Customer Satisfaction Analysis Part of the Effectiveness Control of Customer Loyalty Management

Transcription

1 Customer Satisfaction Analysis Part of the Effectiveness Control of Customer Loyalty Management Abstract Luigi Dumitrescu Ph. D. Professor, Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Sibiu, Romania Iuliana Cetină Ph. D. Professor, Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania Alma PENTESCU Ph. D. Student, Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania Forced to operate in a turbulent environment, companies are increasingly receptive to what happens to consumer behaviour under the impact of globalization, digititalization and the Internet. In this context, customer retention is equally one of the company's goals and a crucial strategy. This paper aims to highlight the importance of customer loyalty in order to streamline the company's business, the planning of customer loyalty programmes and the importance of getting customer feedback for the effectiveness control of customer loyalty process. Specifically, this paper presents customer loyalty as a two-dimensional structure, defined by size of the previous behaviour and the size of the intention. The customer loyalty process is addressed in conjunction with the company's customer orientation and customer satisfaction. Assuming that customer satisfaction allows the company to successfully transform the customer into a consumer and then into an advocate, this paper portraits through a direct, selective marketing research how to measure customer satisfaction in a large mobile phone company, which operates on the Romanian market. Keywords: customer retention, loyalty, customer loyalty management, customer satisfaction, customer feedback. 1. Introduction The value offered to the client represents the difference between the total value offered to the client and the total cost of the client. The size of the added value offered to the client depends 42

2 on the following elements: the value of the products or services, the value of the staff and the value of the image. (Radulescu, Radulescu, Cetina, 2009). Prospecting and retaining customers remain two important strategies for any company. The usage of these strategies requires customer orientation and the practice of relationship marketing. Under the influence of globalization, digititalization and the Internet, but also as a consequence of increasing market competition and a decrease of the possibilities to anticipate market developments, the 1980s have shown a strong development of a new approach of the recruitment marketing: the loyalty marketing, focused on growing and retaining existing customers (Yan Claeyssen, Anthony Deydier, Yves Riguet, 2009). The need of implementing a customer retention policy is supported by three arguments: 1) the improvement of customer perception towards the company s image; 2) the turnover increase by customer base; 3) increasing the number of customer exit barriers. Certainly, various techniques and tools used by the company to retain customers determine customer loyalty. Finally, it is worth noting that long-term customer loyalty cannot rely solely on the quality of products/services. Even if the company does everything necessary to satisfy its customers, it will have to do something extra to ensure that customers are willing to commit to a purchase relationship throughout life. From this perspective, we agree with Daffy s viewpoint, who thinks that "what matters is not how satisfied customers are... but how many satisfied customers has the company managed to keep" (Chris Daffy, 2009). 2. Customer Loyalty Management Defined by Manfred Bruhn as "all measures taken by a company seeking positive orientation of behavioural intentions of current and potential customers to a bidder and/or his offer in order to get stabilization or develop future relations with those customers" (Manfred Bruhn, 2001), customer loyalty leads to repeated, additional purchases and an extension of customers through recommendations (Luigi Dumitrescu, Camelia Apostu, 2009). The customer loyalty process contains three essential elements: 1) maintaining the company's reputation; 2) preserving the value; 3) building a structural relationship through a frontline information system and interactive marketing (N. J. Seth, 1996). From this perspective, customer loyalty management means the analysis, planning, implementation and systematic control of all customer oriented measures, in order to maintain and develop future business relationships with them (Manfred Bruhn, 2001). Customer loyalty management is a carefully planned and systematic approach, allowing the company to define the following six dimensions of a loyalty strategy (fig. 1): 43

3 Figure 1 - Dimensions of a customer loyalty strategy (Source: Manfred Bruhn, Orientarea spre clienţi - temelia afacerii de succes, Editura Economică, București, 2001, p.117) To strengthen the desired effects, the company must develop an integrated customer loyalty management, which reflects the opportunities the company has in order to overcome the application of single measures of customer loyalty for long term success. 44

4 3. Customer satisfaction - a prerequisite for its loyalty Customer satisfaction depends on the difference between his expectations and perceived performance. Customer oriented companies, customer satisfaction is a goal and a functional marketing tool as well. (Radulescu, 2008). True loyalty occurs when customers remain loyal to the company, its products/services or its brand even when there are plenty of competitors to whom it would be easy to migrate. Also, true loyalty is based on the interdependence of three elements: 1) satisfaction, 2) involvement and 3) affinity. This aspect is described and graphically analyzed by Chris Daffy in terms of "the loyalty equation" (Chris Daffy, 2009) - figure 2. True loyalty Loyalty = affinity x satisfaction x involvement Figure 2 Loyalty equation (Source: Chris Daffy, Client o dată, client mereu cum să oferi servicii care îți fidelizează clienții, Publica, București, 2009, p.54) Satisfaction is the starting point in the customer loyalty process. At the same time, customer satisfaction control is one of the basic methods of verifying the effectiveness of customer loyalty management. Customer satisfaction measurement is a complex process that involves the following steps: 1) selecting the method of collecting data on customer satisfaction (interview, telephone inquiries, written inquiries); 2) establishing the content of the questionnaire; 3) selecting the method of measuring customer satisfaction (by subjective methods or objective methods). In order to illustrate how to measure customer satisfaction, our paper presents a research on S.C. Orange Romania S.A. customer satisfaction towards Customer Service. The purpose of this research is to establish the overall customer satisfaction in relation with Orange Customer Service. The research objectives are: 1) knowing Customer Service operators performance; 2) 45

5 determining customer satisfaction; 3) measuring the rate of recommendation; 4) determining customer loyalty. Furthermore, following assumptions were formulated: Null hypotheses: 1) Ho: More than 85% of Orange customers calling Customer Service are satisfied with its performance; 2) Ho: The local Customer Centre who answers the call does not significantly influence customer opinion; 3) Ho: Time interval in which the call is made does not greatly impact customer opinions. Alternative hypotheses: 1) H1: Less than 85% of Orange customers calling Customer Service are satisfied with its performance; 2) H1: The local Customer Centre who answers the call influences customer opinion significantly; 3) H1: Time interval in which the call is made does greatly impact customer opinions. Information sources were primary (customers) and secondary (company s database, which includes data on customer identification and statistics on the calls made to Customer Service). The data was collected using a primary research, which involved getting original data by conducting a telephone survey research. Thus, given a probability of ensuring research results of 95% and a margin of error of ± 5%, the sample size is 480 people. The respondents must express their opinion on a 5-point scale, 1 representing the lowest and 5 the highest degree of appreciation. The results of the research are: the answers to the first question: "How do you generally appreciate Orange s Customer Service?" are presented in the table and figure below. Table 1 - General appreciation of Orange s Customer Service General appreciation of Orange s Total Customer Service answers per centre Braşov ,31 Sibiu ,30 Timişoara ,40 Cluj ,52 Total ,37 Figure 3 - General appreciation of Orange s Customer Service 46

6 Customers appreciate positively Orange s Customer Service, with no major difference of opinion between call centres. To the question "How do you appreciate Orange s interactive answering machine? the results are as follows (table 2 and fig. 4): Table 2 - Appreciation of Orange s interactive answering machine Appreciation of Orange s interactive Total answering machine answers per centre Braşov ,00 Sibiu ,21 Timişoara ,15 Cluj ,38 Total ,20 Figure 4 - Appreciation of Orange s interactive answering machine Regarding the question: How do you appreciate Orange s Customer Service operator s response? the results are: Table 3 - Appreciation of Orange s Customer Service operator s response Customer Service operator s response Total answers Braşov ,75 Sibiu ,72 Timişoara ,75 Cluj ,76 Total ,74 47

7 Figure 5 - Appreciation of Orange s Customer Service operator s response Among surveyed customers, more than three-quarters consider that Orange s Customer Service operator s response was a good one. As for the 4 th question: How do you appreciate the elapsed waiting time before your call is being transferred to an operator? answers are as follows (table 4 and fig. 6): Table 4 - Appreciation of the elapsed waiting time before being transferred to an operator Elapsed waiting time before being transferred to an operator Total answers Braşov ,44 Sibiu ,53 Timişoara ,50 Cluj ,67 Total ,54 Figure 6 - Appreciation of the elapsed waiting time before being transferred to an operator Asked if "Has your request been resolved the first time you called or did you had to call back?" and When you called back, did you get the same answer to your request as the first time?" 79% of the respondents said that their request has been solved the first time they called while 48

8 29% of the respondents had to call back in order to solve their problem. Of these, 21% received a different answer than the first time they called, and 8% received the same answer (fig.7). My problem was solved at my first call I had to call back in order to solve my problem Figure 7 Problem solving Regarding the question: How do you appreciate the elapsed time until solving your request? the results are: Table 5 - Appreciation of the elapsed time until solving the request Elapsed time until solving the request Total answers per centre Braşov ,00 Sibiu ,93 Timişoara ,05 Cluj ,10 Total ,00 Figure 8 - Appreciation of the elapsed time until solving the request The answers to the question "Judging by your experience with Orange s Customer Service, to what extent would you recommend Orange s services to a friend?" are shown in the table and figure below. 49

9 Table 6 - Willingness to recommend Orange s services to friends Willingness to recommend Orange s services to friends Total answers per centre Braşov ,63 Sibiu ,70 Willingness to recommend Orange s Total services to friends answers per centre Timişoara ,75 Cluj ,81 Total ,72 Figure 9 - Willingness to recommend Orange s services to friends To the question "What are your future intentions regarding the purchase of Orange s services?" answers are as follows (table 7 and fig. 10): Table 7 Intention to repurchase Orange s services Intention to repurchase Orange s services Total answers Call centres Braşov ,75 Sibiu ,67 Timişoara ,70 Cluj ,67 Total ,69 50

10 Figure 10 - Intention to repurchase Orange s services Orange customers loyalty is high, with a of 4.69, most of the customers saying that they will continue to purchase/use Orange s services. When asked what elements they take into consideration when evaluating the quality of the Customer Service and the professionalism of the operator, it has been determined that, firstly it mattered the elapsed waiting time before being transferred to an operator, secondly the professionalism of the operator and lastly the functionality of the interactive answering machine were of importance. In the evaluation of the operator s professionalism the proof of interest is essential, followed by the elapsed time until solving the issue and by the operator s courtesy. Based on the importance and the obtained of every item, two general satisfaction indicators were calculated, as shown in the following tables. Table 8 Satisfaction indicators concerning the Customer Service Factor Importance (X) Average (Y) Functionality of the interactive answering machine Elapsed waiting time before being transferred to an operator Operator s professionalism Table 9 Indicators of the degree of satisfaction towards Customer Service operator s performance Factor Importance (X) Average (Y) Elapsed time until solving the request Courtesy Proof of interest

11 x * y I 1 = x I 1 general satisfaction degree concerning Customer Service I 2 = 4.38, professionalism I 2 satisfaction degree concerning the (Customer Service) operator s In conclusion, Orange s customers who used the Customer Service are generally satisfied, but there are some aspects which can be improved by methods specific to public relations. 4. Conclusions We agree with Philip Kotler s point of view (Philip Kotler, Kevin Lane Keller, 2008) according to which the periodic evaluation of customer satisfaction is advisable for any company, because customer satisfaction is essential in their retention. The results of the previously presented research are extremely important for S.C. Orange Romania S.A., because they allow defining the type of integration (instrumental, content based, functional, horizontal) which helps differentiate their loyalty programs from those of their competitors. Last but not least, we must underline the importance of the question (from the respondent administered questionnaire) according to which the customers are open to recommend the received services from S.C. Orange Romania S.A. to a friend. This is the kind of question that should not lack from any questionnaire, like mentioned by Reichheld (Frederick Reichheld, 2003), customers availability to recommend the received services to a friend is highly dependent on how he was treated by the employees he had contact with, this being the direct result of the performance of all the departments that contribute to the customers experience. References 1) Bruhn Manfred (2001). Orientarea spre clienţi - temelia afacerii de succes., Editura Economică, Bucharest, p ) Claeyssen Yan, Deydier Anthony, Riguet Yves (2009). Marketingul direct multicanal. Editura Polirom, Bucharest, p ) Daffy Chris (2009). Client o dată, client mereu cum să oferi servicii care îți fidelizează clienții, Editura Publica, Bucharest, p. 43, 54 4) Dumitrescu Luigi, Apostu Camelia (2009). Marketingul și calitatea serviciilor, Editura Expert, Bucharest, p ) Kotler Philip, Keller Lane Kevin (2008). Managementul marketingului, ediția a V-a. Editura Teora, Bucharest, p ) Rădulescu, D.M, Rădulescu, V., Cetină, I. - Legal and ethical principles in establishing the prices of the goods and services, Metalurgia Internaţional Review, no. 3/2009, p

12 7) Radulescu, V.(2008) Strategii de marketing in servicii, ProUniversitaria Publishing House, Bucharest, p.197 8) Reichheld Frederick (2003). The One Number You Need to Grow. Harvard Business Review, pp ) Seth N.Y. (1996). Kundenbindung Ein Prozess, drei Elemente în Absatzwirtschaft, nr. 10, p