at Penang, April 12-13, 2016. APPLYING A SERVQUAL MODEL TO MEASURE ONLINE CUSTOMER. SATISFACTION IN PACKAGE DELIVERY SERVICES ...
1st International Research Conference on Economic Business and Social Science at Penang, April 12-13, 2016
APPLYING A SERVQUAL MODEL TO MEASURE ONLINE CUSTOMER SATISFACTION IN PACKAGE DELIVERY SERVICES
Ms. Nusrat Hafiz BRAC Business School BRAC University, Dhaka Bangladesh
Dr. A. S. A. Ferdous Alam School of International Studies Universiti Utara Malaysia
Introduction • E-commerce in the form of m-commerce and f-commerce dynamics have revolutionized over the last few years with almost zero-capitalintensive infrastructure, and the right proportion of knowledge and platform selection by the online sellers. • The launching of online startups leads to newer business opportunities for the package delivery service-providers. The carriers catering to online customers serve the key backstage operations to facilitate online purchasing and thereby help boost the ecommerce transactions.
Introduction • As e-commerce growth largely depends on the effective coordination of business-model components, the package management positions itself as the most important component of the business model and a critical backbone of e-commerce. • The paper pioneers to analyze buying behavior of online customers pertaining to the package delivery industry.
Literature Review • The SERVQUAL (service quality model) developed by Parasuraman et al. (1985) is used in this study to help reflect the service excellence. The model offers five dimensions, i.e., tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy; where reliability playing the key dimension. • The emergence of a colossal number of online customers are increasingly taking charge of their shopping experiences by proactively deciding where, how and what they want to buy with their products, the concept of ‘online shopping’ emerges. Li, N. and Zhang, P. (2002) mentioned it as purchasing of the consumers using the internet, which is positively related with the growth of the local package delivery businesses. (Kim, 2015).
Literature Review • Package delivery in this study refers to the delivery of parcels sent by online merchants to online customers, which functionally bridges the online shops and consumers, and offers high potential because of the dependability of online shops and increased customer convenience by it. • Once the package delivery-system recognizes their potencies and flaw, they are better off creating competitive positions for improvement. • The study would indulge the willingness of online retailers to create a complete package of “enhanced online purchasing experience” by creating a synergy with package delivery industry in the long-run.
The Research Question “Do the dimensions in SERVQUAL model have impact in the satisfaction level of online customers towards the services provided by the package delivery providers”?
Research Objective • The objective of the study is to explore the correlation between online customer satisfaction with service quality in the package delivery industry using quality management framework SERVQUAL that measures service quality by measuring customers’ expectations and perceptions towards service they receive.
Research Framework • The pre-research feedback from university students in late-2015 found their f-commerce experience does not meet their expectations in terms of delivery charges, reliability and accuracy by carriers, payment-related safety, timely delivery of the products, accessibility and courtesy-level of the online carrier representatives. • Based on the SERVQUAL model (Parasuraman et al. 1985) approach, the correlations between service quality dimensions and customer satisfaction will be chalked down. • Service quality (SQ) can be defined from the gap between expected service (E) and perceived service (P) by the customers; i.e., SQ= P-E. If the gap between customer expectation and their perceptions of actual experience is low, service quality is deemed high and likewise. The equation can be interpreted by the customers’ perception of service performance.
Research Framework
Service quality dimensions
Expected Service
Tangibility
Customer Satisfaction
Reliability
Responsiveness Assurance Empathy
Perceived Service
Hypotheses •
H1: Online customer satisfaction is high when tangibility is ensured by package delivery companies.
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H2: Online customer satisfaction increases when package delivery representatives are reliable.
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H3: Online customer satisfaction improves with the level of responsiveness of carriers.
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H4: Online customer satisfaction is high when assurance by the package delivery companies is high.
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H5: Online customer satisfaction is positively related with empathy of the carrier personnel.
Methodology In order to collect the primary Data, a survey was conducted between October 2015 and February 2016 among the random population from all over Dhaka city, and 205 usable questionnaires were accepted. The collected data used ordinal Likert scale. The latent variable in this model has high Cronbach's Alpha values, such as: tangibility (.8); reliability (.87); assurance (.85); empathy (.83); responsiveness (.91) and customer satisfaction (.82). Therefore, the reliability level of the questionnaire meets the critical value of 0.7 suggested by Nunnally and Bernstein (1994). The secondary data were collected by reviewing related literatures from international publications of journals, books, and research papers on customer satisfaction and SERVQUAL Model but not limited to package delivery services only.
Demographic Profile of Respondents Particulars
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Age
13-24 (30.24%)
25-40 (51.22%)
41-50 (17.07%)
50< (1.46%)
Sex
Male (56.59%)
Female (43.41%)
Ethnicity
Bangladeshi (100%)
Occupation
Not in occupation yet (Students) (33.33%)
Service taking Length
