Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Abstract
This research aims to investigate the relationship between the service quality and customer
satisfaction in Auto Bavaria Glenmarie by using SERVQUAL analysis. It also aims to
examine the influence and effect of applying quality service towards customer satisfaction
and to identify which of the five (5) dimensions of SERVQUAL has the greatest influence
on customers satisfaction. The five dimensions of SERVQUAL, which are tangibles,
reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy, are the identified independent variables,
while customer satisfaction as the identified dependent variable. Each of the dimensions of
SERVQUAL was tested to determine and measure the relationship with customer
satisfaction. Besides that, this study also wants to concentrate on the customers perception
and evaluation toward service performance in Auto Bavaria. The questionnaires were filled
by the customers who already purchase products and engaging the service at Auto Bavaria
and also customer who come to Auto Bavarias showroom and intend to buy cars or
motorcycles at Auto Bavaria. A total of 200 respondents participated in the survey. The
participating respondents represented a return rate of __% after distribute the questionnaire
directly to the respondents, email and mail.
Key words: Service quality, SERVQUAL, Customer satisfaction, Auto Bavaria
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1
Background of Study
In this chapter, we will discuss the service quality concept, its importance for
practitioners especially the manager, retailer and the sales advisor in Auto Bavaria
itself. This research will discuss on how the concept is being measured and outline
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various models of service quality and introduce the SERVQUAL model in particular.
Furthermore, at the same time this study will highlighting why it is of particular
interest to study the relation between service quality and customer satisfaction in
Auto Bavaria Glenmarie and why SERVQUAL model is apply in this research.
Service quality is an approach to manage a business processes in order to ensure full
satisfaction of the customers which will help to increase competitiveness and
effectiveness of the service industry especially in Auto Bavaria. Quality in service is
very important especially for the growth and development of service sector business
enterprises (Rahaman et al, 2011). It works as a factor of customer satisfaction
(Ruyter and Bloemer, 1995). With the increase of the importance of service sector in
Malaysian economy, the measurements of service quality become important. ISO
standards are one of the popular measurement tools of service quality, where quality
is defined as the totality of features and characteristics of a product, process or
service (Islam & Ahmed, 2005). Auto Bavaria is consequently put into lot of
pressures due towards increase in global competition whether the competition
among the other BMWs Malaysian dealer itself and also other car brand
manufacturers whether locally or internationally. Different strategies are formulated
to retain the customer and the key of it is to increase the service quality level.
Typically, in automotive sectors, customers perceive difference cars service for
different type of car brands. Parasuraman et. al (1985) and Zeithaml et., al (1990)
noted that the key strategy for the success and survival of any business institution is
the deliverance of quality services to customers. The quality of services offered will
determine customer satisfaction and long term loyalty (Naik et al. 2010).
Figure 1
Based on the figure above, Parasuraman et al. (1985) has initially identified 97
attributes which were found to have an impact on service quality. These 97 attributes
were the important criteria to enhance the customers expectations and perceptions
on delivered service. However, all these attributes fit into ten dimensions and later
being condensed into five dimensions of service quality (Parasuraman et al., 1988)
because of the overlap across the ten criteria (Jannadi and Al-Saggaf, 2000). Finally,
the best five dimensions to measure the service quality are; tangibility, reliability,
responsiveness, assurance and empathy.
A SERVQUAL dimension is a good scale to measure the service quality
performance in various specific industries. In this regard, researcher uses this model
because it takes deep attention on customers expectation and perception of service
provided at an organization (Shahin, 2005, p.3). Parasuramans SERVQUAL model
is widely used to measure perceived service quality in various industry such as
retailing, restaurants, banking, telecommunication, services, airline, catering, hotels,
hospitals, automotives, education and so on (Ladhari, 2009).
Parasuraman et al. (1985) also found that the customers perception of service
quality depends on the range of gap distance between the customer expects before
receive a service in a service centre and what he or she actually perceive after see
and use the service by their own. Thus, service quality is in fact defined as the gap
between customers expectation of service and their perception of the service
experience. A service quality gap exists when there are shortfall occur in which the
service provider would like to close (Lewis et al., 1994). For examples, insufficient
of sales, planning procedures and marketing research, organization do not focus on
the demand quality, unsystematic service development service, lack of personnel
training and so forth. This gap model is one of the best-received discoveries, a
practice of problem solving and most heuristically valuable contributions to the
service literature according to Brown and Bond (1995).
1.2
1.2.1
Background of Company
Auto Bavaria
Auto Bavaria is the largest retail and service organization of BMW, MINI Cooper
and Motorrad (Motorcycle, Scooter & Superbike) in Malaysia. This is one of the
famous brands of Sime Darby Motor Division Sdn Bhd. Establish in 1988; Auto
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Bavarias organization comprises of fully trained technicians and employees and has
a wide range of parts and accessories together with a comprehensive range of
equipment that only an authorized BMW dealer can provide. In order to give a good
performance whether among the staff or the customer, Auto Bavaria use centralized
online system at all Auto Bavaria branches, thus it helps to link online the
customers service history with more efficient.
Over the years, Auto Bavaria has successfully built BMW into one of the most
desirable luxury automotive brands in the country. Today, Auto Bavarias nationwide
network infrastructure comprises five branches, namely Glenmarie, Sungai Besi,
Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Johor Bahru. Auto Bavaria Glenmarie and Penang also
houses the BMW Motorrad and MINI Cooper showroom. In addition, our BMW
Premium Selection centre is in Glenmarie and Kuala Lumpur. Auto Bavaria has the
competitive advantage among the others competitors dealer in Malaysia such as
Ingress, Quill, Pendragon, Wearness Autohous, Regas and Tian Siang. It is because
Auto Bavaria contributes majority of shares in BMW Malaysia.
Every Auto Bavaria branch is staffed with passionate professionals dedicated to
providing world class sales and aftersales service that beyond the customers
expectations. In benchmarking Auto Bavaria against the best BMW dealers in the
world, they make customer satisfaction as the top priority at Auto Bavaria. They
record possibly the highest man hours in training annually in the local automotive
industry to keep our staff on top of the latest innovations and technologies and
constantly review processes to improve efficiency. At Auto Bavaria, they are
committed to making the customers BMW experience extend beyond their
purchase.
Auto Bavaria products includes BMW cars (1 series, 3 series, 5 series, 6 series, 7
series, x series, z4, m series, and hybrid cars) BMW Bikes and also known as
Motorrad (Sport, Tour, Roadster, Enduro, and Urban mobility), MINI Cooper
(MINI, MINI Coupe, MINI Cabrio, MINI Clubman, MINI Countryman, MINI
Paceman, MINI John Cooper, MINI Bayswater, and MINI Baker Street).
Besides providing new car from the factory, Auto Bavaria also offer used car for the
customer. This package is known as BMW Premium Selection (BPS) since 2008.
Even the customer owned used car from the BMW products especially at Auto
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Bavaria, they will get full advantage of buying this type of car same with the
customer who buy a new car. It is because, Auto Bavaria only offer recent BMW
models with low mileage and complete service history will be considered. To make
the cut, all vehicles then undergo a thorough car services includes systems,
mechanisms and safety components. Used car prices with the new car security and
warranty, which is the promise.
On the other hand, Auto Bavaria offers the customer opportunity to trade in their old
BMW car to a new one. Based on the terms and technical appraisals, Auto Bavaria
will be able to provide the customer with a fair trade in price for the customers to
own a new car.
In short, whether the customer are looking to buy or trade in, rest assured that Auto
Bavarias team of experts will personally help the customer browse for a car to suit
their finance and lifestyle. The customers trust and confidence in Auto Bavarias
team become the first priority and also committed in helping the customer enjoy the
sheer driving pleasure with BMW.
1.3
Problem Statement
In this globalization era, customers are exposed with varieties of quality car whether
by locally or internationally. Even the well known Malaysian car manufacturer,
Proton also generates a lot of innovative ideas in producing new car accordance with
the science and technologies development and also the demands from the customer.
For examples, the latest production from Proton are Proton Preve and Proton
Suprema S. Both cars are complete with the modern technologies and gadget
application for the drivers facilities.
Nowadays, Malaysian consumers are more interested with the car that manufactured
by Korea and Japan companies such as Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, Mitsubishi, Nissan,
Subaru, Mazda, Lexus, Kia and Suzuki. Product from the east countries especially
these two countries become the consumer current choice instead of buying the
Europe car. It is because the qualities offered by them are very good indeed and they
also have loyalty program for their customers.
Besides that, Auto Bavaria also competes with other BMW Malaysia car dealer such
as Ingress, Quill, Wearness Autohous, Regas and so on. The competition between
the BMW (Malaysia) car dealers mainly based on service pattern, service quality,
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and customers expectation. Even though they sell the same product as Auto
Bavaria, being different and perform quality in terms of customer service compared
to the other dealer is also can be one of the strategies to promote the consumers to
prefer Auto Bavaria.
Auto Bavaria need to do something or doing research on competitors out there
especially in Malaysian market. In addition, the Malaysian government has
announced that the pricing of regulated RON 95 increased by 20 cent per litre
starting on 3rd September 2013. According to White (2013), the author of Los
Angeles Times, when the gasoline prices increase, consumers preferably would like
to buy the small economy car.
By offering quality and effective customer service plus with the product quality
itself, it can make Auto Bavaria different from the other car dealer. Even when
Malaysias gasoline price increase, the customer will think that buying a car at Auto
Bavaria is not a regret infact it was an investment of buying car at Auto Bavaria.
Actually, when customer service meets or exceeds the customer expectations, the
customer start to put confident and trust towards the companys abilities and thus
inclined and willing to spend more money to purchase the companys products or
services. So, in this research, there are a lot of question can be roll out in order to
maintain the service quality such as what are the key measurements of service
quality in Auto Bavaria? Does Auto Bavaria know how customer evaluates their
service quality? Does Auto Bavaria need any improvement regarding to maintain or
enhance their best quality service to customers? What are the different between Auto
Bavaria and the other dealer?
1.4
Research Questions
In this study, there are few questions have been generate to answer the following
questions about the service quality dimension (SERVQUAL) and customer
satisfaction. The research study will be guided by the following research question
for the investigations as follows:
What is the relationship between the service tangibility and customer
1.5
Research Objectives
This study is undertaken to investigate the relationship between the service quality
and its impact on customer satisfaction. It will focus on the relationship of the four
(5) independent variables of SERVQUAL model (Spreitzer, 1995) which are
tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy with the identified
dependent variable; customer satisfaction.
The objectives of the study are:
To determine the relationship between service tangibility and the customer
1.6
Theoretical Framework
A theoretical framework consists of concepts, variables, definitions, and existing
theories that are used by researcher for particular study. According to Dr Norzaidi
(2013), the selection of variables in a study must have the characteristics that can be
measured and it is important especially when creating and designing a questionnaire.
Theoretical framework must demonstrate an understanding of theories and concepts
that are relevant to the topic of research paper.
Theoretical framework is not something that can be found readily in a literature.
Researcher must review course readings and pertinent literature such as journals and
articles in order to search related theories and analytic models that are relevant to
SERVQUAL model. Selection of a theory should depend on its appropriateness,
ease of application, and the explanation itself (Trochim, 2006).
Introduction
This chapter presents the overview of current literature in the frame of the presented
research problem. Each of the bodies of literature is discussed which is focus on the
specific nature of the relevant literatures that relates to this study.
A literature review is a step-by-step process that involves the identification of
published and unpublished work from secondary data sources on the topic interest,
the evaluation of this work in relation to the problem and the documentation of this
work (Sekaran & Bougie, 2009, p.38). Therefore, in this study, each independent
variables and a dependent variable will be reviewed on previous studies that are
related to this topic.
2.1
Review of literature
2.1.1
Service
It is important to distinguish between service and goods. Goods are most tangible
which can be refer as an object that the customer can see, touch or taste while
services based on the business perspectives are more of a valuable action, a deed,
performance or an effort to satisfy a need and fulfil the demand from the customer
(Rouse,2012). There are many definitions of services in the literature may depend on
the scholars and focus on a specific research (Groonros, 2001). However, one of the
most important and unique characteristics of services is that services are processes,
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not things, which mean that a service firm has no product or does not produce a
tangible commodity and only an interactive process. Groonros (2001) offer a
comprehensive definition of services where services is "an activity or series of
activities of a more or less intangible nature than normal, but not necessarily, take
place in the interaction between the customer and the service employees and/or
physical resources or goods and/or systems of the service provider, which are
provided as solutions to customer problems".
2.1.2
Quality
There are many definitions of quality derived from uncountable philosophies. One
of them is a Romanian engineer, Joseph M. Juran also have his own point of view
regarding to the quality meaning. Juran (1988), in the business perspective state that
qualities are those features of products which meet customer needs and thereby
provide customer satisfaction. The purpose of such higher quality is to provide
greater customer satisfaction. However, providing more or better quality features
usually requires an investment and hence usually involves increases in costs.
Deming (1970) on the other hand states that good quality means a predictable degree
of uniformity and dependability with a quality standard suited to the customer.
Besides that, according to Deming the customer's definition of quality is the only
definition that matters. However, from reviewing articles on quality, it has been
found that early research has been focusing on defining and measuring the quality of
tangible goods and products (Garvin, 1988, Juran 1988) while the more challenging
service sector was disregarded.
Crosby (1979) defined quality of goods as "conformance to requirements"; Garvin
(1988) identified internal (those observed before a product left a factory) and
external (those incurred in the field after a product had been delivered and installed)
failures and measured quality by counting the malfunctions. Parasuraman, Zeithaml
and Berry (1985) stated that it may inappropriate to use a product-based definition
of quality when studying the service sector and therefore developed the expression
of "service quality". For this particular study, only one definition was chosen and
used for it to fit the purpose. Considering the research questions and branch studied,
Parasuraman et al.,(1985) definition of quality has been used.
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2.1.3
SERVQUAL Dimensions
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customer service representatives at Auto Bavaria can show respect for any customer
who come to the store and being polite to them.
Empathy quality which is the last dimension on SERVQUAL Model is a caring,
ability to be approachable, and giving individual attention that the company can
provides to the customers. For examples in Auto Bavaria, the sales representatives
can be a good listener to what customers want and need.
2.1.4
Customer Satisfaction
CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY
Introduction
This chapter is focused on the approach of the study. Chapter Three will have discussion
on research design, data and information collection methods, the design of the
questionnaire, sampling design and so forth. On the other hand, the methods of data
analysis which consists of factor analysis, reliability test, descriptive statistics, mean aid
on development of hypotheses for this study.
Research Design
Research design is the important step to gather and analyze the imperative data and
assist to find the location of the study, sample size, population and so on. (Sekaran &
Bougie, 2009, p.102). It also includes the identifications of the five independent
variables in this research namely as tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and
empathy.
Quantitative Design
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the potential customer at Auto Bavaria Glenmarie. In fact, the sampling location for the
survey is the various sales area in Auto Bavaria Glenmarie such as the sales and service
area of BMW cars, Motorrad (Motorcycle, bike, & scooter), MINI Cooper cars and after
sales areas, parts, accessories and gift areas, customer services department, cars service
and so on . Auto Bavaria Glenmarie, which is a headquarter branch was selected as the
representative of all Auto Bavarias branches (Sg. Besi, Kuala Lumpur, Johor Bahru,
Penang) in Malaysia. The store is located at Auto Bavaria, Sime Darby Motor Division
Sdn Bhd, 3A, Persiaran Kerjaya, Section U1, Glenmarie, 40150 Shah Alam, Selangor.
3.3 Sampling Elements
The respondents in this study referred to customers who perceived the service at Auto
Bavaria Glenmarie Branch. . Total of 200 populations range from 20 to 70 years old
were selected for this study. Besides that, it also includes foreign respondents since Auto
Bavarias market are wide and international. The reason to choose these sampling
elements are because they are the main subject in this research since the research topic
is about the service satisfaction received by the customer and there are only few obstacle
in language issues since most of the customers understand and using English very well.
3.4 Sampling Technique
In this study, simple random sampling technique was selected. To assess customer's
perceptions on quality of service at Auto Bavaria, researcher has to get organized
sampling frame. To accomplish this, researcher will go through companys customer
records and history to identify the customers information such as email, home or office
address.
Then, researcher has to draw the sample. Decide on the number of respondents
researcher would like to have in the final sample. In this research, researcher want to
select 200 respondents to survey and that there were thousands customers over the past
12 months. Now, to draw the sample, researcher has several options. A mechanical
procedure is very feasible, effective and with the development of inexpensive computers
there is a much easier way. Here is a simple procedure that is especially useful because
researcher already have the customers information on the computer. Many computer
programs can generate a series of random numbers. It can be done through EXCEL
spreadsheet. Researcher can use the function =RAND() in formula text box which is
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REFERENCES
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Application
of
SERVQUAL
in
Mainland
Chinas
Mobile
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Ensuring Service
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