"Industri seluler di Indonesia berkembang dengan sangat pesat. Perkembangan industri ini salah satunya ditengarai dengan tingginya tingkat churn atau perpindahan pelanggan dari satu kartu ke kartu lain. Industri seluler sebagai industri jasa tak bisa dilepaskan dari tiga faktor, yakni teknologi, 107678produk, dan kualitas pelayanan. Kemungkinan churnng intention timbul karena ada peluang berpindah dan perkembangan ketiga faktor tersebut.
Studi ini mempelajari, bahwa dengan meningkatnya churn, PT Indosat sebagai operator seluler terbesar kedua di Indonesia perlu mempelajari alasan-alasan mengapa pelanggan berpindah. Untuk itu perlu melakukan analisa serta menerapkan strategi yang paling tepat untuk meningkatkan kapabilitas faktor-faktor terbaik yaitu dengan mempertahankan pelanggan untuk selalu mempergunakan produk (Customer Retention) dengan meningkatkan kualitas pelayanan (Service Quality) serta mempertahankan keinginan pelanggan untuk selalu membeli kembali produk (Brand Loyalty), karena tidak hanya mempertahankan pelanggan tetapi juga harus disertai dengan peningkatan ARPU (average revenue per user).
Berdasarkan analisa churning intention, diperoleh hal-hal yang berpengaruh terhadap customer switching, yaitu: produk atau jasa yang dikehendaki tidak beredar lagi di pasaran, kebutuhan produk dengan tingkat kualitas yang berbeda, keinginan pelanggan atas produk atau variasi baru, banyaknya operator seluler memungkinkan banyak pilihan produk serta penawaran paket-paket harga ekonomis, teknologi seluler saat ini merupakan produk standar serta standar layanan teknik yang hampir lama, kegagalan pada pelayanan inti serta pelayanan yang tidak memuaskan.Customer satisfaction dan switching barriers merupakan fungsi dari intention to repurchase (brand loyalty). Faktor-faktor yang mempengaruhi customer satisfaction adalah, kualitas produk, kualitas pelayanan, faktor emosi seperti self esteem dan social value, faktor harga dan cost of acquiring, yaitu kemudahan untuk mendapatkan produk atau jasa yang diinginkan. Jones (2000) membagi switching barriers menjadi: strong interpersonal relationship; tingginya kekuatan ikatan personal yang terbangun antara karyawan provider dengan pelanggan, high switching cost; banyaknya waktu, uang dan usaha yang diperlukan oleh pelanggan untuk berganti provider dan high attractiveness of alternatives; banyaknya alternatif pilihan yang menarik yang berada di pasar.
Pada umumnya perusahaan melakukan program marketing yang fokus pada tujuan-tujuan brand centric. Secara sederhana, brand centric marketing lebih fokus kepada bauran pemasaran 4P (product, price, place dan promotion) untuk lebih mengembangkan ekuitas merek serta mendominasi pasar melalui akuisisi pelanggan. Sedangkan customer centric marketing lebih fokus kepada perbaikan tingkat kepuasan pelanggan terhadap produk atau perusahaan. Tujuan utamanya adalah mempertahankan pelanggan dengan membangun loyalitas pelanggan, mendorong meningkatnya penggunaan produk, hubungan jangka panjang dengan pelanggan serta meningkatkan keuntungan jangka panjang melalui peningkatan penggunaan produk.
Customer equity adalah nilai jangka panjang suatu perusahaan yang secara garis besar ditentukan oleh nilai dari hubungan atau relationship suatu perusahaan dengan Para pelanggannya (Rust, Zeithaml and Lemon,2000), atau dengan kata lain nilai suatu pelanggan tidak hanya diukur dari keuntungan secara langsung terhadap perusahaan tetapi juga dari kontribusi dan pelanggan tersebut sepanjang waktu. Sehingga untuk membangun customer equity, perusahaan hams mengelola aktivitas program brand centric marketing dan customer centric marketing secara simultan. Untuk meningkatkan customer equity, perusahaan hams fokus kepada factorfaktor pendorong yang dianggap paling krusial untuk dilakukan, yang meliputi (Rust, et al): a) Value equity, yaitu penafsiran obyektif pelanggan terhadap kegunaan dari suatu produk. Penafsiran ini ditentukan oleh kualitas produk, harga dan kenyamanan. b) Brand equity, penafsiran subyektif dan intangible pelanggan yang dibangun melalui citra dan nilai. Penafsiran ini dipengaruhi oleh brand awareness, sikap pelanggan terhadap produk atau brand serta keberadaan perusahaan itu sendiri, dan c) Relationship equity atau retention equity, kecenderungan subyektif untuk tetap mempergunakan suatu produk yang disebabkan rasa familiar, berat untuk berpindah, atau kepercayaan terhadap personil perusahaan terkait.
Menjadi trend dewasa ini, bahwa pelanggan berperilaku blatant polygamist, yaitu loyal terhadap berbagai produk atau merek; variety seeker, pelanggan yang selalu menunggu peluncuran produk barn dari berbagai operator serta deal seeker, pelanggan yang selalu menunggu program diskon atau penawaran harga murah.
Untuk mengatasi churn dan mempertahankan pelanggan yang ditargetkan, Indosat hares fokus kepada customer equity sebagai instrumen pengembangan strategi segmentasi, karena dengan segmentasi Indosat dapat mempelajari keunikan dan pola-pola pemakaian dari setiap pelanggan serta memperhatikan situasi pada saat invest untuk mengembangkan program-program retention dan hanya desired customers yang layak dipertahankan.
In the last two decades, cellular industry in Indonesia is booming amazingly. As the result, the churn rate has reached astoundingly high levels. Churn means such as consumers who switch from one mortgage provider to another at their next purchase occasion. Cellular as service industry can not be separated form the three factors: technology, product, and service quality. Churning probably occurs because there could be any opportunity to switch from the factors.The study of this paper acknowledges churn as an epidemic, with Indosat being second biggest cellular operator in Indonesia who need to understand churning, need to understand their failures to provide strong. They need to examine their competition to determine how their customers are being easily taken away. To minimize the customers churn, it is crucial to investigate the reasons and to apply the most recommended strategies to increase the best firm's capabilities as to retain the customers using the products (Customer Retention) by increasing the quality of services (Service Quality) and retaining the customers intention to repurchase the products (Brand Loyalty), because not only to retain the customers but also to increase the ARPU (average revenue per user).Based on churning intention analysis, consumers switch for a particular purchase when: the preferred brand is out of stock, competing brands offers better value because of a special promotion, different occasions dictate the need for products of differing levels of quality, and variety or novelty is desired, core service failures and services unsatisfactory.Customer satisfaction and switching barriers are functions of intention to repurchase (brand loyalty). Factors influence customer satisfactions are product quality, service quality, emotion factor like self esteem and social value, price factor and cost of acquiring, the convenience to get desire product or service. Jones (2000) divided switching barriers into: strong interpersonal relationship; strengths of personal bonding built between the employees of the provider with the customers, high switching cost; ample time, money and efforts required to switch to another provider, and high attractiveness of alternatives; many products or services offered in the marketplace. For most firms, marketing has largely focused on brand centric objectives. Simplistically, brand centric marketing can be thought of as manipulating the elements of the marketing mix, referred to as the four P's (product, price, place and promotion) to improve the status or the health of the brand (brand equity), focus on acquiring more customers (conquest marketing). In contrast, the newer perspective: customer centric marketing largely focuses on efforts to improve customers' perceptions of their experiences in using products or services and in relating to the organization itself. The strategies focus on improving customer's level of satisfaction with the product and with the customer experience. The goal of these efforts is to lengthen customer lifetimes and to increase customer's lifetime profits through increased spending.Customer equity is the long-term value of the firm is largely determined by the value of the firm's customer relationship (Rust, Zeithaml and Lemon, 2000). A firm's customer equity is the total of the discounted lifetime values of all its customers, in other words the value of the customer not only in terms of that customer's current profitability, but also with respect to the net discounted contribution stream that firm will realize from the customer overtime. To develop customer equity, the firm need to find a way to manage both acquisition and retention efforts simultaneously, combining the power of the brand and the power of the customer by incorporating both brand centric and customer centric marketing activities.To increase firm's customer equity, firm must focus on the three of customer equity's drivers, by determining which of these equities that has the greatest impact. Customer equity, include (Rust, et al):Value equity, the customer's objective assessment of the utility of a brand. This assessment is driven by the product's quality, price and convenience. b) Brand equity, the customer's subjective and intangible assessment of the brand built through image and meaning. This assessment is influenced by brand awareness, the consumer's attitude toward the brand and the firm's corporate citizenship, and c) Relationship equity or retention equity, a subjective predisposition to stay with a brand because of its familiarity, difficulty of switching, or a trust in the brand's sales staff.In today's world, the solitarily relationships of the past have been eroded, replaced by relationships that are more polygamous. Current customers are more likely to be loyal to a group of brands than to a single brand; variety seeker is motivated by curiosity about and the desire for new experiences in product type and brands and deal seeker, is primarily motivated by price.To minimize churn and to retain the targeted customers, Indosat must focus on customer equity as the segmentation strategy development, because with this segmentation Indosat will understand the unique customers of need, behave, spending and their response functions before investing in some retention or loyalty programs and to strive who are currently or those who show promise of evolving into desired customers."
