proposal da ciap

8/2/2019 Proposal Da Ciap

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Chapter 1

Introduction

1.1 Background of Study

TM is a leading telecommunication company in Malaysia. For more than a century, TM

had consistently provided innovative, reliable, high-quality products and services and excellent

customer service. With the aim to connect people with their world, everywhere they live and

work, and do it better than anyone else, TM fulfilling this vision by creating new solutions for

consumers and businesses and by driving innovation in the industry and the company itself.

With the excellent team player, the initiative to strengthen the company platform normally

emerged from within.

Under TMs rebranding exercise, the customer service outlets are undergoing changes

not merely from a cosmetic point of view. Renamed TMpoint to reflect a new image and

customer service orientation, the change also encompasses changes to its processes and

systems as well as upgrading of skills of group personnel. It promises customers a better

experience when dealing with TM and in return TM had been awarded by the financial

community for their remarkable achievement.

A company's employee has always been a key asset. But today, more and more

companies are realizing that their people are by far their most important asset. In a world where

technologies, processes, and products are quickly duplicated by competitors, and the pace ofchange and level of competition are constantly increasing, people are the key to the most

reliable sources of advantage. With better service, increased responsiveness, stronger

customer relationships, and the creativity and innovation that keep a company one-step ahead.

The level of customer satisfaction will direct the company performance. Customer

satisfaction can be defined as either an overall judgment of satisfaction or given an attribute-

specific definition. The later is based on the assumption that satisfaction is the outcome of

service quality (Cronin and Taylor, 1992). To satisfy the customer, it means that everybody in

the company has to understand that the total existence of a company depends upon the

customer, so if the customer is not satisfied, he is not going to be a customer tomorrow, and if

he is not going to be a customer tomorrow, we dont have a business tomorrow (Harvey Lamm,

President, Subaru of America)


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Thus, this research is concentrate on satisfaction of customers towards the services of

frontlines at TMpoint.

1.2 Background of Company

Telekom Sales & Services Sdn. Bhd. (TSSSB) is a customer service organisation which

provides a one-stop solution for TM Group products and services. With the Vision, " To be a

one-stop centre for TM Group products and services" and as a wholly-owned subsidiary of TM,

TM Sales & Services is determine to provide excellent services for TM Group's customers and

to offer competitive ICT products and services.

Currently, Telekom Sales & Services Sdn. Bhd. has 105 ISO Certified TMpoint outlets

nationwide. These TMpoint outlets serve as the primary channels in providing TM's services

such as service provisioning, bill payments, fixed line, multimedia and other value addedservices. TM Sales & Services also markets a wide range of telecommunications as well as IT

related products and accessories.

Telekom Sales & Services Sdn. Bhd. works very closely with TM Group, vendors,

suppliers and business partners to channel telecommunication products through its TMpoint

outlets. To ensure that the Company achieves its goals, TM Sales & Services are continuously

finding ways to provide choices of competitive and high quality products to its valued customers.

In its bid to strive for the best, Telekom Sales & Services Sdn. Bhd. has participated in

the "2004 Quality Award", by the Ministry of Energy, Water and Communications, whereby

TMpoint Pelangi, Johor Bahru has won national recognition and become the proud recipient of

the "2004 Quality Award". This award programme was conceptualized by the Ministry to give

formal recognition to organisations within the industry that have achieved excellence in service

quality, mainly concentrating on total customer satisfaction. TSSSB was also being honoured


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with two reputable awards during International Business Review ASEAN Awards 2009 and

Technology Business Review ASEAN Awards 2008.

The awards were CEO Award and Corporate Excellence Award. Additional to that,

TSSSB has also attained 91% score in 2010 Mystery Shopper Index (MSI) Survey. MSI wasconducted by a third party (Synovate Sdn. Bhd.). All these recognitions are a testimony of

TSSSB being one of the most recognized customer-centric organizations within the

telecommunications industry.

Telekom Sales & Services Sdn. Bhd. is determined to provide excellent services for TM

Group customers and to offer competitive ICT products and services, as it looks forward to

future growth in the coming years.

1.3 Vision

To be a one-stop centre for TM Group products and services.

1.4 Mission

We are a customer service organization.

We are determined to:

Provide excellent services for TM Group's customers

Offer competitive ICT products and services


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1.6 Problem Statement

Customer satisfaction, a business term, is a measure of how products and services

supplied by a company meet or surpass customer expectation. It is seen as a key performance

indicator within business and is part of the four perspectives of a Balanced Scorecard. In a

competitive marketplace where businesses compete for customers, customer satisfaction is

seen as a key differentiator and increasingly has become a key element of business strategy.

At TMpoint, customer may experience anger and other undesirable emotions when

waiting for service, dealing with unresponsive or impolite employees. Some of the customer is

not patience while waiting the turn to get the service. Even though this impatience customer

notices that there is lot of customer waiting for the turn, this impatience customer still give low

rating to the frontlines and are not satisfy with the service provided by TMpoint.

Employee and group attitude is key elements for measuring the success or failure of an

organization. Attitudes reflect a persons likes or dislike toward another person, object, events,

and activities in his or her environment. With the good attitude from frontlines, it will give good

reputation to TMpoint as well as TM group. The question is, does the attitude of frontlines is

acceptable to the customer? Does the attitude of the frontlines will reflect the customer

satisfaction towards TMpoint?

The usability of knowledge further depends on the way people express it. There are

differences in the ability to transfer knowledge directly between people, depending on the will

(as mentioned above), the communicational skills but also simply the language they are using

(Davenport and Prusak 1998). For example, the frontlines at TMpoint advice customer what the

procedure to install the UNIFY at their home. The frontlines will use the simple language so that

the customer easy to understand what the frontlines talking about. Another problem is that

people have different viewpoints on things. Knowledge is not simple as an instruction and

depends on values and beliefs (Davenport and Prusak 1998). This leads to problems when


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transferring knowledge. So, does the knowledge of the frontline are good enough if customer

ask them about the new product of TM or service provided in TMpoint? Does the knowledge of

frontline will give the satisfaction to the customer?

In this study, the researcher focuses on the satisfaction of customers towards the

services of frontlines at TMpoint. Researcher believes that the findings of this research will be

useful for TMpoint as well as TM group to have frontlines that provide best service to the

customer.

1.7 Research Question

The research questions of this study in regards of the satisfaction of customers towards the

services of frontlines at TMpoint are:

1) What is the level of customers satisfaction towards TMpoint services?

2) What should be recommended towards TMpoint to improve their customer services to

meet customer satisfaction?

1.8 Research Objective

With reference to the problem statement, the objectives of this research are:

1) To identify the current level of customers satisfaction towards TMpoint services.

2) To provide recommendation for improvement of customers satisfaction towards TMpoint

services.

1.9 Theoretical Framework

According to Uma Sekaran (2003), the theoretical framework is the foundation on which

the entire research project is based. It is a logically developed, described and elaborated

network of associations among the variables deemed relevant to the problem situation and

identified through such processes as interviews, observations and literature survey. In sum the


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theoretical framework discusses the interrelationships among the variables that are deemed o

be integral to the dynamics of the situation being investigated. A variable is anything that can

take on differing or varying values. The values can differ at various times for the same object or

person, or at the same time for different objects or persons. Dependent variable is the variables

of primary interest to researcher and independent variable is one that influences the dependent

variable in either a positive or negative way.

The researcher has developed a theoretical framework to measure factor that will

influence customer satisfaction customers towards the services of frontlines at TMpoint.

Figure 1: Relationship between knowledge, Attitude and Service Quality towards customer

satisfaction at TMpoint.

Independent Variable Dependent Variable

Knowledge

Attitude

Service Quality

Satisfaction of Customers

towards the services of

Frontline Services at

TMpoint


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1.10 Hypothesis

Before customers request for any kind of services, they had expectation the service

quality that are usually based on individual needs, past experiences, word-of-mouth

recommendations and the service providers marketing communications. After obtaining the

services, customers will compare the expected quality of services with what they actually

received. Service performances that surprise, satisfy, and delight customers by rising above

their desired service levels will be seen as superior in quality. Therefore, researcher has

developed hypotheses based on customer satisfaction towards the service of frontline service at

TMpoint.

Hypothesis 1

H0: There is no significance relationship between service provided by frontlines and customer

satisfaction.

H1: There is significance relationship between service provided by frontlines and customer

satisfaction.

Hypothesis 2

H0: There is no significance relationship between attitude of the frontlines and customer

satisfaction.

H1: There is significance relationship between attitude of the frontlines and customer

satisfaction.

Hypothesis 3

H0: There is no significance relationship between knowledge of the frontlines and customer

satisfaction.

H1: There is significance relationship between knowledge of the frontlines and customersatisfaction.


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1.12 Definition of Term

Satisfaction - Satisfaction can be associated with feelings of acceptance, happiness,

relief, excitement, and delight. (Hoyer and MacInnis, 2001)

Customer- 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

shouldnt perhaps make a wish that customers should go away because our future and

our security will be put in jeopardy. (Zairi, 2000)

Service- Processes and actions that make it easier for customers to do business with a

company. (Kotler, 2000)

Frontlines- The most advanced, responsible or visible position in a field or activity and

The leading or most important part of a movement (Merriam Webster,2003)


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CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Frontlines Staff

The front staff plays an important role in the company. They are the first group who greet

and welcome the customer. They have to contact with the customer more than staff in other

departments and provide the service in meeting the needs and expectations of the customer.

(Kunakitkumjorn, 2003). According to Long (2007), front staff is the center of company

operations, and their main functions are as follows:

1. Front office manager supervises and control everything in the department. He or she

observes the policy of the management department and is responsible for the training of

newly-employed staff. Also, he or she plays a role in the staff development in order to

work efficiently.

2. Front desk representative welcome the customer upon their arrival. They are also

responsible to explain the customer about the company product and services. They also

must enable to answer the question as well as complaint from the customer.

3. Front cashiers record customer, payment by producing receipts or daily notices. They

also receive money from the customer and take care of the money.

Front staff must be able to get along with many different types of people, even in stressful

situations. These people require following qualifications:

Firstly, the front office staff should have a good personality, well dressed and neat. Individuals

who well dress suggest power and status; therefore, the first impression is only part of creating

a positive relationship between the hotel and the customers. According to Fitzsimmons and


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Fitzsimmons (1998 & 1994) presented that the front office staff must present an impeccable

outward appearance to customers. Secondly, the staff should be competent. They should know

basic product knowledge, service provided by the company and. As Binham; Lampola; & Murray

(1982: 17) suggested that front office staff should update their knowledge about product and

services provided by the company.

Moreover, front office staff should be able to handle some problems, deal with

complaints or certain difficulties in the company. As Harrington, and Akehurst, (1996) stated that

good communication skills are required in dealing with customers, and strive to resolve the

problems when they arise.

In conclusion, front office staff should make their customer happy and satisfied. As keys

to the guest satisfaction driver, the front office staff is critical to the continued success of the

company. The important thing, the front office staff will also reflect the image of the company to

the customers and they have a keen sense to anticipate the customer, needs and exceed their

expectations.

2.2 Customer Satisfaction

According to Kotler (2000), satisfaction can be defined as a persons feelings of

pleasure or disappointment resulting from comparing a products perceived performance

(outcome) in relation to his or her expectations. Hoyer and MacInnis (2001) describe satisfaction

can be associated with feelings, of acceptance, happiness, relief, excitement, and delight.

Diaz and Ruiz (2002, p. 118) define consumer satisfaction as an effective reaction to an

incident during the dispensing of a service. In order to achieve customer satisfaction,

organization must be able to satisfy their customer needs and wants. According to kotler (2000),

customer needs state the felt deprivation of a customer whereas customers wants refer to the

form taken by human needs as they are shaped by culture and individual personality.


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According to Anderson and Mittal (2000) customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction

suggests that attributes of product and services can be classified into different categories, which

all affect customer satisfaction differently. The categories can be classified into three (3) factors

which are:

i) Basic factors (dissatisfier) cause dissatisfaction when not fulfilled and therefore

marks minimum requirements.

ii) Excitement factors (satisfier), in contrast, increase customer satisfaction when

fulfilled.

iii) Performance factors are located between the two categories and result in

satisfaction or dissatisfaction depending on the degree of their performance.

Winsted (2000) makes clear that companies need to understand how customers view

employee behavior in order to deliver appropriate service encounters. Hartline and Farrell

(1996) have suggested that customer perceptions of service quality are largely derived from the

attitude and behavior of customer contact employees. This means that those frontline staff that

is not only competent but also willing to deal with problems will increase their customers

satisfaction (Bitneret al., 1990).

In conclusion, Customer satisfaction, a business term, is a measure of how products and

services supplied by a company meet or surpass customer expectation. It is seen as a key

performance indicator within business and is part of the four perspectives of a Balanced

Scorecard. In a competitive marketplace where businesses compete for customers, customer

satisfaction is seen as a key differentiator and increasingly has become a key element of

business strategy.


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2.3 Knowledge

Knowledge is used as an overall term, without making a further difference between

wisdom, intelligence, creativity etc. A common expression for knowledge is "information in

action", for example, information applied for a purpose (Nonaka and Takeuchi 1995). Thereby it

is pointed out that knowledge is context-specific.

According to Nonaka and Takeuchi 1995, there is a difference between tacit and explicit

knowledge. Tacit knowledge is knowledge in the human mind and it is difficult to externalize or

mediate. Explicit knowledge is formalized knowledge, i.e. knowledge recorded as video, in a

document, etc. and usually covers part of the original tacit knowledge but is not a full

representation of it. Implicit knowledge can be transferred throughout any direct face-to-face

communication between people or by transmuting it into explicit knowledge and sharing the

according artifact. The transformation back to tacit knowledge takes place during the reading

and understanding of explicit knowledge. Knowledge can thus have various shapes. Knowledge

transfers can take place by means of a technical system or can be performed by human

interaction. Throughout this document the processes cover any appropriate way of transferring

knowledge, and knowledge refers to the appropriate state of knowledge, either tacit or implicit.

Or, like Albert Einstein expressed it: Knowledge is experience. Everything else is just

information. (McDermott 1999).

In conclusion, knowledge is part of what makes a person's personality. Passing one's

knowledge to others also means enabling others to perform according tasks, thus making the

originator more easily replaceable (Davenport and Prusak 1998). Despite the fact that this is

positive and desired from the organizations point of view, people often tend to keep their

knowledge for themselves because they fear that they would not be needed anymore after

passing their knowledge to others (Stecking 2000). Without motivation and a supporting

environment, people therefore tend not to share their knowledge and even if people know about


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the necessity to share their knowledge with colleagues, they need a certain amount of trust to

do so (Davenport and Prusak 1998).

2.4 Attitude

In 1935, Allport defined an attitude as a mental and neural state of readiness, organized

through experience, exerting a directive or dynamic influence upon the individuals response to

all objects and situations to which it is related (p. 810). Although there is not a complete union

of the definition of attitude, the notion of an attitude as a state of readiness is shared by the

majority of the definitions (Campbell, 1950; Cattell, Maxwell, Light & Unger, 1949; McNemar,

1946; Sherif & Cantril, 1945; Stagner, 1950; Viteles, 1953). Recent definitions of attitude have

become more general, referring to attitude as general evaluations(Petty, 1995, p. 196) or

dispositions (Greenwald & Banaji, 1995, p. 7) towards stimuli. Current work in the field of

Industrial or Organizational psychology tends to focus on the attitude of job satisfaction, which is

commonly defined as work experiences that cause positive affect towards one's job. The state

of readiness component is not included in these modern definitions, but the importance of this

aspect is implied. These attitudes are commonly evaluated in relation to behaviors and how

they can help to predict or explain certain behaviors (Brief, 1998; Campbell, 1950; McGuire,

1976). Viteles (1953) explains that psychologists have used the measurement of attitudes as a

device both for making inferences concerning motives and as predictors of behaviors

The concept of behavior prediction is important to the measurement of attitudes. The

theory driving attitude measurement is that attitudes can be used to predict behavior and by

changing attitudes, behaviors can also be changed (Viteles, 1953). This theory guides many

current issues within psychology, such as cognitive dissonance theory (Festinger, 1957),

attitudes and attitude change theories (Petty, 1995), implicit social cognition theory (Greenwald

& Banaji, 1995) and public opinion poll research (Katz, 1941; Katz, 1942; Kornhauser, 1946).


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Moreover, recent work indicates that job satisfaction is related to organizational citizenship

behaviors or contextual performance (Brief, 1998).

In conclusion, attitude of staff play important role because whatever they do, it will reflect

the company image and reputation. Thus, to have the best staff attitude, company has to

provide proper training in order to groom the employees to have the best attitude and

employees have to learn to developed their attitude that can give satisfaction to the customer

and it will dierectly to build the image and reputation of the company.

2.5 Service Quality

In the contemporary marketplace service quality is recognized as one of the most

important factors in developing and maintaining successful relationships (Svensson, 2002).

Services differ from physical goods in several characteristics (Gronroos, 2000): services are

intangible and heterogeneous; the production, distribution, and consumption of services are

simultaneous processes; Service is an activity or process. Service is a core value created in

buyer-seller interactions. Customers participate in the production of services; services cannot be

kept in stock; and there is no transfer of ownership in service transactions.

Services are thus produced, distributed, and consumed in the interaction between the

service provider and the service receiver. Accordingly, services must be viewed from an

interactive perspective. Svensson (2001) noted that service quality contributes to the strength of

interpersonal, intra-organisational, and inter-organisational service encounters.The well-known

SERVQUAL instrument (Parasuraman et al., 1988) also used five dimensions of service quality

in assessing the consumers judgment of service quality, but differed from Leblanc and Nguyen

(1988) by naming the five dimensions as tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and

empathy.


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Parasuramans SERVQUAL model is widely used to measure perceived service quality.

He has positioned consumers perception of service quality along a continuum ranging from

ideal quality to totally unacceptable quality. Parasuraman et al. (1985) also found that the

customers perception of service quality depends upon the size and direction of the gap

between the service the customer expects to receive and what he or she perceive to have been

received.

Thus, service quality is defined as the gap between customers expectation of service

and their perception of the service experience. A service quality gap exists when there is a

shortfall in which the service provider would like to close (Lewis et al., 1994). This gap model is

one of the best-received and most heuristically valuable contributions to the service literature

according to Brown and Bond (1995). Parasuraman et al. (1985) identified 97 attributes which

were found to have an impact on service quality. However, all these attributes fit into ten

dimensions and later being condensed into five dimensions of service quality (Parasuraman et

al.,1988) because of the overlap across the ten criteria (Jannadi and Al-Saggaf, 2000).


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CHAPTER 3

RESEARCH DESIGN AND RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 Research Design

Research is a diligent and systematic inquiry or investigation into a subject in order to

discover or revise facts, theories, applications, etc. Methodology is the system of methods

followed by particular discipline. Thus, research methodology is the way how we conduct our

research.

In conducting this research, researcher used descriptive research design to understand

a common and uncommon social phenomenon by observing the detail to provide empirical

basis for valid arguments.

3.2 Sampling Design

Sampling is the stage in which the research determines who is to be sampled, how large

a sample is needed, and how sampling units will be selected. The exactly terms are the

population of this study, the sampling size and sampling techniques used by the researcher.

3.2.1 Target Population

A population is the aggregate of all elements that share some comment set of

characteristic and comprise the universe for purpose of the marketing problems research

(Naresh K. Malhotra, 2004). Information about population parameters may be obtained by

taking census or a sample. According to Hair, Bush and Ortinau (2003) population is identified

as a total group or aggregation of element that are interested to the researcher and pertinent to

the specific information problems.


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The target population refer to the group of population, events or things of interest that

researcher wishes to investigate. In this study, the population of the research is the random

customers who went to Tmpoint in Menara Telekom.

3.2.2 Sample Size

Sampling siza is the number of element to be included in a study (Naresh K. Malhotra).

According to Uma Sekaran (2003) the appropriate sample size can be from 30 respondents to

500 respondents. In conducting this research, researcher had chosen 100 respondents at

TMpoint randomly. The sample size should not be less than 30 because it will give less

information and accurate information.

3.2.3 Sampling Technique

In this study, probability sampling is use in which the sampling units are selected by

chance. It is possible to specify every potential sample of a given size that could be drawn from

the population. Every potential sample need not have the same probability of selection, but it is

possible to specify the probability of selecting any particular sample of a given size. In simple

random sampling (SRS), each element in the population has a known and equal probability of

selection. SRS is easily understood and sample result may be projected to the target

population.

3.3 Data Collection

The data collection methods are clearly explained and credible with multiple measures,

are current, could include strong mixed method research, with adequate sampling and the data

collected can easily justify the conclusions drawn from the study.


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3.2.1 Primary Data

The survey method used in this study is through questionnaires. The type of

questionnaire that has been used is closed ended questionnaire. Close ended questions will ask

the respondents to make choices among the set of alternatives given by the researcher. Closed

ended questions also help the respondent to make quick decision to choose among the several

alternatives. Besides, it also helps the researcher the code the information easily for subsequent

analysis. Care has to be taken to ensure that the alternatives are mutually exclusive and

collectively exhaustive. By using descriptive design, data will be collected through questionnaire

survey. Types of data that will be used are primary and secondary data. The secondary data are

gathered through books, internet and journals. Secondary data is the data that already

collected, recorded or published by someone who collects it.

3.2.1.1 Questionnaire

The method used is questionnaire whereby the data is collected for the first time using

the first data collection technique. This research is essential since the researcher would like to

know the most influential factors that lead to satisfaction of customers towards the frontlines

services at TMpoint, effects of the services provided, and proposed solutions to overcome the

weaknesses of the frontlines.

3.3.2 Secondary Data

Secondary data allows researcher to use minimum amount of time, effort and money as

the information has already made available and helps to decide what further research needs to

be done. Secondary data consists of both internal and external data. Internal data can be found

within the company for which the research is being conducted. For example, researcher can get

the data from Tmpoint staff. Meanwhile, external data is the data that is obtained from the

outside resources. For example, previous research report, e-library of UiTM, and others.


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3.4 Data Analysis

Data obtained from the questionnaire survey was collected and analyzed. The data that

has been obtained will be analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS)

version 17.0 to get more accurate answer. Coding will be made before the data is keyed in.

Results of the finding were presented in a table showing the frequency and percentage.

3.5 Measurement/ Instrument

Measurement of variables is very important for research design because it would enable

the researcher to find the answer to the complex research issue. The concept of satisfaction of

customers towards the services of frontlines at TMpoint had been defined based on various

definitions. The researcher had identified 3 factors effecting the satisfaction of customers

towards the services of frontlines at TMpoint which are attitude, knowledge and services.

Therefore this research attempts to identify the most influential factors that lead to satisfaction of

customers towards the services of frontlines at TMpoint.

In this research regarding the satisfaction of customers towards the services of frontlines

at TMpoint, a set of questionnaires were distributed to 100 respondents. The research

instrument was a structured questionnaire that consists of four (4) parts which are respondents

profile (Part A), frontlines attitude (Part B), frontlines knowledge (Part C), and frontlines services

(Part D).

All respondents must answer the entire question which partly involved in their perception

regarding their satisfaction of customer towards the services of frontlines at TMpoint. There are

5 scales that will be applied and respondent must choose which of the scale they have


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experienced. For this study, researcher used Likert scales of 1 to 5 (the lowest value of 1

indicates strongly disagreed and the largest value of 5 indicated strongly agree).

3.6 Conclusion

Descriptive research may focus on individual subjects and go into depth and detail in

describing them. On the other hand, because of the data collection and analysis procedures

(such distributing questionnaires) it may employ, descriptive research can also investigate large

groups of subjects.

proposal da ciap

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