Journal of Mobile Technologies,Knowledge & Society

Vol. 2011(2011), ArticleID940658, 308 minipages.DOI:10.5171/2011.940658www.ibimapublishing.com

Copyright © 2011 Amine Nehari Talet,Mazen Harbi Shawosh and Saeed A. Al-Saeed . This is an open access articledistributed under the CreativeCommons Attribution License unported3.0, which permits unrestricted use,distribution, and reproduction in anymedium, provided that original work isproperly cited.

The Perception of CustomerRelationship Management

AdoptionCase of Mobile Companies in

Saudi Arabia

Authors

Amine Nehari Talet,Mazen Harbi Shawoshand Saeed A. Al-Saeed

King Fahd University ofPetroleum & Minerals,Dhahran, Saudi Arabia

AbstractThe purpose of this study isto ascertain customersatisfaction perception ofCustomer Relationship

Management (CRM)adoption by mobile telecomcompanies in Saudi Arabia.This study surveys morethan 440 mobile telecomcustomers to investigate

their opinion about thequality of offered customerservices by mobile telecomcompanies and its impacton customer satisfactionand hence customer. The

study concentrates on themain three channels usedby mobile companies toprovide customer services(customer service offices,phone operator and web

site services). Empiricalfindings present evidencethat the quality of customerservice significantly affectcustomer satisfaction andthus customer loyalty. It is

found that the majority ofcustomers preferred to usephone operator than officecustomer services.

Keywords: CustomerRelationship Management(CRM), CustomerSatisfaction, Customerloyalty.

IntroductionIn today’s globalised andborderless market, quality,productivity andsatisfaction of customers

pose a challenge for thesurvival and growth of allfirms. These growth andsurvival demands arefurther expanded by theneed to attract and retain

loyal customers. Themanagement recognizesthat customers are thespirit of a business and thata company’s successdepends on effectively

managing relationshipswith them. Thus, thecustomer is the main focusfor any successful business.Business success dependson a firm’s understanding

and meeting customers’needs and demands. Today,often, the objectivesbecome constraints forbusinesses and theiremployees when they do

not have appropriate tools,equipment, or methods toachieve this goal. Since thelast two decades, thetelecommunications sectorhas become a vital key area

for the economicdevelopment of nations.The telecommunicationindustry’s role in aneconomy cannot beunderemphasized. This is

because it is the meansthrough which all dailytransactions and activitiesare undertaken. It aidsdecision making,organizing, influencing,

activating, instructing,providing feedback,promoting interpersonaland business relationshipsas well as exchange ofinformation. All social,

economic, political, cultural,trade and commercialactivities are undertakenusing telecommunication.One important service in aneconomy is

telecommunication. Thenature of a country’stelecommunicationindustry affects its pace ofcommercial and domesticactivities. Due to the poor

performance of many ofthese telecommunicationfirms, particularly in thedeveloping countries,governments have had tointervene.

It is well known that it costsmore for organizations toattract new customerscompared to retainingexisting ones (Hsieh, 2009).Also, the role 80/20

indicates that you make aneighty percent benefit froma twenty percent customer(Galitsky, & de la Rosa,2011). With this in mind,information technologies

(IT) can be used toestablish strong andprofitable long-termrelationships withcustomers.

(Babu, & Kumar, 2010;Agrawal, & Berg, 2009;Hsieh, 2009). This meansthat by creating long-termrelationship with loyalcustomers, you will ensure

long-term success(Boohene, & Agyapong,2011; Kuusik, & Varblane,2009).

Long- term relationshipscan be attained bydelivering the rightproducts and services tocustomers. The delivery ofthese products and services

and the means used for thisdelivery are also important(Hsieh, 2009). Changing tocustomer-centric meansthat organizations mustbuild up ways of gathering

data about customers andobtain the needed tools tosatisfy the desires of theircustomers (Mendoza et al.,2007). Customers'preferences and

perceptions are changing(Agrawal, & Berg, 2009);and customers are the oneswho initiate transactions(Babu, & Kumar, 2010).Customers' awareness

increased due to severalfactors including ITdevelopment andboundless competitionfrom all around the world(Kuusik, & Varblane, 2009).

CRM becomes more andmore important toorganizations with fiercecompetition overcustomers (Mendoza et al.,2007). CRM helps

organizations understandtheir customers'requirements, and it isconsidered a tool forimproving the competitiveadvantage (Lin et al, 2010;

Agrawal, & Berg, 2009) andto enhance innovationcapabilities (Lin et al.,2010). CRM also helpsorganizations become moreeffective and efficient when

dealing with customers(Beldi et al., 2010). WithCRM, organizations canincrease profitability andalso boost customer loyalty

and satisfaction (Pezeshkiet al., 2009).Nowadays, technologyprovides businesses withsystems that can help

companies track customerinteraction with firms andallow employees to quicklyretrieve all informationabout the customers. Thisconcept is called a

customer relationshipmanagement (CRM) systemand if used properly, itcould enhance a company’sability to achieve theultimate goal of retaining

customers and so gain astrategic advantage over itscompetitors.

Literature ReviewCustomer loyalty has beenfound in literature to be acompetitive tool for manycompanies. This is even

much more pronounced intoday’s highly globalised,industrialized andcompetitive markets. Thegrowth and survival ofcompanies depend on how

loyal their customers are ofwhich telecommunicationis no exception. Variousstudies have been carriedout in the developedcountries regarding

customer loyalty (Ndubusiet al, 2007; Khatibi et al.,2002; Uncles et al 2003).However, only few studieshave been carried out inthis area in the developing

world, especially in thetelecom sub-sector.Lack of practical tools andmethodologies, whichguarantee managers a

better consideration ofcustomer needs andexpectations, can avoid themisuse of scarce availableresources.

The concept of the vendors-customers relationships,named “relationshipmarketing”, has evolvedfrom the idea that there is avariety of customer

relationships ranging fromtransactional to relationaldealings. Today, mostcompanies seek to createtotal or cumulativecustomer satisfaction as

opposed to transaction-specific customersatisfaction. Customersatisfaction and the qualityof customer service areparticularly considered

significant in buildingtrustworthy relationshipswith customers andretaining the competitiveadvantage. As a result,customer relationship

management (CRM)systems and customerexperience management(CEM) have become a must-have set of tools andtechniques in the past

decade. Sophisticatedorganizations worldwiderely on specialized CRMsoftware systems toaccumulate and analyze

customer-focusedinformation.IT is an enabler forenhanced customerrelationships in various

ways-- it gives firms theability to deploy strategiesby customizing individualcustomer relationshipsutilizing customerdatabases, interactive and

mass customizationtechnologies (Verhoef andDonkers, 2001).CRM was principallyevolved by marketing

(Kotler, 1997) and wasstarted by a deep analysisof consumer behavior. Asthe concept of CRMmatures, CRM definitionsalso change to reflect

evolutions to CRM. Some ofCRM definitions come fromtechnological perspectivewhile others come frombusiness perspective.

CRM from BusinessPerspectiveCRM refers to activities thatmanufacturers practice forunderstanding customer

demands and improvingcustomer satisfaction(Aggarwal, 1997). CRMinvolves acquisition,analysis and use ofknowledge about

customers in order to sellmore goods or services andto do it more efficiently.Oracle Corporation on theother hand refers to CRM asabout knowing your

customers better andeffectively using thatknowledge to own theirtotal experience with yourbusiness and to driverevenue growth and

profitability. Others definesCRM as a managementapproach that involvesidentifying, attracting,developing and maintainingsuccessful customer

relationships over time inorder to increase retentionof profitable customers(Bradshaw and Brash,2001; Massey et al., 2001).Also, Sin et al. (2005) refers

to CRM as utilizingextensive strategies andengineering to find, obtainand cultivate advantagedcustomers, and hencemaintain long-term

partnerships. Likewise,CRM is defined as aprocess/application thatpermits organizations togather and analyzecustomer data rapidly

while seeking to improvecustomer loyalty viatargeted products andservices (Rigby et al.,2002).Similarly, Swift(2001) defines it as a

process designed to collectdata related to customers,to grasp features ofcustomers and to applythose features in particularmarketing activities.

Winer (2001) considersCRM a set of strategies andtools aimed at retainingcustomers over timeinstead of attracting newones. It needs some basic

components, from adatabase to basic analysesto be developed on it, fromdecisions about customers.In fact, he considered thatone of the research

priorities in the CRM field isthe development of metricsthat enable the managers toknow to what extent CRMprograms are working.However, Bose, (2002)

refers to CRM as to involveacquisition, analysis anduse of knowledge aboutcustomers in order to sellmore goods or services andto do it more effectively,

and CRM as a revolvingprocess in which firmsinteract with theircustomers therebygenerating, aggregating andanalyzing customer data

and employing the resultsfor service and marketingactivities (Schoder andMadeja, 2004).

In marketing literature,CRM has been placed in theoverall context ofmarketing thought andespecially that ofrelationship marketing

strategies as “an ongoingprocess that involves thedevelopment andleveraging of marketintelligence for the purposeof building and maintaining

a profit-maximizingportfolio of customerrelationships” (Zablah et al.,2004).

While technology is a keyenabler, it is only a meansto an end and most authorsview CRM as a combinationof strategy and informationsystems focusing

companys' attention oncustomers in order to servethem better (Chan, 2005).CRM is aimed at unifyingthe potential of relationship

marketing strategies and ITto create profitable, long-term relationships withcustomers and other keystakeholders. Furthermore,CRM provides enhanced

opportunities to use dataand information tounderstand customers andcorrelation value withthem. This requires a cross-functional integration of

processes, people,operations and marketingcapabilities that is enabledthrough information,technology andapplications (Payne and

Frow, 2005).Others sawCRM as a complex set ofinteractive processes thataims to achieve anoptimum balance betweencorporate investments and

fulfilling customer needs inorder to generatemaximum profit. (Ragnar,Lutz and Walter, 2007)

Strategically, CRM viewscustomer relationships asan investment that willcontribute to theenterprise’s bottom line.Customer relationships’

design and managementare aimed at strengtheningan enterprise’s competitiveposition by increasingcustomers loyalty. Whilethis extends beyond the use

of IT, IT is still an importantenabler of modern CRM(Ragnar,et al, 2007).CRM as a philosophy:authors taking up this

approach consider CRM tobe a complex strategyinvolving all the corporateorganizing structure inorder to strengthen therelationship with the client;

they avoid considering CRMonly as an instrument ofdata collection. So, they allagree that CRM is acorporate strategy and asystematic approach based

on relational marketingthat has the aim to selectand manage clients in orderto optimize their value inthe long run and to,consequently, maximize

value creation for theenterprise (Valsecchi andRangone, 2007).

CRM from TechnologicalPerspectiveCRM can be interpreted asan integration oftechnologies and business

processes used to satisfythe needs of a customerduring any giveninteraction. Also, CRM isbasically an enterprise-wide integration of

technologies workingtogether such as datawarehouse, web site andintranet/extranet, phonesupport systems,accounting, sales,

marketing and production(Bose, 2002). Nguyen et al.(2007) interpreted CRM asa process of digitizing astaff’s knowledge abouttheir customers.

Precise customer data is anessential input to successfulCRM performance (Abbottet al., 2001) and, therefore,technology plays animportant role in CRM in

adding to organizationintelligence (Boyle, 2004).In fact, amazing advancesin IT provide organizationswith the tools to collect,store, analyze and share

customer information inways that greatly improvetheir capability to respondto the needs of individualcustomers and hence toattract and retain

customers (Butler, 2000).The approach of one-to-onerelationships, customer-value analysis and masscustomization (Hart, 1995)are now part of the reality

through unparalleledadvances in IT,transforming thetraditional approach toCRM to an integrated web-enabled approach,

equipped by tools such ascustomer informationsystems, automation ofcustomer supportprocesses and call centers(Ghodeswar, 2001). CRM

calls for “information-intensive strategies” whichutilize computertechnologies in establishingrelationships, improvingexisting technology and

thoroughly linkingtechnology positioning todesired business initiatives(Harding et al. 2004).Computer technologiessuch as computer-aided

design/manufacturing,flexible manufacturingsystems, just-in-timeproduction databases, datawarehouses, data miningand CRM software systems

enable organizations todeliver greatercustomization with betterquality at lower cost. It alsohelps staff at all contactpoints serve customers

better. Many customer-centric activities would beimpossible withoutappropriate technology(Leo, 2005).

TelecommunicationsSector in Saudi ArabiaMobile communicationsmarkets can be divided bythe type of services

provided and by thetelecommunicationsnetworks used for`production into the sub-markets for cellularradiotelephony, paging,

trunked mobile radioaccess and satellite servicesand networks (Gerpott,1998, Knauer, 1998).

Saudi Arabiantelecommunications sectoris considered one of thebiggest in the Middle Eastand North Africa (MENA)region. Saudi Arabia has

four mobiletelecommunicationcompanies. They are, SaudiTelecommunicationCompany (STC), Mobily,Zain and Bravo. Saudi

ArabiaTelecommunicationsReport (2011), publishedby Business MonitorInternational, shows thatthe number of mobile

phone subscribers in 2008was 35,593,000subscriptions, compared to44,800,000 subscriptions in2009. The report alsoforecasts the number of

mobile subscriptions forthe next five years, where itis expected to reach around60,349,000 subscriptions in2015. The report alsoprovides the market share

of each mobile company inthe Kingdom. STC's marketshare for the 3rd quarter of2010 is around 43%,Mobily's share is 41%, Zainwith market share of

around 15%, and Bravoonly contributes with 5% tothe Saudi mobile marketshare.

The telecom market inSaudi Arabia is growingrapidly. In fact, mobilecompanies’ revenues havebeen increasing as acumulative average rate of

15% annually, growingfrom SR 19.8 billion (US$5.28 billion) in 2001 to SR52.5 billion (US $14 billion)in 2009. Mobile servicesrevenues represent about

77% of the total telecommarket revenues in SaudiArabia.

HistorySaudi Arabia privatizedtelecom section in 1998.Then later in 2001, Saudigovernment, in preparation

for opening the telecommarket for competition,established the regulationauthority for the telecomsector market and called itCommunication and

Information TechnologyCommission (CITC). SaudiArabia opened its telecommarket for competition in2005. The second mobiletelecom service provider,

Etihad Etisalat (Mobily),was licensed to work inSaudi Arabia. Two yearslater, the third mobilecompany Zain was licensed.Telecom section in Saudi

Arabia consists of threedistinctive services: fixedtelephone service, mobilephone service and internetservices.

Mobile SectorMobile customers havegrown from less than 20million customers in 2005to 42 million customers in

2009 representing a 43%annual growth. In 2007only (when the 3rd mobileservice started), a total of8.72 million customerswere added to the market

which represents thelargest growth in one yearthroughout Saudi telecomhistory. The total numberof mobile subscriptionsgrew to around 53.3 million

by end of Q1 2011, withpenetration stood at 191%.Prepaid subscriptionsconstitute the majority(87%) of all mobilesubscriptions, in line with

the trend in other similarmarkets around the world.(CITC 2011)

Fixed Line SectorFixed telephone lines havegrown on a steady basisfrom 3.2 million lines in2001 to 4.52 million in

2011 in which 3.34 millionlines (73 %) are residentiallines. This represents ahousehold teledensity ofaround 67%, while thepopulation teledensity is

around 15.9% or 159telephone lines for every1000 inhabitants. (CITC2011)

Internet ServicesOn the other hand, internetusers in Saudi Arabia haveincreased from just 1million in 2001 to nearly 13

million in 2011. Thisrepresents a cumulativeaverage growth rate ofabout 33% per year.Internet penetration isestimated at 46% of

population in 2011. Thisrapid growth of the numberof users is attributed todramatic declining incomputer prices, internetaccess prices in addition to

increased awareness of thepublic and the increase oflocal contents in Arabiclanguage and theavailability of eServices

such as E-Banking. (CITC2011).

Broadband Service

A. Fixed Broadbandsubscriptions including the(DSL) subscriptions, FixedWireless (Wimax)

subscriptions and otherfixed lines have grown toaround 2.13 millionssubscriptions at the end of9M 2011. The FixedBroadband penetration

rate stood at around 30.6 %of household at the end of9M 2011.The liberalization of thetelecom sector and the

resulting competition in themarket has led toremarkable benefits for theSaudi economy at large andfor the consumers inparticular, such as better

quality services, improvedcustomer care, moreconsumer choices andlower prices. While the costof living index continued torise in the last few years

due to increased prices ofmost of its components, theprices progressivelydecreased (CITC 2011).

B. Mobile Broadband Thetotal subscriptions tomobile broadband reached11.5 million at the end of9M 2011, representing apenetration of 40.5% of the

population. The mobilebroadband marketcontinues to gainmomentum in the Kingdomand is becoming anincreasingly exciting

market. One of the keyreasons for this growth isthe fact that due tocompetition and the hugeexpansion of the smartphones which enable

customers for varieties ofdata packages. Becomingeasier to access via mobiledevices such as smartphones, mobile networksare also improving as 3.5G

(HSPA) continues to bedeployed and wirelessbroadband technologies(4G) emerge over the nextfew years. (CITC 2011).

Improving CustomerServices in Saudi MarketSince the start ofcompetition in 2005,customers of telecom

services in Saudi noticedgreat improvement in thelevel of services providedby Saudi Telecom Company(STC). STC also workedhard to improve its

customer services level tocompete in the market.Because STC inherited mostof its employees from thegovernmental sector, it wasvery challenging to change

its culture from agovernment style to aprofit- orientedorganization. The companyhad to go over severalstrategic shifts to

incorporate customersatisfaction into its internalculture. Yet, our studyshows that there is more todo to improve customersatisfaction.

Research Methodology

SampleA questionnaire wasdistributed to 600

individuals and alsopublished online. For thehard copy questionnaire, acover letter explaining thepurpose of the study wasenclosed. For the online

version, the letter wasplaced in the first page ofthe questionnaire. Out ofthe distributed ones, 90were received; 80 of thembeing usable in addition to

361 completed onlinesurveys out of 480 onlineattempts. The total numberof usable questionnaires foranalysis is 441 surveys.

Data CollectionWe accept the fact that notall relevant variables can bestudied simultaneouslyand/or controlled precisely.

We also understand thatour assumption may allowus to notice some relevanceand may also prevent usfrom noticing others.

In order to confirm thatselected variables for thisstudy are relevant torespondents (mobiletelecom customers in SaudiArabia), a pilot study has

been conducted beforefinalizing the questionnaire.The final developedquestionnaire is dividedinto four parts. The first

part contains demographicquestions such as gender,age and education level.The second part containsgeneral information aboutrespondent’s mobile

service usage. The thirdpart measures respondent’susage and satisfactionabout mobile services aswell as customer servicechannels. The last part

assesses overall customersatisfaction and loyalty.Some of these variables areselected from previousstudies.

The constructs in thequestionnaire use a fivepoint Likert-type scalewhere 1=strongly agree,and 5 strongly disagree.

Reliability AnalysisThe construct is testedagainst the scale reliabilityfunction on SPSS 19.0 usingthe Cronbach’s Alpha in

order to evaluate theinternal consistency of thestudies constructs.Cronbach’s Alphacoefficient value for thefirst construct is 0.898 and

for the second construct is0.806. Both valuesexceeded 0.7 suggested byNunnally (1975). Thecoefficient values suggestthat both constructs are

internally consistent andreliable.

Research Variables

Customer SatisfactionConstruct

a) IndependentVariablesTo compute the firstindependent variable,respondents were asked to

express their opinion onthe following factors usinga five point scale:• The ease and speed ofgetting connected to the

support phone operator(X1).• The level of operatorattitude (X2).

• Knowledge of operator(X3).• The speed of operator inproviding problemsolution (X4).

• The follow up action onunresolved problems(X5).• The ease of sitenavigation (X6).

• The responsiveness ofweb site (X7).• The site availability andproblem free (X8).

• The ease and speed ofreaching one of officecustomer support staff(X9).

• Knowledge of officesupport staff(X10).• How good the office staffin following up problems

that need further action(X11).• How serious andprofessional the service

provider is in handlingcomplaints (X12).• Responsiveness of theservice provider tocomplaints (X13).

• Speed of resolvingreportedissues/problems (X14).• Overall staff goodknowledge about

reportedissues/problems (X15).An aggregate score forperceived service qualitywas computed from the

above 15 factors andlabeled as XServQual forconsequent analysts.

b) Dependent VariableThe dependent variable ofthis construct is overallsatisfaction with mobileservice provider.

Customer LoyaltyConstruct

a) IndependentVariables

• Overall satisfaction withcustomer call center (X1).• Overall satisfaction withcustomer service Office(X2).

• How service providerstrives to gain highcustomer satisfaction(X3)

• Overall satisfaction withthis service provider (X4)An aggregate score forcustomer satisfaction wascomputed based on the

above 4factors and labeledas XOverallSatis forconsequent analysts.

b) Dependent VariableThe dependent variable ofthis construct is customerloyalty to their mobileservice provider.

Research Results andDiscussion

In this part of the analysis,we discuss demographic

information of therespondents. Table no. 1shows that about 89.3% aremales. Ages ranged frombelow 18 to 64 years where40% are between 25 and

34 years old and 39% arebetween 18-24 years old.14% of participants’ agesare between 35 and 44years old. From educationalperspective, more than

66% of participants hold BSdegree. 16% hold highereducation degree and15.9% hold high schooldegree. On the other hand,

90% of participants areSaudi citizens.

Table 1: DemographicDetails

Please See Table 1 in FullPDF Version

Participant’s MobileCarrier DistributionAs detailed in table 2,among participants, 61%are customers of Saudi

Telecom Company,whereas 32.8% are Mobilycustomers. Zain customersare estimated at 6.12% ofparticipants. Thisdistribution suggests that

STC serves about 61% ofmobile customers in SaudiArabia, Mobily serves about33% of customers in SaudiArabia and Zain serves therest. From plan type

perspective, among STCparticipated customers,77.3% are postpaid plancustomers and the rest areprepaid plan customers.Mobile customers in

contrast consist of 72.4%postpaid customers and therest are prepaid. As to Zaincustomers, there are 52%postpaid while 48% areprepaid. Telecom

companies regard postpaidcustomers as long-termrelationship customers,whereas prepaid customersas short term ones.However, prepaid

customers yield highestprofits due to the nature ofprepaid plan prices wherethey tend to be moreexpensive with expirydates. Companies fight to

attract postpaid customersas they provide stable andpredictable income sourcefor companies. On the otherhand, Communications andInformation Technology

Commission (IITC) - Saudicommunications authority-allows customers totransfer their mobileservice numbers to any ofthe two mobile telecom

companies in the SaudiMarket. It is worthmentioning that the surveyshows that customers torecent establishedcompanies have prepaid

plans compared to well-established companies. Forinstance, 77.3% of STCcustomers whoparticipated in the survey

were postpaid compared to51.9% of Zain customers.

Table 2: Participant’sMobile Carriers

Please See Table 2 in FullPDF Version

Participants GeographicalDistributionSurvey participants aredistributed across majorSaudi Arabian regions.

Table 3 shows about 47%per cent are from centralregion where countrycapital, Riyadh, is situated.40% are from easternregion and 7.5% from the

western region. The rest isdifferent places includingpeople currently out ofSaudi Arabia such asstudents.

Table 3: ParticipantsGeographicalDistribution

Please See Table 3 in FullPDF Version

Customers Preference ofService Channels Providedby Mobile CompaniesTable 4 shows customer’spreferences of available

channels to requestservices and/or modifyservices. More than70% ofcustomers across the entiremobile companies callcompany operator for

service- related issues orrequests. Also, 40% of STCcustomers, 44% of Mobilycustomers and only 14% ofZain customers call into theautomated service to get

desired service. About 41%of STC customers, 44% ofMobily customers and 48%of Zain customers usecompany web site to getdesired service.

Percentages of customersusing different channels arequite similar across allcompanies except in Zainself-service.

Table 4: CustomersLoyalty and Satisfaction

Please See Table 4 in FullPDF Version

Mobile CompaniesPerformanceAs seen in our study,providing quality customerservice leads to customer

satisfaction. Satisfaction inturn leads to customerloyalty. In other words,quality customer serviceleads to customer loyaltyand hopefully customer

retention. CustomerRelationship Management(CRM) plays a vital role ininteracting with customers.Ten questions are includedto measure customers’

satisfaction and loyalty. Thefollowing table shows theaverage rates for eachcompany from customersatisfaction and loyaltyperspectives. Table 4 shows

customer satisfaction andcustomer loyalty for thethree mobile telecomcompanies in Saudi Arabia.Numbers are generated byassigning a 5 scale

measure-- 5 for stronglyagree, 4 for agree, 3 forneutral, 2 for disagree and1 for strongly disagree. Allcustomer evaluation scoresare added together for each

factor and then divided bythe number of participantsof each company to getaverage customerresponses for eachcompany. Standard

deviation is calculated forboth indicators and all havereasonable variation.Mobily, for instance, scoresa higher average customersatisfaction rate (3.52 out

of 5) and also a highcustomer loyalty rate aswell (3.4 out of 5). Zaincomes in the secondposition with 3.8 out of 5for customer satisfaction

and 3.23 out of 5 forcustomer loyalty. STCcomes in the last positionwith 2.66 out of 5 forcustomer satisfaction and

2.41 out of 5 for customerloyalty.To measure customerperception aboutcompanies CRM

performance (table 5), wedeveloped a formula tocalculate average customerevaluation for CRMimplementation in eachmobile telecom company

based on the last questionin our survey (How do youevaluate the overallcustomer relationshipmanagement carried out byyour mobile service

provider?). This questionhas 3 choice-answer--excellent, fair and poor.Each of the threecompanies got 3 points foreach excellent rating, 2 for

each fair rating and 1 foreach poor rating. We thenadded ratings for eachcompany and then dividedthe total points by thenumber of participants for

each company andrepresented the ration inpercentage value in thetable. Standard deviation iscalculated to ensurereasonable variation. Also,

table no. 5 showspercentages of customers’ratings for each mobiletelecom company. Forinstance, 50% of Mobilycustomers rated Mobily as

excellent in CRM whereasonly 11.9% of STCcustomers rated it asexcellent in CRM.

Table 5: CustomersOverall Rating for CRM

Please See Table 5 in FullPDF Version

Conclusion

The results for this studyshow that perceived qualityof service for customerservice channels offered by

mobile telecom companiesin Saudi Arabia yield themost influence to customersatisfaction. Furthermore,we have seen thatimprovement of such

customer service providesthe highest customersatisfaction in return. CRMcertainly plays a major rolein providing requiredinformation to customers

through phone in a timelymanner and helps to trackcustomer concerns tomaximize satisfactionlevels. Also, improvingcustomer services should

lead to customer loyalty.Since customer loyalty isinfluenced by customersatisfaction variation, thereare other factors that mightaffect customer loyalty

beyond customersatisfaction factor. Thismight be an interestingsubject to address infurther studies. A furtherstudy needs to be carried

out to investigate rootcauses according to serviceprovider perspective suchas CRM implementation,internal processes andrelated factors. Also, it

might be interesting to findout the reason why wouldMobily for instanceoutperform STC who hasbeen in the market formuch longer time and with

much more capabilities andyet, in a few years Mobilywas able to capture aconsiderable percentage ofmarket share.

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