Customer Satisfaction On After Sales Service Marketing Essay

Published Date: 23 Mar 2015

Study on customer satisfaction on after sales service of Cargotec CHS Asia Pacific Pte Ltd

The research is a study on customer satisfaction on after sales service of Cargotec CHS Asia Pacific Pte Ltd. Numerous complaint have been received by the Sales and Marketing Department on the quality of aftesof product and service,

basic support service,

recovery services for counteracting bad experience

Extraordinary service.

Most of the researchers such as Fornell (1992) and Oliver (1993) have favored customer satisfaction as a response to an evaluation. Besides, product quality is more related to customer dissatisfaction whereas service quality is more related to customer satisfaction (Oliver, 1993). According to Wellington (1995), the satisfaction elements of after sales service will also include maintained interest and complaint handling. Customer will feel appreciated when complaint handling is responsive and customer is kept informed throughout the process handling. It will help in ensuring repeated orders placement from the customer who will also have the confidence that the organization is receptive and committed to provide the service support.

There are many methods that can be implemented to improve on customer retention. These are service guarantees, regular communication, customer education, personalized service and extraordinary service. With these implementations, opportunity to deliver a product to the customer and continuity of business is greatly enhanced for the organisation. In the service industry, service providers will generate profit from continuous business. If customers are not satisfied with service providers, they will simply change service providers. This is especially true where the customers are given a wide variety of choices in the highly competitive market.

Customer satisfaction is derived from the quality of the service delivery that is expected by customer while being served. The satisfaction level can be measured by comparing the actual service performed versus the customer expectations, through a survey. Service quality is a reflection of the customer's perception of reliability, assurance, responsiveness, empathy and tangibles. Customer satisfaction will be influenced by perceptions of product quality, service quality and service environment. Four main factors such as product quality, service quality, cost and timeliness that contribute most to the customer's overall satisfaction (Nowak and Washburn, 1994).

Quality of product offered in conjunction with service will affect customer's perception of service. Satisfying customers and increasing loyalty of customer are the best way to stay competitive in global marketplace nowadays. The balancing act between customer satisfaction and quality service must be optimized in order to maximize the organization's long term profits.

3.0 Research questions and research objectives

The research questions for the current research are as follows:

What is the current level of customer's satisfaction at Cargotec?

Determine the relationship between customer's satisfaction, product quality and service quality in after sales service.

What are critical factors in service quality that contributes mostly to the satisfaction of customer in Cargotec business environmental?

In addition, the objectives of the proposed study are as follows:

To determine overall customer's satisfaction with Cargotec's products and services.

To determine the three main factors that had influenced customer's satisfaction.

To examine critical factor that contributes mostly to satisfied customer.

To identify Cargotec's customer's perceptions of "key areas of weakness" and "key areas of strength".

4.0 Research Methodology

This proposed study is a case study type, where it will analyze the customer satisfaction of Cargotec organization to identify critical factor(s) that will influence customer's satisfaction. Quantitative research method will be adopted in this study for the gathering of information, forming of categories, analysis and comparison of data collected.

In general, self-administered questionnaire survey is an effective way for efficient collection of certain kinds of information. Closed-ended questionnaire will be form as a survey instrument for the purpose of collecting the main data for the study. Using questionnaire for collecting main data has many advantages like standardized format of response, quick data gathering and access to huge portion in question. Although a questionnaire is a feasible method for this study, designing questionnaire is time-consuming and distribution of questionnaire by postage mail will probably results in low response rate.

The empirical study / pilot study will help to overcome the risks of incomplete data collection. Pilot study may help to make improvement to the questionnaire and reduce the sample base. A good research strategy will require good planning and a pilot study will be a part of the strategy. Pilot study will provide the researcher with ideas, approaches and clues, which may increases the chances of getting clearer findings in the study. It may help to save a lot of time and money.

The required questionnaire is formulated for achieving the objective of this research. Some examples of the questions are as follows:

What qualities of the customer service representative irked you?

â-¡ Not patient â-¡ Didn't listen carefully â-¡ Unfriendly â-¡ Unresponsive â-¡ Not enthusiastic

Are the customer service representatives very courteous?

â-¡ Strongly Agree â-¡ Agree â-¡ Neutral â-¡ Disagree â-¡ Strongly Disagree

Are you satisfied with the waiting time to address your questions?

â-¡ Very Satisfied â-¡ Somewhat satisfied â-¡ Neutral

â-¡ Somewhat dissatisfied â-¡ Very Dissatisfied

Over the next 1 year, how likely are you to replace this brand with other brand?

â-¡ Certain â-¡ High Chance â-¡ Equal Chance â-¡ Low Chance â-¡ Never

In evaluating your recent customer service experience, how was the quality of service you received?

â-¡ Very Satisfied â-¡ Somewhat satisfied â-¡ Neutral

â-¡ Somewhat dissatisfied â-¡ Very Dissatisfied

Would you recommend this brand product to other?

â-¡ Definitely â-¡ Probably â-¡ Might or might not â-¡ Probably not â-¡ Definitely not

Overall, are you satisfied with the product?

â-¡ Extremely Satisfied â-¡ Very Satisfied â-¡ Somewhat Satisfied

â-¡ Unsatisfied â-¡ Very Satisfied

The questionnaire survey will also collect respondents' demographic data for checking whether the sample is appropriately represented. The data collection instrument is designed based on Likert Scale. 200 sets questionnaire survey will distribute to respondents. It expected a convenience sample of 120 respondents was recruited from a number of diverse sources, including walk-in customers. Factors such as population size, time and cost constraints were taken into consideration in selecting sample size.

This research is based on hypotheses testing so as to determine the influence of product quality, services quality, price and other factor towards customer's satisfaction. For this purpose of study, the statistical software package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 17 will be used to compute all the data gathered from the questionnaire. The statistical techniques include Reliability Test (Using SPSS). Reliability test is used to measure internal consistency. Reliability coefficient will be tested using Cronbach's alpha (α) analysis. Cronbach's alpha is a liability coefficient that indicated how well the items in a set are positively related. The descriptive (mean, medium and standard deviation) and inferential analysis (regression) techniques will be used to sum up the data collected.

The researcher has to present the study in report writing format, whereby the finding of the study will be explained. Suitable recommendations will be made based on the findings of the study. It is important for the researcher to be ethical during the research process and adhere to Non disclosure policies such as:

i) Non disclosure of respondents' identities,

ii) Non disclosure of data to third party, etc.

5.0 Expected contribution of the study

From this study, readers will be able to have a better understanding on customer satisfaction, especially factors that will mostly contribute to influence the customer satisfaction in after sales in the service industries. In addition, it will help the management team of Cargotec to:

i) determine the current customer satisfaction levels,

ii) Identify the factors that influence the customer satisfaction

iii) Plan to increase the customer satisfaction according to the weakness of organization.

This study also enables a company to gain great insight about the needs and requirements of customers and acts as a reference feedback on the company's product and service. These feedbacks in the survey will aid in future planning of the company to attune toward a company that is focus on customer service through developing better relationship with customer by improving the product quality, service quality and marketing strategy so as to gain an edge in the competitive marketplace.

6.0 Research Schedule

The schedule to carry out this research as follows:-

Events

Time periods

Conduct literature reviews of research

Two weeks

Form the research titles and structure the research objective.

One weeks

Conduct further literature reviews over research topic by searching secondary resources like journal, business articles and etc.

One weeks

Design self-administrative questionnaire for data collection, conduct pilot study on questionnaire, redesign and improve the questionnaire based on pilot study results.

Two weeks

Distribution questionnaire and collect back the questionnaire.

Two week

Compile and analyze the information collected by using SPSS

Three weeks

Complete report of research

Four weeks

7.0 Research resources

To commence and complete the study, the researcher will require the following:

i) Statistical Software Package for Social Sciences (SPSS)

ii) Hardware equipment: computer, scanner and printer.

iii) Access to library book, journals, and literatures to allow the researcher to do literatures reviews on the research topic.

iv) The participation and cooperation from the respondents required to participate in the questionnaire survey so as to contribute the necessary information required by the study.

8.0 Reference lists

Barsky, Jonathan D. (1995), "World-Class Customer Satisfaction", Richard D. Irwin, Inc., Chicago, USA.

Brown, Stanley A. (1992), "Total Quality Service: How Organisation Use It to Create a Competitive Advantage", Prentice Hall Canada Inc, Scarborough, Ontario, Canada.

Davidow, William H. (1986), Marketing High Technology", The free Press, New York, USA.

Fornell, Claes. (1992), "A National Customer Satisfaction Barometer: The Swedish Experience", Journal of Marketing, Jan, 1992, Vol. 56, No.1, 6-21.

Glanz, Barbara A. (1994), "Building Customer Loyalty: How You Can Help Keep Customers Returning", McGraw-Hill, New York, USA.

Griffin, Jill. (1995), "Customer Loyalty: How to Earn It, How to Keep It", Lexington Books, New York, USA.

Heskett, James L., Jones, Thomas O., Loveman, Gary W., Sasser, W. Earl Jr. And Schlesinger, Leonard A. (1994), "Putting the Service-Profit Chain to Work", Harvard Business Review, Mar-Apr, 1994, Vol. 72, No. 2, 164-174.

Heskett, James L., Jones, Sasser, W. Earl Jr. And Schlesinger, Leonard A. (1997), "The Service Profit Chain", The Free Press, New York, USA.

Oliver, Richard L. (1993), "Cognitive, affective, and attributes base of satisfaction", Journal of Consumer Research, Dec, 1993, Vol. 20, Iss. 3, 418-430.

Riggs, Herry E. (1983), "Managing High Technology Companies", Lifetime Learning Publications, Belmont, California, USA.

Wellington, Patricia. (1995), "Kaizen Strategy for Customer Care", Pitman Publishing, London, UK.