Churn Management in Sri Lankan Mobile Market

Churn is a measure of the number of subscribers who leave or switch to another carrier's service. The frequent migration of customers is in a way a threat to mobile operators as the expense on customer acquisition is greater than retention. On the other hand, for any operator it is difficult to maintain a steady growth in the market without maintaining the existing customers. Due to profound competition, controlling churn rate is becoming a challenge to Mobile Operators and identifying reasons for Churn is an even greater challenge as it is highly dependent on the values, culture, attitudes and perception of the different segments.

The main causes for retention or churn from one network in Sri Lankan context (for different segments) are identified by a questionnaire evaluated across various demographic factors (Age, Education level, Monthly Income, Gender). The questionnaire was distributed among 400 mobile subscribers and received 305 responses which were used in the analysis set out in the paper to follow. Strategies that can be used to minimize churn rate is identified based on the feed back received in the questionnaire and by looking at best practices available in the region. Finally, Researchers developed a model to prioritize the influencing factors (Tariff, Coverage, Brand, VAS, and QOS) for overall customer satisfaction of Sri Lankan Mobile customers and checked whether there is any relationship with demographic factors and influencing factors for churn. In addition to that, researchers have suggested strategies that should be adopted by Sri Lankan mobile operators to minimize churn.