According to Unnikrishnan, Ajitharani and Johnson B, (Jan2012) this study the Indian

telecommunication industry is fast transitioning from a growth phase to a maturity

phase of the industry lifecycle and the competition is getting tougher for the players
in the field. There are many players who strive to gain competitive edge in the
market. Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd., (BSNL) is one of the largest telecommunication
companies in the world. But its position has been endangered due to the entry of
private companies in the sector. It has become inevitable for the company to
acquire more customers and retain them for safeguarding its position in the
industry. As there is a direct link between customer retention and profitability and
growth over time, a good Customer Relationship Management (CRM) strategy is
absolutely necessary. A successful CRM strategy aims at understanding the needs of
the customer and integrating them with the organization's strategy, people,
technology and business process. The ultimate aim is to satisfy customers and
retain them. Customer retention depends to a great extent on service quality and
customer satisfaction as well as the ability of the company to encourage customers
to complain and then recover when things go wrong. The main purpose of this
research is to highlight the most important customer retention strategy adopted by
BSNL to satisfy and retain its customers, which is, the complaint management and
service recovery mechanism.
According to Lalitha, S. and Prasad, V.M, (Jan2012) that the CRM (Customer
Relationship Management) has its own level of importance not only from the
organizations point of view but also from the customers point of view. Retaining
the customer in today's competitive atmosphere is a challenge for the firm.
Companies have found that they need to invest in CRM for better understanding of
the customers so that they can respond quickly to their demands. To satisfy
customers in terms of service quality include functional quality along with technical
quality. This is possible through customer relationship management. The telecom
sector is very important in India because in 1991, India had just 5 million telephone
subscribers. At the end of July 2007, there were 233 million subscribers thus
showing an average annual growth rate of over 27 per cent per annum. No other
country in the world, other than China, has shown such high rates of growth in the
number of telephone subscribers. Telecommunications is the only industry that has
shown significant improvements over time. Consequently it is generally opined that
a revolution of sorts is taking place in the Indian telecoms industry. Hence, it is very
interesting to study from the point of view of customers.
According to Eberle, Luceine and Milan, Gabriel Sperandio (2016) that strategies for
relational practices can vary considerable, depending on which construct are driving
customer retention. In this sense, the researchers developed and tested a
theoretical model considering the constructs: perceived value, service provider
reputation, trust and switching cost as antecedents to customer retention. The
researchers quantitative descriptive study began from a survey, which was applied
to a sample of 269 companies-customers of a health plans operator. The data was
analyzed with the use of a structural equation modeling. The results show that the
perceived value influences on reputation; that reputation impacts on trust and
switching costs; that switching costs are configured as antecedent to customer

retention; and that customer retention is influenced by reputation. Finally, the

moderating effect of customer time was investigated by means of the hierarchical
regression, there being no statistically significant relationship between switching
costs and customer retention.

References:
Unnikrishnan, Ajitharani and Johnson, B. (2012). Customer Retention Strategies : The Key to Success and Growth of
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd.

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bGl2ZQ%3d%3d#AN=85883280&db=bth
Lalitha, S. and Prasad, V.M. (2012) CRM Component in Service Quality in Telecom
Sector.
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vid=12&sid=1901faf0-8905-44d4-9925cd56e95f3758%40sessionmgr4008&hid=4104&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ
%3d%3d#AN=75360186&db=bth
Eberle, Luciene, Milan, Gabriel Sperandio and de Matos, Celso Augusto (2016)
Antecedents to Customer Retention in a Corporate Context.
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vid=22&sid=1901faf0-8905-44d4-9925cd56e95f3758%40sessionmgr4008&hid=4104&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ
%3d%3d#AN=112268164&db=bth