A Report On

Measuring Passenger’s Satisfaction towards

Service Quality of Sakura Paribahan

Course Code: AES-315

Course Title: Research Methodology

Submitted to
Mahamudul Hasan
Lecturer
Department of Marketing
Faculty of Business Administration & Management,
Patuakhali Science & Technology University.

Submitted by
Group- D2
Level-III; Semester-I
Faculty of Business Administration & Management
Patuakhali Science & Technology University

Date of Submission: 29 May, 2019

Patuakhali Science & Technology University
Dumki, Patuakhali-8602
 Group Profile

SL Members Name ID No. Reg. No. Marks

1 MD. Ashraful Alom Khan 1603060 06628

2 Faysalur Rahman 1603064 06632

3 Mohammad Rashed Shaharia 1603065 06633

4 Akash Chandra 1603068 06636

5 Shaiek Ahmed (Group Leader) 1603074 06642

6 MD. Junayed 1603076 06644

7 Sudipto Barai 1603078 06646

8 Md. Alife Hossain 1603079 06647

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Department of Marketing
Faculty of Business Administration & Management
Patuakhali Science & Technology University

29 May, 2019
Mahamudul Hassan
Lecturer
Department of Marketing,
Faculty of Business Administration & Management.

Subject: Letter of Authorization

Dear Sir,
This is our truthful declaration that the report on “Measuring Passenger’s Satisfaction
towards Service Quality of Sakura Paribahan” is not a copy of any research report or
book previously made by any other group. I also express my honest confirmation in support
of the fact that the report has neither been used before to fulfill any other course related
purposes and not it will be submitted to any other person or authority in future.

With best regards

Sincerely Yours,
Shaiek Ahmed
On behalf of the Group: D2
BBA Program (L-III, S-I)
Faculty of Business Administration & Management
Patuakhali Science & Technology University

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Department of Marketing
Faculty of Business Administration & Management
Patuakhali Science & Technology University

29 May, 2019
Mahamudul Hassan
Lecturer
Department of Marketing,
Faculty of Business Administration & Management.

Subject: Letter of Transmittal

Dear Sir,
We are grateful to you, that you have assigned us to submit a term paper on “Measuring
Passenger’s Satisfaction towards Service Quality of Sakura Paribahan” as a partial
requirement of the course “Research Methodolgy (Course Code: AES-315)”. While
preparing this report we faced several problems but these were removed by the sweet help of
concerned course teacher. We are now very much pleasure to gather much experience by
making this report.
We, therefore, would like to request you to accept our report & at last, thank you for assigning
us the report.

With best regards

Sincerely Yours,
Shaiek Ahmed
On behalf of the Group: D2
BBA Program (L-III, S-I)
Faculty of Business Administration & Management
Patuakhali Science & Technology University

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

At first we desire to express our deepest sense of gratitude of almighty Allah.

Than we want to give our hearty thanks and cordial respect to our honorable course teacher
Mahamudul Hasan, Lecturer, Department of Marketing, Faculty of Business Administration
& Management, Patuakhali Science and Technology University, who assigned us to prepare
this report “Measuring Passenger’s Satisfaction towards Service Quality of Sakura
Paribahan” and helped us with his support, encouragement and expertise knowledge. I am
also deeply would like to give thanks to the higher helpful body of Group-D2 who helped me
by information to prepare this report.

Finally, I would like to express that this report has been prepared with based on my experiences
and information provided by the authority, but there could have been unwilling errors and
lickings which are belongs to me as a human being.

Shaiek Ahmed
Group Leader
On the behalf of
Group- D2
Faculty of Business Administration & Management

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 Table of Contents

Executive Summary .......................................................................................................................... 6

1. Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 7
1.1 Objectives of the Study: ........................................................................................................... 8
1.1.1 Primary Objective: ............................................................................................................ 8
1.1.2 Secondary Objectives: ....................................................................................................... 8
1.2 Research Questions .................................................................................................................. 8
1.3 Hypothesis ............................................................................................................................... 9
2. Literature Review .......................................................................................................................... 9
2.1 Customer Satisfaction .............................................................................................................. 9
2.2 Bus Service in Bangladesh ..................................................................................................... 10
2.3 Customer Satisfaction toward Bus Service ............................................................................. 10
2.4 Service Quality ...................................................................................................................... 11
2.5 Service Quality Dimension .................................................................................................... 11
3. Methodology ............................................................................................................................... 12
3.1 Population: ............................................................................................................................ 12
3.2 Sampling Technique & Sample Size: ..................................................................................... 12
3.3 Questionnaire Design: ............................................................................................................ 12
3.4 Data Collection: ..................................................................................................................... 12
3.5 Data Analysis: ....................................................................................................................... 13
4. Result & Discussion .................................................................................................................... 14
4.1 Demographic Profile & General Result .................................................................................. 14
4.2 Test of Hypothesis ................................................................................................................. 16
5. Findings & Recommendation....................................................................................................... 20
5.1 Findings ................................................................................................................................. 20
5.2 Recommendation ................................................................................................................... 20
6. Conclusion .................................................................................................................................. 21
References....................................................................................................................................... 22

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 Executive Summary
The main aim of this study is threefold. First, it tries to assess the passenger satisfaction with
Sakura bus transport services in the Barisal to Dhaka route. Second, it tries to examine the
service quality attributes that influence the passenger satisfaction. Third, it tries to evaluate the
relative importance of service quality attributes to find out the priority for service quality
improvements to enhance passenger satisfaction. In this study a hypotheses testing is
undertaken on the data to verify the SERVQUAL dimensions used to measure the customer
satisfaction. SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Science) Version 20 software packages were
used in this study. The SERVQUAL model (Tangibility, Reliability, Responsiveness, Empathy
and Assurance) is applied to discover the customers’ satisfaction towards Sakura Bus services.
The study is based on a survey questionnaire conducted between Marchs to April 2019. Total
70 respondents were selected to elicit their overall satisfaction and factors that influence their
satisfaction which was conducted in Barishal division. The primary data was collected from
the PSTU students who travel by Sakura bus which was used to measure the passenger’s
satisfaction through ANOVA model. The secondary data was collected from articles, journals
and online resources. The study revealed that there is positive relationship between the
Reliability, Tangibility, Responsiveness, Assurance, Empathy factors affecting passenger’s
satisfaction.

Keywords: SERVQUAL dimensions, Passenger’s satisfaction, Sakura Bus Service.

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1. Introduction

Bus service performs a significant function for movement of considerable number of people in
developing cities where the mobility needs are increasing due to rapid urbanization. Although
buses play the crucial role in any urban areas, their services as a main mode of mass transport
are commonly inadequate to meet up demand. (Ali, 2010). Users are obliged to meet up their
mobility needs by public buses with associated challenges in delay and discomposure leading
to dissatisfaction.

People travel from one place to another place for urging livelihood and daily work, As Dhaka
is known as capital city of Bangladesh & it’s administration, business, education, health service
and other service agency are very much centralized. That is the reason why a huge number of
people enter and leave Dhaka daily from different district of Bangladesh. Most of the people
heavily rely on public transportation to go and return from Dhaka. Road, air, water and rail are
the alternative public transit options for the people to and return from Dhaka. Most of them use
road transit that means public bus. Dhaka-Barishal route is not exception to this. A number of
5 to 6 well known (branded) and some other non-branded bus companies are providing the
transportation services in this route. Sakura bus is one of the best transport system among
them. It has past emerged in our country. It plays an important role in transport system for
carrying goods and people. It’s a very Luxuries, comfortable, less-cost, environment friendly,
less accident-prone transport. There are other transports like Eagle, Golden line, Surovi, Hanif,
sonar tori and some other non-branded (Local) bus companies are providing the transportation
services to passengers beside Sakura Paribahan, and so this market is too much competitive. In
this situation some new bus companies have involved in this business and try to attract the
customer. At the same time the existing bus companies are investing more to retain the existing
customer and attracting new customer. This results a growing competition among bus
companies. So every bus companies are trying to find out the way to attract and retain customer.

Sakura paribahan is one of the best transportation in Dhaka-Barisal route during Day night
coach science January of 1991 in private shipping companies Sakura paribahan offers their
customers AC and Non AC service. It takes almost 12-13 hours to make a trip. The bus starts
from 7:00am and 12:00am daily from Barisal, khepupara, Barguna, Mathbaria bus terminals.
Passengers have to pay Tk. 550 for business class, which has 45 seats, and Tk. 750 for
economic class, which has 40 seats.

This research study was an attempt to find out the service quality attributes which affects the
customer satisfaction toward Sakura Bus Service and measure the level of customer satisfaction
of Dhaka-Barishal bus route customer.

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1.1 Objectives of the Study:

1.1.1 Primary Objective:

The purpose of this study is to measure the passenger’s satisfaction towards the service quality
of Sakura Paribahan with respect to various service quality dimensions.

1.1.2 Secondary Objectives:

 To investigate the impact of reliability on passengers satisfaction towards service quality

of Sakura Paribaban.
 To investigate the impact of responsiveness on passengers satisfaction towards Service
quality of Sakura Paribahan.
 To analyze the impact of empathy on passengers satisfaction towards service quality of
Sakura Paribahan.
 To investigate the impact of Tangibility on passengers satisfaction towards Service
quality of Sakura Paribahan.
 To measure the impact of assurance on passengers satisfaction towards Service Quality
of Sakura Paribahan.

1.2 Research Questions

1. Does reliability influence passenger’s satisfaction towards service quality of Sakura

Paribahan?
2. Does responsiveness influence passenger’s satisfaction towards service quality of
Sakura Paribahan?
3. Does empathy influence passenger’s satisfaction towards service quality of Sakura
Paribahan?
4. Does tangibility influence passenger’s satisfaction towards service quality of Sakura
Paribahan?
5. Does assurance influence passenger’s satisfaction towards service quality of Sakura
Paribahan?

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1.3 Hypothesis

This is an unproven statement that is of interest to the researcher.

H1: Reliability influence passenger’s satisfaction towards service quality of Sakura Paribahan.

H2: Responsiveness influence passenger’s satisfaction towards service quality of Sakura

Paribahan.

H3: Empathy influence passenger’s satisfaction towards service quality of Sakura Paribahan.

H4: Tangibility influence passenger’s satisfaction towards service quality of Sakura Paribahan.

H5: Assurance influence passenger’s satisfaction towards service quality of Sakura

Paribahan.

2. Literature Review

2.1 Customer Satisfaction

Nowadays customer focus and satisfaction is a driving force for many companies and
organizations. Many organizations see customer satisfaction as a key differentiator and it has
therefore increasingly become a key element of business strategy. In addition to that companies
and organizations have understood that it is far less costly to keep existing customers than to
attract new customers. For that reason, this term has been frequently used in marketing.
According to Oliver (2010) “satisfaction is the consumer’s fulfillment response. It is a
judgment that a product/service feature, or the product or service itself, provided (or is
providing) a pleasurable level of consumption-related fulfillment, including levels of under-or
over fulfillment”. Wilson (2012) defined customer satisfaction as the customer’s evaluation of
a product or service in terms of whether that product or service has met the customer’s needs
and expectations. According to him there are factors that influence customer satisfaction such
as product/service quality, satisfactions of equity or fairness, price, personal factors
(consumer’s mood or emotional state), and other consumers and so on. Oliver and Swan (1989)
expanded the definition and mentioned that customer satisfaction is an affective term and they
identify five different types of satisfaction, which are pleasure, relief, novelty and surprise.

According to Wilson (2012), other consumers can also influence the customer satisfaction.
Martin and Pranter (1989) also mentioned that in countless service environments, customers
potentially influence the satisfaction or the dissatisfaction of other customers. In addition to
that pleasurable encounters with fellow customers add positively to the service experience and
seem to enhance satisfactions of service quality as well. For instance, unruly behavior or
overcrowding would have a negative effect, whereas a number of good-humored spectators
would have a beneficial effect by creating a positive atmosphere. Basically it means that the
spectator’s role takes on added significance where a large number of people are required to

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share facilities (Martin and Pranter, 1989). Although this approach underscores some of the
earlier points illustrated by the services marketing triangle as well. For example, the levels of
customer satisfaction may be influenced by the activities of the employee/staff that represent
the human component and/or by the physical aspects. A kind word or a pleasant smile from the
staff makes the service experience more enjoyable whereas rowdy behavior is likely to have
the opposite effect. Bitner (1990) mentioned that if the service is affective it has a direct and
immediate effect on the customer satisfaction. Therefore it is important to encourage the staff
to deliver the right service to the right people in reasonable time and showing good manners.

Customer satisfaction has also become a major contributor for enhancing a service company
such as long-term profitability, customer loyalty and customer retention. Many researchers also
argue that customer satisfaction has a big impact on customer intentions to repurchase (Cronin,
Brady and Hult, 2000). Furthermore, satisfied customers spread positive word of mouth and it
helps to attract new customers and create long-term business profit. According to (Manani et
al, 2013), measuring customer satisfaction provides an indication on how an organization is
performing or providing products or services. Therefore, customer satisfaction will be the
measure of success to all the organizations including the public sectors as well.

2.2 Bus Service in Bangladesh

Bus service is the most popular transportation system in Bangladesh. Among transportation
system peoples prefer to bus service because its road based and easy to transport. Also it’s less
time consuming. Bus service is the most Popular and common transportation system. Now a
days People are getting interested to travel. In that case of prefer to bus service as a common
way. But there are some problems also, traffic jam is the main problem. There is also a problem
to communicate in the southern area of Bangladesh because there are some number of ferry
that waste lots of time to transport and create traffic jam.

2.3 Customer Satisfaction toward Bus Service

Bus service performs a significant function for movement of considerable number of people in
developing cities where the mobility needs are increasing due to rapid urbanization. Although
buses play the crucial role in any urban areas, their services as a main mode of mass transport
are commonly inadequate to meet up demand. The services that are provided are commonly
unsatisfactory (Ali, 2010). Users are obliged to meet up their mobility needs by public buses
with associated challenges in delay and discomposure (Davidson and Knowles, 2006) leading
to dissatisfaction (Aidoo et al, 2013).
Passenger’s satisfaction about bus transport service seem to have been largely ignored by
operators in developing countries. To attract more people to use the city’s bus transportation
system, it is important to obtain insights from actual users of the system about the changes they
would like to see to better meet their needs. In Bangladesh, the operators failed to offer better
services to their users due to lack of understanding of passengers satisfaction compared to other
develop countries.

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2.4 Service Quality
Service quality is a concept that has aroused considerable interest and debate in the research
literature because of the difficulties in both defining it and measuring it with no overall
consensus emerging on either (Wisniewski, 2001). There are a number of different
"definitions" as to what is meant by service quality. One that is commonly used defines service
quality as the extent to which a service meets customers’ needs or expectations (Lewis and
Mitchell, 1990; Dotchin and Oakland, 1994a; Asubonteng et al., 1996; Wisniewski and
Donnelly, 1996). Service quality can thus be defined as the difference between customer
expectations of service and perceived service. If expectations are greater than performance,
then perceived quality is less than satisfactory and hence customer dissatisfaction occurs
(Parasuraman et al., 1985; Lewis and Mitchell, 1990).
Always there exists an important question: why should service quality be measured?
Measurement allows for comparison before and after changes, for the location of quality
related problems and for the establishment of clear standards for service delivery. Edvardsen
et al. (1994) state that, in their experience, the starting point in developing quality in services
is analysis and measurement. The SERVQUAL approach, which is studied in this paper is the
most common method for measuring service quality.

2.5 Service Quality Dimension

Servqual is an instrument for measuring the dimension of service quality. Service quality is
measured using the instrument as the gap between customer expectations and satisfaction
characterized by five dimensions: reliability, responsiveness, tangibles, assurance and
empathy. The most famous model of service quality was proposed by Parasuraman et al.
(1985.1988). It has five dimension and can be explained as:

 TANGIBLES- Appearance of physical facilities, equipment, personnel, and

communication materials
 RELIABILITY- Ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately
 RESPONSIVENESS- Willingness to help customers and provide prompt service
 ASSURANCE- Knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to convey trust and
confidence
 EMPATHY- Caring, individualized attention the firm provides its customers

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3. Methodology

This research involves the use of a customer satisfaction tool known as SERVQUAL. The
study employed a survey research design to collect data from the participants to investigate the
relationship among SERVEQUAL attributes and Passenger’s satisfaction and among the
SERVEQUAL attributes and overall service quality (OSQ). The research is quantitative in
nature. Quantitative data allows the researchers to present data in descriptive form and to also
determine in possible relationships between two or more variables. Quantitative research
involving correlation describes the degree to which two or more variables are related (Frankly
& Wallen, 2003).

3.1 Population: This study has conducted on Dumki, Patuakhali. The data was collected from
the people who live here & the students of Patuakhali Science & Technology University who
are the passengers of Sakura Bus Service.

3.2 Sampling Technique & Sample Size: The focus of this research is exploratory. The survey
took the form of non-probability procedure (convenience one) since we do not know how many
people use Sakura Bus under study and we chose those students who had enough bus
experience (weekly and monthly). Convenience sampling is considered as easy, fastest and
most efficient way to collect the information that was needed. This is in line with several studies
(e.g., Sekaran, 1992; Cooperand & Schindler, 2003). A convenience sample is simply one
where the units are selected for inclusion in the sample. We selected a sample size of say 70
students and non-students in our study.

3.3 Questionnaire Design: A survey questionnaire based on SERVEQUAL was used to

capture the information relating to the research objectives. The resulting questionnaire was
divided into three sections. The first section relates to the demographic profile of the
respondents. The second section measures customers’ satisfactions. The third section measures
customers’ satisfaction.

3.4 Data Collection: Primary and secondary data are used in this research. The primary data
defined as the data collected first hand for subsequent analysis to find solutions to the problem
research. The primary data were obtained from a questionnaire survey while the secondary data
refer to information gathered by someone other than the researcher conducting the current study
(Sekaran and Bougie, 2009). The secondary data were obtained from books, newspaper,
periodicals and journals, internet web sites etc.
To access the respondents of this study for data collection, the questionnaires were distributed
to the respondents by handed personally. Confidentiality was assured by encouraging the
respondent to return back the questionnaire directly.

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 Tangibility

Reliability

Responsive Passenger’s Satisfaction

Assurance

Empathy

Figure: Theoretical Framework

3.5 Data Analysis: The data collected were analyzed using the five SERVQUAL dimensions
to measure passenger’s satisfaction about the actual service delivered followed by the
correlation and regression analyses in order to establish the relationship between
SERVEQUAL attributes and customer satisfaction. Following Stanovich (2007), all
hypotheses were tested by the coefficient of correlation measures. Hypothesis testing was done
to analyze direct effects of independent variables on customer satisfaction, controlling for
demographic variables. The regression models consist of a function describing how the
dependent variable is related to one or other explanatory variables, i.e. how changes in one or
more variables will change the value of another. Particularly, the models were employed to
look at the effects of SERVEQUAL dimensions—tangibility, reliability, responsiveness,
assurance and empathy—on Passenger’s satisfaction.

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4. Result & Discussion

4.1 Demographic Profile & General Result

Table-1: Demographic Profile

Variable Frequency Percent

Gender
Male 48 68.6
Female 22 31.4
Total 70 100
Marital Status
Married 15 21.4
Unmarried 53 75.7
Total 70 100
Education 70 100
Honours 63 90
Masters 7 10
Total 70 100
Age
Less than 18 years 2 2.9
18-30 years 55 78.6
30-50 years 12 17.1
Above 50 years 1 1.4
Total 70 100
Educational Background
Below SSC 5 50
HSC 14 20
Honours 41 58.6
Above Honours 8 11.4
Total 70 100
Occupation
Student 36 51.4
Business 9 12.9
Government Service Holder 7 10
Teacher 5 7.1
Agriculture 3 4.3
Housewife 4 5.7
Unemployed 2 2.7
Other 4 5.7
Total 70 100
Travel Before

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 Never 6 8.6
1 time 10 14.3
2 times 9 12.9
3 times 19 27.1
5 times or more 26 37.1
Total 70 100

Table 2

Variable Mean Median

Professional appearance of staff 3.30 3
Physical comfort level of customers 3.54 4
Accessible and visual display of materials 3.34 3
Modern looking equipment 3.40 3
Bus is accurate in timings 3.56 4
Adhere to punctuality of bus 3.43 3
Staff shows interest in solving problems 3.36 3
Perform service correctly 3.47 3.5
Staff is always willing to help customers 3.16 3
Never too busy to respond 3.31 3
Staff tells exactly when services will be
3.37 3
performed
Treat public situation with care and
3.31 3
seriousness
Staff is trustworthy 3.24 3
Staff is courteous 3.26 3
Staff is knowledgeable 3.16 3
Passenger’s feel safe in travel 3.26 3
Staffs give individual attention 3.11 3
Understand passenger’s specific needs 3.14 3
Passenger’s best interest at heart 3.06 3
Staff renders personal service to customers 3.43 3
I would like to use this bus again 3.79 4
I would recommend using this bus to others 3.70 4
I am satisfied with this service 3.74 4

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4.2 Test of Hypothesis

Table 1

Model Summary
Adjusted R Std. Error of
Model R R Square Square the Estimate
a
1 .271 .074 .060 .51955
a. Predictors: (Constant), Tangibility

From the table 1 R² measures the strength of the relationship between the model and the
dependent variable. R² = 0.074 means that R² = 0.926 of variables cannot explain by the
model.

Table 2

ANOVAa
Sum of Mean
Model Squares df Square F Sig.
1 Regression 1.460 1 1.460 5.410 .023b
Residual 18.356 68 .270
Total 19.816 69
a. Dependent Variable: Satisfaction
b. Predictors: (Constant), Tangibility

Hypotheses 1 states that “Tangibility influence passenger’s satisfaction towards service quality
of Sakura Paribahan”. From Table 2 it has been seen that F = 5.410 and Sig. is 0.023<0.05 so
that customer satisfaction has positive relation with tangibility. The relationship of customer
satisfaction with tangibility statistically significant; so Hypotheses 1 is accepted.

Table 3

Model Summary
Adjusted R Std. Error of
Model R R Square Square the Estimate
a
1 .468 .219 .208 .47701
a. Predictors: (Constant), Reliability

From the table 3 R² measures the strength of the relationship between the model and the
dependent variable. R² = 0.219 means that R² = 0.781 of variables cannot explain by the model.

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 Table 4

ANOVAa
Sum of Mean
Model Squares df Square F Sig.
1 Regression 4.343 1 4.343 19.088 .000b
Residual 15.473 68 .228
Total 19.816 69
a. Dependent Variable: Satisfaction
b. Predictors: (Constant), Reliability

Hypotheses 2 states that “Reliability influence passenger’s satisfaction towards service

quality of Sakura Paribahan”. From Table 4 it has been seen that Customer satisfaction has
positive relation with Reliability where Sig=0.00 (Sig.<0.05). The relationship of customer
satisfaction with Reliability is statistically significant. So hypotheses 2 is accepted here.

Table 5

Model Summary
Adjusted R Std. Error of
Model R R Square Square the Estimate
a
1 .327 .107 .094 .51019
a. Predictors: (Constant), responsiveness

From the table 1 R² measures the strength of the relationship between the model and the
dependent variable. R² = 0.107 means that R² = 0.893 of variables cannot explain by the model.

Table 6

ANOVA
Sum of Mean
Model Squares df Square F Sig.
1 Regression 2.116 1 2.116 8.129 .006b
Residual 17.700 68 .260
Total 19.816 69
a. Dependent Variable: Satisfaction
b. Predictors: (Constant), responsiveness

Hypotheses 3 states that “Responsiveness influence passenger’s satisfaction towards service

quality of Sakura Paribahan”. From Table 6 it has been seen that Customer satisfaction has
positive relation with responsiveness where Sig=0.006 (Sig.<0.05). The relationship of
customer satisfaction with responsiveness is statistically significant. So hypotheses 3 is
accepted here

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 Table 7

Model Summary
Adjusted R Std. Error of
Model R R Square Square the Estimate
a
1 .549 .301 .291 .45128
a. Predictors: (Constant), assurence

From the table 1 R² measures the strength of the relationship between the model and the
dependent variable. R² = 0.301 means that R² = 0.699 of variables cannot explain by the model.

Table 8

ANOVAa
Sum of Mean
Model Squares df Square F Sig.
1 Regression 5.967 1 5.967 29.302 .000b
Residual 13.848 68 .204
Total 19.816 69
a. Dependent Variable: Satisfaction
b. Predictors: (Constant), Assurance

Hypotheses 4 states that “Assurance influence passenger’s satisfaction towards service quality
of Sakura Paribahan”. From Table 8 it has been seen that Customer satisfaction has positive
relation with assurance where Sig=0.00 (Sig.<0.05). The relationship of customer satisfaction
with Assurance is statistically significant. So hypotheses 4 is accepted here.

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 Table 9

Model Summary

Adjusted R
Model R R Square Square Std. Error of the Estimate
a
1 .564 .318 .308 .44586
a. Predictors: (Constant), empathy

From the table 1 R² measures the strength of the relationship between the model and the
dependent variable. R² = 0.318 means that R² = 0.682 of variables cannot explain by the
model.

Table 10

ANOVAa
Sum of Mean
Model Squares df Square F Sig.
1 Regression 6.298 1 6.298 31.684 .000b
Residual 13.518 68 .199
Total 19.816 69
a. Dependent Variable: Satisfaction
b. Predictors: (Constant), Empathy

Hypotheses 5 states that “Empathy Assurance influence passenger’s satisfaction towards

service quality of Sakura Paribahan”. From Table 10 it has been seen that Customer satisfaction
has positive relation with empathy where Sig=0.00 (Sig.<0.05). The relationship of customer
satisfaction with Empathy is statistically significant. So hypotheses 5 is accepted here.

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5. Findings & Recommendation

5.1 Findings

Our principle goal is to analysis the passenger’s satisfaction towards Service quality of Sakura
Paribahan. There is a little research work on passenger’s satisfaction of bus journey experience.
The target population for this study was the passengers who use to journey by bus
transportation. We have taken about 70 sample on the people who have the experience of bus
journey, including all age group, gender, Education level, income. To assess the measurement
we use percentage, mean, median, regression (Model summery, ANNOVA) the analysis on
demographics model express that majority of consumers are male (68%), maximum people are
18-30 (78%). Most of them are unmarried (75.7%) and education qualification are graduation
level (58.6%). Most of the people use the transportation more than 5 times (37.1%).

By analyzing this statistical tools, we found that tangibility, reliability, responsiveness,

empathy & assurance have a significant effects on overall satisfaction. From the frequency
table we can see that about 55.7% of people are agreed that they are satisfied with the service
which is the highest percentage in the frequency table and about 57.1% of the population will
use the service again and on population will recommend the service to others 41.4% of people
and both of those are the highest frequencies in that table overall satisfaction has an positive
relation with repeat visit intension and positive word of mouth.

5.2 Recommendation

On the foundation of findings and result we can see that tangibility, reliability, responsiveness,
empathy & assurance has significant effect on passenger’s satisfaction. It is suggested that
Sakura paribahan should make efforts in order to get the attention of the customer. The
implementation of quality standards in reality needs sufficient protection of regulations,
enforcement services and good awareness of Sakura bus authorities and operators.
Improvements of regulations and enforcement services always presented as the fundamental
requirements for quality management in bus transport. So they should be more sincere about
the customer satisfaction. They should improve the bus condition as well to attract most
passenger. They should also arrange training program for improving their staff performance.
They should also make their customer satisfied with best interest at heart. They should increase
their willingness to help passengers. Thus will help to increase overall passenger’s satisfaction.

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6. Conclusion

At present, transportation service is vital way of communication and bus service is the mostly
used in transportation system. This study recommends the most suitable criteria for Sakura
Paribahan in Barisal to Dhaka route. In this paper, customers’ point-of-view is considered and
level of satisfaction of passenger’s criteria is assessed based on customers’ experience.
Statistical methods, linear regression and correlation are established to customer satisfaction
of bus users are analyzed.
Bus service is the factors which in terms paves a way for satisfaction of the passengers who
use this transportation service if even of the factors is not adequately meet or poorly
implemented. Regarding the safety and security condition, the reasons of dissatisfaction
of from the above analysis it is clear the bus operator are able to render efficient service to the
utmost satisfaction of the travelling public. Being the most important mode of transport, bus
service where significant improvements must be made to make it more comfortable, well-
accepted and usable to people. This kind of investigation will improve the knowledge
regarding the user, which finally useful in developing a more suitable service. All
recommendation are to boost up the passenger’s satisfaction Sakura bus service in Barisal-
Dhaka route in Bangladesh.

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References

Ali, A.N., An Assessment of the Quality of Intra-urban Bus Services in the City of Enugu,
Enugu State, Nigeria, Theoretical and Empirical Researches in Urban Management 6(15), pp.
74-91, 2010
Asubonteng, P., McCleary, K.J. and Swan, J.E. (1996), "SERVQUAL revisited: a critical
review of service quality", Journal of Services Marketing, Vol. 10, No. 6, pp. 62-81.
Bitner, M. (1990). Evaluating Service Encounters: The Effects of Physical Surroundings and
Employee Responses. Journal of Marketing, 69-69.
Cronin, J., Brady, M., & Hult, G. (2000). Assessing the effects of quality, value, and customer
satisfaction on consumer behavioral intentions in service environments. Journal of
Retailing, 193-218.
Demographia. 2016. World Urban Areas. 12th AnnualEdition-2016. Retrieved from
http://demographia.com/db-worldua.pdf accesses on 08 February 2107.
Dotchin, J.A. and Oakland, J.S. (1994a), "Total quality management in services: Part 2 Service
quality", International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, Vol. 11, No. 3,
pp. 27-42.
Edvardsen, B., Tomasson, B. and Ovretveit , J. (1994), Quality of Service: Making it Really
Work, McGraw-Hill, New York, NY.
Lewis, B.R. and Mitchell, V.W. (1990), "Defining and measuring the quality of customer
service", Marketing Intelligence & Planning, Vol. 8, No. 6, pp. 11-17.
Martin, C., & Pranter, C. (1989). Compatibility Management: Customer-to-Customer
Relationships in Service Environments. Journal of Services Marketing, 5-15.
Oliver, R., & Swan, J. (1989). Equity and Disconfirmation Satisfactions as Influences on
Merchant and Product Satisfaction. Journal of Consumer Research, 372-372.
Oliver, R. (2010). Satisfaction: A behavioral perspective on the consumer (2nd ed.). Armonk,
N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe.
Parasuraman, A., Zeithaml, V.A. and Berry, L.L. (1985), "A conceptual model of service
quality and its implication", Journal of Marketing, Vol. 49, Fall, pp. 41-50.
Sekaran, U. and R. Bougie, 2009. Research Methods for Business: A Skill Building Approach.
5th Edn., John Willey and Sons Ltd., Chichester, ISBN-10: 0470744790, pp: 488.
T. O. Manani, R. B. Nyaoga, R. M. Bosire, T. O. Ombati &T. O. Kongere (2013), Service
quality and customer satisfaction at Kenya Airways Ltd. European Journal of Business
and Management, 170-179.
Wisniewski, M. and Donnelly, M. (1996), "Measuring service quality in the public sector: the
potential for SERVQUAL", Total Quality Management, Vol. 7, No. 4, pp. 357-365.
Wisniewski, M. (2001), "Using SERVQUAL to assess customer satisfaction with public sector
services", Managing Service Quality, Vol.11, No.6, pp. 380-388.
Wilson, A., & Zeithaml, V. (2012). Services marketing: Integrating customer focus across the
firm (Second European ed.). Maidenhead, Berkshire: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.

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 Questionnaire
Thank you very much for travelling by Sakura Paribahan. We are giving out this questionnaire about
the details of your travel and your impressions so that we can make a study on traveler’s satisfaction
on this Paribahan. This survey is for travelers of all classes who are travelling by this Paribahan.
Thank you for your cooperation.

 Are you a regular passenger using Sakura Paribahan Bus Service (Yes / No)
 Have you participated in filling this questionnaire earlier (Yes / No)

 Personal Details of the Respondent:

1. Name of the Respondent:

2. Gender of the respondent: a) Male b) Female

3. Marital Status: a) Married b) Unmarried

4. What is your age group?

a) Less than 18 years b) 18-30 years c) 30-50 years d) above 50 years

5. What is your educational background?

a) Below SSC b) HSC c) Honors d) Above Honors

6. What is your occupation?

a) Student b) Business c) Government service holder d) Teacher
e) Agriculture f) Housewife g) Unemployed h) other

7. What is your current Status?

a) Student b) Self- employed c) Employed full-time
d) Employed part-time e) Unemployed f) Retired

8. What is your approximate net monthly income?

a) Less than 10000tk b) Between 10000 and 20000tk
c) Between 20000 and 30000tk d) More than 30000tk

9. How many times have you travel by Sakura Paribahan before?

a) Never b) 1 time c) 2 times d) 3 times e) 5 times or more

10. Contact Number or E-mail address (optional):

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  Service Dimension:
Please mark (✓) the extent to which you believe each statement. Indicate your Agreement/Disagreement
with each statement by giving each a score of 1 to 5.

 Tangibility:

Serial Strongly Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly

Particulars
No. Disagree Agree
01 Professional appearance of staff 1 2 3 4 5
Physical comfort level of 1 2 3 4 5
02
customers
Accessible and visual display of 1 2 3 4 5
03
materials
04 Modern looking equipment 1 2 3 4 5

 Reliability:

Serial Strongly Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly

Particulars
No. Disagree Agree
01 Bus is accurate in timings 1 2 3 4 5
02 Adhere to punctuality of bus 1 2 3 4 5
Staff shows interest in solving 1 2 3 4 5
03
problems
04 Perform service correctly 1 2 3 4 5

 Responsiveness:

Serial Strongly Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly

Particulars
No. Disagree Agree
Staff is always willing to help 1 2 3 4 5
01
customers
02 Never too busy to respond 1 2 3 4 5
Staff tells exactly when services will 1 2 3 4 5
03
be performed
Treat public situation with care and 1 2 3 4 5
04
seriousness

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 Assurance:

Serial Strongly Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly

Particulars
No. Disagree Agree
01 Staff is trustworthy 1 2 3 4 5

02 Staff is courteous 1 2 3 4 5

03 Staff is knowledgeable 1 2 3 4 5
04 Passenger’s feel safe in travel 1 2 3 4 5

 Empathy:

Serial Strongly Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly

Particulars
No. Disagree Agree
01 Staffs give individual attention 1 2 3 4 5
Understand passenger’s specific 1 2 3 4 5
02
needs
03 1 2 3 4 5
Passenger’s best interest at heart
Staff renders personal service to 1 2 3 4 5
04
customers

 Rate Your Overall Satisfaction toward Sakura Bus Service:

 Repeat Visit Intention:

Serial Strongly Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly
Particulars
No. Disagree Agree
01 I would like to use this bus again 1 2 3 4 5

 Positive Word of Mouth:

Serial Strongly Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly
Particulars
No. Disagree Agree
I would recommend using this bus 1 2 3 4 5
01
to others

 Overall Satisfaction:
Serial Strongly Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly
Particulars
No. Disagree Agree
01 I am satisfied with this service 1 2 3 4 5

Thank You

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