Submitted to

- Prof. Priti Jain

Name: Jyoti Sharma
Roll No.: 39
Subject: Service Sector Management
Topic: Customer Care Services












Introduction to Customer Care

Customer care is a crucial element of business success. Every time you have
contact with your customers you have an opportunity to improve your reputation
with them and increase the likelihood of further sales.
From your telephone manner to the efficiency of your order-fulfillment systems,
almost every aspect of your business affects the way your customers view your
business. There are also specific programs you can put in place to increase your
levels of customer care.
This guide outlines what customer care involves. It explains how you can use
customer contact, feedback and loyalty schemes to retain existing customers,
increase your sales to them and even win new customers. It also covers how to
prepare for receiving a customer complaint.

What is Customer Care?
Customer care involves putting systems in place to maximize your customers'
satisfaction with your business. It should be a prime consideration for every
business - your sales and profitability depends on keeping your customers happy.
Customer care is more directly important in some roles than others. For
receptionists, sales staff and other employees in customer-facing roles, customer
care should be a core element of their job description and training, and a core
criterion when you're recruiting.
But don't neglect the importance of customer care in other areas of your
business. For instance, your warehousing and dispatch departments may have
minimal contact with your customers - but their performance when fulfilling
orders has a major impact on customers' satisfaction with your business.
A huge range of factors can contribute to customer satisfaction, but your
customers - both consumers and other businesses - are likely to take into
account:
how well your product or service matches customer needs
the value for money you offer
your efficiency and reliability in fulfilling orders
the professionalism, friendliness and expertise of your employees
how well you keep your customers informed
the after-sales service you provide
Training courses may be useful for ensuring the highest possible levels of
customer care.
The importance of customer care
Customer care helps you to keep your existing customers and encourages them to
buy your products or services more frequently.
Customer care is cost-effective as it allows you to get more value from people you
already do business with, at about one fifth of the advertising and marketing
spend you need to attract new customers. Nine out of ten businesses grow by
selling to the same customers and finding customers like them.
If your business sells to consumers, rather than business-to-business, you may be
affected by the decline of local shops and the increasing use of the internet. This
tends to create a situation where customers are less likely to be loyal to one
company or supplier. If your business is based out-of-town or operates through
online sales outlets, you will probably find it difficult to ask customers why
they've stopped buying from you. Customer care systems are important because
they give you the opportunity to keep in touch with customers and help you to
get repeat sales and customer referrals from them.
You can also offer incentives and rewards to customers to encourage them to
recommend your products and services and refer other potential customers to
your business. For small businesses, referrals and recommendations can often be
the cheapest and most effective way of acquiring new customers.

Customer care helps increase sales:
The existing customers are among the most important assets of your business -
they have already chosen you instead of your competitors. Keeping their custom
costs far less than attracting new business, so it's worth taking steps to make sure
that they're satisfied with the service they receive.
There are a number of techniques you can employ, including:
providing a free customer helpline
answering frequently asked questions on your website
following up sales with a courtesy call
providing free products that will help customers look after or make the most
of their purchases
sending reminders when services or check-ups are due
offering preferential discounts to existing customers on further purchases
Existing customer relationships are opportunities to increase sales because your
customers will already have a degree of trust in your recommendations.
Cross-selling and up-selling are ways of increasing either the range or the value of
what you sell by pointing out new purchase possibilities to these customers.
Alerting customers when new, upgraded or complimentary products become
available perhaps through regular emails or newsletters - is one way of
increasing sales.
To retain your customers' trust, however, never try to sell them something that
clearly doesn't meet their needs. Remember, your aim is to build a solid long-
term relationship with your customers rather than to make quick one-off profits.
Satisfied customers will contribute to your business for years, through their
purchases and through recommendations and referrals of your business.

Customer care and methods of customer retention
Good customer service and customer care will help your business to keep its
existing customers.
'Customer service' usually refers to the service you provide to your customers
before, during and after a purchase. More specifically, it means making sure their
experience of your business is positive - treating them politely and efficiently,
greeting them by name if possible. 'Customer care' usually refers to the systems
your business has in place to ensure good customer service.
Customer care systems
Customer care systems include:
detailed customer databases with information about customers' purchasing
history, their direct feedback, enquiries about new products or services etc
customer relationship management (CRM) software that helps you to deal
with customers on a day-to-day basis
CRM is not just about technology, but is a way of learning more about your
customers' needs and behaviors so that you can develop stronger relationships
with them.


KEYPLAYERS TO TELE-COMMUNICATION CENTRES
PROVIDING CUSTOMER CARE SERVICES IN INDIAN MARKET:

BHARTI AIRTEL
Bharti Airtel, formerly known as Bharti Tele-Ventures LTD (BTVL) is India's largest
cellular service provider with more than 92 million subscribers as of February
2009. It also offers fixed line services and broadband services. It offers its
TELECOM services under the Airtel brand and is headed by Sunil Bharti Mittal. The
company also provides telephone services and Internet access over DSL in 14
circles. It also acts as a carrier for national and international long distance
communication services. The company has a submarine cable landing station at
Chennai, which connects the submarine cable connecting Chennai and Singapore.

The businesses at Bharti Airtel have been structured into three individual strategic
business units (SBUs) - Mobile Services, Airtel Telemedia Services & Enterprise
Services. The mobile business provides mobile & fixed wireless services using GSM
technology across 23 telecom circles while the Airtel Telemedia Services business
offers broadband & telephone services in 95 cities and has recently launched
India's best Direct-to-Home (DTH) service, Airtel digital TV. The company provides
end-to-end data and enterprise services to the corporate customers through its
nationwide fiber optic backbone, last mile connectivity in fixed-line and mobile
circles, VSATs, ISP and international bandwidth access through the gateways and
landing station.

Globally, Bharti Airtel is the 3rd largest in-country mobile operator by subscriber
base, behind China Mobile and China Unicom. In India, the company has a 24.6%
share of the wireless services market, followed by 17.7% for Reliance
Communications and 17.4% for Vodafone Essar.

In its monthly press release, following statistics have been presented for end of
April 2007.

Bharti Airtel added the highest ever net addition of 5.3 million customers in a
single quarter (Q4-FY0607) and also the highest ever net addition of 18 million
total subscribers in 2006-07.

It has an installed base of 40,000 cellsites and 59% population coverage.

After the proposed network expansion, an additional 30,000 towers will result in
the company achieving 70% population coverage.

Bharti has over 39 million users as on March 31, 2007.

Prepaid customers account for 88.5% of Bhartis total subscriber base, an
increase from 82.7% a year ago.

Non-voice revenues, (SMS, voice mail, call management, hello tunes and Airtel
Live) constituted 10% of total revenues

The total is 91,114,971 or 24.2% of the total 375,742,592 GSM + CDMA mobile
connections in India till February 2009; and presently the Number 1 operator in
India.




VODAFONE:
Vodafone Essar, previously Hutchison Essar is a cellular operator in India that
covers 23 telecom circles in India. Despite the official name being Vodafone Essar,
its products are simply branded Vodafone. It offers both prepaid and postpaid
GSM cellular phone coverage throughout India with good presence in the metros.
Vodafone Essar provides 2.75G services based on 900 MHz and 1800 MHz digital
GSM technology, offering voice and data services in 23 of the country's 23 license
areas. It is among the top three GSM mobile operators of India.

Vodafone Essar is owned by Vodafone 52%, Essar Group 33%, and other Indian
nationals, 15%. On February 11, 2007, Vodafone agreed to acquire the controlling
interest of 67% held by Li Ka Shing Holdings in Hutch-Essar for US$11.1 billion,
piping Reliance Communications, Hinduja Group, and Essar Group, which is the
owner of the remaining 33%. The whole company was valued at USD 18.8 billion.

MAHANAGAR TELEPHONE NIGAM LIITED (MTNL):

MTNL is an Indian Government-owned telephone service provider in the cities of
Mumbai, Thane, New Delhi, and Navi Mumbai in India. The company was a
monopoly until 2000, when the telecom sector was thrown open to other service
providers.

MTNL provides fixed line telephones, cellular connection of both GSM Dolphin
(Postpaid) and Trump (prepaid) and WLL (CDMA) Garuda-FW And Garuda-
Mobile and internet services through dialup and DSL Broadband internet
TriBand. MTNL has also started Games on demand, video on demand and IPTV
services in India through its Broadband Internet service called Triband. Phone
numbers belonging to MTNL start with the prefix 2 infixed line telephonesand
WLL & in GSM Mobile servises its start from 9869/9969/9868/9968. MTNL also
provides other services such as VPN, Internet Telephony- VOIP and leased lines
through BSNL and VSNL.

MTNL has been actively providing connections in both Mumbai and New Delhi
areas and the efficiency of the company has drastically improved from the days
when one had to wait years to get a phone connection to now when one can get a
connection in even hours. Pre-activated Mobile connections are available at many
places across both Metros. MTNL has also unveiled very cost-effective Broadband
Internet access plans (TriBand) targeted at homes and small businesses.

MTNL has upgraded existing TriBand (Broadband) connections for a speed of up
to 2 MB/s without any extra cost. This 2 MB/s broadband service is being
provided by MTNL at a cost of just US$5.00 per month.

MTNL started 3G services in India under the name of "MTNL 3G Jadoo" Services
offered include Video call, Mobile TV and Mobile Broadband with high speed data
connectivity up to 2 Mbit/s speed from 11th December 2008, getting India 3G
map of the world. MTNL plans to offer 3G services across India by mid-2009. After
that MTNL Mobile users would be able to surf the internet with speeds up to 2
Mbit/s on their smart phones. MTNL will be installing 15 lakh 3G lines in the first
phase of its 3G roll-out in Mumbai and Delhi (which currently have 40 lakh
existing mobile lines).

Customer care services:
Distribution of application forms.
Booking of Landline, Triband, IPTV new connection .
Booking of PCO connections.
Booking/Sale of Dolphin, Trump, Garuda Mobile/FW new
connections.
Booking of Garuda PCO.
Other post connection services like plan change, shifting of line etc
Customer query and complaint handling.
Sale of Trump and Garuda recharge/Top up coupons.
Sale of Garuda PCO recharge/Top up coupons.
Bill collection Cheque and cash.
Duplicate bills.
Reconnection of disconnected Landline, Dolphin, Garuda connections
STD/ISD provisioning/barring for Landline, Dolphin and Garuda
connections.
Provisioning of phone plus facility (free) for landline.

BHARAT SANCHAR NIGAM LIMITES (BSNL):
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. formed in October, 2000, is World's 7th largest
Telecommunications Company providing comprehensive range of telecom
services in India: Wireline, CDMA mobile, GSM Mobile, Internet, Broadband,
Carrier service, MPLS-VPN, VSAT, VoIP services, IN Services etc. Presently it is one
of the largest & leading public sector unit in India.
BSNL is a public sector telecommunication company in India. It is India's largest
telecommunication company with 24% market share as on March 31, 2008.
Today, it has about 46 million line basic telephone capacity, 8 million WLL
capacity, 52 Million GSM Capacity, more than 38302 fixed exchanges,

BSNL cellular service, CellOne, has 55,140,282 2G cellular customers and 88,493
3G customers as on 30.11.2009. In basic services, BSNL is miles ahead of its rivals,
with 35.1 million Basic Phone subscribers i.e. 85 per cent share of the subscriber
base and 92 percent share in revenue terms.

BSNL has more than 2.5 million WLL subscribers and 2.5 million Internet
Customers who access Internet through various modes viz. Dial-up, Leased Line,
DIAS,

The present turnover of BSNL is more than Rs.351,820 million (US $ 8 billion) with
net profit to the tune of Rs.99,390 million (US $ 2.26 billion) for last financial year.
The infrastructure asset on telephone alone is worth about Rs.630,000 million (US
$ 14.37 billion).

BSNL provides almost every telecom service in India. Following are the main
telecom services provided by BSNL:

Universal Telecom Sevices : Fixed wireline services & Wireless in Local loop
(WLL) using CDMA Technology called bfone and Tarang respectively. As of
December 31, 2007, BSNL has 81% market share of fixed lines.

Cellular Mobile Telephone Services: BSNL is major provider of Cellular Mobile
Telephone services using GSM platform under the brand name CellOne. As of
March 31, 2007 BSNL has 17% share of mobile telephony in the country.

Internet: BSNL provides internet services through dial-up connection
(Sancharnet) as Prepaid, (NetOne) as Postpaid and ADSL broadband (DataOne).
BSNL has around 50% market share in broadband in India.

Its Customer care services:
New Connection: 1) BSNL Broadband connection
2) BSNL 3G Registration
Additional Services: 1) Mobile complaints
2) General complaints
Register Complaints: Problems with services, registers and track complaints.