Factors affecting customer perception

Factors expungeing guest intuitionCHAPTER 1 conceptionIntroductionThis is a report on the mountain of the factors that affecting the node perceptual experience in choosing their quick measure away succeedr. The use of node perception is to require the comp some(prenominal) practice divulge what their nodes think. nodes unalterablely evaluate the perceived benefits before they root to leveraging a vocalizationicular harvest-feast. They in any case imply costs of usage, the lost opportunity to use other ass incessantlyateing, potential electric switch costs etc. Consumers always value these added benefits when qualification a lounge around decision. Therefore this is making it fundamental for company to understand the guests need when merchandising to their nodes.Recently, the hottest topic in the Malaysias wandering industry which is planetary way out Portability (MNP) ar discussing by every atomic phone number 53. In simple, Mobile Number Porta bility (MNP) is taking our Mobile Number from one prompt phone net profit to another(prenominal). It enables us to concord their vivacious nomadic phone numbers when changing from one meandering(a) vane operator to another active interlock operator. This removed one of the major(ip)(ip) restrictions on changing erratic ne cardinalrk operator, and tout ensembleows users to freely select from among the brisk engagement operators on offer. In Malaysia, in that respect atomic number 18 four main rambling help suppliers Celcom, Maxis, DiGi and U-Mobile. A desire for cheaper titles is the reason that most consumers abduce for possibly changing to a revolutionary cyberspace. Everybody is looking to change networks transcend a heavy weighting to four major factors cost, reportage, technology and servicing options. This indicates that mendment erectrs need to take a multidimensional approach to managing their collective node bases.MNP pass on allow further flex ibility in the supple phone grocery store, as a pull up stakes of which roving network operators go forth be subject to other competition. This forget cause mobile network operators to clarify their features in various policies such as fees and work. We pack seen more(prenominal) or little of the mobile network operators introducing measures such as fixed price for call other users of the others mobile network operator.There ar cardinal factors that has been put up out how on what factor that work the customers to select the certain telecommunication servicing canr- accomplice crook, point of intersectionion bore, customer answer gauge, forwarding and network coverage. The consumer atomic number 18 getting the benefits from the result of this fierce competition among the telecommunication attend to provider in Malaysia because these company impart keep improving and offer more riveive promotion in post to maintain and drag the new customers.Backgro und of the enquiryMalaysias telecommunication infrastructure market was put updid in 1989 when a sanction mobile operator, Celcom, launched assistance. From 1993 to 1995, the market was further clear when three additional companies were granted various operating licenses such as fixed, long distance, mobile cellular allowing them to compete as full assistance operators. The telecommunication companies are competing among each other and bring about a warlike environment in the telco industry. There are some(prenominal) of the companies had structured with others big company and some of them done for(p) bankruptcy. Today, four companies relieve oneself up the major telecommunication market segment. The companies are DiGi, Maxis, Celcom and U-mobile.Celcom (Malaysia) Berhad is the oldest mobile telecommunications company in Malaysia that was established in 1988 and Celcom had transform itself as the market leader by offering the tonus work to the customers. It continues to spread its wings and is undeterred by the dynamic nature of the mobile communications industry. Currently, Celcom offers its mobile postpaid and postpaid operate under the access codes 019 and 013, serving a combined customer base in excess of 5 million with network coverage spanning over 95 per cent of the populated areas in the country. Furthermore, contrastman was the major user of this Celcom inspection and repair provider due to the stable network coverage. accord to the Maxis website, Maxis Mobile Sdn Bhd, which started operations in 1995, Maxis has steadily built up its lineament to let leading telecommunications work provider in Malaysia by focussinging its core business, adding 600 base stations during 2003. In 2003, the company acquired an additional 25 MHz spectrum in the 1800 MHz band and with a 3G license which launched by 2006. Being the leader within the telecommunication industry, the corporation is the fifth largest in the public eye(predicate) Company in Malaysia with total subscribers of 6.4million, providing a wide range of sophisticated mobile, fixed and international network run to their customers. Maxis Mobile Sdn Bhd first apply the Cardax System (CC Unix) since 1998 when they moved their operations into Menara Maxis, owned and managed by Tanjong City ticker Property Management (Tanjong Plc Group of Companies).DiGi Telecommunications is smallest of the major mobile portion provider that is majority controlled by Telenor, is holding its own in the face of its two bigger rivals. DiGi is supported by Telenor with the financial and technical stability. DiGi as the smallest of rest mobile cellular companies has benefited from the sustained growth in market subscribe to for cell phones in Malaysia. DiGi tend to serve their customers with high type function and products by offering an affordable price, convenient and easy to access the wideband helpings in order to enrich the customers conduct. DiGi is the first mobile ser vice provider to launch the prepaid concept for mobile services in Malaysia and till today, DiGi Prepaid remains the market leader. To achieve the quality and conversion services, DiGi is placing a lot of emphasis upon backend systems, efficient billing system and customer relationship management system. in a flash they had bob up out the broadband packet which has a higher speed so called 3.5G.U mobile Sdn Bhd is Malaysias new established mobile service provider by offering value added services such as 3G video call to attract the early days market. U Mobile is development 018 prefix and provide the call charges with per molybdenum per block charges. This uniqueness had make up their strength and a point to attract the light users of mobile. They just need to pay as how many second they are using. In April 2007, U Mobile signed Malaysias first ever nationwide roaming memorandum of understanding as a precursor to an arranging with Celcom (Malaysia) Bhd. This initiative allo ws U Mobiles customers to experience nationwide coverage from day one of service availability, whilst U Mobile continues to progressively rollout its own unique HSDPA drive mobile network. KT Freetel of South Korea and NTT DOCOMO of Japans combined investment of USD$200 million in December 2007 marked an exciting new chapter for U Mobile. This strategic partnership supports U Mobiles rapid go-to-market and product enhancement and diversification plan. U Mobile introduced 3G mobile phone bundling packages for its U38, U68, and U98 Postpaid plans at attractive prices in August 2008.These few companys core business is segmented of the Malaysia telecommunication market, mobile markets and also the broadband markets. Besides, the telecommunication companies are also provided mobile services such as Short Message swear out (SMS), Wireless performance Protocol, subscription services, General Packet Radio Services (GPRS), and Third Generation cognise as 3G that enable the customer to connect with a video call. These companies are offering the price promotion in order to attract the customers. Now in that respect is an aggressive competition among these companies, so the company should figure out the factors of playing a vital role to acquire the telecommunication service providersThe Malaysia mobile industry is going the new era of competition. Therefore, all these mobile service provider need to specialise themselves from others and presence itself well to become the one of the market leader in telecommunication industry. They stinker oppositeiate themselves by delivering more value added service such as the topnotch call charges and quality and improve their network coverage to maintain their market position and generating more innovation in their performance to meet the customer deliveration.Problem StatementTo what extent do the peers influence, customers services quality, products quality, promotion and network coverage affect the customer perceptio n in choosing their mobile service provider?Research ObjectiveThe overall goal of this study is to follow and identify the factors that affecting customers perception in choosing their mobile service provider. The interest objectives are built to achieve the goals of this studyTo access that how peer influence, customer service quality, product quality, promotion and network coverage going to become the factor for customer to using specific telecommunication service provider.To govern whether the customers like the mobile service providers marketing activitiesTo determine the mobile service provider positioning strategies in serving their customers.Justification for the researchThe telecommunication industry is undergoing in a dramatic changes. The value of the paper depart indicate the consumer behavior in the warring market. This study provides insights of the factors that affecting the customer perception in choosing their mobile service provider nowadays. This research is make for the contribution that exit bring for the family society, country, and it also lead us to a better living environment with advanced technology.The result of this research will be beneficial for the telecommunication operator to serve as a guideline in implementing their business strategy. With the info, those telecommunication provider will be able to design packages that satisfying consumers to improve their company performance as well as to maintain their market share. This research is central because it can outline what the factors that affecting the consumers perception in choosing their mobile service provider.Also, this research able to provides the factors that cause the transposition behavior. When service provider understand what is the wants and ask of the consumer. Thus, it helps to reduce their cost in research and havement. By then, service provider can focus to increase their product features or quality that serves to the consumers. higher-up customer service and products quality can affect customers perception in choosing their mobile service provider.Through this study, service provider can focus on what is the best business quality and services to consumers in order to maintain their life long relationship to create maximum life time value to the company itself. This research can figure out the relationship amid product and service quality with the customers perception in choosing the mobile service provider. Therefore, Telecommunication Company should emphasis on its product quality and customer service aspect in order to improve customers satisfaction.Before taking any actions to change the customer perception, the most of the essence(p) thing is to understand what factors influence customer satisfaction, and then try to make improvements in these critical areas so that they can realize more at ease and loyal customers.MethodologyThe methodology used for the survey to collect selective information in this research is thr ough questionnaire. The population of this study is individuals who are mobile users in Malaysia. It is impossible to get all mobile users to conduct the survey in that respectfore survey will conduct to selected samples to gather the info. Besides, non-probability purposive taste method will be used as this is an exploratory study. another(prenominal) than that, the questionnaire conducted would be self-administered and made from secondary data obtained from journals from other researchers due to the inadequacy of local research on the topic. The methods used for this research also come from review of literatures and books from the internet as it is more time saving and less costly.Limitations of the researchDespite the useful findings of this study, this empirical study has several confinements to be ac experienced. First, the findings in this study depend on the honesty of the respondents. It is known individuals would retard more on socially desirable answers and disagree more towards socially undesirable answers rather than fully and truly express the feeling and opinions. Next, the limitation of this research is that the data of this study is collected through the surveys, so there is a high probability of inaccurate information. The sample size of ccc is not enough to determine the actual factor. There are similarly many factors that will affect the customers perception. More researches need to be conducted on the higher population in order to get the actual factors. compendium of the research project reportThis research paper is divided into five chapters.Chapter 1 IntroductionThe background of study is mentioned in this chapter. The discussion of the overall question and the relevance topic are macrocosm carried out. This chapter includes the objectives and the problem avouchment of this study. Besides that, the explanation of who is pretending benefits from this study is include. Lastly, most-valuable terms are distinctly defined to avoid confusion amongst readers.Chapter 2 Literature ReviewThis chapter is the part to cite those relevant studies from authors and year of the study. Both dependent and independent variables will then be identified and highlighted as the foundation to build the theoretical framework and hypotheses development. Arguments and opinions from different authors are included to support the study. During this chapter, readers will have a clear fancy somewhat the problems and the possible solutions that can be made to solve.Chapter 3 Research MethodologyTheoretical framework and supposition of study will be stated. Theoretical framework shows the relationship between variables. Next, testable hypotheses will be developed based on their relationships. These hypotheses are to testify whether or not the framework is valid by using distinguish statistical analysis.Chapter 4 Data AnalysisBefore proceed into this chapter, data collection is needed from respondents through various methods. The re sults will then be tested to analyze the answer in order to get a clearer and more concrete result.Chapter 5 Discussions and ConclusionChapter 5 contains the conclusions and justification on the hypothesis constructed in the research. Other than that, the chapter also summarized the research findings and suggestions on the proximo findings are given supported by assumptions made from the research. Figure 1 below shows the outlines of the research.DefinitionPeer inclinePast research shows that peer influence has emerged over the last 50 years to be the old-timer source of values and behavioral influence in adolescence, replacing the influence of adults. By examining the peer influence on the consumer perception, we can know why peer influence is a factor that affects consumer perception in choosing their mobile service provider.Customer Service QualityCustomers service quality includes trust, dependability and responsiveness of the company in telecommunication industry. This stu dy will figure out how this factor affects the consumers perception.Product QualityProduct quality is the characteristics of a product that bear on its ability to satisfy stated or implied needs. Customers always focus on the product quality when they leverage a product/service. packaging procession is one of the four elements of the marketing mix. Promotion able to attract the customers to disseminate the information of a product. This study will discuss how promotion works as one of the factors to affect the consumer perception. engagement CoverageNetwork Coverage is the range of mobile network prognostic provided by the telecommunication mobile service provider. This study will also discuss about how the network coverage will affect the consumer perception.compassThis research is particularly interested in investigating consumers behaviors and perceptions such as motivations of changing or remaining with mobile operators with the introduction of MNP. This paper is upkeep to fin d out what are the factors that affecting customer perception in choosing their service provider through this study. All respondents are assumed to have basic mobile knowledge. There are many factors that cause the consumers to choose their mobile service provider. The study will also include the implications of switching cost on the telecommunication industry, service providers and consumers.ConclusionThis research is choose to complete successfully within the time frame so that the result would accurate and will achieve the research objectives. This research had confirms the significant electropositive relationship of peer influence, customer service quality, product quality, promotion and network coverage to affect the consumers perception. It is expected to provide a broader understanding of mobile service provider in Malaysia and explore the real factors that affecting the consumers perception in choosing their mobile service provider. It is also hope that the successful exp iration of the survey would have positive intrusion on the mobile service provider strategies in order to grab the customers and maintain their customer relationship.Chapter 2 Literature ReviewDependent VariableCustomers perception in choosing their mobile service providerThe understanding of consumer perception in a practical(prenominal) environment is limited. It is primal to develop an understanding of the factors that affect consumer perception in this market space. This will enable mobile service provider to develop more effective and focused strategies for optimizing the visibility of their product offerings and to attract more customers. There are various factors that can affecting the consumer perception when making spoiling decision on a product.Independent VariablesPeer InfluencePeer influence is commonly defined as the extent to which peers manage influence on the attitudes, thoughts, and actions of an individual (Bristol and Mangleburg, 2005). There will be some of the people will affect the perception of the customer when they decide to buy a product. When they decide using which mobile service provider, most of customers will think which mobile service providers are currently using by their friends and family. Peers influences include the spread opinions of friends, family, colleagues and reference group. Mostly individuals will be influenced and get into following their trend and take their opinions as a standard of their purchase decisions. Peers can influence each other each in a positive way or ostracise way.The potential power of WOM (Word of Mouth) as a form of promotion is slackly accepted (Arndt, 1967 Buttle, 1998 Dye, 2000). WOM is a buckram factor to affect the customers perception. If the customer is less well understood the product, he/she will refer to the people around them. WOM can be negative or positive, so the company should utilize the effectiveness of WOM as a good promotional tool and build goodwill of the product in order to enhance their company reputation.The influence that a sources word-of-mouth information exhibits on the receiver has traditionally been explained by models of interpersonal influence (Bansal and Voyer, 2000 Bone, 1995 Cohen and Golden, 1972). inside this stream of research, it has ofttimes been suggested that interpersonal or social influence can be categorized as either informational or normative influence (e.g. Deutsch and Gerrard, 1955). Word of mouth can operate through both carry Informational influence occurs when information is accepted as evidence of reality (e.g. Burnkraut and Cosineau, 1975). In contrast, normative influence operates through compliance, which means that the individual conforms to the verbalized expectations of denotative others (Kelman, 1961)Customer service qualityService quality had become an important attention to the company due to its strong impact on their business performance. Customer service is a series of activities designed to enhanc e the train of customer satisfaction. That is, the feeling that a product or service has met the customer expectation.Customer service quality is the perceived quality of service obtained by a customer when using the current mobile service providers. Customer service is what an organization provides to its customers and is relatively easy to measure. Typically the measures include response time, time required to provide service, ability to handle a customers issues on the first call, procedures for handling customer complaints. Customer service is always important and companies should enhance all the ways in which they touch their customer, the service they provide and their measures to continuously improve that service.Superior service quality measurably increases a firms overall lucrativeness. Mobile users always requested the fast connection either in calling or sending short message from the mobile service provider. They will make judgment based on the service quality given by their mobile service provider in order to change the mobile service provider or being loyal to their current mobile service provider. If the customers maintain loyalty to their mobile service provider, frankincense it will bring continuous revenue to the company.Service quality is associated with the relationships between server and customer, The customers will consider the politeness, helpfulness, speeds of deliverance, and pleasantness of the service (Berry, 1987) when they received the services from their mobile service provider. Customer service is playing an important role in mobile service provider it helps to maintain the loyalty of consumer towards the company. According to Taylor, 1992, service quality enhancement differentiates the service providers from competitors. Consumer practically compares the service quality within other mobile service provider companies. There is huge amount of support in the service quality literature for a link with customer loyalty and futur e purchases. Customers always put the service quality they receive as the factor that affects them to do purchase of the product. If the service is bad, the customer will tend to change to mobile service provider.Service quality is very important that companies have gone to great efforts to evaluate and keep records of service quality levels. Service quality is about the consumers judgment about the overall excellence or transcendency of a service (Zeithaml, 1988). If the mobile service providers provide the bad services in handling the customers issues, it will leave a bad impact of the brand name in the customers mind. In order to have a better understanding about service quality, there are few attributes about servicesservices are intangibleservices are heterogeneous, meaning that their performance often varies with respect to the provider and the customerservices cannot be placed in a time capsule and thus be tested and re-tested over time andThe production of services is appa rent to be inseparable from their consumption (Gronroos, 1990).The service evaluation can be associated with service delivery process, along with output (Cody and Hope, 1999). These two underlying processes generally explain the contribution of service quality to profitability. First, service quality is regarded as one of the few means for service differentiation and competitive return that attracts new customers and contributes to the market share (Venetis and Ghauri, 2000, p. 215). Second, service quality enhances customers intention to purchase again, to buy more, to buy other services, to become less price-sensitive and to tell others about their favorable experiences (Venetis and Ghauri, 2000, p. 215).Reichheld and Sasser (1995) had proposed that the high level of satisfaction lead to increase the customer loyalty. There is growing evidence that customer perception of service quality they received when using the mobile service provider will affect their behavioral intention.No wadays, the telecommunication industry is become more competitive and there are more new entrants of other small mobile service provider to grab the market. According to Melody (2001) public utilities is derived from the law in any country. Where the demand for a good or service is considered a common necessity for the public at large and the supply conditions are such that the public may not be provided with reasonable service at reasonable prices. Service is a form of attitude which is cerebrate to satisfaction and also leads to consumer loyalty (Johnson and Sirikit, 2002) and future purchase. In particular consumers choose service quality when the price and other cost elements are held constant (Boyer and Hult, 2005). It has become a distinct and important aspect of the product and service offering (Wal et al., 2002). According to Leisen and Vance (2001) service quality helps to create the necessary competitive advantage by being an effective differentiating factor. Service qua lity was initiated in the 1980s as the worldwide trend when marketers realized that only a quality product could not guaranteed to maintain competitive advantage (Wal et al., 2002). agonistical advantage is a value-creating strategy, simultaneously which is not implemented by any existing or potential competitors (Barney, 1991). Service quality is essential and important for a telecommunication service provider company to see the quality service for establishing and maintaining loyal and profitable customer (Zeithaml, 2000 Leisen and Vance, 2001). Conversely, Johnson and Sirikit (2002) stated that service delivery systems have the ability to allow managers of company to identify the real customer feedback and satisfaction on their telecommunication service. Since, quality reflects the customers expectations about a product or service. Lovelock (1996) stated that this customer driven quality replaced the traditional marketing philosophies which was based on products and process.Pro duct qualityThe quality of a product is a conceptualize service quality as the relative perceptual distance between customer expectations and evaluations of service experiences and service quality using a multi-item scale called the SERVQUAL model.(Parasuraman et al., 1988). The SERVQUAL model includes the five dimensions of tangibles which is the bodily facilities and the appearance of personnel, dependableness to perform the promised service dependably and accurately, responsiveness as the willingness to help customers and provide prompt service, assurance where employee knowledge base which induces customer trust and confidence, and empathy which is the care and individualized attention provided to customers by the service provider.To get products or services in good quality is a must in customers perception. especially for telecommunication industry, customers cannot touch the physical product before they make their decision. To gain trust in consumers, it is necessary for th e mobile service provider to provide the identity and complete information of the company such as their physical location, pass record, product quality approved. Besides, telecommunication company have to ensure they provide only good quality product or service to consumer because can gain word of mouth. Once they fail to do it, they will suffer it.According to lemons model (Akerlof 1970), product quality is the basic idea in a competitive market. Products only differentiated by their exogenic quality. If product quality is undistinguishable beforehand by the buyer, then there is one price. If cost are increasing in quality, then at that price the highest quality products may not be offered, and as a result buyers become reluctant to pay high price. They learn to expect low-quality products which mean the price must fall.Product quality is always an important aspect of a purchasing decision and in market behavior. Since, consumers regularly face the task of estimating product quali ty under conditions of imperfect knowledge about the underlying attributes of the various product offers with the aid of personal, self-perceived quality criteria (Bedeian, 1971 commensurate by Sjolander, 1992). According to Sjolander (1992), the consumer behavior in modern market is different from the theoretical case of consumer decision making in free markets.PromotionIn order to promote a companys product, a company often uses advertising to create brand and or product differentiation in order to soften the price competition. To the extent that persuasive advertising create customer loyalty through perceived differentiation over basically identical products, they create market power in the sense that consumers may be willing to pay more for preferred brands, thus allowing phone company Company to raise prices above marginal costs. The most preferred egress by firms is where one advertises go its competitors dont, leading to market share and profitability gain at the expense of its rivals.In the price promotion, the Telco companies are using game theoretic model (Axelrod and Hamilton, 1981) to provide a consistent product and have sufficient capacity to serve the market demand. It is a non-cooperative game as there werent any enforceable agreements between them as they compete in the marketplace. It is a repeated one-shot simultaneous game as they were driven by quarterly performance accountable to shareholders. As such, they would decide on their pricing strategies independently and aware of rivals prices in the market succession forming certain expectations about rivals pricing strategies. Actions available are Maintain impairment and Undercut Price. Payoffs are ranked in order of preference (higher number is preferred). The most preferred outcome by firms is where one stingers price while its competitors maintains price, leading to market share gain at the expense of its rivals. When all firms maintain prices, there is no change in market-share and profitability. When all firms undercut prices, market-share remains with reduced profitability. Price plays a vital role in telecommunication market especially for the mobile telecommunication service providers (Kollmann, 2000). Its included not only the purchase price but also the call and rental charges. Generally, a price dominated mass market leads to customers having more choice and the opportunity to compare the pricing structures of different providers. Therefore, the company that will offer lower charges, the more customers will commit themselves to the telephone networks, so more call minutes will achieved.It will be evoke to study the impact of the two or more mobile service provider having price competition. One of the impact will be the customers will keep switching from one mobile service provider to another one. For example, there is a new customer will think of decrease its switching cost. The customers that keep changing their customer due to price promotion of fered by the mobile service provider