Evaluating the quality of services provided in Kend and Kav Machine from the customers' point of view

Dissertation to receive Master's degree (M.A)

Dissertation abstract (including summary, objectives, implementation methods and results obtained):

The present study was conducted with the aim of evaluating the quality of services provided in Kend and Kav Machine from the customers' point of view. For this purpose, a standard questionnaire containing 22 questions was used to collect the required information and it was answered by 80 operators of the company and private organizations using the services of Kendokav Machine. Also, the Wilkason test was used to test the hypotheses and the Friedman test was used to rank the factors, and the reliability of the questionnaire was measured through Cronbach's alpha of 0.84. The result of the research confirmed that there is a significant difference between the perceptions and expectations of customers from the five dimensions of the service quality of Kendokav Machine company, except for the dimension of empathy. Also, the largest gap is related to the dimensions of concrete factors and responsiveness, and the smallest gap is related to empathy and reliability. The dimension of assurance and reliability is the most important from the point of view of customers, and the dimension of responsiveness and empathy is the least important. At the end, suggestions were made based on the findings of the research.

Introduction

One of the most important developments that took place in the field of performance improvement in the last decade of the 20th century was the recognition of measuring customer satisfaction as one of the main elements and requirements of management systems in business institutions and enterprises. A lot of effort and effort that is being made today by researchers, experts and managers of business organizations to improve performance management tools and expand customer-oriented attitude, shows that now customer satisfaction is one of the most important factors in determining the success of organizations in terms of business and profitability. Therefore, the creation and implementation of customer satisfaction measurement and monitoring systems is considered as the most important indicator of performance improvement among the basic needs of today's organizations. However, one can never ignore the fact that the main driving force for commercial and service organizations such as banks, which are looking for major improvements in their progress, are the customers of that organization. In other words, no business can survive without customers. Therefore, it is very important for every business organization to have a framework for understanding, analyzing and evaluating the satisfaction status of its customers. On the other hand, due to the strong expansion of competition and the dynamics of the economy, the ideals and goals of organizations have undergone major changes in the last few years. While previously focusing on attracting new customers was the main policy of organizations, today strategic and business policies are focused on maintaining and improving loyalty and increasing customers' trust in the organization. The most important reasons for such a change is the increase in public awareness and information about the favorable consequences of customer satisfaction and loyalty. In other words, customer orientation has been identified as the cornerstone of modern marketing management theories. There is no doubt that in the era of mass production and endless competition, organizations can achieve success by increasing the level of satisfaction of their customers to the level of complete loyalty, and the main issue in achieving this satisfaction is to provide quality services expected by customers, which is realized through the application of proper management in dealing with internal organizational issues. Product quality is one of the most important factors of customer satisfaction, which is always affected by internal issues in institutions and is influenced by various variables. Variables that neglecting them leads to the decline of customer orientation. 1-1-Statement of the research problem Today, many managers have realized that they must provide goods and services that meet the expectations of their customers and make them satisfied. (Steward, 1996) In other words, all organizations from the highest level to the lowest level should think about serving their buyers. Customer service includes all the things that the company does in order to satisfy customers and help them get the most value from the products or services they have purchased. (Rosta et al., 2013). Nowadays, organizations consider their customers as valuable assets and ask all their employees to try and provide different services to maintain their satisfaction. They strive to fulfill them.Since its inception, Kendukav Machine has provided various services to its customers, including after-sales services, and the current state of the company indicates the relative satisfaction of customers. The ideal goal of Kendokav Machine company is to eliminate the existing gaps and achieve full customer satisfaction from the services provided by this company. Therefore, this research has been carried out with the aim of finding appropriate answers to the following main questions that have attracted the mind of the researcher: Is the quality of the services provided to them in a favorable condition from the point of view of customers who use the services of Kendokav Machine company? Which factors increase customer satisfaction? What are the appropriate solutions for this?

1-2- The importance of conducting research

Theoretical importance of research

Nowadays, advanced countries emphasize more on their service organizations, so that their service sector plays an important role in the country's economy, so that it accounts for a significant part of the gross domestic product (GDP) (Goodwin, 2006). In various organizations, customers are considered as the main focus of attention. Companies that have after-sales services are not exempt from this. (Salehi, 2013) In companies that have after-sales services, employees must know what their customers' needs are and what factors affect their customers' satisfaction. Identifying these factors and meeting customer expectations is very important for the company because satisfied customers are a profitable source for the company. A company that cannot satisfy its customers, "will not remain in the market in the long term" (Rangebrian, 2018).

Practical importance of the research

Customers give up their tangible advantage (money) to obtain an intangible advantage (expectations) (Irons and David, 2018). Therefore, the relationship between expectations and reality is very important for customers. Therefore, it should be determined what these expectations are and what factors are effective in fulfilling them and, as a result, customer satisfaction. This research tries to identify these factors so that Kendukav Machine can take a big step towards increasing customer satisfaction and meeting their expectations, and in practice, the importance of this research for Kendukav Machine is to create a competitive advantage over other competitors, increase profitability through customer satisfaction and customer orientation. (focusing on the components of tangible factors, reliability, responsiveness, guarantee and empathy) from the perspective of the customers of that company

Sub-objectives

1- Determining the gap between the quality of services provided and the desired service quality of Kendokav Machine from the customers' point of view in the dimension of "tangible factors". The extent of the gap between the quality of the services provided and the quality of services expected by Kendukau Machine from the customers' perspective in the "Responsiveness" dimension.

4- Determining the gap between the quality of services provided and the quality of services expected by Kendukau Machine from the customers' perspective in the "Guarantee" dimension.

5- Determining the gap between the quality of services provided and the quality of services expected by Kendukau Machine from the perspective of customers in the "Empathy" dimension.

1-4- The theoretical framework of the research :

The service conceptual model was proposed by Parasuraman and his colleagues in 1985 and after the studies of this group, it became a standard tool for measuring service quality. In the service quality literature, this tool has been termed as SERVQUAL (Parasurman et al. 1985).

Early studies in the field of service quality paid a lot of attention to the evaluation issue. Following the introduction of the SERVQUAL model (by Parasuraman and his colleagues, 1985), attention was focused on the determinants of service quality, with special emphasis on the service delivery process. The SERVQUAL model with its 5 dimensions (i.e. concrete factors, assurance, reliability, responsiveness and empathy) which indicates the American attitude towards service quality. The European attitude which is best introduced in the Gruneros service quality model, includes not only the process or the functional (operational) aspect of the service, but also the output or the technical aspect as well as the image of the company.