Exploring the influential factors of customer satisfaction at khanh giang general trading limited company

INTRODUCTION

Research Background

Customer satisfaction is the success key to business A sucessful company one that has found a way to satify its customers and through which to achieve their goals So, to satisfy customers is an important and necessary activity for all businesses in both services and manufacturing sectors The company offers customers products and services they need and at the same time get economic benefits it desires. Customer satisfaction will bring loyalty to the company, and to the company’s brand The cost to get a new customer is five times more than to keep an existing one (zoom.vn), therefore, achieving customer satisfaction is the highest principle of any companies in the field of services, especially in today's increasingly fierce competitive environment.

In the field of researching on service quality and customer satisfaction with service, there have been many research models,such as: Kano’s model (1980s), Gronroos' technical and functional quality model (1984), SERVQUAL model by Parasuraman et al (1988), ect In these models, the SERVQUAL is a popular model, which has been proven through many studies in different fields in the world, such as: E-commerce, internet (Samar I Swaid and Rolf T Wigand, 2007,

2009), health services (Emin Babakus và W.Clynn Mangold, 1992, Mohamed M Mostafa, 2005), banking services (K.Ravichandra et al.,

2010, Tram, 2008), restaurant sector (Clare Chua Chow and Peter Luk, 2005), travel services (Eda Atilgan et al., 2003, Charilaos Kouthosis and Kontatinos Alexandris, 2005), public services (Arawati Agus, 2007), education sector (Michael Stodnick and Pamela Rogers, 2008; Kien, 2008) This shows that SERVQUAL model is one of the most widely used frameworks for the measurement of service quality.

So the application of SERVQUAL model to measure service quality in Khanh Giang Company is in accordance.

Currently, the increase of transport vehicles due to increased transport demand in the economy growth has triggered a large number of vehicles, including cars That has led to the ever-increasing development of repair services as well as spare parts supply services Along with the development of these services, the competitiveness among the companies providing tire delivery service becomes more and more fierce Khanh GiangCompany is no exception to that rule To survive and thrive in increasing conditions of competition, raising the quality of services provided, increasing customer satisfaction with products and services is urgently needed to create competitive advantages.

Research Motivation

Why research on customer satisfaction with company’s services? The satisfaction of customer with company’s services is the success key of the company The business orientation of the company is customer oriented and customer-focused Customer satisfaction is a measure of service quality and success of the company in the context of currently increasingly fierce competition Researching on customer satisfaction will help the company answer some questions, like: How do customers evaluate the company’s services? Which position has the company in the consumer's mind? Which factor is the important factor according to the assessment of customers? From which there may be strategies, as well as policies to appropriately develop the company’s services, and to improve customer service in the best way.

Why select Khanh Giang Company? Khanh Giang Company is a small business in the growing service sector in Vietnam, with full characteristics of this enterprise form.

So, selecting Khánh Giang Company may represent the small businesses in the same sector, and the study results can also answer in part the question of small businesses in the field of providing services Moreover study of customer satisfaction on services will suggest practical solutions for the administration and promulgation of its policies for student as a business leader.

As we mentioned, SERVQUAL model has been tested in many countries in the world So the application of this model to measure service quality in Khanh GiangCompany is in accordance This study is one more research theoretical and practical verifying the scale of SERVQUAL in a new cultural environment of a developing country like Vietnam.

Research Purposes

In this thesis, the purposes are concluded as follows:

(i) To survey and evaluate customer satisfaction using the tire supply service at the Khanh Giang company based on SERVQUAL mode.

(ii) To assess each factor affecting service quality and the satisfaction of customers. (iii) To assess differences of perceived feelings among various customer groups on services of the company.

From these assessments, the study will suggest solutions to improve customer satisfaction with services and attract more and more clients to the company.

Research Procedure

The procedure of this research consists of the research steps as illustrated in below figure: Research motivations

Data survey and processingAdjusted Model

Step 1: Confirm thesis title according to the advices of advisor and co-advisor: At this step, the author makes to work with advisor and co-advisor, proposes the title and issue for the thesis.

Step 2: Build the research model At this step, the author considers the models and literature related on this thesis They are the models of customer satisfaction with services, such as: Kano’s model, Gronroos’ model, SERVQUAL, etc to select a basic model for the study The results of this step are determining the main literature and model to build the theoretical research model At this step, the author also makes group discussion with ten customers about the aspects of the SERVQUAL model to the satisfaction with provided services Through this qualitative analysis, the author will detect and add the factor “competitiveness of price” into traditional SERVQUAL model to build research framework.

Step 3: Select the research scale After building research model and theoretical framework based on SERVQUAL model adding the factor “competitiveness of price”, to measure the definitions, The author must select an appropriate scale for the study.This research will apply 22 scales of Parasuraman to measure the factors in

SERVQUAL model, and the factor “competitiveness of price” is build based on making qualitative interview with customers through the step of qualitative analysis The scales of SERVQUAL model are adjusted to semantically suit the context of Vietnam, and to ensure customer understanding and consistency of customer response about the questions

Using five point Likert is in accordance with the context of Vietnam because its precision is same with seven point Likert and the Vietnamese semantic characteristics among them are not much different The Likert scale also helps the calculation of quantitative concepts become favorable by statistical methods The results of this step are to build signal for each factors (definition) of the study by using the five point Likert

Step 4: Variables construction At this step, the author continuously tests the scales built in step 3 by making an interview with customers using the company’s services to adjust questions once again before officially surveying The results of this step are to complete the final questionnaire which is used to investigate the expected sample size.

Step 5: Data survey and processing After building and adjusting the final questionnaire, the author starts investigating and processing data The investigation strategy is to directly use paper questionnaire with customers using the company’s service when they do the transaction The interview results will be added into excel spreadsheet with two diffeent people, then paired the same file to detect data entry errors before processing data After data have been cleaned, they will be declared and processed by SPSS 18.0 with steps such as: testing scale by Cronbach `s Alpha,

Step 6: Adjust model After testing data by Cronbach`s Alpha and EFA, the theoretical model will be adjusted according to the results from factor analysis (EFA) and then the author will build new research hypotheses for the new model.

Step 7: Model verification and data analysis After step 6, the author using the method of ordinary least square to build the regression equations, test the suitability of the research model by using statistical methods, such as: Scatterplot graph, Histogram graph, testing the residual normal distribution, testing the regressive relationship between concepts, etc to ensure the model does not violate the OLS method Next, the author will test research hypotheses through testing the p-value of t-statistic and F- statistic To test the difference between subtotals in the research according to the classification criteria, the author uses ANOVA analysis.

Step 8: Conclusion After doing analysis data and representing research results in step

7, the author will sum up the important conclusions, and also made managerial implications and suggestions as well as proposed solutions for further researches.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Service, service characteristics and service quality

Services as a commodity economy has many different ways to define and this study will give some common concepts of service as follows:

According to Zeithaml and Britner (2000),” a service is an act or performance offered by one party to another” to create value for customers to use service and satisfy needs and expectations of customers.

According to Kotler and Armstrong (2004), is an activity or benefits that business can offer to customers to build, strengthen and expand the long-term partnerships with them.

In this study, service is understood as the whole process of providing distribution operations to customers at Khanh Giang Company in order to implement the value and promote the utilities of products which the company distributes with the aim of satisfying its customers.

Each author has one different definition of service, but in gerneral, they will agree with the characteristics of service Service characteristics inculude following aspects:

Differ from other physical products (tangible), services are intangible, it means, they cannot be touched, gripped, handled, looked at, smelled, tasted or heard. Furthermore, a service cannot be (re)sold or owned by somebody, neither can it be turned over from the service provider to the service consumer nor returned from the service consumer to the service provider Quality of service is only shown in the interactive process between customers and employees of the company (Svensson, 2002) Because of this characteristic, customers are difficult to know in advance the quality of service which they intend to buy

Heterogeneity is reflected in the difference of level of service performance, which means that service can range from very poor to perfection Service quality has no heterogeneity between between the time of service performance and depends on individual perceiveness on service With the same providing process, each customer has different perceiveness of the service quality.

Heterogeneity related to high changes in the implementation of a certain service.Service quality may change according to providers, customers and service execution time This characteristic makes the standardization of services more difficult.

The service provider is indispensable for service delivery as he must promptly generate and render the service to the requesting service consumer It is reflected in the difficulty of distinguishing the service creation process and service usage A service can not be separated into two separate processes: (1) service creation process and (2) service usage process They are simultaneous.

The creation and usage of a service simultaneously occur This is the big difference with other tangible goods Tangible goods are produced and put in storage or distributed to customers They are two separate processes and can be clearly separated.

In contrast, service is a process of creating, using at the same time, customers and service providers involved throughout the service creation process This leads to some following issues:

 Safety for customers: Because customers are not be trained as the company’s staff, so the arrangement and design for utilities or equipments must be done to ensure the safety for customers when using the services.

 Facilities: The decoration and arrangement of facilities to serve customers’ needs have to facilitate them to do transaction and to use the service in the most convenient way.

 Serve attitudes: Because of its need to frequently interact between the company’s staff and their customers, the serve attitudes and styles of the staff are very important This repairs that the company must train their staff so that they will have professional serve skills The interaction just a small mistake of the staff can also detect and it affects the satisfaction of customers with the company’s services.

 Difficulty to predict: Because each customer has different characteristics, perceiveness, behaviors and needs, so it is very difficult to predict the

“random” things happen, and will actually affect the process of providing services Thus, the collection of information and demand predictation process to design the program, provide services and standardize the steps of service providing process are needed.

 Important roles of customers: Because of their attendance in the process of providing services, the customers may be do something which are the duties of the staff in the fact They also act as supervisors of service quality.

 Labor-intensive factor: Due to the special characteristics of service, the service sectors are always more labor-intensive than other manufacturing sectors.

 High subjective judgment: The company’s staff must directly keep contact with their customers, so they need to have good communication skills and individual subjective judgments to satisfy customers.

 Check the process: To ensure the quality of services, it is needed to check and control the process of providing services The process standardization is a mandatory requirement for every service providers.

Services are rendered and consumed during the same period of time As soon as the service consumer has requested the service (delivery), the particular service must be generated from scratch without any delay and friction and the service consumer instantaneously consumes the rendered benefits for executing his upcoming activity or task.

The consumer does not secure ownership of the service and not set up a warehouse to store goods.

The quality of goods is tangible and can be measured by some objective criteria such as: features, utilities and durability However, service quality is intangible. Customers receive Customers receive services through communication activities, getting information and perceiveness And they can find the salient features of service and assess the service quality just only when they “bought” and “used” it already Therefore, the quality of service has not been precisely determined.

According to Zeithaml: Service quality is the assessment of customers about the transcendence and general excellence of an entity It is a form of behavior and the consequences from a comparison between “expected” and “perceived” things

The relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction

In this study, customer satisfaction is understood as the satisfaction of customer with their expectation of the services they are provided Service quality is considered satisfactory if the customers used and perceived it as or more than they expected An in contrast, service quality is considered unsatisfactory when the customers assess it is not as good as they expected.

According to Anderson (1994); Cronin & Taylor (1992), satisfaction is defined as a result of service quality In cause and effect relationship, it is described as the consumer assessment of service quality.

Generally, as mentioned prior in this section, researchers mostly suggest that service quality and satisfaction are different constructs (Bitner, 1990; Bolton and Drew,1991; Parasuraman et al., 1988) Service quality is defined as a form of attitude, a long- run throughout evaluation of the service provider, while customer satisfaction is regarded as an affective or emotional reaction to a recent or an specific service encounter (Bitner, 1990; Bolton and Drew, 1991; Parasuraman et al., 1988; Cornin andTaylor, 1992; Spreng and MacKoy, 1996).

The models of service quality and customer satisfaction

In the field of researching on service quality, the researchers built and proposed many models such as: Kano’s model (1980s), Gronroos’s model (1984), the service quality gap model, SERVQUAL model (1991) or CSI models of nations and areas to assess the quality of service and customer satisfaction with service This study will introduce some popular research models, which are applied in building theoretical model of the research.

2.3.1 The service quality gap model

This model by A.Parasuraman et al offers an integrated view of the consumer- company relationship and identifies five gaps affecting the decrease of perceived level of service quality based on comparison between actual perceiveness and customer expectation about service (See figure 2.3.1).

According to Parasuraman, expectation is considered as customer’s hope and belief as well as desire and is formed on the basis of outside transmitted information, individual needs and their experiences.

Gap 1 is the distance between what customers expect and what service providers think they expect Basic points of this difference are that the service company does not fully understand the characteristics which create the quality of its service as well as the way to transfer services to customers in order to meet their needs.

Gap 2 occurs when service providers have difficulty in changing their perception of customer expectations of customer expectations into the feature of service quality In many cases, the providers may be aware of customer expectations but they can not always transfer these expectations to the specific criteria of quality and transfer them right as customers expected The main reason of this issue is the professional skill of the staff and strong fluctuation of service needs.

Gap 3 occurs when service staff does not transfer service to customer right according to the determined criteria In the field of service, the staff can directly contact with customers and play a very important role in the process of creating quality.However, the staff can not always fulfill their tasks in accordance with criteria set out.

Gap 4 is the gap between the delivery of the customer experience and what is communicated to customers All too often organizations exaggerate what will be provided to customers, or discuss the best case rather than the likely case, raising customer expectations and harming customer perceptions.

Finally, gap 5 is the gap between a customer's perception of the experience and the customer's expectation of the service Customers' expectations have been shaped by word of mouth, their personal needs and their own past experiences. Routine transactional surveys after delivering the customer experience are important for the company to measure customer perceptions of service.

Parasuraman considered that service quality is a function of gap 5 Gap 5 depends on the four other gaps, so to shorten this gap must shorten these four gaps first. Shortening gaps is a way to increase the quality of service The model of service quality is as follows:

Figure 2.3.1 The Service Quality Five Gap Model

Communications to customers Service Delivery

Change the company’s feeling into quality standard Gap 3

The SERVQUAL is a scale that is popularly used in measuring the quality of service in many different fields such as: e-commerce, internet (Samar I Swaid and Rolf T Wigand, 2007, 2009), health services (Emin Babakus và W.Clynn Mangold, 1992, Mohamed M Mostafa, 2005), banking services (K.Ravichandra et al., 2010, Tram, 2008), restaurant sector (Clare Chua Chow and Peter Luk, 2005), travel services (Eda Atilgan et al., 2003, Charilaos Kouthosis and Kontatinos Alexandris, 2005), public services (Arawati Agus, 2007), education sector (Michael Stodnick and Pamela Rogers, 2008; Kien, 2008) SERVQUAL model includes five main factors (See figure 2.3.2).

Reliability: Capability to deliver dependable, accurate and consistent service Responsiveness: Willingness or readiness to provide service

Assurance: Likelihood that the service will actually be delivered

Empathy: Caring, attention to customers

Tangibles: Facilities' conduciveness to service

In the field of marketing, the 4Ps’ model by E Jerome McCarthy (1964) is a classic model in all marketing textbooks today And in the field of spare parts supply services, especially in a market with low income like Vitenam, the factor “price” (competitiveness of price) is always interested by customer when comparing in using service Therefore, this study will introduce the 4Ps’s model and add some other factors into the models The contents of 4Ps’s model are summarized as follows:

 P1 (Product): A product is seen as an item that satisfies what a consumer needs or wants It is a tangible good or an intangible service Intangible products are

Assurance Service satisfaction service based like the tourism industry & the hotel industry or codes-based products like cell phone load and credits Tangible products are those that can be felt physically The scope of a product often includes added components such as: warranties, and other services.

 P2 (Pricing): Pricing is the process of determining what a company will receive in exchange for its products Pricing factors are manufacturing cost, market place, competition, market condition, and quality of product The needs of the consumer can be converted into demand only if the consumer has the willingness and capacity to buy the product Thus pricing is very important in marketing.

 P3 (Place): Place refers to providing the product at a place which is convenient for consumers to access or the way to transfer service to customers For example, the sale location is convenient for buyers or not, the place of products can attract customers or not, etc Sometimes, place means distribution product channels in which products are sole For example, online sales, or sale at wholesale stores, etc in the provinces or cities to any groups (youth, family, or merchants).

 P4 (Promotion): Promotion represents all of the methods of communication that a marketer may use to provide information to different parties about the product.Promotion comprises elements such as: advertising, public relations, personal selling and sales promotion.

Researches related on service quality and customer satisfaction

Researching on service quality and customer satisfaction has been done in many fields In the scope of this research, the author will sum up and introduce some researches on customer satisfaction using SERVQUAL model in different fields to show the wide application of this scale in measuring the satisfaction of customers

In the field of e-commerce and internet, there has been the study of Samar I Swaid and Rolf T Wigand, (2007) which was done in Slovenia In this study, customer satisfaction is affected by six following factors: (1) Reliability, (2) Responsiveness, (3) Empathy, (4) Information quality, (5) Website usability and (6) Personalization.

In the field of health services, the research of Mohamed M. Mostafa, (2005) in Egypt showed that the customer satisfaction is determined by three factors: (1) Human reliability, (2) Facility quality and (3) Human performance quality

In the field of baking services, the research of K.Ravichandra et al (2010) in India showed that the satisfaction of customers with services is affected by only one factor, this is assurance This means, in this field, the other factors from SERVQUAL model do not make much sense The factors such as tangibles, reliability and empathy are the main and important factors in Kano’s model have no impact on customer satisfaction In the same field, the research by Tram

(2008) in Vietnam showed that there are two factors affect customer satisfaction; they are (1) Responsiveness and assurance ability and

(2) Tangibles So, for different cultures, there have particular perceiveness and awareness of service quality as well as customer satisfaction with a same service.

In the field of travel services, the research of Eda Atilgan et al.,

(2003) showed that, all five factors have impact on customer satisfaction However, when comparing between German customers and Russian customers, there is difference in assessing each factors. Also in this field, the research of Charilaos Kouthosis and Kontantinos Alexandris (2005) in Greece gave out the same results of the impact of these five factors on customer satisfaction.

In conclusion, we can see that, the SERVQUAL scale is a polular scale, wich is widely applied in researching on customer satisfaction.Below is some summaries of recent researches using SERVQUAL model.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Background of the company

As an expert in the area of auto repair and servicing, Khanh Giang Company offers a wide variety of tires, automotive parts and products with big brands in the world and also in Vietnam such as: SRC, DRC, Casumina , Kumho, Michelin, Faken,Hankook, MRF, etc In addition to providing tires and auto repair service to Ha Noi and other neighboring provinces, the company also provides related customer support services.The products of the company have worked closely with manufacturers and always ensure manufacturer’s warranty for customers when purchasing products from the company.Customers are mainly persons who use private vehicles in Hanoi and surrounding provinces Besides the retail purchasing system with 20 stores in the area, the company also has a system of intermediate agents that buy products from other manufacturers through the company, and there are total 50 agents throughout northern Vietnam.

Research model

Research model is based on SERVQUAL model by Parasuraman et al with five main factors: (1) Reliability, (2) Responsiveness, (3) Assurance, (4) Empathy, (5) Tangibles and one more added factor “competitiveness of price” through the step of qualitative analysis

SERVQUAL model is selected because of its wide explanation ability in many different fields in previous time such as: E-commerce and internet (Samar I Swaid and Rolf T Wigand, 2007, 2009), health services (Emin Babakus and W.Clynn Mangold,1992, Mohamed M Mostafa, 2005), banking services (K.Ravichandra et al., 2010, Tram, 2008), restaurant services (Clare Chua Chow and Peter Luk, 2005), travel services (Eda Atilgan et al., 2003, Charilaos Kouthosis and Kontatinos Alexandris, 2005); public services (Arawati Agus, 2007), education sector (Michael Stodnick and Pamela Rogers, 2008, Kien, 2005)

Because of this reason, the author selects SERQUAL model as the main theoretical model in this study To suit the context of Vietnam, a developing country with low income, the factor “competitiveness of price” will be added into the research model Competitiveness of price is an important factor to a service which has so many substitutions like repair services as well as spare parts supply services of the company.

According to the results of qualitative interview with a customer group, it shows that, the factor “competitiveness of price” is also a significant factor affecting customer satisfaction with services of the company Other factors in 4Ps’ model such as: for factor “product” there are no differences between service providers because they have the same function of distribution for large firms; or factor “promotions” affects not much perceiveness and feelings of consumers The service providers almost compete with each other in terms of the price of products.Therefore, adding this factor into the model is needed and appropriate The theoretical model is proposed as follows (See figure 3.2.1):

Research hypotheses

Reliability means that providing services to customers must be on time and promptly as they assigned The reliability of the service providers positively affects

Responsiveness H5 Tangibles customer satisfaction with services Researchs by Samar I Swaid and Rolf T. Wigand, (2007, 2009) in the field of e-commerce and internet, research by Mohamed M Mostafa, (2005) in the field of health services, research by Clare Chua Chow and Peter Luk (2005) in the field of restaurant sector, research by Eda Atilgan et al (2003), research by Charilaos Kouthosis and Kontantinos Alexandris (2005) in the field of travel services; research by Arawati Agus (2007) in the field of public services show that the reality has positive impact on general satisfaction of customers on the services This gives out following hypothesis:

H1: Satisfaction with reliability positively affects customer satisfaction on service. Responsiveness: is the desire and willingness of the company’s staff in providing their services to customers The better staff’s responsiveness and willingness are, the higher customer satisfaction level is Responsiveness positively affects general satisfaction of customers with the company’s services The research by Tan et al (2010) on the relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction, research by Robert Y.Cavana et al (2007) in the field of passenger rail services, researches by Clare Chua Chow and Peter Luk (2005), by Syed Andaleeb and Carolyn Conway (2006) in the field of restaurant services, researches by Eda Atilgan et al (2003), by Charilaos Kouthosis and KontantinosAlexandris (2005) in the field of travel services all show that responsiveness has positive impact on general customer satisfaction with the services Therefore, this study proposes hypotheses as follows:

H2: Satisfaction with responsiveness positively affects customer satisfaction on service.

Assurance shows ability and professional skills of the company’s staff when providing services to customers It includes: problem solving skills, serve attitudes, respect for customers Customers appreciate the assurance of service provider means that they feel totally satisfied with the quality of the company’s services In contrast, when customers deprecate the assurance of service provider, they do not feel satisfied with services of the company The research by Tram (2008) in the field of banking services, research by Samar I Swaid and Rolf T Wigand, (2007) in the field of e-commerce, research by Eda Atilgan et al (2003) in the field of travel services, research by Kien (2005) in the field of education sector, research by Clare Chua Chow and Peter Luk (2005) in the field of restaurant services, research by Norizan Mohd Kassim and Jamil Bojei (2002) in the field of telecommunications sector all show that the assurance has positive impact on general customer satisfaction with the services Thus, this study hypothesizes that:

H3: Satisfaction with assurance positively affects customer satisfaction on service. Empathy: is reflected in the caring and responsibility of the company’s staff with their customers The caring of the staff to individual and special needs of the customers often makes them feel satisfied with the services they use The research by Mechael Stodnick and Pamela Rogers (2008) in the field of education, research by Robert Y.Cavana et al (2007) in the field of passenger rail services, researches by Eda Atilgan et al., (2003), by Charilaos Kouthosis and Kontantinos Alexandris (2005) in the field of travel services, etc show that the empathy has positive impact on general customer satisfaction with services For this reason, it is necessary for the study to launch the hypotheses as follows:

H4: Satisfaction with empathy positively affects customer satisfaction on service. Tangibles: includes conditions, facilities and methods for the process of providing services of the company to its customers The customers positively assess the tangibles of the company, it means that, they appreciate and satisfy the quality of the company’s services This is proven through the researches by Izah Mohd Tahir and Nor Mazlina Abu Bakar (2007), by Tram (2008) in the field of banking services, research by Mohamed M Mostafa (2005) in the field of health services, research by Norizan Mohd Kassim and Jamil Bojei (2002) in the field of telecommunications, researches by Clare Chua Chow and Peter Luk

(2005), by Syed Andaleeb and Carolyn Conway (2006) in the field of restaurant services, researches by Eda Atilgan et al (2003), by Charilaos Kouthosis and Kontantinos Alexandris (2005) in the field of travel services, research by Arawati Agus et al (2007) in the field of publich services also show that the factor “tangibles” has positive impact on general customer satisfaction with the services Thus, this study hypothesizes that:

H5: Satisfaction with tangibles positively affects customer satisfaction on service.Competitiveness of price: is the company’s ability of providing services with

These aspects express the competitiveness of price between the service providers The factor “competitiveness of price” has strong impact on the goods and services, which have high substitution ability or the normal goods (Minh, 2010) This gives out following hypothesis:

H6: Satisfaction with service Competitiveness of price positively affects customer satisfaction on service quality.

Besides these main research hypotheses, the author also considers the diffrences between customer groups in different aspects such as: sex, age, income, etc on general satisfaction with the company’s services.

Measurement of variables

The factors on SERVQUAL model are measured by 22 observed variables according to Parasuraman (1991) and are adjusted and added one more observed variable from E Jerome McCarth’s Four 'P's model, that is factor “competitiveness of price” to suit the conditions of the research The observed variables in this study are designed as follows:

Table 1 The observed variables in the study

The company has modern equipments.

The facilities in service activities of the company are attractive.

The employees’ uniforms are neat and courteous. The facilities (tools, equipments…) in the company are modern and sufficiently provided and serviced.

The company has convenient transaction time.

The company complies all when it promised to do something in a fix time.

The company always press its interest in resolving the problems you got into

The company performs services right at the first time you dothe transaction.

The company provides services right at the fix time they promised.

The company notifies customers the time services done.

The company’s staff serve quickly and correctly.

The company’s staff are always willing to help customers

The company’s staff seem not to be too busy to not meeting your requirements.

The activities of the staff create more and more trust with customers.

Customers feel safe when doing the transaction with the company. The company’s staff always show their courtesy and politeness for customers.

The company’s staff have sufficient knowledge to answer all questions of customers.

The company expresses its interest in the customers.

The company’s staff always express their interest in the customers. The company shows its special attention to the biggest concern of customers.

The company's employees understand the special needs of customers.

The price matches to the quality of services.

The price of the company is competitive compared to other companies.

Company has price discount policies in accordance with each customer groups.

The price of the company always has high stability and low volatility.

In general, you feel satisfied with the price of the company.

General Customers feel satisfied with the company’s services. satisfaction on services

Customers feel satisfied with the assurance of company.

Customers introduce company’s services to others.

Customers continue using company’s services in the next times.

Research design

To build scale for each definition (factor) in this study, the author firstly makes a qualitative interview through the method of group discussion with ten customers using services of the company The discussion contents include all issues of service quality and the satisfaction of customers when using the company’s services At the same time, the author also prepares the draft contents in SERVQUAL model so that the customers can assess the importance (role) of aspects of each factor in the model, as well as suggests the implicit aspects affecting customer satisfaction with the services besides factors in SERVQUAL model Through this step, the author proposes to add the factor

“competitiveness of price” into the theoretical model The qualitative interview contents are summed up as follows (see more in the appendix of the group discussion outline):

Discussion contents: Discussion about the factors that make you (customers) feel satisfied with services provided by Khanh Giang Company

Number of interviewee : 10 persons, divided into 2 groups

Overview of satisfaction with the company:

1 You feel satisfied with the services provided by the company?

2 You satisfy the facilities of the company?

3 You feel satisfied with the company’s assurance?

4 You think you will introduce the company’s services to others?

5 You will continue to use the company’s services?

Overview of factors satisfying customers:

` 1 Reliability (feelings about the reliability of the services)

4 Empathy (feelings about the staff’s serve attitudes, etc.)

5 Facilities of the company (tangibles)

Besides above mentioned factors, there are any other factors affecting customer satisfaction with the company’s services in your opinion? We have built a questionnaire from the above factors so that you can assess the meaning of each factor You can also cross out the question mark which you think are meaningless

Thank you for your cooperation!

The qualitative research questionnaire used in this study is obtained from the standardized questionnaire in the SERVQUAL scale The questions are adjusted through the step of qualitative interview to get the first draft questionnaire, then the author makes an interview with fifteen customers to check the suitability of words used in it, because the questions are translated from English to Vietnamese, so they can make customers confused After that, the author adjusts the questionnaire once again to have the final questionnaire The new factor “competitiveness of price” is built based on the summary of factor aspects which are supplemented by customers through qualitative group discussion Building the questions for the new factor is done by making both direct and inverse questions to test the consistency of customer’s understanding about each aspect For example, the question “You think the price matches to the quality of services?” will have inverse question “You think the price does not match to the quality of services?” In the new questions for the factor “competitiveness of price”, the author also builds based on the rule that: each question only includes one aspect in order to avoid the confusion of customers when answering the question with too many aspects but they do not agree with any aspects.

Each factor in this study is built by at least three questions to ensure the reliability of the definition (factor) when evaluating the reliability of the scale

Selection the scale spiels an important role in every researches, and it will help the researchers do the research analysis and find out research issues more easily In this study, the author uses the five point Likert scale In principle, the more detail the scale is, the more accurate it is, however, the five point Likert scale is appropriate with this study, because its accurateness is similar to the seven point Likert (the semantic distinguishing features of the “agree” level in Vietnamese are not too different between the five point and seven point scales).

To ensure the reliability of the research, the selection of appropriate sample size is needed In principle, the more number of samples are, the more accurate research results are, however, a too big sample size will affect the cost and time to conduct the research. Moreover, the long research time can make the research results become less reliable and tend to change.

Due to the cost limit in implementing the research, the sample size should be determined on the principle of minimum necessary to ensure the reliability of the study. The expected number of samples are 250 samples, and to ensure this sample size, 300 samples are sent to customers.

The determination of how appropriate the sample size is still has many controversies According to Kline (1979), the minimum number of samples is 100, but gave the sample size for the respective views is that: 100 = bad, 200 = pretty, 300 good, 500 = very good, 1000 or more = excellent.

Some researchers did not give specific numbers but the relationship between the number of observed variables with the sample size According to Trong and Ngoc (Vietnam, 2008) using the 5 - Power Rule, i.e the number of samples x 5 = the minimum sample size of the study to ensure reliability.

In this study, sampling according to the rules of Comrey and Lee (1992), and reference from rules of Ngoc & Trong with 26 observed variables The minimum sample size is 26 x 5 = 130 Thus, the sample size with 250 samples is a prety sample size (according to Comrey and Lee, 1992), it also satisfies the 5 – power rule of Ngoc and Trong of minimum sample size.

Due to the research time and cost limit, this study uses random sampling method instead of whole survey The number of questionnaires will be randomly handed to all customers who come to do transaction at Khanh Giang Company, and then the questionnaire will be directly filled by customers It will be done until the research gets the valid samples as expected.

3 Research objectives (overall): The research objectives include customers using the services of Khanh Giang Company.

Data analysis method

The obtained data are cleaned and analyzed by using SPSS 18.0 through statistical steps Include:

The obtained valid survey questionnaires will be classified according to the following criteria: sex, age, education level, income, etc At the same time, the author will also calculate the average point, maximum value, and standard deviation of the answers in collected questionnaire.

The observed variables are verified by using the Cronbach `s Alpha and the method of Item-total correlation The observed variables which do not ensure about the reliability will be removed from the scale and do not appear in the explore factor analysis (EFA).

In this study, Cronbach `s Alpha coefficient must be at least 0.6 (Hair et al., 1998).

If the correlation coefficient of the total variable is less than 0.3, it is considered as a

“spam variable” and naturally eliminated from the scale (Nunally and Burstein, 1994).

3.6.3 The explore factor analysis (EFA)

After being tested by Cronbach`s Alpha and the examination of Item-total correlation, the observed variables will be analyzed by EFA method Some standards applied in analyzing the EFA in the study are as follows:

1 Test the appropriateness of factor analysis to sample data through the statistical value of Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) Accordingly, if the KMO value is greater than 0.5, (Garson, 2003), otherwise, if the KMO value is less than 0.5, the factor analysis will be not appropriate to data.

2 The number of factors: The number of factors is determined based on the eigenvalue index which represents the variation explained by each factor According to Kaiser’s standards, the factors with an eigenvalue index less than 1 will be removed from the research model (Garson, 2003).

3 Variance explained criteria: The total variance explained criteria must be greater than 50%.

4 The convergence value: To meet the convergence value of the scale, the single correlation coefficient between variables and the factor loading must be greater than or equal to 0.5 within a factor (Garbing and Anderson, 1988).

5 The distinct value: To meet the distinct value, the value of distinction between the factor loadings must be greater than or equal to 0.3 (Jabnoun, 2003).

6 Principal components method with Varimax rotation to ensure the number of factors is smallest (Ngoc and Trong, 2008).

3.6.4 Naming and adjusting research model

After doing the explore factor analysis, according to the actual data, the author renames the factors and adjusts the model as well as original research hypothesis to fit the actual data.

After the scales of the examined factors were tested, they will be processed by running linear regression by method of ordinary least squares (OLS) with both Enter method and Stepwise method.

3.6.6 Testing the suitability of the regression model

After building the regression function by method of ordinary least squares, to ensure the reliability of model, the author makes finding the satisfaction with the hypotheses of the OLS model The contents are as follows:

 Linear dependence between independent variables: Using the scatter plot graph to test the linear dependence hypothesis contact between independent variables in the model.

 Residual autocorrelation: Using the Spearman’s Rank Correlation Coefficient to test the residual autocorrelation hypothesis.

 Testing the residual normal distribution: Using the P-Plot and Histogram graphs to test the residual normal distribution hypothesis

 Collinearity Diagnostics: When a repressor is nearly a linear combination of other repressors in the model, the affected estimates are unstable and have high standard errors This problem is called collinearity or multicollinearity Using Collinearity Diagnostics to find out which variables are nearly collinear with which other variables In the Collinearity Diagnostics, the tolerance or the VIF (variance inflation factor) are used According to Hoang Trong & Mong Ngoc

(2008), when VIF is less than or equal to 10, it means that the independent variables do not correlate linearly with each other.

 Heteroscedasticity: In statistics, a collection of random variables is heteroscedastic if there are sub-populations that have different variability than others When the variance of the errors changes, the estimates of the regression coefficients are not effective, and the T test and F test are no longer reliable

 Serial Correlation: is the correlation of a variable with itself over successive time intervals Serial correlations are often found in repeating patterns when the level of a variable affects its future level After testing, if the results showed that the assumptions are not violated, we may conclude that the estimate of regression coefficients is unbiased, consistent and effective The conclusions drawn from the regression analysis are reliable.

After checking, if the research results do not violate, we can conlude that, estimates of regression coefficients are unbiased, consistent and effective, and the conclusions obtained from regression analysis are reliable.

The research hypotheses will be tested through the research data from regression function The testing standards use the t-statistics and the p-value (sig.) With the reliability coefficient = 95%, we will test the p-values with 0.05 to conclude the posed research hypotheses For testing the difference between subtotals, the study will use t- test and ANOVA to test each hypothesis, and the testing standards based on the value of the corresponding p-value for each specific testing step To test the suitability of data and model, the author uses F-statistics, t-statistics, and R-square In addition, to assess the importance of factors, the author considers the Beta coefficient in the regression function.

RESEARCH RESULTS

Descriptive statistics

The minimum sample size of the study is determined by 250, to ensure this size,

300 questionnaires were distributed and then collected 267 samples In these 267 questionnaires, we got 253 valid ones and 12 other samples which are not fully filled by respondents The size of 253 samples satisfies the minimum sample size so we can start analyzing data The sample structure is divided based on following criteria:

In 253 valid questionnaires, there are 164 from male customers (equivalent to64.8%), and 89 for female customers (equivalent to 35.2%) (Figure 4.1.1) So, the structure by gender of the center is mostly male customers, and the ratio between male and female customers of the company is 2/1

Figure 4.1.1 The sample structure by gender

In 253 valid questionnaires, the group at the age from 30 to 40 consists of 115 persons (equivalent to 45.8%) and is the biggest group Next is the group at the age from 18 to 29 with 73 persons (equivalent to 28.9%), the group at the age from 46 to 60 has 54 persons (equivalent to 21.3%) and the last group has 11 persons (approximately4.3%).

Figure 4.1.2 The sample structure by age

4.1.3 Sample structure by education level

The actual data show that there are 59 persons at or above university-level (equivalent to 23.3%), 114 persons at college and intermediate-level (45.1%), 71 persons at high school-level (28.1%) and at other levels there are only 9 persons (equivalent to 3.6%).

0 9 20 40 60 80 100 120 ĐH CĐ/TC PTTH Khác

In 253 valid questionnaires, the number of persons who have income less than 3mil/ month is 30 (approximately 11.9%), the group of income from 3mil to 5mil./ month has 96 person (equivalent to 37.9%), the group of income from 5mil to 10mil./ month includes 111 persons (43.9%) and 16 persons have income above 10 mil/month (6.3%).

Figure 4.1.4 The sample structure by income

Results from actual data

The research results from actual data show that the agreement level of answers is distributed from level 1 (strongly disagree) to level 5 (strongly agree) that depends on each question The average point is at a quite high level (greater than 3) and the standard deviation is approximately 1 Therefore, we can conclude that the satisfaction level of customers is quite good, however, the distribution level of questions is also quite high

Table 2 Result summary from Descriptive Statistics

N Minimum Maximum Mean Std Deviation

Test of reliability

To test the reliability of scales, we use Cronbach`s Alpha coefficient and the total correlation coefficient The test standard is that Cronbach`s Alpha coefficient must be at least 0.6 (Hair, 1998), and the total correlation coefficient of observed variables also must be greater than 0.3 (Nunally and Burstein, 1994) The results from testing scale reliability for each factor are as follows:

4.3.1 Testing the scales for factor “tangibles”

The factor “tangibles” is measured by five observed variables from HH1 to HH5, the results from testing scale reliability by SPSS 18.0 show that Cronbach`s Alpha coefficient is 0.938 >0.6, the total correlation coefficients of observed variables are greater than 0.3 (table 4), so we can conclude that the scales are reliable when the factor “tangibles” is measured by five observed variables from HH1 to HH5.

Table 3 Item (HH) -Total Statistics

Scale Mean if Item Deleted

Scale Variance if Item Deleted

Cronbach's Alpha if Item Deleted

4.3.2 Testing scale reliability for the factor “reliability”

The factor “reliability” is measured by five observed variables from TC1 to TC5,the test results by SPSS 18.0 show that Cronbach`s Alpha coefficient is 0.935 >0.6, the total correlation coefficients of observed variables are greater than 0.3 (table 5).Therefore, we can conclude that the scales for factor “reliability” are approparite and reliable when the factor is measured by observed variables from TC1 to TC5.

Table 4 Item (TC) -Total Statistics

Scale Mean if Item Deleted

Scale Variance if Item Deleted

Cronbach's Alpha if Item Deleted

4.3.2 Testing scale reliability for the factor “responsiveness”

The factor “responsiveness” in the research model is measured by three observed variables from DU1 to DU3 The results from testing scale reliability by SPSS 18.0 show that Cronbach`s Alpha coefficient is 0.898 >0.6, the total correlation coefficient of observed variables are greater than 0.3 (Table 6) Therefore, we can conclude that the scales for the factor “responsiveness” are reliable when being measured by three observed variables from DU1 to DU3.

Table 5 Item (DU) -Total Statistics

Scale Mean if Item Deleted

Scale Variance if Item Deleted

Cronbach's Alpha if Item Deleted

4.3.3 Testing scale reliability for the factor “assurance”

The factor “assurance” is measured by four observed variables from PV1 to PV4.The test results by SPSS 18.0 show that Cronbach`s Alpha coefficient is 0.925 >0.6, the can conclude that the scales for the factor “assurance” are reliable when being measured by four observed variables from PV1 to PV4.

Table 6 Item (PV) -Total Statistics

Scale Mean if Item Deleted

Scale Variance if Item Deleted

Cronbach's Alpha if Item Deleted

4.3.4 Testing scale reliability for the factor “empathy”

The factor “empathy” in the research model is measured by four observed variables from CN1 to CN4 The results by SPSS 18.0 show that Cronbach`s Alpha coefficient is 0.931 >0.6, the total correlation coefficients of observed variables are greater than 0.3 (table 8) So, we can conclude that the scales for the factor “empathy” are reliable with four observed variables from CN1 to CN4.

Table 7 Item (CN) -Total Statistics

Scale Mean if Item Deleted

Scale Variance if Item Deleted

Cronbach's Alpha if Item Deleted

4.3.5 Testing scale reliability for the factor “competitiveness of price”

The factor “competitiveness of price” in the research model is measured by five observed variables from GI1 to GI5 The test results by SPSS 18.0 show thatCronbach`s Alpha coefficient is 0.914 >0.6, the total correlation coefficients of observed variables are greater than 0.3 (table 9) Therefore we can conclude that the factor “competitiveness of price” is reliable when being measured by five observed variables from GI1 to GI5.

Table 8 Item (GI) -Total Statistics

Scale Mean if Item Deleted

Scale Variance if Item Deleted

Cronbach's Alpha if Item Deleted

4.3.6 Testing scale reliability for the dependent variable “general satisfaction”

The dependent variable “general satisfaction” in the research model is measured by five observed variables from 5 HL1 to HL5 The test results by SPSS 18.0 show that Cronbach`s Alpha coefficient is 947 >0.6, the total correlation coefficients of observed variables are greater than 0.3 (table 10) Therefore we can conclude that the scales for the dependent variable “general satisfaction” are reliable when this factor is measured by five observed variables from HL1 to HL5.

Table 9 Item (HL)-Total Statistics

Scale Mean if Item Deleted

Scale Variance if Item Deleted

Cronbach's Alpha if Item Deleted

4.3.7 Result summary of scale verification

To facilitate the viewing of research results, we will summarize results from scale verification as follows:

Table 10 Result summary of scale verification

No Factor/ Independent variable Number of observed variables Cronbach`s Alpha coefficient

Explore factor analysis

After being tested with Cronbach`s Alpha coefficient, the scales will be continuously measured by Explore Factor Analysis method (EFA) Principal components method with Varimax rotation to ensure the minimum number of factors (Hoang Trong and Chu Nguyen Mong Ngoc, 2008) For this study, EFA is simultaneously analyzed with the independent variables, and the dependent variable is particularly analyzed The analysis standard here is that factor loading coefficient must be greater than 0.5, Eigen value must be at least 1, the variance extracted must equal to at least 50%, KMO coefficient >0.5, and Bartlett has p-value (sig.) dL < dobv< dU We can not conclude here that there is the autocorrelation in the model or not, however, because dobv is very close to 2 so we can consider the hypothesis that there is no correlation in the model

5 Testing the multicollinearity in the model

To test the multicollinearity in the model, we use the variance inflation factor (VIF).

If VIF = 10: the model has multicollinearity

From the results of regression analysis, we see that observed VIF values are less than 10, so we can conclude that the multicollinearity has influence on the estimated model.

In other hand, p-value of F-statistics in the variance analysis is 0000.05, so we can not reject the hypothesis that the total average value of the variable GI is 3.3, if reject this hypothesis, the possibility of error is 88.7%.

For the dependent variable HL “general satisfaction”, the results by T-Test with the comparison value = 3.66 are as follows:

Table 26 One-Sample Test with the variable HL

Test Value = 3.66 t df Sig (2- tailed)

95% Confidence Interval of the Difference

The test results show that p-value =0.949 >0.05, so we can not reject the hypothesis that the average value of the total is 3.66, if reject this hypothesis, the possibility of error is 94.9%.

4.8.2 Testing the differences between groups of different gender

To test the differences on the satisfaction with services between groups of male and female employees, we use Independent Samples Test, and get the results as follows:

Table 27 Variance analysis (ANOVA) by gender

Levene's Test for Equality of Variances t-test for Equality of Means

95% Confidence Interval of the Difference Lower Upper

5 For the variable TU, Levene-test has p-value =0.202 >0.05, so we can not reject the hypothesis that the variance of these two groups is different In addition, we use the results from t-statistics in the part “Equal variances not assumed”, p-value of t-statistics is 0.490 >0.05 Therefore, with the reliability coefficient = 95%, we can reject the hypothesis that there are differences between group of male and female customers For the variable PV, Levene-test has p-value =0.050, to be sure, we still consider the hypothesis that the variance between these two groups is different We use the results from t-statistics in the part “Equal variances not assumed”, p-value of corresponding t-statistics is 0.499>0.05 So with the reliability coefficient = 95% we can reject the hypothesis that there are differences between group of male and female customers on the variable PV

The same test results with the variables CN, GI and HL also show that there are no differences between male and female customers.

4.8.3 Testing the differences between groups of different age

To test the differences between groups of different age, we use analysis of variance method (ANOVA), and get the results as follows:

Table 28 Variance analysis (ANOVA) by age

Squares df Mean Square F Sig.

We can easily see that p-value of F-statistics between groups is greater than 0.05.

So we can conclude that there are no differences between groups of different age on the factors and on general satisfaction of customers with the service The results from analyzing the average values of groups also show that there are no significant differences between groups of different age

4.8.4 Testing the differences between groups of different education level

To test the differences between groups of different education level, we use Variance analysis method (ANOVA) and get the results as follows:

Table 29 Variance analysis (ANOVA) by education level

Squares df Mean Square F Sig.

All p-values of corresponding F-statistics of variables are greater than 0.05.Therefore, we can conclude here that there are no differences between groups of different education level

4.8.4 Testing the differences between groups of different income

To test the differences between groups of different income, we use Variance analysis method (ANOVA) and get the results as follows:

Table 30 Variance analysis (ANOVA) by income

Squares df Mean Square F Sig.

The p-values of corresponding F-statistics between groups are greater than 0.05, so we can conclude that there are no difference between customer groups of different income.

Detections of the research

The research results show that SERVQUAL model is a reliable model in evaluating the satisfaction of customers with services However, the results also point out that in different cultural environment, different research time, and in different fields, there are differences on customer feelings about services In the original model, the factor “reliability” and the factor “responsiveness” are two separate factors for the feelings of customers, but in this study, customers assess these two factors as a factor and then the study forms one new factor “reliability and responsiveness” The research model also adds one more new factor that is quite important for the products and services with high competitiveness ability and especially for the supplement products, that is the factor “competitiveness of price” Like this, the study tested the SERVQUAL model once again in new research conditions We also see in the study results, the dependent variable “general satisfaction” is directly and positively affected by the independent variables in the research model In addition, the research results also show that in the spare parts supply services, there are no differences between groups of different gender, age, education level and different income

Table 31 Summary of research hypotheses testing results

Satisfaction with the factor “reliability and responsiveness” positively affects general customer satisfaction on the service Accept

H2 Satisfaction with the factor “competitiveness of price” positively affects general customer satisfaction on the service.

Satisfaction with the factor “tangibles” positively affects general customer satisfaction on the service.

Satisfaction with the factor “empathy” positively affects general customer satisfaction on the service.

Satisfaction with the factor “assurance” positively affects general customer satisfaction on the service.

Figure 4.9.1 The relationship between independent variables and the dependent variable in the research model

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Conclusions

The research results show that in the research conditions of spare parts supply services, customer satisfaction is directly affected by four factors, including: (1) competitiveness of price, (2) reliability and responsiveness, (3) empathy, and (4) assurance The research results also show that for the spare parts supply services, there are no differences between groups of different gender, age, education level and different income All these four factors have direct and positive influence on the satisfaction of customers with the services of the company

The agreement level of customers on the services of the company is at a quite high level and above the average level (3.7 point) in the five point Likert scale So, we can see that the services of the company are pretty good assessed by the customers.

In the research model, the most important factor is “competitiveness of price”, a new factor for the original theoretical research model This means that, spare parts supply service is a trading activity which has many competitions in the market,therefore the factor “price” is one of the most important factors that must be cared by not high income like Vietnam, the consumers always care the factor “price” of products and services the most when they decide to buy and use them.

Recommendations

The research results show the current satisfaction level of customers with the services of the company, explore and conclude which factors are the important factors affecting customer satisfaction and the importance of them To build solutions for the better quality of services and for increasing customer satisfaction level, the company needs to focus on each factor based on their importance From the obtained results, the author suggests some recommendations as follows:

1 For “competitiveness of price”, the evaluation level of customer on the current price of services is not high and at 3.3 point in five point Likert scale Thus, to improve the ability of price competitiveness is very necessary To get this, the company can apply some following solutions:

+ Build discount policies for each group of customers in a reasonable way The company can build discount levels based on purchasing quantity and discount supporting policies for loyal customers by offering point accumulation card when they purchase, etc However, when building the discount policies, the company must ensure the fairness and avoid creating conflicts on benefits between the groups of wholesale buyers and retail customers That means, the policies must have priority for wholesale buyers or for retail customers clearly, and the difference of price between these two groups must be enough for advantage conflicts (Jack Trout, 2008).

+ The price must be built based on its competitiveness ability compared with other companies and be stable and not too much fluctuated For the tires and tubes supply services, there are no differences between businesses who provide services for manufacturers The factor “price” is the deciding factor in purchasing decisions of customers when the products are similar, so the company needs to ensure the price stable and low enough to compete with other service providers The only way to do this is to streamline service delivery processes, optimize the storage of goods to reduce storage costs, maintenance costs and other transaction costs in order to cut price of services

2 Corporate brand building to ensure the company’s reliability The theory of information economics suggested that branding products and services will provide a signal indicator for customers to easily choose services in a market with many suppliers. Building a trust brand is considered as a confirmation paper for customers that they will be sure to be provided the best services, and the breakdowns of services providers will be handled seriously and responsibly So, to build brand, the company must focus on positioning its services on the most different attribute compared with other competitors and make them remarkable in the increasingly competitive market (Ries and Ries, 2006; Jack Trout and Steve Revkin, 2009).

3 Increase the current assurance and build service culture and strategy for the company staff Nowadays, customers often pay attention to the factor “price” of services However, along with the trend of increasing income in the future, they will become more fastidious and tend to require the higher quality of the services To meet service culture is really essential So, some solutions can be suggested are: (1) To build a Code of Conduct customer-served and -orientated which is recognized and widely applied in all departments of the company (2) To build procedures of service delivery towards standardization and updates based on the market volatility The standardization of service supply procedures will increase labor productivity and at once is also a measure of the reference standard for customers to compare and expect to the quality of services they are provided.

Contributions and the importance of the research

The study once again retested the reliability of SERVQUAL model in evaluating service quality and customer satisfaction with services This study also detected that for different research conditions, factors in the research model can be differently understood, and some factors are meaningless for customers (here is the factor

In addition, the study also adds one more specific factor into the research model which is the factor “competitiveness of price” The research results show that this factor is the most important factor with R-square coefficient = 0.908, that means, the explanation ability of the model on the variability of satisfaction level with services is very high Therefore, the author thinks that it is the main detections and contributions of the study compared with other previous researches It is also the basic for adjusting and applying this research model in the future

5.3.2 The importance of the research

1 In the domain of learning, the study once again tests the reliability of the SERVQUAL model in measuring service quality and customer satisfaction with services The study also provides information and new trends that may be important for evaluation of service quality and customer satisfaction In detail in this study, the factor

“price” (competitiveness of price) tends to be measured and assessed in a market with low income Thus, it is necessary for researches to use a qualitative research to adjust theoretical models before applying them in different research culture and conditions.

2 In the domain of reality, the study answered two main questions that are proposed in the research purposes, including: (1) which factors affect customer satisfaction with services? and (2) How is impact intensity of each factor on customer satisfaction with services? To answer these two questions is very necessary because it will help managers and service providers to have directions and solutions for improving the quality of services In other words, the study exactly pointed out “problems” and

“causes of problems” for the company to find specific “solutions”, not only based on unfounded information and subjective judgments.

Limitations

As other previous researches, this study also has certain limitations as follows:Firstly, the research is done with customers of a company, so it can not answer the question about general satisfaction of other customer groups using same services of other companies The evaluation on service quality of customers of Khanh Giang company are good but it can still not be compared with other service providers in the same service sector, so we can not see the importance and position (image) of the company in customer thoughts

Secondly, due to the limitation of time and cost to conduct the research, the author has not made the deep interview with students (interviewees) after the quantitative research to detect more inside information that do not contain in the close questions.Thirdly, the study uses random sampling method instead of whole survey, so it can not assess the influences of sampling errors on the research results Therefore, the reliability and representative of the research model are limited.

Directions for further researches

From the limitations of this study, the author proposes the directions for further research as follows:

Firstly, the study should expand the research objects including the customers of other service provider in the same service sector to compare and evaluate the differences between them.

Secondly, to increase the possibility to generalize for the overall (total), further researches should extend the investigation scale to increase the reliability of the research model, and to adjust the suitability of the scales Further researches can also use the probability sampling method to increase the representative and generality of the research model.

Thirdly, because this study was done at a time, so its explanation ability in the long-run is limited To improve this, further researches should be carried out in different times and analyze the research model in the long-run in order to evaluate how the factors impact in the model.

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DISCUSSION OUTLINE OF QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH

Hello! a Master student at Shu-Te University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan At this time, I am doing Master’s thesis research under the title: “Evaluating customer satisfaction with the tire supply services of Khanh Giang Joint Stock Company” Firstly, I would like to express my thanks to you for attending this group discussion Please frankly express your feelings about services of the company by answering the questions in this questionnaire Every comments and opinions from you will useful for me to complete this thesis and also help the company have better policies for employees and customers.

The expected discussion time: 60 min.

The contents of discussion: Discussing the factors affecting customer satisfaction with current services of Khanh Giang company

The overall of the satisfaction with the company:

1 You feel satisfied with the services provided by the company?

2 You feel satisfied with the facilities of the company?

3 You feel comfortable and satisfied with the assurance of the company?

4 You think you will introduce the services of the company to others?

5 You will continuously use the services of the company?

The overall of factors affecting customer satisfaction:

` 1 Reliability (feelings about the reliability of the services)

4 Empathy (feelings about the staff’s serve attitudes, etc.)

5 Facilities of the company (tangibles)

Besides above mentioned factors, there may be any other factors affecting customer satisfaction with the company’s services in your opinion? We have built a questionnaire from the above factors so that you can assess the meaning of each factor In addition, you can also cross out the question mark which you think meaningless and then add other important factors into the questionnaire.

Thank you for your cooperation!

I am Nguyen Ba Thanh, a Master student in the falculty of Business Administration, at Shu-Te University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan At this time, I am doing Master’s thesis research under the title “Survey on customer satisfaction with services at Khanh Giang General Trading Limited Company” under the direction of Professor

Shu-Cheng Lee and PhD Pham Thi Lien

To implement the thesis, I would like to invite you, customers of Khanh Giang company, to express your feelings about services of the company by answering the questions in this questionnaire Your name and any of the information you provide will be kept strictly confidential and will not be attributed to the individual or organization. All responses will be stored in a secure environment The results of this research would be used for academic purposes only

All information and feedback please contact:

Please rate the extent to which you agree with each statement below (Circle the number that best indicates for each statement) In which

1 Strongly disagree 2- Disagree 3- Neutral 4- Agree 5- Strongly agree

No Code Contents Agreement level

1 HH1 The company has modern equipments? 1 2 3 4 5

2 HH2 The facilities in service activities of the company are attractive?

3 HH3 The employees’ uniforms are neat and courteous?

4 HH4 The facilities (tools, equipments, etc.) in the company are modern and sufficiently provided and serviced?

5 HH5 The company has convenient transaction time?

6 TC1 The company complies all when it promised to do something in a fix time?

7 TC2 The company always shows its interest in resolving the problems you got into?

8 TC3 The company performs services right in the first time you do the transaction?

9 TC4 The company provides services right at the fix time they promised?

10 TC5 The company notifies customers the time services done?

11 DU1 The company’s staff serves quickly and correctly?

12 DU2 The company’s staff is always willing to help customers?

13 DU3 The company’s staff seems not to be too busy to not meeting your requirements?

14 PV1 The activities of the staff create more and more trust with customers?

15 PV2 Customers feel safe when doing the transaction with the company?

16 PV3 The company’s staff always shows their courtesy and politeness for customers?

1 2 3 4 5 answer all questions of customers?

18 CN1 The company shows its interest in the customers? 1 2 3 4 5

19 CN2 The company’s staff always expresses their interest in the customers?

20 CN3 The company pays its special attention to the biggest concern of customers?

21 CN4 The company's employees understand the special needs of customers?

22 GI1 The price matches to the quality of services? 1 2 3 4 5

23 GI2 The price of the company is competitive compared to other companies?

24 GI3 Company has price discount policies in accordance with each customer groups?

25 GI4 The price of the company always has high stability and low volatility?

26 GI5 In general, you feel satisfied with the price of the company?

27 HL1 Customers feel satisfied with the company’s services?

28 HL2 Customers feel satisfied with the facilities of company?

29 HL3 Customers feel satisfied with the assurance of company?

30 HL4 Customers introduce company’s services to others? 1 2 3 4 5

31 HL5 Customers continue using company’s services in the next times?