Term Paper on "Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty of the High"

Term Paper 27 pages (7443 words) Sources: 25 Style: Harvard

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty of the High Street Travel Agencies and Online Travel Agencies in China Today

Customer satisfaction and loyalty have become the focus of an increasing amount of attention from researchers in recent years. Complicating the matter for business managers is the fact that traditional brick-and-mortar establishments are being placed at a disadvantage over their online competitors, and attracting and retaining valuable customers in this environment is a challenging endeavor. When it comes to the travel and tourism industry, these considerations are even more salient because of the dynamic nature of the demands and needs of the travelling consumer as well as the exigencies faced by the industry in terms of unforeseeable downturns as a result of terrorist attacks around the world. The online travel and tourism industry has gone through an initial period of focusing on new customers to its present stage of seeking to both retain and attract new customers. In order to provide superior services, though, it is necessary for Internet-based travel companies to identify what existing and potential customers expect for service quality. To this end, this study

Chapter 1: Introduction

Statement of the Problem

Research Questions

Research Objective

Information Needs

Research Paradigm

Research Methodology

Data Collection Procedure

Sampling Procedure

Chapter 2: Review of Related Literature

Chapter 3: Data Analysis

Chapter 4: Summary, Conclusions and Recommendations

An Analysis of Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty of the High Street Travel Agencies and Online Travel Agencies in China Today

Chapter 1: Introduction

Statement of the Problem

As business activities in China grow especially with the internationalization of Chinese economy, there is an increasing need for Chinese managers to travel abroad for business. Similarly, as incomes in China grow, many Chinese people are looking abroad for leisure travel as well. Ideally you will need to find statistics to support these contentions and reference them. As a result, the need for the air tickets booking and hotel reservation service is showing considerable growth. Numerous online traveling agencies have been established in China. They are quickly gaining share of this increasingly fragmented market. For example, Ctrip, the largest online traveling agencies in China which was established in 1999, has over 15,000,000 members. As the online business provide more opportunities to personalize marketing (Wind and Rangaswamy, 2001), it implies that the ability to improve the consumer satisfaction and consumer loyalty between online travel agencies and traditional travel agencies is different.

Research Questions

Are the consumer's satisfaction levels different between online travel agencies and traditional high street travel agencies?

Are the consumer's loyalty levels different between online travel agencies and traditional high street travel agencies?

Are satisfaction levels affected by differences in demographic factors?

Are high street and online travel agencies competing or offering complementary services?

Research Objective to determine whether Customers who choose online travel agencies are more likely to have a higher level of service encounter satisfaction than those who choose traditional travel agencies to determine if Customers who choose online travel agencies are more likely to reply?

I do not know what you mean here a higher level of customer value than those who choose traditional travel agencies to determine if Customers who choose online travel agencies are more likely to value a higher level of service quality than those who choose traditional travel agencies to determine whether or not information on overall satisfaction is higher for customers who choose online travel agencies than it is for those who choose traditional travel agencies. This one makes no sense, I have tried fiddling with it, but do not know what you want to do.

Customers who choose traditional travel agencies are more likely to worry about the transaction risk than those who choose online travel agencies.

Customers who choose online travel agencies are more likely to have a higher level of overall satisfaction than those who choose traditional travel agencies.

Customers who choose online travel agencies are more likely to have a higher level of affective loyalty than who choose traditional travel agencies.

Information Needs

The following items were deemed essential elements in developing the background and overview needed to answer the above-stated guiding research questions and research objective.

Behaviors.

Attitudes.

Demographics.

Interests.

Research Paradigm

The research will follow a positive paradigm as shown in Figure ____ below. A quantitative method is applied and the research will be statistically proven. It will test several hypotheses and then generalizing from the specific. It is aim at explaining customer's behavior and seeking the cause.

Figure ____. Research paradigm.

The research is aimed at finding out the relationship between the overall satisfaction and loyalty in the online and traditional travel agency industry.

Research Methodology

China residents who can use computer to access internet and have ever used the traditional travel agencies or online travel agencies to book air ticket or make hotel reservation will be asked to do this research. It is a quantitative research and the target sample size is 200.

Data Collection Procedure

An online questionnaire was developed and posted online at www.data100.com.cn.Prior to the survey, the questionnaire was pre-tested, using a small convenience sample of about 10 respondents, to ensure readability and to detect any logical errors of questions.

Sampling Procedure

Sampling frame: Forward by email.

Sampling Unit: Individual.

Sample element: Convenience Sampling.

Extent of Sample: 100 for online travel agency, 100 for traditional high street travel agency.

Time frame: About one month from June to July 2007.

Instrument Design

Key: Questionnaire for surveys (QT), Interviewer's guide for in-depth interviews and Moderator's guide and screening-questionnaire for focus groups (QL).

RQ/SO

Variable

Questions

SRVUSE

Which service did you use when you plan to go for traveling? (1. Traditional travel agency, 2. Online Travel Agency, 3. Both)

RCTUSE

Which service do you recently used? (1. Traditional travel agency [jump to question 3], 2. Online travel agency [jump to question 4])

TDA

Which traditional travel agency you preferred most? (1. CMIT, 2. Jintai, 3. Yongan 4. other) [jump to question 5]

OTA

Which online travel agency you preferred most? (1. ctrip.com, 2. elong.com, 3.mango.com, 4. other)

Service Quality

FCEQ

The company I chosen has good physical facilities and equipment

Scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree on a 7 point scale)

SVRDEP

This company performs the promised service dependably

Scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree on a 7 point scale)

SVRACC

This company performs the promised service accurately

Scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree on a 7 point scale)

STFHEP

This company's staff are willing to help customers

Scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree on a 7 point scale)

PRPTHEP

This company provides prompt service

Scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree on a 7 point scale)

KNWLEG

The employees of the company are knowledgeable to help their customers

Scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree on a 7 point scale)

POLITE

The employees of the company are polite

Scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree on a 7 point scale)

CARE

The company cares about my need

Scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree on a 7 point scale)

INDVATT

The company provides me an individualized attention.

Scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree on a 7 point scale)

Customer Value

PRICE

The price of its service is reasonable comparing to other companies

Scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree on a 7 point scale)

QUALRE

The price of their service quality is reasonable

Scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree on a 7 point scale)

Service encounter satisfaction

HAPPY

Last service encounter with the company was a happy experience

Scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree on a 7 point scale)

Overall Satisfaction

OVRSAT

Generally, I am satisfy with the company

Scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree on a 7 point scale)

Information accessibility

EASINFO

It is easy to obtain the information of the service (e.g. price)

Scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree on a 7 point scale)

DEPTH

Other related information can be obtained (e.g. The destination's weather, the attractions)

Scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree on a 7 point scale)

Cognitive Loyalty

RATREP

The company has a good reputation

Scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree on a 7 point scale)

WELKNW

The company is better than the other service provider

Scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree on a 7 point scale)

The company image is good

Scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree on a 7 point scale)

Affective Loyalty

WISEPURC

My choice to purchase this service was a wise one.

Scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree on a 7 point scale)

RECOM would recommend this company's service to a friend

Scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree on a 7 point scale)

SEARCH will try to search whether there is better service provider

Scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree on a 7 point scale)

NEWPROD would like to try if there is a new product/service introduced by the company

Scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree on a 7 point scale)

FIRCHO

The company will be… READ MORE

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