Effects of information technology and customer satisfaction in air transport

<jats:p>Information Technology is vital in all organizations especially in the air transport. This paper reviews how information technology (IT) impacts organizations in the aspect of customer service. The authors are interested in the implication of online service of 5 different airlines towards passengers’ behaviors. Many organizations in the Airline Industry see the importance of the e-service and aim to add the value in the Information Technology. This led the researcher to investigate ways fororganizations in the air transport to adapt quickly and grow rapidly. This is one of the vital tools for organizations in the air transport to increase customers satisfaction. Thus, this study was conducted to investigate the relationship of customer satisfaction and the information technology of airlines industry. The respondents were 88 passengers using e-service offered by 5 airlines in Thailand. The findings reported top 3 relevant factors affecting customer satisfaction that can set as guidelines for organizations in air transport.</jats:p>

section_content: Nowadays, customers have various services to choose through electronic distribution as flights and other online service. This conveniency carried to both the passengers and the airliners. In addition, the Internet has become popular market of distributions (Doolin et al. 2002). 

The Internet made everything possible such as passengers are able to gather information to compare prices without contacting a sales representative or travel agent. This led to the convenience of passengers to be able to prepare their own itineraries independently. 

According to Santos (2003), E-Service Quality could mean entire customer perceptions of electronic service experience through the channel of online. 

Due to this high acceptance of e-commerce, organizations are adopting more effective ecommerce channel to enhance airline businesses (Kim et al. 2009 ). 

In tourism industry E-commerce has progressed from the less-complex products such as airline tickets, accommodations and car rentals, to generate more complex products such as vacation packages (Beldona 2005). 

Therefore, it is relevant for organizations to understand consumer behaviour to improve the service especially online environment. This will engage strategies to improve customer satisfaction towards the use of Information Technology. In this study, the author focused on the website. 

The previous researches have investigated the factors that influence e-travel context which inspired the author to develop a study on the effects of website features and trust form passengers. This research focused on the impacts of website features towards customer satisfaction.
section_name: Introduction

section_content: The online service is affected by factors as follows; prices, previous purchase experience, risks, perceived service quality, network comments, and recommendations. Previous researches have investigated the use of tourism accommodation websites and discovered that the intention of the customers visiting the websites is determined by the ease of use of websites and the usefulness of the websites. 

Their results have also mentioned the positive influences of usefulness of the website. Therefore, airlines should focus on the reliable search systems and easy navigation in order to serve this effective online booking. Moreover, the purchasing decisions of the customers are based on the appearance and website design such as quality information, pictures, and graphics. It is recommended that hospitality industry should provide a competitive service to satisfy their passengers to gain customer's loyalty (Abdulla et al. 2017). 

Furthermore, trust in the airline industry performs a vital role in determining customers' behaviours in relations to the company's website. Trust represents the customer's beliefs in integrity and capability. According to the theory from J. J. Zboja and C. M. Voorhees (2006), mentioned that trust is relevant determinations of behaviours. 

Therefore, the satisfaction of customers in relations to the trustworthiness of a company is suggested to be the main focus for customers to visit the company's website. The previous research has shown that trust develops customer intentions especially in purchasing through the internet for a specific service or product

The success of the business in tourism industry depends on the combined effects of service where the customers encounter to do it by themselves (Abdullah, 2018). Furthermore, it is believed that trustworthiness will enhance a customer's intention to return to an organization both offline and online (Delgado, 2001; Ushakov et al., 2022; 2022a, 2022b). 

K. -M. Chu (2009) also confirmed that the more a consumer trusts a service provider, the more likely he or she will continue the relationship. Cyr (2008) also discovered website trust is significantly related to loyalty. 

The previous researches from Golmohammadi et al. (2003) reported that customers with a higher level of trust are more likely to participate in e-commerce. Moreover, Kim et al. (2009) clarified that trust from online customer is strongly related to customer loyalty.
section_name: Literature Review

section_content: The data in the study were recorded during June-July, 2022. The respondents were 88 passengers experiencing the online service by using the online booking service from 5 airlines websites in Thailand. The study applied this questionnaire which includes 27 statements under 5 factors. 

The 5 factors that they checked the websites were 1) to check promotion, 2) to see pictures, 3) to check price, 4) to check the service, 5) to get information. To assess the significance of the 5 factors that may influence customer satisfactions towards the airlines, a Likert scale (5 point scales) was selected. An open-ended question is presented to allow the respondents to give comments that may help the organizations in the air transport to improve their online direct booking. 

The descriptive statistics were employed to find the standard deviation and mean of each item of the factor. Then, the t-test, and one way ANOVA were adopted to analyze the impact of passengers' opinions towards each factor.
section_name: Methodology

section_content: Table 1. The profiles of the respondents.
section_name: Results

section_content: Frequency Gen Z (18-24 years) 23%, Gen Y (25-39 years) 30%, Gen X (40-54 years) 29%, and Baby Boomers (55 years and above) 18%. 

According to the results of the nationalities of the respondents in the study, the highest number of the nationality that visited the websites was Asian 30% followed by American 25%, European 22%, Oceania 13%, and African 10%. Regarding the levels of education of the respondents. The highest number of the respondents are bachelor's degree 48%, followed by diploma and master's degree 26%. For the status of the respondents, the highest number of the respondents were 32% singled, followed by 31%married, 23% divorced, and 14% widowed Due to the result of the customers behaviour of using the online service. Table 2 shown the top 3 reasons why the customers visited the Airlines Websites. The highest numbers of the respondents visiting the Airlines Websites were 42% checking the service, 17%checking the price and 16% checking the promotion. To assess the importance of the 5 factors of online service affecting customer satisfaction. The researcher used a 5 point-Likert scales. Tab. 3 indicated factors of online service affecting the customer satisfaction. The results shown from the mean scores for each factor were as follows: website and content (4. 53), convenience (4. 23), price and promotion (4. 20). 

These research findings revealed top 3 important factors of online service affecting customer satisfaction. There're website and content, convenience, and price and promotion. 

The composite mean scores for each factor were as follows: website and content (4. 53), convenience (4. 23), price and promotion (4. 20). In addition, these were relevant reasons for checking airlines websites from the passengers as found in the study. These results provided relevant insights and opportunities for organizations in the airline industry to improve their websites. This can include in the strategy to encourage passengers to book directly with the airlines. Moreover, the websites need to provide all of this information in order to increase customer satisfaction. 

Another important factor is convenience. The online devices that passengers can access to shall not be limited by computer, mobile phone, tablet or another device. The airlines must use modern booking engines which are able to respond to activities such as booking instantly. 

Finally, the website and content should be user-friendly comprised of good pictures and up-to-date information.
section_name: Profile

section_content: This research aimed to support airlines to apply these findings as guidelines to improve their websites, price and promotion and other online service. 

In addition, the findings of this study aimed to develop strategy post covid pandemic as well. Future studies should focus on the investigation on different variables such as leadership traits which lead to set the relevant factors impacting customers satisfaction. 

In the air transport, it is important for airliners to analyze their market segments in order to design their Information Technology strategies.
section_name: Conclusion