Doctoral Dissertations

Date of Award

12-1985

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Major

Business Administration

Major Professor

C. John Dangley

Committee Members

Gary N. Dicer, E. R. Cadotte, Robert B. Woodruff, John W. Philpot

Abstract

Many of the contemporary techniques for customer service evaluation are based on the measurement of customer perceptions of customer service requirements. However, very little research effort seems to have been directed at finding out whether knowledge of customer perceptions really helps the supplier in generating the desired market response. (sales, customer satisfaction, etc.).

The goals of this doctoral dissertation are:

1. to conceptualize the role of customer service perceptions in customer service evaluation,

2. to develop a suitable research design using the above conceptualization and to conduct an empirical study of the relationship between customer service perceptions and market response, and

3. to use the results of this study for the development of some guidelines for customer service evaluation and management.

A unique aspect of this research is that customer-supplier pairs are used as units of analysis rather than aggregated groups of customers and suppliers.

One of the premises of the behavioral process model proposed in this dissertation is that differences may exist between suppliers and customers in their perceptions of customers service. Suppliers and customers may differ in their perceptions of the industry's typical levels of customer service and in their perceptions of the the actual service levels of the supplier.

In this dissertation, supplier-customer differences in the perception of customer service are modeled as two independent variables--one related to the industry's typical levels and the other related to the actual service levels provided by the supplier. The dependent variable, market response, is the response of the customer to the supplier's physical distribution customer service. The influence of the independent variables on the dependent variable is moderated by the customer's cognitive process of comparing the supplier's actual service levels against the industry's typical service levels.

Customer service evaluation is conceptualized as an effort made by the supplier to understand the perceptions of the customer in order to use this information for influencing market response.

The most important relationships in the proposed behavioral process model were summarized in the form of a four-construct theoretical structure. Four hypotheses were developed for testing the relationships in the theoretical structure.

The data required for testing the four research hypotheses was collected using mail questionnaires. Responses were collected from a national sample of grocery manufacturers and their customers (wholesalers and chain retailers). Data was collected from a sample of 91 supplier-customer pairs (or dyads).

The objective of the first phase of data analysis was to ensure unidimensionality, and a high level of reliability and validity in the measurement of the constructs in the theoretical structure. After the purification of the measures, the four research hypotheses were empirically tested by applying the causal modeling approach using the program LISREL VI (Joreskog and Sorbom, 1984).

The results of data analysis strongly supported the conceptualized relationship between the customer's cognitive comparison process and market response. It indicated that if the customer perceives the supplier's actual service levels to be higher than what is typical in that industry, it is likely to result in higher market response (eg. more sales, higher market share, greater customer satisfaction, etc.).

The results of the analysis of the relationship between supplier-customer differences in the perception of customer service and market response are less conclusive. While most of the statistics generated during the analysis support this relationship, some do not. However, the results of the analysis seem to indicate that if the supplier's perception of the industry's typical levels is higher than the customer's, it is likely to lead to more favorable market response by its indirect influence on the dependent variable through the customer's cognitive process of comparison. Similarly, the results of the analysis seem to indicate that if the customer's perception of the supplier's actual levels is higher than the supplier's, it is likely to lead to more favorable market response by its indirect influence on the dependent variable through the customer's cognitive process of comparison.

The findings of this research indicate that knowledge of the customer's perceptions of customer service can be very useful to the supplier for developing effective customer service packages which are likely to result in the desired market response.

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