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Subscriber strength of 100 million and counting… that’s Bharti Airtel for you! One of the oldest and the largest telecom players in India certainly knows how to take good care of their subscriber base and the latest ICMR and 4Ps B&M research data is testimonial to that fact. Being one of the first players in the Indian telecom industry, Airtel got its hands at the la crème of the Indian consumer-base and over the years it has only strengthened its grip further to stay put at its numero uno spot. “At Airtel the customers are always at the heart of all the things that we do and we take extra effort to ensure their satisfaction,” Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman, Bharti Airtel tells 4Ps B&M the reason why the brand Airtel scores high in terms of customer service in the Indian telecom arena.

In the early days of its existence Airtel was seen more as a premium brand that gelled well with the lives of rich and famous. But, as the competition grew and mobile services became more affordable, Airtel did a seamless transition – from a niche brand to a mass brand that not only was known in all nooks and corner of India, but also appealed to all classes in a similar fashion. In fact, Airtel is always known to offer best in class service to all its subscribers irrespective of whether it is a high usage customer or not. What has now added to Airtel’s advantage is its huge network and its growing reach among the consumers. But then, with competition intensifying in the Indian telecom services market, Airtel now needs to focus more on developing new services, so that it could maintain its leadership in terms of subscriber base and set it apart from its competition.

However, in the past few years there are many first that the company has offered keeping in mind the Indian consumers. For instance, Airtel claims itself to be the first player that offered its customers the lifetime validity option. “We realised that there was a big customer base in India that was using mobile handset only to receive calls and that led us to introduce lifetime validity option on the pre-paid cards. This is a unique offering that is available only in India,” avers Sanjay Kapoor, Deputy CEO, Bharti Airtel. Even at the pricing front Airtel claims itself to be the first operator in India to lower the tariffs for the long distance calls (STD) to a flat rate of Re.1.

Certainly Airtel knew that the key to capitalise on its growth prospects was not only to establish deeper and more personalised relationships with its customers, but also to provide them a consistent, high-quality customer experience. Now that’s how they have travelled sea to shining sea!