EVALUATING CUSTOMER SERVICE AS AN ASPECT OF QUALITY MANAGEMENT

(A CASE STUDY OF UNILEVER NIGERIA PLC)

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1      BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

The days of a customer adopting one product or company for life are long gone. With easy access and global competitiveness, customers are often swayed by advertisingand a chance at a ―better deal. Quality levels and features between competing brands and organizations are often comparable. The thing that separates competitors is theirlevel of service. It is not unusual for customers to switch back and forth between products or organizations simply because of pricing, a bad first impression from the organization or lack of quality service. This is sometimes referred to as service churn. (Lucas, 2005)

Service is the customer‘s evaluation of a product or service in terms of whether that product or service has met their needs and expectations. (Zeithaml and Bitner, 2003)

Happy and satisfied customers behave in a positive manner. They will buy a lot from you and will give you a large share of their business. Customer service is derived largely from the quality and reliability of your products and services. (Curry and Curry, 2000).

However, almost every Nigerian encounters similar problems in meeting customer‘s expectation of services and customer service. For example, the issue of money transfer in banks is one major problem that customers of certain banks have been made to experience. In most casesthe customer hardly receives the payment of the money transferred into his account immediately.

The long queues and huge crowds in the banking halls can be highly devastating and discouraging most times, especially when the weekend is near. Most times, this longqueues are as a result of the breakdown of the computersused by these cashiers, sometimes it occurs as a result of thecashiers, pushing duty to one another, as to who is to attendto the customers or not.

According to Lucas, (2005), customer service is the abilityof knowledgeable, capable, and enthusiastic employees todeliver products and services to their internal and externalcustomers in a manner that satisfies identified andunidentified needs and ultimately results in positive word-of- mouth publicity and return business.

1.2      STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The problems of this research study will be stated in question forms which are:

(a)         Why do companies use customer service?

(b)        To what extent has companies achieve its customer service objectives through the used of quality management?

(c)         Why is it that customer service department empowered to take the necessary action to solve a customer's problem?.

1.3   OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

It is as a result of all these problems identified above thatthis study is being embarked upon to examine the effect ofservice quality on customer service

The researcher also seeks to analyze the relationshipbetween gender and customer service.

1.4      RESEARCH QUESTION

Research questions are minute or specific customer service dimensions of the ‘statement of problem’ broad questions, the relevant research questions are:

1.   Does customer service embarked upon to examine the effect of service quality?

2      Does quality management build up long term customer service in an organization?

3      Does quality management allow customer service to be based on gender discrimination?

1.5      RESEARCH HYPOTHESES

In other to achieve the objectives of this study the alternative form of the two hypotheses tested are as follows;.

H0: There is no relationship between service quality and customer service.

H1: There is a relationship between service quality and customer service.

H0: There is no relationship between customer gender and customer service.

H1: There is relationship between customer gender and customer service.

1.6      SCOPE OF THE STUDY

This research study is strictly within the frame of the stated objective. This research was designed to absolutely analyze and examine Evaluating customer service as an aspect of quality management in Unilever Nigerian Plc in LagosState will be used as of study.

1.7   SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

In Nigeria, not much attention is given to the notion ofproviding consumers with quality service and servicehence, some banks render weak services and thereby takingcustomers for granted. However, with the advent of self –service technologies in business and globalizationcommunications, as well as development in informationtechnology including internet, Nigerian consumers willcome to know their rights and take necessary actions againstcompanies that infringe upon their rights.

1.8   OPERATIONAL DEFINITION OF TERMS

This research work is carried out at UnileverNigeriaPlcLagosState. This is done because this is where the necessary data concerning the company can be received.  The constraints encountered doing these research studies are:

(a)       Time constraint which are relatively small in collecting date and information.

(b)      Financial constraints.

(c)       Unavailability of the necessary material for the effective smoothness of the research work.