Customer Relationship-bharti Airtel... 3g6a45

Customer Relationship Management (With Special Reference to Bharti Airtel Limited.) PROJECT REPORT AND VIVA VOICE

Project Research by SATISH SINGH

TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION •

Vision

•

Mission

•

Quality Statement

•

Corporate Asset Focus

•

Share Holding

ABOUT BHARTI •

Selecting And Measuring The Right Components For A Successful CRM Strategy

•

Best Practices For Analytical Applications In The Telecom Industry

•

Strategies Adopted

•

Technology From World Leaders

•

Service Guarantee

•

Value Added Services

•

World Class Customer Care

•

International Significance

•

Competitive Strengths

•

Awards

•

The Road Ahead

REVIEW OF LITERATURE •

Customer Relationship Management

•

The Emergence Of CRM Practice

•

A CRM Process Framework

OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY •

Primary Objective

•

Secondary Objective

RATIONALE RESEARCH METHODOLOGY •

Data Collection Instruments

•

Collection Of Data

FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS •

Measurement Of Customer Focus/Customer Centricity

•

Customer Satisfaction Survey

•

Scoring And Interpretation

•

Dealer Survey

•

Analysis Of Dealer Survey

CRM

IMPLEMENTATION

TAILOR

SCHEMES CRM STRATEGY •

Managing Customers For Various Enhancement

•

Once CRM Is Implemented, What Makes It Click

MADE

•

Because Good Relations Matter

•

CRM Reference Model

•

Touch Point And Presentation Layer

•

Distributed Application And Security Cooperation Services

•

IT Service Management

•

Technology Network Infrastructure- IT

•

Tools

CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENTGIS •

Business Continuity Strategies For Customer Relationship Management

AIRTEL’S CRM STRATEGIES •

Principles For Building Strong Customer Relationships

•

Airtel’s Customer Relationship Model

•

Solving Customer Relationship Management Involves Addressing A

Principles-Based Value Chain •

High Churn Rates

•

Why It Happens

•

Postpaid Churn Solution That Work

•

Effective Churn Management And Performance Measurement Framework

•

Minimizing Churn And Building Customer Profitability Churn Solutions That

Work •

Comprehensive Approach To Churn Control In High Growth And

Competitive Markets •

Best Ways To Prevent These High Rates Of Customer Churn

CRM ACQUISITION

•

Steps

•

Strategies

•

Other Means

•

Customer Defection

•

6 Types Of Defectors

CUSTOMER RETENTION •

Customer Complaints

•

Need To Listen To Customer Complaints

•

Encourage Customer Complaints

•

Do Not Forget

INDICES •

Marketing

•

Sales

•

Customer Service

•

CRM Business Strategy

CONCLUSION BIBLIOGRAPHY

INTRODUCTION

AIRTEL comes to you from Bharti Cellular Limited - a part of the biggest private integrated telecom conglomerate, Bharti Enterprises. Bharti provides a range of telecom services, which include Cellular, Basic, Internet and recently introduced National Long Distance. Bharti also manufactures and exports telephone terminals and cordless phones. Apart from being the largest manufacturer of telephone instruments in India, it is also the first company to export its products to the USA. Bharti is the leading cellular service provider, with a footprint in 21 states covering all four metros and more than 8 million satisfied customers.

VISION To be globally ired for telecom services that delight customers. MISSION We will meet global standards for telecom services that delight customers through:  Customer Service Focus  Empowered Employees  Innovative Services  Cost Efficiency The strategic objective is to consolidate its leadership position among mobile service providers in India. Through its subsidiaries, Bharti has licenses to provide GSM services in 15 of the 22 telecom circles in the country. It now proposes to consolidate all these subsidiaries under Bharti Cellular.

QUALITY STATEMENT We will deliver error-free services to our customers by doing our jobs right the first time, every time - this is your quality statement. CORPORATE ASSET FOCUS The Chairman and Group Managing Director of Bharti Televentures, Mr Sunil Mittal, has sold his entire personal stock, ing for about 0.15 per cent stake in the company, or a consideration of over Rs 60 crore on New Delhi, March 11. Share Holding  Indian Promoters : 46.6%  Foreign collaborators : 0.0% Indian inst/Mutual Fund : 2.7%  FIIs/GDR : 9.2%  Free float : 41.5%  Shareholders : 40,315

ABOUT BHARTI Bharti Tele-Ventures Limited was incorporated on July 7, 1995 for promoting investments in telecommunications services. Its subsidiaries operate telecom services across India. Bharti Tele-Ventures is India's leading private sector provider of telecommunications services based on a strong customer base consisting of approximately 11.50 million total customers which constitute, approximately 10.66 million mobile and approximately 836,000 fixed line customers, as of February 28, 2005. The company today offers mobile services in 21 out of 23 circles in India. The company also provides fixed - line services and Internet access over DSL in 6 circles. The company complements its mobile and fixed-line services with national and international long distance services. The company also has a submarine cable landing station at Chennai, which connects the submarine cable connecting Chennai and Singapore. The company provides reliable end-to-end data and enterprise services to the corporate customers by leveraging its nationwide fiber optic backbone, last mile connectivity in

fixed-line and mobile circles, VSATs, ISP and international bandwidth access through the gateways and landing station. In September 2002, Bharti leveraged its pan-India footprint to offer some never before benefits to our customers. These succeeded in re-defining customer expectations and are fuelling growth of the mobile category in the Western region. The benefits included a 30second pulse, free roaming on Airtel networks across the country, incoming calls free from any Airtel to Airtel mobile and free airtime on one international, one national and one local number without any monthly charges. Bharti Cellular has invested Rs 1500 crores in the Western region. This investment is to be raised further as the roll out gathers more momentum. SELECTING AND MEASURING THE RIGHT COMPONENTS FOR A SUCCESSFUL CRM STRATEGY  Examine the role of Data mining to create differentiators  Determine how CRM is applied in a prepaid business  Using Call Center technologies for one to one relationships  The role of the Front line in CRM success  Measuring the Return on Investment of CRM after its implementation BEST PRACTICES FOR ANALYTICAL APPLICATIONS IN THE TELECOM INDUSTRY  Deg your analytical applications to facilitate:  Useful segmentation methodology and techniques  Effective churn analysis and prediction  Successful cross and up-selling  Targeted acquisition  Accurate price plan analysis STRATEGIES ADOPTED

 Focus on maximizing revenues and margins;  Capture maximum telecommunications revenue potential with minimum geographical coverage;  Offer multiple telecommunications services to provide customers with a "one-stop shop" solution;  Position itself to tap data transmission opportunities and offer advanced mobile data services;  Focus on satisfying and retaining customers by ensuring high level of customer satisfaction;  Leverage strengths of its strategic and financial partners; and  Emphasize on human resource development to achieve operational efficiencies. TECHNOLOGY FROM WORLD LEADERS The company has partnered with telecom majors like Siemens, ECI, Lucent and Duraline for its network. While Siemens has provided the digital switching system (Siemens EWSD) with CCS-7, a signaling protocol for faster connectivity, the billing software (Keenan Arbor) has been sourced from Lucent. The Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH) equipment is sourced from ECI. SERVICE GUARANTEE Service guarantee is a first-of-its-kind scheme and underlines Airtel’s commitment to provide error free services – ‘Services right the first time and every time’. The service guarantee scheme entails:  Repair of any dead phones within 8 working hours of receiving a complaint  Error Free billing. The scheme is a culmination of Airtel’s efforts in continuously setting new benchmarks in quality by adhering to best quality practices including SIX-SIGMA. In the unlikely event of any failure in this promise, the company will give STD/ISD pre paid calling card worth Rs. 100/- to the customers.

VALUE ADDED SERVICES Besides providing world-class voice products and data services, Airtel – Broadband & Telephone Services also provides a host of value added services to its customers. These services, which add a whole new dimension to the meaning of fixed line telephony, include services like Voice Mail Service, Directory Assistance, Call Completion Busy Subscriber, Delayed Hotline, Centrex and the like. The company also provides a host of customized services to its customers such as live astrologers, cricket updates, sending jokes and greeting in celebrity voices, music messaging service etc. WORLD CLASS CUSTOMER CARE Apart from the state-of-the-art infrastructure, Airtel - Broadband & Telephone Services is the first to provide a dedicated 24-hour call centre. The company is planning to have a 250 seater call center equipped with the best ACDs, IVRs and Call loggers to provide world class after sales . INTERNATIONAL SIGNIFICANCE There are *38 mobile operators worldwide, who have 10 million plus customers. Within this Group 38, there are 15 mobile operators who are from Asia. In this regard, it is a proud moment for the Indian GSM industry with Airtel becoming the first Indian GSM operator to this international club as its 39th member worldwide and the 16th in Asia. The key demographics of Bharti Tele-Ventures' mobile circles are set forth below All India Number of circles 22 Area of the circles (in '000 sq km) 3,278 Population in the licensed areas (in Millions) 1,027 Market Mobile subscribers in the licensed areas 39.78 (in Millions) Market Dealers in the licensed area (in Millions) 37.7

Bharti

Bharti as

Circles 16 1,848 593

% of All India 73% 56% 58%

39.42

99%

30.7

81%

Number of vehicles in the licensed areas COMPETITIVE STRENGTHS

36,132

29,025

80%

Bharti Tele-Ventures believes that the following elements will contribute to the Company's success as an integrated telecommunication services provider in India and will provide the Company with a solid foundation to execute its business strategy:  Nationwide Footprint - As of February 28, 2005, approximately 99% of India's total mobile subscribers resided in the Company's twenty one mobile circles. These 21 circles collectively ed for approximately 56% of India's land mass;  Focus on telecommunications to enable the Company to better anticipate industry trends and capitalize on new telecommunications-related business opportunities;  The strong brand name recognition and a reputation for offering high quality service to its customers;  Quality management team with vision and proven execution skills; and  The Company's strong relationships with international strategic and financial investors such as SingTel, Warburg Pincus, International Finance Corporation, Asian Infrastructure Fund Group and New York Life Insurance. ACCOMPLISHMENTS - Connecting India Growing Presence

1999 Number of Mobile Circles 2 Number of Fixed-Line Circles 1 Population covered in our licensed area (%) 2% Area covered in our licensed areas (%) 2% Wireless Coverage Area(% of Mobile 16% Customers covered)

Pre-4th License 5 1 16% 16% 38%

Post-4th License 21 6 58% 56% 97%

 The largest private sector integrated telecommunications services group in India in of the number of customers.  Largest Mobile footprint in India, covering 21 of the 23 licensed areas.  Proven track record of managing growth - both organic as well as by way of acquisitions.  First and largest private telecommunications services company offering fixed-line services in India.  Existing foreign shareholders have acquired direct and indirect equity interests in the Company for a total consideration exceeding US$1 billion.  First private telecommunications company to launch long distance services.  First off the block to launch fixed-line services in all the four circles of Delhi, Haryana, Karnataka & Tamil Nadu. AWARDS Bharti Tele-Ventures, its subsidiaries and management have received several awards and recognitions, including: Bharti was recognized as one of the "Leading Lights of Telecom" in Asia in November 2001 in the Asian edition of the "tele.com" magazine with analytical inputs from research consultants Frost & Sullivan.  The leading telecommunications service provider in India in a survey of Indian companies conducted by Business World in association with Indian Marketing Research Bureau in September 2001;  The “Techies” award from Information Communications World, an international business magazine, for four consecutive years (1997 to 2000) for brand excellence, network quality, customer service and value added service in our Delhi mobile circle;  Golden Peacock National Training Award – 1999 to Bharti Cellular for our Delhi mobile operations from the Institute of Directors, a non-profit association in India committed to improving the competitiveness of Indian business by focusing on

development of business leaders, for the best human resources and training practices; and  Ascent – Times of India and Sodexho award in 1999 from the Asia Pacific HRD conclave to Bharti Cellular for corporate excellence in the category of most innovative human resource practices.  Mr. Sunil Bharti Mittal (Chairman and Group Managing Director) was honored as “One of the Top Entrepreneurs Worldwide" for the year 2000 and "Stars of Asia" for the year 2001 by international business magazine, Business Week.  Mr Sunil Bharti Mittal was selected as the "Businessman of the year 2002" by Business India.  Mr Sunil Bharti Mittal was awarded the “Dataquest IT man of the year 2002”.  Mr Sunil Bharti Mittal was selected the "CEO of the year 2002" by World HRD congress.  Mr. Akhil Gupta (t Managing Director) was adjudged as the Chief Financial Officer for year 2001 for Mergers & Acquisitions activities by EIU.  On October 12, 2004 Airtel – India’s leading mobile service provider and a part of India’s largest telecom conglomerate Bharti Enterprises had been adjudged as the “World Communications Best Brand of the Year.

THE ROAD AHEAD It is an exercise in futility to invest in acquiring a new customer only to lose him before even a part of the investment can be recovered. Though retaining a customer might require seven times more effort than acquiring one it definitely makes more economic sense. Even from a long term perspective maintaining a good relationship with not just profitable customers but all prospective customers will pay huge dividends. Only a churn management system can provide a better understanding of the customer, the operators’ most valuable asset.

It is important to deliver value to the customer and put in place offers that tie in the customer. New products and services development is essential to ensure loyalty. A churn management solution can help devise more attractive incentives, tariff bundles, loyalty schemes and proactive customer service along with acquisition strategies to attract the right type of customer, thus reducing fraud and bad debt—all key to a better bottom line.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT Customer

Relationship

Management

and

Relationship

marketing

are

used

interchangeably. As Nevin (1995) points out, these have been used to reflect a variety of themes and perspectives. Some of these themes offer a narrow functional marketing perspective while others offer a perspective that is broad and somewhat

paradigmatic in approach and orientation. A narrow perspective of customer relationship management is database marketing emphasizing the promotional aspects of marketing linked to database efforts (Bickert 1992). Another narrow, yet relevant, viewpoint is to consider CRM only as customer retention in which a variety of after marketing tactics is used for customer bonding or staying in touch after the sale is made (Vevra 1992).

A more popular approach with recent

application of information technology is to focus on individual or one-to-one relationship with customers that integrate database knowledge with a long-term customer retention and growth strategy (Peppers and Rogers 1993). Thus, Shani and Chalasani (1992) define relationship marketing as "an integrated effort to identify, maintain, and build up a network with individual consumers and to continuously strengthen the network for the mutual benefit of both sides, through interactive, individualized and value-added s over a long period of time". Jackson (1985) applies the individual concept in industrial markets to suggest CRM to mean, "Marketing oriented toward strong, lasting relationships with individual s". In other business contexts, Doyle and Roth (1992), O'Neal (1989), Paul (1988), and have proposed similar views of customer relationship management. McKenna (1991) professes a more strategic view by putting the customer first and shifting the role of marketing from manipulating the customer (telling and selling) to genuine customer involvement (communicating and sharing the knowledge). Berry (1995), in somewhat broader , also has strategic viewpoint about CRM. He stresses that attracting new customer should be viewed only as an intermediate step in the marketing process. Developing closer relationship with these customers and turning them into loyal ones are equally important aspects of marketing. Thus, he proposed relationship marketing as "attracting, maintaining, and – in multi-service organizations – enhancing customer relationships". Berry's notion of customer relationship management resembles that of other scholars studying services marketing, such as Gronroos (1990), Gummesson (1987), and Levitt (1981). Although each one of them is espousing the value of interactions in marketing and its consequent impact on customer relationship, Gronroos and Gummesson take a broader perspective and advocate that customer relationships ought to be the focus and

dominant paradigm of marketing. For example, Gronroos (1990) states: "Marketing is to establish, maintain, and enhance relationships with customer and other partners, at a profit, so that the objectives of the parties involved are met. This is achieved by a mutual exchange and fulfillment of promises". The implication of Gronroos' definition is that customer relationships is the 'raison de etre' of the firm and marketing should be devoted to building and enhancing such relationship. Similarly, Morgan and Hunt (1994), draw upon the distinction made between transactional exchanges and relational exchanges by Dwyer, Schurr, and Oh (1987), to suggest the relationship marketing "refers to all marketing activities directed toward establishing, developing and maintaining successful relationships". The core theme of all CRM and relationship marketing perspectives is its focus on cooperative and collaborative relationship between the firm and its customers, and/or other marketing actors.

Dwyer, Schurr, and Oh (1987) have characterized such

cooperative relationships as being interdependent and long-term orientated rather than being concerned with short-term discrete transactions. The long-term orientation is often emphasized because it is believed that marketing actors will not engage in opportunistic behavior if they have a long term orientation and that such relationships will be anchored on mutual gains and cooperation (Ganesan 1994). Another important facet of CRM is 'Customer selectivity'. As several research studies have shown not all customer are equally profitable for an individual company (Storbacka 2000). The company therefore must be selective in tailoring its program and marketing efforts by segmenting and selecting appropriate customer for individual marketing programs. In some cases, it could even lead to 'outsourcing of some customers' so that a company better utilize its resources on those customers it can serve better and create mutual value. However, the objective of a company is not to really prune its customer’s base but to identify appropriate programs and methods that would be profitable and create value for the firm and the customer. Hence, we define CRM as: Customer Relationship Management is a comprehensive strategy and process of acquiring, retaining and partnering with selective customers to create superior value for the company and the customer.

THE EMERGENCE OF CRM PRACTICE Developing customer relationships has historical antecedents going back into the preindustrial era. Much of it was due to direct interaction between producers of agricultural products and their consumers. Similarly artisans often developed customized products for each customer. Such direct interaction led to relational bonding between the producer and the consumer. It was only after industrial era's mass production society and the advent of middlemen that there were less frequent interactions between producers and consumers leading to transactions oriented marketing. The production and consumption functions got separated leading to marketing functions being performed by the middlemen. And middlemen are in general oriented towards economic aspects of buying since the largest cost is often the cost of goods sold. In recent years however, several factors have contributed to the rapid development and evaluation of CRM. These include: 1.

The growing de-intermediation process in many industries due to the advent of sophisticated computer and telecommunication technologies that allow producers to directly interact with end-customers. For example, in many industries such as airlines, banks, insurance, computer program software, or household appliances and even consumables, the de-intermediation process is fast changing the nature of marketing and consequently making relationship marketing more popular.

2.

The de-intermediation process and consequent prevalence of CRM is also due to the growth of the service economy. Since services are typically produced and delivered at the same institution, it minimizes the role of the middlemen. A greater emotional bond between the services provider and the service also develops the need for maintaining and enhancing the relationship.

3.

Another force driving the adoption of CRM has been the total quality movement.

When companies embraced Total Quality Management (TQM)

philosophy to improve quality and reduce costs, it became necessary to involve suppliers and customers in implementing the program at all levels of the value chain. This needed close working relationships with customers, suppliers, and other of the marketing infrastructure.

4.

With the advent of the digital technology and complex products, systems selling approach became common. This approach emphasized the integration of parts, supplies, and the sale of services along with the individual capital equipment. Customers liked the idea of systems integration and sellers were able to sell augmented products and services to customers. These measures created intimacy and cooperation in the buyer-sellers relationships. Instead of purchasing a product or service, customers were more interested in buying a relationship with a vendor.

5.

In the current era of hyper-competition, marketers are forced to be more concerned with customer’s retention and loyalty (Dick and Basu 1994; Reicheld 1996). As several studies have indicated, retaining customers is less expensive and perhaps a more sustainable competitive advantage than acquiring new ones. Marketers are realizing that it costs less to retain customers than to compete for new ones. There is greater opportunity for cross-selling and up-selling to a customer who is loyal and committed to the firm and its offerings.

6.

Customer expectations have rapidly changed over the last two decades. Fueled by new technology and growing availability of advanced product features and services, customer expectations are changing almost on a daily basis. Consumers are less willing to make compromises or trade-off in product and service quality.

A CRM PROCESS FRAMEWORK We develop a four-stage CRM process framework. The broad framework suggests that CRM process comprise of the following four sub-processes: customer relationship formation process; relationship management and governance; relational performance evaluation process; and CRM evolution or enhancement process. I.

CRM FORMATION PROCESS

The formation process of CRM refers to decisions regarding initiation of relational activities for a firm with respect to a specific group of customers or with respect to an individual customer with whom the company wishes to engage in a cooperative or collaborative relationship. Hence, it is important that a company is able to identify and differentiate individual customers. In the formation process, three important decision relate to defining the purpose (or objectives) of engaging in CRM, selecting parties (or customer partners) for appropriate CRM programs; and developing programs (or relational activity schemes) for relationship engagement with the customers. Formation Purpose - Increase Effectiveness - Improve Efficiency

Management & Governance

Performance

Team Structure Role Specification Planning Process

Programs - Management - Retention Marketing - Co-op Agreements - Strategic Partnerships

Process Alignment Monitoring Process Communication

Partners - Criteria - Process

Relationship Performance - Strategic - Financial - Marketing - Retention - Satisfaction - Loyalty

Employee Motivation Employee Training

Evolution - Enhancement - Improvement

i)

CRM Purpose: The overall purpose of CRM is to improve marketing productivity and enhance mutual value for the parties involved in the relationship. CRM has the potential to improve marketing productivity and create mutual value by increasing marketing efficiencies and/or enhancing marketing effectiveness. By seeking and achieving operation goals, such as lower distribution costs,

streamlining order processing and inventory management, reducing the burden of excessive customer acquisition costs, and through customer retention economics, firms could achieve greater marketing efficiencies. Thus, stating objectives and defining the purpose of CRM in a company helps clarify the nature of CRM programs and activities that ought to be performed by the partners. Defining the purpose would also help in identifying suitable relationship partner who have the necessary expectations and capabilities to fulfill mutual goals. ii)

CRM Programs: A careful review of literature and observation of corporate practices suggests that there are three types of CRM programs : continuity marketing; one-to-one marketing; and, partnering programs. These take different forms depending on whether they are meant for end-consumers, distributors customers, or business-to-business customers.

CRM Program Customer types

Mass Markets

Distributors

business markets

Program Types

• After marketing

Continuity marketing

• Loyalty programs • Cross selling

One-to-one

• Permission

marketing

marketing

• Continuous replenishment

marketing

• Affinity partnering • Co-branding

• Special

souring

arrangements

• ECR programs • Customer business • Key development

• Personalization Partnering/co-

Business-to-

• Global



programs

• Logistics partnering

• t marketing

• Strategic Partnering

• Co-design • Co-development

a)

Continuity Marketing Programs: Given the growing concern to retain

customers as well as emerging the knowledge about customers retention economics

have led many companies to develop continuity marketing programs that are aimed at both retaining customers and increasing their loyalty (Bhattacharya 1998, Payne 1995). For consumers in mass markets, these programs usually take the shape of hip and loyalty card programs where consumers are often rewarded for their and loyalty relationships with the marketers.

For distributor

customers, continuity marketing programs are in the form of continuous replenishment

programs

ranging

anywhere

from

just-in-time

inventory

management programs to efficient consumer response initiatives that include electronic order processing and material resource planning. In business-to business markets these may be in the form of preferred customer programs or in special sourcing arrangements including single sourcing, dual sourcing, and network sourcing, as well as just-in-time sourcing arrangements.

The basic premise of

continuity marketing programs is to retain customers and increase loyalty through long-term special services that has a potential to increase mutual value through learning about each other. b)

One-to-one Marketing: One-to-one or individual marketing approach is

based on the concept of -based marketing. Such a program is aimed at meeting and satisfying each customer's need uniquely and individually (Peppers and Rogers 1995). In the mass market individualized information on customers is now possible at low costs due to the rapid development in information technology and due to the availability of scalable data warehouses and data mining products. By using online information and databases on individual customer interactions, marketers aim to fulfill the unique needs of each mass-market customer. Information on individual customers is utilized to develop frequency marketing, interactive marketing, and after marketing programs in order to develop relationship with high yielding customers. For distributor customers these individual marketing programs take the shape of customer business development.

In the context of business-to-business markets,

individual marketing has been in place for quite sometime. Known as key management program, here marketers appoint customer teams to husband the company resources according to individual customers needs.

Often times such

programs require extensive resource allocation and t planning with customers.

c)

Partnering Programs: The third type of CRM programs is partnering

relationships customers and marketers to serve end s needs. In the mass markets, two types of partnering programs are most common: co-branding and affinity partnering. In co-branding, two marketers combine their resources and skills to offer advanced products and services to mass-market customers.

Affinity partnering

program is similar to co-branding except that the marketers do not create a new brand rather use endorsement strategies. Usually affinity-partnering programs try to take advantage of customer hips in one group for cross-selling other products and services. In the case of distributor customers, logistics partnering and cooperative marketing efforts are how partnering programs are implemented. In such partnerships the marketer and the distributor customers cooperate and collaborate to manage inventory and supply logistics and sometimes engage in t marketing efforts. For business-to-business customers, partnering programs involving co-design, codevelopment and co-marketing activities are not uncommon today (Young, Gilbert and McIntyre 1996).

OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY Primary objective: 

To study and analyze the Customer Relationship Management Initiatives at Airtel.

Secondary objective: The secondary objective of my study was to recommend strategy to ensure achievement of prescribed parameters. These parameters are: 1)

All request for services come to Air Tel.

2)

Requests received are updated or activated on time.

3)

Errors free updation.

The first parameter is almost clear that near about all the requests from activation come to the Airtel. The second parameter states customers are activated on time. The third parameter states that customers are provided only that service which they opted. Therefore the basic purpose or objective of my project work was to ensure these above mentioned parameters at the dealer’s level, which is possible through the careful understanding of the business done by them, their way or style of working, the problems they are facing, loyalty towards the company and their level of satisfaction. The first parameter i.e. all the services should come to Air Tel is basically related to the dealer’s satisfaction and the customer requirement. This is because if the dealers are satisfied with the company they will give business to it and also if the company provides services according to the customer requirements the business will definitely come to them. Lot more depends on the customer service provided by the company. The second and third parameters i.e. timely activation and error free updation requires understanding of the relationships between the dealers and the franchisees, their attitude towards the customers and franchisees, the way activation’s are made and attention paid while filling out the CAF.

Rationale The customer is QUEEN. This millennium comes with new dreams, hopes, and aspiration. It heralds the emergence of new business paradigms that will keep pace with a world rapid changing under the impact of development in InfoTech and communications technologies. It touches the lives of individual all over the world. With the growing competition in Indian economy, virtually every company finds itself struggling for survival today. Today it is the consumer who delivers the final verdict. A consumer who is finicky about what she wants. An important development in the consumer market is the emergence of the newer younger consumer. This consumer is more open to trying new products but she is more demanding and fickle in of brand loyalty. I believe smart Companies across the country are no longer talking about product or service quality rather successful brand will need to establish more meaningful and intimate relationship and delight their customers. The major application of CRM is in industrial good markets and service markets. For relationship to start individual identifiable customers have to surface from the statistical mass of a target segment and for this to happen on a big scale technological transformation of the market place and the transaction are essential prerequisites. In this millennium: the old rule will change. It will not be the big company who will swallow the small but the fast that will out pace the slow. Success will lie in becoming a part of the customer's life. Ultimately, it is the firm’s advantage to develop long term relationships with existing customers because it is easier and less expensive to make an additional sale to an existing customer than to make a new sale to a new customer. However, the effort involved for the firm in developing and maintaining a customer relationship must be weighted agent the expected long term benefits. Marketers must determine the ‘life time value’ of a customer to ensure that the costs of obtaining, servicing and communication with the customer do not exceed the potential profit. Ultimately relationship marketing involves more than locking - in customers to a particular supplier through price, rewards or even the high cost of change (coercive model of relationship benefits). Recent research shows

that a successful, long term relationship also requires commitment and trust, which are based on clean benefits, shared values and effective communication. Thus the key to company’s success does not lie with in its walls and under its ceiling, in the offices of its vender, or the homes of its employees. It lies in the mind of the customer, whose decision will determine whether you will post a turn over, make profits, and live long or not.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY Research is common parlance refers to a search for knowledge. According to the advanced learner’s dictionary of current English, research means “a careful investigation or inquiry especially through search for new facts in any branch of knowledge”. Research is, thus, an original contribution to the existing stock of knowledge through objective and systematic method of findings. Thus, the term ‘research’ refers to the systematic method consisting of enunciating the problem, formulating a hypothesis, collecting the facts or data, analyzing the facts and reaching certain conclusions either in the form of solution(s) towards the concerned

problem

or

in

certain

generalizations

for

some

theoretical

formulation. DATA COLLECTION INSTRUMENTS The task of data collection begins after a research problem has been defined and research design chalked out. There are two types of data, which should be kept in mind while deciding about the method of data collection to be used for the study viz. Primary and secondary. (a) Primary Data : One those which are collected a fresh and for the first time, thus it happens to be original in character. (b) Secondary Data : are those which have been already collected by someone else and which have already been ed through the statistical process.

COLLECTION OF DATA (a) Primary : We collect primary data during the course of doing experiments in an experimental research by different methods through observation or through direct communication with respondents in one form or another or through personal interviews. The important ones are: (i)

Observation method

(ii)

Interview method

(iii)

Through questionnaires

(iv)

Through schedules

(v)

Other methods like warranty cards, audits, projective techniques, depth interviews, etc.

Among the above various methods of collecting Primary Data, the one that I have used in my study is: Questionnaires: A questionnaire consists of a number of questions printed or typed in a definite order on a form or a set of forms. I have used the questionnaire survey wherein the employees and dealers of Airtel in Delhi have filled the questionnaire. I chose this method since:(i)

It is more economical.

(ii)

It is free from the bias of the interviewer.

(iii)

The sales distributors had enough time to give well thought out answers.

(iv)

Those sales distributors who are not easily approachable were reached conveniently.

(v)

The results are more dependable and reliable.

(b) Secondary : When the researcher utilizes secondary data, he has to look into various sources from where he can obtain them. Secondary data may either be published data or unpublished data. The secondary data has been collected mainly from books, journals, magazines & online resources on the Internet. Primary data was collected from the people from the Printing industry. The observations and suggestions in the report are based on the following: 

Field work in New Delhi



Meetings with the distributors and sales officers

The final stage consisted of analysis and interpretation of all the collected data. The issues raised in the primary research were critically examined, followed by some recommendations, which could enhance the industries potential

FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS MEASUREMENT

OF

CUSTOMER

FOCUS/CUSTOMER

CENTRICITY CUSTOMER SATISFACTION SURVEY Please rate your company on the following scale where: 1: Never

2: Rarely

3: Sometimes

4: Usually

5: Always

Customer Orientation 1. Taking care of our customers is a top priority in our Organization-more 1 2 3 4 5 important than cost 2. We listen carefully to our customers needs through our informal 1 2 3 4 5 systems and act on this information 3. We have a formal process in place to determine our customers wants 1 2 3 4 5 and expectations, now and for the future 4. When we lose a customer we know why, or we find out why

1 2 3 4 5

5. Our repeat business exceeds the industry average

1 2 3 4 5

6. Our day to day activities are in harmony with our values and goals 1 2 3 4 5 about customer satisfaction 7. My managers concerns and activities have convinced me that customer 1 2 3 4 5 care is important 8. Our customers are advocates in our organization

1 2 3 4 5

TOTAL

37

Manager’s orientations 1. Our managers ‘walk what they talk’

1 2 3 4 5

2. The predominant attitude around here is risk taking rather than 1 2 3 4 5

defensive 3. Managers give workers the responsibility and authority to take care of 1 2 3 4 5 customers 4. People think competition means other companies not the person down 1 2 3 4 5 the hall 5. We see ourselves as customer ands suppliers in our work relationship 1 2 3 4 5 with each other TOTAL

21

Co-operation/Integration 1. People at all level can participation in decision making

1 2 3 4 5

2. Supervisors and managers in different departments work well together

1 2 3 4 5

3. Very Few things fall through the crack because the left hand does not 1 2 3 4 5 what know the right hand is doing 4. Our systems make clear who has responsibility for what tasks

1 2 3 4 5

5. The organization’s goals are set at the top , based on our mission and 1 2 3 4 5 are clear and achievable 6. Results and goals are set at the top, based on our mission, and are clear 1 2 3 4 5 and achievable 7. In every department we have clear measure and tracking systems to tell 1 2 3 4 5 us how we are meeting our customers requirements TOTAL

26

Attitude and Skills 1. What happens in the organization reality matter to all our people – 1 2 3 4 5 executives and workers alike 2. People feel responsible, needed and empowered to do what needs to be 1 2 3 4 5 done to take care of our customers and keep them satisfied 3. Our customer service representatives know how to identify/solve 1 2 3 4 5 service-related problems

4. Problem solving skills are used in every department and are standard 1 2 3 4 5 operating procedure 5. Our managers and supervisors have skills to influence others 1 2 3 4 5 communicate

effectively

and

motivate

and

lead

subordinated

particularly through periods of economic challenges and change TOTAL

23

Costs/prevention/results 1. Our focus is on preventing rather than fixing them

1 2 3 4 5

2. We regularly collect data on the costs of waste, rework, errors and other 1 2 3 4 5 elements of poor service quality 3. We concentrate on exceptional care of customers, rather than cost 1 2 3 4 5 cutting, to increase our profits ad earning TOTAL

13

SUM TOTAL (=37+22+27+25+14)

120

SCORING AND INTERPRETATION The score shows that the corporate culture at Airtel is very customer oriented and the employees are motivated, empowered and their goals are also aligned with the organizational goals to meet and satisfy the customers.

DEALER SURVEY Classification of dealers according to the proportion of business of Air Tel. Table-1 Percentage of business

No. of dealers

Percentage

0-20%

01

3%

20-40%

01

3%

40-60%

08

24%

60-80%

03

10%

80-100%

20

60%

25 20 15 10 5 0

No. of dealers

% 00

-1

0%

80

60

-8

0% -6

40

-4

20

0-

20

%

0%

percentage

This chart show that sixty-percent dealers fall under the category 80-100% of the percentage of business whereas fourty dealers are below that category which is quiet a substantial figure and should be carefully dealt with. 1. What types of services customers want? (Multiple response were given) Table 2 Service

No. of dealers

Percentage

Airtel Leisure

03

10%

AirTel Business

30

90%

AirTel Standard

30

90%

No.of dealers

3

airtel Leisure

30 30

Airtel Business Airtel Standard

From the chart, it is clear that the most popular service Among the customers is air tel standard and airtel business becouse of their convenient tariff rates. However, each service is suitable for specific class of people depending on their usage.

2. How would you rate Air Tel’s network in your area? Table-3 Rating

No. of dealers

Percentage

Excellent

20

60%

Good

3

10%

Needs improvement

10

30%

no. of dealers

Excellecnt 10 good 3

20

Needs Improvement

The chart depicts that thirty percent dealers are not fully satisfied with the netwok. They nelieve that there is scope for improvement as the signals are sometimes not proper in the interiors. Sometimes even inside trhe house or shop signals get weak.

3. How knowledgeable is company’s customer service people? Table – 4 Rating

No. of dealers

Percentage(%)

Excellent

27

82%

Very Good

6

18%

So-So

0

0%

Dis-satisfied

0

0%

Strongly Dissatisfied

0

0%

Graph -5

18%

Excellecnt very good

0%

so-so Dis-satisfied 82% Strongly dissatisfied

This chart shows that all the dealers are satisfied with the knowledge of the customer service people of Airtel. They understand their problems and give them a reasonable solution.

4. When phoning at the customer care department how quickly is the call transferred to the customer care executives? Table – 5 Time

No. of Dealers

Percentage

Immediately

00

0%

Within few minutes (2-3 min)

03

10%

Takes time

30

90%

Graph - 4

0% 9%

Immediately

Within few minutes (2-3 min) takes time

91%

Most of the dealers i.e. near about 90% have the problem that when they make a call to the computerized customer care department it takes long time near about 5-10 minutes for their call to be transferred to the customer care executives.

5. How responsive are the customer care executives in returning the phone calls. Table – 6 Rating

No. of dealers

Percentage (%)

Excellent

25

76%

Very Good

5

15%

So-So

2

6%

Dissatisfied

1

3%

Strongly dissatisfied

0

0%

Graph-6

Excellent

3% 6%

Very Good 0%

15%

So-So Dissatisfied 76% Strongly dissatisfied

Here most of the dealers are satisfied with the responsiveness of customer care executive in calling back to them if proper solution was not available for the first time.

6. Dealer’s overall rating to the customer care department. Table – 7 Rating

No. of dealers

Percentage (%)

Excellent

5

15.15

Very Good

15

45.46

So-So

12

36.36

Dissatisfied

1

3.03

Strongly dissatisfied

0

0.000

No. of dealers

Strongly dissatisfied

So-So

Percentage (%) Excellent

20 15 10 5 0

As shown above nearly thirty-six percent dealers have low level of satisfied with the department that leaves much needed scope for improvement.

7. Dealer’s rating to the usefulness of sales representatives visits to them. Table –8 Rating

No. of dealers

Percentage (%)

Excellent

10

30.30%

Very Good

7

21.21%

So-So

9

27.27%

Dissatisfied

3

9.10%

Strongly Dissatisfied

4

12.12%

No. of dealers Percentage (%) So -S Di o ss at isf ie St d ro ng ly ...

Ex ce lle Ve nt ry Go od

12 10 8 6 4 2 0

The above chart clearly indicates that a substantial percentage of dealers (27%) have a low level of satisfaction with the company representatives to them. Also 21 percent dealers are not at all satisfied with them.

8. Dealers rating of the schemes provided by the company for them. Table – 9 Rating

No. of dealers

Percentage (%)

Excellent

0

0%

Very Good

6

So-So

12

Dissatisfied

15 0 0

graph 9

18% Excellent 36% 46% Good Very

6

0% So-So

15 12

Dissatisfied Strongly dissatisfied

Strongly dissatisfied

From the chart, it is clear that the dealers are not satisfied with the schemes provided by the company. They have the complaint that thought the customers are benefited from the various schemes there are not many schemes for their benefit. Sometimes the schemes are communicated to them slightly late and thus them the benefits from them.

9. Dealer’s satisfaction with the margins or cut-off provided by the company. Table – 10

14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0

No. of dealers

-S is sa 0 t St isf ie ro ng d ly ...

d

D

So

oo

G

y

er V

Ex

ce

lle

nt

Percentage (%)

Level of Satisfaction

No. of dealers

Percentage (%)

Excellent

6

18.18%

Very Good

12

36.37%

So-S0

11

33.33%

Dissatisfied

4

12.12%

Strongly dissatisfied

0

0%

The above chart indicates that near about fifty percent dealers are not much satisfied with the margins given by the company. The possible reason for this is the frequent fluctuations in them. Many times they get less than what is assured.

10. Classification of dealers according to the number of activation’s (average) made in a month. (on the basis of question II) Table – 11 No. of activations

No. of dealers

Percentage (%)

0-10

3

9.10

10-20

8

24.24

12 10 8 6 4 2 0

No. of dealers

20-30_10_30.30_ 30-40_Level of Satisfaction No. of dealers Percentage (%)

Excellent 6 18.18%

Very Good

ve

0

o b a

0 4

3

0

-4

0 -3 0

2

-O 0 2

0

-1

0

ct

Percentage(%)

12 36.37%

So-S0 11 33.33%

Dissatisfied 4 12.12%

Strongly dissatisfied 0 0%

7_21.21_

40 above_5_15.15_

12 10 8 6 4 2 0

No.ofdealers

v e o

0

b

-4 4

0

a

0 3

0 2

0 2

-3

c -O

0 -1

0

0

t

Percentage(% )

Here the dealers are classified according to the number of activations they made in a month. From the table and chart it is clear that they are uniformly distributed across the classes. However the maximum percentage of dealers lies in between 20-30 activations in a month. On calculating the arithmetic mean the average number of activations by a dealer comes out to be 26.

11. Time within which dealers inform the franchisees about the receipt of activation forms. Table – 12 Time

No. of dealers

Percentage

Less than 1 hour

33

100%

1-2 hours

00

0%

Greater than 2 hours

00

0%

From the chart it is clear that dealers immediately inform the franchisee about the receipt

graph 12 0% 0%

Less than 1 hour 1-2 hours

100%

Greater than 2 hours

of the activation forms and it all depends on how those forms are ed on to the franchisees for timely activation.

12. ing of activation forms (C.A.F.) to the Franchisees for activation. Table – 13 (a) Percentage of collection by the No. of dealers

Percentage

franchisee. 0-20%

20

60.60%

20-40%

3

9.10%

40-60%

5

15.15%

60-80%

0

0%

80-100%

5

15.15%

020 % 20 -4 0% 40 -6 0% 60 -8 0% 80 -1 00 %

25 20 15 10 5 0

No. of dealers Percentage

(b) Percentage time’s dealers send the C.A.F. to the franchisees. Table – 13 (b) Percentage times C.A.F. delivered No. of dealers

percentage

by the dealers 0-20%

5

15.15%

20-40%

0

0%

40-60%

5

15.15%

60-80%

3

9.10%

80-100%

20

60.60%

25 20 15 10 5 0

No. of dealers

% 00 -1

0%

80

60

-8

0%

40

-6

0% -4

20

0-

20

%

percentage

(c) Dealers intimate on phone to the franchisee and activations are made (C.A.F. is sent later on) Table – 13 (c) Percentage times during a No. of dealers

Percentage of dealers

month 0%

25

75.74%

0-5%

3

9.10%

20-75%

2

6.06%

> 75%

3

9.10%

30 25 20 15 10 5 0

No. of dealers Percentage of dealers 0%

0-5%

20- > 75% 75%

14) Time within which a customer is activated by the franchisee after the receipt of C.A.F. Table – 14 Time

No. of dealers

Percentage (%)

Within 2 hours

10

30.30%

2-4 hours

9

27.27%

4-6 hours

8

24.24%

More than 6 hours

6

18.19%

Here the various dealers were asked about the time take taken by the franchisees in making

12 10 8 6 4 2 0

No. of dealers

..

.

rs th

a

u o

re o M

4

-6

h

o h -4 2

W

it h

in

2

u

..

.

rs

Percentage (%)

activation. From the chart it is clear that fifty-seven percent responses come under the less than 4 hours class (combination of first two classes) which is the prescribed time by the company. Fortythree percent fall outside that class and thus it is an important problem area which should be properly analyzed.

15) Dealer’s satisfaction for the time taken by the franchisees. TABLE – 15 Satisfaction

No. of Dealers

Percentage

Yes

22

66.67%

No

11

33.33%

25 20 15

Yes No

10 5 0 No. of Dealers

Percentage

The chart shows that one-third dealers are not satisfied with the time taken for activation. May times the system remains down or the workload at franchisees is high and as a result their activation is not made on time this has a profound impact on their business.

16) Possible reasons for the delay in activation by the franchisees. (Multiple response given) TABLE – 16 Reasons

No. of dealers

Percentage

System Down

25

75%

High work load

15

45%

Graph-16

45%

System Down 75%

High work load

From the chart it is clear that almost seventy-five percent dealers complaint about system down as the possible reason for the delay of activation. The other reason is high workload at the franchisees as they have their own customers coming directly to them.

17) Dealer’s overall level of satisfaction with the company’s services. Table – 17 Satisfaction level

No. of dealers

Percentage (%)

Excellent

5

15.15%

Very Good

17

51.52%

10

30.30%

So-So Dissatisfied

Graph-17 0 1

3.03%

20 15 10 5 0

No. of dealers S. ..

Percentage (%) D. ..

Ve .. S. ..

E. ..

0%

Strongly dissatisfied

The above hart shows that almost half of the dealers (50%) have high level of satisfaction and they should be moved to the highest class. Thirty percent are on the average side this clearly points out the deficiencies in the company’s policies and attitude towards the dealers. Being the most important part of the channel network but that too not under the company’s direct control should be properly considered and policies should be revised.

18) Is it feasible that activations are made directly from the dealer’s office instead of franchisees by setting the required computer network? Table – 18 No. of dealers

Percentage

Yes

18

55%

No

15

45%

Graph-18

45%

Yes 55%

No

From the chart it is clear that there is not much difference in the opinion of dealers. Fiftyfive percent are agreed to setup the required network while forty-five percent are not. It’s a mixed a bag situation and company has to decide accordingly.

19) In case of cheque payment do dealers wait for the clearance of cheque before ing on the activation form to the franchisee? (Customer is not known) TABLE – 19 No. of dealers

Percentage

Always

25

61%

Generally

05

30%

Never

03

9%

Near about sixty percent dealers always wait for the clearance of the cheque.

Graph-20 9%

Always 30%

Generally 61%

Never

Thirty percent depend on their appraisal of the customer and then decide accordingly. Only ten-percent takes risk on the activation, as they don’t want to loose their customer.

20) Best/Distinctive features of the company. (Multiple responses were given) Table-20 Features

No. of Dealers

Percentage

Brand Image

30

91%

Promotional Strategy

15

45%

Excellent Service

17

52%

Strong Network

22

67%

This chart shows the dealers liking about the various features of the company. It is clear

Brand Image

67% 91%

Promotional Strategy Excellent Service

52% 45%

Strong Network

their responses that Airtel’s Brand Image is best of the lot, the other features are also important but the brand image is most compelling one for them.

21) Problems faced by the dealers.(Multiple responses were given) Table – 21 No. of dealers

Percentage

No dealer recognition

25

75%

Promotional strategy

18

55%

Service

16

48%

Fluctuating Margins

05

15%

No response

08

24%

Graph-21 24% 15%

75%

No dealer recognition Promotional strategy Service

48% 55%

Fluctuating Margins No response

This chart shows that seventy-five percent dealers are not satisfied with the company’s attitude towards the dealers. Nearly fifty percent are not satisfied with the promotional strategy and Services offered by the company for them. Some of them have given no responses as they consider them a part of every business.

ANALYSIS OF DEALER SURVEY By looking at the charts and tables, one can have easy understanding of the various parameters. Besides that, there are some other findings as well which are basically, the problems faced by the dealers. There are mentioned as follows – 1. Most of the dealers surveyed have the problem that the company does not give tem any recognition. 2. Some have problems with the company’s promotional strategy. 3. Few are dissatisfied, as they are not provided the promotional materials like banners, pop’s, boards, etc. 4. Nearly 30.3% of dealers have very low overall level of satisfaction with the company (table-3). 5. Though majority of dealers has very well overall satisfaction with the customer care department but they are highly dissatisfied with the time taken to connect to the customer care. 6. 33.3% of total dealers surveyed are dissatisfied because of the time taken by the franchisees in activating the customer’s . 7. Regarding the above mentioned point the most common problem found is system down. 8. The cut-off provided by the company is not attractive. 9. Sales representative or area manager’s visit is not up to the mark. 10. Difficulty in getting the preferred numbers. Though Air Tel as very broad network coverage but at some places signals are not proper.

company uses high-end routers from Cisco, and is in the process of implementing a disaster recovery (DR) set-up. As far as software is concerned, some of the applications that are running on its network are  billing  fraud management  Revenue assurance and data warehousing. They also have some internal-facing applications like Oracle Financial and Oracle HRMS. TOOLS Airtel has been one of the earliest adopters of software to control churn in the Indian market. The company implemented SAS Institute’s customer retention solution. Business Intelligence (BI) is an umbrella term for a set of tools and applications that allow corporate decision-makers to gather, organize, distribute and act on critical business information. BI applications include the activities of online analytical processing (OLAP), report generation, decision systems (DSS), query and reporting (Q&R), statistical analysis, forecasting, data warehousing and data mining. Some of the popular BI tools are:  Multi-dimensional analysis software, which is also popularly known as online analytical processing (OLAP) tools. This software gives the end an opportunity to look at the data from various angles.  Data Mining Tools - The software automatically searches for significant patterns or correlation in the data  Query Tools - They allow the to ask questions about patterns or details in the data. For Airtel, Business intelligence is the process of getting enough of the appropriate information in a timely manner and usable form, and analyzing it so that it can have a positive impact on business strategy, tactics and operations. BI applications allow s to quickly and easily view data on essential metrics such as sales, inventory and customer

activities. This information can be dispersed through a dynamic interface, preferably one that is web-enabled. If a dynamic interface is implemented, s can explore the data from different perspectives or levels of detail.

CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT GIS In today's competitive telecommunications market, for AIRTEL, customer service is the number one differentiator for companies. Customer relationship management (CRM) applications improve the relationship between the company and its customers. Timely service provisioning, response to customer queries, and reporting on network performance are aspects of CRM. With GIS, call center operators can access all the information on a customer and the associated network based on location. Databases containing information on outside plant infrastructure, signal quality, and equipment can be integrated using GIS and made available using a corporate Intranet. In CRM, Tier 1 handling means the customer's issue is resolved with the initial call. Tier 2 calls require initiating a trouble-ticket and obtaining additional information. Carriers who have successfully implemented GIS for CRM achieve higher Tier 1 handling and customer service is performed more quickly and economically. With CRM s at an all-time high, improving CRM operations can make a big impact on the bottom-line of a carrier. In the wireless sector, "churn" refers to the rate that customers jump from one service provider to another. For many carriers, customer churn is the single largest cost factor. GIS improves the speed and quality of handling, augments customer satisfaction, and reduces churn.

BUSINESS CONTINUITY STRATEGIES FOR CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT

With the growing adoption of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) initiatives in just about every type of industry, call centers today are much more than cost centers. They are increasingly considered strategic business assets." Call centers helps the companies achieve customer-centric objectives as well as provide world-class customer service and technical . CRM is designed to optimize profitability, revenue and customer satisfaction by organizing the business around customer segments and encouraging customer-satisfying behaviors. For many companies, call centers represent the principal link between their customers and themselves. But for Airtel, it’s a Successful call center differentiate companies, directly impact their annual turnover and competitive position, and are critical in achieving CRM goals. As a key element in CRM, call centers use three building blocks to satisfy their customers:  People  Technology  Process.  People - The human element is probably the most important component in a call center.  Technology - Call centers use network services to connect customers with the call center, telecommunications systems including Automatic Call Distributors (ACDs) and Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems; and IT products such as workstations, computing platforms, Local Area Networks (LANs) and Computer Telephony Integration (CTI).  Process - To make everything work harmoniously and cost-effectively, and to satisfy CRM objectives, a series of processes are needed to define how systems and people work together. With the increased emphasis on customer service, the bar has been raised on customer expectations. Customers expect 24x7 availability, as well as e-mail and Web integration. Access and availability are among the keys to top-drawer customer service. But what

about the relationship of these three elements? For today's high-tech call center, people, technology and process are truly integrated. The loss of any of the key elements - whether accidental or deliberate - can put call centers at risk.

Airtel’s CRM STRATEGIES PRINCIPLES FOR BUILDING STRONG CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIPS How to acquire, strengthen, and retain strong customer relationships in the era Principle 1: By knowing more about the customer value and anticipating relationship needs better than when the customer was involved in a high-touch relationship. Principle 2: Consolidate and make available all customer interaction information from all channels/touchpoints Principle 3: Develop a customer centric infrastructure that can consistently the customized treatment of each customer. Principle 4: Assign dedicated people, process and technology resources to achieve profitable results

AIRTEL’S CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MODEL Developed a Customer Relationship Model based on experiences attained from CRM project engagements globally. The Model shows that the customer relationship is

strengthened by Relationship Building tactics, which are continuously measured through time. The end result is a strong customer relationship, which lead to acceptable customer loyalty, profitability and retention. Success criteria such as share of wallet, profitability and cross-sell rations are also applied as part of the continous measurement to ensure that Business Case requirements have been achieved.

Extract & Transformation Database OLAP Data Mining Statistics Query & Reporting Warehouse Management Metadata Management High-End Servers IT Infrastructure Networking Network & Systems Management Data & Applications Internet Web Warehouse Security Specific Data Model Application Technologies External Integration Data Providers Operational Stores Data HygieneData / Enrichment Call Center & Messaging Middleware Cleansing & Conditioning House holding - Segment of One Marketing Customer Valuation Customer Risk Analysis Profiling and Segmentation Predictive Behavior Modeling People Activities Targeted & Marketing & Campaign Management Customer Management Customer Profile Content Management Business Strategy Catalogue Management Business Process Reengineering Change Management Project Management - Application Implementation - Data Warehouse/ Data Modeling Warehouse Architecture Logical, Physical Design Channel Integration DB Implementation - IT Infrastructure IT Architecture Network Design, Planning & Implementation Network & System Management -On-going Customer

Data Warehouse/Data Mart

Technology

SOLVING CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP

to

Some of the common driving factors for churn are

 poor performance,

 poor customer care,

 rate plans and

 Handset issues - GSM or CDMA service.

MANAGEMENT INVOLVES

ADDRESSING A PRINCIPLES-BASED VALUE CHAIN

CHURN MANAGEMENT

What are the commonest reasons for customers to switch from one service provider another?

Regarding churn, something interesting that’s been noticed is that it’s much higher in the case of pre-paid services, with a churn rate of 8:1, than in post-paid service where the rate is 3:1. The idea of pre-paid cards is that the customer will mature to become a post-paid one and so it pays to retain him too. After all, it’s five times more expensive to acquire a new customer than to retain an existing one. HIGH CHURN RATES The industry standard is around 2 percent a month. The cost of acquiring a new customer is more than that of retaining one. The cost of acquiring a new customer is more than five times that of retaining an existing customer. Even if you calculate a churn of 2 percent a month, an operator is losing 24 percent of its customers every year. Whatever the numbers, the fact remains that the telecom industry’s bottom line is getting affected significantly thanks to the high churn rate. WHY IT HAPPENS Usually, such a high churn rate is witnessed in more mature markets where operators try to attract customers from competitors since market growth is saturated. But with one of the lowest telecom penetrations, the Indian market is anything but mature. Then what are the reasons for this trend? Many subscribers shift to another vendor due to brand image. Beyond the brand image, higher churn is generally attributed to the numerous tariff options available to customers. A customer may also churn due to billing disputes with a particular vendor—billing fraud also comes into play. More than tariff plans it is the quality of customer service that prompts a customer to churn or remain loyal. In the current market scenario there is hardly any difference in offerings, prices and quality of service offered by different operators. Cut-throat competition has ensured that there is not much difference between the tariff plans offered by different vendors. This is where customer service and valueadded services come into play. If an operator doesn’t anticipate market needs or does not provide value-added services offered by the competitor, then the customer is likely to churn.

Other than this, some of the key factors that encourage churn are inadequate network coverage, which includes dropped calls that occur in places where network coverage is thin and blocked calls that occur when the demand for network services exceeds capacity. The churn problem is more prevalent in the prepaid segment, which today s for the vast majority of Indian cellular s. The prepaid customer is more price-sensitive than the post-paid one. With rentals as low as Rs 300, customers with low usage prefer prepaid cards. Also, students and those who like to experiment with different networks prefer the prepaid offering. Bharti Cellular reduced its churn from 3 percent to 2 percent with immense positive impact on its bottom line after deploying the churn management solution SAS. Today, they can predict with 80 percent confidence, which customer will churn. Internationally they have reached accuracy levels of 90-95 percent. But customer variables keep changing. Hence the solution has to be continuously fine-tuned to improve accuracy. SAS offers a total end-to-end customer retention solution, which s the whole process of managing churn—right from gathering and warehousing data to predictive churn modeling to reporting and distributing actionable results to decision makers. The solution enables an operator to gain a better understanding of the variables that influence customer churn. The solution predicts a customer’s likelihood of cancellation or switchover by scoring them on a scale of 0 to 1. If a customer scores 0.73 it means there’s a 73 percent chance of his churning. The lower the score, the more content the customer. Once the scores are known, it is easy to figure out which customers are likely to switch. The solution provides the telecom company with a sliced and diced view of the customer base, thereby empowering it to treat each customer differently as per needs. The customer attributes typically considered in a churn analysis can be broadly categorised into customer demographics, contractual data, technical quality data, billing and usage data and events-type data. But the most commonly used historic variables include the time a customer spends on air, the number of calls he makes and the revenue generated from that customer. The predictive information becomes crucial as it gives the service provider a window to proactively fix the glitches in service and contain churn, thereby improving bottom lines.

The solution also helps identify cross-sell and up-sell opportunities, which can have a further positive impact on the operator’s bottom line. Once they have identified the customers who are likely to churn they can take immediate measures to retain at least 85 percent of them. POSTPAID CHURN SOLUTIONS THAT WORK  Optimizing subscriber acquisition costs  Managing retention costs healthily  How do you keep your customers with an effective pricing dimension?  Matching the right customer profile with the right marketing bundle creatively  Learning points from past campaigns EFFECTIVE

CHURN

MANAGEMENT

AND

PERFORMANCE

MEASUREMENT FRAMEWORK  Exploiting historical churn data and optimizing the churn prediction  Structuring a strong churn management framework Measuring the effectiveness of your churn management strategy in of:  Methodology  Results MINIMISING

CHURN

&

BUILDING

CUSTOMER

PROFITABILITY

POSTPAID CHURN SOLUTIONS THAT WORK  Optimizing subscriber acquisition costs  Managing retention costs healthily  How do you keep your customers with an effective pricing dimension?  Matching the right customer profile with the right marketing bundle creatively  Learning points from past campaigns

COMPREHENSIVE APPROACH TO CHURN CONTROL IN HIGH GROWTH AND COMPETITIVE MARKETS  Acquiring quality customers  Using new customer induction and expectation management as a retention tool  Managing monthly payment cycles to minimize defaults  Engaging channels to expand your reach for your retention programs  Customer retention  Revenue stimulation  Direct customer communication All these enhancements successfully changed the customer retention paradigm from a reactive to a proactive one resulting in a continuous decline in postpaid churn over last year leading to an all time low churn. BEST WAYS TO PREVENT THESE HIGH RATES OF CUSTOMER CHURN  Effective customer service could be a deterrent to churn.  Branding and service differentiators also help in taking customers away from competitors.  Proper operational and analytical CRM tools in place that would help segment and analyze customer behaviors and predict their propensity to churn.  It is necessary to proactively strategies and service customers so as to retain the high value ones. For Airtel , Analytical customer retention solutions would help identify the high-, midand low-value customers and the valuable ones who are most likely to cancel services, and their reasons for doing so. They would also help in better campaign targeting and a more focused strategy. The multidimensional data base (MDDB) that Airtel has, let internal sales and marketing groups research customer information from their desktops.

CUSTOMER ACQUISITION STEPS  Identification of potential customers  Influence the target customer buying behavior  Customer acquisition STRATEGIES Introduction of a new tariff plan with different slots like leisure lifestyle, executive and for postpaid customers. Airtel also offers different tariff plans to different segments like students, professionals, etc. Airtel has also implemented an e-CRM platform to create a central database of customer information, to enable pan-India access and service delivery. OTHER MEANS Airtel has introduced a plethora of value-added services to increase customer ‘stickiness’. The common services offered by the operator include SMS, group messaging, voice mail, caller line identification, Hello tunes, GPRS and even multimedia messaging. Other than this, different service providers have introduced unique services for certain segments of customers, depending on their usage patterns. Operators have also introduced closed group (CUG) services for corporates that want to provide employees with cell phones but also want to restrict their usage. Operators even offer special pricing for calls made within a limited group.

Though m-commerce hasn’t taken off as expected, certain banks offer mobile banking services like balance enquiry, cheque book requisition, bank statements, etc, free of cost.

CUSTOMER DEFECTION Customer-focused marketing technology is developing rapidly: The term “customer database” is outdated. It has been found that companies, which reduced customer defections by 5 per cent, could boost profits from 25 per cent to 85 per cent. Today, the consumers are smarter and they expect more. As the general population becomes better educated, consumers approach purchase decisions with greater scrutiny, and they have access to more data for comparison purchasing. The Internet has led to disloyalty: The Internet as a distribution channel for product sales and information has caused many consumers to change buying habits and methods. Researchers report record-low consumer loyalty in the Internet environment. Price-based switching: the customers prefer those services or products which are offered to them at much competitive prices. Hence it has become very essential for the companies to stop the consumers from switching. The global market introduces new competitors: As the global economy opens, our companies are seeing increased competition, and many sectors are facing foreign competition for the first time. 6 TYPES OF DEFECTORS  Price defectors, who switch to a low-priced competitor  Product defectors, who defect to a superior product offered by a competitor  Service defectors, who leave due to poor service  Market defectors, who are lost but not to any other business - they may go out of business or to another market  Technological defectors, who switch to products offered by companies outside the industry,  Organizational defectors, who switch due to internal or external politics.

Analyzing complaint and service data is a good method to identify problems and understand why customers defect. Analysis should be statistical and should be fairly detailed

in

order

to

understand

the

underlying

patterns

of

the

problems.

Strategic bundling is another way of erecting a barrier against defections that can lead to enhanced customer retention. A bundle is a group of products or services offered as a single cost saving and convenient package. A customer who opts for a bundle will not switch to a competitor even if he is offered a better deal on a single item of the bundle. Usage analysis is a method that can be effectively used to help in customer retention. Segmenting markets by consumption can provide valuable insights into the mix of customers. Heavy s are more valuable than the medium or light ones and appropriate marketing strategies have to be devised to retain them. Similarly in the business context, we find the Pareto Principle or the 80/20 rule in operation. Key s that comprise about 20 per cent of the business customers are responsible for about 80 per cent of the sales generated. Such heavy and key s are prone to poaching by competitors. Hence it is important to concentrate advertising, promotion, sales and communication efforts on this segment. Medium customers should be targeted with revenue enhancement strategies through phone calls and e-mails. The light or unprofitable customers should be served in new ways to upgrade them. In some cases, the unprofitable customers might also have to be ignored. The strategies for retaining customers are a function of the nature of the product, the stage of the product life cycle, and the buying behaviour of the customers. Customer value affects customer satisfaction, which in turn affects loyalty. Customer loyalty affects customer retention. Loyalty of the customer increases with customer satisfaction at an increasing rate. Segmentation of customers should be done by satisfaction levels, prior to the strategizing of retention activities. Airtel is also trying to prevent its customers to its competitors such as: Hutch and Idea. The company is establishing a strong CRM system.

CUSTOMER RETENTION Airtel maintains its leadership with its effective churn controls in India. Gaining new customers is good news for any company; the flip side is the loss of customers—or churn, in industry parlance. So mobile players are putting churn management systems in place, which can almost accurately predict the behaviour of fickle customers. Churn is a widely-recognized problem today for most mobile telecommunications providers. In simple churn refers to customers canceling their existing contract only to embark on a relationship with a competing mobile service provider. The cost of acquiring a new customer is more than five times that of retaining an existing customer. Hence it is advisable for any company to try to reduce the churn rate of its company. The churn rate of Airtel is about 2% which is at parlance with the industry figure. But if you calculate a churn of 2 percent a month, an operator is losing 24 percent of its customers every year. Whatever the numbers, the fact remains that the telecom industry’s bottom line is getting affected significantly thanks to the high churn rate. Optimizing the Level of Customer Retention Costs (CRC) To Increase Customer Lifetime Value:  Defining customer life time value  Establishing a customer life cycle perspective  Assessing proven methods to apply customer lifetime value to define customer CRC  Ascertaining how to make CRC an investment in the future customer value CUSTOMER COMPLAINTS When the customer pays for a product or service, it is assumed that the product will work correctly or that the service received is as promised. Ideally, the customer will be satisfied, and there will be no complaints. But at times, the customer is not satisfied with the services since the expectations do not meet with the results, this causes customer complaints.

Airtel has toll free numbers for handling customer complaints. A separate division is meant for customer care, where, the customer care executives are present to handle any type of customer complaint. These customer care executives are specially trained for the same purpose. TYPES OF CUSTOMER COMPLAINTS  Letters  Spoken Word to Employees  Phone Calls  Email NEED TO LISTEN TO CUSTOMER COMPLAINTS  Development  Loyalty  Lost Customers  Employees  How to Solve Customer Complaints  Listen  Always Offer a Solution ENCOURAGE CUSTOMER COMPLAINTS  Open Details  Friendly Staff  Comment Slips DO NOT FORGET No matter how bad a problem is, no employee should be subjected to any personal insults or threats from a complaining customer.

Encourage complaints rather than silence, but customers must not be allowed to threaten your employees in any way.

INDICES The ultimate indication of success of a CRM initiative is the change in attitude and behavior that an organization exhibits toward its customers. To determine if the initiative is successful is to independently develop an index and monitor the progress. A Customer Loyalty and Velocity Index (Customer Love) has been done. The index's intention is to determine if the CRM initiative is successful from a quantitative view. Components of the index are: MARKETING  Response rate to marketing promotion  Sales leads generated by promotion  Conversion rate of responses  Effectiveness and cost of channels (web, TV, radio)  Product offerings (customer interest)  Sales by product offering  Market share  Product positioning  ROI on marketing expenditures

SALES  Customer turnover (rate of new customers to departing customers and the active customer base size)  Customer acquisition costs  Average order frequency and size  Revenue per rep ratio

 Sales profits per customer and per contract or deal  Win rate  Number of completed sales calls per rep  Number of sales calls within a selling cycle CUSTOMER SERVICE  Average speed of answer  Percentage of abandoned calls  Frequency of all trunks busy  First resolution  Number of training days per customer service representative  Average cost per customer service employee

CRM BUSINESS STRATEGY In fact, Airtel has seen that CRM actually represents a business strategy that involves focusing knowledge, business processes and organizational structures around customers and prospect for the whole organization. Surrounding this business strategy is an information technology infrastructure consisting of data warehouses, decision engines and integrated middleware for touch points/channels in order to better understand customer behaviour and respond in a timely and relevant manner.

Today’s consumers’ can no longer be treated as a “homogenous collection of revenue generating units”†, but rather as individuals whose specific wants and needs determine unique behavior (buying patterns, channel usage, etc.).

CONCLUSION One of the greatest experiences of our lives has been the compilation of this project. It has helped us to gain a new clear insight into corporate world. It has also helped us incorporating whatever theoretical and practical Knowledge we had gained into its aspect the study was on “Customer relationship management for Bharti Airtel Limited”. The findings of that study were that Airtel has a good brand image among those who are aware of it. On the basis of the study several recommendations and promotional strategies have been suggested. Hopefully the study will help Airtel to gain as much as it did to us.

MY EXPERIENCE ON BHARTI AIRTEL PROJECT It was a wonderful experience for while I was making my project on one of the top leading telecommunication company in India that is Bharti Airtel. I wanted to make a project on telecommunication sector so that I can gain some knowledge about this sector. I selected “Customer Relationship Management” as my topic because the main job of Airtel is to provide service. As it is a service sector company. So, if they will not provide good service to their customers, they will not succeed. So, when I started my project, I first gathered information about Customer Relationship Management from various books, magazines, journals, websites, etc which I have mentioned in the Bibliography part and then I gathered information about Airtel from the website of Airtel that is www.airtel.in. After gathering all this information I arranged all the information properly and then I made a report on the information gathered. After that, I went to the Airtel office which is located in okhla. I went there and told at the reception, that I am making a project on Airtel on the topic Customer Relationship Management and I want some assistance from you. They fully cooperated with me and they provided me with some essential data. Then I prepared a questionnaire on the data provided by them and I also made an analysis on the questionnaire which I prepared. They also gave me data on Airtel Customer Relationship Management (CRM) model, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) business strategy and little other information which has mentioned in the project. I really enjoyed making this project and it was an overall great experience for me.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Books: 1. CRM Automation by Barton. J. Goldenberg 2. CRM Handbook: A Business Guide to Customer Relationship Management by Jill Dyche 3. Essential Guide to Knowledge Management, the e-Business and CRM Application by Amrit Tiwana 4. Accelerating Customer Relationships: Using CRM and Relationship Techniques by Ronald S. Swift 5. Essentials of CRM by Bryan Bergeron 6. Customer Relationship Management Technology by Dr. Jon Anton 7. A practical guide to CRM Building More Profitable Customer Relationships, by Janice Reynolds Magazines: 1. Destination CRM 2. Customer World Magazine 3. Customer Interface 4. Customer Inter@ction Solutions Magazine Journals: 1. Interactive Marketing Journal 2. Ivy Business Journal November/December 2002 Websites: 1. www.crmdaily.com 2. www.realmarket.com 3. www.crm2day.com

APPENDICES Questionnaire Name____________________________________________ Age______________________________________________ Occupation______________________________________ 1).What types of services customers want? Service....  Airtel Leisure.... AirTel Business.... AirTel Standard.... 2).How would you rate Air Tel’s network in your area? - Rating Excellent…. Good….Needs improvement…. 3). How knowledgeable is company’s customer service people? – Rating Excellent….VeryGood…So-So….Dis-satisfied…Strongly Dissatisfied…. 4).When phoning at the customer care department how quickly is the call transferred to the customer care executives? Immediately….Within few minutes (2-3min)…. Takes Time…. 5).How responsive are the customer care executives in returning the phone calls. Excellent….VeryGood….So-So….Dis-satisfied…Strongly Dissatisfied…. 6).Dealer’s overall rating to the customer care department. Excellent….VeryGood….So-So….Dis-satisfied…Strongly Dissatisfied…. 7)Dealer’s rating to the usefulness of sales representatives visits to them. Excellent….VeryGood….So-So….Dis-satisfied…Strongly Dissatisfied…. 8).Dealers rating of the schemes provided by the company for them. Excellent….VeryGood….So-So….Dis-satisfied…Strongly Dissatisfied…. 9).Dealer’s satisfaction with the margins or cut-off provided by the company. Excellent….VeryGood….So-So….Dis-satisfied…Strongly Dissatisfied…. 10).Classification of dealers according to the number of activation’s (average) made in a month. No. of activations 0-10…. 10-20…. 2 0 3 0

_ 1 0 _ 3 0 . 3 0 _ 3 0 4 0 _ L e v e l o f S a t i s f a c t i o n N o . o f d e a l e r

s P e r c e n t a g e ( % ) E x c e l l e n t 6 1 8 . 1 8 % V e r y G o o d 1 2 3

6 . 3 7 % S o S 0 1 1 3 3 . 3 3 % D i s s a t i s f i e d 4 1 2 . 1 2 % S t r o n g

l y d i s s a t i s f i e d 0 0 % 7 _ 2 1 . 2 1 _ 4 0 a b o v e _ 5 _ 1 5 . 1 5 _ 11).Time within which dealers inform the franchisees about the receipt of activation forms.

Less than 1 hour…

1-2 hrs…. 

greater than 2 hrs….

12).a) ing of activation forms (C.A.F.) to the Franchisees for activation. Percentage of collection by the franchisee. 0-10% 20-40% 40-60% 60-80% 80-100% (b) Percentage time’s dealers send the C.A.F. to the franchisees. Percentage times C.A.F. delivered by the dealers 0-20% 20-40% 40-60% 60-80% 80-100% (c) Dealers intimate on phone to the franchisee and activations are made (C.A.F. is sent later on) Percentage times during a month 0% 0-5% 20-75% > 75% 13) Time within which a customer is activated by the franchisee after the receipt of C.A.F. Time Within 2 hours 2-4 hours 4-6 hours More than 6 hours 14)Dealer’s satisfaction for the time taken by the franchisees. YesNo 15)Possible reasons for the delay in activation by the franchisees? High work load  System Down 16)Dealer’s overall level of satisfaction with the company’s services.

Excellent….VeryGood….So-So….Dis-satisfied…Strongly Dissatisfied…. 17)Is it feasible that activations are made directly from the dealer’s office instead of franchisees by setting the required computer network? yes No 18).In case of cheque payment do dealers wait for the clearance of cheque before ing on the activation form to the franchise? AlwaysGenerallyNeve r 19).Best/Distinctive features of the company? Brand Image  Promotional Strategy Excellent Service  Strong Network  20) Problems faced by the dealers. No dealer recognition  Promotional strategy  Service  Fluctuating Margins  No response  We appreciate your suggestions:_______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________

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