 kind of mandatory regulatory reporting. Some countries require wireless companies to provide the government with statistics about cell locations and network performance as part of their frequency lease agreements. In these situations you can collect factual information about the true quality and coverage that you and your competitors offer. In any other situations you will need to depend on surveys and focus groups. Chapter 14 Image The art and science of determining how well a company's image has been received by the general public and what problems may exist is a well-established part of the public relations and advertising industry's disciplines. Through execution of public opinion polls, focus groups, and other methods, these groups can develop a snapshot of how strong your image is versus the strength of your competition's image. Customer Service The customer service groups of most organizations are equipped with the ability to measure customer satisfaction and the effectiveness of their own efforts based upon their own organization and activity reports. However, figuring out the strength or weakness of your competition's customer service satisfaction is an entirely different issue. Alternative Sources of Competitive Information Except in those situations where direct observation is possible, companies will come to depend on the following to gather their competitive intelligence. These techniques can be used to collect information for all of the factors. Market Research The most common way to collect baseline competitive information is to hire a market research firm to poll the general public and find out exactly what people think. This market research can be extremely helpful and is often the best means possible of evaluating your current situation. Customer Exit Interviews Another extremely useful technique is to survey customers when they are leaving, asking them to rate you for these factors and advise how important these factors are as well as how they perceive any eXcellence in Telecommunications The 