BEA 603 Assignment 1 Final Version - Report on Vodafone PDF

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Download BEA 603 Assignment 1 Final Version - Report on Vodafone PDF

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International Student Satisfaction Levels and Loyalty with their Mobile Phone Network Plans in the Current Pandemic

Table of Contents 1

Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 3 1.1

Objective of the Study ...................................................................................................... 3

1.2

Rationale of the Study ...................................................................................................... 3

2

Survey Questionnaire and Procedure ...................................................................................... 4

3

Data Presentation and Analysis ............................................................................................... 5

4

3.1

Summary Table ................................................................................................................ 5

3.2

Contingency Table ........................................................................................................... 5

3.3

Pie Chart ........................................................................................................................... 7

3.4

Scatter Plot ....................................................................................................................... 7

3.5

Bar Chart ........................................................................................................................ 10

3.6

Conditional Probability .................................................................................................. 10

3.7

Hypothesis Testing ......................................................................................................... 11

Conclusion ............................................................................................................................. 12 4.1

Implications for Business and Decision Making............................................................ 12

4.2

Limitations of this Study ................................................................................................ 13

4.3

Improvements for Future Studies ................................................................................... 13

5

References ............................................................................................................................. 15

6

Appendix ............................................................................................................................... 16

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1 Introduction This study was conducted by the marketing team of Vodafone Tasmania/Victoria. The purpose of this study was to determine the satisfaction levels of international students with respect to their mobile phone plans in the Covid-19 global pandemic. The goal is to introduce attractive and affordable packages for international students to provide them with uninterrupted access to their families and friends in the difficult times.

1.1 Objective of the Study The objective of this study is to understand the satisfaction and loyalty of international students with their existing mobile phone plans in the current pandemic where a significant majority has lost their casual, part-time and full-time jobs, and is finding it hard to cover these expenses. By understanding their level of satisfaction with their current mobile phone plans, the marketing team will be able to make recommendations to Vodafone so that they can keep their customer base satisfied and prevent them from switching to other networks. The results of this study will not only help Vodafone identify new opportunities to increase their customer base, but also help maintain their customers’ loyalty.

1.2 Rationale of the Study This study carries significance because of two reasons. Every organization seeks to satisfy its customers by offering something that will help them feel happy and content. The second reason is customer loyalty. When customers are satisfied, they are more loyal to the brand they use. Heitmann et al. (2007) stated that satisfaction affects loyalty positively, including word of mouth as well as willingness to recommend. Curtis et al. (2011) stated that customers remain loyal because not only are they satisfied but also want their relationship to continue. This study can help Vodafone determine customer satisfaction and customer loyalty with heir mobile network plans in the current pandemic when people have lost their jobs. This study is specifically targeted at international students who are far away from home and need an uninterrupted access to their friends and family when every country has placed travel bans, and are in lockdown due to the Covid-19 global pandemic.

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As part of the strategy to have a strong and loyal customer base, customer satisfaction plays a huge role. Customer satisfaction levels may be based on current pricing plans, overseas calls discounts, affordable internet packages and customer services and support. Willingness of international students to switch to Vodafone due to cheaper pricing plans will also contribute to growing clientele. Customer satisfaction surveys help organizations learn about their current offerings, and what they need to do to meet customer expectations in the future (Ruth 2018). International students are a significant part of the Australian economy, and catering to their needs in the Covid-19 global pandemic can help Vodafone grow with a loyal customer base.

2 Survey Questionnaire and Procedure The online survey questionnaire method has been used in this study. The survey questionnaire is attached in the “Appendix” section of this report. The survey questionnaire consisted of 13 questions and these questions were based on student’s satisfaction levels with their mobile phone plans, linked to their loyalty with the operator. The necessity to maintain the quality and to receive useful results from the survey, it was decided to use at least 2 variables. With the ongoing COVID-19 Global pandemic, the survey was conducted using the university email database, and the survey was sent to the entire BEA 603 Economics and Statistical Analysis group of students and friends of these students. For the collection of data, convenience sampling method was used. It is defined by Levine, Stephan & Szabat (2017) as the method of collecting data which is easy to approach and less costly. Initially, we aimed at collecting data from 100 international students. However, we have received data from a total of 120 students, out of which, 110 questionnaires were used and 10 were considered outliers. Since this study focus es on international students, so all of the respondents were international students and there were no domestic students. 110 respondents are sufficient for this study based on the central limit theorem (If the sample size is at least 30, the population is assumed to be normally distributed). This will help to make a meaningful statistical analysis and comparison.

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3 Data Presentation and Analysis 3.1

Summary Table Table 3.1 - Main reasons that will keep the international students satisfied with their mobile phone plans in the current pandemic. Number of

Percentage of

Respondents

Respondents

Introducing student offers

71

65%

Network Quality

17

15%

Price Stability

14

13%

Improved customer service

8

7%

Total

110

100%

Reasons to Stay Loyal

Table 3.1 above shows the main reasons that international students mention to help them to stay loyal to a mobile operator. A majority, i.e. 65% will stay loyal to their network plan if the operator introduces student offers that cater to their needs. Other reasons include network quality and price stability, while improved customer service is the least motivation to stay loyal.

3.2 Contingency Table Table 3.2.1 - Contingency Table showing whether international students need more data during the Covid-19 Global Pandemic: Is more data required?

Female Male

Prefer not to say

Total

Yes

31

27

1

59

No

16

21

1

38

Maybe

8

5

0

13

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Total

55

53

2

110

The contingency table 3.2.1 divides data requirements according to gender. There are a total of 59 students who have answered with a ‘Yes’ when asked whether they need more data, which equals to 53.64% of the population. 31 out of these are female while the rest are male. On the other hand, 38 students (34.54%) have responded that they do not require more data. 11.82% have answered with a ‘Maybe’ which we have understood as they are unsure about their data usage. Table 3.2.2 - Contingency Table showing how calls to friends and family have changed during the Covid-19 Global Pandemic:

Changes in Frequency of calls

Prefer not to

Female

Male

Increased

36

33

1

70

Decreased

6

7

1

14

Remain the same

13

13

0

26

Total

55

53

2

110

to friends and family

say

Total

The contingency table 3.2.2 above shows how calls to friends and family have changed during the pandemic. A total of 70 students (63.63%) have responded that their calls to their loved ones have increased during the difficult times while 14 students (12.73%) have answered that their calls have decreased over this time. 26 students (23.64%) have said that there has been no change in the frequency of calls to their friends and family.

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3.3 Pie Chart Figure 3.3 - International Students’ Satisfaction with their Current Mobile Phone Plan

Figure 3.3 International Students’ Satisfaction of Current Plan

The pie chart above shows the satisfaction of international students with their current mobile plan. A majority, i.e. 57% of the students are somewhat satisfied with their plan while only 15% are very satisfied. On the other extreme, 9% are somewhat dissatisfied while 5% are very dissatisfied. 14% of the students are neither satisfied, nor dissatisfied with regards to their mobile phone plan.

3.4 Scatter Plot Figure 3.4.1 – Scatter Plot for Relationship between Mobile Data and Amount Spent on Mobile Phone Plans

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Mobile Data (GB)

Scatter Plot for Relationship between Mobile Data and Amount Spent on Mobile Phone Plans 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 $0.00

$20.00

$40.00

$60.00

$80.00

$100.00

$120.00

Plan Pricing ($)

Figure 3.4.1 Relationship between Mobile Data and Plan Pricing

The scatter plot clearly shows more concentration between the range of $20 and $50, which shows that more international students spend between this ranges to get their desired mobile data. The scatter plot also shows that students spending in the range of $20 and $50 usually seek data in the range of 10 GB and 50 GB. The plot further shows students rarely opt for a plan that will cost $80 or more. Similarly, it is rare for customers to have monthly mobile data of greater than 50 GB. Another interesting thing to note is that customers who do pay over $80 does not mean that that their monthly mobile data limit is high. On the contrary, the monthly mobile data limit tends to be 40 GB or less for most of the students. This might imply that the monthly pricing of mobile plans is not correlated with the monthly mobile data purchased. Figure 3.4.2 – Correlation between Amount Spent on Mobile Phone Plans and The Mobile Data Purchased. Monthly mobile plan

Mobile Data

Monthly Mobile Plan Pricing

1

0.3434

Mobile Data

0.3434

1

Figure 3.4.2

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The correlation between the monthly mobile phone plan pricing and the mobile data purchased is presented in Figure 3.4.2. It shows that the correlation between mobile data and monthly mobile plan pricing is merely 0.3434, which is a positive and weak correlation. This means that the amount spent by students on mobile phone plans does not highly correlate with the higher monthly mobile data purchased. We have limitations when we are doing the analysis and we will follow up there three irregularities. Figure 3.4.3 – Side-by-Side Bar Chart for Gender and Amount Spent on Monthly Mobile Phone Plans Side-by-Side Bar Chart of Gender and Amount Spent on Monthly Mobile Phone Plans

20 15

10

Female Male

5 0 $10.00 $12.50 $15.00 $20.00 $25.00 $29.00 $30.00 $35.00 $35.50 $40.00 $44.00 $45.00 $46.00 $49.00 $50.00 $54.00 $60.00 $100.00 $120.00 $150.00 $200.00 $300.00

Sum of Mobile Data Usage (GB)

25

Amount Spent on Monthly Mobile Phone Plans ($)

Figure 3.4.3 Relationship between gender and Plan Pricing

It is apparent that there are more female customers who have monthly plan of $40.00 compared to male customers. However, there are more male customers who have monthly mobile plan of $30.00 and $50.00 (2nd two highest readings) compared to female customers.

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3.5 Bar Chart Figure 3.5 – Relationship between Age and Amount Spent on Mobile Phone Plans:

Relationship between Age and Amount Spent on Monthly Mobile Plans

Amount Spent ($)

60 50 40 30 Total

20 10 0 5, n*(1-p) > 5 Step 4: P = 34 / 110 = 0.3091

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Z-Stat = (0.3091 – 0.5000) / ((0.5 x (1 – 0.5) / 110) ^ 0.5 = -4.0045 Step 5: Because -4.0045 is smaller than -1.64, we reject the null hypothesis. There is no evidence to suggest that the proportion of customers to choose Vodafone is less than 50% at 5% level of significance.

4 Conclusion 4.1 Implications for Business and Decision Making This study has shed light on the international student satisfaction levels and loyalty with regards to their mobile phone network plan in the Covid-19 Global Pandemic. Going through this study, it needs to be understood that this study was only targeted at international students, therefore any generalizations extended to domestic students and their satisfaction levels could result in a different outcome. The outcomes of this study will be helpful to Vodafone in understanding the satisfaction levels of international students in relation to their mobile phone plans in the Covid-19 Global Pandemic and how they can improve their services or introduce new ones to increase customer loyalty. The study found that 57% of the respondents were somewhat satisfied with their current mobile phone plans while only 15% were very satisfied. This indicates that international students, although content, would appreciate more tailored plans so that they can move to the ‘very satisfied’ category. On the other hand, only 5% of the respondents were extremely dissatisfied, while 9% were somewhat dissatisfied. This suggests that the improvements that Vodafone may plan will not have to be too different to raise satisfaction levels. We have also used the ‘prefer not to say’ option in our question that addresses gender. This is to reduce hesitation amongst students who identify as different from the identified genders, i.e. male and female. This has helped our study extend to international students who belong to the LGBTQ+ community. With regards to the features of the mobile phone plans, a majority of the respondents that they like the introduction of student offers in the pandemic to help ease the financial burden Page 12 of 18

on them. 53.64% of international students responded that their data usage has increased due to the pandemic while 63.63% responded that calls to friends and family have increased. This suggests that the global pandemic has induced worry into the minds of these international students, hence keeping up with the latest news back home and around the world has become important, and the need for data and calls have increased. The practical implication of this study is that mobile phone network carriers should seriously consider the needs of international students in this pandemic. Catering to their needs can help them earn their loyalty, and even promote more students to port to a network carrier that is student-friendly.

4.2 Limitations of this Study One of the limitations of this study is the fact that online questionnaires are often ignored or taken less seriously than representatives physically approaching customers. Customers approached through online surveys may respond in a non-serious manner. Another limitation to this study is the design of the questionnaire. While most of the questions are relevant, they do not fully reflect the intention of the data that could have been gathered if more questions were included. However, including more questions may have also lead to non-response error or even a lower sample size. The questionnaire for this study was designed to ensure that every question is answered, which may have reduced the error to an extent, however not able to conduct a follow-up survey due to time constraints may have magnified the response error. There is always the possibility of sampling error, even though as mentioned earlier, the sample size for this study was sufficient to satisfy the central limit theorem. Again, due to time constraints and travelling barriers, due to the Covid-19 global pandemic, the study was unable to include a larger sample size.

4.3 Improvements for Future Studies To improve the outcomes from this study, it is recommended that the researchers should continue with another follow-up survey or personal interviews. This would minimize any possible bias as well as non-response error. Other method for improving the response rate for this study is to offer incentives to participants to increase participation. Page 13 of 18

Using a larger sample size will help reduce the possibility of a sampling error. It is also recommended to include all types of students, including domestic ones, since they may be far away from home too, living in hostels, shared accommodation, or interstate. However, future researchers will have to consider the cost of conducting the survey on a larger scale as well as the time they will have to spend.

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5 References Curtis, T, Abratt, R, Rhoades, DL & Dion, P 2011, ‘Customer loyalty, repurchase and satisfaction: A meta-analytical review’, Journal of Consumer Satisfaction, Dissatisfaction and Complaining Behavior, vol. 24, p. 1. Heitmann, M, Lehmann, DR & Herrmann, A 2007, ‘Choice goal attainment and decision and consumption satisfaction’, Journal of Marketing Research, vol. 44, no. 2, pp. 234-245. Levine, DM, Stephan, DF & Szabat, KA (eds) 2017, Statistic for Managers using Microsoft Excel, 8th edition, Pearson Education Limited, Edinburgh Gate. Ruth, M 2018, Customer satisfaction, Salem Press Encyclopedia.

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