Does Customer Retention Strategies Matter in the South African Cellphone Industry?

In recent years, the South African cellphone industry has registered a tremendous rise in number of subscribers, with some networks experiencing more than 30 % increase in subscriptions. This paper explores the strategies that have been employed by cellphone companies in South Africa in order to retain subscribers. While previous research has focused on customer retention strategies that are employed across different service industries this study evaluates the retention strategies that have been adopted by the cellphone industry, where players are battling to retain customers or recruit new ones. The evaluation is based on the perceptions of the customers of five cellphone network providers that operate in South Africa. The paper concludes that though there are many customer retention strategies that are employed in the South African cellphone industry, the most effective are those related to quality of service, affordability of service and provision of customer support services