International Journal of Marketing and Human Resource Management (IJMHRM)

Volume 6, Issue 3, Sep-Dec (2015), pp. 75-82, Article ID: IJMHRM_06_03_008

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ISSN Print: ISSN 0976 6421 and ISSN Online: 0976 643X
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A STUDY ON CUSTOMER SERVICE

EVALUATION IN SECURING CUSTOMER
SATISFACTION
G. Chandramowleeswaran., M.B.A., M.Phil
Research Scholar,
Department of Management Studies,
J.J. College of Arts and Science,
Pudukkottai, Tamilnadu
Dr. K. Uma, M.A., MBA., M.Com., M.Ed., M.Phil., Ph.D
Research Advisor,
Department of Management Studies
J.J. College of Arts and Science,
Pudukkottai, Tamilnadu

Cite This Article: G. Chandramowleeswaran and Dr. K. Uma, A Study on

Customer Service Evaluation In Securing Customer Satisfaction. International
Journal of Marketing and Human Resource Management, 6(3), 2015, pp. 7582.
http://www.iaeme.com/currentissue.asp?JType=IJMHRM&VType=6&IType=3

1. INTRODUCTION
Existing research has suggested that successful company overall performance is
derived from customer satisfaction and that the enhancement of customer satisfaction
is essential for firms. In this regard, studies especially in business-to- Consumers
settings has targeted on more than one attributes that definitely affect consumer
delight and satisfaction.
While assessing drivers of consumer satisfaction in a business-to-commercial
enterprise context, special types of drivers of customer pleasure can be recognized:
elements that have an effect on customers immediately and elements that have an
effect on personnel and therefore have an effect on customer pleasure.
We take a look at the business-to-enterprise context for two reasons. First and
much like research in the commercial enterprise-to-client placing, consumer
perceptions of the service provided influence typical satisfaction evaluations. Second,
studies in commercial enterprise-to-business have demonstrated the pivotal position
of the customer contact employee in securing business customer satisfaction. In

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G. Chandramowleeswaran and Dr. K. Uma

particular, sales employees attitudes, skills, and traits had been shown to influence
customer satisfaction (Homburg and Stock, 2005; Bradford, 2009).
In this regard, three types of variables are particularly important. The first is
salesperson attitude and examine salesperson satisfaction, an area of considerable
research in the sales literature. Job satisfaction refers to an attitude that results from an
evaluative process of expected work environment with the perceived work
environment. In this regard employee satisfaction as satisfaction with the work
atmosphere as well as processes and procedures in the firm.
From a theoretical perspective, consistency theories suggest that attitudes of
related subjects, relationship between sales employee and customer satisfaction adapt
to each other. Thus, it can be expected that satisfied employees will positively
influence customer satisfaction. The second area of interest is the skill in the practice
of selling and utilizing the construct of adaptive selling, a concept that has been
extensively researched still now.
Adaptive selling has proven widely to be related to customer satisfaction, because
it helps reduce the gap between what customer exactly needed and what the sales
employee provide and deliver. The third important variable is salesperson behavior
and character. Another attribute role of dominance, has traditionally examined in sales
literature, positively related to sales performance. At times it can be expected that
dominance can be negatively influence customer satisfaction, because customer might
feel sales employees pushed to buy a particular product or service, which the
customer do not desire to buy.
For managers, it is very importance to understand two different kinds of
satisfaction drivers in order to help in resource allocation. Whether to directly invest
in customer by improving perceptions of service delivered or by indirectly investing
in sales employees? At present sufficient knowledge of customer level drivers
towards satisfaction are available, but very less is known ways to influence customer
satisfaction through employee level drivers. With these important issues this paper
will assess the effect of salespersons attitude, skills and characteristics on customer
satisfaction while controlling for customer perception of the servicer provider.

2. THEORETICAL FRAME WORK

Research on customer satisfaction has a long tradition in marketing in general and in
service marketing in particular (e.g. Syzmanksi and Henard, 2001; Westbrook, 1981;
Zeithaml, 1988). Oliver (1997) defines satisfaction as the consumers fulfillment
response, the degree to which the level of fulfillment is pleasant or unpleasant. Hence,
satisfaction can be characterized as a global affect evaluation or feeling state that is
influenced by perceived performance as the cognitive component of the evaluation
(Oliver, 1997). The expectancy-disconfirmation paradigm (e.g. Oliver, 1997) suggests
that customers compare their expectations to their experiences with a particular
offering, and that expectancy confirmation leads to satisfaction (Bitner, 1990).
Numerous studies have investigated drivers of customer satisfaction in a consumer
setting (e.g. Westbrook, 1981; Zeithaml, 1988). However, when investigating
customer satisfaction in a particular contextual situation (e.g. business-to-business
setting in the interbank business), drivers might be unique to the setting. It is common
practice to use multi-attribute models of satisfaction, wherein the attribute-level
evaluations are considered to be the source of overall customer satisfaction.
Therefore, we conceptualize the customer-level drivers of customer satisfaction along

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A Study on Customer Service Evaluation In Securing Customer Satisfaction

findings from extensive quantitative research conducted by the business-to-business

banking service provider in our study.
Employee satisfaction influences both perceived service quality and a customerfocused culture. Therefore, proponents of the SPC acknowledge the essential
importance of employee satisfaction for managing customer satisfaction (Schlesinger
and Heskett, 1991). Several theoretical approaches have been used to explain the
impact of employee satisfaction on customer satisfaction. Attribution theory would
suggest that salespeople, who perform well and consequently deal with satisfied
customers, also feel more satisfied since they form positive attributions regarding
their success (e.g. Johnson, 2006). However, theories of attitude change such as
balance theory and emotional contagion (e.g. Hatfield, 1994) suggest that stronger
attitudes are more stable and hence less likely to change than are weaker attitudes
Applying research on attitude strength to the employee-customer dyad, the
employee will have a more stable attitude toward their company and the quality of the
services provided. We suggest that if the employee is satisfied but the customer is
dissatisfied with the service, customers will experience psychological tensions based
on dissonance. To overcome these tensions, the employee may emphasize the positive
aspects of the service offering (such as the high quality) to the customer. Moreover,
the customer may change his/her negative attitudes toward the service provider by
observing positive consequences that result from the positive attitude of the employee.
Also consistent with attitude change theories, employees are more likely to
positively influence customer satisfaction if they have the capabilities of addressing
customer needs and of being empathetic. The type of selling technique in which the
salesperson adapts his/her presentation to match the needs of customers is labeled
adaptive selling and customer orientation (Spiro and Weitz, 1990; Weitz, 1986).
Salespeople who practice customer orientation are better able to understand the needs
of their customers and to satisfy them (Spiro and Weitz, 1990; Weitz, 1986; Suja
1988). Consequently, customer orientation will positively influence customer attitudes
such as satisfaction. The goal of customer orientation is to build realistic expectations
about the outcome of an interaction, e.g. the selling of a particular service (Grewal
and Sharma, 1991). Expectancy-disconfirmation allows the anticipation that customer
orientation is likely to reduce the discrepancy between what a customer expects and
what s/he actually receives. By closing this gap, customer satisfaction should increase.
Salespeople who are more skilful at customer orientation will better match the
needs of their customers, leading to higher levels of customer satisfaction. Balance
theory suggests that dominance causes customers to react negatively to a salesperson,
because the customer feels pushed toward an end (e.g. signing a contract or closing a
deal), creating a state of imbalance. If imbalance occurs in service provision, forces
will strive toward re-establishing balance. Dominance, therefore, might also have a
negative effect on customer satisfaction. Customers might feel a loss of control of
their actions. Consequently, expectations about the sales process are not met, leading
to a decrease in the level of customer satisfaction. Consistent with that reasoning,
Husband (1949) found that successful salespersons are not dominant, but are
emotionally well balanced, self-confident, self-sufficient, and extroverted.

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G. Chandramowleeswaran and Dr. K. Uma

3. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

To explore the relationship between Service qualities provides by the employee and
customer satisfaction.

To identify the impact of product quality and value for money towards customer
satisfaction.

To examine the relationship between Customer satisfaction and customer orientation

4. HYPOTHESES OF THE STUDY

Service Qualities provides positive impact towards customer satisfaction.

Product quality and Value for money creates positive impact towards customer
satisfaction.

Customer orientation creates positive impact towards customer satisfaction.

5. METHODOLOGY
The hypotheses formulated based on the objectives of the study are tested against a
matched sample of business to customers of a large sales and service provider HUL,
in Chennai city. HUL sale many products, out of which in this research considered
only the water purifier division. For instance, the customer who had purchased water
purifier from HUL, and received their first service was considered as the population.
The final questionnaires were sent through email to 1020 identified customers, out of
which only 521 questionnaires were returned. In which 509 questionnaire were fully
usable. The response rate is 50% out of the total response. Thus the sample size for
the study is 509.

6. ANALYSIS OVERVIEW
The collected primary data were analyzed with help of appropriate statistical tools like
statistical package for social science and partial least square. The study consists of
dimensions like service quality, Product quality, Value for money, Customer
satisfaction and customer orientation. The dimension service quality consists of 8
individual statements, product quality consists of 5 individual statements, and value
for money consists of 2 individual statements, Customer orientation consists of 5
individual statements and customer satisfaction consists of 5 individual statements.
All the items in the questionnaire are measured using a five point Likert Scaling
technique. The reliability and validity were ensured by checking the average variance
explained (above .5), Composite reliability (above .7 and less than AVE) and
Cronbachs Alpha (above .8). All the dimensions achieved the required cut off criteria.
To check the relationship among the dimensions correlation was used. To check
the cause and effect between the independent and dependent dimensions multiple
regression was used. To test the hypotheses formulated structural equation modeling
was used.

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A Study on Customer Service Evaluation In Securing Customer Satisfaction

6.1. Relationship between Service Evaluation Dimensions

Pearson Correlation
Customer
Sig. (2-tailed)
Satisfaction
N

Service
Quality

Product
Quality

Value for
Money

Customer
Orientation

.819**

.826**

.847**

.772**

.000

.000

.000

.000

509

509

509

509

**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

The relationship between the dependent dimension and predictors were highly
positive and significant. Value for money was highly correlated with customer
satisfaction and significant at (.001) level. The dimension product quality was the
second highly correlated and followed by service quality. Among the four selected
dimensions for service evaluation, customer orientation found to be in the fourth
place, which also highly correlated and significant at (.001) level.

6.2. Cause and Effect between the predictors and dependent variable
6.2.1. Model Summary
Model

.868

R Square Adjusted R Square

.754

.752

F (.Sig)

Std. Error of the

Estimate

385.688
(.000)

.405

Dependent Variable: Customer Satisfaction

Predictors: (Constant), Value for Money, Customer Orientation, Product Quality, Service
Quality

The model summary explains the relationship (R) among predictors, which is
highly inter-related. The R Square value explains that 75.4% out of the total variance
explained. The ANOVA table (F) value 385.688 shows there is significant
relationship between dependent variable and predictors.
6.2.2. Coefficients
Unstandardized
Coefficients
B
Std. Error

Model

Standardized
Coefficients
Beta

Sig.

-3.169

.002

(Constant)

-.431

.136

Customer Orientation

.230

.064

.183

3.590

.000

Service Quality

.124

.093

.091

1.978

.050

Product Quality

.193

.074

.176

2.594

.010

Value for Money

.601

.094

.464

6.387

.000

Dependent Variable: Customer Satisfaction

The above Coefficient table shows that Value for money (.464) has the highest
standard Coefficient beta loading and it is significant at (.001) based on the t-value
which above (1.96), the required criteria. The second highest beta loading found to
customer orientation (.183) and it is significant at (.001) based on the t-value above
(1.96). The third highest beta loading found to be product quality (.176) and it is

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G. Chandramowleeswaran and Dr. K. Uma

significant at (.05) based on the t-value which is above (1.96). The dimension service
quality found to be the lowest, when comparing with other beta loading (.091) and it
is significant at (.05) based on the t-value which is above (1.96).

6.3. Modeling Customer Satisfaction Based on Selected Service Evaluation

Dimensions

6.3.1. Regression Weights

Hypotheses Statements

Estimate

S.E.

C.R.

Customer Satisfaction

<---

Customer Orientation

.230

.064

3.604

***

Customer Satisfaction

<---

Service Quality

.124

.092

1.343

.050

Customer Satisfaction

<---

Product Quality

.193

.074

2.604

.009

Customer Satisfaction

<---

Value for Money

.601

.094

6.412

***

The above structural equation modeling, path analysis regression weights shows
that, if one unit of customer orientation increases, Customer satisfaction will increase
by 230 units, also customer orientation is highly significant with customer
satisfaction. The dimension service quality increase by one unit, customer satisfaction
will increase by 124 units, but service quality is significant at 0.50 level. If the
dimension product quality increases by one unit, customer satisfaction will increase
by 193 units, and it is significant at 0.05 level. If the dimension value for money
increases by one unit, customer satisfaction will increase by 601 units, and its highly
significant at 0.001 level.

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A Study on Customer Service Evaluation In Securing Customer Satisfaction

6.3.2. Covariances
Hypotheses Statements

Estimate

S.E.

C.R.

Product Quality

<-->

Value for Money

.635

.043

14.871

***

Product Quality

<-->

Service Quality

.591

.040

14.690

***

Service Quality

<-->

Customer Orientation

.457

.034

13.639

***

Value for Money

<-->

Service Quality

.549

.036

15.466

***

Value for Money

<-->

Customer Orientation

.493

.036

13.843

***

Product Quality

<-->

Customer Orientation

.673

.045

15.086

***

The above covariance table explains that Product quality and value for money was
in positive direction and increase together 635 units and its positively significant. The
covariance between product quality and service quality is estimated to 591 units,
which positive and significant. The dimensions service quality and customer
orientation was positive and it is estimated to move in positive direction by 457 units
and it is significant. The dimensions value for money and service quality covariance
estimated to 549 units and its significant. The covariance between value for money
and customer orientation is estimated to be 496 units and it is significant. The
covariance between product quality and customer orientation is estimated to be 673,
which positive and highly significant.

7. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

The hypotheses formulated based on the objectives were analyzed and the result is
founded to be accepted. The correlation result explained that all the selected
dimensions for the study were highly positively related and significant. The
evaluation dimensions service quality and customer orientation creates positive
impact towards customer satisfaction. Among the selected four dimensions value for
money was highly correlated. Based on the model summary and coefficient table the
selected predictors, predicts the dependent dimension customer satisfaction 75.4%.
Among the four dimensions value for money is the strongest predictor and service
quality is the weakest predictor of customer satisfaction.
The path analysis explained that value for money and customer orientation was
the strongest predictors of customer satisfaction. All the paths based on hypotheses
were positive and significant.
If the retail employees offer appropriate customer orientation to the customer, the
level of customer satisfaction will be increased and will be ended in both customer
loyalty and positive word of mouth. Service customization is thus indeed an
actionable variable that a service provider can control and position its business
strategically in order to retain customers. Marketing decision makers and retail
managers can make use of the service customization model, which clearly explains
that customer orientation is one of the strongest predictors of customer satisfaction.
Marketers should consider customer orientation as one the important tools and
consider every individual customer is unique and their needs will be different from
customer to customer. By providing individual attentions during selling and service

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G. Chandramowleeswaran and Dr. K. Uma

delivery, will create positive impact towards service quality and customer satisfaction.
Companies differ in level of customer satisfaction and trust. To increase both
customer satisfaction and trust to optimum level, customer orientation is the success
formula. Finally, Customer orientation and service quality are important in predicting
customer service evaluation. Proportionally customer service evaluation dimensions
like customer orientation and service quality secures better customer satisfaction.

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