User Satisfaction about Mobile Phone Network in the East Midland Area of the UK - Literature review Example

?Research Proposal User satisfaction about Mobile phone Network in the East Midland area of the UK Literature Review Mobile phones enable people to call using the radio link. In the past, mobile phones used to be quite weighty and were usually installed permanently within the vehicles. The service used to be limited as a result of lesser frequencies in the geographic regions covered by the network. The concept of cellular network applies in the contemporary cell phones whereby, improved service is obtained with the reuse of frequencies inside a certain geographic area. As a result of this, increased users are able to have access to the radio bandwidth in increased numbers. Nowadays, calls using mobile phones can be made in wider areas. Users of a particular service do not own the base stations and use the mobile phone inside a private base station’s range. There are hundreds of mobile phone networks in the East Midland area of UK. This has created a lot of competition for the new and emerging companies that want to establish their business in East Midland, UK. In order to gain competitive advantage, companies need to identify and improve their performance in the criteria according to which the users evaluate their performance. The area of East Midlands includes Derbyshire, Rutland, Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, and Lincolnshire. There is a broad range of mobile phone networks functioning in the area that include but are not limited to Tesco Mobile, Pro Park UK, G S M International, CBS Mobiles Ltd., A1 Comms, 02 Store, Ace Connections, CRC Ltd., M-Viron, Fone Bitz Ltd., T-Mobile, Car-fi and M B C. Many of these are well-reputed companies that are known for the quality of their service far and wide. There is a vast range of mobile phone networks in UK that provide the users with a broad array of services and deals. Generally, all networks provide their users with good services, though there is disparity between the quality of customer service given by different mobile phone networks. Customer service is one of the strongest drivers of customers’ satisfaction, thus it plays a fundamental role in the choice of a mobile phone network. Vodafone mobile network is one of the most popular networks in the East Midlands area of UK. Millions of users in the area are quite satisfied with the service provided by Vodafone in East Midlands UK. “Switching to Vodafone was the best thing I did, my monthly costs were reduced considerably and as a bonus Vodafone switched my contract from Vodafone 250 to Vodafone 500 after a month of use” (Ciao, 2011a). From a top up card, users of the Orange SIM can put up to ?50 to use. SMS charges in the ?50 top up service are up to 60% lesser as compared to most of the mobile networks in the East Midlands. O2 Store has been providing the users with excellent service in East Midlands, UK for many years. One of the users said, “...people who don't like the O2 network, making claims that they are unreliable and over charge but to be honest I couldn't ask for more. Let me tell you why I chose O2 as my network and why I will be a customer for life” (Ciao, 2011b). Some of the potential advantages that O2 offers in comparison to its competitors in the East Midlands, UK include cheap rates and frequent offers, wonderful and 24/7 online customer service and broad coverage, though O2 turns out to be costly when it has to be used abroad. T-Mobile is one of the strongest competitors among the mobile phone networks in East Midland, UK. Advantages offered by T-Mobile over other networks include good relations with customers and good price plans whereas the disadvantages include lesser secrecy in the release of phones and limited number of customer service agents. T-Mobile is recommended by up to 47 per cent of the users (Ciao, 2011c). Nevertheless, T-Mobile provides users with one of the cheapest services in the area. Users of the T-Mobile can receive free insurance for three months, free phone with connection and free of cost voicemail retrial for no more than ?14.99 a month. Level of satisfaction of the customers with Vodafone, O2 and T-Mobile can be estimated from the scores customers gave to these companies in a survey. Which? (2011a) records some statistics that can be referred to in order to understand the criteria for the user satisfaction of mobile phone networks in East Midland, UK. Vodafone received the customer score of 57 per cent, O2 received a customer score of 61 per cent whereas T-Mobile received a customer score of 59 per cent (Which?, 2011a). This tells that O2 is the most popular mobile phone network among Vodafone, O2 and T-Mobile. According to the research conducted by Which? (2011a), users gave maximum score to the Tesco Mobile on the scale of pay monthly contracts. “Tesco Mobile is a Mobile Virtual Network Operator, which means that it doesn't have its own mobile phone network, but 'piggybacks' on O2's” (Which?, 2011b). Tesco Mobile has conventionally managed to provide its users with cost expensive tariffs since it does not operate its personal network. It has traditionally placed emphasis upon the Sim-only deals. Tesco Mobile has provided its users with some extremely valuable deals upon the Which? Mobile, thus promoting the idea that to achieve good customer service, it does not necessarily cost too much. Among all mobile phone networks, Tesco Mobile was the only one that acquired the status of Which? Recommended Provider for the users of the pay-monthly contract. Tesco scored 74 per cent in this criteria. Other mobile phone networks acquired far lesser scores than Tesco. The closest competition was made by T-Mobile and O2, which were followed by Vodafone and Orange. Which? (2011a) has classified the mobile phone networks according to two fundamental types, namely the pay monthly operators of mobile and the pay-as-you-go operators of mobile. The conclusions drawn after a comprehensive survey about certain mobile phone networks that also operate in East Midland area of UK have been compiled in the form of tables. Table 1 and table 2 reflect the ratings given to the mobile phone networks on the scales of customer service, range of handsets, cost of domestic use, cost of international use, accuracy of fee vouchers and finally, the customer score. Contract and SIM only satisfaction survey Provider Customer service Range of handsets Cost of using phone Cost of use abroad Accuracy & clarity of bills Customer Score Tesco (Recommended provider) 74% O2 61% T-Mobile 59% Virgin Mobile 58% Vodafone 57% Orange 53% 3 49% Table 1: “The best pay monthly mobile operators” (Which?, 2011a). From Table 1, it can be inferred that Tesco, O2 Mobile, T-Mobile, Virgin Mobile networks provide their customers with the best service in terms of pay monthly mobile operators and have thus acquired the customer scores of 74 per cent, 61 per cent, 59 per cent and 58 per cent respectively. Vodafone, Orange and 3 Mobile networks score lower as the pay monthly mobile operators with the respective customer scores of 57 per cent, 53 per cent and 49 per cent. PAYG satisfaction survey Provider Customer service Range handsets Cost of using phone Cost of use abroad Customer Score Asda (Recommended provider) 78% Tesco (Recommended provider) 66% O2 (Recommended provider) 65% 3 57% Vodafone 55% Orange 55% Virgin Mobile 52% T-Mobile 51% Table 2: “The best pay-as-you-go mobile operators” (Which?, 2011a). From the Table 2, it can be inferred that Asda, Tesco, and O2 are the best customer service providers in terms of the pay-as-you-go mobiles with the respective customer scores of 78 per cent, 66 per cent, and 65 per cent. 3 Mobile, Vodafone, Orange, Virgin Mobile and T-Mobile score lower on customer service as pay-as-you-go mobiles and have thus scored 57 per cent, 55 per cent, 55 per cent, 52 per cent and 51 per cent respectively. A vast majority of the mobile phone networks in East Midland, UK have won users’ satisfaction by providing them with excellent broadband services. Between the years 2006 and 2008, use of the broadband in England increased over 10 per cent in most of the regions, specially East and West Midlands, South East and London. The quality of service provided can be estimated from the fact that the satisfaction with landline services was found in a research to be 88 per cent (Ofcom, n.d.). Mobile phone networks have traditionally seen a lot of competition in the East Midland area of UK because the area is flooded with numerous operators. Every network is trying hard to provide its users with more advantages than other networks in an attempt to increase the sale of its product and increase the profitability of the business. New companies are desperate to identify the criteria of users’ satisfaction with the mobile phone networks in East Midland, UK. In these circumstances, this research will produce fruitful results for both new and existing mobile phone networks. References: Ciao 2011a, Vodafone, viewed, 9 September, 2011, . Ciao 2011b, O2, viewed, 9 September, 2011, . Ciao 2011c, T-Mobile. viewed, 9 September, 2011, . Ofcom n.d., England: Key themes, viewed, 9 September, 2011, . Which? 2011a, The best mobile networks, viewed, 9 September, 2011, . Which? 2011b, Tesco Mobile, viewed, 9 September, 2011, . Read More