Marketing Essay范文

本試驗需要對尼日利亞的商業環境服務品質進行評估。本報告重點介紹了參與者對服務品質的理解，在研究領域中服務品質存在哪些不足以及服務品質對經營績效的影響。
 

一篇簡要的文獻綜述為此研究提供了一個理論依據，同時也指出了文獻綜述與研究領域的實際獲得之間存在差距。
 

簡介
 

商品服務的生產與消費是我們日常生活中不可或缺的一部分，它的實現建立在業務和消費者之間的重要關系上；消費者希望商品和服務能滿足他們的需求，同時商家則希望消費者能經常光顧，從而建立了一個互惠互利的關系。
 

這種關系的一個重要組成部分是商品和服務的交付過程；消費者希望向生產者買到優質的商品與服務。當提供的服務超過消費者的期望時，消費者就會認為這是一個與眾不同的優質的服務。這種看法往往讓消費者愿意支付更多的價錢來購買令人滿意的服務(Vassen, 2002)。
 

This pilot survey was undertaken as a result of the need to assess service quality in the Nigerian business environment. This report focuses on what participants in the survey understands by service quality, what dimensions of service quality is deficient in the study area and the perceived impact of service quality on business performance.
 

A brief literature review was done to provide a theoretical basis for the work as well as to identify the gaps that exists between the literature reviewed and what obtains in the study area.
 

簡介———Introduction
 

The production and consumption of goods and services are an integral part of daily living in every society and its actualization establishes an important relationship between a business and its customers; customers depend on the goods and services to meet their needs while business owners expect patronage from consumers. So a mutually beneficial relationship is established.
 

An essential component of this relationship is the process of delivery of the goods and services; customers expect quality products and excellent service from producers. When a service is rendered more than the expectation of the customer, the customer perceives this as a different or outstanding service. This perception often make customers willing to pay an increased premium for the satisfying service (Vassen, 2002).
 

Quality, especially in service delivery is increasingly becoming an important issue in the business environment such that international companies such as Hewlett-Packard, Ford Motor Company, Fujitsu, Toyota and Samsung to mention a few (Strómgren, 2007) recognize quality as a business objective. Looking at the emphasis placed on quality either of goods or of service in developed countries as revealed in literature and in the light of my experience as a business owner in Nigeria, I observed a huge gap between the emphasis on service quality in developed countries and the attention the issue receives back home.
 

The creation of customer satisfaction through consistent delivery of excellent services can provide several benefits to an organization, including harmonious relationship between companies and consumers, providing a good basis for the purchase and re-creation of customer loyalty, and form a recommendation by word of mouth that can benefit the company.
 

Considering how much Nigerians travel to other countries and experience excellent services, I wonder why back home, things are different and the foreign experience have not had much impact on service delivery in our own business environment. This gap gave me the impetus to explore why such deficiency exists and what can be done to improve it.
 

問題陳述———Problem Statement
 

The primary reason for seeking improvement in quality service is that increase in customer satisfaction through excellent service quality can contribute significantly to business performance. (Banes and Cumby, 1995, Berry et al 1985, Parasuraman), therefore, empirical studies that provide detailed understanding and result of the relationship between business performance and service quality is important. However, such studies are few and far between in the Nigerian context.
 

Certain myths retard a company in its effort to profitably identify and satisfy its customers’ needs. One such myth is the belief that customer satisfaction is associated with product features and price factors alone. However, experience has shown that it is impossible to sustain a competitive advantage with only product price. What is done for the customers beyond the product sometimes influences what they are willing to pay for it and this sustains the competitive edge in the long run. The crux of this study is therefore to find out how people perceive service quality in the Nigerian business environment.
 

研究問題———Research Question
 

Research questions and hypotheses are helpful in empirical research as they provide a focal point around which the researcher searches relevant data and they provide a position from which the study may explore the identified problem. They also serve as a checkpoint against which the findings extracted from the data can are tested.
 

From the literature review, I came across different definitions of service quality culled from the perception of customers and businesses alike and important dimensions of service quality were also exposed. My intention is therefore to find out how people perceive service quality and how well the dimensions of service quality are demonstrated in my business environment.

The gap between what obtained in theory and practice in other countries and the present experience in Nigeria as I discovered during the literature review generated the following questions.
 

What do people understand by service quality in my business environment?
How would they rate service quality in the Nigerian business environment?

What aspect or dimension of service quality is most important?

What aspect(s) of service quality is deficient?

What criteria would they use to measure the excellence of service quality?

What are the effects of poor service quality on business performance?

How can service quality be improved?

What are the constraint to excellent service quality?

What effects will improved service quality have on business performance?

What aspects of business performance will improved service quality have the most impact on?
 

The specific questions I would like to address in this pilot study are:
 

What do people understand by service quality?

What aspect(s) or dimension(s) of service quality do they consider most important?

What aspects of business performance will improved service quality have the most impact on?

Service quality is a considerable part of business which makes it important to properly and correctly measure and research its effectiveness. However, to successfully measure it, it is necessary to clearly understand what it. This brings about the first research question: What do people understand by service quality?
 

The second question evolves from the first: What aspect(s) or dimensions(s) of service quality is considered important? In defining or explaining the meaning of service quality, its components (dimensions) based on the respondents perception will be identified. The identified components can then be benchmarked against those mentioned in literature to substantiate how well people understand what service quality is all about. This comparison will help to assess how service quality in the pilot study correlates with or diverges from literature.

Since this study hopes to emphasis the link between service quality and business performance, I consider it necessary to find out from the interview participants the aspects of business performance which they believe will be most influenced by improved service quality. This berths the third question: What aspects of business performance will improved service quality have the most impact on?
 

文獻綜述———Literature Review
 

The scope of literature reviewed for this study includes previous researches on concept, definition and meaning of service quality, dimensions and measurement of service quality, models of service quality and the effect of service quality on business performance.
 

服務品質的概念———Concept of Service Quality
 

Service quality is a business administration term ... It is an aggregated concept that combines the meaning and characteristics of two component terms – service and quality.
 

There are many definitions of quality. Quality is defined as defect free conformance to customer requirements (Vassen, 2002), fitness for purpose (Juran, 1998), conformance to expectation (Crosby, 1984). Lovelock and Wright (1999: 3) also defined quality as the degree to which a service satisfies customers by meeting their needs.
 

It is important to differentiate between a service and goods. Goods are tangible (an object) while services are intangible (a deed, performance or an effort). This difference not withstanding, service quality is applicable to both tangible product and intangible service, however, it presence or absence is more easily detected with services rather than with goods although it is also noticeable in the process of delivery of goods.
 

Service and quality exist only in the perception of the customer and are heavily dependent on the skills and attitudes of service staff. Furthermore, any strategy that embodies the delivery of service quality will need to consider the human elements both internally and externally to the organization (Vassen, 2012)
 

The concept of service quality came into limelight in .... and since then, various authors have attempted to give it a befitting definition. Lewis and Booms (1983) defined service quality as a measure of how well the service level delivered matches the customer’s expectations. Service quality as defined by Parasuraman et al (1985), is the degree and direction of discrepancy between consumers’ perceptions and expectations in terms of different but relatively important dimensions of the service quality which can affect their future behavior.
 

This definition suggests that service quality is a concept that is highly dependent on consumers perception and it could be difficult to measure because consumers do not easily articulate their expectations. There are difficulties in delimiting and measuring the concept, as a result, only a handful of researchers have operationalized it. (Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry, 1985, 1988, Carman 1990; Boltan and Drew 1991; Cronin and Taylor, 1992). Besides, despite its importance, very little emphasis is placed on it in developing countries.
 

Delivering quality service is considered an essential strategy for success and survival in today’s competitive business environment, (Parasuraman and Berry, 1980) and many organizations including those who produce tangible goods have instituted measurement and management approaches to improve their service.
 

服務品質的維度———Dimensions of service quality
 

In services marketing literature, service quality has been reported as a second order construct, composed of several first-order variables. Various authors have provided different conceptualizations over the time. They include Gronroos’s (1984) three component structure – technical, functional and reputational quality. Lehtinen and Lehtinen’s (1982) three components – interactive, physical and corporate quality. Hedvall and Paltschik’s (1989) two dimensions – willingness and ability to serve and physical and psychological access; Leblanc’s and Nguyen’s (1988) five components – corporate image, internal organization, physical support of the service producing system, staff/customer interaction, and the level of customer satisfaction. Garvin’s (1988) nine dimensions: performance, features, conformance, reliability, durability, service, response, aesthetics and reputation. Oliver and Rust’s (1994) functional quality, technical quality and environment quality and Parasuraman’s (1988) conceptualization of five dimensions: tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy which eventually led to the development of SERVQUAL.
 

服務品質與績效的關系———Relationship between Service Quality and Business Performance
 

Service quality has been directly linked to the increased business performance in terms of increased patronage, competitive advantage and long-term profitability. (Neild and Ball, 2010). Service quality has also been reported as having apparent relationship to cost (Crosby 1979), profitability (Rust and Zahorik, 1993), customer satisfaction (Boulding et al, 1993), customer retention and positive word-of-mouth (Reichheld and Sasser, 1990). Service quality also has the strategic benefits of contributing to market share and return on investment as well as lowering manufacturing cost and improving productivity (Anderson and Zeithaml, 1984; Garvin, 1983)
 

研究方法———Research method
 

This section gives an overview of the study process with emphasis on the description of the data collection method, the sampling design, validity, reliability and authenticity of the data obtained and the data collection process.
 

研究設計———Research design
 

There are basically two research methodology on which research designs are based – quantitative and qualitative methods. The main difference between the two methods concerns the type of data used and the method of data collection. Both methods have advantages and disadvantages and choice of method is usually based on the purpose of the study.
 

A quantitative research method is formalized and structured and involves variables and data that can be measured and valued numerically. It is usually applied when the purpose of the research is to verify existing theories or test hypothesis based on previous researches. Qualitative methods on the other hand is used where the purpose of the research is to explore, gain understanding or to deepen insight on a specific subject, occurrence or situation. Its central theme is to provide deeper understanding of the studied problem by collecting, analyzing and interpreting data that cannot be expressed in numbers. (Strómsung, 2007)
 

Due to the exploratory nature of this study, a qualitative research method is more suitable to explore individual perspectives on service quality issues in the Nigerian business environment. A survey with the instrument of semi- structured interview is considered an appropriate qualitative technique for the study. A longitudinal study or action research may reveal a richer detail, more subtleties and provide a greater validation of findings but considering the scope, structure and timeframe, I think a simple qualitative research design most suitable.
 

The use of semi-structured interviews with open-ended questions will allow for probity and understanding as it gives the opportunity for follow up questions. It also has the advantage that what is not being said could be inferred from the body language, facial expression, tone of voice etc, of the participants.#p#分頁標題#e#
 

A quantitative approach does appear realistic for several reasons. The first being the non-existence of a construct for quantitative measurement in addition to the fact that, even if predefined variables that could be used to measure the dimensions of service and quality and business performance exists, there is dearth of data on several aspects of business performance and service delivery. Besides, if primary data was collected with the use of questionnaires, the restrictions with using a questionnaire would have made the findings lack credibility.
 

The limitation of my choice of research method is subjectivity of the research technique – semi structured interview – it makes validity and reliability of data and findings difficult to address
 

數據收集———Data Collection
 

Based on the identified research questions, an interview guide was developed. Interview subjects were first approached verbally to seek their consent for the exercise before the questions were sent to them through e-mail.
 

參與者的選擇———Participants Selection
 

Being a business owner makes it easy for me to involve other business owners as participants in the data gathering exercise. The criteria for participant selection in addition to being an entrepreneur, is the willingness and availability of the interviewee. Five respondents were approached for the interview, but only four who were willing to and had the time for the exercise were finally interviewed. A summary of the respondents bio data is presented in Table1
 

Table 1: Summary of respondents bio-data
 

面試過程———Interview Process
 

The interview protocol was developed and a pre-test was run on the first two participants. The protocol was further evaluated and revised based on the feedback from the pre-test. The interviews was conducted via e-mail because of the extremely busy schedule of the participant which made face-to-face form of interview impossible.
 

Interview questions and the interview protocol which outlined the purpose of the study and the expectations of the interviewer were typed and e-mailed to participants who had earlier signified their interest in the exercise. The interview questions consists of five open-ended questions apart from the four bio-data questions. The interview questions were designed around the participants perception of service quality, and the dimensions of service quality. The actual interview question is presented in Appendix 1.
 

The data collection technique helped to save time transcribing recorded face-to-face interviews although it is a bit impersonal and important non-verbal messages which could have been obtained through face-to-face interviews will be missed.

數據分析———Data Analysis
 

An open coding approach was chosen for this project as it is well suited for understanding phenomena (Kvale & Brinkmann 2009). The interview reports returned through e-mail were downloaded, studied in detail and themes identified line by line. The themes I was on the look out for are terms used in the definition of service quality, dimensions of services quality, measure of business performance and ways to improve on services quality.
 

These themes were given rudimentary codes that bore close resemblance to their meanings. A summary of the coding structure is presented in Table 2. Responses that are relevant to each theme were identified, assigned sub-codes and noted in the margin of each written interview report. Existing sub-codes were compared to new ones from the next report. This was done, repeatedly, going back and forth comparing the responses. The process was repeated until all the four reports were conceptualized.
 

A total of thirty seven responses were given in all, these were merged based on similarity of meaning to nineteen codes. The resulting coding structure consists of five main codes: definition, limitations, benefit impact and improvement and nineteen sub-codes. The interview notes were reread based on the established coding structure to ensure that no information is left out.
 

Table 2: Initial coding structure
 

調查（或研究）的結果———Findings
 

The summary of the results is presented in Table 3
 

Table 3: Summary of responses
 

As shown in Table 3 above, there is considerable response overlap among the participants and some respondents also gave more than one answer to some of the questions. In relation to the definition of service quality, three of the respondents gave similar answers while the fourth respondent gave an answer that is entirely different from and considerably more profound than others. The respondents identified different but all important limitations to service quality. In response to the question on the aspect of business performance that service quality affects most, all the participants unanimously agreed that excellent service quality significantly impacts on revenue. Three respondents each mentioned that outstanding service quality gives a business free advertisement through referrals and increased customer loyalty, while two respondents mentioned that the benefit of excellent customer service is business growth. With regards to how service quality can be improved, three respondents suggested training, one suggested better customer relations and the last respondent suggested that service quality standards as relevant to each sector should be set.
 

討論———Discussion
 

In this section, I will discuss the findings with emphasis on the five codes.
 

定義———Definition
 

The responses provided by the participants suggests that people think of service quality in terms of customer service alone. Three out of the four respondents defined service quality as a function of the customer service; only one respondent gave a comprehensive definition. This suggests that lack of understanding of the ramifications of service quality could be a contributory factor to its deficiency.
 

局限———Limitation
 

The findings reveal that constraints to outstanding service quality
 

影響———Impact
 

All the respondents unanimously agree that improved service quality have significant impact on revenue because it boost sales as a result of effective word-of-mouth referrals that satisfied customers give to other people. This also saves the company a lot on advertisement expenditure because referrals are free advertisement. While new customers who patronize the company as a result help to increase a company’s market share, existing customers are also retained through continuous service quality improvement. Employee satisfaction, and general
 

好處———Benefit
 

The respondents identified three benefits of outstanding service quality as free advertisement through referrals, customer loyalty and business growth.
 

改善———Improvement
 

Suggestions for improving service quality could be categorised into external and internal factors. The internal factors are those that relates to improving service quality within the organization while external factors are those measures of improving service quality with reference to the customers. Improving customer relations, as suggested by a respondent is one way of doing this. Other suggestions mentioned relates to improvements within the organization itself. These includes training for both staff and business owners or management. Another important suggestion for improving service quality within an organization is defining key service quality indicators in every organization which should be clearly communicated to employees interfacing with customers.
 

研究限制———Limitations of study
 

As with any research there are strengths and limitations associated with the adopted method. On one hand, interviews have the potential to yield rich and detailed information on issues of interest. With open ended questions the researcher is free to engage in a dialogue gaining access to relevant information. The setback with the interview in this study is that due to time and logistics constraints, I could not get to do a face-to-face interview, so I had to settle for an e-mail interview which must have significantly reduced the amount of non-verbal responses that could possibly have added a deeper dimension to the data collection.
 

研究評估———Evaluation of the study
 

This study has helped to uncover the inadequate understanding that people have about service quality. Apart from this, it has highlighted the dimensions of constraints to excellent service delivery and has provided a basis for further investigation of the concept.
 

關于本課題的思考———Reflections
 

This study has been a worthwhile experience for me because it has significantly extended and heightened my learning process; although I was taught was to expect, there is nothing like being involved in the actual process of searching literature, conducting interviews, analyzing data and reporting the findings all by myself.
 

I found the literature review, discussion and compilation of the report easier than conducting the interviews and especially analyzing the data. Attempting to organize the interview reports into a logical format and extracting the needed information from them was quite a challenge and realizing that there are several ways of doing it did not make it any easier. With more practice, I would understand the coding and analysis process better.
 

A conspicuous drawback to the interview process is that it was conducted via e-mail. I would have preferred a face-to-face one, but the time frame for this study and logistics of getting to the participants constrained me to execute it via e-mail. Although the advantage of the e-mail interview is that it saved transcription time.
 

For my main dissertation, I will include more people in the interview process and in addition to interviewing business owners, I will also include their customers so that I can better assess the difference in the perception of these two groups of people. Apart from this, I might consider using a questionnaire such as the one used by ... in their study to gather data in addition to the interviews.
 

I have also discovered that the scope of service quality is wide and encompasses a lot of aspects that may differ considerably among different industries or sectors of an economy. For instance, the issues that service quality will generate in the hospitality and tourism industry will be quite different from what it would bring up in say, the education sector. This difference could make generalizations of findings difficult or irrelevant. So, in my final thesis, I will limit my investigation to specific sector or industry within the Nigeria economy. This restriction, I believe will enhance a thorough study of the subject matter and will also improve the validity of the findings and make generalization of findings more relevant and acceptable.
 

結論———Conclusion
 

This results show that most of the respondent do not have adequate understanding of service quality, they think that service quality is limited to customer service alone. However, they fully understand the importance of the concept and its impact on business performance.
 

The study also highlighted constraints to excellent service quality. The most fundamental of them is inadequate knowledge and understanding of what effective service quality is all about and lack of appropriate standards for evaluating service quality in different industries or sectors of the economy. In addition to these, the study also reveals that inadequate training of staff that interfaces with customers on the ethics and principles of outstanding service quality also impairs the quality of service delivery. Again,They also gave Word count excluding title page, tables, references and appendix