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ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................... 3
INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................... 3
LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................................................................ 4
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ................................................................................................ 7
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH ............................................................................................................. 7
QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH ........................................................................................................... 8
Regression Analysis ................................................................................................................. 8
Factor Analysis ........................................................................................................................ 9
RESPONDENT PROFILES ...................................................................................................... 10
Gender ................................................................................................................................... 10
Age ......................................................................................................................................... 10
QUESTIONNAIRE DESIGN .................................................................................................... 11
DATA COLLECTION ............................................................................................................... 12
DATA INTERPRETATION & ANALYSIS ............................................................................ 12
PEARSON- CORRELATION ANALYSIS ........................................................................................... 12
FACTOR ANALYSIS ..................................................................................................................... 12
REGRESSION ANALYSIS .............................................................................................................. 13
LIMITATIONS IN OUR RESEARCH .................................................................................... 14
RECOMMENDATIONS............................................................................................................ 15
CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................................... 15
REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................ 17
APPENDIX .................................................................................................................................. 18
QUESTIONNAIRE ......................................................................................................................... 18
SPSS OUTPUT ............................................................................................................................ 19
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ABSTRACT
The organized Radio Cabs industry in India has seen phenomenal growth over the last few years.
Spreading its business across metro and other urban centres of the country, the industry stands at
a crucial point. With competition rising, tapping into and delivering superior customer value is
the key to further growth. This paper has attempted to capture the key service dimensions of the
Radio Cabs industry and trace their impact on the overall satisfaction of consumers reflected by
the sample used in the study. A detailed statistical analysis carried out on data collected through
a questionnaire using a Likert’s Scale of 5 has revealed key relationships between key service
dimensions and the overall satisfaction. The paper derives key inputs for corporate players in the
industry to shape their consumer service strategy in order to raise customer lifetime value and
fight competition.
INTRODUCTION
The objective of this paper is to understand and examine the factors affecting success of radio
taxi services in India. Radio Taxi services as a business is still new in India, but is growing at a
rapid pace owing to the reliability and ease of commute. Naturally, the competition is heating up
and many players are now vying for the same pie. The only way a company can differentiate and
deliver in an upcoming market is by adding intangibles to the tangibles, by aiming at customer
delight and by making every effort to increase responsiveness.
Service excellence is both unobtrusive and elusive. We know when we have received it and we
know when we have not. Service, both poor and outstanding, has a strong emotional impact upon
the customers, creating intense feelings about the organization, its staff and its services, and
influencing our loyalty to it. Yet, many organizations seem to find service excellence elusive,
hard to grasp and often difficult, if not impossible to deliver. Paradoxically consumers
instinctively know what it is and how simple it can be.
The role of culture and background in the service encounter evaluations cannot be ignored.
Because culture provides the framework for social interactions, the social rules and customer
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expectations that are related to service encounters are likely to vary from culture to culture
(Pucik and Katz, 1986). For example, the international travelers least satisfied with airline in-
flight service are likely to be Japanese, as indicated by customer satisfaction surveys conducted
by international airlines (Zeithaml and Bitner, 1996)
Because service delivery inherently includes customer contact and interaction with employees,
cultural factors may exert greater influence on consumers' evaluations of services than on their
evaluations of tangible goods. For high-contact services especially, good employee-customer
interactions are key to successful relationship building (Chase and Tansik, 1983), and a better
understanding of how to adapt service delivery behavior to the values of major cultural groups
would be highly beneficial to service managers.
The centrality of customers to every marketing concept is more relevant in service industry as it
requires frequent customer interactions. A business like radio taxi service in which customers
experience a high level of contact with the front-line personnel would do well to imbibe peter
drucker’s management philosophy – “Customer is King” – in their business model.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Unconditional service guarantees: Use and scope in Indian market
Service guarantees have become an important and effective means to signal quality (Ostrom &
Lacobucci, 1995), attract and retain customers (Evans, Clark, & Knuston, 1996), and gain market
share through differentiation. In addition, firms use service guarantees to learn about customer
needs (Hart, 1988)and fine-tune internal processes to respond to service failure. In general, firms
report significant gains such as premium prices, positive customer attitudes and behaviors, and
increased revenues from implementing service guarantees (Hart 1993)(Kashyap, 2001).
A strong service guarantee that puts the customer first doesn’t necessarily lead to chaos. If
designed and implemented properly, it enables you to get control over your organization- with
clear goals and an information network that gives you the data to help you improve performance.
Companies have proved that service guarantees can be a boon to performance and profits and
can be a vehicle to market dominance. (Hart, 1988)
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Potential benefits from guarantees
The effects on consumer behavior can be grouped into impacts on: (1) Potential customers
during the decision-making process, such as reducing perceived risk; (2) current customers, for
example increasing brand loyalty and positive word-of-mouth; (3) dissatisfied customers, e.g.,
increasing their propensity to complain when dissatisfied and thereby creating opportunities for
the firm to recover the service, to lower dissatisfaction and switching propensity, as well as to
reduce negative word-of-mouth.
It is suggested that there are two amplifiers of the impact of guarantees on consumer behavior.
These are perceived risk and uniqueness of the guarantee. The higher the risk perceived by
consumers, and the higher the degree of uniqueness of the guarantee (i.e., better than
competitors’ guarantees), the higher is the potential impact of a guarantee. It is noteworthy, that
these amplifiers are proposed to mediate the impact of guarantees on consumer behavior only,
and not on operations and service quality. In other words, the beneficial impacts on operations
and service quality can be achieved even when consumers perceive little risk or other firms offer
similar guarantees. (Wirtz, 1998)
Customers have difficulty evaluating service quality prior to consumption since most services are
high in experience or credence attributes. Even when search attributes can be used to distinguish
between firms, customers may not have access to full information about the quality of competing
services. Hence, service guarantees serve as useful signals of service quality. Consequently,
service guarantees that successfully signal high service quality also serve to reduce customer
costs of search and information. Service guarantees may communicate higher service quality
either directly or indirectly by conveying lower risk (Kashyap, 2001).
Cultural implication in service delivery & role of front line staff in Indian service business
context
Research has shown that culture plays an important role in determining how customers expect
services to be delivered, (Tansik & Chase, 1988)it is important that today’s service managers
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should be aware both of their ability to leverage culture-driven expectations and of the costs of
ignoring cultural norms.
A study by Matilla (1990) revealed that that business travelers tend to focus on the output, not
the style, of the service delivery. For this target market in both Asian and western context,
efficiency (including the speed of service) is more crucial than the functional quality of the
interaction. The study also indicated which part of the service delivery is influenced by the
customer’s cultural background. The individual customer's sensitivity to culture-based norms in
service encounters, however, might be mediated by that person's purchase motivation.
It is interesting to note that, Asian and Western leisure travelers had highly different perceptions
of the quality of the focal service encounter, but Asian and Western business travelers showed
only insignificant differences in these perceptions.
The biggest challenge in the service industry is that there has to be consistency. Buying a product
is very different from buying service. When you buy a piece of soap, it’s just a piece of soap
manufactured by the same process day in and day out. A service is more human, with the
potential for inconsistency. Price based promotions, such as price deals, coupons and refunds
offers seem to dominate the marketing literature because they are the most commonly used and
are applied mostly to consumer goods. (Donnelley, 1991) US survey of promotional practice
showed that showed that price coupons were the favourite promotional tool (with 95 per cent of
marketers planning to use them in the next year). Price promotions and quantity-based
promotions offering “10 per cent extra free” or banded packs popular commonly in consumer
goods arena manipulate the quantity/price equation to increase the value of the product offering
to consumers. Such “value-increasing” promotions cannot easily work for services by an
increase in physical quantity, and therefore can only work through potentially dangerous,
margin- and image-eroding, price reductions. (Doyle, 1990) has identified four possible
dimensions of strong branding. Although they are not intentionally directed at any particular
sector, their relevance to service marketing is not in doubt.
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1. Prioritizing quality- Evidence suggests that prioritizing quality improves margin by
helping to create a competitive edge, thus increasing market share, which in turn leads to
scale economies (Buzzell & Gale, 1987).
2. Offer Superior Services- (Doyle, 1990) highlights research, which demonstrates high rate
if brand switching among customers dissatisfied with service levels. This despite a
relatively low willingness to complain to the service provider.
3. Get there first- The basic principle of product life cycle clearly emphasizes the
importance of capturing a market prior to the entry of large numbers of competitors. In
branding terms it is being first into the consumer’s mind which is all important.
4. Be different – The importance of differentiation particularly In mature markets is well
recognized. In the service sector generally, the effective control of differentiation is
particularly important.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
Qualitative researchers aim to gather an in-depth understanding of human behaviour and the
reasons that govern such behaviour. The qualitative method investigates the why and how of
decision making, not just what, where, when. Hence, smaller but focused samples are more often
needed, rather than large samples.
In order to explore the attributes on which the research has to be focused, we did a qualitative
survey. A mixed lot of 10 students were selected on the basis of demographics such as gender,
age, city etc.. Since the topic demanded discussing personal views and feedback, in-depth
interviews were conducted with them. This ascertained that there are no bias in their opinions. In
the interview which lasted for 10-12 minutes each, respondents were probed to comprehend on
what all parameters they judge are relevant for measuring the overall satisfaction levels of
availing services of a radio taxi. The interviews were recorded for later review by the team. Data
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obtained during this exercise was later structured to extract factors on which quantitative
research was to be performed.
Based on the analysis of the responses and doing secondary research we finalised our
parameters. On triangulating the information from qualitative survey, literature review and
secondary research we decided to use the SERVQUAL scale.
SERVQUAL was developed in the mid eighties by Zeithaml, Parasuraman & Berry and is used
to determine the gap between quality expectations and perceptions. It is an operational
instrument that is widely used to measure the service quality.
QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH
REGRESSION ANALYSIS
In statistical analysis, regression analysis comprises any techniques for modelling and analyzing
multi variables, the entire spotlight is on the association between dependent variable and one or
more independent variables. Regression analysis helps us to understand the phenomenon how a
changed in dependent variable is carried out when there is a change in one independent variable
keeping the other independent variable constant. More specifically it provides the conditional
expectation of non-independent variable with the given independent variable - i.e. the average
value of non-independent variable when the independent variables are kept constant. The less
common focus is on location parameter of conditional distribution of the dependent variable
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given the independent variables. The regression function is the function of independent variables
which determines the estimation target. In regression analysis, probability distribution can be
used to characterize the variation of dependent variable with respect to regression function. Also
for prediction and forecasting regression analysis is widely used. The relation of a particular
independent variable and their extent of relationship or forms can also be studied using
regression analysis. In restricted circumstances, regression analysis can be used to infer causal
relationships between the independent and dependent variables.
FACTOR ANALYSIS
Factor analysis is a statistical approach that can be used to analyze interrelationships among a
large number of variables and to explain these variables in terms of their common underlying
dimensions (factors). The statistical approach involving finding a way of condensing the
information contained in a number of original variables into a smaller set of dimensions (factors)
with a minimum loss of information (Hair et al., 1992).
In other words, it is a method used to describe variability among observed variables in terms of a
potentially lower number of unobserved variables called factors. For example, those variations in
three or four observed variables mainly reflect the variations in a single unobserved variable, or
in a reduced number of unobserved variables. Factor analysis searches for such joint variations in
response to unobserved latent variables. The observed variables are modelled as linear
combinations of the potential factors, plus "error" terms. The information gained about the
interdependencies between observed variables can be used later to reduce the set of variables in a
dataset.
Factor analysis is also called data reduction or structure detection method. The only requirement
of factor analysis is to have data in the form of correlations.
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RESPONDENT PROFILES
GENDER
Gender Size Frequency
Male 30 69%
Female 14 31%
Total 44
AGE
Age Groups Size
From 22 to 24 9
From 25 to 27 26
Over 28 9
Total 44
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QUESTIONNAIRE DESIGN
The questionnaire used closed (or multiple choice) questions and asked the respondent to choose
among a possible set of answers. The response reflects the closest representation his/her
viewpoint. Questions of this kind may offer simple choice such as Likert scale. They may also
require that the respondent chooses among several answer categories, or that he/she uses a Likert
scale to indicate preferences. The questions were short and unambiguous to avoid difficulty in
answering the same. In addition, the problem of incomplete entries was avoided by making all
questions in the survey mandatory.
a) The respondent is restricted to a finite (and therefore more manageable) set of responses,
d) They permit the inclusion of more variables in a research study because the format
enables the respondent to answer more questions in the same time required to answer
fewer open-ended questions.
a) They can introduce bias, either by forcing the respondent to choose between given
alternatives or by offering alternatives that otherwise would not have come to mind,
b) They do not allow for creativity or for the respondent to develop ideas,
c) They do not permit the respondent to qualify the chosen response or express a more
complex or subtle meaning.
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DATA COLLECTION
We used an online survey (refer appendix for questionnaire) to collect data. The respondents
were asked to fill a questionnaire based on the different service dimensions as elaborated in the
discussion above. A group of randomly selected participants from various cities were asked to
fill the surveys. All the respondents have used Radio Cabs service before filling the
questionnaire.
FACTOR ANALYSIS
The data was analyzed with factor method to reduce the dimensions (independent variables) to
eliminate drivers that caused high correlation between the independent variables. Initial analysis
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of factor reduction resulted in unclear grouping of the factors and hence the real drivers
impacting the dependent variable could not be found. For further details refer to Exhibit 3 of
Appendix.
The factor analysis was repeated with quartimax rotation to enhance the grouping of factors
based on Eigen scores and component matrix. This resulted in clear grouping among the factors
we had hypothesized, thereby explaining the correlation discovered in the Pearson’s correlation
analysis.
Based on the loading results from the rotated factor analysis we have grouped the factors under
the following categories
REGRESSION ANALYSIS
The list of independent variables inferred from the factor analysis was further used to understand
the relation between the independent variables and the overall satisfaction of the consumers from
the radio cab services. The comprehensive results of the regression analysis are presented in the
Exhibit 4 of Appendix.
The regression model yielded a significance of 0.00 demonstrating strong correlation between
the dependent variable and the independent factors identified by factor analysis.
The coefficients of the independent factors can be obtained from the co-efficient table of the
regression results in Exhibit 4 of Appendix.
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The significance of the hypothesis is proven by observing the significance of the factors
comprising of the independent variables hypothesized. The summary report of the hypothesis is
as follows
1. The study was confined to a limited set of respondents from only few cities. Therefore
the results cannot be generalized and may not be applicable to pan India.
2. The number of service providers across the country is large so the sample size will not be
predictive of the nature and quality of service across the gamut of cab service providers
3. The scope of operations is different for different players and therefore their
professionalism in terms of their service will also be perceived differently in terms of
expectations.
4. The sample size will not be able to predict the size of operations and the level of service.
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Despite these limitations, a sincere attempt has been made to collect and analyze the data and
present the information as accurately as possible.
RECOMMENDATIONS
This research was based on the goal of identifying key service dimensions that have a high
impact on overall satisfaction of radio cab consumers. The main results of this endeavor have
been summarized below. The present research has allowed us to highlight various factors which
lead to satisfaction from cab services measured on the existing service quality factors (Servqual
method from Valarie A. Zeithaml, A. Parasuraman and Leonard L.Berry) apart from others that
we identified in the form of cab condition, route familiarity etc. This research points towards
significant gaps in the available research, both with regard to the extent to which different
methodological approaches have been used and with regards to relevant factors that have not yet
been investigated. We saw that there are factors like front line performance, availability,
reliability, assurance matters, there are many other factors whose results and consideration of
their implications raise many questions that can and should be addressed in future studies.
CONCLUSION
On the basis of statistical analysis of the collected data we could clearly identify the causal
relationship between the hypothesized variables and the dependent variable. Given the high
significance of relationship between promise delivery, well trained staff as expressed by the
regression analysis, both Hypothesis 1 and 2 are accepted. However the significance of factors
like safety, value for money and cab availability was low on the similar count, thereby leading to
the rejection of Hypothesis 3 and 4. We would however like to point out that qualitative
interviews with respondents suggested that they assumed availability a granted factor and hence
its impact as a relevant independent variable cannot be completely ruled out.
We further categorized the overall satisfaction levels of the sample through Fred Reichheld’s
Consumer satisfaction framework. Our findings revealed that over 22% of the respondents fell
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under the Defectors category suggesting a considerable issue with respect to customer life time
value and vulnerability to negative word of mouth. We also found that more than 31% of the
respondents were in the Neutral Category while only 45% respondents were in the Promoter
category thereby indicating a strong need to raising the overall consumer satisfaction level.
The research highlights the importance of strategic focus needed on building reliability through
promised service delivery and highly trained staff. It is a key input for the major players in the
strategic direction as this can help them in achieving higher level of consumer satisfaction going
ahead in the future. This will help the organized players transfer the Defectors and Neutrals to
the Promoters category, critical to their survival and growth in the future. In the context of rising
competition, this facet of their business holds the key to long term sustainability and profitability.
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REFERENCES
Buzzell, R., & Gale, B. (1987). The PIMPS Principles: Linking Strategy to Performance. Collier
Macmillan.
Doyle, P. (1990). Building Successful Brands: Strategic Options. The Journal of Consumer Marketing ,
7 (2), 5-20.
Evans, M. R., Clark, J. D., & Knuston, B. (1996, December). The 100-Percent Unconditional Money-
Back Guarantee . Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly , pp. 56-61 .
Hart, C. W. (1988, July-August). The power of Unconditional Service Guarantee. Harvard Business
Review .
Kashyap, R. (2001). The Effects of Service Guarantees on External and Internal Markets. Academy of
Marketing Science Review , 2001 (10).
Mattila, A. S. (1999). The role of culture and purchase motivation in service encounter evaluations.
JOURNAL OF SERVICES MARKETING , 13 (4/5), 376-389.
Ostrom, A., & Lacobucci, A. (1995). Consumer Trade-Offs and the Evaluation of Services. Journal of
Marketing , 59, pp. 17-28.
Tansik, D., & Chase, R. (1988). Effects of customer induced uncertainty on the design of service
systems. Academy of Management Annual Meeting. Anaheim,CA.
Wirtz, J. (1998). Development of a Service Guarantee Model. Asic Pacific Journal of Management , 15
(51-75).
Zeithaml, V. and Bitner, M. (1996), Services Marketing, McGraw-Hill, New York, NY.
Pucik, V. and Katz, J. (1986), ``Information, control and human resource management in
multinational firms'', Human Resource Management, Vol. 25, pp. 121-32.
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APPENDIX
QUESTIONNAIRE
Demographic Details
1. Age
b. Non Metro
c. Both
3. Gender
10. The cab driver is usually well versed with the routes and roads to the destination
11. The customer care executives are courteous, prompt and responsive
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14. Rate your overall satisfaction with the current radio cab services
SPSS OUTPUT
Data Reliability
Exhibit 1
N %
Excludeda 0 .0
Total 43 100.0
Reliability Statistics
.769 15
Exhibit 2
Correlations
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Sig. (2-tailed) .001 .081 .531 .108
N 43 43 43 43 43
N 43 43 43 43 43
N 43 43 43 43 43
N 43 43 43 43 43
N 43 43 43 43 43
N 43 43 43 43 43
N 43 43 43 43 43
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N 43 43 43 43 43
N 43 43 43 43 43
N 43 43 43 43 43
N 43 43 43 43 43
N 43 43 43 43 43
N 43 43 43 43 43
N 43 43 43 43 43
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Correlations
Destinationknow
Punctual Helpfulstaff Safety Availability dge
N 43 43 43 43 43
N 43 43 43 43 43
N 43 43 43 43 43
N 43 43 43 43 43
N 43 43 43 43 43
N 43 43 43 43 43
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Sig. (2-tailed) .009 .091 .947 .503
N 43 43 43 43 43
N 43 43 43 43 43
N 43 43 43 43 43
N 43 43 43 43 43
N 43 43 43 43 43
N 43 43 43 43 43
N 43 43 43 43 43
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N 43 43 43 43 43
Correlations
Promptnesscourts Bookingconvenie
y Valueformoney nce Internetbooking
N 43 43 43 43
N 43 43 43 43
N 43 43 43 43
N 43 43 43 43
N 43 43 43 43
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Sig. (2-tailed) .001 .738 .136 .410
N 43 43 43 43
N 43 43 43 43
N 43 43 43 43
N 43 43 43 43
N 43 43 43 43
N 43 43 43 43
N 43 43 43 43
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N 43 43 43 43
N 43 43 43 43
Exhibit 3
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11 .353 2.718 96.058
dimen
7
sion0
10
11
12
13
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Total Variance Explained
dimen
7
sion0
10
11
12
13
Component Matrixa
Component
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1 2 3 4
a. 4 components extracted.
Component
1 2 3 4
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Behaviour .401 .678 .092 -.294
Exhibit 4
Model Summary
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d1 .520a .271 .194 .76522
i
m
e
n
s
i
o
n
0
a. Predictors: (Constant), REGR factor score 4 for analysis 1, REGR factor score 3
for analysis 1, REGR factor score 2 for analysis 1, REGR factor score 1 for analysis
1
ANOVAb
Total 30.512 42
a. Predictors: (Constant), REGR factor score 4 for analysis 1, REGR factor score 3 for analysis 1, REGR factor score 2 for analysis 1,
REGR factor score 1 for analysis 1
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Coefficientsa
Model Standardized
Unstandardized Coefficients Coefficients
REGR factor score 1 for analysis .274 .118 .321 2.320 .026
1
REGR factor score 2 for analysis .265 .118 .311 2.247 .031
1
REGR factor score 3 for analysis .056 .118 .066 .474 .638
1
REGR factor score 4 for analysis .219 .118 .257 1.857 .071
1
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