Page 1 of 14
Journal for Studies in Management and Planning
Available at http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/
e-ISSN: 2395-0463
Volume 02 Issue 1
January 2016
Available online: http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/ P a g e | 191
Factors Affecting Customers’ Satisfaction on Banglalink
Users in Sylhet City
Mohammad Kamrul Ahsan
Senior Lecturer, Department of Business Administration Metropolitan University, Sylhet, Bangladesh
Email: ahsan404243@gmail.com
Abstract
Customers’ satisfaction is the most
talkative issue in the competitive business
environment. The telecommunication
market of Bangladesh is too competitive.
Banglalink is the 2nd largest
telecommunication company in
Bangladesh. The aim of this study is to
identify some important factors that satisfy
the Banglalink customers. A highly
structured questionnaire was prepared to
collect the primary data from 228
customers. Several tools i.e. Descriptive
Statistics, ANOVA, Pearson Correlation,
and Multiple Regression analysis have
been used to analyze thesecollected data.
The researcher has found 15 important
factors that have positive association on
customers’ satisfaction. The findings of
this study is that call rate on same
operator, call rate of fnf numbers,
available recharge points and number of
fnf are core cause of customers’
satisfaction of Banglalink. In the same way
value added services, call rate of
international calls, bill payment systems,
promotional offers and network quality
are the most dissatisfied factors of
Banglalink users. So the authority of
Banglalink should take care of these
factors to make customers satisfy.
Key wards:Customers’ Satisfaction,
Factors, Banglalink, Users
Introduction
The present ruling party of Bangladesh has
a vision of building a “Digital
Bangladesh” by 2021, which shows the
government’s commitment (Hasan, et al.
2013).The mobile phone operators play a
vital role to achieve that goal. In recent
years, the users of mobile phones have
increased rapidly. They use modern
technology to communicate with each
other provided by the mobile phone
operators. There are six mobile phone
operators (Grameen Phone Ltd, Banglalink
Digital Communications Limited, Robi
Axiata Limited, Airtel Bangladesh
Limited, Pacific Bangladesh Telecom
Limited/Citycell,Teletalk Bangladesh
Ltd)doing their business in Bangladesh.
For having six mobile phone operators,
this telecommunication market has
become very competitive. Proper
competition directs the priority of
customers’ satisfaction and survival of the
company with profitability. Customer
satisfaction becomes a strategic parameter
of corporate success. For this reason, the
corporate managers are highly conscious
of maximizing their customers' satisfaction
by providing quality product and services
(Rahman, et al 2014). The recent data
shows that a total number of mobile phone
subscribers has reached 133.163 million at
the end of November2015.Banglalink is
the second largest mobile phone operator,
with 32.956 million users (24.75%) of all
users in Bangladesh (BTRC, 2015). Since
Page 2 of 14
Journal for Studies in Management and Planning
Available at http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/
e-ISSN: 2395-0463
Volume 02 Issue 1
January 2016
Available online: http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/ P a g e | 192
Grameen Phoneis the largest mobile phone
operators of Bangladesh, there have been a
lot of research works on this company and
overall the telecommunication market.
However, Banglalink is the second largest
mobile phone operator of the country but
there hasnot been much research on this
company. For this reason, the researcher
has chosen Banglalink for this research
paper. In this paper the researcher has tried
to find out core factorsthat
affectBanglalink customers’satisfaction
and dissatisfaction in Sylhet City and to
make suggestions for improvement of
concerned issues.
Objectives
The main objective of this paper is to find
out the influencing factors of customer
satisfaction of Banglalink users in Sylhet
city. The subsequent objective is to
evaluate the correlation between the
influencing factors and customer
satisfaction.
Literature Review
Rust and Oliver (1994) define ‘customer
satisfaction’ is the ‘customer’s fulfillment
response’. Indeed, this ‘customer
satisfaction’ has been observed as
themainfactor behind the customer’s
decision to leave or stay with an
organization (Thakur, 2011). Nowadays,
making ‘satisfied and loyal’ customers is
thevital concern of marketers and marking
managers. So, ‘Customer satisfaction’ is
both a goal and a marketing tool for
customer centered companies (Kotler and
Keller, 2012). In thecase of
telecommunication, customer satisfaction
is customer’s post-purchase judgement and
emotional reply or feedback to the overall
products or services familiarity in a mobile
telecommunication environment (Lin and
Wang, 2006). Organizations can achieve
this customer satisfaction by satisfying
their customers’ needs and wants (La
Barbera and Mazursky,1983).
Satisfaction is the result of a number of
both psychological and physical factors
which associate with satisfaction
measures.According to the satisfaction
model, customer satisfaction is influenced
by ‘service quality’ (Uddin and Akhter,
2012).Woo and Fock, (1999) have shown
that both ‘network quality and network
coverage’ affect positively consumer’s
satisfaction and the image of the
company.‘Price’ is one of the most
importantfactors that affects customer
satisfaction directly, because people make
phone calls to communicate witheach
other mostly. Price means the call rate and
other package’s value of the mobile phone
operators. The research shows that price
perceptions directly influence satisfaction
judgments as well as indirectly through
perceptions of price fairness (Herrmann et
al., 2007). The customers can shift to any
other mobile phone operators who offers
fair prices.This reveals that the consumers
can be held on to for a longer duration by
offering them the fair prices so; the
customer satisfaction is caused by the
fairness of the price (Ali et al., 2010).
There have many factors impact on
customer satisfaction, but price fairness
(mostly important), coverage (secondly
important) and customer services (thirdly
important) were three major factors which
can highly affect customer satisfaction
(Khan and Afsheen, 2012).
Page 3 of 14
Journal for Studies in Management and Planning
Available at http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/
e-ISSN: 2395-0463
Volume 02 Issue 1
January 2016
Available online: http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/ P a g e | 193
Malik et al., (2012) found that brand
image, service quality and price to be
correlated to customer satisfaction. Higher
levels of call quality, value-added services,
and customer support were associated with
customer satisfaction (Kim et al., 2004).
Hossain &Suchy (2013) focused on six
factors- communication, price structure,
value-added service, convenience, sales- promotions and customer service and the
result indicated that except for sales- promotion, all other five factors have
positive correlations with customer loyalty
and satisfaction.
Rahman, et at., (2014) identified eleven
factors that affect customers’ satisfaction
i.e., service innovativeness, service
reliability, service competitiveness, service
consistency, network & signal coverage,
pricing, quality of offering, customer
demand, value added service, contribution
to society and brand value.Das, S.K. (n.d.)
identified ten important factors that affect
customers’ satisfaction i.e., network
coverage, fnf tariff, network quality,
availability of recharge point, value added
services, promotional offers, customer
care, the internet, number of fnf and tariff.
Conceptual Framework
Independent Factors Dependent
Factor
01 Tariff: On-Net (Call rate to the same Operator)
Customer Satisfaction
02 Tariff: Off-Net (Call rate to other Operator)
03 Tariff: International Calls (Call rate to other
Countries)
04 Tariff: FnF (Call rate to Special Numbers)
05 Number of FnF
06 Network Coverage
07 Network Quality
08 Internet Services
09 Availability of Customer Care Centers
10 Behavior of Personnel in Customer Service
11 Availability of Recharge Point
12 Duration of Recharge Amount
13 Bill Payment System
14 Value Added Services
15 Promotional Offers
Source: Author’s Compilation, 2016
