A study on customer switching behavior in Telecom Service provider in Bangladesh: the case of mobile phone industry

Abstract

In recent years, mobile companies have experienced huge customer switching to their competitors which have left these companies with no choice but to understand the underlying behavior attributing to their switching the network providers. This write-up is dedicated to exploring and examining the switching factors in the mobile telecom industry of Bangladesh. Sathish, et al. (2011) identified a number of factors affecting the switching behavior of Indian mobile telecom customers including non-responsive customer service, unknowledgeable employee, long waiting-time for customer service, error in billing, poor networkcoverage, frequent network problems, no new schemes, unsuitable plans for different age groups, costly value-added-services, high call-rates, hidden charges, high SMS charges, high internet charges, low internet speed, unavailability of recharge facilities, better features offered by competitors, influence from families and friends, attraction for fancy number, and high service charges for recharge. The study has followed survey approach in which both primary and secondary data have been used. The primary data have been collected using simple random sampling through a questionnaire survey among 109 mobile phone users in Chittagong Metropolitan city. Analyses of the results revealed that price and social factors play the most important roles in switching the network service provider followed by value-added-services, product package, network, and customer service.