Industry overview
What is shaping telecommunications
Telecom operators compete on network experience, price and service across consumer and enterprise markets. Retail and distribution still matter in a digital-first world.
- Network experience drives churn and loyalty
- Data plans and bundles are compared constantly
- Enterprise connectivity needs consultative selling
Client background
A mobile operator, working in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar & West Bengal. Client identity is withheld to protect confidentiality.
- Organisation
- A mobile operator
- Sector
- Telecommunications
- Team engaged
- IT & Development
- Services
- Business panel, Offline data collection (CAPI), Data analytics & dashboards
Client challenge
Recharge and SIM sales depended on small retailers, and the operator wanted to know what drove their loyalty. Competitors were gaining share in smaller towns, where small shops sold most prepaid recharges and new SIM cards. Small retailers sold most prepaid recharges in these regions, but the operator had little visibility of their experience.
Research objectives
- Deliver on the brief: understanding recharge retailers in smaller towns.
- Design around the real needs of retailers.
- Define requirements and success criteria the solution would be tested against.
- Deliver a reliable, secure solution the team can run and extend.
Target audience
The work focused on 3,000 retailers.
- retailers3,000
Audiences we typically reach in telecommunications
Mobile and broadband subscribersRetailers and distributorsEnterprise IT buyersChurned customersTower and infrastructure partners
Geographic coverage
Coverage: Uttar Pradesh, Bihar & West Bengal. Market: India.
- India
Research methodology
An iterative delivery approach: discovery, design, build and test in short cycles, with the client reviewing each step.
- 1Brief
- 2Retailer interviews
- 3Distribution mapping
- 4Insight
We interviewed retailers about margins, stock availability, distributor visits and competitor schemes, and mapped coverage. Interviewers visited retailers in towns and large villages, speaking Hindi and Bengali, and recorded shop locations so coverage gaps could be mapped. Questions explored commissions, payment timing, stock availability and how often distributor staff visited. We also mapped retailer locations to identify villages and towns with weak coverage.
Business panelOffline data collection (CAPI)Data analytics & dashboards
Sampling strategy
- retailers
- 3,000
- Users and stakeholders from every affected team took part in discovery workshops and acceptance testing.
Data collection
- Requirements were gathered through workshops, process walk-throughs and a review of existing systems and data.
Data quality & validation
- Peer code review on every change
- Automated and manual testing
- User-acceptance testing with the client
- Release checklist and rollback plan
Data analysis
- Usage and performance monitoring after launch
- Defect and support-ticket trends
- Process time before and after
Key findings
- Irregular distributor visits caused stock-outs.
Distribution reliability drove retailer loyalty.
Recommendations
- The operator tightened visit schedules.
- The operator also added digital recharge options for retailers to reduce dependence on physical stock.
What we recommended, and the client put into practice
Business impact
- Stock-outs fell in the following months, and retailer loyalty scores improved in districts where visit schedules were enforced.
Deliverables & next steps
- Cleaned data file and data tables
- Interactive dashboard
- Deployed solution with documentation and handover
- Support and maintenance plan
- Repeat the measure after changes are in place to track progress.
- A natural follow-on question: what do enterprise buyers need?
Client identity is withheld to protect confidentiality.