CONNECTING WITH THE CONSUMER · is a top priority for mobile service providers. Focusing on customer experience can enable mobile service providers to respond more effectively to

1CONNECTING WITH THE CONSUMER Copyright © 2014 The Nielsen Company

C O N N E C T I N G W I T H T H E C O N S U M E RTHE IMPORTANCE OF INTEGRATING MARKETING PROMISE WITH SERVICE DELIVERY

2 CONNECTING WITH THE CONSUMER

T E L E C O M – W H E R E C H A N G EI S A C O N S TA N TOf all industries, telecom is one of the fastest changing. Product and

service plan dynamics are always in a state of flux with new offerings

appearing on the market daily and redefining what is important to

consumers. By the look of things, these changes will keep on coming!

To stay ahead of competition, telecom companies expend considerable

time, energy and effort in understanding the emerging consumer

needs, desires and usage trends. This is done in an effort to improve

their customer experience strategy and delivery of that strategy, in

tune with customer expectations.

This paper minutely explores the relationship of mobile service

providers with their consumers, and discusses the typical challenges

of defining, measuring, and improving customer experience.

The paper aims to give directional feedback to mobile service

providers and enable them to create competitive differentiation and

simultaneously maintain and even gain market share.

C O N S I D E R AT I O N S F O R S U R V E YD E S I G NWith the above purpose in mind, we designed a quantitative survey

that captured feedback on mobile users’ experience with their telecom

service provider. The survey was conducted online using SSI Panels,

which offer several advantages (detailed in infographic below). The

surveys extended across eleven countries and over 9000 respondents.

Respondents above 18 years, who owned a mobile phone and used

the services of one or more mobile service providers were considered.

As many as 49 mobile service providers were covered with adequate

representation of both pre-paid and post-paid consumers.


W H AT C L I C K S W I T H T H E M O B I L ES E R V I C E SC O N S U M E R ?Telecom service providers need to constantly keep a finger on the

pulse of their market, their competition, and especially their custom-

ers. Customers of today are more demanding, expect higher levels of

service, and crave new products. One of the intentions of this study

was to delve into what clicks with the mobile consumer at the time

of brand selection and thereafter, what he values most in the post

purchase period. Before we look at the some of the findings from the

global study, we must mention two interesting insights:

1. The expectations of customers from their service providers are

very similar across countries where the study was conducted. This

was seen from US in the extreme west, to Japan in the extreme

east and similarly across developing and developed countries

2. We found that the rating on all the key attributes (Loyalty, Overall

Satisfaction, RSI, NPS), was the highest across brands in China

and India and lowest across brands in countries like Japan,

Germany and Hong Kong. However, when customers were asked

if they had a problem with their service provider in the past 3

months, it was China and India that had the maximum problems!

One important learning is that comparison of scores across

countries must be done with a lot of caution

ADVANTAGES OF USING SSI ONLINE PANELS

IT’S FASTER

SMARTER ALTERNATIVE

SCREENED RESPONDENTS

RESEARCH-READY RESPONDENTS

Data collection can be completed quickly

Conventional methods, such as face-to-face and telephonic conversation, are becoming less productive and more costly

Panel research allows you to screen respondents based on the information profiles given during sign up

The effort is more fruitful because the respondents have already opted-in to participate in research studies.


W H AT A R EC U S TO M E R S L O O K I N G F O R W H E N S E L E C T I N G A M O B I L E S E R V I C E P R O V I D E R ?So what were the factors that played a signif icant role in consumers’ selection of their mobile service provider at the time of purchasing a connection? (See Table below)

When asked to list the criteria for choosing their mobile services

brand, consumers primarily cited eff iciency in operation or use, and

dependability of service (in the form of Network Coverage &Network

Quality). Amongst other things, consumer choice of mobile services

was also significantly influenced by economy of usage (in the form of

Low Call Rates and Services Bundle Offer).

REASONS FOR CHOOSING MOBILE SERVICE BRAND

ALL FIGS ARE IN % TOTAL SOLUS USER

MULTIPLE USER

Network Coverage 52 52 50

Network Quality 43 43 43

Low cell rates 32 28 44

Data services 20 19 21

Services bundle offer 18 19 15

Reputation of the company 18 18 15

Connection given by family member 16 16 17

Low SMS rates 15 14 17

Good Brand image 14 15 11

Handset bundle offer 11 12 9

Customer Services 10 10 10

Variety of Value Added Services 6 6 6

Corporate connection 4 4 3


Economy of usage was an even bigger factor for dual users while

choosing multiple service providers.

Other factors that were deal makers in influencing brand choice were

cited to be ‘Good Brand Image’ / ‘Reputation of Company’, combined

with ‘Customer Service’ and ‘Variety of VAS’

W H ATC U S TO M E R SR E A L LY WA N T F R O M T H E I RM O B I L EE X P E R I E N C E:I.E. WHAT KEEPS THEM FROM CHURNING OUT?

With mobile phone penetration reaching a saturation point in many

countries, ‘retention’ has become more of a focal point than even

‘acquisition’. In the pursuit of market share, it is natural for Telecom

Companies to be keen to understand customer satisfaction in order to

cultivate strong relationships with them. Now, as the logical next step,

to help mobile service companies compete in this fast-paced Telecom

market, it is essential to identify the crucial drivers of satisfaction that

truly impact customer engagement post-purchase and keep them from

churning out.

Our study measured seven key factors that affect consumer experience

of mobile phone users. These seven key factors were regressed

onto Key Performance Indicators as Independent variables, and the

calculated impact was used to rank these seven key factors in order of

influence (See Table below).


CALL CENTRE

VOICE QUALITY

FACTORS

(REGRESSIONSCORES)DRIVERS

(TOP 2 BOX%)PERFORMANCE

IN STORE/OUTLET EXPERIENCE

RATE PLANS / PRICE

VALUE ADDED SERVICES

DATA QUALITY

BILLING EXPERIENCE/RECHARGE EXPERIENCE

19.3 41

14.9 39

14.5 48

13.8 48

13.0 42

12.7 56

11.7 41

‘Rate Plans/ Price’ emerged as the top driver of customer satisfaction

This expectation also existed as a pre purchase criteria. This indicates that the consumer’s inclination for cost savings is here to stay

Mobile service providers have graduated from providing basic voice

and telephony services to offering a host of entertainment and other

‘Value Added Services’ (VAS), and this emerged as the second most inf luential driver for mobile service usage experience. Somehow, VAS

was not considered as the most important criteria while purchasing.

With the convergence of technologies, data services are growing

exponentially and ‘Data traffic quality’ has emerged as the third most

important influencer. This too has been indicated by consumers in

their pre purchase criteria.

Payment experience’ in terms of variety of payment options and their

seamless execution emerged as the fourth most important dimension,

while ‘Customer Support’ came in fifth

Voice Quality (Network Quality) which was the numero uno criteria

while purchasing a connection, slipped down to sixth place. Perhaps

once a selection had been made on Network Coverage and Quality,

Voice Quality was assumed to be a given with little disruption.

Globally, Voice Quality has the best performance relative to all other

variables.


P O I N T S TOP O N D E R:Top of the mind reasons for selection of a brand (i.e. Brand Attraction)

and reasons for staying with a brand (i.e. Brand Retention) overlap,

but with some noteworthy differences. They are similar but not the

same, now let us explore why.

At the beginning of wireless telecom history, service providers competed on network coverage and/or price. Then the industry evolved and Value Added Services entered the equation. Today, with

the rapid growth in the demand for Data Services; coverage, speed

and price come into play once again with an even greater force while

choosing a service provider. Our data also confirms the growing

penetration and importance of ‘Data Services’ on the mobile phone. It

has emerged amongst the Top four consumer Attraction and Retention

criteria for a brand, and which in turn requires the foundation of

strong infrastructure and competitive pricing.

However, for the mobile operators whose margins are already squeezed and who are reeling under pressures of the price war, there is no scope for prices to go down further. But there are two avenues where they can still compete

a. The deployment of new technology

b. The improvement of service performance.

This is where VAS and Service delivery factors come in. Therefore

operators can use products and services as differentiators on the

customer experience front.

The findings imply that it is imperative that mobile services providers

pay special attention to the basics, notably, the three essentials: a)

constantly build and upgrade their network and bandwidth, b) offer

more innovative subscription packages, and c) invest to ensure better

quality of service and positive brand experiences.

These may seem like basic hygiene factors but balancing Financials

and Network quality at the sell side, with Innovation and Service

Delivery on the experience side, could be the ‘success mantra’ in the

mobile/ wireless telecom space.


R E L AT I O N S H I P S T R E N G T H I N D E X:A STRONG PERFORMANCE INDICATOR

As discussed earlier, improving customer experience and satisfaction

is a top priority for mobile service providers. Focusing on customer

experience can enable mobile service providers to respond more

effectively to customer requirements, build customer loyalty, and

create a stronger value perception in the minds of customers.

Additionally, improved customer experience can generate sustainable

competitive differentiation, improving prospects for long term

profitability.

While most Mobile Service providers measure ‘satisfaction’ or ‘loyalty’

as a Key Performance Indicator (KPI), Nielsen measures the deeper

‘cause’ of Loyalty rather than Loyalty itself. Nielsen defines the

“cause” of Loyalty as Strength of the Relationship between the service

provider and the customer.

This Relationship Strength Index (RSI), is a composite of six

statements, which reflect both the tangible as well as the intangible

aspects of the relationship.

WHAT IS THE RSI ADVANTAGE?• RSI Statements are specific and easy to understand

• The first two questions included in the RSI define the ‘brick and mortar’ of Customer Engagement/Experience. These are: ‘Overall satisfaction’ and ‘Performance relative to competition’.

• As is common knowledge, Customer Engagement is also the result of a customer’s perception of the value received in a transaction or relationship; where value equals perceived service quality relative to price. Thus, Value for Money (VFM) is the third parameter that we measure under RSI.

• Experience tells us that rational elements account for only half the typical customer experience; the rest is emotional. An organization’s strong reputation and recognized expertise, translates into Trust. And it is this element of ‘Trust’ along with the constituent of ‘Responsiveness’ which creates emotional bonds and is therefore also included in the RSI

• The RSI also includes an element of Price Premiumness / Price Sensitivity

• The RSI follows the hierarchy of customer expectations – from Needs Fulfilment to Trust

• The value of this RSI ranges from a minimum of 0 (signifying a weak relationship),to a maximum of 10 (Signifying a strong relationship).


THE RELATIONSHIP STRENGTH INDEX (CORE QUESTIONS)

R S I A N D I T S L I N K TO I N-M A R K E T P E R F O R M A N C EWe also observed a strong contrast in the experience (in terms of

% satisfied) across the seven factors amongst High RSI and Low

RSI customers, thus providing a compelling reason to believe that

experience across these 7 factors drove strength of engagement/

strength of relationship (With a R2=0.6)

FACTORS(TOP 2 BOX %)

TOTAL LOW RSI(BOTTOM DECILE)

HIGH RSI(TOP DECILE)

Rate Plans / Price 41 8 89

Value Added services 39 5 88

Data Quality 49 12 91

Billing Experience/Recharge experience 48 13 90

Call Centre 42 8 87

Voice Quality 56 19 93

In store/Outlet experience 41 10 88

OVERALL OPINION VS OTHERS

VALUE FOR MONEYSATISFACTIONNEED

FULFILMENT TRUST

“ABC is a

brand that

you can truly

trust”

PRICE PREMIUM

“If another

product/service

provider were to

offer you a similar

product/service

at a marginally

lower price, how likely are you to shift from

ABC to the new

service provider?”

“Compared

to other product

and services

in the market,

what is your

overall opinion

about ABC?”

“Based on the

benefits you

get from ABC,

you feel It is

well worth the money

you paid for it”

“To what extent

would you

say you are

satisf ied or dissatisfied

with the

products and

services of

ABC?”

“ABC offers

products

and services

that are

responsive to your

needs and

requirements”


We discovered that two statements included in the RSI, which define

the ‘brick and mortar’ of Customer Engagement/Experience (i.e.

‘Overall Satisfaction’ and ‘Performance Relative to Competition’), are

even by themselves able to explain the impact of these 7 factors quite

well (With a healthy R2=0.54). We have in our analysis, also created another KPI by combining these two statements into what we are now calling the Experience Index (EI)

T H E L OYA LT YFA C TO RWhile we have a good idea of what drives high customer satisfaction,

increased competition in the telecommunication industry has

necessitated that companies pay attention towards retaining

customers.

Retention of customers is key to corporate survival and can only be

achieved through building strong customer relationships. When built

right, customer relationships can have a cascading effect, leading

to Loyalty, positively impacting revenue, and ultimately resulting in

sustainable growth.

The loyalty behaviors that we incorporated in our survey were both

behavioural and attitudinal, as listed below-

1. relationship continuance

2. recommendation (word of mouth advertising)

3. ‘I rarely think about leaving’

4. ‘It would take a lot for me to leave’

These four parameters together made up our loyalty Index called

Claimed Behavior Index (CBI). The value of this index also ranges from

a minimum of 0 and a maximum of 10.

We also observed a strong contrast in loyalty behaviour (in terms

of % agree) across the four parameters amongst High RSI and Low

RSI customers. Our data shows that higher strength of customer

relationship (RSI) leads to greater customer loyalty (CBI), which

in turn has a positive rub off on profitability. There exists a strong

link between RSI and future behaviour of the customer (See Table

below). Thus, strong RSI does lead to better loyalty in its various

manifestations.


D O E S T H E B R A N D’SC O M M U N I C AT I O N P L AY A R O L E I N T H E D E P T H O F T H E C U S TO M E R S’R E L AT I O N S H I P W I T H T H E B R A N D ?We move on from the link between RSI and positive customer

behaviour to delve further into the customer engagement experience.

We have come to realize that Customer Engagement is a function of

the ‘gap’ between perceptions or expectations and actual experience.

Mapping Experiences with Expectations is very important as a chief

mediator for customer retention.

We aimed to bring in a measure that represented the consumer

‘expectation’ aspect that underlines consumer experience.

LOYALTY BEHAVIOURS(TOP 2 BOX %)

TOTAL LOW RSI (BOTTOM DECILE)

HIGH RSI(TOP DECILE)

Continue with Brand 70 14 99

Recommend Brand 32 2 82

Rarely thinking of leaving 54 12 86

It would take a lot to leave 55 10 93

CBI (0-10 Scale) 7.29 3.64 9.35

12 CONNECTING WITH THE CONSUMER Copyright © 2014 The Nielsen Company

WHY MEASURE BRAND EQUITY IN A CUSTOMER SATISFACTION STUDY?Contrary to conventional wisdom, there is a key set of fundamental

metrics — which can be actively managed — linking the health of a

brand to revenue and consumer commitment.

THE CAUSALITY OF THIS RELATIONSHIP HAS BEEN LONG ESTABLISHED.However, behavioural intentions are not adequate. We also need

to know how much customers ‘like’ the brand and whether this

‘affability’ will translate into positive outcomes

B. Hence, we also went a step ahead to explore the relationship

between the Brand Equity Index (BEI) and future Claimed Behavior

Index (CBI)

The aim is to develop a customer metric that is better able to predict

subsequent behaviours and economic performance, so we ran a

correlation analysis between the key Input – Output variables.

Brand Equity literature tells us that customers’ positive feelings

towards a product or service brand, creates purchase intention in

their mind. This intention may lead to the act of purchase, and will be

strengthened if actual experience is in line with the Expectations.

With the objective of providing this perspective, we included Nielsen’s

proprietary Brand Health KPI called Brand Equity Index (BEI) into the

measurement.

Thus, our analysis now worked at two levels:

A. Experience (measured via RSI) will feed in (positively/ negatively)

to BEI. So we attempted to explore the relationship between RSI

and BEI.

Traditional approach towards building customer relationships and

ultimately loyalty and market share can be represented thus:

Brand Equity is an intelligent way of estimating the extent to which

‘expectations’ that existed before consumption of product / service,

have been validated through ’experience’ with the product/ service.

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION

CUSTOMER LOYALTY PROFITABILITY


CAN THIS HELP BRANDS ‘WALK THE TALK’?While rational measures (Overall Satisfaction and Opinion w.r.t.

competition) i.e. EI, is a good predictor of Future behavioural

intentions (EI correlation with CBI is 0.74), adding other Rational

measures like VFM and the Emotional undertones like Trust and

Responsiveness (i.e. RSI) enhance the strength of the correlation (RSI

correlation with CBI is 0.80).

The correlation of BEI with CBI was also positive (at 0.55).

The variation in RSI across 11 countries is far less than that of BEI. We

asked ourselves why. The answer lies in the fact that RSI comes from

actual experience of the service, while BEI comes from awareness

and understanding of the brand gathered from multiple sources.

Moreover, telecom brands are similar in service. Over the past decade,

the focus has been on operational efficiencies and mimicking each

other’s ‘best practices’. Telecom as an industry has been trying to plug

inefficiencies. They have been under pressure because of declining

voice and data margins. Thus service levels and processes are not

very distinguishable. On the other hand, brand communication is

quite differentiated. This is apparent from the variance in RSI and BEI

scores.

The correlation analysis was used to measure the magnitude and the

direction of the relationship between the role of EI, RSI, BEI and CBI

of Current users of the brand. We found that, as hypothesized, there

exist meaningful linear relationships between the variables: RSI, EI,

BEI and CBI.

(Note: Relationship Strength Index (RSI), Engagement Index (EI), Claimed Behavior Index (CBI) and Brand Equity Index (BEI) are proprietary measures of The Nielsen Company)

STRENGTH OF RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN RELATIONSHIP STRENGTH INDEX (RSI), ENGAGEMENT INDEX (EI), BRAND EQUITY INDEX (BEI) AND FUTURE LOYALTYINTENTIONS – CLAIMED BEHAVIOUR INDEX (CBI)

CBI

RSI 0.8

EI 0.74

BEI 0.55

RSI+BEI 0.76

EI +BEI 0.73


RSI BEI FOR TOTAL SAMPLE

BEI FOR CUSTOMERS

STANDARD DEVIATION 1.88 2.62 2.71

Since most brands are similar in terms of service delivery (as

represented by RSI), It is no wonder that price is the top consideration

for customers, There is a need for service differentiation. And this

promise of service differentiation needs to be tied back to the brand

communication.

So, as a whole, using the above analysis we have successfully been

able to link Customer Engagement (RSI) to Brand Equity (BEI ) and

both of them to Loyalty (CBI) which should result in profitability and

growth. In our work across sectors, we see companies often failing

to “walk the talk’, and this could be a reminder to promise the right

things on their brand communication and then deliver on those

promises

Our motivation was not simply to establish these relationships, but

also to demonstrate how they work in the context of multiple brands

across multiple countries in the telecommunications industry. We

observed that market leaders were usually high on RSI as well as BEI.

Hence it made sense to align improvement initiatives with those

exhibited by the highest performers (i.e. work on both Customer

Experience STRATEGY & Communication and also on Customer

Experience DELIVERY)


AT&T (USA)VERIZON (USA)O2 (UK)FREE MOBILE (FRANCE) T-MOBILE (GERMANY) VODAFONE (GERMANY) SINGTEL (SINGAPORE) CHINA MOBILE (CHINA) NTT DOCOMO (JAPAN) KDDI MOBILE (JAPAN) AIRTEL (INDIA) VODAFONE (INDIA) CHINA MOBILE HONG KONG CO LTD (HONG KONG)

We further ‘connected the dots’ by combining Engagement Index (EI)

with Brand Equity Index (BEI) to unlock new value from our data.

The analysis proved that to be truly successful – a brand needs to be

delivering on both Brand Strategy (BEI) and tangible Delivery of that

Strategy (EI)

EE(UK) ORANGE (FRANCE)

SFR (FRANCE) TELSTRA MOBILE (AUSTRALIA)

OPTUS MOBILE (AUSTRALIA) HUTCHISON 3G (HONG KONG)

MTS (RUSSIA)

ABOVE AVERAGE BEIBELOW AVERAGE RSI

BELOW AVERAGE BEIBELOW AVERAGE RSI

ABOVE AVERAGE BEIABOVE AVERAGE RSI

BELOW AVERAGE BEIABOVE AVERAGE RSI

SPRINT (USA)T-MOBILE (USA)

VODAFONE (UK) (26%)BOUYGUES TELECOM (FRANCE)

E-PLUS (GERMANY) O2 (GERMANY)

VODAFONE (AUSTRALIA) M1 (SINGAPORE)

CHINE TELECOM (CHINA) SOFTBANK MOBILE (JAPAN)

IDEA (INDIA) BEELINE (RUSSIA)

3 MOBILE (UK) VIRGIN (AUSTRALIA) STARHUB (SINGAPORE) CHINA UNICOM (CHINA) CSL NEW WORLD MOBILITY GROUP (HONG KONG) HONG KONG CSL LIMITED (HONG KONG) MEGAPHONE (RUSSIA)

RSI

BEI


Using EI and BEI, we created a 2X2 Matrix and segmented the

respondents into Asset Base, Threat Base, Opportunity Base and Weak

Underbelly Base (See graphic below)

OPPORTUNITY

THREAT

ASSET

WEAK UNDERBELLY

BRAND EQUITY INDEX

ENG

AG

EMEN

T IN

DEX

LOW HIGH

LOW

HIG

H

Our analysis of the Loyalty Behaviours pertaining to each of these

segments revealed that the strongest Loyalty emanated from the Asset

Base, where both EI and BEI were high

LOYALTY BEHAVIOURS SCALE ASSET BASE

OPPORTUNITY BASE

WEAK UNDERBELLY

BASE

THREAT BASE

HIGH EI HIGH BEI

HIGH EI LOW BEI

LOW EI HIGH BEI LOW EI LOW BEI

Likelihood to Continue to Use Unlikely 0.20% 4.10% 2.70% 15.50%

Likely 94% 82% 61% 35%

Likelihood to Recommend NPS 50% 11% -9% -58%

Rarely think about leaving

current service providerDisagree 9% 12% 20% 37%

Agree 80% 67% 42% 25%

Take a lot to leave current

service providerDisagree 4% 10% 15% 40%

Agree 82% 67% 44% 21%


BEI is a reflection of what people have understood of the brand

through brand visibility and brand awareness. BEI results are an affir-

mation of the fact that brands should be careful about communicating

brand values.

C U S TO M E RL OYA LT Y M A K E S WAY F O R‘M O M E N T S O F T R U T H’ I N A B R A N D’S B U C K E T L I S TEven the best designed, customer centric systems and processes

will face the occasional drop in service. However, it is the manner in

which customer complaints are handled in such a scenario that deeply

impact Customer Engagement. High RSI is not just about a better

service experience (and lesser incidence of complaints) but also a lot

about a better Service Recovery experience i.e. if complaints did hap-

pen, they were handled well for a larger proportion of the time.

In the telecom sample, while nature of problems remained similar

across RSI Top Decile and RSI Bottom Decile, the handling of

problems was better for Top Decile customers with 94% reporting

resolution as against only 31% reporting resolution for Bottom Decile

customers.

PROBLEMS FACED IN P3M (AREA OF PROBLEM)ALL FIGS ARE IN %

BOTTOMDECILE

TOPDECILE

Network Coverage 26 27

Network Quality 29 17

Billing related 19 18

Payment related 7 5

Activation of Services 5 8

RESOLUTION OF PROBLEM BOTTOM DECILE TOP DECILE

Yes 31 94

No 69 6


This brings home the point that recent actual behaviour may be a

stronger reflection of how customers feel as compared to future inten-

tions

C U S TO M E RC A L L I N G -S E R V I C ER E C O V E R Y I S T H E H A L L M A R K O F Q U A L I T Y TO O !Our study showed that the RSI, EI and CBI scores were better than the

global average for consumers who had NOT faced any problems in the

past three months (See Table below)

GLOBAL AVERAGE

PEOPLE WHO DID NOT FACE A PROBLEM

PEOPLE WHO FACED A PROBLEM BUT DID NOT COMPLAIN

PEOPLE WHO FACED A PROBLEM AND COMPLAINED

SATISFIED WITH PROBLEM

RESOLUTION (TOP 2 BOX)

DISSATISFIED WITH PROBLEM

RESOLUTION (BOTTOM 2 BOX)

RSI 6.68 6.92 5.6 5.97 7.87 4.63

EI 6.56 6.78 5.5 5.93 7.9 4.64

CBI 7.29 7.55 6.27 6.43 8.15 5.01

And, there was a dip in RSI, EI and CBI of consumers who had faced a

problem in the past three months. This dip was steeper for consumers

who had faced a problem but had not complained to the Mobile

Service provider about it.

From amongst the consumers who did complain (and hence

provided the Mobile service provider with an opportunity for Service

recovery), when the resolution of the problem was to the consumer’s

satisfaction, there was a discernible improvement in the RSI, EI and

CBI scores to levels that were even higher than the global average.

Alternatively, if the resolution was not to the satisfaction of the

consumer, then, understandably, there was a discernible dip in the

RSI, EI and CBI scores, to levels lower than global average.


The good news is that the positive ripple effect of good service

recovery does not end here, it goes on to rub off positively on current

behaviors. (See Table below)

So consumers who have complained and have had a satisfactory

resolution of their problem are more likely to engage in positive,

revenue impacting behaviour like:

• Speaking positively about the brand

• Recommending the brand

• Increase spending

• Report ‘delightful’ experiences with the brand

SPOKEN POSITIVELY ABOUT THE

BRAND

HAVE RECOMMENDED THE BRAND

EXPERIENCED INCIDENTS THAT HAVE DELIGHTED OR UPSET

CHANGE IN SPENDING

YES NO YES NO DELIGHTED UPSET INCREASED DECREASED REMAINED SAME

Satisfied

with

problem

resolution

(Top 2

Box%)

46 10 49 11 58 8 37 9 18

Dissatisfied

with

problem

resolution

(Bottom 2

Box%)

4 11 3 11 2 13 7 11 9


C A L L TO A C T I O N:HOW CAN MOBILE SERVICE PROVIDERS DIFFERENTIATE THEMSELVES AND MINIMISE CUSTOMER ATTRITION IN AN INCREASINGLY COMPETITIVE MARKETPLACE?

• Mobile service providers need to master the art of retaining

customers and reducing churn

• Globally the telecom industry is in the midst of a transformational

shift, driven by a huge surge in data traffic on telecom networks.

Hence, now more than ever, for mobile service providers, the

‘mantra’ for driving engagement: would be about continuously

upgrading infrastructure, reach and quality of network; while at

the same time maintaining a stronger focus on maximizing cost

efficiency and maintain high service standards.

• Since mobile consumption habits are changing, Innovation in

content is a global need along with informative VAS

• However, Technology is only one of the drivers of this business

model. Most telecom providers want to hold onto their customers

by providing value added customer service. It would make sense

to therefore define the same ‘value added customer service’

properly. Customers must be provided with the information on

what they can expect right upstream in their experience. This

is where brand communication needs to be taken care of by

promising the ‘right’ things/ benefits to the consumers. For great

service differentiation, a very clear promise needs to be made

(BEI), and then those promises need to be well delivered at every

touch point.

• The findings suggest that companies must balance and manage

different aspects of customer expectations and customer

experiences simultaneously if they are to optimize the desired

loyalty behaviours.

• If a mobile service provider wants to decrease disloyalty, they

need to maximize efforts on Service Recovery. The first step is

to eliminate the factors that would make a customer walk away.

Good service recovery creates goodwill and may even trigger a

“wow” effect with customers. Then, the same customers are likely

to become stronger loyalists and spread positive WOM for the

brand.


ABOUT NIELSEN Nielsen Holdings N.V. (NYSE: NLSN) is a global information and

measurement company with leading market positions in marketing

and consumer information, television and other media measurement,

online intelligence and mobile measurement. Nielsen has a presence

in approximately 100 countries, with headquarters in New York, USA

and Diemen, the Netherlands.

For more information, visit www.nielsen.com.

Copyright © 2014 The Nielsen Company. All rights reserved. Nielsen

and the Nielsen logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of

CZT/ACN Trademarks, L.L.C. Other product and service names are

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CONNECTING WITH THE CONSUMER · is a top priority for mobile service providers. Focusing on customer experience can enable mobile service providers to respond more effectively to