly Disagree

Farctors

d. I am satisfied with the service (quality of airtime and network availability) of GP.
Strongly Agree

9%

Agree

26%

Neither Agree nor Disagree 24%

Disagree

30%

Strongly Disagree

11%

26%

11%

9%

Agree

is
ag
re
e

Disagree

is
ag
re

St
ro
ng
ly

is
ag
re
e

no
r

Ag
re
e

Neither Agree nor Disagree

N
ei
th
er
Ag
re
e

St
ro
ng
ly

30%
24%
Strongly Agree

Ag
re
e

Percentage

35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%

Strongly Disagree

Farctors

e. Whenever I want to have a GP connection, I can get it.

Strongly Agree

23%

Agree

28%

Neither Agree nor Disagree

17%

Disagree

19%

Strongly Disagree

13%

13%

23%

Strongly Agree
19%

Agree

17%

28%

Neither Agree nor

Disagree
Disagree
Strongly Disagree

Strongly Agree

10%

Agree

35%

Neither Agree nor Disagree

20%

Disagree

15%

Strongly Disagree

20%

35%

Strongly Agree
20%

20%
15%

Agree
Neither Agree nor Disagree

10%

Strongly
Disagree

Disagree
Neither
Agree

40%
35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%

Strongly
Agree

Percentage

f. GP helpline is very helpful in meeting my queries and other needs

Strongly Disagree

Farctors

g. GP helpline is very helpful in meeting my queries and other needs

10%

Strongly Agree

9%

Agree

40%

Neither Agree nor Disagree

20%

Disagree

15%

Strongly Disagree

10%

Strongly Agree

9%

Agree

15%
40%
20%

Neither Agree nor

Disagree
Disagree
Strongly Disagree

h. Billing rate of GP is low:

Strongly Agree

3%

Agree

18%

Neither Agree nor Disagree

14%

Disagree

37%

Strongly Disagree

28%

40%
35%

Percentage

30%
25%
37%

20%

28%

15%
18%

10%
5%

14%

3%

0%
St r ongly
Agree

Agree

Neit her Agree

Disagree

nor Disagree

St r ongly
Disagree

Factors

i. Criterias important while purchasing any cellular service

Criteria

No. of subscribers

Network Coverage

68

International Roaming

11

Value added Services

12

After Sales service

16

Easy Bill Payment System.

37

70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0

Network
Coverage

68
37
16
1112
No. of
subscribers

International
Roaming
Value added
Services
After Sales
service
Easy Bill Payment
System.

As we can see from the above table and the chart, maximum number of subscribers would
purchase a cellular service which has a good network coverage, apart from that the other
criteria which is they consider after network coverage is easy bill payment system.
j. Criterias which were considered while purchasing GrameenPhone
Criteria

No. of subscribers

Network Coverage

68

International Roaming

Value added Services

24 hrs customer service

48

Pre-paid facility and bill

37

payment facility

70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0

68

Network Coverage

37
16
1112
No. of
subscribers

International
Roaming
Value added
Services
After Sales
service
Easy Bill Payment
System.

From the chart and the table above it can be seen that most of the subscribers purchased
GrameenPhone due its network coverage. Also by looking at the figures the bill payment
system and the 24 hrs customer service were the other common attributes which attracted the
subscribers to purchase GrameenPhone
k. Satisfaction with the after sales service
When you are faced with a problem what do you do?
Criteria
Call up the GP hotline
Write a letter
Go to the Information center

No. of subscribers
54
6
48

60
50
40
30
20
10
0

54

48

Call up the GP
hotline
Write a letter

Go to the
Information center

No. of
subscribers

From the above table it can be seen that most of the subscribers either call up the GP hotline
or they go to the information center.
l. Are the GP employees able to solve your problem regarding the following criterias?
Criterias

Always

Sometimes

Never

N/A

Total

Billing

32

25

39

100

Bar/ unbar line

29

22

47

100

After sales service

49

31

15

100

Special service

17

21

60

100

60

22

18

18

100

187

121

31

179

100

(International roaming)
Value Added services
Total

From the table above it can be seen that regarding almost every criteria, the Grameen Phone
employees are able to solve the problem most of the time.
But at the same time there is quite a large number who always do not get a solution to their
problem this occur because for certain queries a subscriber has to go to the information
center and GrameenPhone has only one information center, due to this shortage a customer is
made to wait long hours in a queue. Also many times when the line takes more than a day to
be reconnected.

m. Subscribers perception of the different Grameen Phone package

Which
Grameen
Phone
Package
do you
use?
Total

What is your perception of GrameenPhone?

Excellen Good, but Alright, I use Bad, I am
t, I am
the
GP because
looking
fully
services
no other
for
satisfied
could be
company
alternative
improved
offers
GP
6
34
14
0
prepaid
GP
3
9
1
0
regular
GPGP
1
12
2
1
Regular
0
14
1
3
GP-GP
10

69

18

Total

54
13
16
17
100

It can be seen from the above table that most of the subscribers from every package perceive
their respective packages as good packages but they feel that the services can be improved.
According to the four faces of customer loyalty by Smart Loyalty, we could consider the 10%
to fall under truly loyal customers as highly satisfied, 69% of the subscribers could be
considered as accessible because they feel that the services can be improved, these
subscribers want to give a chance to GP to earn their loyalty. 18% could be considered as
trapped because they use GrameenPhone as no other company offers them the services and
only 3% fall under High-risk as these subscribers do not like the GrameenPhone services and
are looking for alternatives.

n. Opinion whether GrameenPhone subscribers would remain loyal if another

company came up with packages of similar features.
Disagree

Neither agree or Agree Strongly

disagree
agree
Which
GP prepaid
9
17
20
8
Grameen GP regular
3
3
3
4
Phone attributes:
GPGP
5
3 = 53 3
Negative
Neither agree5 or disagree + disagree
=33+20
package
3 = 28+19 =47 8
2
4
Positive
attributes:regular
agree + strongly agree
do you
GPGP
use?
Total
20
33
28
19

Total
54
13
16
17
100

Some Representative Additional Comments:

Helpline is not so easy to reach.
Behavior of helpline officers is quite rough.
Helpline gives support to solve our problem.
Info Centers take a whole day to solve a small problem.
In Dhaka city, there should be more info centers, especially in old side.
Prepaid connections are very difficult to avail.
Billing rate should be reduced, it is too high.
GrameenPhone does not think about the subscribers, their main intensions are to make
money.

Finding on Analysis
Several frequency distribution have been constructed to find the answers
regarding the customers perspective of grameen phone line users. By the
analysis. Some limitation of grameen providers have been identified. The most
important finding of the analysis is customers have claimed some problem on
their network system. It is found that some of the customer of grameen hardly
got connected after calling more then 4 or 5 times. This problem happens
especially in case of connecting outside Dhaka . it is found from the analysis on
customers occupation that the grameen is being more used by the students. Also
the have been frequently changing their choices regarding mobile service
providers. By proper customer care, once they catch this group for long
time,they can better perform in the market. Analysis shows that80% of the
customers use prepaid lines. One of the significant finding from the analysis is
that customer who use grameen , use the line because of minimum call charge
compared to other. So further study is needed to understand the related
problems and the company should offer more facilities to the competitors to
increase their customer and present users satisfaction.

RECOMMENDATION & CONCLUSION

The means to overcome the needs of the customers have been discussed in this chapter. These
lead to the various recommendations given in chapter 7. Hopefully these recommendations
will create awareness to GrameenPhone authority to resolve the problems of the customers.
Analysis of the Results:
It is already discussed that GrameenPhone is the leading company in the mobile
telecommunication industry in Bangladesh. This has been possible because it has a created a
superior image in comparison to the other operators. In other words, GP has a clear advantage
over competitors.
GrameenPhone has some additional advantageous features in comparisons to its competitors.
There is easier access to person to person contract. Another important thing is that GP users
are mostly satisfied with the initial price of GP connections and handsets. Before GPs
introduction to the market, mobile phones were virtually out of reach to the major part of the
current market. Moreover, GrameenPhone subscribers are happy with the country wide
network.
However, there is dissatisfaction among the GP users with the service of the company. Many
important factors are acting as reasons behind this overall dissatisfaction. Quality of airtime
and network availability is not satisfactory.Grameen Phone connections are difficult to reach
sometimes. It so happens that the subscribers used to pay extra money to get the access. This
is especially true for prepaid service. It is encouraging that very recently situation has
improved to a certain extent bases on the findings in this report.
The Info Centers of GP are very important for some after sales services. But, there is
shortage of capacity of this service, In Dhaka Info Centers are located at Gulshan,
Dhanmondhi, Mothijheel, Uttara, these four centers cannot cope with the demand of vastly
populated Dhaka city. The GP helpline is also an important customer care tool. But it is also
in shortage of capacity. Subscribers need to spend significant amount of time to reach the
helpline. Behavior of the helpline CM is also sometimes unmanageable. They are to handle

continuous queries. So it may so happen at times the CMs cannot keep up smiling voice and
amenable behavior.
Most of the subscribers are not happy with the billing rate of GP.They think it is too high in
the context of Bangladesh, But they are still using the service as GP is still more easily
accessible. Many newer companies are coming up with the lower price; it is thus a great
challenge to GP to face,
Another significant dissatisfaction of the GP users is that most of the GP connections are
mobile to mobile. Access to BTTB is rare. Wider access with BTTB will boast the
subscribers. Most alarming thing is that most of the GrameenPhone users are not loyal
towards the company. If BTTB or any other company comes up with same sort of services,
the GP subscribers might switch to that company

References
1. James Brian Quinn, Jordan J. Baruch and Penny Cushman Paquette1987,
Technology in Services, Scientific American
2. Image Guide Book & Intranet of GrameenPhone
3. Divisional Annual report(Customer Management Division)-July-2005
4. Charles W.L.Hill and Gareth R. Jones, Strategic Management
5. Cooper & Schindler, Business Research Method
6. Newsletter of GrameenPhone Limited
7. Web Site: www.grameenphone.com
Annual Report

Sample Questioner
1. Users Name:
2. Age:
3. Occupation:
4. Length of phone use:.
5. Type of sim card:

Pre-Paid

6. Reason for using the line:

Post-Paid

Minimum call charge

Good network
Minimum pulse
Special Bonus
Others

7. Per month Expense:

100 500
1001 -2000

501 -1000
More than 2000

8. Location of users:

Dhaka

Out side Dhaka

9. Problems from Grsmeen use:

Bad network
No network in village
Others
No problem

Yes
10. Do you wannachange your line?
If yes whyOften network problem faced
No voice SMS
sometime charged more
Others

No