With the growing number of mobile users, customers are quick to jump at a better offer from a competing network. Customer churn remains a concern for service providers with disloyal customers rising from 18% in 2006 to 20% in 2007, says IDC's India Mobile Services Usage and Satisfaction Study 2007.The trend has grown in the last one year, and is more pronounced in B and C telecom circles. It may increase further when the long-awaited number portability is finally introduced in India, the IDC India survey adds.Shailendra Gupta, senior manager, Consumer Research, IDC India, said: "Mobile service providers should not let go of their brand's inherent perceived strengths, and continue to devise innovative pricing schemes and offers. With the total number of mobile subscribers in India set to double to 500 million by 2010, the pie is big enough for everyone."The findings are a part of IDC's third India Mobile Services Usage and Satisfaction Study conducted on a sample of 4,760 mobile users spread across 18 major cities from a representative set of category A, B and C telecom circles.Mobile users were unhappy with customer care services provided by the networks. The average waiting time to speak to a customer care executive was 5.7 minutes - the highest across the last three years. Mobile users of all service providers, without exception, saw an increase in their waiting time to reach their customer care executive this year.The key issues that bothered Indian customers included the 'Knowledge level and promptness of the Customer Care Executive (CCE)' and the 'Final solution provided by the CCE'.On the positive side, the overall satisfaction among wireless mobile users has increased by approximately one percentage point to 92.6% during 2007 as networks continued to improve services and streamline processes.Only three of 11 service providers covered - Aircel, BPL Cellular and Vodafone - were able to meet the 95% satisfaction level set by Trai as compared with only one service provider in 2006 (Spice) and two service providers in 2005 (Idea and Aircel).
