UNDERSTANDING CUSTOMER SATISFACTION THROUGH QUALITY SERVICE DELIVERY IN THE TELECOMMUNICATION INDUSTRY

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ABSTRACT

Quality service delivery today has become not only the rhetoric of every business enterprise, but also occupies eminent position in every discourse. No business organization can survive without building its customer satisfaction and brand loyalty; likewise no organization can make a healthy living without meeting the needs of its customers. The purpose of this study was to investigate customer satisfaction through quality service delivery in the telecommunication industry. Therefore, related literature which dealt with the customer satisfaction and quality service delivery in the telecommunication industry was also reviewed as part ofthis study. The study employed a descriptive survey. A research questionnaire was used as the instrument for data collection; Using a stratified and simple random technique, one hundred questionnaires were distributed to undergraduates from the five faculties in Olabisi Onabanjo University main campus Ago Iwoye. The data collected were thus analyzed using frequency count and regression analysis. The findings of the study revealed that there is significant relationship between customer satisfaction and quality service delivery among telecommunication companies in Nigeria. there is a significant relationship between quality service delivery and choice of telecommunication service provider. It was concluded that customers satisfaction has a lot to with the kind of service provide by the telecom providers. Customers satisfaction has a relationship with quality service among telecommunication in Nigeria.

However, the success achieving customers satisfaction could be achieved if proper attention is given to increasing the quality of service delivered which willmake all customers stick to their providers. The study therefore recommends that with the increased competition in the Nigerian Telecommunications industry and the ever-increasing influence of the Nigeria Telecommunications Commission (NCC), retaining customers is one major strategy that the companies must adopt to remain profitable. Mobile telecom service providers should focus more attention on service quality because of its close knit relationship with customer satisfaction. Also With the introduction of Mobile Number Portability (MNP) which permits subscribers to transfer to a better service provider while maintaining their existing mobile number, retaining customers should be a smarter option than attracting new customers since it is less expensive. To prevent subscribers from switching,telecom service providers must ensure that customer satisfaction level is high.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the Study

Quality service delivery today has become not only the rhetoric of every business enterprise, but also occupies eminent position in every discourse. No business organization can survive without building its customer satisfaction and brand loyalty; likewise no organization can make a healthy living without meeting the needs of its customers. That is what organizations do: they serve people’s needs. Quality service delivery helps in cementing the relationship between customers and the organization and it is a two-way flow of value. This means that customers derive real value from the relationship which translates into value for the organization in the form of enhanced profitability and sustainability over a long period of time. Today’s fast paced and increasingly competitive global market requires eective and eicient strategies to survive and to make profits which can contribute toward the growth of the organisation. Quality service and customer satisfaction are global issues that aect all organisations whether private or business, small or large, global or local. Customer satisfaction have long been recognised as playing a crucial role towards the organisational success and survival in today’s global competitive market. It is obvious that the customers are more important stakeholders in many organisations and their satisfaction is a priority in marketing management. Customer satisfaction and quality service has been a subject of interest to researchers and organisations as it has been proven by some researchers that quality service is related to customer satisfaction.

Profit maximisation can be achieved through increase in sales with lesser costs and one of the ways of achieving that is through exceeding customer satisfaction. Customers are constantly aiming to get the highest satisfaction from products or services that they buy/get from various organisations across the globe. Thus, it must be noted that winning in today’s competitive marketplace demands that organisations need to build profitable and lasting customer relationship (Kotler, Armstrong, Saunders and Wong, 2002). Delivering high quality services is closely linked to profits, cost savings and market share (Zeithaml, 2000, Manusamy, Chellia, and Mun, 2010). Furthermore, satisfied customers express more willingness to reuse or repurchase a product or service than dissatisfied customers. Accordingly, telecommunication companies are, therefore, increasingly more customer-centric and are much interested not just on acquiring new customers, but more importantly, delighting and retaining existing customers. This is perhaps because it costs more to attract new customers than to retain existing ones. Again, it is more profitable retaining an old customer who is more likely to repurchase or re-use a company’s products/services and recommend them to others. Customer satisfaction can be defined in terms of meeting the expectations of the customers in terms of parameters associated with satisfaction. The customer mind is a complex set of thoughts and ideas and cannot be fully predictable by human being. Consequently, due to the relevance of customer satisfaction to an organizations existence, attempts have been made to adopt measures to ascertain customer satisfaction/dissatisfaction. Traditionally, some organizations rely on customer complaints to ascertain customer satisfaction, though many organizations no longer use only customer complaints, rather they adopt various qualitative and quantitative mechanisms to measure customer satisfaction. In this regard, measuring customer satisfaction provides the feedback of how successful an organization is at providing products and/or services to the satisfaction of customers. The quality of customer service varies by products, industry, and customer (Oyeniyi, Omotayo, Abiodun and Joachim, 2008). The multi dimensional nature of communication and the ease with which telecom services can be duplicated has added a complex dimension to the competitive trend in the industry. This trend fosters a continuous fight for customer’s share, customer’s interest and also increases the need to build loyal customers through effective customer’s service activities. The shift to devoting considerable attention and resources to customer acquisition through customer satisfaction is not different from the Mobile Telecommunication Networks in Nigeria. Though competition has been rife in the industry, the mobile telecommunication companies are continually improving upon the quality of their service delivery, with the influence of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC). Since survival and growth or financial outcome is driven by customer loyalty which is in turn driven by customer satisfaction and value (Nimako, 2012), delivering quality service and customer satisfaction have been important goals and pursuit for the expanding mobile telecom networks as well as regulators of the industry.

The Telecommunication industry in Nigerian has developed to be very competitive, as different Telecommunication companies jostle for the attention of subscribers. One of the key challenges confronting these Telecommunication companies is how they manage their quality service , which holds a great deal to customer satisfaction. Nigeria’s mobile telecommunication industry is perhaps one of the fastest growing sectors of the Nigeria economy and there is fierce competition within the sector made up of different telecommunication operators namely, MTN, Etisalat, Airtel, and Glo.

According to Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry (1988), the larger the gap between a company’s and customer’s perceptions concerning both service products and service delivery, the smaller the probability of satisfying the customers. This indicates that telecommunication companies should have more profound understanding of their customer’s needs. An investigation on customers satisfaction through quality service delivery provided by Mobile Telecommunication Networks in Nigeria appears therefore of interest upon this assertion will the study be carried out.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

It costs five times more to attract a new customer than it is to sustain and retain current profitable one (Ghavami and Olyaei, 2006). Marketers understand that every effort invested in marketing communication was aimed towards the attracting new customers and creating superior and lasting value for them (Kotler and Keller, 2006). Kotler and Keller (2006) made it clear that a satisfied customer will inform one or two of his friends or close associates about it, but if treated poorly, the customer goes about informing hundreds of current and prospective customers. The pivot of every prosperous business is to retain or sustain customers. It requires truthful and rational communication between the customer and the company offers. If a customer is convinced that he is getting deserved quality service, he will be ready to react favourably to the marketer’s cross -selling as well as up-selling approaches. Telecommunication companies in Nigeria show antipathy as well as apathy towards pulling their marketing communication strategies and other resources together towards acquiring, retaining and building long -lasting value laden customer relationships to improve their lifetime values that will necessitate loyalty. Consequently, the Nigerian telecommunication services subscribers are totally tired of complaining about network failures, cross lines, drop calls, poor internet connectivity, high call taris, and general poor customer care services (Oghojafor, 2014; Tajudeen, 2008). These are the complaints that tend to stymie customer frequent purchase and loyalty to any of the network providers in Nigeria as their services are perceived to possess little or no competitive differentiation advantage. However, understanding customer’s satisfaction is a serious issue and has poses a serious threat that requires urgent attention to restore the image and reputation of telecommunication services providers that had already been battered in the minds of Nigerian subscribers.

UNDERSTANDING CUSTOMER SATISFACTION THROUGH QUALITY SERVICE DELIVERY IN THE TELECOMMUNICATION INDUSTRY