Customer Satisfaction in Relation to Customers’ Perceptions and Expectations of Service Quality Attributes:
A Study on Banglalion Customer Care Service in Khulna Region.
A report
On
Customer Satisfaction in Relation to Customers’ Perceptions and Expectations of Service Quality Attributes: A Study on Banglalion Customer Care Service in Khulna Region.

Course: Service Marketing
Course Code: MKT-4203

Submitted to
Sharif Mohammad Khan
Associate Professor
Business Administration Discipline
Khulna University, Khulna.

Submitted By
Ashiqur Rahman Sami : 09 03 18
Sk. Farhan Uddin : 09 03 23

4th Year, 1st Term
Business Administration Discipline
Khulna University, Khulna
Letter of Transmittal
September 22, 2012
Sharif Mohammad Khan
Associate Professor
Khulna University, Khulna.

Sir,
Here we have the pleasure to present a report on ‘Customer Satisfaction in Relation to Customers’ Perceptions and Expectations of Service Quality Attributes: A Study on Banglalion Customer Care Service in Khulna Region’. We are absolutely delighted while getting the opportunity to go through different articles and reports, learn about those. We have devoted our best efforts to make the report a best one and up to the satisfactory level. We will remain ever grateful to you for rendering us the opportunity of working in such a dynamic field. If you need any additional information regarding this report, we will be right before you for necessary interpretation and defense.
Unconditional thank to you.

Sincerely,
__________________________________
(Ashiqur Rahman Sami : 090318)

__________________________________ (Sk. Farhan Uddin : 090323)

Acknowledgement
Our passion to prepare a report related to service marketing and customer satisfaction comes true when we got the topic. This dimensional topic gave us immense pleasure.
At the very outset we would like to thank my honorable course teacher, Mr. Sharif Mohammad Khan, Associate Professor, Khulna University for his sincere guidance. We are ever grateful to him for giving inspiration and to encourage us to complete the report.
Finally, our deepest gratitude to the almighty because; only He cares.

Table of Content
Contents
Executive Summary vii Chapter: 01: Introduction 8 1.1 Origin of the Report 9 1.2 Purpose of the Report 9 1.3 Scope of the Report 9 1.4 Limitation of the Report 9 1.5 Historical Background 10 1.6 Methodology 10 Chapter: 02: Literature Review 11 2.1 Service 12 2.2 Marketing 12 2.3 Customer Satisfaction 12 2.4 Brand Loyalty 12 2.5 Service Quality 12 2.6 WiMax 13 2.7 Tangibility 13 2.8 Reliability 13 2.9 Responsiveness 13 2.10 Assurance 13 2.11 Empathy 14 Chapter: 03: Analysis & Imterpretation 15 3.1 Tangibility 16 3.2 Reliability 17 3.3 Responsiveness 18 3.4 Assurance 19 3.5 Empathy 20 3.6 Customer Satisfaction 21 Chapter: 04: Conclusion 22 4.1 Conclusion 23 Reference: xxiv

Executive Summary

During this report preparation we tried to find out the satisfactory level of the customers who use customer care service of Banglalion in Khulna region. WiMax is a wireless faster data transfer system. Through WiMax we can transfer up to 1 gbits/s. And for its wireless service, it becomes more popular in internet users. Basically students and corporate people use this service. In Khulna, Banglalion is the largest provider of WiMax service. We tried to pin point how they are providing service through a sample survey of 20 people. We developed a questionnaire to conduct the survey. After collecting data from them, we came to know a lot about their service and customers’ mentality. This report lets us know about customers of Banglalion customer care service. We basically work on five key attributes of service quality: Tangibility, Reliability, Responsiveness, Assurance and Empathy. After analyzing these features we decide on customer satisfaction.

Chapter: 01
Introduction

1.1 Origin of the Report
Our honorable course teacher, Sharif Mohammad Khan gave us this opportunity to prepare the report. He assigned us to prepare a report related to service marketing and customer satisfaction as the part of our academic course curriculum. It was a test for us whether we can prepare a report on this topic or not. The date of submission was 22nd September, 2012.
1.2 Purpose of the Report
This report has been conducted to focus on following objectives: * To have practical knowledge about service related firms. * To get ourselves ready for making proper research report. * To understand theories of courses in better and practical way.
1.3 Scope of the Report
To prepare this report we used internet and sample survey. We asked 20 people with an organized questionnaire to find our answers regarding the report. We learned a lot about customer satisfaction level. We read some articles and reports regarding service marketing, customer satisfaction, wireless internet service and telecommunication services. These let us compare and relate to our theoretical knowledge to practical situations.
1.4 Limitation of the Report
There are some problems and limitations that we have faced during our report preparation. Those limitations are stated as follows: * Inexperience
As we are not expert in report preparation, we faced lot of problems to prepare this report. Our main limitation was inexperience preparing report. This was just orientation to preparing a report. So, there could be many mistakes which we can’t find out or understand. * Limitation of supporting tools
We could not find any journal exactly related to our topic which may help us. So, we had to relate many other journals and reports related to our topic or some sub topics of our report. * Survey
As we had conducted a survey, there we faced many problems. Finding users of Banglalion customer care was not that easy. Most of the customers solve their problems through telecommunication system or online. So, Users of customer care of Banglalion was limited. But we tried and find enough users for our sample survey.
1.5 Historical Background
Service marketing is a sub branch of marketing. Customer satisfaction is the term used to measure how customers are meeting their need according to their expectation. Customers became loyal, if they are highly satisfied with the service they got. If they are happy with the service providers, they won’t switch to other providers so easily. From the ancient time, people are providing and receiving services which became a great source of business later on. So, studies are highly recommended in this field. This report is another try to add some values to that field. We tried to make some additions through our report in response to service marketing and customer satisfaction.
1.6 Methodology
This is the process that we have gone through to prepare the report. From the assignment of the report to final preparation of the report, we have followed following methods.
Article Review
Figure: 1.1: Methodology of the Report

Summary of Articles

Finding Key Words

Developing Questionnaire

Sample Survey

Analysis

Interpretation

Final Report Preparation

Chapter: 02
Literature Review

2.1 Service
All economic activities whose output is not a physical product or construction, is generally consumed at the time it is produced, and provides added value in forms (such as convenience, amusement are included in service.
2.2 Marketing
Marketing is the method of communicating the product or service to customers. Marketing starts before the production and ends after the consumption of the product or service. It’s not only about selling product. Selling product is a small portion of marketing.
2.3 Customer Satisfaction
Satisfaction can be defined as the extent of the emotional reaction from a service experienced. Customers get satisfied, when they experience their expectation or surpass it. If service’s standard is below customers’ expectation, customers don’t get satisfied. A dissatisfied customer can lead to many dissatisfied customers. So, customer satisfaction in service marketing is very important part to look after.
2.4 Brand Loyalty
According to American Marketing Association: “The situation in which a consumer generally buys the same manufacturer-originated product or service repeatedly over time rather than buying from multiple suppliers within the category”. They also defined Brand Loyalty as: “The degree to which a consumer consistently purchases the same brand within a product class”. These two definitions suggests that, those customers are loyal to a brand who are purchasing repeatedly the same product. Those who do not switch to another substitute are loyal to that particular brand. Brand loyalty can bring huge change in profit margin.
2.5 Service Quality
Customers’ perceptions of the quality of a service are measured immediately after the person has consumed the service. It is very important to maintain standard service to satisfy customers’ need according to their perception and expectation. Maintaining service quality is very difficult. Because, in terms of service, no one can guarantee same standard of service each time. It is not possible to provide continuous best quality service. But, firms must have some mechanism to satisfy their customers through relatively same and best service quality every time.

2.6 WiMax
WiMax stands for Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access. It is a wireless communications standard designed to provide up to 1 gbit/s data reates. It is an IP based wireless broadband access technology that provides performance.
2.7 Tangibility
Services are intangible. Because of this customers rely on tangible cues or physical evidence to evaluate the service before purchasing it. They also assess their satisfaction with the service during and after consumption. Effective design of physical, tangible evidence is important for a service provider. Physical appearance gives customers an image of perception before purchasing the service. Firms can attract customers through their tangible factors. A well furnished office doesn’t confirm best service but it gives a good image in customers’ mind. For this reason, tangible factors of a service are so much important for a service provider.
2.8 Reliability
According to business dictionary (online), reliability is the ability of an apparatus, machine or system to consistently perform its intended or required function or mission on demand and without degradation or failure. That is reliability in service refers to satisfying customers core need. If a service fails to satisfy its actual demand, that service is not reliable at all whether it has great add on features or not. A service must ensure its performance continuously without failing to provide its original service.
2.9 Responsiveness
It is very important for a service provider, how fast they can act to customers’ need. Fast you response to your customers, greater satisfaction you will achieve. Service firms must response accordingly and quickly to customers’ demand. If a firm fails to do so, they will find themselves in trash. On the other hand, if they can response faster, they will experience more satisfied customers and more satisfied customers mean more money in pocket. So, it’s very important to response quickly and accordingly for a service providing firm.
2.10 Assurance
To satisfy customers one needs to assure better service in a better way. If one can assure that quality, customer will be highly satisfied and they will become loyal to the service. Skilled staff to deal with customers, safety and security during providing service, staff’s eagerness to instilling confidence to customers is some key features of assurance of a service providing firm.
2.11 Empathy
Empathy is the capacity to recognize feelings of customer that are being experienced by that person by having the service. It is the feelings that a service provider should give to its customers that they are valuable for the firm. If customers experience in that way, they will be happy. And happy customers always come back for the further purchase. So, again to satisfy customer empathy is very important.

Chapter: 03
Analysis & Interpretation

In this part we will try to find out customers’ satisfaction level by measuring sample mean and standard deviation. We will focus on five key features of Banglalion customer care service; Tangibility, Reliability, Responsiveness, Assurance and Empathy. Data collected by questionnaires (given in appendix section) will be used in these calculations. We have used five point likert scale to collect data and converted them numerically according to respondents’ highly dissatisfaction to highly satisfaction level.
3.1 Tangibility
According to 20 respondents following values are collected in response to four different questions.
Figure: 3.1: Tangibility Respondent | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Q4 | * | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | * | 5 | 5 | 4 | 5 | * | 3 | 4 | 2 | 4 | * | 4 | 3 | 4 | 3 | * | 4 | 3 | 4 | 4 | * | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | * | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | * | 3 | 4 | 4 | 3 | * | 4 | 3 | 4 | 4 | * | 4 | 3 | 4 | 3 | * | 5 | 4 | 5 | 4 | * | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | * | 3 | 2 | 4 | 3 | * | 3 | 2 | 4 | 3 | * | 2 | 3 | 2 | 2 | * | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | * | 5 | 4 | 5 | 4 | * | 4 | 3 | 4 | 4 | * | 5 | 4 | 5 | 4 | * | 4 | 3 | 4 | 3 |

Mean of this table is 3.5. This follows that, in terms of tangibility, Banglalion customer care has average appeal to its users. Again this table has standard deviation of 0.789167 which is very low. So, mean of this table is reliable because it means data are closely around the mean.

3.2 Reliability
According to 20 respondents following values are collected in response to five different questions.
Figure: 3.2: Reliability Respondent | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Q4 | Q5 | * | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | * | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | * | 2 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | * | 2 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | * | 4 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 2 | * | 3 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 4 | * | 4 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 2 | * | 4 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 4 | * | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 3 | * | 4 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 3 | * | 3 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 3 | * | 3 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 3 | * | 3 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 4 | * | 4 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 2 | * | 3 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 4 | * | 3 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 4 | * | 3 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 3 | * | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 4 | * | 2 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 4 | * | 3 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 4 |

Mean of this table is 3.05 which indicate Banglalion customer care’s services are neutrally reliable. Standard deviation of above table is 03864581 which is very low. So, as deviation is low, mean is strongly reliable.

3.3 Responsiveness
According to 20 respondents following values are collected in response to four different questions.
Figure: 3.3: Responsiveness Respondent | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Q4 | * | 4 | 5 | 5 | 4 | * | 3 | 3 | 2 | 3 | * | 3 | 3 | 2 | 3 | * | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | * | 3 | 4 | 2 | 3 | * | 3 | 4 | 2 | 2 | * | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | * | 3 | 3 | 2 | 3 | * | 3 | 4 | 3 | 4 | * | 4 | 4 | 5 | 2 | * | 3 | 4 | 4 | 3 | * | 3 | 3 | 4 | 3 | * | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | * | 3 | 3 | 3 | 4 | * | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | * | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | * | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | * | 3 | 4 | 3 | 3 | * | 3 | 4 | 2 | 2 | * | 3 | 3 | 2 | 3 |

Mean of above table is 3.1 which indicate staffs of Banglalion customer care are neutrally responsive to its customers. Standard deviation of this table is 0.786657 which is very low and indicates the mean is closely related to individual data.

3.4 Assurance
According to 20 respondents following values are collected in response to four different questions.
Figure: 3.4: Assurance Respondent | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Q4 | * | 3 | 3 | 2 | 3 | * | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 | * | 3 | 3 | 2 | 3 | * | 3 | 3 | 2 | 3 | * | 3 | 3 | 5 | 4 | * | 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | * | 3 | 2 | 3 | 5 | * | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | * | 3 | 4 | 3 | 3 | * | 4 | 3 | 3 | 4 | * | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | * | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | * | 3 | 3 | 2 | 3 | * | 2 | 5 | 3 | 3 | * | 3 | 4 | 3 | 3 | * | 3 | 4 | 3 | 3 | * | 2 | 3 | 3 | 2 | * | 4 | 5 | 3 | 4 | * | 3 | 3 | 2 | 3 | * | 3 | 4 | 3 | 3 | Mean of this table is 3.1625 which is neutral in likert scale. This indicates people get services fair enough in response to Banglalion customer care’s promises. Standard deviation of this table is 0.753788 which is very low. It indicates data are clustered closely to the mean.

3.5 Empathy
According to 20 respondents following values are collected in response to three different questions.
Figure: 3.5: Empathy Respondent | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | * | 4 | 4 | 4 | * | 3 | 4 | 3 | * | 3 | 4 | 3 | * | 4 | 3 | 4 | * | 4 | 3 | 3 | * | 4 | 5 | 3 | * | 5 | 4 | 5 | * | 3 | 4 | 4 | * | 4 | 4 | 3 | * | 4 | 4 | 3 | * | 3 | 4 | 3 | * | 3 | 4 | 4 | * | 3 | 4 | 4 | * | 3 | 4 | 3 | * | 3 | 2 | 3 | * | 3 | 2 | 4 | * | 3 | 3 | 3 | * | 3 | 3 | 2 | * | 4 | 3 | 3 | * | 3 | 4 | 4 |

Mean of this table is 3.48333 that indicate customers get enough empathy from Banglalion customer care. Standard deviation of this table is 0.676273 which is very low. So, data points are closely around the mean.

3.6 Customer Satisfaction
According to 20 respondents following values are collected in response to the question asked.
Figure: 3.6: Customer Satisfaction Respondent | Q1 | * | 5 | * | 3 | * | 4 | * | 4 | * | 4 | * | 4 | * | 4 | * | 3 | * | 4 | * | 4 | * | 4 | * | 4 | * | 4 | * | 3 | * | 3 | * | 3 | * | 3 | * | 4 | * | 4 | * | 4 | Mean of above table is 3.75 which are near to 4. So, here we can say that, customers of Banglalion customer care are almost satisfied. Standard deviation of this table is 0.53619 which is very low. That means, most of the customers are satisfied enough to have the services from Banglalion customer care. On being asked, how is Banglalion customer care’s performance compared to customer’s service level; most of the respondents replied, they are satisfied with their performance, but it would be better if they get additional features.

Chapter: 04
Conclusion

4.1 Conclusion
Banglalion is the largest wireless internet service provider in Khulna city. Though there are Citycell, Grameenphone, Banglalink, Airtel, Robi and so other mobile operators who provide same service but Banglalion is different from them because of their WiMax and WiFi services. Customers of Banglalion are moderately satisfied but there are some needs in their mind.
Customers want no fair-use policy. Though our government does not support that, Banglalion can increase its data usage volume level. It may help to satisfy customers.
Customers of Banglalion are not that much loyal. Our survey found that, they would like to switch to Citycell or other operator if get better option. So, there is no way to sit idly but find new ideas and innovation to keep these customers on board.
Banglalion needs to reach some areas where their network is not available and increase their network’s power to provide proper service. This survey found that, many customers can not access to network because of low network coverage or zero network coverage.
Banglalion can only be top in Khulna region, if they come up with new plans and keep providing their service in best way.

Reference:
Banglalion (2012): Official website [online] (Accessed: September, 2012) [Available in: http://www.banglalionwimax.com/]
Islam, S.M. Monirul; Ahmed, Bulbul (June, 2011) Customer attitude towards wireless internet services in Bangladesh: An Empirical study comparing WiMax based and EDGE/EVDO based internet service. [online] (Accessed: September,2012)
Rahman, Dr. Muhammad Sabbir (January, 2012) Service quality, corporate image and customer’s satisfaction toward customer perception: An exploratory study on telecom customers in Bangladesh: Faculty of Management, Multimedia University, Cyberjaya.
Wikipedia (September, 2012) [online](Accessed: September, 2012) [Available in: http://www.wikipedia.com/]
Zeithaml, A. Valarie; Bitner, Mary Jo (2007-2008): Service Marketing(4th Ed): Mc Graw Hill.
Zeithaml, A. Valarie; Parsuraman, A.; Berry, Leonard L. (1985) Problems and strategies in service marketing[online](Accessed: September, 2012)

Appendix