Exploration of Customers’ Expectation of, and Perception of the Service they Receive from Mobile Phone Providers

Abstract

PURPOSE-The purpose of this paper is to explore customers' expectation of and perception of the service they receive from mobile phone providers and to identify service quality gaps as experienced by customers in the mobile telecommunications industry in Ireland. Design/Methodology/Approach-The nine modified dimensions of SERVQUAL, namely tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy, network aspect, convenience, loyalty and pricing were used in this research work to measure customers' expectations and perceptions from mobile providers. This was done by using the entire households in Esker woods, Lucan, County Dublin, Ireland, meaning that there was no sampling but rather the whole population of 128 households served as respondents. The researcher therefore employed census method. Findings-The overall service quality as perceived by customers in Ireland was above average with 56.09% of the respondents while 22.67% were dissatisfied leaving 21.24% of respondents undecided. This was based on the nine SERVQUAL dimensions. The research findings revealed that though more than half of the respondents were satisfied with services they received; it's very interesting to note that most of these respondents were satisfied with services received under six dimensions. These were tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy and convenience. On the other hand, a very high percentage of respondents judging from individual dimensions of loyalty, network aspect and pricing were dissatisfied with the perceived service quality. The highest service quality gap was reported with the added dimension of loyalty, network aspect and pricing while the lowest service quality gap was reported with tangibles. Practical Implications-Data representing customers expectations and perceptions with mobile providers in delivering quality have been used to identify in terms of quality gaps areas that need improvement. Mobile phone providers in Ireland should focus on providing superior network services and affordable prices to customers. Originality/Value-It should be noted that since most quality features in the SERVQUAL scale have relationship with customer handling, the researcher has incorporated and investigated further the added four dimensions of network aspect, service convenience, loyalty and pricing for their contribution to the overall service quality of mobile providers.