College of Management. I-Shou University. Master Thesis

Transcription

1 College of Management I-Shou University Master Thesis Factor analysis of the services on customer satisfaction a case study ha long bay tour service Advisor: Jesse Yu-Chen Lan Co-Advisor: Le Khac Doa Graduate Student: Nguyen Thi Kieu November 2016 i

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3 Acknowledgement At last, my thesis was successfully completed thanks to great supports of my beloved advisors, family members and friends. Firstly, I would like to send my gratitude to my professional advisor-both of them not only guided me so clearly but also motivated me significantly with their knowledge and passion to help me overcome myriad of mistakes and difficulties while conducting this thesis. Secondly, I would love to send my sincere gratefulness to all of the survey participants who generously spent their time on completing my survey. Thirdly, I specially respect Ms. Khuyenmy elderly sister working at Vietravel, who had shared me various information and data about this company as well as deep understanding about customer behaviours in tourism sector. Finally, I found myself so lucky and happy to be a part of my family as well as my close friend team who are always besides me to support me every minute till my completion of this thesis. iii

4 Abstract In the new decade of human life, services have become an unreplaceable part. They help the busy and stressful lives become more comfortable and fresh. As a result, the quality of services plays a driving force of all business segments, especially the tourism. In case of Vietnam, the author takes a look on Halong Bay tour to discover the role of service quality in business as well as the influential factors on them. After collecting various studies as well as making a survey on 150 participants, the author used SPSS to process all the gather data and found that there are eight factors affecting the tour service quality including: quality, price, reliability, security, access, knowing the customer, responsive, and communication. Once tour service provider can recognize these criteria and ceaselessly improve them, their business will be always on the top and find their way to be the market leader. iv

5 Table of Contents Acknowledgement... iii Abstract... ix Table of Contents... v List of Table... vii List of Figure... viii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION Background of the study Statement of problem Research Objectives Research Questions Research significant... 2 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW Overview of service quality Factors influencing service quality Tour s quality Tour s price Tour s reliability Tour s security Tour s access Tour s knowing the customer Tour s responsiveness Tour s communication How to measure service quality... 9 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY Setting and participants Setting Sampling size Data collection Data collection methods Secondary data collection Primary data collection v

6 Data collection instruments Questionnaire Semi-structured interview Data collection procedure Data analysis CHAPTER 4. FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS Chapter introduction Respondent background Research findings Chapter summary CHAPTER 5. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS Conclusion Recommendations Research Limitation APPENDIX 1: QUESTIONNAIRE Reference: vi

7 List of Table Table Distribution of questionnaire items Table 4.1. Halong Bay tour s quality Table 4.2. The content of Halong Bay s trip Table 4.3. The quality of transportation Table 4.4. The quality of accommodation, food and drink Table 4.5. Halong Bay tour s price Table 4.6. Tour service s price Table 4.7. Equality between tour service s price and quality Table 4.8. The payment process Table 4.9. Halong Bay tour s responsiveness Table The quality of consultancy Table The treatment to customers Table 4.12.The customer s support services Table Halong Bay tour s reliability Table The tour s price stability Table The tour s agenda Table The tour s security Table 4.17: The tour s access Table The tour s contact Table The tour s operation time Table The tour s knowing the customer Table The tour s timetable Table The tour s added services Table The tour s communication vii

8 List of Figure Figure 4.1: The distribution of respondents by age Figure 4.2: The distribution of respondents by genders Figure 4.3: The distribution of respondents by consumption experience viii

9 Abstract In the new decade of human life, services have become an unreplaceable part. They help the busy and stressful lives become more comfortable and fresh. As a result, the quality of services plays a driving force of all business segments, especially the tourism. In case of Vietnam, the author takes a look on Halong Bay tour to discover the role of service quality in business as well as the influential factors on them. After collecting various studies as well as making a survey on 150 participants, the author used SPSS to process all the gather data and found that there are eight factors affecting the tour service quality including: quality, price, reliability, security, access, knowing the customer, responsive, and communication. Once tour service provider can recognize these criteria and ceaselessly improve them, their business will be always on the top and find their way to be the market leader. ix

10 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1. Background of the study In the era of technology and globalisation, every business has to equip various factors to remain stability and development (Anderson, 2004). In a research conducted in 2006, Beaujean indicated that high level of customer satisfaction is among the most powerful driving forces of a successful organisation. There are various different ways defining customer satisfaction. According to Barbara (1993), customers will be satisfied with the products or services which meet the customers requirements and expectation and make customers happy as well. Hence, it can be said that in order to improve the effectiveness and success of business, organisations should make great efforts on making out proper strategies to increase customer s level of satisfaction (A. Parasuraman, 1991). A sound strategy of customer satisfaction improvement will result in better performance of all business sectors. It is a trend of enjoying life among modern people when they have achieved better living standard, and traveling is among the first choices (Blanke, J. & Chiesa, T., 2009). In his research, Bhat (2013) indicated that people could gain various benefits including new life experience, self-improvement in both knowledge and skills, and so on. As a result, traveling becomes the first choice of modern people when they are in need of relaxing and refreshing. Since people look for relax while traveling,in Bhat s view, service quality is very important to them as it is key factor creating the whole trip s comfort. Generally, service quality is affected by myriad factors and the better the service is, the more engaged customers get. In the toursim industry nowadays, it cannot be denied that there is a sharp competitions among agencies (Schiffman, L.G. and Lazar Kanuk, L., 2004). And the key for their success is the capability to identify and satisfy customer s expectation. In other words, once travel agencies can provide customers a sound service, they can get bigger and bigger market share (Cohen, 2011). Vietnam is famous for various historical and sight-seeing destinations attracting a great number of tourist around the world. Each year, thousands foreigner come to Vietnam to discover its beauty. And Halong Bay tour is one of the most popular destination thanks to its natural and glamourous scenery. Since its recognition as one of the World Natural Heritages, Halong Bay attracts millions of tourist every year. Being in Halong Bay, travelers can spend time with incredible scenes of sea, landscape as well as local specialities. Taking great 1

11 advantages of Halong Bay, various travel agencies invest in supplying tour to this site and gain some common traits. Taking the case of Halong Bay tour service, with objectives to gain the understanding about Halong Bay tour service quality provided by Vietnamese travel agencies, the author dig into the topic FACTOR ANALYSIS OF THE SERVICES ON CUSTOMER SATISFACTION: A CASE STUDY HALONG BAY TOUR SERVICE. Then, the author also aims to recommend the travel agencies how to gain more profit and bigger market share by investing on their service quality Statement of problem It can not be denied the role of service quality in the success of any business in order to improve the quality of services is seen as the most important task of any manager. In the tourism industry, it is not an exception; As a result, the travel company has always tried its best to meet customer needs and respond to them. However, this task is very difficult because it is affected by many different factors. Recognizes this fact and has the desired quality of service analysis of specific aspects of the tourism industry, the authors have decided to tour Halong Bay as the case for advanced research the level of service quality Research Objectives. This research s objectives are threefold: (1) Getting a deep understanding about service quality and its influencing factors; (2) Defining the service quality of Halong Bay tour in Vietnam; (3) Generating some recommendations to help tourism agencies enhance the service quality and revenue of their Halong Bay tour package Research Questions. In this research, the author strives the best to find the answer the following questions: (1) How important service quality is in determining the success of business? (2) How is current service quality of Halong Bay tour in Vietnam? (3) How could tourism agencies improve the service quality of their Halong Bay tour? 1.5. Research significant Based on this study, readers and researchers will get a useful amount of knowledge and understanding of customer satisfaction using LongBay Lower tours of travel companies 2

12 in Vietnam Male. Based on these findings, other travel agents can gain deeper understanding about customer satisfaction in tourism industry to enhance their performance by upgrading customer service and satisfaction. Besides, undergraduates of business and hospitality can also consider this thesis as the most basic and useful material of customer satisfaction-the key for success in tourism sector. 3

13 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1. Overview of service quality As customer service is the core of the service industry, how to achieve sound service quality is always the first concern of all business managers. In general, there are various method to define a service quality including advertisement, survey based on purchase experience, word-of-mouth effect, and so on (John E. G. Bateson, 1995). Normally, customers tend to make comparison of different service providers in case the provided services mismatch their expectation in previous purchases. Take the case of Taj Hotel Resort for instance. For such a long time, this brand successfully remains its position as the leading five star hotels. However, since the appearance of some two and three star hotels like Taj has to face up with such a poor business performance as its customers starts comparing its service quality as a five star brand to some three star hotels. And in fact, customers are looking for a much better quality while choosing Taj instead of others. In order to measure quality of a service, there are myriad different aspects depending on customer s expectation while using that service. Once enterprises have a deep understanding about their target customers expectation, they are capable of forming and delivering sound services. And the secret of successful service providers is to deliver a service which both match and surprise the customers. In other words, a sound service quality will gain the highest level of customer satisfaction which does not only mean to meet the customers expectations but exceed them. The success of a service is affected by various factors such as location, market s demand, customer s experience and recommendation, and so on (Wolfinbarger and Mary C. Gilly, 2003). Normally, the standard of quality of service clients expect and what they get is often not the same and there's always a certain distance. The model of service quality, also known as "GAP model" was built in 1985 was much stressed on the need to achieve in order to provide the best quality service. According to this model, in the gap between the desire of customers and what they receive will lead to the satisfaction of their various services. Especially with customer groups use travel services, they tend to compare their experiences with those wishes. And if their experience worse than what they want, the gap will be born. The study of these gaps, the authors Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry (2005) pointed out ten factors that affect the composition of the gap include: quality of service, reliability, 4

14 engagement, competence in, of access, courtesy, communication ability, credibility, security, understanding the customer and the tangible customer. Customer satisfaction is expressed clearly through their appreciation of the product or service after use. The main factors affecting the level of customer satisfaction not only with the quality of services, products which also includes the attitude of the staff and the support of manufacturers, service providers throughout the purchase and use. If clever combines these factors, enterprises will be able to easily attract customers, achieving high satisfaction and increase revenue. In the context of the contemporary economy, quality of service plays a very important role and is expressed most clearly through the formation of loyal customers. Typically, according to research by Cronin, J. J., & Taylor (1992), once customers are satisfied with a certain service, they will tend to stick with it and do not want to exchange other service providers. Moreover, loyal customer is also an effective word-of- mouth advertising channel thanks to their sharing of wonderful experiences while using the service as well as encouragement to try this type of service. For example, when a customer is disappointed with a seafood shop, they will tend to remind their network should never cross that store anymore but try another store. To some extents, businesses have a lot of different advertising channels, including channels for free to grow new users and strengthen brand recognition. In the tourism sector, the free advertising channels play an important role indeed for evaluation or suggestions about interesting destinations or best travel agency must come from real experiences. Dahaner & Arweiler (2015) have studied the situation of the tourism industry in New Zealand and their investigations have shown that most people who came to New Zealand have said they would definitely return to this country because they had a great experience here. Not only that, these people will also emphasize their implications for the network about New Zealand as an ideal destination for vacation or travel. A living example is Singapore's tourism industry, the country with the number of visitors much bigger than the national population. In 2004, in their research, Dall & Michael learned about the satisfaction of foreign tourists about travel services in Singapore and their intention of introducing Singapore to their friends. Results of this study were really amazing. More than half of interviewed foreign tourists shared that they came to Singapore more than once and would return in the future. They also shared that they showed a lot of people about Singapore and many of them also chose Singapore as the destination for the holidays. In particular, when being asked about the quality of services in Singapore, most participants showed their total satisfaction as well as their intention of coming back soon (Stone, P. R., 2012). 5

15 In short, it cannot be denied the fact that quality of service is very important in the process of building the success of a company because of its great influence on building loyal customer base. In terms of tourism, based on the actual case of New Zealand or Singapore, it can be said that good service quality is the basis for building customer loyalty platform. These customers are those who really pleased with the quality of service. They are ready to become a free advertising channel for companies and provide a source of abundant potential customers Factors influencing service quality Service quality is determined by many different factors, and these factors also vary depending on the type of service. According to research in 2002 of Erdly, M. & Kesterson- Townes, L., customer services includes the specifications and the process of providing products and services to consumers from counselling and support before, during and after purchase groin. In other words, it can be understood the customer service as concerning about the needs of our guests in service sales (Eroglu, Sergin A. and Karen A. Machleit, 1990). The effectiveness of customer care services is affected by the attitude and professionalism of the staff as well as the ability to provide services in the shortest possible time to provide customers of the business. Typically, customers are always looking forward to the product and service that deserve the money they spent. Considering the scope of the tourism industry, besides good quality of service, customers also want to get a friendly and professional manner of the staff during the tour advising, instructions or payment procedures and queries resolutions (Mesay Sata, 2012). Customer service is the ultimate good for the company when customers are not satisfied with the price and quality of service. There are many cases, customers are willing to pay higher prices in order to enjoy a better quality of service. According to research Eroglu (1990), once customers are unhappy about the quality of customer care services, they will never come back, even spread this bad impression to their network and encourage them to try the other provider. If this situation occurs, companies will now face the risk of losing both loyal customers and new potential customers. Therefore, it can be said that the good customer service is extremely important in the process of branding and corporate image. According to Eshghi (2008), the quality of customer service and satisfaction are significantly impacted by staff s working attitude and professionalism. However, take a look on Halong Bay tour, the service quality is affected by various determinants consisting of tour s quality, tour s 6

16 price, tour s reliability, tour s security, tour s access, tour s knowing the customer, tour s responsiveness, and tour s communication Tour s quality Fornell (2006) defined that product quality is all of its features satisfying the consumer s demand and expectation. Product quality is all of the indicators ensuring there are no disappointments occurring during customer s usage of a product. In the context of tourism industry, the tour quality is measured by three main factors including tour s content, transportation quality, and quality of accommodation and food (Few, E., 2008). The things encourage customers to buy a product is its capability to cover and deal their problem. Once the product can do, the customer will feel satisfied and be willing to repeat their shopping all the time Tour s price In all business sectors, price plays an essential part in establishing customer satisfaction, especially in the harsh competitive market like tourism segment. According to Freeman (2011), consumers tend to get a sound product with the most reasonable prices. As a result customer s satisfaction level is highly affected by product s price. Take a look on Halong Bay tour provided by Vietnam travel agencies, it is clearly that the price for this tour is not cheap at all. In comparison with what customers get, this price seems to be so high. Meanwhile, various researches showed that customers would be only loyal to a supplier when they found what they get value for their spending (Gitman, Lawrence J, Carl D. McDaniel, 2005). Therefore, it is time for all travel agencies in Vietnam to find ways to cut down on their price to appear more attractive to their customers. There are various ways to cut cost including finding deals from bigger suppliers of transportations or hotels, and so on Tour s reliability According to SERQUAL theory (Bhat, M. A., 2013), a product s reliability is its capability of ensuring all the introduced services and features. The sound reliability since the very first time of experience a service will make customers happy and become the loyal customer in the near future. Once a company or service supplier can successfully maintain their reliability during their operation, what they receive is a strong base of loyal customers and sound word-of-mouth advertising channel for free (Spreng, 1996). Take a look on Halong Bay tour, the tour s reliability is measured by myriad indicators including tour s suppliers, reasonable and stable price, flexible and interesting agenda, and so on. 7

17 Tour s security Among the determinants affecting service quality, security allows the customer to feel free from danger, risk or doubt including physical safety, financial security and confidentiality (Haywood- Farmer, J., 1988). Regarding the tourism industry, security relates to various aspects of the destination such as stability of politics and currency, population s characteristics, health care service, transportation, and so on Tour s access There are various different definitions of the product/service s access. The most popular one is that Access is approachability and ease of contact. For example, convenient office operation hours and locations (Jean Harvey, 1998). Mentioning the whole tourism industry of Vietnam, it can be said that the service s access is highly evaluated. The contact of tour s providers including both big and small agencies is very easy to find. In addition, they are available until 9p.m every day which can satisfy almost customer s requirements Tour s knowing the customer In all types of services, the determinant knowing the customer refers to the company s trying to better know about user s needs for offering better services as well as higher level of satisfaction. In general, travelers from different cultures have their own perception of satisfaction together with specific needs. For instance, Japanese tourists never tip no matter how good services are. In addition, Japanese tourists tend to be served with high respect, patience and friendliness (Jukka Ojasalo, 2010). It is a trend among Chinese travelers to be evolved in conversations with people that they have some understandings. Meanwhile the American tourists love to be treated equally (Johnson and Frank Huber, 2006) Tour s responsiveness The gap between service quality and customer satisfaction can be shortened significantly by improving the service s responsiveness. It can be defined responsiveness as the readiness and willingness of employees to help customers by providing prompt timely services, for example, mailing a transaction slip immediately or setting up appointments quickly (Korstanje M., 2015). From the aspect of customers, different customers tend to have their own evaluation of a service s responsiveness. For instance, mentioning the responsiveness, a travel agency will be highly evaluated by Japanese tourists if their staffs can solve problems rapidly and effectively as well as meet customers needs efficiently. With Chinese travelers, they will appreciate a travel agency s level of responsiveness highly if their 8

18 staffs can suggest them in-house restaurant with sound tastes and communicate with them fluently (Kumar, 2009) Tour s communication In all business sectors, communication always plays a key role in driving its success. And the tourism industry is not an exception. According to Masberg & Madlem, M. (2003), communication between service providers and customers should be performed in a same language to ensure that customers can be listened, understood and served well. In other word, it can be understood that the usage of languages is very important in communication as it affects directly the effectiveness and result of all conversation (Don A. Dillman, 1995). To ensure the most effective communication, it is necessary for all types of business to ensure their language meet all customer s needs by providing the detailed explanation of product and costs, extra services, and so on (Lee & Yoo, D., 2000) How to measure service quality In his research in 2011, Morgeson indicated that people tend to measure the service quality by their actual experience with the service and supplier. Hence, the best way to measure a service quality is to design and deliver a list of questions about all aspect of that product or service to get the deepest insights of the consumers. However, in order to gain the best results, according to Morrison, A. M. (2010), it is a must for the interviewer to structure the questionnaire in a selective research model together with sound preparation of objectives and budget. 9

19 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 3.1. Setting and participants Setting While operating a business, all enterprises have to deal with myriad issues to ensure a sound business performance including labour, strategies, marketing, etc. And the service quality is always considered among the driving force of a sound business operation. Especially, in the context of service sector, the service quality has proved itself as the most influential factor determining the success of the firm s strategies. In their research conducted in 1985, Nightingale indicated that the more developed the service sector was, the higher requirements of active interaction between customers and suppliers are. In order to form up better service quality, it is essential for the marketers to create a close relationship with customers as well as ensure to deliver their own unique selling points against the rivals for better attract new customers. According to Barry (1994), the service quality is determined based on the customer s actual experience while using a product or service. And in such a fierce market like Vietnam tourism industry, the sound service quality is regarded as the key for success of all travel agencies Sampling size In progress of gathering data for processing and generating highly reliable and exact findings about an issue, sampling is considered as the most suitable and effective tool. In general, researchers tend to use two types of samples including probability sampling and probability sampling. These two sample types have a unique difference of the population volume. While using probability sampling, researchers will take advantages of all participants whereas the non- probability sample only makes use of some respondents for drawing the whole picture of the respondents. Take a look on Vietnam tourism industry, it cannot be denied that this market is full of suppliers with various different levels. Hence it is much better for the author to use the probability sampling for fulfilling this thesis with the whole population of 150 participants. Each participant will be received a printed questionnaire with a list of questions asking about their assessment of Halong Bay tour service. All the collected idea and assessments will be gathered to be processed by the SPSS software to find out some interesting and useful findings. 10

20 3.2. Data collection Data collection methods In order to ensure the sound fulfilment of a study, the data collection method should be chosen very carefully. All the selected items must be studied in detail so that the author can make decision of the most suitable method for the chosen topic. Within this study, not only secondary data but also primary date has been used to ensure the most reliable database for the author Secondary data collection Mentioning the secondary data, Anderson, Fornell & Mazvancheryl (2004) defined it as all kinds of data and information which can be gathered from all sources like previous researches, magazines, online libraries of universities, and so on. Thanks to this kind of data, the author can build up the most relevant theoretical framework for the thesis Primary data collection According to Olsen & Youroukos (2013), apart from the secondary data gathered from myriad sources, in order to complete a thesis, the author has a must to collect the primary data with highest credibility. In the context of this thesis, the author collected primary data by delivering a questionnaire to the whole 150 participants. All the questions are designed in form of opening and closing question and delivered to the respondents to find out their assessment about the service quality of Halong Bay tour. Apart from the questionnaire, the author also makes use of a semi-structured interview to discover deeper the customer s level of satisfaction while using Halong Bay tour service. Then based on these findings, the author can make some recommendations on how to enhance the quality of the service provided during the customer s usage of Halong Bay tour in Vietnam Data collection instruments Questionnaire So as to make sure that all the primary data for this thesis is of reliable, the author made decision of using survey questionnaire. It can be defined that questionnaire is a written form of a list of questions requiring the participants to think about the issues in question, and give their attitude using a written reply or selection of available answers (Ritchie, Carlos Mario, 2011). The use of questionnaire is very advantageous. First of all, it helps researcher to gather a big size of data in a short time period. In addition, the gathered data is also very easy to analyse thanks to its digital form. Secondly, using questionnaire helps saving lots of time and efforts. Hence, it is among the first choice for the author while conducting this study. 11

21 As all the participants of this survey are Vietnamese, the author decided to make this questionnaire in Vietnamese only to make it as comprehensive as possible. Then, to make it more convenient for processing data with the SPSS software, the author made an English version of the whole questionnaire. Additionally, the translation of the questionnaire into English also makes it more convenient for readers while reading this thesis. The structure and content of the whole questionnaire were constructed according to the objectives set in the first chapter of this thesis. With the aim of assisting participants in understanding and fulfilling this designed questionnaire, a clear and comprehensive guidance was made carefully. Furthermore, the author also promised to keep all the respondent s provided data in secret. The author designed a two-part questionnaire with a list of 20 questions. The first three questions in the first section are designed to gain knowledge about participants background including their age, sexual and old travelling experience. The remaining seventeen questions in the second section are about to dig into three subcategories relating to customer service quality and customer level of satisfaction while using Halong Bay tour service. In this second section, all questions are designed in open-ended form. The object of all survey questions in the question list is presented in the following table: Table Distribution of questionnaire items Section Hypothesis Label Number of question A Respondent s information 1-3 B H1 Respondent s evaluation of Halong Bay tour s product quality 4-6 C H2 Respondent s evaluation on the tour s product price 7-9 D H3 Respondent s evaluation on the tour s responsiveness E H4 Respondent s evaluation on the tour s reliability F H5 Respondent s evaluation on the tour s security 15 G H6 Respondent s evaluation on the tour s access H H7 Respondent s evaluation on the tour s knowing the customer I H8 Respondent s evaluation on the tour s communication 20 Total 20 12

22 All questions are designed well and structured to save time by completing the application of all the questions. Readers can view the whole question format in the Appendix at the end of this study Semi-structured interview Since the primary purpose of this question is to investigate the quality of service of the Halong Bay tour, the data collected is not sufficient enough for the author to create a number of recommendations on how to raise the level of satisfaction about the quality of tourism services HalongBay. Therefore, the authors decided to conduct a direct interview with the respondents to get ideas for recommendations. Through interviews, the author would like to get further feedback from customers regarding the quality of products and services as well as their own expectations and suggestions for Vietnam authorities to improve the quality future service Data collection procedure Phase 1: Piloting Pilot In step 8 is designed draft questionnaires were delivered to customers consuming 8 tours to Halong Bay. The authors hope to get as much feedback both in terms of design and content of the questionnaire's questions. The defendants will receive the first draft of questionnaires to contribute some ideas for improvement for the author. From these feedbacks, the author will adjust to generate the final version and print to deliver to 150 participants. Phase 2: Surveying As living in Hanoi, the author chose to implement this survey in Hanoi with the total population of the survey of 150 people. Two-day was estimated as the time of implementation this survey. In order to conduct this survey, the author would directly introduce the questionnaires to respondents and briefly guiding them how to fulfil it. Stage 3: Interview As mentioned in the previous section, next question, some interviews will be used to obtain more data for this study. Once finished answering their questions, the collector will ask and invite them to participate in a short interview. The main objective of this interview is to learn more of their opinions about products and services Vietravel and whether they can contribute any recommendations on how to make the level of customer satisfaction 13

23 3.3. Data analysis In this study, the authors will use both the qualitative and quantitative analysis of the data collected. Accordingly, the qualitative methods will deal with non-numeric information to find out the customer satisfaction practical for tourism products of Vietravel Halong Bay as well as the influence of satisfaction customer's business efficiency Vietravel. The data collected from the questionnaires will be analysed by quantitative methods. All data will be processed using SPSS 18 software before is illustrated by various forms such as tables, graphs or charts according to their specific content. 14

24 CHAPTER 4. FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS 4.1. Chapter introduction In this chapter, the author will process all the gathered data by the SPSS software version 18.0 to generate some intensive understanding about the customer service of Halong Bay tour. Then all the findings will be expressed in column charts and table to be clearest. This chapter is divided into four parts following: Part 1: Introduction to shortly show the key content of the thesis Part 2: Respondent background to illustrate the most basic information about the survey participants including age, sex and old experience. Part 3: The finding of the study presents all the findings gathered from the survey questionnaires. Part 4: Conclusion to sum up all the detail of the whole chapter 4.2. Respondent background In order to gain the basic understanding about the survey s participants, the author designed three questions asking about respondent s age, sex and old experience while taking Halong Bay tour in Vietnam. To make the data comprehensive enough, all the data about respondent s background will be illustrated in form of column chart. The distribution of respondents by age 50 The distribution of respondents by age People 0 Under 18 years old years old years40-50 years old old Over 50 years old Figure 4.1: The distribution of respondents by age While designing the question about respondent age, the author divided into five age group including under 18 years, years, years, years of age and over 50 15

25 years old. Looking at Figure 1, respondents aging from 18 to 30 years old accounts for the biggest proportion of the total survey population accounting for 45%. Following is the people from 40 to 50 years old and 30 to 40 years old accounting for 35% and 30% respectively. Based on these statistics, it can be said that the main customers of Halong Bay tour services are young and adults who have stable income and high demand for travelling. The distribution of respondents by gender 100 The distribution of respondents by genders People 20 0 Female Male Figure 4.2: The distribution of respondents by genders Figure 2 presents the survey respondent distribution by gender. According to this figure, the number of female is much bigger than males which promise a better survey results as female seems much better in giving comments and feedbacks about services. The distribution of respondents by consumption experience of Halong Bay trip. The distribution of respondents by consumption experience yes 15 no people Figure 4.3: The distribution of respondents by consumption experience 16

26 The finding of respondents s experiences with Halong Bay tour is presented in Figure 3. As can be seen from this figure, up to 90% of respondents shared that they used to have a trip to Halong Bay. The remaining 10% said that they havent gone to this destination. Based on this statistic, it can be said that the participation of these people will generate a highly reliable results thanks to their actual experiences Research findings. Table 4.1. Halong Bay tour s quality Statistics The content of Halong Bay trip is very awesome The quality of transportation vehicles in Halong Bay trip is The quality of accommodation, food and drink in Halong Bay trip is sound sound N Valid Missing Mean 3,13 2,57 2,67 Mode a a. Multiple modes exist. The smallest value is shown From table 4.1, it can be seen that in order to gain knowledge about Halong Bay tour s quality, the author used three questions to collect the respondent s ideas about the tour s content, tour s transportation and tour s accommodation and food. The most selective option for all three question are option Neutral. Table 4.2. The content of Halong Bay s trip The content of Halong Bay trip of is awesome Frequency Percen t Valid Percent Cumulativ e Percent Val Strongly agree 13 8,7 8,7 8,7 id Agree 24 16,0 16,0 24,7 Neutral 66 44,0 44,0 68,7 Disagree 25 16,7 16,7 85,3 Strongly 22 14,7 14,7 100,0 disagree Total ,0 100,0 17

27 As can be seen from table 4.2, 44% chose Neutral option while being asked about the attractiveness of Halong Bay tour s content. Meanwhile, the total number of respondents dissatisfied with the content is bigger than the satisfied which accounted for 31.4% and 24.7% respectively. From these statistics, it is urgent for Vietnam travel agencies to find ways to design a much better and interesting tours which consist of more amazing activities such as discover local cuisines, traditional culture, and so on. Table 4.3. The quality of transportation. The quality of transportation vehicles in Halong Bay trip is sound Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent Val Strongly agree 26 17,3 17,3 17,3 id Agree 45 30,0 30,0 47,3 Neutral 56 37,3 37,3 84,7 Disagree 14 9,3 9,3 94,0 Strongly 9 6,0 6,0 100,0 disagree Total ,0 100,0 Mentioning the measurement of a tour quality, it transportation quality is among the most influential index. As shown in table 4.3, it can be said that the transportation quality was received a high appreciation from tourists accounting for 47.3% of the whole respondents. This percentage is three times bigger than the customers dissatisfying with the statement that The quality of the vehicles on the trip was very good deals". Despite the sound feedback on this, it is a must for travel agencies in Vietnam to ceaselessly improve their quality to exceed the customer s expectation for better formation of loyal customer base in the near future. Table 4.4. The quality of accommodation, food and drink The quality of accommodation, food and drink in Halong Bay trip is sound Frequency Percen Valid Percent Cumulative Percent t Val Strongly agree 22 14,7 14,7 14,7 id Agree 48 32,0 32,0 46,7 Neutral 48 32,0 32,0 78,7 Disagree 22 14,7 14,7 93,3 Strongly 10 6,7 6,7 100,0 18

28 disagree Total ,0 100,0 In all kinds of tour, accommodation, food and beverage always play an essential part forming a sound experience. Normally, a traveler will base on these factors to determine their spending amount on a trip. Take a look on Halong Bay tour, it can be seen clearly from table 4.4 that nearly 47% of respondents found satisfied with the tour s accommodation, food and drinks. Meanwhile, 21.4% expressed their low satisfaction. Then, it is necessary for travel agencies to dig into this field and find the solution to fix the limitation as well as improve the quality to acquire better tourist s experience. Table 4.5. Halong Bay tour s price Statistics The Halong Bay tour service s price is acceptable The Halong Bay tour service s price is equal to its quality of tour, transportation, The payment or transaction process of Viettravel for travellers is excellent accommodation and food N Valid Missing Mean 3,11 3,37 2,87 Mode a a. Multiple modes exist. The smallest value is shown So as to study and discover the respondent s attitude towards price of Halong Bay tour, the author generated three questions including "Service Price tour of Halong Bay is reasonable," "Service Price tour of Halong Bay in the quality of the tour, transportation, accommodation and food " and " the payment or transaction process of the South Vietnamese travel agency for tourists as well ". From table 4.5, it can be said that while being asked about the factors relating to price, the most selective option is Neutral. Table 4.6. Tour service s price The Halong Bay tour service s price is acceptable Frequency Percen Valid Cumulative t Percent Percent Val id Strongly agree 16 10,7 10,7 10,7 Agree 26 17,3 17,3 28,0 19

29 Neutral 42 28,0 28,0 56,0 Disagree 57 38,0 38,0 94,0 Strongly 9 6,0 6,0 100,0 disagree Total ,0 100,0 As price is among the most influential factors determining the level of customer satisfaction, in table 4.6, it can be seen very clearly about the respondents attitude towards the current price of Halong Bay tour. Only 18% of respondents expressed their agreement to the statement that the price of Halong Bay tour is acceptable. The other 44% showed their disagreement to the current price. These figures pose a question for Vietnam travel agencies to immediately generate a better price policies for both Halong Bay tour and other domestic ones to gain better tourist s experience as well as leverage their level of satisfaction while using the tours. Table 4.7. Equality between tour service s price and quality The Halong Bay tour service s price is equal to its quality of tour, transportation, accommodation and food Frequency Percen Valid Cumulative Percent t Percent Val Strongly agree 13 8,7 8,7 8,7 id Agree 28 18,7 18,7 27,3 Neutral 36 24,0 24,0 51,3 Disagree 36 24,0 24,0 75,3 Strongly 37 24,7 24,7 100,0 disagree Total ,0 100,0 It can be said that the equality between the tour s price and quality is very important due to its impacts on determining customer s decision making. As can be seen from table 4.7, the number of respondents chose Neutral, Agree and Disagree are 24%, 27.4% and 48.7% (respectively). So, it can be understood that, the current price of Halong Bay tour is overcharged in comparison with what traveler s actually received. Sooner or later, Vietnam travel agencies ruin their businesses if they cannot offer a better and reasonable price for their customers. Or they can still remain the current price if they invest more on leverage the 20

30 quality including better transportation, more interesting agenda, more convenient payment methods, and so on. 21

31 Val id Table 4.8. The payment process The payment or transaction process of for travellers is excellent Frequency Percen t Valid Percent Cumulative Percent Strongly agree 26 17,3 17,3 17,3 Agree 36 24,0 24,0 41,3 Neutral 36 24,0 24,0 65,3 Disagree 36 24,0 24,0 89,3 Strongly 16 10,7 10,7 100,0 disagree Total ,0 100,0 Table 4.8 present the respondent s attitude towards Halong Bay tour s payment process which is a determinants measuring the price pattern. With the approval of more than 41% of respondents, it can be said that the payment process for Halong Bay tour is doing so well. Meanwhile, there are still 34.7% of participant showed their disagreement to the payment process indicating various drawbacks. As a result, it is very necessary for travel agencies to fix and upgrade their payment process for better review and feedback from travelers. Table 4.9. Halong Bay tour s responsiveness Statistics The consultancy for customer to take Halong Bay tour is convincing and useful During Halong Bay tour, customers are kindly treated by Viettravel staffs and partners organising the tour In cases customers have complaint or ask for support, Viettravel staffs are very supportive and professional N Valid Missing Mean 2,91 2,59 3,13 Mode

32 Halong Bay tour s responsiveness is illustrated clearly in table 4.9 throughout the delivery of three questions. As can be seen from this table, the most selective options for these three questions are Neutral and Disagree. Table The quality of consultancy The consultancy for customer to take Halong Bay tour is convincing and useful Frequency Percen t Valid Percent Cumulative Percent Val Strongly agree 22 14,7 14,7 14,7 id Agree 33 22,0 22,0 36,7 Neutral 51 34,0 34,0 70,7 Disagree 24 16,0 16,0 86,7 Strongly disagree 20 13,3 13,3 100,0 Total ,0 100,0 Similar to other types of services, in tourism industry, the service performance depends significantly on the consultancy quality. Take a look on Halong Bay tour, there are 36.7% of respondents stated that they re completely satisfied with the provided consultancy. The number of customers who are unhappy with the consultancy quality accounts for 29.3%. The remaining 34% showed their neutral attitude towards this pattern. Based on these figures, it can be said that Vietnam travel agencies have a must to make significant progress on their consultancy s quality. Unless they do, they would face up with various risks of losing customers and market share. Table The treatment to customers. During Halong Bay tour, customers are kindly treated staffs and partners organising the tour Frequency Percen Valid Percent Cumulative Percent t Val Strongly agree 40 26,7 26,7 26,7 id Agree 26 17,3 17,3 44,0 Neutral 54 36,0 36,0 80,0 Disagree 16 10,7 10,7 90,7 Strongly disagree 14 9,3 9,3 100,0 23

33 Total ,0 100,0 In accordance with advice quality, the way a travel agencies staff treating their customers plays a very important role in forming the customer satisfaction level as well as pushing them to rebuy in the future. Looking at table 4.11, about 44% of respondent expressed their high appreciation on staff s treatment during their trip. The other 20% were still disappointed with the way they were treated. Meanwhile, there were 36% of survey participant showed their neutral attitude towards this pattern. Hence, it can be said that the Vietnam agency treatment to customer fails to meet customer s expectation. Unless travel agencies fix this pattern, they would confront with such a poor business performance and lost the market share to the other destinations. Table 4.12.The customer s support services. In cases customers have complaint or ask for support, Vietnamese tourism agencies Val id staffs are very supportive and professional Frequenc y Percen t Valid Percent Cumulative Percent Strongly agree 16 10,7 10,7 10,7 Agree 38 25,3 25,3 36,0 Neutral 32 21,3 21,3 57,3 Disagree 39 26,0 26,0 83,3 Strongly disagree 25 16,7 16,7 100,0 Total ,0 100,0 In the service industry, all providers have to address various kinds of customers complaints. So do Vietnam travel agencies who provide Halong Bay tour. In these cases, the supportive and professional staffs are perfect weapon of all agencies. As can be seen from table 4.12, 42.7% of tourists expressed their dissatisfaction with customer services of travel agencies. Only 36% of respondents found happy with the agency s support team. Hence, it is a must for travel agencies to leverage their staff s skill and professionalism to meet customer s demands and expectation better. Table Halong Bay tour s reliability The Halong Bay tour s price range is stable and reasonable Statistics The Halong Bay tour s agenda is flexibly adjusted to 24