International Journal of Undergraduates Studies, 2(1), 6-10, 2013

ISSN: 2289-4241

SERVICE QUALITY AND CUSTOMER SATISFACTION: AN INVESTIGATION AT

KERETAPI TANAH MELAYU BERHAD – CEMENT CARGO SERVICES

Mohd Aliff Abd Rahman and Nor Khasimah Aliman

Universiti Teknologi MARA, Perak, Malaysia

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the Logistics Service Quality Dimensions to Customer
Satisfaction at national railway corporation known Keretapi Tanah Melayu Berhad (KTMB). The
sampling frame of this study is 3,500 employees of cement companies known as Lafarge, YTL, TCB and
CIMA in Perak and Perlis, Malaysia who used the KTMB services. The target sample size is 200
employees. The sampling technique used was quota sampling. The researcher self-administered the 200
sets of questionnaires. Frequency analysis, reliability test and multiple regressions were run to analyze
the 200 set completed data. The results of multiple regression shows that service quality is an antecedent
of customer satisfaction. Tangibles, reliability, responsiveness and assurance had a significant positive
relationship on customer satisfaction. Based on the findings, KTMB Cargo services should improve their
service quality so as to increase customers’ level of satisfaction.
Keywords: Service quality, customer satisfaction, logistic industry

INTRODUCTION
In Malaysia, Keretapi Tanah Melayu Berhad (KTMB) provides Commuter, Intercity and Cargo train
services to customers. KTMB offers basic transportation which use locomotive or barrel transportation
(railway). Since its establishment, KTMB offers services to deliver cement, sugar, urea, and other
products to many destinations in Peninsular Malaysia. KTMB serves many customers who want to
deliver products to many destinations but long distance. As a service provider, KTMB sometime failed to
give excellent service to customers. As a result, dissatisfaction among customers arised and some
customers refuse to use the service in the future. Some other customers keep on using the service even
though they dissatisfy with the service provided because this is the only service which is cheap and able
to deliver products in bulk. Until recently no research found to investigate the relationship between
service quality dimensions and customer satisfaction in KTMB. Thus this study was conducted to
identify the relationship between the two concepts.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Service quality dimensions
“A service is a process consisting of a series of more or less intangible activities that normally, but not
necessarily always, take place in interactions between the customer and service employees and/or
physical resources or goods and/or systems of the service provider, which are provided as solutions to
customer problems” (Gronroos, 2000, p. 46). Fogli (2006, p. 4) on the other hand define service quality as
“a global judgment or attitude relating to a particular service; the customers’ overall impression of the
relative inferiority or superiority of the organization and its services. Service quality is a cognitive
judgment”. Parasuraman (2002) stated five dimensions of SERVQUAL: tangibles, reliability,
responsiveness, assurance and empathy. Further, Zeithaml and Bitner (2003) stated that service quality
was a focus evaluation that reflected the customer’s perception of specific dimension of SERVQUAL
tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy.

Customer satisfaction
Customer satisfaction was defined in many different manners. Taylor and Baker (1994) stated that
satisfaction is a major outcome of marketing activity and serves to link processes culminating in
purchase and consumption with post purchase phenomena such as attitude change, repeat purchase and
loyalty. This definition is supported by Jamal and Naser (2003) and Mishra (2009). Anderson and Fornell
(1994) on the other hand considered satisfaction as a global evaluation based on consumptions
experience over time or on a set of similar evaluation experience.

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 International Journal of Undergraduates Studies, 2(1), 6-10, 2013
ISSN: 2289-4241

According to Lee (1995), customer satisfaction can be divided into two, which are definitions driven
to outcome and definition driven to process.

Relationship between service quality dimensions and customer satisfaction

The relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction is debatable. Some researchers
argued that service quality is the antecedent of customer satisfaction, while others disagree with the
findings. Most researchers however revealed that service quality is the antecedent of customer
satisfaction (Bedi, 2010; Kassim and Abdullah, 2010; Naeem and Saif, 2009; Lee and Hwan, 2005; Jamal
and Naser, 2002, 2003; Parasuraman et al., 1988). Other studies found that service quality has a positive
influence on customer satisfaction (Sivadas and Baker-Prewitt, 2000; Yee et al., 2010; Lee, et al., 2010;
Siddiqi, 2011). In telecommunication industry, Gloria (2011) found that high level of service quality had
a strong influence on customer satisfaction. When service quality dimensions were relate to customer
satisfaction, inconsistent findings within and across the service industries and countries were found by
researchers. Wang and Lo (2002) conducted research in telecommunication industry found that five
service quality dimensions (tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy) had a
significantly positive influence on customer satisfaction. Jamal and Naser (2003) found that there is no
important relationship between tangible aspects of service and customer satisfaction in retail banking.
This finding supported the previous research by Parasuraman et al. (1991). Yeop Yunus et al. (2009)
found that reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy had effect on customer satisfaction.
According to Ali Shaikh (2009) conducted research in restaurant industry in Pakistan; he found that
tangible and responsiveness had a positive relationship toward customer satisfaction. In hospital
industry research, tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy had a positive
relationship with customer satisfaction (Zaim et al., 2010). In Malaysia, Ahmad Azmi et al. (2010)
revealed that caring and tangible was the only dimension that explained passengers’ satisfaction for low
cost carriers.

METHODOLOGY
Research framework and hypotheses
The theoretical framework shows the relationship between variables which are independent variables
(service quality dimensions) and dependent variable (customer satisfaction and loyalty).

SERVICE QUALITY
DIMENSIONS

 Tangibles CUSTOMER
 Reliability SATISFACTION
 Responsiveness
 Assurance
 Empathy

Figure 1: Relationship among service quality dimensions and customer satisfaction

Based on the research framework, the following hypotheses were developed:

H1 Service quality dimensions has a significant positive relationship on customer satisfaction

H1 (a) Tangibles has a significant positive relationship on customer satisfaction
H1 (b) Reliability has a significant positive relationship on customer satisfaction
H1 (c) Responsiveness has a significant positive relationship on customer satisfaction
H1 (d) Assurance has a significant positive relationship on customer satisfaction
H1 (e) Empathy has a significant positive relationship on customer satisfaction

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 International Journal of Undergraduates Studies, 2(1), 6-10, 2013
ISSN: 2289-4241

Sampling design, data collection and analysis

The target populations in this study are employees of Lafarge, YTL, TCB and CIMA in Malaysia which
used the KTMB services. Out of 3500 population, 200 were selected as research sample. Using quota
sampling, the researcher selected the employees from Lafarge (80), YTL (40), TCB (20) and CIMA (60).
Data were collected through self-administered structured survey questionnaire. Completed data were
analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics (multiple regressions).

RESULTS
Respondent profiles
Based on the 200 sample of KTMB cement customers, the percentage of male and female respondents are
52 and 48 percent respectively. In the whole sample, 75 percent of respondents hold non-management
position. In term of qualification, majority of respondents have Diploma and Degree. Respondents were
servicing in operation, marketing, human resource and finance department. Almost 44 percent of the
respondents have been servicing their companies between 5-10 years.

Reliability test
Table 1 show that the Cronbach Alpha for 22 items used to measure service quality dimensions was very
high (0.940). Customer satisfaction has 0.906 score. According to Sekaran (2006), the closer Cronbach’s
Alpha is to 1, the higher the internal consistency reliability. Reliability less than 0.60 are considered
poor, those in the 0.70 range, acceptable and those over 0.80 good. Thus the score for service quality and
customer satisfaction was above 0.90 and can be considered as very good.

Table 1: Reliability coefficient, mean and standard deviation (SD) values (N=200)

Variables Number of Cronbach’s Mean SD

items Alpha

Service quality 22 0.940 4.17 11.44

Tangibles 4 0.772 3.86 2.61
Reliability 5 0.888 4.18 3.23
Responsiveness 4 0.846 4.22 2.46
Assurance 4 0.790 4.15 2.26
Empathy 5 0.795 4.14 2.97
Customer Satisfaction 5 0.906 4.02 3.23

Multiple regressions
Table 2: Results of Multiple Regressions

Dependent Variable Customer

Satisfaction
Independent Variable B β T Sig.

Tangibles 0.18 0.15 2.34 0.02**

Reliability 0.15 0.14 1.76 0.08*
Responsiveness 0.43 0.33 4.02 0.00***
Assurance 0.27 0.19 2.73 0.00***
Empathy 0.08 0.07 0.88 0.38

R 0.75
R² 0.56
F-value 50.0
F-sig. 0.00***
Durbin Watson 2.01

Note: Significant level - p< 0.1*, p<0.05**, p<0.01***

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 International Journal of Undergraduates Studies, 2(1), 6-10, 2013
ISSN: 2289-4241

Table 2 shows that the B value for all service dimensions were positive (more than zero). As such,
tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy has positive relationship on customer
satisfaction. However, empathy was insignificantly related to customer satisfaction (p=0.379). Thus, H1
(a), H1(c) and H1 (d) were fully accepted while H1 (b) was partially accepted and H1 (e) was rejected.
Responsiveness (p=0.00) turned up as the most important dimension, followed by assurance, tangibles
and reliability. The R value was 0.750 which shows the strong relationship between the service quality
dimensions and customer satisfaction. R-square value was 0.563. The score indicated that 56.3 percent
changes in customer satisfaction can be explained by the service quality dimensions.

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Conclusions
Tangibles, reliability, responsiveness and assurance had a significant positive relationship on customer
satisfaction. While empathy had a positive relationship (B=0.08) on customer satisfaction but not
significant (p=0.379). Overall, service quality had a significant positive relationship on customer
satisfaction.

Recommendations
To increase customer level of satisfaction, KTMB Cargo services should improve their service quality.
KTMB must deliver the customers’ products (e.g. cement) on time as promised and KTMB must make
sure that customers’ products are in the safe condition when the product reaches the destinations. KTMB
Cargo is suggested to have log books to record the movement of the products until the products reach the
final destination. While for the products safety, KTMB should have mechanical containers, tankers and
wagons that had been approved by Quality Service of KTMB, and attentions must be given on the aspect
of sizes of containers, tankers and wagons. KTMB Cargo should also improve the way they handle
customers’ problems. KTMB staffs must show confidence, full of information and be polite when dealing
with customers. In addition, KTMB should have more railway tracks so that products can be delivered on
time and the movement of Commuter and Intercity passenger destinations should not be disturbed.

Recommendations for future research

In this study, the researcher investigated the relationship between service quality dimensions and
customer satisfaction for cement services under the KTM Cargo conventional services. Future research
should embark on all type of KTM Cargo services (including container and conventional services).

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