CHAPTER 1: GENERAL THEORETICAL BASIS ON LOGISTICS
1.2. Overview of the quality of Logistics services
A service is an activity or benefit offered for exchange, which is essentially intangible and does not result in the transfer of ownership.
Performance of a service may or may not be tied to a physical product (Philip Kotler 2003). Service quality is a concept that attracts a lot of attention and controversy, researchers have encountered many difficulties in defining and measuring service quality without any consensus (Wisniewski, 2001).
Depending on the research object and the research environment, service quality is defined in many different ways. In the 1982 study, the authors Lehtinen and Lehtinen suggested that service quality must be assessed on two aspects: (1) the service delivery process and (2) the service's outcome.
Gronroos (1984) also proposed two components of service quality: (1) technical quality, what the customer receives, and (2) functional quality, interpreting the service provided as how. Another concept considers service quality as the degree to which a service meets the needs and expectations of customers (Lewis & Mitchell, 1990; Asubonteng et al., 1996; Wisniewski &
Donnelly, 1996). Author Edvardsson et al. (1994) argue that service quality is the service that meets customers' expectations and satisfies their needs.
A commonly used definition of service quality, given by Parasuraman et al., is: “Service quality is the difference between consumers' expectations of a service and their perceptions of service. on service outcomes” (1988 and 1991). This is also the concept of service quality used in the thesis.
Accordingly, the quality of Logistics services is the difference between the customer's expectations of the Logistics service provided by the Company and their perception of the results of the Logistics service.
1.2.2. Evaluation of logistics service quality
Logistics service quality in particular and service quality in general can be assessed through customer satisfaction. There are different views on customer satisfaction. According to Bachelet (1985-1991) customer satisfaction is defined as an emotional response by customers in response to their experience with a product or service. According to Philip Kotler, satisfaction is a person's level of emotional state that results from comparing the results obtained from a product (or output) with that person's expectations.
The level of satisfaction depends on the difference between the results received and the expectations, if the actual results are lower than the expectations, the customers are not satisfied, if the actual results match the expectations, the customers will be satisfied. If the actual result is higher than the expectation, the customer is very satisfied. Customer expectations are formed from shopping experiences, from friends and colleagues, and from seller and competitor information. To improve customer satisfaction, businesses need to make additional investments, but at least invest in marketing programs. In the competitive landscape, the wisdom of every business is to simply create higher customer satisfaction than the competition.
This will harmonize the interests of the customer and the profit of the business. Anyway, customer satisfaction and satisfaction also have an impact on brand loyalty of manufacturers.
However, satisfaction is not sustainable and difficult to quantify. The real determinant of customer loyalty is customer value. Customer value creates satisfaction - the level of customer satisfaction. Businesses need to measure the satisfaction of their customers and those of their direct competitors. Maybe through an investigation or posing as a shopper. Information about a decrease in customer satisfaction of an enterprise compared to a competitor's is a foreshadowing of the loss of customers and a decrease in market share in the future. It is necessary to establish information channels for customers to
comment or complain. Level of complaints cannot be used as a measure of customer satisfaction because most dissatisfaction customers do not complain.
The thesis uses the method of assessing the quality of Logistics services according to customers' perception according to 5 RATER criteria as follows:
Reliability
Responsiveness Assurance
Rater
Empathy Tangibles
(Source: Group of authors Zeitham V.A.Parasurama and Leonard L.B, 2003) Figure 1.2: Rater service quality measurement criteria
1. Reliability: The ability to perform the promised service accurately and reliably. A service can be trusted if it does it right the first time.
2. Responsiveness: Respond to customer requests for services and information in the fastest and most professional manner.
3. Assurance: Provide customers with confidence in the capabilities of the business. The qualities of employees that will create trust for customers such as politeness, professionalism, respect for customers, ability to communicate...
4. Empathy: Efforts to understand the needs of customers, show concern and care for each individual customer.
5. Tangibility: Including elements of means, facilities, employee appearance, equipment used in providing services, documents serving communication...