Customer Satisfaction in the 21 st Century Business Environment
Monopoly is a long forgotten possibility in the 21 st Century business environment which can only be described as chaotic and turbulent. Technological developments witnessed over the past decades have revolutionized the world of business to the extent where the consumers set the pace and direction that enterprises should undertake. Unlike in the past, the present-day customer has a wide range of options to choose from as more and more organizations strive to get into the market which is already saturated (Zaki, 2015) . Airports are not exempted from these conditions as their survival and growth depends on the suitability of the implemented strategies to meet customers’ needs and preferences. According to Kierczak (2018) business should strive to stand out by offering exclusive services to their customers as it is the only way to secure a reasonable market share that translates to high returns. This point could be summed up as customer satisfaction which is defined as the consumers’ cognitive state regarding the appropriateness of the received service in relation to the sacrifices that have been made . In simple terms, customer satisfaction is the measure of whether the offered product or services meet or surpass the customers’ expectations.
Intense competition coupled with a market dynamism which characterizes today’s business environment have rendered ‘market satisfaction’ a necessity that should be given consideration for the business to survive and grow. Note that customer satisfaction is intertwined with the expectation which influences perceptions. Customer expectations is a term that encompasses tangible and intangible needs and preferences that the consumers bear to the specified goods/services supplier. These expectations are shaped by aspects of previous experiences, brand image and, advertisements among others. Alternatively, expectations could be viewed as performed standards that a customer expects a certain service/product to fulfill (Heung et al., 2002) . Failure to attain these specification leads to negative perceptions that materialize into dissatisfaction. Therefore, product/service providers need to strive to surpass customers’ expectations at all times. However, attaining such a goal is often impeded by the fact that satisfaction is driven by the users’ perception and not that of the service provider (Kamarudin, 2015) . Therefore, it is possible for businesses to offer services that differ from what consumers’ expect ; this challenge can be surpassed by investing in studying the customers’ changing needs and preferences.
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Application of the Concept of Customer Satisfaction in Baggage Handling at the Airport
In an airport setting, customer satisfaction is the total experiences of the services that a customer gets which include ground handling services, security and baggage handling among others. As Kamarudin (2015) explains, airports need to focus on delighting their customers by seeking innovative solutions to improve their customers’ expectations continuously. Unlike in the past where air travel was limited to a particular cohort, today more and more people are seeking the services or airports. At the same time, customers needs and expectations have evolved as they are demanding for a seamless passenger experience. The high number of air travelers coupled by the high expectations is presenting significant challenges to airports because to make the necessary adjustments would ultimately lead to spiraling experience in certain areas which ultimately influence the entire airport ecosystem (Razaei et al., 2017). For this reason, the management is tasked with the responsibility of identifying a holistic approach aimed at maximizing the value of consumers’ spending.
The effectiveness of the developed strategies can only be felt by the end user if all the employees, operators and, companies involved in offering various services work towards a common goal that is customer satisfaction (Suhartanto & Noor, 2012) . As mentioned before, the customer is served by service providers, and their satisfaction is the combined experience that they receive which emphasizes the need for all personnel to aim at exceeding customers’ expectations. Baggage handling is one of the most important areas but has received little attention over the years. According to Oflac & Yumurtaci (2014), the length of time that the consumer waits to receive his/her luggage significantly influences his/her levels of satisfaction with the overall services offered by the airport. The term ‘wait’ can be described as the time that lapses from when the consumer expects to receive the specified service to the point he/she receives it. In an airport setting waiting can occur at three stages the pre-, in- and, post-process. Regardless of the type, customers tend to develop a negative perception towards any form of waiting because time is viewed as a scarce resource (Yau & Tang, 2018). Since businesses thrive based on the image that they portray any king of negativities likely to harm the hard-earned reputation which translates to increased marketing costs and low customer satisfaction.
Collectively, terminal all the activities involved in processing the baggage are critical as they affect the amount of time that the passenger spends at the airport which in turn affects their level of satisfaction and future decisions. Based on previous studies it is quite apparent that most delays in baggage collection occur due to technical as well as operation failures. The outcomes are inefficiency in tagging luggage, displacements and, increased conflicts. Note that these factors reinforce each other. For instance, a technical problem in cargo handling might mean that personnel would have to handle many languages at ago which increases chances of errors in the form of inefficient labeling and misplacements forcing customers to spend much time at the airport trying to sort out the confusion. Wamucii (2009) explains that customer safety is significantly low in cases where luggage tagging is inefficient and customers’ are not assured that their baggage is safe. Rectification of these factors reduces the time that passengers have to wait at the airport which in turn increases their satisfaction.
Analysis of customers’ Satisfaction at Larnaca Airport
Larnaca airport is the leading commercial airport in Cyprus with a capacity of 4.5 million passengers every year. The airport operates 24 hours meaning that it serves a good proportion of travelers traveling in and out of Cyprus for various reasons. The most important cohort that relies on Larnaca’s services are tourists from various parts o the world. Martin-Cejas (2006) points out that unlike other customers tourists travel with the intention of experiencing the pleasure and relaxation which begins as soon as they land at the airport. In most cases, the experience that they get at the airport tends to affect their entire trip. As mentioned before, satisfaction is attained when the services offered meets or surpass the customers’ expectations. In the airport setting, there is the reasonable time that travelers would expect to wait before receiving their luggage. In case, the service providers fail to deliver within this time frame, i.e., reasonable waiting duration than the likelihood of the customer getting dissatisfied increases and vice versa (Fodness & Murray, 2007). When it comes to tourists the so-called ‘reasonable time’ might be short compared to other customers thus there is a need for the airport to devise tactics that would minimize the time that one requires to wait before receiving the baggage as much as possible.
According to Bowen & Headly ( 2011), baggage handling in any given airport is critical as it is one of the leading determinants of customers’ satisfaction. Moreover, baggage handling is not a one-time affair as it leaves a lasting impression of the airports efficient and image which will determine whether the customer would use the services again or not. Note that the length of time that a customer wait to receive the luggage impact safety levels as well as the overall condition of the luggage ( Nugroho et al., 2012) . In essence, delays often increase the chances of errors in tagging baggage leading to misplacements. The notion of customer satisfaction is challenging because it should be approached from consumers perspective rather than that of the service provider (Oflac & Yumurtaci, 2014) . Additionally, satisfaction is subjective because expectations differ depending on factors such as past experiences, interpretation of advertisements and the overall cost that a person has incurred (Heathrow et al., 2013) . Therefore, the only way of ensuring that the services are satisfactory at all times is by seeking to employ strategies that foster continuous improvement in terms of shortening the overall waiting period (Fodness, 2005) .
Like any other organization, the quality of services provided by Larnaca airport is the collective contribution of all the employees who work in the airport (Oflac & Yumurtaci, 2014) . Therefore, any discussions of customer satisfaction should involve the views of personnel. Even though airports have invested in the latest tech to improve the overall services provided by the airport, a lot of activities are still carried out manually including tagging luggage and handling misplacement cases. Based on customers reviews regarding cargo handling it would be correct to say that a good proportion of customers are satisfied with the services offered by Larnaca airport. However, it would be unfair to assume that the few reviews apply to all the 4.5 million passengers who use the airport services every year (Oflac & Yumuryaci, 2014). Therefore, it is essential to examine the whole process of baggage handling that the airport employs and identify areas that might need improvements to minimize waiting time to the point where passengers could not have to wait at all ( Shapiro 2012). This goal could be achieved by analyzing customers’ satisfaction from the perspective of the passenger service agent.
Gambo (2016) agrees with Sahpiro (2012) by quoting a research finding on the quality of the Taiwanese airlines. It was clear that expectations are prioritized, and reliability and assurance that their luggage would be safe is the most critical dimension followed by personnel responsiveness and empathy when receiving complains about issues such as misplacements and mishandling. Larnaca airport needs to improve various process along the baggage handing chain that can result in optimization rather than focusing on a single point which is impractical. Note that luggage handling is a system and customers are only aware of the outcome. In other words, all the processes involved in labeling to sorting out contribute to the amount of time that passengers would have to wait before getting their luggage. However, these processes are not crucial to the customer because all that they expect is to get their belongings within the shortest time possible. For this reason, it would be practical for the airline to optimize the entire system in a way that would allow personnel to work without straining which translates in reduced errors leading to high satisfaction levels (Internatonal Airport Review, 2014).
Whereas most airports have come to believe that automation is the only way to achieve efficiency in baggage handling, that is not always the case because it is almost impossible to realize the full potential of technology in a situation where the entire process has not been optimized (Heacock 2005). One way of increasing system efficiency is by balancing quality and speed. Larcana can attain this goal by separating items that require fast handling from the rest (Brown, 2017). As mentioned before, customer satisfaction is the discrepancy between the expected and the actual service. Therefore, items that have been labeled urgent should be able to reach customers as soon as the passenger gets at the baggage claiming area. One technique that Larnaca can employ to attain such a goal for the urgent luggage and limit the waiting time for the rest of the baggage is by increasing the distance between the arrival gate and baggage claim area. By using such a system, the airport would be ‘forcing’ customers to take a walk which allows personnel to finalize the details and ensure that the goods are available once the customers get at the area. The outcome would be reduction of errors, misplacements and, congestion which ultimately increase customer satisfaction (Luggage Handling in Airport, 2017).
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