Rural Customers more Satisfied than Urban: Amdocs

Rural populations report a relatively better customer experience than urban populations (7.22 versus 7.17), as unvieled by Amdocs' research results that provided insights into the customer experience as perceived by mobile communications customers in India.

Interestingly the Pan-India Amdocs Customer Experience Index score stands at 7.17 (on a scale of 1 to 10) but varies across segments. Like for example, Generation Y (age group 18-24) consumers report a relatively better experience than Generation X (age group 35-54) customers (7.20 versus 7.12).

"It is becoming increasingly clear to communication service providers that delivering best in class customer experience is a competitive differentiator; it drives customer loyalty, and directly impacts revenue and profitability," said Anshoo Gaur, head of Amdocs India.

Findings quantify how an improved customer experience can directly impact a wide range of customer behaviors, such as customer spend, churn, complaints and willingness to recommend or order a service.

Customer Experience Index analytical model developed by Amdocs identifies the operating areas for India service providers to focus on in order to improve customer experience

Research findings include:

·A one-unit increase in the Amdocs Customer Experience Index score resulted in:

·An increase in customer spend by more than a fifth

·A reduction in number of customer complaints by more than a fifth

·A two-thirds decrease in customer churn

· A doubling in customer willingness to recommend a service or a provider, improving Net Promoter Score

·Parameters found to be of high importance to end customers in India, where service provider performance was perceived as low, included "store and call-center experiences", "attractive promotions" and "offer variety meeting individual needs"

· 52 percent of respondents do not use services other than mobile services from their current operator (e.g. satellite TV/DTH, broadband, fixed-line) presenting a huge cross-sell / up sell opportunity

· Of respondents, only 2 percent use 3G services, only 7 percent use mobile banking services and only 16 percent use self-care channels