The Importance of Using Market in the Development of Market Orientation - Research Paper Example

1.0. Introduction Statistics revealed that on the average, a business establishment loses 10 to 30 per cent of its in a year. Ironically businesses are not even aware of such details on which clients were lost, or when and why they were lost. Another equally significant unknown to practically most businesses is how much revenue and corresponding profit had been lost as a consequence of customer decay (Hill, 2006). As depicted by Hill (2006), most businesses are like buckets with a hole in the bottom. As the bucket loses water, the company concentrates on adding more water instead of plugging something into the hole to prevent discharge of water. Hill (2006) categorically stated that dissatisfaction is the main reason for customer decay. Yet, the causes of such dissatisfaction are varied and extensive. The concept of “satisfaction gaps” emerged from marketing research, which is the difference between customer expectations and their corresponding experience. This paper will attempt to propose a solution to such gap in a marketing-related problem of a service establishment. 2.0. Critical Analysis of the Issue and Literature Review 2.1. The Problem For the purpose of anonymity and confidentiality dictated by research ethics, the business establishment which will be discussed in this paper will be called simply as Company X (Bryman and Bell 2007). Company X is a technology service company whose specialisation is laptop, desktop and cellular phone repair. It was established in 2000 and is located in Eastern-Central Britain. The establishment showed good performance in its first three years of operation. This was mainly the reason why Company X was sub-contracted by a Northern European mobile phone company in 2004 to serve its clientele in the geographic area covered by Company X, for repair and replacement of parts, if necessary. Subcontracting with the mobile phone company lifted the spirits of both management and technicians. The technicians performed well and helped generate both revenue and more patrons for Company X. Mobile phones which were already off-guarantee period were still being brought by former customers mainly because of their prompt service and technical know-how. Things went well for Company X that its sub-contracting functions with the mobile company was renewed for three-consecutive years. In 2008, a laptop and desktop manufacturer based in the North America commissioned Company X as one of its official service centres. Management was ecstatic. Its 10 best technicians were offered training packages to further hone their skills while the remaining 22 technicians were left to attend to the service needs of their growing clientele. Management promised that the rest of the technicians will also attend training in two batches after the 10 have returned to resume their tasks. While the company operated for only 12 hours each day, technicians worked in three eight-hour shifts, or seven technicians per shift. When job orders increased to levels where the technicians can no longer put-up with the deadlines they set for completion of the service requests, management opted for overtime with pay instead of hiring new technicians. The rationale volunteered by management is that hiring new technicians will not ensure that deadlines will be met since they would not be sure if the applicants can deliver up to management expectations by simply looking at their resumes. With an additional sub-contracting project and fewer technicians to work on repair orders, problems started to surface. To date, absenteeism became rampant. Patrons are starting to be dissatisfied with the service jobs they requested. Technicians who used to be accommodating and interacted with customers with a smile have turned grumpy. Customers have aired their complaints with customer service. The mobile company had threatened not to renew their contract if the customer service issues will not be addressed. In the operation manager’s latest quarterly report, revenue for the last month dropped by 40% of the previous six months average. Repair service requests have also diminished by 55% of the average for the last quarter. Profit also decreased by 60% of last quarter figures. There were rumours that many of their clients have been siphoned by the aggressive marketing efforts of a competitor four blocks away. Top management issued stern instructions to the operations manager to come up with a marketing initiative to win back the lost customers or at least take in new ones. Company X does not have a marketing director since it started operations in 2000, where marketing and promotional efforts had previously been handled by the operations manager. 2.2. Review of Related Literature and Studies Hill (2006) maintained that the association between customer satisfaction and company success, which previously had only been a matter of faith, has already been established from research. Generally, profit figures are relative to customer satisfaction, which in turn may be traced back from employee satisfaction. This sequence of events is illustrated in Figure 1 as the value profit chain. Figure 1: The value profit chain (Hill, 2006, p 22) The value profit chain asserts that the mainspring of growth and profitability are customer loyalty and commitment and that “value is created by satisfied committed, loyal, and productive employees” (p. 57). Simply stated, the value profit chain posited a positive association among happy customers, happy employees and profit. Acknowledging the importance of repeat customers in the service business, Matilla (2001) examined the effects of service type and magnitude of failure on customer loyalty. Results reveal that the threshold of customers on deciding to continue patronage varies from each type of service. Service recovery methods such as issuing an apology and providing significant compensation is shown to be effective in maintaining customer satisfaction and loyalty among hair styling service establishments. On the other hand, the magnitude of failure among restaurants and dry cleaning services is considered as less severe. The findings of the study are consistent with previous studies which indicate that customer perception of fairness and justice in relation to service recovery is context-specific. Meanwhile, Bebko (2001) evaluated four service types – legal consultation, hair styling, film processing, and retails store – to determine service quality on problematic and normal service encounters. In the study, respondents who encounter service problems were requested to answer three important questions: (1) the responsible party causing the problem; (2) the likelihood that the incident might have been averted; and (3) the likelihood that the same problem will occur in the future.  Results of the study reveal that the level of customer expectation is proportional to the level of tangibility the service has. Thus, establishments offering less tangible services face a higher risk of incurring a higher level of unmet customer expectations. Existing literature shows that market orientation plays a significant part in getting positive results for companies. In the case of service organizations, individual service workers represent the company’s market orientation. In a study by Brown, Mowen, Donavan, and Licata (2002), the mediation role of customer orientation is evaluated based on a hierarchical model of the influence of personality traits on self-rated and supervisor-rated performance. Based on the results, three primary personality traits – emotional stability, agreeability, and need for activity – make up 39 percent of the variance in the customer orientation of employees. For self-rated performance, customer orientation and conscientiousness account for 26 percent of the variance. Meanwhile, 12 percent of the variance for supervisor-rated performance is made up of customer orientation and direct effects of conscientiousness. Overall, the results of the study support a partially mediated hierarchical model. The Bell and Menguc (2002) study proposed a customer-contact service employee management model which evaluates organizational citizenship behaviours acting as important links between employee-organizational relationship and customer service quality perceptions. Employee-organizational relationship aspects include perceived organizational support and organizational identification. The proposed model also examined the role of job autonomy in the use of behavioural discretion by employees in order to perform citizenship behaviours. Overall, the results of the study show partial support of the proposed model. On the other hand, a study conducted by Hess, Ganesan, and Klein (2001) on the link between customer relationships with a service organization and customer reactions to service failure and recovery. Using a conceptual model, the authors postulated that customer-organizational relationships affect reactions and expectations whenever service failures occur. Results of the study show that a strong customer-service organization relationship translates to lower service recovery expectations. Thus, it was suggested that maintaining a strong relationship with customers serves as a buffer should service failures occur. It may, therefore, be recalled that in economics, the dominant logic focused on transactions, inherent value, and tangible resources such as manufactured goods. This model of exchange has been adopted by marketing. However, new marketing perspectives based on intangible resources, co-creation value, and customer-company relationships have been developed. The authors hypothesized that these new perspectives form the basis of a novel dominant logic for marketing which replaces goods with service provision as the fundamental focus of economic exchange (Vargo and Lusch 2004). Drawing on a previous research conducted in 2002, Donovan, Brown, and Mowen (2004) created and evaluated a model which determined how service-worker customer orientation influence a number of crucial job responses. These job responses include perceived job fit, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and organizational citizenship. Using data from three field studies from two service industries, the results of the study reveal that the more time service workers invest in establishing relationships with customers, the more positive the influence on customer orientation becomes. In terms of marketing initiatives, Bansal, Taylor, and James (2005) evaluated survey data from 700 consumers on the perceived usefulness of the push, pull, and moorings or PPM model to gain further understanding on consumers’ service provider switching behaviours. Results of the evaluation yielded the following findings: all three variables related to switching – push, pull, and moorings – show significant effects on customer intentions to switch service providers. On the other hand, Javalgi, Martin, and Young (2006) examined the importance of using market research information in the development of market orientation and its impact on international service organizations. Drawing on existing literature related to interactions and relationships between market research, market orientation, and customer relationship management issues. Based on notable examples from companies such as Ritz Carlton Hotel Company, Federal Express, Hallmark Cards, and VeriFone, it has been concluded that service organizations maintain competitiveness by being market-oriented. In addition, market research assumes a critical role by generating data needed to determine market orientation. Furthermore, improved market orientation drives enhanced CRM practices. The work of Gelbrich and Roschk (2011) described their meta-analysis on studies concerning post-complaint behaviour to test a hypothetical model consisting of organizational responses, justice perceptions, post-complaint satisfaction, and customer behavioural intentions. Service recovery is considered as an important factor for organizational success. The results of the meta-analysis verify the accuracy of the model in terms of justice perceptions and customer post-complaint satisfaction. In addition, overall satisfaction is identified as the primary driver for customer loyalty.  Furthermore, it is suggested that service organizations should pay attention to distributive justice when dealing with customer complaints. 3.0. Development of a Solution 3.1. Problem Analysis This researcher was requested by the operations manager of the Company X to assist him in analysing the issues which surfaced after the previous quarter’s revenue report. Company diagnosis, according to the operations manager, is better carried out by a third party to preclude bias in the analysis. Having been appraised by the operations manager about the problems at hand, it was necessary to conduct further data gathering to take the pulse of both employees and customers using survey methodology. Research instruments were designed and exhibited as Appendices 1 and 2. Both sets of respondents were requested to answer separate surveys using a five-point Likert scale as reaction to statements in the questionnaires. Interpretation scales with statistical limits were provided to facilitate survey data analysis and presented as Appendix 3. All the 22 technicians and a quota sampling of 50 customers agreed to voluntarily participate in the survey after having been briefed of the purpose of the survey. Both sets of respondents signed informed consent forms after the briefing and were provided copies of the signed forms. The frequency and percentage distribution, as well as the mean of the respondents’ answers were provided as Appendices 4 and 5. Results of the survey among the technicians of Company X revealed that they are moderately dissatisfied with the following at work: (1) their work in general, (2) job autonomy, (3) overtime schedules, (4) being overworked, and (5) their salary. The respondents are not particularly happy with their workload and this implies that their customer orientation is affected by their emotional stability as explained in Brown, et al. (2002). Findings also revealed that the technicians vent out their frustration on the job to their customers. Meanwhile, the technician- respondents were lukewarm or neutral about their performance on the job and about their attitude of agreeability with the customers. Again, as discussed in the Brown, et al. (2002) study, customer orientation is also influenced by the technician’s agreeability with customer views. When agreeability and emotional stability is lower than average as shown in the survey results, customer orientation is also low and this results in the technicians venting out their frustration among the customers. On the other hand, results of the survey among the customers of Company X showed that the overall satisfaction level of the customers borders between satisfied and dissatisfied. Additionally, statistics showed that the customers are still loyal to some extent. In spite of the recent service failure problems earlier pointed out, previous memories of good service may have probably served as buffer for the customers not to easily lose their loyalty with the establishment. This supports the findings of Hess, et al. (2001). This augurs well for Company X in terms of the chances of them drawing back their lost customers. All the company needs is a well-prepared marketing strategy. Results of the data gathering revealed that majority of the respondents favour market pull – strategies. Bansal, et al. (2005) touched on this during the literature review. Customers’ reactions were divided as far as complaint-handling procedures are concerned. More customers felt that they were not treated fairly in terms of monetary outcomes in their complaints. This suggests that aside from giving special focus to distributive justice as advised by Gelbrich and Roschk (2011), management should consider enhancing their company policy on procedural justice and interactional justice. Moreover, respondents were neutral regarding how the company makes up for unsatisfactory service and issuance of apology. As Matilla (2001) stressed, apologising and providing significant compensation is shown to be effective in maintaining customer satisfaction. The customers were moderately dissatisfied as to the amount of time the technicians spend with them regarding further details of the service request. From this finding, it is not a far-fetched idea that the technicians have not really established good relationship with the customers, based on the findings of Donovan, et al. (2002). Another significant factor that came into play was very high customer expectations, perhaps mainly because of the company’s track record. This finding supports the result of the Bebko (2001) study that the level of customer expectation is proportional to the level of tangibility the service has, since the service is tangible on account of how laptops or mobile phones are being generally used by people. 3.2. Alternative Courses of Action The following alternative courses of action are being suggested: 3.2.1. Hire and train new technicians. New hires can unburden the already overworked old timers of the company. New hires can also be offered a lower base pay than the regulars. It is financially better than paying for overtime pay. To assure that the newly hired technicians will perform as expected, the company may introduce a pairing system where tenured technicians are paired with new hires and where the more senior technician monitors and trains his pair like an apprentice. This mechanism will also offer more job autonomy to the tenured technicians. Bell and Menguc (2002) underscored that job autonomy presents a good opportunity to elicit organizational commitment from employees. Sales promotions may be used as a marketing initiative which should capitalise on a customer awareness campaign that there are now more technicians to serve their needs, even as the other technicians are undergoing skills training. Ladderised discounts or loyalty points may be given as part of the promotions. 3.2.2. Request the operations manager to get the consensus of the tenured technicians regarding overtime work. Only those who are willing to work extra hours should be requested to do overtime work. A preference form may be floated among the technicians as to which days of the week they prefer to do overtime and for how many hours each day. Overtime pay should be offered as 2.25 to 2.50 times the regular base rate if the company can afford. Hire a marketing manager from among the other employees who are qualified to work-out the marketing strategy. If no one is qualified, the company should hire the services of a new marketing manager. The basis for hiring may be a marketing initiative that will solve the company’s current marketing issues. 3.2.3. Attempt an aggressive marketing initiative which will create an awareness among previous and current customers that the company is embarking on a more responsive program to address their needs. All service requests will be assessed and problems which are easier to repair will be transferred to a “repair while you wait” or express queue on a first come-first served basis. Repairs of this nature will take at the most 1 and ½ hours to complete. About 6 or 7 new hires will be needed to make this strategy work. The initiative should also include graduated discounts for repeat customers, with the most frequent patrons getting the largest discounts. Flyers of this marketing tactic may be outsourced to two contractual new hires whose main task will be to distribute the flyers as far back as four blocks to the nearest competitor. A telephone promo should also be carried out to inform the customers on file about the express queue and the new discounts available. Tenured technicians should be offered 2.5 times their regular base rate for overtime work, which will be scheduled as preferred by the technicians. The complaint-handling procedure and policies should be reviewed and improved based on the findings of the customer survey. The technicians should also be given a seminar regarding customer orientation. 4.0. Proposed Solution It is hereby proposed that the third course of action (3.2.3) be adopted as a solution to the current problems being faced by Company X. While the first and second courses of action may also help address the issues at hand, the third course of action targets all the problems diagnosed from the survey, as well as the initial information which defined the marketing problem. 5.0 Conclusion and Recommendations Dovetailing from Javalgi, Martin, and Young (2006) in the review of related studies, the importance of using market research in the development of market orientation and its impact on international service organizations can not be over-emphasized. The fact that Company X is one of the official service centres of a famous mobile phone and a laptop / desktop brand both headquartered in Northern America, necessitates that its service philosophy is engendered on market orientation. This was precisely the rationale why the survey among the customers was carried out. It is believed that the dominant logic for marketing as enunciated by Vargo and Lusch (2004) replaced goods with service provision as the fundamental focus of economic exchange, because customer loyalty and customer satisfaction, like service is also intangible. But while they are intangible, they are also the most reliable measures of revenue and profit. Employees contribute in accumulating revenue for a company by exhibiting good performance and organisational commitment. Hence, the formula for business success is a synergy of contented employees and satisfied customers. In the light of the findings of the analysis, it is hereby recommended that the third course of action be adopted as a solution to the problem posed in this exposition. 6.0. References Bansal, HS, SF Taylor, and Y St. James (2005) ‘Migrating to new service providers’, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, vol 33, no 1, pp 96-115. Bebko, CP (2001) ‘Service encounter problems: which service providers are more likely to be blamed?’, Journal of Services Marketing, vol 15, no 6, pp 480-495. Bell, SJ and B Menguc (2002) ‘The employee-organization relationship, organizational citizenship behaviours, and superior service quality’, Journal of Retailing, vol 78, no 2, pp 131-146. Brown, TJ, JC Mowen, T Donovan, and JW Licata (2002) ‘The customer orientation of service workers: personality trait effects on self and supervisor performance ratings’, Journal of Services Marketing, vol 39, no 1, pp 110-119. Bryman, A and E. Bell (2007) Business research methods, 2nd edn, Oxford University Press, Oxford, GBR. Donovan, DT, TJ Brown, and JC Mowen (2004) ‘Internal benefits of service-worker customer orientation: Job satisfaction, commitment, and organizational citizenship behaviours’, Journal of Marketing, vol 68, no 1, pp 128-146. Gelbrich, K, and H Roschk (2011) ‘A meta-analysis of organizational complaint handling and customer responses, Journal of Service Research, vol 14, no 1, 24-43. Hess, RLJ, S Ganesan, and NM Klein (2003) ‘Service failure and recovery: the impact of relationship factors on customer satisfaction’, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, vol 15, no 7, pp 217-145. Hill, N (2006) Handbook of customer satisfaction and loyalty measurement, 3rd edn, Gower Publishing, Hampshire, GBR. Javalgi RG, CL Martin, and RB Young (2006) ‘Marketing research, market orientation and customer relationship management: a framework and implications for service providers’, Journal of Services Marketing, vol 20, no 1, pp 12-13 Mattila, AS (2001) ‘The effectiveness of service recovery in a multi-industry setting’, Journal of Services Marketing, vol 15, no 7, pp 583-596. Vargo, SL and RF Lusch (2004) ‘Evolving to a new dominant logic for marketing’, Journal of Marketing, vol 68 no 1, pp 1-17. Young, ST (2010) Essentials of operations management, Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks, CA. 7.0. Appendices 7.1. Research Instrument 1 Please react to the following statements by marking the column of your desired response. STRONGLY AGREE SLIGHTLY AGREE NEUTRAL SLIGHTLY DISAGREE STRONGLY DISAGREE 1 I am satisfied with my work. 2 I perform well at work and our clients are aware of this 3 I enjoy job autonomy in this company. 4 I am always happy with the overtime schedules being requested by management. 5 I have reason to believe that I am NOT overworked 6 I believe I am being paid well in this company 7 I am emotionally stable to handle the workload being given to me. 8 I do not vent out my frustrations on the job with the customers. 9 I believe that the “customer is always right” and I agree with what customers had to say most of the time. 7.2. Research Instrument 2 Please react to the following statements by marking the column of your desired response. STRONGLY AGREE SLIGHTLY AGREE NEUTRAL SLIGHTLY DISAGREE STRONGLY DISAGREE 1 I am satisfied with the services provided by this establishment. 2 The staff is generally accommodating and warm. 3 I will definitely return to this establishment whenever I need services related to their service line. 4 When I have complaints with the service I received from this company, I feel I was treated fairly in terms of financial outcomes. 5 When I have complaints with the service I received from this company, I feel that the quality of interpersonal treatment I received during the complaint-handling was very satisfactory. 6 When I have complaints with the service I received from this company, I feel that the company procedures and policies were fair. 7 I prefer sales promotions over personalised promotional campaigns 8 I prefer in-store service demonstration over reading advertisements in magazines or trade journals 9 I prefer write-ups in relevant print media publications over trade shows 10 The technician assigned to work on my service requests spend ample time with me to find further details about the service being requested. 11 I have very high expectations of good service from this company 12 I tend to be meticulous with my service requests but I always consider technician suggestions. 13 The company makes up for unsatisfactory service by reworking the order and issuing a sincere apology. 14 I will continue to patronize this company in spite of service failures if they promise to do better during the next transactions 7.3. Interpretation Guide For the Questionnaire for Technicians and Items 1-6 and 10 of the Questionnaire for Customers Scale Questionnaire Response Statistical Limits Interpretation 5 Strongly Agree 4.50 – 5.00 Extremely Satisfied (ES) 4 Slightly Agree 3.50 – 4.49 Moderately Satisfied (MS) 3 Neutral 2.50 – 3.49 Neither Satisfied nor Dissatisfied (NS) 2 Slightly Disagree 1.50 – 2.49 Moderately Dissatisfied (MD) 1 Strongly Disagree 1.00 -1.49 Extremely Dissatisfied (ED) For Items 7-9 of the Questionnaire for Customers Scale Questionnaire Response Statistical Limits Interpretation 5 Strongly Agree 4.50 – 5.00 Highly prefers pull strategies (HL) 4 Slightly Agree 3.50 – 4.49 Moderately prefers pull strategies (ML) 3 Neutral 2.50 – 3.49 Neutral preference (NP) 2 Slightly Disagree 1.50 – 2.49 Moderately prefers push strategies (MH) 1 Strongly Disagree 1.00 -1.49 Highly prefers push strategies (HH) For Items 11 of the Questionnaire for Customers Scale Questionnaire Response Statistical Limits Interpretation 5 Strongly Agree 4.50 – 5.00 Very high expectations (VX) 4 Slightly Agree 3.50 – 4.49 Moderate expectations (MX) 3 Neutral 2.50 – 3.49 Neither high nor low expectations (NH) 2 Slightly Disagree 1.50 – 2.49 Low expectations (LX) 1 Strongly Disagree 1.00 -1.49 Very low expectations (VL) For Items 12-14 of the Questionnaire for Customers Scale Questionnaire Response Statistical Limits Interpretation 5 Strongly Agree 4.50 – 5.00 Shows considerable loyalty for the company (CL) 4 Slightly Agree 3.50 – 4.49 Shows loyalty for the company to some extent (SL) 3 Neutral 2.50 – 3.49 Indecisive of loyalty towards company (IL) 2 Slightly Disagree 1.50 – 2.49 Shows very little loyalty for the company (LL) 1 Strongly Disagree 1.00 -1.49 Shows no more loyalty for the company (NL) 7.4. Results of the Survey – Technicians STRONGLY AGREE SLIGHTLY AGREE NEUTRAL SLIGHTLY DISAGREE STRONGLY DISAGREE MEAN INTERPRETATION F % F % F % F % F % 1 I am satisfied with my work. 0 0 1 5 0 0 19 86 2 9 2.00 MD 2 I perform well at work and our clients are aware of this 1 5 10 45 0 0 11 50 0 0 3.05 NS 3 I enjoy job autonomy in this company. 0 0 2 9 5 23 12 55 3 14 2.27 MD 4 I am always happy with the overtime schedules being requested by management. 0 0 2 9 0 0 20 91 0 0 2.18 MD 5 I have reason to believe that I am NOT overworked 0 0 0 0 0 0 17 77 5 23 1.77 MD 6 I believe I am being paid well in this company 0 0 5 23 0 0 15 68 2 9 2.36 MD 7 I am emotionally stable to handle the workload being given to me. 0 0 3 14 2 9 15 68 2 9 2.27 MD 8 I do not vent out my frustrations on the job with the customers. 0 0 5 23 0 0 8 36 9 41 2.05 MD 9 I believe that the “customer is always right” and I agree with what customers had to say most of the time. 0 0 12 55 0 0 10 45 0 0 3.09 NS OVERALL SATISFACTION LEVEL OF THE COMPANY TECHNICIANS 2.34 MD LEGEND: F = frequency; % = percentage; NS = neither satisfied nor dissatisfied; MD = moderately dissatisfied 7.4. Results of the Survey – Customers STRONGLY AGREE SLIGHTLY AGREE NEUTRAL SLIGHTLY DISAGREE STRONGLY DISAGREE MEAN INTERPRETATION F % F % F % F % F % 1 I am satisfied with the services provided by this establishment. 0 0 10 20 5 10 30 60 5 10 2.40 MD 2 The staff is generally accommodating and warm. 0 0 16 32 3 6 23 46 8 16 2.54 NS 3 I will definitely return to this establishment whenever I need services related to their service line. 0 0 5 10 11 22 34 68 0 0 2.42 MD 4 When I have complaints with the service I received from this company, I feel I was treated fairly in terms of financial outcomes. 0 0 23 46 11 22 16 32 0 0 3.14 NS 5 When I have complaints with the service I received from this company, I feel that the quality of interpersonal treatment I received during the complaint-handling was very satisfactory. 0 0 27 54 11 22 12 24 0 0 3.30 NS 6 When I have complaints with the service I received from this company, I feel that the company procedures and policies were fair. 0 0 22 44 0 0 28 56 0 0 2.88 NS OVERALL SATISFACTION LEVEL OF THE CUSTOMER WITH C0OMPANY SERVICES 2.78 NS 7 I prefer sales promotions over personalised promotional campaigns 43 86 3 6 0 0 2 4 2 4 4.66 HL 8 I prefer in-store service demonstration over reading advertisements in magazines or trade journals 34 68 5 10 0 0 6 12 5 10 4.14 ML 9 I prefer write-ups in relevant print media publications over trade shows 48 96 2 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 4.96 HL CUSTOMER PREFERENCE FOR PULL OR PUSH MARKETING INITIATIVES 4.59 HL 10 The technician assigned to work on my service requests spend ample time with me to find further details about the service being requested. 0 0 11 22 0 0 34 68 5 10 2.34 MD 11 I have very high expectations of good service from this company 45 90 5 10 0 0 0 0 0 0 4.90 VX 12 I tend to be meticulous with my service requests but I always consider technician suggestions. 33 66 12 24 5 10 0 0 0 0 4.56 CL 13 The company makes up for unsatisfactory service by reworking the order and issuing a sincere apology. 5 10 18 36 0 0 27 54 0 0 3.02 IL 14 I will continue to patronize this company in spite of service failures if they promise to do better during the next transactions 7 14 21 42 9 18 12 24 1 2 3.42 IL OVERALL LEVEL OF CUSTOMER LOYALTY 3.67 SL LEGEND: F = frequency; % = percentage; NS = neither satisfied nor dissatisfied; MD = moderately dissatisfied; HL= highly prefers pull strategies; ML = moderately prefers pull strategies; VX = very high expectations; CL = shows considerable loyalty for the company; IL= indecisive of loyalty towards company; SL = shows loyalty for the company to some extent. 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