Tài liệu The relationship between service quality, customer satisfaction and customer loyalty in cleaning serviec industry luận văn thạc sĩ

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HOCHIMINH CITY …………………… Huỳnh Thị Ngọc Mai THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SERVICE QUALITY, CUSTOMER SATISFACTION and CUSTOMER LOYALTY IN CLEANING SERVICE INDUSTRY An evidence of Pan Pacific Corporation MASTER’S THESIS Major: Business Administration Major Code: 60.34.05 Supervisor Dr. Trần Hà Minh Quân Ho Chi Minh City 2010 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I would like to record my most sincere appreciation and heartfelt thanks to individuals, of whom without, might not lead to the possibility of this research to be realized. First and foremost, I wish to express my deep sincere gratitude to my supervisor Dr.Tran Ha Minh Quan for his guidance, encouragement and excellent advices throughout this study. I would like to extend my sincere thanks to assistant Prof. Nguyen Dinh Tho, Dr.Nguyen Thi Mai Trang and Dr.Dinh Cong Khai for their valuable comments and constructive suggestions. I would also like to avail this opportunity to express my appreciation to Professor Nguyen Dong Phong and UEH Board of Directors for creating MBA program in English. I am also thankful to all my classmates in MBA class-Bath 16, especially Ms.Nguyen Nhu Chang, Mr.Nguyen Thanh Trung, Mr.Lam Hong Phong, for their collaboration and valuable assistance throughout my study. Gratitude also goes to Board of Management of Pan Pacific Corporation, colleagues for giving me supports. Many thanks for Pan Pacific’s Clients who save value time to respond my survey questionnaire, without them my thesis could not have been done. Last but not least, the express my profound gratitude to my beloved mother, my lover and my closest friends for being patience and never failed giving me continuous supports, spiritually and encouragement along the study. i ABSTRACT In the present cleaning service industry, service quality is a vital competitive policy to keep customers support and long-term cooperation. Cleaning service providers are trying to win customer satisfaction and loyalty by proving enhanced quality service. The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between service quality, customer satisfaction and customer loyalty in cleaning service industry. In this study, attention is paid to the measurement model of service quality in cleaning service industry based on the well-known SERVQUAL model, but with modification on the basis of focus group discussions and expert opinions to reflect the specific industry attributes and the special culture of Vietnam. 158 samples were collected from Pan Pacific Corporation’s various clients in the South of Vietnam. Cronbach Alpha was carried out to test the reliability of each statement and the summated scales were formulated by means of Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA). Then, Multiple Linear Regressions test was used to test the effect of Service Quality on Customer Satisfaction and Customer Loyalty, the effect of customer satisfaction on loyalty. Overall findings from this study suggest there were significant relationship between Service Quality, Customer Satisfaction and Customer Loyalty. The study found that there were six dimensions of cleaning service quality including affectivity, cleaner competence, supervisor competence, tangibles, service safety, empathy and all dimensions are positively related to Customer Satisfaction. The regression test also found that there was a positive direction and significant relationship between customer satisfaction on customer loyalty. The results indicated that the overall service quality has significantly positive effect on overall customer loyalty. Among these six dimensions except Empathy, all of them have a significantly positive effect on overall customer loyalty. Keywords: cleaning service industry, service quality, customer satisfaction, customer loyalty. ii TABLE OF CONTENT ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ................................................................................................. i ABSTRACT....................................................................................................................... ii TABLE OF CONTENT.................................................................................................... iii Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................... 1 1.1 Introduction about cleaning service industry ....................................................... 1 1.2 Research background: .......................................................................................... 2 1.3 Research problem ................................................................................................ 4 1.4 Research Questions.............................................................................................. 5 1.5 Objectives of the study......................................................................................... 5 1.6 Scope of the Study................................................................................................ 5 1.7 Research method.................................................................................................. 6 1.8 Structure of the study ........................................................................................... 6 Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................................. 8 2.1 Service quality ..................................................................................................... 8 2.2.1 Definition of service quality................................................................................. 8 2.2.1.1 Definition of “Quality” ..................................................................................... 8 2.2.1.2 Definition of “Service”..................................................................................... 9 2.2.1.3 Definition of “service quality” ...................................................................... 11 2.2.2 Measurement of service quality......................................................................... 11 2.2.3 Cleaning service quality..................................................................................... 16 2.2 2.2.3.1 Definition of “Cleaning” ................................................................................ 16 2.2.3.2 Definition of cleaning service quality: ........................................................ 16 2.2.3.3 Determinants of cleaning service quality: .................................................. 17 2.2.3.4 Cleaning quality awareness ........................................................................... 20 Customer satisfaction ......................................................................................... 23 2.3 Customer loyalty ................................................................................................ 24 iii 2.4 Relationship between service quality, customer satisfaction and loyalty.......... 25 2.5.1 Relationship between Service quality and customer satisfaction ...................... 25 2.5.2 Relationship between Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty ................................ 26 2.5.3 Relationship between service quality and customer loyalty.............................. 27 Chapter 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ................................................................ 29 3.1 Research design ................................................................................................. 29 3.2 Item generation .................................................................................................. 31 3.3.1 Items to measure Service Quality ...................................................................... 32 3.3.2 Items to measure customer satisfaction ............................................................. 33 3.3.3 Items to measure customer loyalty .................................................................... 35 3.3 Preliminary study ............................................................................................... 35 3.4 Theoretical Model.............................................................................................. 37 3.5 Main survey........................................................................................................ 37 3.5.1 Sampling............................................................................................................. 37 3.5.2 Sample size ........................................................................................................ 38 3.5.3 Survey method and data collection .................................................................... 39 3.6 Data Analysis techniques ................................................................................... 39 Chapter 4: DATA ANALYSIS AND RESEARCH FINDINGS ................................. 41 4.1 Descriptive statistics of sample.......................................................................... 41 4.2 Descriptive Analysis .......................................................................................... 44 4.3 Scales assessment .............................................................................................. 44 4.4.1 Reliability Analysis Results ............................................................................... 44 4.4.2 Exploratory factor analysis (EFA)...................................................................... 46 4.4.2.1 Measurement scales of cleaning service quality ....................................... 46 4.4.2.2 Measurement scales of customer loyalty .................................................... 51 4.4.3 Adjustment of theoretical model........................................................................ 54 4.4 Testing the research model and the hypotheses ................................................ 55 iv 4.4.1 Testing correlations between all constructs ....................................................... 55 4.4.2 Testing hypotheses............................................................................................. 56 4.5 4.4.2.1 The relationship between Cleaning Service Quality and Customer Satisfaction ...................................................................................................................... 56 4.4.2.2 The relationship between Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty…………58 4.4.2.3 The relationship between cleaning service quality dimensions and customer loyalty.............................................................................................................. 60 DISCUSSION AND FINDINGS ........................................................................ 63 Chapter 5: CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS .................................................. 65 5.1 Conclusions of the study..................................................................................... 65 5.2 Implications of the study .................................................................................... 66 5.2.1 Theoretical implications..................................................................................... 66 5.2.2 Practical implications ......................................................................................... 66 5.3 Limitations and recommendations for further research..................................... 68 APPENDIX 1- CUSTOMER SATISFACTION FEEDBACK ...................................... 69 Vietnamese ................................................................................................................... 73 English........................................................................................................................... 73 SOME ACTIVITIES OF CLEANING SERVICES FOR REFERENCE.................... 76 v LIST OF TABLES Table 3.1- Measurement scales of cleaning service quality.....................................34 Table 3.2- Measurement scales of customer loyalty ...............................................35 Table 4.1- Sample characteristics..........................................................................41 Table 4.2- Descriptive Statistics............................................................................44 Table 4.3 – Reliability of the measurement instrument...........................................46 Table 4.4 – Rotated component matrix of cleaning service quality scale .................50 Table 4.5 – Total Variance Explained of customer loyal ........................................51 Table 4.6 – EFA result for individual measurement scales .....................................52 Table 4. 7-Final construct measurement scales ......................................................52 Table 4.8- Summary of hypotheses .......................................................................55 Table 4.9– Correlation matrix ...............................................................................56 Table 4.9a- Model Summary (cleaning service and customer satisfaction)..............57 Table 4.9b – Coefficients......................................................................................58 Table 4.10a-Model Summary ( customer satisfaction and customer loyalty) ...........58 Table 4.10b – Coefficients....................................................................................60 Table 4.11a - Model Summary ( service quality and customer loyalty) ..................61 Table 4. 11b – Coefficients...................................................................................61 vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.1- SERVQUAL gap analysis...................................................................13 Figure 3.1-Research process .................................................................................31 Figure 3.2 - Theoretical Model .............................................................................38 Figure 4.1a - Position of respondents ....................................................................42 Figure 4.1b-Gender of respondents .......................................................................43 Figure 4.1c - Service range of respondents ............................................................43 Figure 4.2 - Adjusted theoretical model.................................................................54 Figure 4.3- Hypothesis H1 testing result................................................................58 Figure 4.4-Hypothesis H2 testing result ................................................................60 Figure 4.5 -Hypothesis H3 testing result................................................................62 vii Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION This chapter begins with general introduction about cleaning service and the current study is provided with research background, research problem, research objectives and research questions are mentioned as the rationale for this study. Also, scope of the current study are discussed and an introduction of the methodology to be used in this chapter. At the end of the chapter, the structure of this study is provided. 1.1 Introduction about cleaning service industry Nowadays, cleaning service is very popular in human life. Cleaning service providers is responsible for providing all necessary management, manpower, machinery, equipment, tools, chemicals (exclusive such items, which the Landlord shall provide), which were pre-approved by the Landlord to efficiently carry out the cleaning tasks of the project in accordant with the international standard and Landlord requirements. They also provides uniformed, properly trained and appropriately skilled cleaners. All cleaners have a yearly health check. Cleaners shall at all time while on duty be dressed in full uniform, well groomed, cleanshaven, polite and helpful. Service providers maintains the minimum number of contracted cleaners and provides additional cleaners as it determines necessary for full cleaning coverage during sickness, holidays, etc. Using cleaning service bring to us much advantage : high quality service, reasonable fee, the professional and well trained working force from the leading company in cleaning and property care, the modern specific cleaning equipments without any investment, maintaining the value of the property, creation a clean and beautiful working environment for both officers and visitors, avoidance from directly management to the cleaning workers and risks from its potential problems, whole hearted concentration on own business. 1 Among of many cleaning service providers in Vietnam, Pan Pacific is one leading company in this industry, with operating in over 20 cities and provinces nationwide, supplying cleaning service for more than 300 customers of many business types. Pan Pacific also is among of Vietnam largest cleaning providers with over 5000 skilled employees. With more than 17 years experience in cleaning service industry, Pan Pacific has developed various customer system including Commercial Buildings (office buildings, service apartments), Supermarkets and Shopping Centers, Hospitals & Medical Centers, Factories in IPs, EPZs, International Schools. Especially, Pan Pacific also have many experiences in supplying regular cleaning service for typical projects with highest level national security such as; International Airports, Television Station. 1.2 Research background: Going with developing real estate market and foreign investment, demand of facility management in office buildings, shopping centers, international schools, foreign factories are appeared. These management services include security, property maintenance, pest controls, landscape and cleaning service. In which cleaning service industry is very important to enhance quality and brand of the building. Instead of organizing and managing a cleaning division, owners can contract with professional cleaning company which can provide package service including manpower, equipments, tools, chemicals. A cleaning company will provide uniformed, properly trained and appropriately skilled cleaners, all cleaners have a yearly health check, cleaners shall at all time while on duty be dressed in full uniform, well groomed, clean-shaven, polite and helpful. Cleaning company will provide additional cleaners as it determines necessary for full cleaning coverage during sickness, holidays, etc. Cleaning company also is responsible compensating damage of property which cause of their employees. 2 With lot of advantages bring to customer, industry cleaning service is first choice for Office Buildings, Shopping Centers, Shopping Malls, Foreign Factories, International Schools….By outsourcing, the owner can save their time to concentrate main business fields. Therefore, cleaning service industry in Vietnam has developed rapidly in recently year with a lot of customers in many fields such as : almost Office Buildings with grade A-B-C have demand of using high-class cleaning service (Bitexco Financial Tower, Saigon Centre, Metropolitan, Sunwha, Kumho…), famous shopping centers (Diamond, Parkson,…), modern factories in electricity, pharmacy, food.. (Intel, P & G, Unilever, Kimberly Clack, Sanofi, Sonion…), international schools (VUS, VAS, ACG, RMIT, V-STAR, Bắc Mỹ, Việt Mỹ, Saigontech …), high-class service apartments (The Manor, Saigon Pearl, Somerset, Catavil…), Hotels ( Sheraton, Rex, Kumho,..). Number of cleaning providers also increase quickly to meet market demand. In the such competitive market, developing and keeping customer loyalty is essentially for business survival. Customer loyalty is another way to gain the best possible customer, repeat customers. Not only do repeat customers tend to spend more money but they are often the people who tend to provide the best word of mouth advertising possible. Especially in cleaning service industry, competition is rife. Customer will not hesitate to terminate cleaning contract in the event that their needs and expectations are not met. In cleaning service, emphasis on the quality is a vital aspect in that it determines the level or degree of customer satisfaction. A cleaning service provider can reduce the detrimental impact of effective factors by first ensuring that its customers are as highly satisfied with its services as possible. Cleaning service organizations are better positioned to reap the positive outcomes associated with having a largely satisfied customer base if they have an understanding of those factors that contribute to their customers’ satisfaction. Because meeting customers' expectations for key service quality attributes should 3 lead to satisfied customers who, in turn, will remain loyal to the service and recommend it to other potential customers. 1.3 Research problem To evaluate how well their companies are meeting customer needs, service managers often use measurements of service quality and customer satisfaction (Dabholkar, 1995). Therefore, service quality and customer satisfaction have received much attention from service marketers and academic researchers (Spreng & MacKoy, 1996). In addition, Taylor (1997) has noted that the two constructs (service quality and customer satisfaction) have became very important for marketing theory and practice. Oliver (1997) suggested that profit for a company (purchase/repurchase behavior by the consumer) was dependent on a sequence of three factors: Quality, satisfaction, and loyalty. Quality has a direct influence on consumer satisfaction, which can be both a cognitive and affective dimension according to Oliver. Satisfaction, in turn, has a direct influence upon the loyalty of the consumer. A review of available literature found a lot of studies regarding interrelationship of service quality on customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. But it is lacking in studies of cleaning service, there is only one published study (Anthony M Kyengo, April 2007) examine quality control in cleaning service. In this circumstance, not only Pan Pacific but also Vietnamese cleaning service companies realize the necessity of empirical studying to examine specifically influences of their service to customers’ behavior. They need know that, what specific aspects of their services influence customers in terms of their satisfaction and their perceptions of service quality, which, in turn, lead to customer loyalty? 4 1.4 Research Questions Base on the above stated research problem the following research questions have been developed: Q.1 What are the service quality dimensions in cleaning service industry. Q.2 How do the dimensions of service quality effect on customer satisfaction, customer loyalty in cleaning service industry. Q.3 Is there any significant relationship between customer satisfaction and customer loyalty in cleaning service? 1.5 Objectives of the study The objectives of this study are to: • Explore the relationship between the components of service quality with customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. • Explore the relationship between customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. 1.6 Scope of the Study In general Pan Pacific Corporation provides three types of core services to their customers such as cleaning service, pest control service and laundry service, with activities spreading from the North, the Middle to the South of Vietnam. In which, most of current customers concentrate on cleaning service. For the purpose of this study, the study will focus particularly in the areas of cleaning service offered by Pan Pacific which is leading company in cleaning service industry. In addition, customer information from other competitors is usually confidential and hard to obtain. The respondents of the research was categorized to those current customers who use the services directly. 5 1.7 Research method This study was conducted with two stages: • A preliminary study: in the first stage, a qualitative approach was applied in order to explore whether the scale for measuring cleaning service quality. This step was carried out by using group discussion techniques. • The main study: A quantitative approach was used to examine research questions. Data were collected by using survey questionnaire Pan Pacific’s customers and SPSS software version 16 was used for data analysis. Cronbach’s Alpha test was carried out to test the reliability of the measurement scales, and then using Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA). The research model and hypotheses were tested by using Multiple Linear Regression analysis (MLR). The methodology for this study will be come back with more detail Chapter 4. 1.8 Structure of the study • Chapter 1 will discuss on the research background, research problem, objectives of the study, scope and method of the research. Pan Pacific Corporation are also mentioned in the chapter as a glance. • Chapter 2 describes about various reviews on past literatures which discussed about service quality, customer satisfaction and customer loyalty and their relationship. • Chapter 3 explains how the research methodology, the development of the hypotheses, data collections and the types of data analysis have been carried out to make sure all the data are reliable and the findings are valid. 6 • Chapter 4 will discuss on research results in detail, describes sampling and processing data, presents analyzing the data collected and the findings of the study. • Chapter 5 will conclude and recommend the findings. The findings of the research are expected to give guidance to cleaning service companies in prioritized their service. 7 Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter will give an overview of literature review and models that are related to the research problem presented in the previous chapter. In this chapter the concepts of service quality, customer satisfaction, customer loyalty and relationship of them will be introduced. The aim of this review is to generate hypotheses that will be tested in the cleaning service to answer the research questions and to confirm the research model. Additional, details of cleaning service quality literature is also mentioned in this chapter. 2.1 Service quality 2.1.1 Definition of service quality 2.1.1.1Definition of “Quality” To understand what “Service Quality” is, we need to understand what is “Quality” and it’s concept as a whole. Understanding the term “Quality” will reveal that the concept has been defined in many different ways and with different emphasis by the various quality gurus and writers on the subject. Quality is an elusive and indistinct construct. Often mistaken for imprecise adjective like “goodness, or luxury, or shininess, or weight” (Crosby 1979), quality and its requirements are not easily articulated by consumers (Takeuchi and Quelch 1983). Quality has been defined (Taylor and Baker, 1994) as superiority or excellence (Zeithaml, 1988), or as the consumer’s overall impression of the relative inferiorityor superiority of a service provider and its services (Bitner & Hubbert, 1994; Keiningham et al., 1994/1995). Most of the efforts in defining and measuring quality are coming from the goods sector. According to the prevailing Japanese philosophy, quality is “zero defects – doing it right the first time”. However, understanding of quality in goods and its importance is not sufficient to understand service quality. 8 2.1.1.2Definition of “Service” A service is an economic activity that produces time, place, form, or psychological utility. Four well documented characteristics of services – intangibility, heterogeneity, perishability and inseparability – must be acknowledged for a full understanding of service quality (Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry 1985) : Intangibility Services are activities or benefits or benefits that are essentially intangible, cannot be prefabricated in advance and do not involve ownership of the title (York, 1993). They may include the traditional personal assistance service, for instance, baby-sitter, gardener etc. The fix it service such as mechanic, repairman, etc. and finally the value added service as the least tangible of all (Cotter, 1993). Most services are intangible (Bateson 1977,Berry 1980, Lovelock 1981, Shostak 1977). Because they are performances rather than objects, precise manufacturing specifications concerning uniform quality can rarely be set. Most services cannot be counted, measured, inventoried, tested and verified in advance of sale to assure quality (Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry 1985). Because service is not an object but a phenomenon, it is difficult for customers to evaluate the quality of services as they evaluate physical goods. Because of intangibility, the firm may find it difficult to understand how consumers perceive their services and evaluate service quality (Zeithaml 1981). Heterogeneity Services, especially those with high labor content, are heterogeneous; their performance often varies from producer to producer, from customer to customer, and from day to day (Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry 1985). Consistency of behavior from service personnel (ie. uniform quality) is difficult to assure (Booms 9 and Bitner 1981) because what the firm intends to deliver may be entirely different from what customer receives. Inseparability Production and consumption of many services are inseparable (Carmen and Langeared 1980, Gronroos 1978, Regan 1963, Upah 1980). Services involve simultaneous production and consumption. Inseparability implies that service is simultaneously produced and consumed while physical goods are first produced, then sold and finally consumed. Inseparability of production and consumption often forces the involvement of the customer in the production process. Inseparability also means that the producer and the vendor often compromise one economic entity (York 1993). In labor intensive services for example, quality occurs during service delivery, usually in an interaction between the client and the contact person from the service firm (Lehtinen and Lehtinen 1982). In this situation, the customer input becomes critical to the quality of service performance. Perishability The inseparability of production and consumption in turn results in an inability to store service capability. Perishability means that services cannot be produced in advance, inventoried and later made available for sale. Services are performance that cannot be stored (Zeithaml, 1998). It is often difficult to adequately match up with demand and supply such as those corrective maintenance works, for instance, heating and cooling repairs. In conclusion, base on the examination of those writing and other literature reviews on services (Gronroos 1982; Lehtinen and Lehtinen 1982; Lewis and Booms 1983; Saser, Olsen, and Wyckoff 1978) Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry in 1985 suggest three attributes of service quality: 10 • Service quality is more difficult for the consumer to evaluate than goods quality. • Service quality perceptions result from a comparison of consumer expectations with actual service performance. • Quality evaluations are not made solely on the outcome of a service; they also involve evaluations of the process of service delivery. 2.1.1.3Definition of “service quality” Despite of all the debates, many researchers were traditionally agreed and accepted that service quality is a comparison between expectations with perceptions of performance. Perceived quality is the consumer’s judgment about an entity’s overall excellence or superiority (Zeithaml 1987). It is clearly differs from objective quality (as define by few researcher, for example, Garvin (1983) and HjorthAnderson (1984)). Parasuraman et al (1985) defined service quality as “the global evaluation or attitude of overall excellence of service”. So, service quality is the difference between customers’ expectation and perceptions of services delivered by service firms. 2.1.2 Measurement of service quality Ducker (1991) defines service quality as “what the customer gets out and is willing to pay for” rather than “what the supplier (of the service) puts in”. Hence, service quality is often “conceptualized as the comparison of service expectations with actual performance perceptions” (Bloemer, Ruyter et al. 1999; Kara, Lonial et al. 2005). Service science literature often relies on SERVQUAL as an instrument to measure quality of service provided. SERVQUAL scale was developed based on a marketing perspective with the support of the Marketing Science Institute (Parasuraman, Zeithaml et al. 1986). Previous research confirms its use as applicable to healthcare environment (Babakus 1992; Dean 1999; Arasli, 11 Ekiz et al. 2008). For a thorough analysis of SERVQUAL see Nyeck et al. (2002). SERVQUAL principle primarily relies on a gap model (Parasuraman, Zeithaml et al. 1985) (Figure 2.2). Every gap in SERVQUAL has a unique role as follows: • Gap 1: difference between consumer expectations and management perceptions of consumer expectations. • Gap 2: difference between management perceptions of consumer expectations and service quality specifications. • Gap 3: difference between service quality specifications and the service actually delivered. • Gap 4: difference between service delivery and what is communicated about the service to the consumer. • Gap 5: difference between consumer expectations and perceptions. The construct of service quality as conceptualized in the service marketing literature centers on perceived quality, defined as a consumer’s judgment about an entity’s overall excellence or superiority (Parasuraman et al., 1988; Zeithaml, 1988; Bitner, 1990). In other words, Service quality can be defined as a measure of how well the service delivered matches the customer expectation of the service Gronroos (1982) considers services as products requiring, to a large extent, the consumer’s involvement in the process of production and consumption, during which consumers compare their expectations about the service with what they actually receive. The result of this comparison is perceived service quality (Parasuraman et al., 1985, 1988). Therefore, it is how customers perceive the quality of service that should be of key concern to managers. To assist managers in understanding their customers' 12