Factors Leading to Mobile Telecommunications Customer Churn in Zambia

Abstract:

Customer churn is a major challenge in the mobile telecommunications industry today. Churn can be caused by different factors, which may arise from the interactions of subscribers with products and services or even employees of organizations. If customer churn is not managed and prevented in good time, it can lead to significant loss of revenues and possibly make a business crumble. This paper studies the various reasons that lead to mobile customer churn in the Zambian telecommunication sector. Seven hundred mobile subscribers in six districts of Zambia were interviewed. The mobile subscribers who churned once or more between the years 2010 to 2015 indicated the actual factors that led them to terminate subscription to mobile services. There were a total of 20 factors identified to cause churn in the Zambian mobile telecommunication industry. Results show that poor customer service took the lead by causing about 23% of the mobile customer churn cases that took place between the years 2010 to 2015. Poor network quality and high cost of services followed as causes of 18% and 14% of the churn cases for those years respectively.

• Periodical: International Journal of Engineering Research in Africa (Volume 31)
• Pages: 143-154
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/JERA.31.143
• Online since: July 2017
• Authors: Patience Kunda Banda*, Simon Tembo
• Keywords: Churn, Churn Rate, Subscriber, Zambia

References

[1] ICT Investiment Profile, Zambia ICT Agency (ZICTA) and Zambia Development Agency (ZDA), Lusaka, (2015).

[2] S. Habeenzu, Telecommunications Regulatory Environment in Zambia ICT Sector Performance Review, Lusaka, (2010).

[3] Abdullateef, A. N. Hashim and B. D. Sarkindaji, A Review of the Inconsistency in CRM Measurement: Evidence from the Telecommunication Industry, Journal of International Business and Economics, vol. 2, no. 2, pp.107-131, (2014).

[4] A. Almana, et al, A Survey On Data Mining Techniques In Customer Churn Analysis For Telecom Industry, International Journal of Engineering Research and Applications, vol. 4, no. 5, pp.165-171, (2014).

[5] Federal Communications Commission, 17th Report - Annual Report and Analysis of Competitive Market Conditions With Respect to Mobile Wireless, Including Commercial Mobile Services, Federal Communications Commission;, Washington DC, (2014).

DOI: 10.1002/9781118907658.app4

[6] M. Aufar, 7th Asia-Pacific Business Research Conference, in Study of Post-Churn Impacts on Brand Image in Telecommunication Sector, Singapore, (2014).

[7] A. Kuusik and U. Varblane, How to avoid customers leaving: the case of the Estonian telecommunication industry, Baltic Journal of Management, vol. 4, no. 1, pp.66-79, (2009).

DOI: 10.1108/17465260910930458

[8] B. Oghojafor, Discriminant Analysis of Factors Affecting Telecoms Customer Churn, International Journal of Business Administration, vol. 3, no. 2, 15 March (2012).

DOI: 10.5430/ijba.v3n2p59

[9] D. Y. Arthur, E. Harris and J. Annan, Principal Component Analysis of Customer Churns in Ghanaian Telecommunication Industry, American International Journal of Contemporary Research, vol. 2, no. 12, (2012).

[10] Predicting Customer Churn in the Mobile Telecommunication Industry, A case study of MTN Ghana, Kumasi, (2011).

[11] A. Government, Achievements of the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology in 2010, Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, Afghanistan, (2011).

[12] BIPT, 2014 Annual Report, Telecommunications Belgian Institute of Postal Services, Belgium, (2014).

[13] Telecom Italia, ERG Project Team IP-Interconnection and NGN – Consultation document on IP interconnection.

[14] A. M. Hughes, Churn reduction in the telecom industry, Database Marketing Institute Limited, (2008).

[15] J. Ojasalo, Customer Relationship Longevity and Satisfaction Sources in Professional Services, The Journal of the Economic Society of Finland, (1999).

[16] R. Mattison, The Telco Churn Management Handbook, Illinois: XiT Press, (2005).

[17] A. Lemmens and S. Gupta, Managing Churn to Maximize Profits, Working Paper, vol. 14, no. 20, (2013).

[18] Ernst & Young, The Revised Revenue Reconginition Proposal: Telecommunications, EYGM Limited, (2012).

[19] A. A. Khan, M. M. Sepehri and S. Jamwal, Applying Data Mining to Customer Churn Prediction in an Internet Service Provider, International Journal of Computer Applications, vol. 9, no. 7, (2010).

DOI: 10.5120/1400-1889

[20] H.S. Kim and C.H. Yoon, Determinants of subscriber churn and customer loyalty in the Korean mobile telephony market, sciencedirect, Korea, (2004).

DOI: 10.1016/j.telpol.2004.05.013

[21] J. Chen and R. Ching, The Effects of Mobile Customer Relationship Management on Customer Loyalty, in Proceedings of the 40th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, Hawaii, (2007).

DOI: 10.1109/hicss.2007.526

[22] S. Rajasekar, Research Methodology, India: School of Physics, Bharathidasan University, (2014).

[23] J. Jonker and B. Pennink, The Essence of Research Methodology: A concise guide for Master and PhD students in Management Science, New york: Springer Heldelberg, (2010).

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-540-71659-4

[24] R. Khotari, Research Methodology Methods and Techniques, 2nd ed., New Dehli: New Age International Publishers, (2004).

[25] Government of the Republic of Zambia, 2010 Census of Population and Housing - Volume 11: National Descriptive Tables, Central Statistical Office, Lusaka, (2012).

[26] 17th Report - Annual Report and Analysis of Competitive Market Conditions With Respect to Mobile Wireless, Including Commercial Mobile Services, Washington DC: Federal Communications Commission, (2014).