International Journal of commerce
A STUDY ON CUSTOMER SATISFACTION OF AIRTEL SERVICE IN MANNARGUDI TOWN
R.SUBHA.,M.Com.,M.Phil.,
Department of commerce,
Prist university,Thanjavur,
Mail Id:-Subharajangam14@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
The project entitled “a study on customer
satisfaction towards Airtel in Mannargudi town " is
carried out with an objective to determine the
consumer preference and satisfaction. A descriptive
study was conducted to achieve the objectives. In
total 100 respondents filled a well-structured
questionnaire having a list of statements pertaining to
products, services & facilities provided by the service
provider. The main objective of the study was to
know how the customers of AIRTEL Broadband
perceive its Services in Mannargudi are satisfied
with the services provided by AIRTEL and also to
identify the factors affecting the preferences of the
customers Results reveal that the dimensions which
influence the satisfaction level of customer’s are:
Core services (like good coverage, good connectivity
and network quality) and call rate. Further results
show that there is a significant relation between the
brand name and the preference of customers. Hence,
it has been recommended that telecom companies
should focus on connectivity, call rate, coverage and
network quality.
KEYWORDS: Airtel, Comparative study, Customer
satisfaction, Mobile connection.
INTRODUCTION
CUSTOMER & CONSUMER:
Telecommunication companies also talk of
their customer being most important assets, just like
companies in other business domains but rarely are
this reflected in a company’s strategy and operations
.The customer of telecom services ,like cellular
telephony are moving ahead with times and have
started buying cellular services just like daily house
hold items such as tooth paste. Therefore it is
necessary in today’s business scenario to understand
the fact that the idea of customer being a company’s
most important assets is not just a management
IJECSTECH Control Theory Applications Volume 1(July 2017)
© The Institution of IJECSTECH 2017 Online Issn No : 0974 - 2358
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Dr.R.SELVARAJ, M.Com, M phil,Phd,
Head of the department of commerce
Prist university,Thanjavur.
theory, but is a very crucial economic fact .In the
current business scenario the use of customer
Relationship Management (CRM) is quite common
and critical and customer retention is the primary
goal in firms that practices.
In the light of the important of customer
relationship and customer retention ,it is very crucial
for the companies in any business domain to know
what actually drives the customer satisfaction .As the
cellular industry in India is one of the fastest growing
sectors it is important and interesting to explore the
drivers of customer satisfaction in this industry .
MARKETING:
Marketing is process of planning and
executing the conception ,pricing ,promotion and
distribution of ideas ,goods and services to create
exchange that satisfy individual and organization.
DEFINITION:
“Marketing is specifically concerned with
now transaction are created stimulated, facilitated and
valued “.
A consumer is the most important visitor in
business premise /service institution”.
“He is not dependent on the businessman or
person rendering services we are dependent
on him”
“A customer is a person who brings us his
wants .it is our job handles them profitably
to him and ourselves”.
International Journal of commerce Volume 1(July 2017)

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY:

6Types of customers 1. To study the socio –demographic

characteristic of the respondent.
Customers can be classified into two main groups:
2. To identify the customer satisfaction of
internal and external. Internal customers work for the
Airtel services in Mannargudi town.
organization, possibly in another department or
3. To study the customer’s awareness
another branch. External customers are essentially the
regarding life time prepaid mobile
general public.
connection.
Internal customers 4. To analyses the customer opinion regarding
product, price and promotion activities an
➢ People working in different departments of variousschemes.
the vendor’s organization. 5. To give suitable suggestion to Airtel service.
➢ People working in different branches of the
vendor’s organization. SCOPE OF THE PROJECT
External customers
The present research analysis his a wide
➢ Individuals scope .it covers various aspects which are useful in
➢ Businesses or business people, including several ways to various people.
suppliers, bankers and competitors.
➢ It helps to find out the leading cellular
➢ NGOs, Government bodies, Voluntary
service provides in Mannargudi at present.
organizations.
➢ It show the various for selecting a particular
Customer satisfaction is a business term which is
cellular service.
used to capture the idea of measuring how satisfied
an enterprise’s customers are with the organization’s METHODOLOGY
efforts in a market place.
PRIMARY DATA:
The organization provides products (goods
With the aim of formal questionnaire with
and/or services) of some kind to its customers
personal face interview the researcher had gathered
through the mechanism of a marketplace. The
the data for this project .this first part of the
products that organization provides are subject to
questionnaire deals with the personal characteristic of
competition whether by similar product6s or by
the respondents .the second part of the questionnaire
substitution products.
deals with the respect to cellular services.
The reason an organization is interested in
SECONDARY DATA:
the satisfaction of its customers is because customers
purchase the organization’s products. Te organization The secondary data are these data or
is interested in retaining its existing customers and information collected from the secondary sources
increasing the number of its customers. .There secondary sources. There secondary sources
may be both internal as well as external in chapter
General model
.The internal source refers to information that already
A general model of the buyer decision process exists within the company or unit studied .the sources
consists of the following steps: may consist of both private and public document .it
may be published or unpublished in nature.
➢ Want recognition;
➢ Search of information on products that could
satisfy the needs of the buyer;
RESEARCH DESIGN:
➢ Alternative selection:
➢ Decision-making on buying the product;
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International Journal of commerce
Descriptive research studies are these
studies which are concerned with describing the
characteristics of a particular individual or of a group
whereas diagnostic research studies determine the
frequency with which something occurs on its
association with something else.
In descriptive as well as diagnosis studies,
the research must be able to define clearly what he
wants to measure and most.
Find adequate methods for measuring it
along with a clear cut definition of population he
wants to study .since the aim is to obtain complete
and accurate information in the studies the procedure
to be carefully planned.
In this research the research her has adopted
descriptive cum diagnostic research design.
Area of the study:
The selection of the study area is
Mannargudi town .This study is conducted in
Mannargudi Town .it is a historically renowned town
in thiruvarur District. The town has a population of
about 63428 and an area to 04.6 square miles as per
the municipal records .it has a large number of
commercials establishment, educational institutions
and offers, nationalized and scheduled bank. People
of different religious and caste live in this town.
The research realized more primary data 100
respondents were selected of random sampling
techniques so as to give representation to different
classes of people .The collected information from the
respondent’s interview schedule was used .the
collected data were scrutinized, edited and tabulated
for presenting the data in an orderly manner.
LIMITATION OF STUDY:
1. The study is confined to 100 respondents
only.
2. The study is restricted to Mannargudi town
only due to cost and time constraints.
3. The information provided by the
respondents is spontaneous and they may
not be consistent.
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CHAPTER SCHEMES:
❖ First chapter deals with introduction of the
study.
❖ Second chapter deals with review of
literature.
❖ Third chapter deals with the company
profile
❖ Fourth chapter deals with data analysis and
interpretation.
❖ Fifth chapter deals with findings,
recommendation and conclusion.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Debarun Chakraborty (2013), in his article
determined the customer satisfaction & expectation
towards a telecommunication company in West
Midnapore which is a district of West Bengal. A
descriptive study was conducted to achieve the
objectives. In total 250 respondents filled a well-
structured questionnaire having a list of statements
pertaining to products, services & facilities provided
by the service provider. Further results show that
there is a significant relation between the brand name
and the preference of customers. Hence, it has been
recommended that telecom companies should focus
on connectivity, call rate, coverage and network
quality.
J. Pakola, M. Pietila and R.Svento12 (2003) in
their article titled, “An Investigation of Customer
Behaviour in Mobile Phone Markets in Finland” have
indicated that price and properties are the major
influential factors affecting the purchase of a new
mobile phone, whereas audibility, price and friends
are regarded as the most important in choice of the
mobile phone operators. He has stated that customers
with prior experience about a product can be able
predict their choices relatively well but tend to
overestimate the importance of a monthly access fee,
mobile-to-mobile rates and connection fees.
P.Chandiran17 (2005) in his article entitled,
“Product Life Cycle and Promotion Strategies in
Cellular Telecom Industry” brings to light the various
promotion strategies followed by the cell phone
services during the growth stage. Brand building,
emotional bondage and mass media are the effective
advertising strategies adopted as promotional tools.
International Journal of commerce
As sales promotion strategies, the schemes, tariff
plans, event sponsoring, special package for the
corporate world, and co-promotion should be given
importance during the growth stage of the cell phone
services. In the personal selling process, the suitable
strategies to be followed are focused personal selling
and corporate accounts strategy.
Munnukka and Juha23 (2005) in their article titled,
“Dynamics of Price Sensitivity among Mobile
Service Customers” have stated that customer
satisfaction is a multi-dimensional nature and viewed
overall satisfaction as a function of satisfaction with
multiple experiences with the service provider. He
has discovered that price sensitivity is one of the key
factors affecting companies‟ choices of prices. Yet in
mobile services sector business, practitioners are
facing problems in deciding prices as they are short
of knowledge on their customers' price sensitivity
levels and dynamics. Mobile service customers differ
significantly in their price sensitivity levels and
customers with moderate usage of mobile services
are least price sensitive.
Debarun Chakraborty (2013), in his research
investigated the customer satisfaction & expectation
towards a telecommunication company in West
Midnapore which is a district of West Bengal. A
descriptive study was conducted to achieve the
objectives. services & facilities provided by the
service provider. Results reveal that the dimensions
which influence the satisfaction level of customer’s
are: Core services (like good coverage, good
connectivity and network quality) and call rate.
Further results show that there is a significant relation
between the brand name and the preference of
customers. Hence, it has been recommended that
telecom companies should focus on connectivity, call
rate, coverage and network quality.
Seth et al (2008) analyzed that there is relative
importance of service quality attributes and showed
that responsiveness is the most importance dimension
followed by reliability, customer perceived network
quality, assurance, convenience, empathy and
tangibles. Customer satisfaction is a personal feeling
of either pleasure or disappointment resulting from
As soon as the telecom industry opened to
the evaluation of services provided by an
private sector investment beginning 1994,a large
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organization to an individual in relation to
expectations. Service providers frequently place a
higher priority on customer satisfaction, because it
has been seen as a prerequisite to customer retention.
Buvaneswari and R. PrakashBabu67 (2013) in
their article entitled, “Study on Customer Satisfaction
towards Cellular Service with Special Reference to
Aircel at Mannargudi Town” have found that
telecommunications companies also talk of their
customers being their most important assets like
companies in other business domains. Aircel cellular
service in Mannargudi Town the subscription by the
people is satisfactory and is steadily increasing. The
company has wider scope in the market of cellular
service by extending its value added services,
according to preference of the respondents.
COMPANY PROFILE
Bharti Airtel
Telecom giant Bharti Airtel is the flagship
company of Bharti Enterprises. The Bharti Group,
has a diverse business portfolio and has created
global brands in the telecommunication sector. Bharti
has recently forayed into retail business as Bharti
Retail Pvt. Ltd. under a MoU with Wal-Mart for the
cash & carry business. It has successfully launched
an international venture with EL Rothschild Group to
export fresh agri products exclusively to markets in
Europe and USA
Airtel comes to you from Bharti
Airtel Limited, India’s largest integrated and the first
private telecom services provider with a footprint in
all the 23 telecom circles. Bharti Airtel since its
inception has been at the forefront of technology and
has steered the course of the telecom sector in the
country with its world class products and services.
The businesses at Bharti Airtel have been structured
into three individual strategic business units (SBU’s)
1. Mobile Services
2. Airtel Telemedia Services
3. Enterprise Services.
Company history
 International Journal of commerce Volume 1(July 2017)

number of Indian companies entered the segment respondents are illiterate are used airtel mobile
with varying force, different strategies, and assorted connection. It can be understood that degree holders
aspirations; Bharti Airtel was one of the first comers, are using airtel service higher than other levels
which in times to come was going to be the Numero
Chart 1
Uno storywriter of The Great IndianTelecom story.
Bharti Airtelsince its inception has been at the Classification Of The Respondents On The Basis
forefront of technology and has steered the course of Of Residence Locality
the telecom sector in the country with its world class
products and services. 80
80
60
2010-2011 40 16
20 4
• Bharti Airtel Limited (“Bharti”), Asia’s 0 No. of
leading telecommunications service provider .respondents
announced that it has entered into a legally
binding definitive agreement with Zain
Group (“Zain”) to acquire Zain Africa BV
based on an enterprise valuation of USD
10.7 billion.
• Bharti Airtel makes Facebook’s mobile site Table 2
free for its 130 million plus customers.
Classification Of The Respondents Prefer The
Analysis And Interpretation Mobile Connection
Table 1 Percentage
No. of
Prefer Mobile
Classification Of The Respondents On The Basis .respondents
Of Education Qualification

Percentage Easy connection 52 52%

No. of
Qualification
.respondents Economical 4 4%

Illiterate 4 4% High quality &

28 28%
compact
SSLC/HSC 4 4%
Mobility 16 16%
Degree 84 84%
Total 100 100
Professional 8 8%
Sources: primary data
Total 100 100 INFERENCE:
Sources: primary data This table reveals that 52% of respondents are prefer
easy connection , 28% of respondents are prefer high
INFERENCE:
quality & compact,16% of respondents in the mobile.
This table reveals that 84% of respondents are degree Airtel connection prefer mobility ,4% of respondents
holders, 8% of the respondents are professional, 4% economical connection. It can be observed that the
of the respondents are SSLC-HSC levels, 4% of

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International Journal of commerce Volume 1(July 2017)

airtel service are preferred by more due to Above 5

20 20%
respondents its easy connection. year

Table 3 Total 100 100

Classification Of The Respondents On The Basis Sources: primary data

Of Preferring The Airtel Brand
INFERENCE:
Preferring
The Airtel Percentage The table reveal that 40% of respondents are
No. of
Brand using this brand of Airtel 1-3 years, 28% of
.respondents
respondents are using 3-5 years, 20% of respondents
are using above 5 years, 12% of respondents are
using this brand Airtel below one year.
Brand image 32 32%
Chart 3
High storage
20 20%
capacity Classification Of The Respondents By Nature Of
Airtel Mobile Connection Facility
Wide coverage 16 16%

Easy recharge 70
32 32%
method 60
50
Total 100 100
40
68
Sources: primary data 30 No. of
20 .respondents
INFERENCE: 10 20
12
0
From the above table tells with is preferring
the brand name of the Airtel, 32% of the respondents
preferring this brand image, 32% of the respondents
preferring this easy recharge method, 20% of the
respondents preferring this high storage capacity, Table 5
16% of the respondents of them wide coverage
Classification Of The Respondents Based On
Table 4
Preferring The Airtel Connection
Classification Of The Respondents On The Basis
Preferring
Of Year Using The Brand Airtel Percentage
The Airtel No. of
Percentage Connection .respondents
Using The No. of
Brand .respondents

Below 1 Tower facility 48 48%

12 12%
year
SMS 20 20%
1-3 year 40 40%

3-5 year 28 28% Minimum cost 16 16%

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International Journal of commerce Volume 1(July 2017)

Customer care 16 16%

Female 68 8 0 76
Total 100 100

Sources: primary data Total 80 16 4 100

INFERENCE:

This table reveals that 48% of respondents

Null Hypothesis(HO):
are prefer this airtel tower facility, 20% of
respondents are using SMS facility, 16% of There is no significant difference between the
respondents are prefer this airtel minimum cost, 16% opinion Gender and satisfied for using Airtel service
of respondents are Customer care airtel services. of the respondents
Most at the respondents prefer this service because of
its tower facility. (O) (E) (O-E) (O-E2) (O-E2) /

Chart 4 E

Classification Of The Respondents On The Basis

Of Continuation Of Airtel Service 12 19.2 -7.2 51.84 2.7

92 68 60.8 +7.2 51.84 0.85

100

50 No. of
8 .respondents 8 3.84 +4.16 17.30 4.50
0 No. of…
Yes No
8 12.16 -4.16 17.30 1.42

CHI-SQUARE TEST 4 0.96 +3.04 9.24 9.62

Association between gender and satisfied for using

airtel service of respondents
0 3.04 -3.04 9.24 3.03
Null Hypothesis:

There is no different
0 22.12
Gender Highly Moderately Dissatisfied Total TOTAL

Satisfied Satisfied Source:

Complied by the researcher

Male 12 8 4 24 Chi-square test

∑(O−E)2
𝐸

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International Journal of commerce
O-Observed Frequency
E-Expected Frequency
Degree of Freedom (V) = (R – 1) x (C-1)
= (2-1) x (3-1)
= (1) x (2)
=2
Chi-square table value at signification level for 2
degrees of freedom ins 5.99
Result:
Since the table value is higher than the calculated
value the null is less than the calculation value the
hypothesis is rejected . so it is true that there is no
significant association between gender and satisfied
for using airtel services.
FINDINGS
1. Majority (84%) of the respondents are
degree holder.
2. Majority (80%) of the respondents are from
rural area using Airtel mobile connection.
3. Majority (52%) of the respondents are prefer
this mobile easy connection best network
and effort able tariff.
4. Majority (32%) of the respondents are of
friends Airtel services.
5. Majority (32%) brand image and easy
recharge method the respondents prefer this
collection of them used Airtel brand.
6. Majority (40%) of respondents are using
Airtel brand for more than 1-3 years.
7. Majority (68%) of respondents says prepaid
scheme is better and it is convenient.
8. Majority (48%) of the respondents prefer
this connection for its maximum service
with tower facility.
9. Majority (52%) of the respondents feel that
the Airtel mobile connection is good quality.
10. Majority (92%) of respondents are willing to
continue with the present mobile connection
in future also.
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SUGGESTION
➢ Airtel mobile company has to improve the
awareness of its service.
➢ If the Airtel company wants to get more market
share, it has to adopt required marketing
strategy to overcome , Airtel , and BSNL and
Reliance.
➢ More numbers of Airtel user feel that starter
pack amount for getting a mobile connection is
average but in the case of Airtel it is high so the
Airtel company has to reduce its starter pack
amount to increase its customer.
➢ Some respondents feel that the scheme available
in Airtel mobile service is at its satisfactory
level. So the Airtel mobile connection should
maintain its brand image , strategy and polices.
➢ From the study I suggested the Airtel price is
low service os best when compared to other cell
connection easily contract to other.
➢ The Airtel services is given low price offer to
contract another phone and also given friends
number they get more sales in the market and
improve more service is better in the marketing.
CONCLUSION
From the study on this report it is seen that launch of
Airtel cellular service in mannargudi town the
subscription by the people is satisfactory and steady
increasing. Majority of subscribes have expressed
better service provided by Airtel cellular service but
the service by the franchisee is average. The sales
executives should be motivated to improve the
service and get tough with the respondents. The rate
of income respondents is lower than the rate of
outgoing respondents. The company should take
several steps to eliminate the default which results in
loss of respondents.
The company has wider scope in the market of
cellular service by extending its value added services,
International Journal of commerce Volume 1(July 2017)

according to the preference of the respondents. The

market in mannargudi is still in an expending phase.
The market is not saturated , however the changing
of tariff rates and low awareness level is making it
difficult for the company to maintain a constant
growth rate. It has been also observed the Airtel can
gain more number of customers by widening its
area of coverage. From this study of them given the
conclusion the price is low service is best so we
likely to by Airtel connection.

REFERENCE

➢ 1.Kotler, Philip (1999); Marketing Management,

Prentice Hall of India Pvt. Ltd, New Delhi.
➢ Saxena, Rajan (2003); Marketing Management,
Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing Company Limited,
New Delhi.
➢ Kazmi & Batra(2008); Consumer Behaviour,
Excel Books, New Delhi.
➢ Ravi Shanker (2007) "Services Marketing: The
Indian Perspective", Excel Books, New Delhi.
➢ Pratibha B. Munot (2002), ‘Study Of
Telecommunications Structure In India’,
Oklahoma State University, M.S. in
Telecommunication Management Program.
➢ Shanthi N.M. (2005), ‘Effectiveness of
Predictive Churn Models for sustaining market
share in telecom industry – An Appraisal’, ICFAI
Journal of Services Marketing, September 2005.
➢ Bebko and Charlene Pleger (2002), ‘Service
Intangibility and Its Impact on Consumer
Expectations of Service Quality’, Journal of
Service Marketing, Vol. 14, No. 2,
➢ Carsten Fink, Aaditya Mattoo and Randeep
Rathindran (2001), ‘Liberalizing Basic
Telecommunications: The Asian Experience’,
World Bank Policy Research Working Paper
2718.

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