Role of Service Quality in Customer Relationship Management: an Empirical Study of Indian Telecom Industry

Technological and economical development has forced companies in competitive markets, to change their strategic focus, as a result of which the Customer oriented organization is on the rise. In order to stay ahead of the competition, companies are increasingly turning to their customers as a means of securing their future competitive edge. CRM has become the mantra for success and developing close relationship with customer has become most important in this current era of intense competition and demanding customers, than has ever been. Times are tough for telecom service providers also as the telecom industry is experiencing a transformation from being a monopoly market to a competitive market. With privatization, liberalization and subsequent demonopolization the scene has changed in Indian telecom industry and the most excited are the customers who are emerging as kings in the market. Fuelled by this dramatic increase in competitive pressure, the telecom players are required to design and deploy customercentric strategies not only to grab the share but also sustain the share in the long run. The players have realized the importance of constant service quality delivery to the customers for long term sustainability. The study seeks to examine the role of service quality in developing long term relationship with customers. The data has been collected from 262 mobile users of Indian Telecom industry. The analysis has been done on the basis of Mean, Standard-Deviation, Correlation and Regression.