Effects of satisfaction, trust, and commitment in mobile phone customer relationships

¶ … satisfaction, trust and commitment in customer relationships in mobile phone industry in Bangkok, Thailand

MARK1012 Research Methods

Critical Review of the Literature

Research paradigm

Secondary Data

Primary Data

As a result of the intense competitive in mobile phone industry, a plenty of mobile choices are launched to the market. For that reason, many marketing strategies have been introduced in order to compete with competitors in high competitive era. In addition, consumers are likely to concern about the best and suitable mobile phones to their lifestyle. In fact, there are some studies which have been examined in Thailand; however, they are still a small number. This research will present discussions what effects of satisfaction, trust and commitment have an effect on customer relationships of mobile phone. It is not only induced by personal factors but also environmental factors such as brand and price. This research is focused on the customer's loyalty in the light of trust and commitment.

The effects of satisfaction, trust and commitment in customer relationships in mobile phone industry in Bangkok, Thailand

Chapter One: Introduction

Today, in order to remain competitive in an increasingly globalized marketplace, companies of all types have been compelled to provide high-quality products and services on the basis of personal knowledge of customers (Khalil and Harcar, 1999). Not surprisingly, then, relationship marketing has been a rising focus for many companies in various industries. As a result, the importance of the relationship between customer and organization that trade-off in term of benefit has also assumed new relevance today (Sheth and Pavartiyar 2000 cited in Bruhn 2003). Consequently, many companies need to develop several factors in building long-term relationship with customers. These factors consist of trust, commitment, customers' loyalty to repurchase and also customer's satisfaction that are related to each other. To begin with, the customer's satisfaction is the foundation of marketing that should be achieved before continuously considering the other factors which strengthen the relationship. In this regard, Bailey and Schultz (2000) emphasize that providing existing and potential customers with the information they need when they need it an absolutely essential component in promoting customer loyalty: "Every marketing organization wants to develop loyal customers: customers that buy consistently over time, generally at regular prices, commonly ignoring the pleas and platitudes of competitors," the authors note, and add, "Everyone knows customer loyalty is good. and, marketers, given the recent developments in data capture and management, believe they have fairly good ways of developing and measuring customer loyalty" (p. 41). Intuition alone, though, is not sufficient to develop and measure customer loyalty, particularly in highly dynamic industries such as the mobile phone industry. Indeed, in the mobile phone industry, relationship marketing is a vital issue because competitors are many, either through the online media or mobile phone shop, and high competition has an adverse effect on profit margins of the company. According to Roush (2004), the global mobile phone industry is becoming more competitive than ever, and some carriers, such as Cingular Wireless, have been scrambling to retain existing market share. Therefore, both attracting new customers and maintaining existing customers are the important tasks for the market extension. It is not only increasing market share but also gaining opportunity in high competitive market. Furthermore, a supplier is also essential. Due to the direct relationship with customers, it interrelates between two stages of decision making processes which are information search and post-purchase behaviour (Lancaster and Reynolds, 2004). Thus, it can lead to repurchase of the customers by providing suitable suggestion and services. In this regard, McKenna (1991) reports that, "Customers think about products and companies in relation to other products and companies. What really matters is how existing and potential customers think about a company in relation to its competitors. Customers set up a hierarchy of values, wants, and needs based on empirical data, opinions, word-of-mouth references, and previous experiences with products and services. They use that information to make purchasing decisions" (p. 43).

It can be seen that, in recent years, a mobile phone has become a basic need for many people, almost comparable on the level of clothing or accommodation for people's lives. For these consumers, mobile phones would certainly be difficult to live without (Harkin, 2003). Interestingly, the mobile phone is not just only used for communication but also designed for other users' needs including entertainment and fashion. Moreover, mobile phone's features are developed continuously by mobile phone manufacturers for persuading consumers in many ways such as e-mail, internet, Global Positioning Systems (GPS), and Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS). According to Wouters and Wetzels (2006), "In the last decade several new communication channels have emerged for marketers to choose from, such as Short Message Service (SMS), Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS), and I-mode. In particular SMS is one of the fastest risers. SMS provides the opportunity to deliver short messages (160 alpha numeric characters) to mobile phones. These messages can also contain data packages like ring tones and logos. In a short period of time, this form of communication has become widely accepted, especially among the youth" (p. 209).

Today, the mobile phone industry also relies heavily on telephone "personality," or the degree to which the service is customizable, to better target customers (Proctor and Vu, 2005). In addition, mobile phone marketers seeking to compete in the international marketplace must take into account specific cultural factors in their product promotion efforts. In this regard, Jacko and Sears (2003) report that, for example, German and Chinese mobile phone users require different strategies for documentation and training that are related to cultural differences that can be predicted by classical culture models. In terms of relationship management, identifying what customers want and need at a given point in time and communicating an effective message to gain their business is key, of course, and recent initiatives by some mobile phone companies in the Asian marketplace have proven highly successful in this regard. According to Chung and Sherman (2002), between 10 and 60% of the customers targeted in well-designed relationship management campaigns in emerging markets sign up for the offer they receive, a healthy figure that is far more than the 5 to 20% norm in developed markets. While relationship marketing efforts in emerging marketplaces represented just 11% of the worldwide total in 2000, that figure has been growing by 35% a year since then (Chung and Sherman, 2002). These authors suggest that there are two fundamental reasons for this level of growth:

Consumers in developed markets have wearied of unsolicited mail, sales calls, and spam, but for many consumers in emerging markets, personal attention from companies is still a novelty, and a welcome one.

Success in relationship marketing depends more on applying its principles creatively than on marshaling massive databases, complex software, and armies of experts (Chung and Sherman, 2002).

According to Chung and Sherman, "In emerging markets, we have seen substantial value accrue to companies that effectively used whatever skills and data were at hand. One mobile-phone operator in Asia, for example, cut customer churn by more than 40% by offering a special discount to just the customers identified as the most likely to cancel" (p. 62). This straight-forward but highly effective application of relationship marketing techniques in an enormously dynamic industry suggests that many more opportunities await mobile phone marketers that are sufficiently savvy to keep a close eye on consumer wants and needs and to take the steps necessary to retain existing market share while seeking to capture additional share through innovative relationship marketing techniques.

The recent launch of the iPhone is proof-positive that mobile phone technology continues to advance and this industry will likely continue to grow and enjoy increasing economies of scale in the future. In this environment, identifying what mobile phone consumers want and need at a given point in time represents a challenging endeavor to be sure. Nevertheless, though the challenges are great, the rewards are as well and even small but savvy marketers can reap the benefits of a well-managed target marketing regimen. For example, Mckenna reports that, "As the markets have fragmented, more players are able to achieve a recognized position for themselves even without the resources of Sony, Apple, or Federal Express. Remember, even the giants were once small and unknown. Multiple positioning opportunities exist within every industry. A distinct, market position is attainable even in a crowded marketplace" (emphasis added) (p. 43). In this regard, a large number of mobile phone manufacturers have attempted to gain market opportunities from this industry in recent years, and as a result, the mobile phone industry represents an interesting topic for studying in order to further analyse the presence of customer relationship and its effect on this industry in general and on mobile phone consumers in Bangkok, Thailand in particular. Indeed, Thailand represents a shining economic, social and political star in Southeast Asia, and it is reasonable to suggest that the nation's current economic progress will continue in the future. In this environment, time is of the essence in developing effective relationship marketing techniques for all industries, and for the mobile phone industry in particular.

Research Aim

The purpose of this research is to investigate customer's loyalty throughout the dimensions of satisfaction, trust and commitment for mobile phone industry in Bangkok, Thailand. In addition, this research also provides practical knowledge which customers are dissimilar in satisfaction and look for different levels of relationship with mobile phones. To sum up briefly, it is completely useful for marketers to comprehend which paradigms affect customers to create good relationship with companies in order to sustain the customer's loyalty.

Research Objectives

These are research objectives which are needed to be accomplished in order to reach the above research aim which are stated as following:

To study the relationship marketing to the mobile phone industry in Thailand.

To study the customer satisfactions factor to the mobile phone.

To identify the relationship between various component satisfaction and trust.

To identify the relationship between various component satisfaction and commitment.

To identify the effect of trust and commitment over customer's loyalty.

Research Questions

From the research aim, there are research questions which are relevant to this research. The research questions are as following:

What are the main factor of customer's satisfaction in the area of trust and commitment to mobile phone?

How are the relationship between satisfaction, trust and commitment?

Are satisfaction, trust and commitment lead to customer's loyalty in mobile phone industry in Thailand?

Chapter Two: Critical Review of the Literature

Background and Overview

Companies competing in the mobile phone industry today are faced with both new opportunities as well as challenges as they seek to maintain their existing market share and grow their businesses in domestic and international markets. Developing products that are capable of being used in the global marketplace requires careful planning and analysis of the target markets, and while increasing initial development costs are required, carefully managed, target marketing can provide increased international sales (Jacko and Sears, 2003). In some countries, though, the nature of the domestic market itself may constrain awareness of and incentives for innovations in technology and new applications for existing products (Jacko and Sears, 2003).

In order to compete in this dynamic and increasingly competitive marketplace, careful positioning of products and services is required. According to Mckenna (1991), "Many companies can establish unique positions in the marketplace for themselves, their products, and their services. This capability is a powerful force in marketing. Indeed, at the heart of every good marketing strategy is a good positioning strategy" (p. 44). This aspect of marketing, though, should not be confused with advertising or other initiatives, because it directly relates to the need for developing effective ways to identifying what customers want and need at a particular point in time, and in being able to predict with some degree of accuracy what past and current trends may portend for the future. In this regard, Mckenna points out that, "Positioning does not concern so much what you say about your products or company as much as it is what your customers say about you. It is not what you say to your customers but rather what you do with your customers that creates your industry position" (1991 p. 44). Indeed, "What you do with your customers" is the heart and soul of relationship marketing theories, and these issues are discussed further below.

Relationship Marketing Theories

There are a number of working definitions of relationship marketing, the majority of which tend to emphasize the need to develop long-term relationships with customers and sometimes other stakeholders; in addition, relationship marketing is often contrasted to transaction marketing, the one-shot approach that is based on a short-term perspective (Varey and Lewis, 2000). In its most basic form, Varey and Lewis define relationship marketing as "marketing seen as relationships, networks and interaction or marketing based on interaction within a network of relationships'. In the broadest sense of total relationship marketing, all management, the whole society, and even life itself, form networks of relationships within which we interact in our roles of business executives, employees, consumers, citizens and human beings" (p. 29).

According to Kolter et al., (1999) in order to successfully gain competitive advantages, companies have to place high value in satisfy customer's needs and also attempt to develop relationships with their customers rather than focusing on only development of product. Moreover, the relationship marketing is also stated as a fundamental factor of marketing by Gronroos (1997 cited in Little and Marandi, 2003) that the marketing in relational terms means to establish, maintain and enhance relationships with customers and other partners, at a profit so that the objectives of the parties involved are met. In this regard, the growing body of research into relationship marketing suggests that the longer the relationship with a customer, the higher the profit will be. This phenomenon is attributable in large part to the dual effects of customer loyalty: (a) reduced marketing costs when fewer customers defect; and (b) increased 'customer share' or 'share of wallet' (a higher share of the customer's purchase of a product or service goes to a single supplier), a goal that is achieved by mutual exchange and fulfilment of promise (Varey and Lewis, 2000). Relationship in marketing therefore refers to voluntary repeat business between suppliers and customers where the behaviour is planned, cooperative, intended to continue for mutual benefit and is perceived by both parties as a relationship (Little and Marandi, 2003).

The relationship marketing has been defined by many researchers. It means to attract, maintain, and enhance customer relationships. Hawkin, Best and Coney (2001) stated that relationship marketing is an attempt to develop an ongoing, expanding exchange relationship with a firm's customers. Little and Marandi, (2003) believe that the relationship marketing is the most effective way to retain customers on a mutually beneficial basis and over a period of time. It focuses on customer keeping, rather than purely customer getting. It is offered as an alternative strategy to the traditional marketing mix approach, a means of obtaining sustainable competitive advantage and the best way to retain customers in the long run. Most of the research findings support the theory that long-term relationship is beneficial to the relationship between service providers and service users (Michell and Sanders 1995; Reinchheld and Saaser 1990; Czepiel 1990; So, 2005).

In the following figure of Egan (2004), it shows the development of marketing strategies. The relationship marketing is firstly introduced in 1990s. Before that there are many areas of marketing which includes consumer marketing, industrial marketing, non-profit and societal marketing, service marketing.

From the following figure, the comparison between the marketing mix and the relationship marketing theories, however, are shown the main focused areas.

The key differences between these two theories are that the relationship marketing focuses mainly on relationships, network and interaction while Marketing Mix focuses mainly on production, price, promotion and place.

Besides, the comparison to marketing mix, Little and Marandi (2003) also compare the relationship marketing with the transaction marketing. The transaction marketing focuses on single sale, orientation on product features, short timescale, and little emphasis on customer service, limited customer commitment, moderate customer contact and quality is primarily a concern of product. On the other hand, the relationship marketing chiefly focuses on customer's retention, orientation on product benefits, long timescale, high customer service, high customer commitment, high customer contact and quality are the concern of all.

Furthermore, alongside the relationship marketing, customer's loyalty also emphasise on customer retention as the following model (Little and Marandi, 2003).

Little and Marandi (2003) illustrated a formula to create loyalty. From the model, customer's satisfaction, trust and commitment are main factors to make customer's loyalty. The customer's loyalty is also constructed by other factors that are not only satisfaction alone will create loyalty but also trust and commitment are key factors to create customer's loyalty (Little and Marandi, 2003).

Commitment and trust theories

Trust. Trust is defined in various ways in several marketing literatures. Morgan and Hunt (1994) defined the trust as confidence in the exchange partner's reliability and integrity. In addition, Blois (1997 cited in Egan, 2004) defined the trust as an acceptance of vulnerability to another's possible, but not expected, will or lock of goodwill. Trust is also shown to be a psychological state comprising an intention to accept this vulnerability based upon the positive expectations of the intentions or behaviour of others (Rousseau et al., 1998 cited in Egan, 2004). Most definitions of the trust involve a belief that one relationship partner will perform in the best interests of the others. It is a willingness to rely on an exchange partner in whom one has confidence (Moorman et al., 1992 cited by Sheth and Parvatiyar 2000).

Egan and Harker (2005) defined the trust as a marketing tools and relationship marketing is build on the foundation of trust. And Zikmund et al., (2002) defined it as the willingness of the customer to rely on the organization or brand to perform its stated function. Trust reduces uncertainty or risk and viewed as a carefully thought out process. Moreover, it also means that a customer has confident that the sales representative is honest, fair, and responsible and that his or her word can be relied on.

The benefits of trust are stated by Egan (2004). The trust generates cooperative behaviour, reduces harmful conflict, decreases transaction costs (e.g. negating the need for constant checks), promotes adaptive organizational forms (e.g. network relationships), facilitates the rapid formation of ad hoc work groups and promotes effective response to a crisis. In addition, Little and Marandi (2003) pointed out that the trust is not easy to create. The relationship marketing requires investment and resources as well as emotional bonding of others which can only be facilitated by mutual trust between the parties involved.

Commitment. According to Sheth and Parvatiyar (2000), commitment is the most common dependent variable used in relationship between buyers and sellers (Anderson et al., 1987 cited in Sheth and Parvatiya, 2000). The commitment is an important variable in discriminating between existing and leaving customers (Mummalaneni, 1987 cited in Sheth and Parvatiya, 2000). It can be assumed that the relationship will bring future value or benefits to the partner. There is a little doubt that the commitment is a critical variable in measuring the future of a relationship (Ford, 1986 cited in Sheth and Parvatiya, 2000).

A relationship of commitment is defined as an enduring desire to maintain a relationship. It can be implied that the commitment is an attitude, affective response or the idea that the interactions or relationship will exist overtime (Zikmund et al., 2002). Furthermore, if the relationship is usually beneficial to the parties, a strong commitment will be developed. According to O'Malley (1998), there is an assumption that loyalty schemes provide benefits which represent "value" to customers, and because of this, customer's loyalty can be emerged.

Zikmund et al., (2002) explained that either strong or low commitment can be an impact on the customer's repeated purchasing behaviour. Undoubtedly, the customers who have strong commitment have a strong loyalty attitude and behaviour towards companies, stores or brands. While those who have low commitment have only inertial loyalty.

To sum up briefly, Egan (2004) pointed out that the existence of trust and commitment among parties is seen by some to be central to the success of relationship marketing strategies. Both trust and commitment are invariably associated with the prerequisite that the relationship is of significantly high importance to one or both parties as to warrant maximum efforts at maintaining it (Morgan and Hunt, 1994).

Mobile Telephone Service in Thailand Today.

The Thai economy remains strong today, and the country was one of East Asia's best performers during the period from 2002 to 2004 (Thailand, 2007). An overview of Thailand current telecommunications status is provided in Table ____ below.

Table ____.

Telecommunications in Thailand Today.

Metric

Current Estimates

Telephones - main lines in use:

7.073 million (2006)

Telephones - mobile cellular:

40.816 million (2006)

Telephone system:

general assessment: high quality system, especially in urban areas like Bangkok domestic: fixed line system provided by both a government owned and commercial provider; wireless service expanding rapidly and outpacing fixed lines international: country code - 66; satellite earth stations - 2 Intelsat (1 Indian Ocean, 1 Pacific Ocean); landing country for APCN submarine cable

Source: U.S. Government, CIA World Factbook, 2007.

According to Prado (2007), "In Thailand, the caller pays all the fees, not the recipient. In Bangkok, the cost of making a local phone call is 3 baht per call. There is no per minute charge. Outside of Bangkok, there is a charge per minute, except when calling some provincial Internet service providers" (p. 5). During the 1990s and even through the early 2000s, consumers bringing mobile phones into Thailand from outside Thailand experienced significant problems, but this has changed with newer models. In this regard, Prado reports that, "The reason is that the mobile phone companies were sole distributors of phones, and the phones were 'locked' so that they would work only with the service provider it was bought from (AIS or DTAC). Also, the same model of phone in Thailand cost significantly more in Thailand than if you bought it outside the country and carried it in. However, this policy changed a few years ago, and the mobile phone companies opened up their networks to all phones, so that all you needed to buy was the SIM card" (2007 p. 10).

Despite these improvements, consumers may still experience problems if they purchase a mobile phone separately from the SIM card, particularly the less expensive models. According to Prado, consumers will not have any problems recognizing when their combination will not work: "You will know immediately because it will give you an error message or just won't connect. This can be fixed quickly and easily by bringing it to a shop which can connect a data cable and 'unlock' it. These shops are easy to find and all over" (2007 p. 11). (the authors adds that in past years, phones brought into the country which worked with Thai SIM cards could be sold for a handsome profit, and many people funded their vacations in Thailand by bringing in phones from Europe in their suitcase and selling them here at the Thailand monopoly prices; however, this is no longer the situation) (Prado, 2007).

This analyst reports that, "Thailand is different from some other countries like the U.S. (but Thailand is similar to many other countries) due to efforts to quasi-monopolize the industry by certain powers in Thailand" (Prado, 2007 p. 7). There following mobile phone companies can operate in Thailand (in other words, they have been granted a "concession" by the Communications Authority of Thailand):

Advanced Info Service, AIS, the first and biggest at www.ais.co.thor www.ais.co.th/eng/intro_brown.htm;

True, the third to get set up, since around the year 2000, www.truecorp.co.th, formerly "Orange" or Telecom Asia (TA) before being acquired by a Thai company; and Total Access Communications, DTAC, at www.dtac.co.thor www.dtac.co.th/en/default.aspx, the second to be established (since around 1996) and second largest' and,

Hutchison aka "Hutch," the smallest (Prado, 2007).

According to this author, "Each mobile phone network has its own antennas and systems, but are interconnected so that you can use, for example, an AIS phone to call a DTAC phone, i.e., you can use any phone to call any other phone" (Prado, 2007 p. 15). As of July 2005, the respective carriers had the following percentages of market share in the Thai market:

Table ____.

Percentage of Market Share by Mobile Phone Leaders in Thailand (2005 estimate).

Carrier

No. Of Users

Percentage of Users

AIS

DTAC

True

Hutchison

Source: Prado, 2007 (percentages calculated separately using Excel).

These respective market shares are shown in Figure ____ below.

Figure ____. Percentage of Market Share by Mobile Phone Leaders in Thailand (2005 estimate).

Based on tabular data in Prado, 2007 at p. 10.

For the purposes of formulating focus groups covering representative age ranges in the target market, the current age structure of Thailand is provided in Table ____ below.

Table ____.

Age Structure of Thailand (2007 estimate).

Age Range

Overall Percentage

Male

Female

0-14 years

15-64 years

65 years and over Source: Thailand, 2007 p. 5.

Figure ____. Age Structure of Thailand (2007 Estimate).

Source: Based on tabular data in Thailand, 2007.

The composition of the focus groups for the purposes of this study were therefore designed according to these overall age structures, with approximately 20% of the respondents being teenagers (age 13-14 years), 70% of the respondents being between the ages of 15 years and 64 years, and approximately 10% of the respondents being 65 years of age and older.

Chapter Three: Methodology

Research Design

The research would be discussed by using the research paradigm research methodology and research method as the following.

Research paradigm

This research is exploited the positivistic or functionalist paradigm because of many reasons. To begin with, the research questions are adopted by relationship marketing theories such as customer's satisfaction. To examine those research questions, the relationship between facts and theories are ensured by the positivistic paradigm. Following this, a result from the research is the knowledge which is needed to be reflected unambiguously by facts of customer's satisfaction factors in mobile phone industry.

In addition, the objectivism that is one of an ontological philosophy is exploited to support the positivistic paradigm. It concerns about the relationship between a researcher and a research. In this research, the researcher is independent. It means that the researcher only collect the facts and concludes the result from those facts. There is no need to interact with the sample population such as an experiment. Unlike the interpretive paradigm, the positivistic paradigm is also not depended on the feeling of researcher to interpret data.

Research methodology

From this research, it is vital to explain relationship between variables. For that reason, the deductive approach is utilised to test a theory rather than build a new theory. The data has to be collected so as to identify the most important factors of mobile phone selection. All the collected data is compared and analysed with other criteria. The main factors can be interpreted that relate to measurement of the most chosen reasons by consumers. Thus, the quantitative methodology is exploited in according to the deductive approach. It is used to gather the numeric data in order to assist data comparison and analysis.

There are many methodologies to conduct the research in according to the research paradigm. Both of quantitative and qualitative researches, methodologies have particular characters. The results of research might not be reliable if the methodology is used wrongly. Consistent with the quantitative research, the survey methodology is chosen for the research rather than others because it is employed to collect quantitative data and statistically analyse. It is impossible to collect data from the whole population. A large number of data is collected to represent the whole population and easy to interpret. In according to the limitation about time and cost, the survey is an effective methodology.

Research method

To collect quantitative data, a questionnaire is a method to collect primary data. Although the consumer behaviour relates to sensational feeling, it will be transformed and interpreted by a statistical analysis. Due to a large number of samples and simple structures, the questionnaire is suitable for the research method. Besides, the type of questionnaire is a self-completion questionnaire due to reducing bias from the researcher. For the questionnaire design, the questions are mainly closed questions to reduce time consuming. However, some closed questions are developed because more alternative answers excluding from the questionnaire are obtained.

Sample size

As the result the population frame is inappropriate and limited of resources so that the convenience sampling is used. For the data collection procedure, a pilot survey will be done before a main survey. To ensure the suitability of questionnaire, the questionnaire is necessary to be relevant and clear. So, the 25 of convenience samplings at main city centres in Bangkok are chosen. The sample size is supposed to be 250 respondents that is reasonable and suitable amount for Master degree level dissertation. Moreover, it can cope with the timeframe for the research. Nevertheless, if the response amount is inadequate, convenience sampling method is needed to collect additional sample. The advantages to conduct this method are various such as it could help to save time and it can help to gain the right group of customers (Jankowicz 2000, Ghauri and Gronhaug 2005, Saunders et al., 2003). However, there is some disadvantage of the method which is the risk of generalisation on the results. (Jankowicz 2000, Ghauri and Gronhaug 2005, Saunders et al., 2003).

Data collection

There are two types of data, which are primary data and secondary data. Primary data are originated from a research conducted by a researcher to investigate specific problems (Churchill and Lacobucci, 2005). On the other hand, secondary data are originated from another research with a different purpose to ours to investigate specific problems.

Malhotra and Birks (2000) suggested that it is useful to begin a research with secondary data because the data in secondary sources are already existed and the important data might be available in secondary sources. This means that it is more cost and time efficient than conducting a primary data research alone as some of data might have been found in secondary sources. The secondary data can be beneficial in clarifying the problems, improving data collection techniques and comparison with primary data in further primary research (Churchill and Lacobucci, 2005).

Secondary Data

The main objective of secondary data is to generate an instruction for both general information about the mobile phone industry and particular information concerning the industry's customer satisfaction and relationship marketing issues.

The needed secondary data are mobile phone sales figure and also company detail, news and articles that concern about current market situation, customer's behaviour, customer's attitude and customer's insight. The major sources of the information are Electronic database: Mintel, Emerald full text, Business Source Premier

Mobile phone websites

Trade publications, newspapers, magazines

Primary Data

For design the questionnaire, some adjustment would be made to some measure items by using secondary data. Following this, the questionnaire would be more practical and also up-to-date. In order to certify a more reliable and valid questionnaires, a pilot questionnaire test would be accomplished to receive feedback and suggestion. After that, the original questionnaire is spot on according to the respondent's recommendations and results from the pilot study.

Data Analysis Plan

According to Saunder et al., (2003) pointed out that a quantitative approach would be employed in the data analysis phrase because the survey is structured, thus, statistical software is the way to save cost and time. Therefore, in this research, the data would be analyse by using the Statistical Package for Social and Sciences (SPSS) in order to analyse and then assess the characteristic of the collected data.

Chapter Four: Findings

Survey Results.

AIS. Thaksin Shinawatra started a mobile phone company called AIS in the early 1990s, and it was the solution for so many of us. "Forget landlines, get a mobile phone, it works well!" Mobile phones were big back then, and you had to wear them on your belt like guns because no way would they fit in a pocket. As mobile phones were not yet trendy, some of us looked like we were out of a SciFi movie. Thaksin was appreciated as Mr. Solutions. A decade later, he is Prime Minister.)" (Prado, 2007 p. 13).

DTAC.

True Move.

Focus Group Results.

Chapter Five: Analysis/Discussion

According to Prado, AIS's coverage and quality of service was much better for many years; however, things have changed in recent years (and months). This author reports that, "AIS was the company founded around 1990 by the recent Prime Minister, Dr. Thaksin Shinawatra, who was overthrown by a coup in September 2007. He sold his company to the Singapore telecom conglomerate Temasek in early 2007 when at the peak of his power -- before he was ousted by the military, and complications in regard to that sale were part of the problem. Further, there are some real legal problems about that sale, especially restrictions on foreigner ownership of a telecoms company. It appears all parties believed Thaksin's hold on power in Thailand was permanent, as he got away with abusing his power and breaking the law often, and is so extremely wealthy... But everything changed with the surprising military coup... And Temasek looks like it will lose an awful lot of money...and I wonder whether financial neglect and/or other changes have affected AIS" (Prado, 2007 p. 17).

Based on his personal experiences and empirical observations, this analyst reports the following concerning the respective mobile phone carriers in Bangkok today:

My DTAC and True phones work a lot better than my AIS phones now. SMSes via AIS have started to fail or be greatly delayed, in contrast to DTAC and True. When I am on the road and want to connect to internet by mobile phone, I get faster speeds with my DTAC phone than my AIS, the opposite of last year. (I haven't tried True yet as regards mobile phone internet.) have no experience with Hutchison.

I have 3 phones with 3 SIM cards -- one AIS, one DTAC, and one True. AIS gives the best English support, is easiest to figure out, is easiest to use, and has features important to me (like verification that SMS is Delivered successfully). The others are cheaper in their rates.

I have expected DTAC and True to catch up, but instead at least DTAC has been falling further behind by my set of values. True seems on the up-and-up.

In his assessment of "Calls getting thru vs. "Network Busy," Prado reports:

In mid-2005, DTAC's service became unacceptable. DTAC has run some specials for cheaper prices, and the result has been an overload on their network. My wife and I both have DTAC phones, and we often can't reach each other even though we are DTAC-to-DTAC and usually within the same cell region, with errors like "Network busy," or recordings saying the phone number is unreachable. Then, some time later, we get a message from DTAC saying we got a lot of missed calls. Same for customers and new numbers. I want to emphasize that my DTAC phone often cannot reach her DTAC phone. Often, I get "Network busy" when I try to contact DTAC support! Being unable to reach someone in business can mean loss of business (and money). Personally, it can sometimes be a major inconvenience and frustration to not be able to reach your wife or a close associate urgently. Who has time to waste, and who needs frustrations and a changed mindset?