International Journal of Advancements in Technology
Open Access

Abstract

Service Quality Expectations and Perceptions of Telecom Sector in India

Silky Vigg Kushwah,Ahuti Bhargav

A ferocious battle is poised to take place between the already established biggies like Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Reliance and Idea and the new ones like Uninor, and Sistema Shyam Teleservices (MTS). The companies that will stand stiff on their feet will be the ones that will be able to differentiate themselves distinctly on the basis of service quality. The telecom players need to understand well, the perceptions of service quality of customers and their expectations. The study “Service quality expectations and perceptions of Telecom Sector in India” attempts to analyse the gap in service quality of Telecom sector in terms of customers’ expectations and perceptions regarding mobile phone services. It is important to explore and map the differences which indicate that there is scope for improvement on behalf of the mobile phone service providers. The primary data was collected with the help of a standardized questionnaire of service quality of Parsuraman et al. (1998) which was administered to a quota sample of 500 respondents accessing mobile phone service of telecom services in New Delhi, the capital of India. The data collected was analyzed with the statistical tool of ‘Z’ test. The study revealed that, there was a statistically significant gap between customers’ expectations and perceptions of mobile phone services, with the arithmetic mean of expectations being 6.4413 and that of perceptions 5.8393. The study concludes that, in view of the stiff competition in the global business arena where businesses have to survive and grow on the basis of volume instead of margin, service quality will constitute an essential plank of service marketing. This implies that telecom companies will have to focus on the reduction of the gap in customer expectations and perceptions about their service quality if they are to compete globally. To this end, telecom companies should continually assess and reassess how customers perceive their services and to implement appropriate corrective action for retaining the existing customers and getting new customers.