Service Quality and Customer Satisfaction in the Cellular Telecommunication Service Provider in Malaysia

ABSTRACTUsing the SERVQUAL model, this study attempts to examine the impact of service quality dimensions on customer satisfaction. A total of 225 current users of a GSM provider participated in this study. Gap Analysis was used to determine the perceived and expected satisfaction level on each of the service quality dimensions and regression analysis was conducted to test the relationship between the SERVQUAL dimensions and customer satisfaction. Results indicated that all 5 service quality dimensions positively influenced customer satisfaction in terms of loyalty and attitudes. In addition, t-test results showed that there was a significant gap between the perceived satisfaction and expectation (P-E) on all of the service quality dimensions.Keywords: Service quality, customer satisfaction, perception and expectation, cellular telecommunication, gap analysis.INTRODUCTION:Cellular telecommunication service providers (CTSP) are a paramount importance to both developed and developing nations. In an emerging economy like Malaysia, CTSP are envisaged to greatly contribute to the national goal of achieving a fully developed nation status by 2020. Delivering superior service quality appears to be a prerequisite for success, if not survival of such business (Parasuraman, Zeithaml& Berry, 1988). Quality is an indistinct construct often mistaken for vague adjectives like goodness, luxury, shininess or weight (Crosby, 1979). Few academic researchers have attempted to define and model quality because of the difficulties involved in developing and measuring the construct. Along this line, Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry, (1988) developed a model in which they contended that customers compare the service they expected with perception of the service they received in the evaluation of service quality. The model is known as SERVQUAL.In the cellular phone sector, the market size has been registering rapid growth. With 12 cellular service providers for a population of 27 million, Malaysia's cellular industry is among the world's most competitive. By the year 2020, teledensity in Malaysia is forecasted to increase to 85 phones per 100 residents which can be translated to 13.5 million subscribers. In the year 2009 alone there were 2.31 million subscribers with 0.974 million in central Malaysia itself (SKMM, 2010)With 12 service providers, the competition is intense and requires that marketers to have the ability to provide superior customer service which serve as a differential advantage over competitors. The importance of customers has been highlighted by many researchers and academicians. According to Zairi (2000:p.331), "Customers are the purpose of what we do and rather than them depending on us, we very much depend on them. The customer is not the source of a problem, we shouldn't perhaps make a wish that customers 'should go away' because our future and our security will be put in jeopardy". That is the main reason why organizations today are focusing on customer satisfaction, loyalty and retention. The perception of quality is multilateral: quality means different things to different people (Gerson, 1993) andfrom the perspective of quality's dimensions (input, process and output) and from the perspective ofthe stakeholders, there are many views of quality (Reichheld, 1996). This study intend to explore an insight of CTSP practices in Malaysia and to identify the customer's satisfaction towards the service provided. The SERVQUAL model along with the GAP Model developed by Parasuraman et al., (1988) shall be adopted to determine whether the model may be applicable for the cellular service providers in Malaysia.LITERATURE REVIEW:SERVQUAL has been widely used in telecommunication industries in different cultural context with high reliability and validity (Hoffman & Bateson, 2001; Tyran& Ross, 2006; Stafford et al., 1998; Sureschander et al., 2002). In a study of mobile telecommunication in South Africa, Van der Wal et al. …