CUSTOMER SATISFACTION AND SERVICE QUALITY TOWARDS NATURALS PARLOUR, CHENNAI

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1 CUSTOMER SATISFACTION AND SERVICE QUALITY TOWARDS NATURALS PARLOUR, CHENNAI M.SUREKA*, K. SAHAYAJENCI ** AND A.K.SUBRAMANI*** *I YEAR MBA VEL TECH BUSINESS SCHOOL, VEL TECH UNIVERSITY, AVADI, CHENNAI TAMIL NADU, INDIA. ** I YEAR MBA VEL TECH BUSINESS SCHOOL, VEL TECH UNIVERSITY, AVADI, CHENNAI TAMIL NADU, INDIA. * ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, VEL TECH BUSINESS SCHOOL, VEL TECH UNIVERSITY, AVADI, CHENNAI , TAMIL NADU, INDIA. ABSTRACT In today s competitive environment delivering high quality service is the key for a sustainable competitive advantage. Customer satisfaction does have a positive effect on an organization s profitability. Rabia Jahani Farzana, G and Banupriya (2015), People are leading very stressful life with many tensions. There are many ways to reduce stress such as holidays, recreation, and entertainment and so on. One of the method that can relieve people from stressful life and give them a healthy lifestyle is the science of treatment (SPA). That is why new spas have sprung up like mushrooms in the cities and are becoming famous attractions. The main objective of the study is to find the customer satisfaction and service quality towards Naturals parlour in Chennai.This research followed descriptive research. The universe of the population includes the respondents who are the customer of naturals, located at M.K.P Nagar and Maduravoyal.The major findings of the study are the satisfaction level of customers are moderate with respect to variety of service and ambience, response and charges with the mean value from 2.94 to It is suggested that Natural parlour can improve by keeping all brand availability of services, so that they can improve their satisfaction level towards Naturals parlour. KEYWORDS: Customers Satisfaction, Service Quality, Naturals Parlour, Spa industry. I. INTRODUCTION Biljana Angelova and Jusuf Zekiri (2011), Service quality and customer satisfaction are very important concepts that companies must understand if they want to remain competitive and grow. In today s competitive environment delivering high quality service is the key for a sustainable competitive advantage. Customer satisfaction does have a positive effect on an 35

2 organization s profitability. Satisfied customers form the foundation of any successful business as customer satisfaction leads to repeat purchase, brand loyalty, and positive word of mouth. Today, companies face their toughest competition, because they move from a product and sales philosophy to a marketing philosophy, which gives a company a better chance of outperforming competition (Kotler, 2000). According to Hansemark and Albinson (2004) satisfaction is an overall customer attitude towards a service provider, or an emotional reaction to the difference between what customers anticipate and what they receive, regarding the fulfillment of some needs, goals or desire. Customer loyalty on the other hand refers to a deeply held commitment to re-buy a preferred product or service in the future despite situational influences and marketing efforts having the potential to cause switching behavior (Oliver, 1997). The terms customer satisfaction and perception of quality are labels we use to summarize a set of observable actions related to the product or service (Hayes, 2008, p.33). A set of earlier studies on the topic of customer satisfaction and service perceptions were mainly undertaken on the basis of studying the relationships between three or four variables (Dodds et al, (1985), Zeithaml (1988) and Lee and Cunningham (1996)). The Spa is referred to as solus per aque or health through water. Spa centers were known from the roman thermos and are more popular. The International Spa Association (ISPA) defined Spas as entities devoted to enhancing overall wellbeing through a variety of professional services that encourage the renewal of mind, body and Spirit. The spa industry has grown at a phenomenal rate in the past ten years. The growth of health food, gyms and the investment in leisure facilities proves that consumers are looking for more than relaxation during a break or holiday; this unsurprising given time is so precious to contemporary consumers. The spa market is one of the fastest growing leisure sectors, where societal trends and aspirations find instant reflection in the developments on both the demand and supply sides. The market is very fragmented, each segment catering for different customer needs, which continuously change in line with social and lifestyle changes. II. COMPANY PROFILE Veena K, Founder and her husband C.K Kumaravel, CEO & Co-founder of Naturals, pioneered a new era in the hair and beauty care industry by channelizing their knowledge of the international beauty industry to spark a vision of bringing a successful world class beauty salon brand to India. The realization of this dream saw the birth of Naturals. Currently Naturals has its foot print across 8 states with 100+ salons. Naturals has three key brands, each with customized designs built to cater to specific segments of customers namely Naturals Unisex Salons, Naturals Lounge and Naturals W. Best salon chain in India - salon international 2012,most admired retailer of the year - images retail 2012,Salon chain of the year - salon congress 2012,women entrepreneur of the year - franchise India

3 III. REVIEW OF LITERATURE Jamuna, S and Nandhini, M (2004), the research has been conducted to know the peoples expectation and satisfaction Towards Ponds Skin Care Product. The difficulties faced by the customers with regard to skin care products availability and quality were also inquired into and there by their overall satisfaction level was studied. This is a descriptive research and mainly primary data is used for the purpose of data collection from 50 respondents through questionnaire. It was undertaken to determine the customer opinion and behavior of customers, price, quality, brand name are included in the study. Satisfaction level on ponds skin care products. SPSS package program was used to analyze the data. The analyze of data was done by using the statistical tools like percentage analysis, chi-square and accordingly certain suggestions and recommendations have been given for improving the sales of ponds skin care products. According to Evans et al (2006) concerned with the developing auspicious postures toward the marketing offering. Posture is an enduring organization of motivational, motional, perceptual and cognitive process with veneration to some aspects of the individual s world. A cognitive component: this consists of a person s credence s of cognizance about an issue or an object, such as the reliability of a car or its fuel consumption. An affective component: this consists of a person s feelings or emotions about the issue of the object; these feelings can be positive_ or negative_. These are predicated on the credence s about the object that the individual holds. A behavioral (cognitive) component: this consists of how the individual is liable to respond to the object predicated on what they ken about it and how they feel about it (Evans et al., 2006, P.67). According to Evans et al (2006), for this stage the authors draw information from the Psychology of perception. Furthermore, understand perception mean the process whereby stimuli are received and interpreted by the individual and translated into a replication. Perception is the process through which a person forms an opinion about the sundry stimuli he receives from his sensory organs. In marketing, perception is concerned with understanding how the consumer views a product or accommodation. The five senses of a person avail him in this process. The marketer uses sundry props to stimulate the consumer, that is, through the utilization of colors, sound, touch, taste, or smell, to observe the product (ICMRIndia, 2010). IV. OBJECTIVESOF THE STUDY PRIMARY OBJECTIVE: To find the customer satisfaction and service quality towards Naturals parlour in Chennai. SECONDARY OBJECTIVES: To list out the association between demographic variables and the factors of customer satisfaction. To identify the customer satisfaction towards the services rendered by Naturals parlour. To access the service quality towards quality, ambience, brands image, response in Naturals parlor. 37

4 V. LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY: The study is conducted in Naturals parlour located in M.K.B.Nagar and Maduravoyal with 50 respondents. The respondents response may have the bias, which may not give true picture about the chosen research topic. VI. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY PRIMARY DATA This research followed descriptive research.the universe of the population includes the respondents who are the customer of naturals, located at M.K.P Nagar and Maduravoyal.The sample among the customer of naturals located at M.K.PNagar and Maduravoyal on this research.the sample were chosen from the population,by using convenient sampling technique nonprobability sampling technique,because the exact population size is unknown and accessibility of the customer is difficult. Survey method of data collection was used in the research.the primary data were collected using structure questionnaire. VII. DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION: 1. Mean and Standard Deviation Table 1.Mean and Standard Deviation-Factors of customer satisfaction S.No Particulars N Mean Standard Deviation 1 Variety of service Product quality Ambiences Service executive skills Responses Charges Table 1. show that, Customer are more satisfied with respect to the product quality, service executive, variety of service, and ambience, and charges having mean value of Table 2.Mean and Standard Deviation-Factors of Service quality S.No Particulars N Mean Standard Deviation 1 Assurance Reliability Responsiveness Empathy Brand image

5 Very satisfied satisfied Neither satisfied nor Very Very satisfied satisfied Neither satisfied nor Very ZENITH International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research ISSN Table 2, depicts that the mean values of all the factors of service quality are more than CHI-SQUARE TEST: HYPOTHESIS 1: There is no association between age group and overall satisfaction towards Naturals parlour. Table 3 Chi-Square test for association between age and overall satisfaction towards Naturals parlor Age group Chi-square value p value 15 to 25 years to 35years Above 35 years Total Table 3.Presents that, p value is 0.103, which is greater than 0.050, so null hypothesis is accepted and alternative hypothesis is rejected at 5% level of significance. Hence it is concluded that there is no significant association between age group and overall satisfaction towards Naturals parlour. HYPOTHESIS 2 There is no association between income of the respondents and overall satisfaction towards Naturals parlour. Table 4 Chi-Square test for association between income of the respondents and overall satisfaction towards Naturals parlour Income Chi value P value Below Above Total

6 Since p value is greater than 0.05 the null hypothesis is accepted, and alternative hypothesis is rejected at 5% level of significance. Hence it is concluded that there is no significant association between income of the respondents and overall satisfaction towards customer satisfaction on Naturals parlour. VIII DISCUSSIONS: 1. From the mean and Std.deviation,it is inferred that the satisfaction level of customers are moderate with respect to variety of service and ambience, response and charges with the mean value from 2.94 to The Naturals parlour may try to keep all types of services and all brands as per the requirement of local people in that locality. IX IMPLICATIONS: 1. The services available at Naturals parlour is comparatively costlier than other parlour, so middle and lower class may not come to the parlour. 2. It is recommended to offer the service with reasonable price to attract middle and low class people. 3. Natural parlour can improve by keeping all brand availability of services, so that they can improve their satisfaction level towards Naturals parlour. 4. Naturals parlour can give discount for high rate service and give home service so that they can retain their customers and can attract new customers. X CONCLUSION Through the research paper entitled Customer satisfaction towards Naturals parlour, defining more accurately the role of satisfaction on repurchase and defining the intervention between customer satisfaction and repurchase intention and loyalty. The findings from this study are relevant to practitioners. It also helps extend the notion of customer awareness and identifying the customer behavior which leads to repeat purchase and loyalty. Therefore, for the practitioners, it is quite clear that in this service that overall satisfaction is an important factor in retaining customers. For developing customer retention strategies, effort should be put on satisfying the customers in order to achieve the highest level of repurchase intention and subsequent of retention. XI REFERENCES JOURNALS Thornton, F. and Brutscher, H. (2003). What is a Spa? International Spa Association (ISPA). [accessed 25 January 2004]. Spa Association (Spaa) (2002). The History of Spa. The Spa Association [accessed 24 January 2004]. Register, J. (2005). Spa evolution, a brief history of spas. About, Inc. [accessed 7 March 2005]. 40

7 Mintel (2005). Spa Holidays-UK, Mintel International Group Ltd. Goode. M, &Moutinho. L (1996). The effects of consumer age on overall satisfaction: An application to financial services. Journal of professional service marketing, 13(2): Biljana Angelova and Jusuf Zekiri, Measuring Customer Satisfaction with Service Quality Using American Customer Satisfaction Model (ACSI Model), International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, October 2011, Vol. 1, No. 3, Pp G. RabiaJahaniFarzana& R. BanuPriya, A Study on Consumer Attitudes Towards Solus Per Acque in Naturals Salon and Spa, Tiruchirappalli - (ICAM 2015) Volume 6, Issue 1, January (2015), Pp WEB REFERENCES