CUSTOMER SATISFACTION

INTRODUCTION: Customer satisfaction, a business term, is a measure of how products and servicessupplied by a company meet or surpass customer expectation. It is seen as a key performance indicator within business and is part of the four perspectives of a BalancedScorecard.In a competitive marketplace where businesses compete for customers, customer satisfaction is seen as a key differentiator and increasingly has become a key element of business strategy.There is a substantial body of empirical literature that establishes the benefits of customer satisfaction for firms. MEASURING CUSTOMER SATISFACTION OF ORGANISATIONS Organizations are increasingly interested in retaining existing customers while targetingnon-customers; measuring customer satisfaction provides an indication of how successfulthe organization is at providing products and/or services to the marketplace.Customer satisfaction is an ambiguous and abstract concept and the actual manifestationof the state of satisfaction will vary from person to person and product/service to product/service. The state of satisfaction depends on a number of both psychological and physicalvariables which correlate with satisfaction behaviors such as return andrecommend rate. The level of satisfaction can also vary depending on other

SWOT analysis of Vodafone

Strengths:
The main strength of Vodafone within the telecommunicationsmarket lies in its brand image and recognition. Vodafone, havingestablished a global presence and having invested highly in marketing

adifferentiated image by promoting a Vodafone life style, currently enjoysa differentiating advantage that, if exploited properly, can offer a lead incompetition. The presence of Vodafone in numerous countries within Europe as well as in all part of the world enhances this image. It allowscustomers to travel and enjoy easily the services of their home countryoperator. In the few countries that Vodafone is not physically present(e.g. Norway) it has well established strategic alliances which allow for a better service of mobile clients.

Weaknesses:
The expansion of Vodafone has been completed at the expense of direct control of its operations. The company grew through a process of acquisitions of national telecommunications companies (e.g. theacquisition of the third biggest Czech mobile phone operator, Ceskymobile) rather than organic growth. This increased its subscribers basequickly, offering direct market knowledge and immediate additions of customer bases at the expense of direct effective control of thesubsidiaries. At the same time though, it implicitly imposed a centralizedoperational structure for the group, nominating the UK headquarters asthe leading business unit running a much centralised marketing andhandset procurement at group level. This has resulted in the neglect of local markets and local differences, allowing market share to be gained by smaller local competitors. Due to the highly saturated WesternEuropean market this has resulted in an increase in the price elasticity of demand, with consumers becoming continuously price oriented. This hasresulted in high customer churn rates reaching the level of 32.8% in theUK compared to O2s 24%.

Opportunities:
The telecommunications market, even though highly saturated insome regions offers great potential due to the ageing population and thesophistication of the consumers. It offers great opportunities through acareful market segmentation and exploitation of particular profitablesegments. Different strategies should be pursued simple phones andsimplified pricing plans to the ageing population and more updated,sophisticated solutions for younger generations. The expandingBoundaries of the market could provide further opportunities by allowingVodafone to enter more aggressively into fixed

line service and to better enjoy the benefits of its high investment in 3G technology.Moreover the company has undertaken its first steps in establishing