1. INTRODUCTION:

Customer satisfaction has been identified as critical success mantra in any business organization. Customer satisfaction is a cognitive state of the consumer about the aptness or inaptness of the reward received in exchange for the service experienced. Customer satisfaction has generally been defined as a post consumption evaluative judgment. Customer satisfaction is a judgment that product or service provides a satisfying level of consumption related fulfillment (Oliver, 2010).

In addition, (Churchill and Surprenan, 1982) specified that satisfaction is similar to attitude as it can be assessed as the sum of satisfaction judgments concerning various attributes of significant product or service. Similarly, Oliver (1999) pointed out that customer satisfaction can be measured with single or multiple indicators. Since services, including telecom services, are multifaceted, it is necessary to identify and measure customer satisfaction with each service component. The study of customer satisfaction focuses on attribute of satisfaction and provides more accurate and reliable information, since satisfaction/dissatisfaction with one service attribute leads to overall satisfaction/dissatisfaction with this service (Grigoroudis and Siskos, 2004).

The mobile telecommunication industry is one of the thriving service businesses of the today’s complex and dynamic environment. With the importance of information in the everyday activities, this industry is also expanding instantaneously. With this instantaneous change, the mobile service providers are able to provide the customers with new advanced features and updated technology at reasonable prices with a view to attract new and retain existing customer for long term sustainable growth. As in other business domain, MSPs also consider their customer to be the most important asset. The ever growing needs of customers have compelled the companies to go for the search of potential improvements that can be undertaken and focus on the concept of customer preference and satisfaction, since this is the key to maintain stability in the industry in terms of market share.

The telecommunication system has been a fastest growing medium of communication rejuvenating global interface interactions. Today’s development of communication technology overlooks the global perimeter and turned the world as “global village” (Melody, 2003). This reform of the communication technology transformed the old-fashioned voice telecom network into an expanded and enriched information infrastructure, which is capable of communicating all types of information. The nature of the competition today in the global telecommunications industry seems to be prime market activities that aim at attainment of competitive advantages through permutations and combinations of multiple service variables without confining it in particular geographical regions (Chan-Olmsted and Jamison, 2001). The achievement of telecommunication industry relies on prudent efforts and practicable investments. In a competitive market, mobile service providers are expected to strive on both price and quality of services and also to meet the dynamicity of consumers’ requirements and expectations in price and service quality (Melody, 2003). Since, tele-communication sector is experiencing exceptional change with the liberalization and privatization of the sector, which in result widens a fierce competition (Shah, 2012). The system has opened an ocean of opportunities for the potential consumers to enjoy versatile choices among the service providers.

1.1 Scope and Significance of Study:

This research endeavors to study on which factors affecting the customer satisfaction in using mobile telecommunication service in Pokhara City, Nepal. To overcome the area of this research, this study scope on mobile telecommunication in Pokhara City, Nepal. The participants of the study are users of mobile telecommunication services in Pokhara City, Nepal.

The telecommunication industry of Nepal at present is facing the major obstacles of relentlessly increasing market rivalry as well as the increasing customers’ expectation regarding service quality. Customers have very few choice of selection among the mobile telecommunication companies based their satisfaction level, affordability and the quality level of service being provided. This study will assist mobile telecommunications companies to formulate robust strategies which will definitely enable them to grab majority of market share. Thus, the objective of this research study is set accordingly.

Despite the various benefits of the mobile telecommunications to the economy and the market of Nepal, there is not much research prospect in this sector, unlike the urbanized countries, due to the lack of appropriate information. This absence of specific study in the mobile telecommunications sector may have stopped it from creating the pool of information beneficial for its growth. Such studies if carried out can assist in economic and social development (Turel, 2006). Therefore, there is high degree of significance of research for gaining more understanding in the area of customer satisfaction in such service business.

This research highlights those factor considered by the customers to shape their preference for MSP and also attempt to examine the level of influence of various determinants on the satisfaction level of customers which will help them in formulating robust strategy to tackle the same.

2. REVIEW OF LITERATURE:

A review of literature shows that researchers investigated the association between various attributes and overall customer satisfaction of mobile services providers using different statistics and nature of attributes. In addition, the results of these studies empirically validate that proposed attributes considerably affects overall customer satisfaction of mobile telecommunication services provider.

A study entitled “An assessment and analysis of customer satisfaction with service delivery of mobile telecommunication networks in Ghana” was conducted by Nimako and Azumah (2009) with the objective to assess and analyze customer satisfaction with service delivery of various mobile telecommunications within Ghana. A stratified random sampling was employed with sample size of 1000. A structured questionnaire was employed and personally administered to the target population for data collection. The finding indicated that, irrespective of mobile telecom network in Ghana; customer satisfaction was found to be low; neither equal to nor better than desire and expectation of the customer. Finding also indicates that; technical quality was the most important dimension followed by empathy, reliability, economy responsiveness, image and assurance while tangible was found not significantly important to the customer in Ghana’s mobile telecommunication network. The study concluded that overall customer satisfaction was significantly different among mobile telecommunication in Ghana.

In order to know about Customers choice of MSP, the research entitled “Mobile Phone Services in Makkah, Saudi Arabia” has been conducted by Simsim (2009). The study revealed that in Makkah, Saudi Arabia, financial factor is the most important in the selection of an MSP. Moreover, researcher added that there is no strong tendency among the customers to subscribe to the same service provider among family members and friends.

Chaterjee and Chaudhari (2010)entitled “A study of Market Share and factor affecting the choice of cellular service provider among young age group of Kolkata” identified the most important and least important factors affecting choice of service provider operating in Kolkata. The study was conducted with 337 respondents within an age group of 18-25 years by using the Herfindahl Index (HHI), ANOVA and Rank Score Analysis. The result revealed that the factors like good network coverage and family or friends using the same network are of utmost importance to the customers whereas the offer of free connection with the handset being the least important one.

The result from Paulrajan and RajKumar, (2011)under the title “Service Quality and Customers Preference of Cellular Mobile Service Providers” revealed that, consumer’s perception is widely varied in accordance with the communication quality, call service, facilities, price, customer care and service provider’s attribute. Furthermore the study also shows that, communication and price was most preferential factors in selecting mobile service provider. However; product quality and availability have significant impact on consumer choice of cellular mobile service provider in India.

Zainurin et.al; (2011) in their study, “Customer Satisfaction with Mobile phone operators: An exploratory study in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia” concluded that, the Malaysian customers are very much conscious of brand image, service quality and price of the operators. Therefore, Mobile phone operators in Malaysia should be very careful about these factors and the kind of services they are offering. In order to complete, mobile phone operators probably need to develop effective marketing strategies, upgrade their technological capabilities and develop their efficient marketing activities. In particular, there is a need for mobile phone operators to develop and maintain better quality, minimize price and increase brand image to increase the level of customer satisfaction.

The survey performed by Singh, C. (2012) in the paper entitled “Consumer Preferences for Mobile Service Providers: An Empirical Study in Bardoli” is explorative study with the objective to study the prominent factor which influences the choice of mobile service provider in Bardoli city and its outskirts with the sample size of 150 mobile users with different occupations, income and age group. The study found that network quality is the important factor that has been consider by the customer before choosing a mobile service provider, which was followed by service charge. The study concluded that the service operators should create an emotional relationship with though innovative plans and enhance their service quality and brand image, better connectivity and goodwill with customer since customer always wants more from their operator.

In the research administered by Chaudhari and Ambekar (2013) with the title “Customer Preferences towards various Mobile Service Providers” showed that in India, a number of cellular companies competing to provide efficient and quality services to their customers. The study in hand reveals that consumers prefer a particular mobile phone service provider on the basis of call tariffs, network coverage, value added services and the consumers are highly influenced by their family members.

A study entitled “Customer Satisfaction in Mobile Telephony: An Analysis of major Telecommunication Service Providers in Nigeria” conducted by Egena , O. (2013) observed that the respondent would likely stay with their telecom service providers as long as the companies are able to satisfy their changing needs and meet customer requirements beyond expectations. Researcher also concluded that the relationship exist between service quality and customer satisfaction, SERVQUAL reliability dimension and customer satisfaction , and customer satisfaction and switching intention among mobile phone user in Nigeria. The study also showed a negative correlation between switching intention and customer satisfaction.

Similar study conducted by Hossian and Suchy (2013) with the title “Influence of Customer Satisfaction on Loyalty: A study on mobile telecommunication industry” Outcome from researcher showed that five factors namely communication, price, value added service, convenience and customer service/care have positive correlation with customer loyalty.

A study carried out by Pandia et al. (2014)with the title “A study of customer satisfaction on telecom service providers” for the sight of assessing the customer satisfaction towards mobile service provider and how the customers are benefited in medical college student, Silchar with sample size of 100. The study indicates that, the customers were highly satisfied with GPRS service, which was followed by festive offer; free roaming, validity services, bonus services and online recharge services. However, the customer has shown degree of dissatisfaction with service quality of network, talk time, connection charge, easy of availability of recharge coupon, easy of availability of retailers transferring recharge voucher.

The study titled “Service quality and its impact on customer satisfaction towards mobile sector of Tamil Nadu” was conducted by Sivasubramanian (2014) to assess the impact of customer satisfaction towards mobile sector of Tamil Nadu with the sample size of 300 respondents. This study used simple percentage, mean, regression analysis, Pearson correlation coefficient and ANOVA as statistical tools. The study in hand found that there exists a positive relationship between service quality dimension (except price fairness and empathy) and customer satisfaction. This study was concluded as; by gaining the attraction of service providers towards improving their technical quality to increase customer satisfaction.

The study entitled “Customer Perception towards mobile service provider – A case study of BSNL in Bhavani Town” was conducted by Palaniappan and Sengottaiyan (2015) in Tamil Nadu, India with the objective to identify the perception level of the customers on BSNL mobile service provider, to asses and know the present level of service offered by BSNL and to study the features that encourage customers to avail services from mobile service provider. Structured questionnaire was employed and distributed to sample population of 100 respondents for data collection. The collected data was analyzed using statistical tools like percentage, cross tabulation, and chi- square tools. The study found that majority of respondent, that is, 67 percent of sample population used BSNLL for their personal purpose only; also majority of them preferred BSNL for its economical a tariff advantage to other service provider. The study also observed that majority of respondent were satisfied (35.2 percent), 19.8 percent were highly satisfied, 23.1 percent were neutral, and 19.8 percent were dissatisfied while the remaining 2.2 percent were highly dissatisfied. The finding also showed that, there was a non - significant association between the demographic variables and level of preference except education (chi-square= 6.739, p- value= 0.021) and monthly income (chi- square= 12.411, p= 0.049). The study was concluded as; the service provided by BSNL should focus on the promotional measures as equal to the private service providers to enhance their service activity to satisfy their customer.

3. RESEARCH OBJECTIVES:

· To find out the attributes that the customer prefers most in selecting a particular mobile service provider.

· To study the customer satisfaction level towards various services offered by mobile service providers.

· To assess the problem encountered by customers regarding their mobile service providers.

4. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY:

The purpose of this research is to examine customer satisfaction with Nepalese Mobile Telecommunication with special preference to two major players in the sector and also to identify the major influencing and problematic factor of respective MSP of Nepal. The primary data used for the study were gathered from the structured survey questionnaire however, secondary data were collected with the help of internet, marketing journal, books, magazines and previous thesis. The questionnaire were closed ended using a 5 point likert scale for evaluation of customer satisfaction and were administered by hand to 206 sample respondent using systematic random sampling technique. Sample size was calculated using the formula:

Where, n₀= initial sample population

Z= standard normal variate = 1.96

P= expected proportion = 0.5

d = standard error = 0.05

n₀ is the initial sample population. Moreover, to reduce the standard error, further treatment to this sample size was done by following procedure as:

Again,

Total household number in selected location of study (N) = 441

Now, Using confidence level = 95% and confidence interval = ±5

Then, sample size:

Therefore, sample size (n) was 206.

Sampling Interval:

Sampling interval = N/n

= 441/206

= 2.14

Since; Sampling Interval was two, therefore; one respondent from the each household leaving successive two houses were selected for the research purpose.

The data from the survey were captured, coded and analyzed using SPSS version 21. Various statistical tools particularly percentage analysis, Chi- square, Anova and correlation were employed for interpretation of data. The survey was conducted and restricted to subscribers using the two major mobile service providers: NTC and Ncell.

4.1 Hypothesis

Major hypothesis:

H0_N= There is no significant difference in level of satisfaction of two MSP.

H0_A= There is significant difference in level of satisfaction of two MSP.

Sub Hypothesis:

H0_1N= There is no significant difference between the demographic variables and level of satisfaction between two MSP.

H0_1A = There is significant difference between the demographic variables and level of customer satisfaction between two MSP.

H0_2N= There is no association between the service providers and level of satisfaction.

H0_2A = There is significant association between the service providers and level of customer satisfaction.

5. ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION:

This section contains results of socio demographic profile; major factors influencing respondents to purchase mentioned Mobile Service Provider together with problematic factors faced by respondent. The respondents were exposed to closed ended questionnaire with the predetermined factors which were further analyzed using ranking method. Chi-square was computed between demographic profile (age X²= 14.923), education (X²= 14.529), occupation (X²= 7.275) and monthly income (X²= 12.970)) with customer satisfaction of mobile service provider in Nepal. There was association between demographic profile with satisfaction except with occupation (Table: 8). Pearson product- moment correlation coefficient was computed to assess the association between service provider variables (coverage of service (r= 0.678, p=0.000), reliability (r= 0.607, p=0.000), tariff (r= 0.165, p=0.018), customer care service (r= 0.632, p=0.000), accessibility (r= 0.590, p=0.000) and value added service (r= 0.652 , p= 0.00)) and satisfaction of mobile service provider in Nepal. Overall, High degree of positive correlation was found except with tariff of service having weak correlation. This signifies that if quality of service provider variables is increased, it will lead to high level of satisfaction (Table: 9).

5.1 Socio- Demographic Traits of Respondent:

The study inferred that majority of both the service providers respondent were of between 20-30 age group category (i.e. NTC= 47.3%, Ncell= 57.2%). Considering gender, majority of NTC respondents were male (54.6%) while to that of Ncell were female (51.1%). Majority NTC respondent were married (59.2%) while that of Ncell respondent were unmarried (69.4%). When education qualification is of concern, majority of NTC respondent (47.2%) were graduated while those of Ncell (53%) were of intermediate level education. As per occupation is concern, Majority of both the service providers respondent were job holder. While monthly income is of consideration, majority of NTC users (48.1%) were of between 15001-30000 income category while that of Ncell (46%) were of having below Rs.15000 income (Table 1).

Table 1: Socio- Demographic Profile

S. No	Socio - Demographic Traits	NTC	Ncell
		Total = 108	Total = 98
		Frequency (%)	Frequency (%)
i)	Age (years):
	< 20	12.0	33.6
	20 – 30	47.3	57.2
	> 30	40.7	9.2
ii)	Gender:
	Male	54.6	48.9
	Female	45.4	51.1
iii)	Marital Status:
	Married	59.2	30.6
	Unmarried	40.8	69.4
iv)	Education Qualification:
	Upto 10^th	8.4	8.4
	Intermediate	24.0	53.0
	Graduate	47.2	33.6
	Post graduate and others	20.4	4.0
v)	Occupation
	Student	14.8	38.8
	Job holder	54.6	52.0
	Business	30.6	9.2
vi)	Monthly income (Rs.)
	<= 15000	21.3	46.0
	15001-30000	48.1	42.8
	>= 30001	30.6	11.2

Source: Primary Probe

5.2 Preferential Attributes For Selecting Mobile Service Provider:

Majority of the NTC users were influenced by the variables like cheap call tariff, good network coverage of the services and influence from friends and relatives, while the least favored variables was offers add on card/CUG which was followed by good advertisement influence. However; variables like customer care services and value added services were also been considered but not as influential like others (Table 2).

Though cheap call tariff was found to be the most influencing attribute for NTC users; Value added service variable followed by good network coverage and customer care service were the most influencing variable for Ncell customers while the least favored variable influencing them to purchase Ncell service was offers add on /CUG and good advertisement (Table 3)

Table 2: Preferential Attributes of the NTC Users

S. No	VARIABLES	Level of Preference (Response And Weight)			Total Weighted Score	Rank
S. No	VARIABLES	LEAST (1)	MODERATE (2)	HIGH (3)	Total Weighted Score	Rank
1.	Cheap Call Tariff	29	17	62	249^#	I
2.	Good network Coverage	34	21	53	235	II
3.	Customer Care service	44	27	37	209	IV
4.	Value Added Service	43	33	32	205	V
5.	Influence from friend and relatives	33	36	39	222	III
6.	Good advertisement	61	27	20	175	VI
7.	Offers add on cards/CUG	65	25	18	169	VII

^# 29*1 + 17* 2 + 62 * 3 = 249 Source: Primary Probe

Table 3: Preferential Attributes of the Ncell Users

S. No	VARIABLES	Level of Preference (Response and Weight)			Total Weighted Score	Rank
S. No	VARIABLES	LEAST (1)	MODERATE (2)	HIGH (3)	Total Weighted Score	Rank
1.	Cheap Call Tariff	31	15	52	217^#	IV
2.	Good network Coverage	20	19	59	235	II
3.	Customer Care service	15	40	44	227	III
4.	Value Added Service	16	26	56	236	I
5.	Influence from friend and relatives	39	29	30	187	V
6.	Good advertisement	65	17	16	181	VI
7.	Offers add on cards/CUG	59	20	19	156	VII

^# 31*1 + 15*2 + 52*3 = 217 Source: Primary Probe

Table 4: Problematic Attributes Faced by NTC Users

S.N	VARIABLES	Level of Problem (Response and Weight)			Total Weighted Score	Rank
S.N	VARIABLES	LEAST (1)	MODERATE (2)	HIGH (3)	Total Weighted Score	Rank
1.	High Call Tariff	59	27	22	179^#	VII
2.	Poor Coverage	11	46	51	256	II
3.	High Network Congestion	8	39	61	269	I
4.	High SMS charge	36	94	54	203	V
5.	Poor customer service	20	58	30	226	IV
6.	Poor internet facility	17	55	36	235	III
7.	Limited Validity Period of service	47	32	29	198	VI

^#59*1 + 27*2 + 22*3 = 179 Source: Primary Probe

Table 5: Problematic Attributes Faced by the Ncell Users

S.N	VARIABLES	Level of Problem (Response and Weight)			Total Weighted Score	Rank
S.N	VARIABLES	LEAST (1)	MODERATE (2)	HIGH (3)	Total Weighted Score	Rank
1.	High Call Tariff	30	17	51	217^#	I
2.	Poor Coverage	46	35	17	167	VII
3.	High Network Congestion	31	33	34	199	IV
4.	High SMS charge	22	45	31	205	II
5.	Poor customer service	23	51	24	197	V
6.	Poor internet facility	26	40	32	202	III
7.	Limited Validity Period of service	37	37	24	183	VI

^# 30*1 + 17*2 + 51*3 =217 Source: Primary Probe

Table 6: Composition of Respondent on the basis of Level of Satisfaction with variables of Mobile Service provider

S. No.	Variables	MSP	Strongly Agree (5)	Agree (4)	Neutral (3)	Disagree (2)	Strongly Disagree (1)
1.	Coverage of the service	NTC	2.8	40.7	25.9	27.8	2.8
1.	Coverage of the service	Ncell	12.2	66.3	12.2	9.2	0.0
		Total	7.3	52.9	19.4	18.9	1.5
2.	Reliability of Service	NTC	4.6	29.6	27.8	31.5	6.5
2.	Reliability of Service	Ncell	9.2	53.1	17.3	20.4	0.0
		Total	6.8	40.8	22.8	26.2	3.4
3.	Tariff of the service	NTC	14.8	41.7	25	15.7	2.8
3.	Tariff of the service	Ncell	11.2	30.6	26.5	26.5	5.1
		Total	13.1	36.4	25.7	20.9	3.9
4.	Customer Care Service	NTC	5.6	34.3	34.3	24.1	1.9
4.	Customer Care Service	Ncell	15.3	56.1	21.4	5.1	2.0
		Total	10.2	44.7	28.2	15.0	1.9
5.	Accessibility of Service	NTC	11.1	43.5	25.9	19.4	0.0
5.	Accessibility of Service	Ncell	26.5	50.0	15.3	5.1	3.1
		Total	18.4	46.6	20.9	12.9	1.5
6.	Value Added Service	NTC	7.4	28.7	37	25	1.9
6.	Value Added Service	Ncell	22.4	50	18.4	8.2	1
		Total	14.6	38.8	28.2	17	1.5

Source: Primary Probe

5.4.1 Degree of Satisfaction with Mobile Service Provider

The level of satisfaction of respondent towards mobile service provider was principally categorized with respect to the degree as “Low”, “Medium” and “High”. Figure 1 depicts that majority of the respondent; accounting 56.8 %, were highly satisfied, 33% were accounted to have medium degree of satisfaction while the residual respondent i.e. 10.2% were accounted having low degree of satisfaction with the mobile service providers. The null hypothesis (H0_N) was rejected and alternate hypothesis (H0_A) was accepted as ρ value (0.003) was smaller than α value (0.05) suggesting that there exist significant difference in the level of customer satisfaction between the two service provider as the responses strongly agree was ranked as 5 and so on (table 7). The customers with private MSP were more satisfied than those with public MSP owing to aspects such as network coverage and its reliability, customer care service and its accessibility and Value added service.

Table 7: Overall Level of Satisfaction between NTC and Ncell

Overall Level of

Satisfaction

NTC

Ncell

ρ value

Mean

2.231

0.691

2.7245

0.552

0.003*

Source: Primary Probe

Figure 1Composition of respondent by their level of satisfaction

Source: Primary Probe

5.5 Association between Demographic Profile and Level of Satisfaction:

Table 8: Association between demographic profile and level of satisfaction

Demographic variables	Chi-square value	D.f.	Asymp. Sig. (2-sided	Results
Age (in yrs.)	14.923	2	0.001	H₀Rejected
Education	14.529	2	0.001	H₀Rejected
Monthly Income (Rs.)	12.970	4	0.011	H₀Rejected
Occupation	7.275	2	0.06	H₀ Accepted

Source: Primary Probe

Table 9: Association between service provider variables and level of satisfaction

Service provider variables	Pearson Correlation	Significance	Result
Coverage of service	0.678**	0.000	Strong correlation
Reliability of Service	0.607**	0.000	Strong correlation
Tariff of Service	0.165*	0.018	Weak correlation
Customer Care Service	0.632**	0.000	Strong correlation
Accessibility of Service	0.590**	0.000	Strong correlation
Value Added Service	0.652**	0.000	Strong correlation

Source: Primary Probe

6. FINDING:

· Call tariff followed by good network coverage and VAS was the influencing factor for selecting mobile service provider.

· Network congestion was the major problem faced by user of mobile service provider.

· Overall, customers were satisfied with their mobile service providers.

· There is an association between demographic variables (age, education and monthly income) with customer satisfaction.

· There is a positive strong positive correlation between network coverage, reliability, customer care service, accessibility and value added services while tariff has weak correlation with customer satisfaction.

7. CONCLUSION:

In contrast of the finding, it may be inferred that, call tariff followed by network is the most influencing attribute for selecting the mobile service provider while network congestion is the major problem faced by the customer of MSP. Furthermore, overall customers are satisfied with their MSP with p- value 0.003. The present study supports the alternate hypothesis concluding; customer satisfaction has significance association with the demographic factors i.e. age, education and income of the respondent at 0.01 significant level. Furthermore; there is a strong correlation between the service factors particularly network coverage, reliability of service, customer care and value added service while tariff of service has weak correlation with customer satisfaction.

8. SUGGESTIONS:

The following suggestions can be given after detailed and careful investigation of the research problem.

· Advertising campaigns focusing on family members and friends should be aggressively promoted so as to create new customers for the company among their family members, relatives and friends.

· Call tariff is the most influencing factor that induced consumers to buy a particular mobile phone operator. Therefore, call rates should reasonably priced in order to capture more consumers.

· Ncell; particularly should reconsider their call rates as per the prevailing rivalry because their call rates are very high in comparison to other mobile service provider.

· Major efforts should be made in the area of improvement in the network coverage of mobile operators especially by NTC.

· Necessary steps should be taken especially by NTC in solving the problems of poor network/congestion, call drop, customer care service, poor clarity and value added services. It is recommended that they should set up more towers in order to have large network coverage area, which ultimately brings clarity in network area.

9. REFERENCES:

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Received on 02.06.2017 Modified on 16.08.2017

Asian J. Management; 2017; 8(4):1103-1110.

DOI: 10.5958/2321-5763.2017.00168.8