A STUDY ON
CUSTOMER SATISFACTION TOWARDS WHATSAPP WITH REFERENCE TO VISAKHAPATNAM
Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements For the award of the degree of BACHELORS OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION (BUSINESS ANALYTICS)
Submitted by: A.MEHER ANUSHA Regd No. : 1214415104 Under the esteemed guidance of Mrs.P. SOBHA RANI Assistant Professor
GITAM INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT GITAM UNIVERSITY (U/s 3 of UGC Act) VISAKHAPATNAM (2015-18)
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DECLARATION I, the undersigned, hereby declare that, the dissertation entitled “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER SATISFACTION TOWARDS WHATSAPP WITH REFERENCE TO VISAKHAPATNAM” submitted to the requirement for the award of the degree of Bachelor of Business Administration (Business Analytics) is the record of the original work done by me, under the guidance of Mrs.P.Sobha Rani, GITAM Institute of Management. The empirical findings in this report are based on the data collected by me. It was not copied from any other project.
Date:-
A.MEHER ANUSHA
Place:-
Regd No. : 1214415104
2
CERTIFICATE
This is to certify that the project entitled, “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER SATISFACTION TOWARDS WHATSAPP, VISAKHAPATNAM”, is a bonafide work done by Ms. A.MEHER ANUSHA , REGISTERED NO: 1214415104, and is submitted in partial fulfillment
of
the
requirements
for
the
degree
of
Bachelor
of
Business
Administration(Business Analytics) of GITAM University.
Place: Visakhapatnam
Mrs.P.SOBHA RANI
Date:
Assistant Professor
3
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I am thankful to Prof. P.SHEELA, Principal of GITAM institute of management, GITAM University, Vishakhapatnam, for giving me an opportunity to learn and have a study on very important topic of management. I am thankful to Mrs.P.Sobha Rani, project guide who helped me and guided me in completing this project. I am immensely thankful to friends and the respondents who have guided me at every stage in preparing and finishing this project with their valuable suggestions.
A.MEHER ANUSHA Regd No. : 1214415104
4
CONTENT
PAGE NUMBERS
Chapter-1: (i) Introduction
6-8
(ii) Other social messaging apps
9-12
Chapter-2: Methodology-
13-14
i
Research Problem
14
ii
Need of the study
14
iii
Objectives
14
iv
Scope of the study
14
v
Research Design
14
vi
Limitations of the study
14
Chapter-3: Analysis of the data
15-29
Chapter-4: Findings and Observations
30-31
Bibliography
32-33
Annexure
34-38
5
CHAPTER – I INTRODUCTION
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INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY Customer satisfaction is a term frequently used in marketing. It is a measure of how products and services supplied by a company meet or surpass customer expectation. Customer satisfaction is defined as "the number of customers, or percentage of total customers, whose reported experience with a firm, its products, or its services (ratings) exceeds specified satisfaction goals." In a competitive marketplace where businesses compete for customers, customer satisfaction is seen as a key differentiator and increasingly has become a key element of business strategy.
"Within organizations, customer satisfaction ratings can have powerful effects. They focus employees on the importance of fulfilling customers' expectations. Furthermore, when these ratings dip, they warn of problems that can affect sales and profitability.... These metrics quantify an important dynamic. When a brand has loyal customers, it gains positive word-of-mouth marketing, which is both free and highly effective." Therefore, it is essential for businesses to effectively manage customer satisfaction. To be able do this, firms need reliable and representative measures of satisfaction. "In researching satisfaction, firms generally ask customers whether their product or service has met or exceeded expectations. Thus, expectations are a key factor behind satisfaction. When customers have high expectations and the reality falls short, they will be disappointed and will likely rate their experience as less than satisfying. For this reason, a luxury resort, for example, might receive a lower satisfaction rating than a budget motel— even though its facilities and service would be deemed superior in 'absolute' terms."
Customer satisfaction is an ambiguous and abstract concept and the actual manifestation of the state of satisfaction will vary from person to person and product/service to product/service. The state of satisfaction depends on a number of both psychological and physical variables which correlate with satisfaction behaviors such as return and recommend rate. The level of satisfaction can also vary depending on other options the customer may 7
have and other products against which the customer can compare the organization's products. A mobile app is a software application (app) designed to run on mobile devices such as smart phones and tablet computers. Most such devices are sold with several apps bundled as pre-installed software, such as a web browser, email client, calendar, mapping program, and an app for buying music or other media or more apps. Some pre-installed apps can be removed by an ordinary uninstall process, thus leaving more storage space for desired ones. Where the software does not allow this, some devices can be rooted to eliminate the undesired apps. If you go back to the history of the mobile applications, then you can clearly figure out that a few Java games, a calculator or monthly calendar were all that came under the category of mobile apps. However, the first smart phone was announced for the general use by IBM in 1993 that was equipped with the features like calculator, world clock, and calendar and contact book. The BlackBerry Smartphone released in 2002 was the next major achievement in the field of mobile application development and it was marked by BlackBerry Limited, formerly known as Research in Motion Limited (RIM) and integrated with the innovative concept of wireless email. On the 3rd day of April 1973, the first mobile phone call was made by Martin Cooper of Motorola to Dr. Joel S. Engel of Bell Labs. And, it took two decades of Research and development (R&D) to get first mobile application for smart phones, and the credit goes to IBM Simon, who introduced the world with the first mobile apps for smart phones.
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TOPIC RELATED CONCEPTS:WhatsApp messenger is a proprietary, cross-platform instant messaging service for Smart phones without having to pay for SMS. In addition to text messaging, users can send each other images, video and audio media messages as well as their location using integrated mapping features. The client software is available for Google Android, BlackBerry OS, and Apple iOS, selected Nokia Series 40, Symbian, selected Nokia Asha platform, Microsoft Windows Phone and BlackBerry 10. WhatsApp Inc., was founded in 2009 by Brian Acton and Jan Koum, both former employees of Yahoo. After Koum and Acton left Yahoo! in September 2007, the duo traveled to South America as a break from work. At one point they applied for jobs at Face book but were rejected. For the rest of the following years Koum relied on his $400,000 savings from Yahoo. In January 2009, after purchasing an iPhone and realizing that the seven-monthold App Store was about to spawn a whole new industry of apps, he started visiting his friend Alex Fishman in West San Jose where the three would discuss ". Having statuses next to individual names of the people," but this was not possible without an iPhone developer, so Fishman introduced Koum to Igor Solomennikov, a developer in Russia that he had found on RentACoder.com. Koum almost immediately chose the name "WhatsApp" because it sounded like "what's up", and a week later on his birthday, on February 24, 2009, he incorporated WhatsApp Inc. in California. However, early WhatsApp kept crashing or getting stuck and at a particular point, Koum felt like giving up and looking for a new job, upon which Acton encouraged him to wait for a "few more months".
The application eventually launched in November 2009 exclusively on the App Store for the iPhone. In January 2010, support for BlackBerry smart phones was added, and subsequently for Symbian OS in May 2010 and for Android OS in August 2010. In August 2011 a beta for Nokia's non-smart phone OS Series 40was added. A month later support for Windows Phone was added, followed by BlackBerry 10 in March 2013. 9
WhatsApp was switched from a free to paid service to avoid growing too fast, mainly because the primary cost was sending verification texts to users. In December 2009 WhatsApp for the iPhone was updated to send photos. By early 2011, WhatsApp was in the top 20 of all apps in Apple's U.S. App Store. In August 2014, WhatsApp released an update to its Android app, adding support for Android Wear smart watches.
On January 21, 2015, WhatsApp launched WhatsApp Web, a web client which can be used through a web browser by syncing with the mobile device's connection. On February 26, 2016, WhatsApp announced they would cease support for BlackBerry by the end of 2016. In May 2011, a security hole was reported which left WhatsApp user accounts open for session hijacking and packet analysis. WhatsApp communications were not encrypted, and data was sent and received in plaintext, meaning messages could easily be read if packet traces were available. In May 2012 security researchers noticed that new updates of WhatsApp no longer sent messages as plaintext, but the cryptographic method implemented was subsequently described as "broken". In August 2012 the WhatsApp support staff said that messages were encrypted in the "latest version" of the WhatsApp software for iOS and Android (but not BlackBerry, Windows Phone, and Symbian), without specifying the cryptographic method. In February 2014, the public authority for data privacy of the German state of Schleswig-Holstein advised against using WhatsApp, as the service lacked privacy protection such as end-to-end client side encryption technology. WhatsApp started implementing end-to-end encryption in late 2014 and finished in April 2016. From April 5, 2016, end-to-end encryption for all users' communications, including file transfers and voice calls, is supported for users of the latest client, encryption being 10
enabled by default. Competing with a number of Asian-based messaging services (like We Chat (468 million active users), Viber (209 million active users) and LINE (170 million active users), WhatsApp handled ten billion messages per day in August 2012, growing from two billion in April 2012, and one billion the previous October. On June 13, 2013, WhatsApp announced that they had reached their new daily record by processing 27 billion messages. WhatsApp, a dream come true of talking to a friend sitting oceans apart through radio-waves, means absolutely free. This is where WhatsApp walked in to make life easy for Smartphone users. It leveraged on the increasing popularity of the term, ‘stay connected’. Where people wanted staying in touch with their friends and loved ones for as low a price as possible, WhatsApp removed the price aspect from it.
OTHER SOCIAL MESSAGINGAPPS:–
We Chat:
We Chat is a Chinese mobile text and voice messaging communication service developed by Tencent in China, first released in January 2011.
We Chat provides multimedia communication with text messaging, hold-to- talk voice messaging, broadcast (one-to-many) messaging, photo/video sharing, location sharing, and contact information exchange.
WhatsApp has improved itself by introducing voice messaging in its latest modified version, because of the strong competition given by We Chat.
Hike: aspect Hike a cross-platform instant messagingWhatsApp service for smart phonesthe that friends and Messenger loved as low a price as possible, removed price fromones it.is for uses the internet for communication.
Hike is a joint venture between Bharti Enterprises and Softbank. 11
In addition to text messaging, users can send each other graphical stickers, emoticons, images, videos, audios, files, voice messages, contacts and location.
For privacy, Hike uses a 128-bit SSL encryption.
Hike Messenger's new free voice calling feature is meant for Hike-to-Hike calls, and can be used on 2G, 3G and Wi-Fi networks in over 200 countries.
Face book Messenger:
Face book Messenger is an instant messaging service and software application which provides text and voice communication.
Integrated with Face book’s web-based Chat feature, Messenger let’s Face book users chat with friends both on mobile and on the main website.
Twitter:
Twitter is an online social networking and micro-blogging service that enables users to send and read "tweets", which are text messages limited to 140 characters. Registered users can read and post tweets but unregistered users can only read them. Users access Twitter through the website interface, SMS, or mobile device app. Twitter Inc. is based in San Francisco and has offices in New York City, Boston, and San Antonio.
Line:
Line is a Japanese proprietary application for instant messaging on Smartphone’s and PCs. Line users exchange text messages, graphics, video and audio media, and make free VoIP calls, and hold free audio or video conferences. Line, launched in Japan in 2011, reached 100 million users within eighteen months and 200 million users only six months later.
Skype:
Skype is an application that provides video chat and voice call services. Users may exchange such digital documents as images, text, video and any others, and 12
may transmit both text and video messages. Skype was founded in 2003 by Janus Friis from Denmark and Niklas Zennstrom from Sweden. The Skype software was created by the Estonians Ahti Heinla, Priit Kasesalu, and Jaan Tallinn. The first public beta version was released on 29 August 2003.
CHAPTER-2 METHODOLOGY
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RESEARCH PROBLEM:- Customer Satisfaction towards WhatsApp. NEED OF STUDY:The study of this project will help us to know the usage of WhatsApp messaging application by various age groups and also the variety of services that are offered by this application and the level satisfaction among the users.
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY:
To understand the satisfaction level of WhatsApp. To know customer behavior on WhatsApp. To know usage of WhatsApp. To find out key success features of WhatsApp.
SCOPE OF THE STUDY:
My survey was conducted within Visakhapatnam. This study can be carried further in various cities of Andhra Pradesh.
RESEARCH DESIGN:PRIMARY DATA COLLECTION:
Primary data was collected from respondents with sample size 100.
SECONDARY DATA COLLECTION:
Secondary data was collected from the internet and other websites.
SAMPLING SIZE:-100 14
SAMPLING METHOD:-Random Sampling. LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY:Following are some of the limitations I found while doing my research.
I considered Vizag/Gitam region only because of limited time. Findings of the study are based on the assumption that the respondents have given correct information. Respondent bias was one of the major limitations of the research, and there might not be perfect positive response from all the respondents.
CHAPTER-3 ANALYSIS OF THE DATA
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ANALYSIS OF THE DATA:-
Age * usage of social messaging app among public Cross tabulation Count Usage of social messaging app among public
Age
Total
10-20 21-30
WhatsApp 21 45
Face book messenger 4 8
Skype 4 3
Total 29 56
31-40
8
1
1
10
40 and above
4
0
1
5
78
13
9
100
16
INTERPRETATION:
It has been observed that the highest percentage of usage of social messaging apps for the age group 21-30 is 56 percent, in which usage of WhatsApp is 45 percent, Facebook messenger is 8 percent and Skype is 3 percent.
It is also clear that the second highest usage of social messaging apps for the age group 10-20 is 29 percent, in which usage of WhatsApp is 21 percent, Facebook messenger is 4 percent and Skype is 4 percent.
The next highest usage of social messaging apps for the age group 31-40 is 10 percent, in which usage of WhatsApp is 8 percent, Facebook messenger is 1 percent and Skype is 1 percent.
The lowest usage of social messaging apps for the age group 40 and above is 5 percent, in which usage of WhatsApp is 4 percent, Facebook messenger is 0 percent and Skype is 1 percent.
The overall usage of WhatsApp among public is 78 percent, Facebook messenger is 17
13 percent and Skype is 9 percent.
Age * Rating of WhatsApp Cross tabulation Count Rating of WhatsApp Age
Total
10-20
Dissatisfied 2
Neutral 6
Satisfied 17
Most satisfied 4
Total 29
21-30
1
19
24
12
56
31-40
0
4
5
1
10
40 and above
0
3
2
0
5
3
32
48
17
100
18
INTERPRETATION:
It has been observed that the highest rating of WhatsApp for the age group 21-30 is 56 percent, in which 24 percent are satisfied, 19 percent are neutral, 12 percent of users are most satisfied and the 1percent of users is dissatisfied.
The second highest rating of WhatsApp for the age group 10-20 is 29 percent, in which 17 percent are satisfied, 6 percent are neutral, 4 percent of users are most satisfied and the 2 percent of users are dissatisfied.
The next highest rating of WhatsApp for the age group 31-40 is 10 percent, in which 5 percent are satisfied, 4percent are neutral, 1 percent of users are most satisfied and 0 19
percent of the users is dissatisfied.
The lowest rating of WhatsApp for the age group 40 and above is 5 percent, in which 3 percent are neutral, 2 percent are satisfied, 0 percent of users is dissatisfied, 0 percent of users are most satisfied.
Age * Usage of WhatsApp on an active basis Cross tabulation Count Usage of WhatsApp on an active basis
Age
Total
10-20 21-30 31-40 40 and above
All the time 5 15 2 1 23
Most of the time 16 23 6 3 48
20
Sometimes 5 11 1 1 18
Not at all 3 7 1 0 11
Total 29 56 10 5 100
INTERPRETATION:
It has been observed that the highest usage of WhatsApp on an active basis for the age group 21-30 is 56 percent, in which 23 percent of users use WhatsApp “most of the time”, 15 percent use “all the time”,11 percent use “sometimes” and 7 percent of users “not at all” use.
The second highest usage of WhatsApp on active basis for the age group 10-20 is 29 percent, in which 16 percent of users use “most of the time”, 5 percent use “sometimes”, also 5 percent use “all the time”, 3 percent “not at all” use.
The next highest usage of WhatsApp on active basis for the age group 31-40 is 10 percent, in which 6 percent of users use “most of the time”, 2 percent of users use “all 21
the time”, 1 percent use “sometimes”, also 1 percent “not at all” use.
The lowest age group of WhatsApp on active basis for the age group 40 and above is 5percent, in which 3 percent of users use “most of the time”, 1 percent use ‘all the time”, also 1 percent use “sometimes” and 0 percent “not at all” use.
Gender * Rating of WhatsApp Cross tabulation Count
Gender
male female
Total
Dissatisfied 2 1 3
Rating of WhatsApp Neutral Satisfied 17 24 15 32
22
24 48
Most satisfied 9
Total 52
8 17
48 100
INTERPRETATION:
It has been observed that the highest rating of WhatsApp for gender male is 52 percent, in which 24 percent of users are “satisfied”, 17 percent are “neutral”, 9 percent are “most satisfied”, 2 percent of users are “dissatisfied”.
The next highest rating of WhatsApp for gender female is 48 percent, in which 24 percent of users are “satisfied”, 15 percent are “neutral’, 8 percent are “most satisfied”, 1 percent of users are “dissatisfied”.
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The overall rating of WhatsApp based on the gender, 48 percent of the users are “satisfied”, 32 percent are “neutral”, 17 percent are “most satisfied” and only 3 percent is “dissatisfied”.
Gender * Usage WhatsApp on an active basis Cross tabulation Count
Gender
male female
Total
Usage WhatsApp on an active basis All the time Most of the time Sometimes Not at all 15 25 8 4 8 23
23 48
24
10 18
7 11
Total 52 48 100
INTERPRETATION:
It has been observed that the usage of WhatsApp on an active basis based on gender is highest for male by 52 percent, in which 25 percent use WhatsApp “most of the time”, 15 percent use “all the time”, 8 percent use “sometimes “and 4 percent “not at all” use.
The next highest usage of WhatsApp on active basis is female by 48 percent, in which 23 percent use WhatsApp “most of the time”, 10 percent use “sometimes”, 8 percent use WhatsApp “all the time” and 7 percent “not at all use”. 25
48 percent of users in overall use WhatsApp on active basis “most of the time” based on gender, 23 percent use “all the time”, 18 percent use “sometimes”, 11 percent “not at all” use.
Gender * Impressive feature of WhatsApp Cross tabulation Count Impressive feature of WhatsApp
Gender
male female
Total
Total
Ease of navigation/user friendly interface 19
Speed 11
Group Chatting 13
cost 9
52
17 36
14 25
11 24
6 15
48 100
26
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INTERPRETATION:
It has been observed that the impressive feature of WhatsApp based on gender is highest for male by 52 percent, in which 19 percent of users impressed by “ease of navigation”, 13 percent by “group chatting”, 11 percent by “speed” and 9 percent impressed by “cost”.
The next highest is female by 48 percent, in which 17 percent of users are impressed by “ease of navigation”, 14 percent by “speed”, also 11 percent are impressed by “group chatting” and also 6 percent by “cost”.
The overall features that impressed users is “ease of navigation” by 36 percent, 25 percent of the users found “speed” as an impressive feature, 24 percent by “group chatting”, 15 percent impressed by “cost”.
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Age * Impressive feature of WhatsApp Cross tabulation Count Impressive feature of WhatsApp
Age
Total
10-20 21-30
Ease of navigation/use r friendly interface 8 23
31-40 40 and above
Total
Speed 4 18
Group Chatting 10 10
Cost 7 5
29 56
3
2
3
2
10
2
1
1
1
5
36
25
24
15
100
29
INTERPRETATION:
It has been observed that the impressive features of WhatsApp between the age group 21-30 is 56 percent, in which 23 percent of users found “ease of navigation” as an impressive feature, 18 percent for “speed”, 10 percent for “group chatting” and 5 percent for “cost”.
Between the age group 10-20, 10 percent of the users are impressed by the feature “group chatting”, 8 percent for “ease of navigation”, 7 percent for “cost” and 4 percent for “speed”.
For the age group 31-40, 3 percent of the users are impressed by the feature “ease of the navigation”, also 3 percent for “group chatting”, 2 percent for “speed” and also 2 percent for its “cost”.
And for the age group 40 and above, 2 percent of the users are impressed by the feature “ease of navigation”, 1 percent for its “speed”, 1 percent for “group chatting” and 1 percent for its “cost”.
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CHAPTER-4 FINDINGS AND OBSERVATIONS
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FINDINGS AND OBSERVATIONS:
The usage of social messaging app is highest in WhatsApp than Facebook messenger and Skype.
WhatsApp has been in market for quite some time and is being used by most and
offers functionality like text based messaging and files transfers. WhatsApp is clearly emerging as an alternate for SMS and MMS messaging. WhatsApp is mostly popular among youth & working professionals. Word of mouth is major source of spreading of WhatsApp popularity. The ease of navigation is considered as the most impressive feature of WhatsApp. It has been concluded that the rating of WhatsApp is highest for “satisfied”. The usage of WhatsApp on active basis is highest for “most of the time”.
The overall rating of WhatsApp based on gender is highest in male than female.
The majority of users based on gender found “ease of navigation” as an impressive
feature followed by “group chatting”. “Ease of navigation” is considered as the most impressive feature of WhatsApp.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
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BIBLIOGRAPHY:BOOKS:
Naresh K. Malhotra, “Marketing Research: An Applied Orientation”4th Edition. Prentice Hall, 2004.
Philip Kotler, Kevin Lane Keller, Abraham Koshy, Mithileshwar Jha, “Marketing Management – A south Indian perspective”- 13th edition. Pearson Education, 2009.
WEBSITES:
https://www.whatsapp.com/
http://www.cxotoday.com/story/is-whatsapp-overtaking-the-sms-soon/
http://nivedithg.blogspot.in/2012/10/wechat-mobile-app-review.html
http://www.statista.com
http://www.frost.com/c/10392/blog/blog-display.do?id=3313452
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ANNEXURE
35
CUSTOMER SATISFACTION TOWARDS WHATSAPP
1. Name:2. Age: (a) 10-20 (b) 21-30 (c) 31-40 (d) 40 and Above 3. Gender:4. Which social messaging app do you use? (a) WhatsApp
(b) Face book messenger
(c) We chat
(d) Twitter
(e) Skype
(f) others (specify)
5. Do you want to be in touch with the people by using apps? (a)Yes
(b) No
6. What do you prefer more for staying in touch with people on your phone? (a)Social messaging apps (b) Voice calls (c) SMS (d) E-mail 7. Do you use WhatsApp on an active basis? (a) All the time (b) Most of the time (c) Sometimes (d) Not at all
36
IF YOUR ANSWER TO QUESTION 4 IS [ALWAYS],
[MOST
OF THE TIME], [SOMETIMES] SKIP QUESTION 5
8. Tick the reason(s) why you do not use WhatsApp. (a)Did not know WhatsApp existed (b)Not enough friends using the same application (c)No data plan/lack of easy access to Wi-Fi (d)Using alternate messenger (Fb, we chat etc.) 9. Have you purchased Smartphone, only because you can use WhatsApp? (a) Yes (b) No 10. From which medium you came to know about WhatsApp? (a) Word of mouth (b) Internet (c) Advertisement (d) Newspaper 11. Which WhatsApp features impresses you? (a)Ease of navigation/user friendly interface (b)Speed (c)Group Chatting (d)Cost
37
12. Which features you would like to suggest in WhatsApp to enhance its appeal? (a)Video calling services (b)Support to PC’s to PC’s/phone vice versa (c)Increase group chat participants from 30. (d)Privacy-who can view and add. (e) Others (specify) 13. How long do you have the experience of using WhatsApp? (a) Recently using (b) 3 to 6 years (c)More than 6 months (d)Above 1 year 14. Do you think using WhatsApp can help improve your relationship with family members and friends? (a)Yes (b) No 15. Do you make more spelling errors of English words in your subjects after using WhatsApp? (a)Yes (b) No
38
16. Do you depend on WhatsApp for most of your communication than phone calls? (a)Yes (b) No 17. Do you think using WhatsApp harms you? (a)Yes (b) No 18. Why do you keep using even though you know it’s harmful? (a)Too convenient and user friendly (b) I can have a feeling of belonging to a social group (C) I can find friends to express my emotions freely in a quick way when I feel bored (d)Others (specify) 19. As a social messaging application, how would you rate whatsapp? (a) Least satisfied (b) Dissatisfied (c) Neutral (d) Satisfied (e) Most satisfied
39
40
41
