Luận văn enhancing customer satisfaction through hotline service the case of the ministry of health’s hotline

th Ae Lunghwa Universityof Scienceand Technology Enhancing Customer Satisfaction through Hotline Service — The Case of the Ministry of Health’s Hotline Researcher: Pham Thi Thu Thao Su

th Ae Lunghwa Universityof Scienceand Technology

Enhancing Customer Satisfaction through Hotline Service — The Case of the Ministry of

Health’s Hotline

Researcher: Pham Thi Thu Thao

Supervisor: Nguyen Ngoc Quang

Supervisor: Professor Chi- Cheng Chang

July2018

Lunghwa University of Science and Technology

Approval Certificate of Master's Degree Examination Board

This is to certify that the Master’s Degree Examinations Board has

approved the thesis Enhancing Customer Satisfaction through Hotline

Service~ The Case of the Ministry of Health’s Hotlinepublished by

Mr / Ms.Pham Thi Thu Thao in the Master Program of Graduate School

of Department of Business Administration

Master’s Degree Examination Board

ABSTRACT

‘Thesis Title : Enhancing customer satisfaction through hotline service The case of the

Ministry of Ilealth’s hotline Pages :34 University : Lunghwa University of Scienec and Technology

Graduate School : Department of Business Administration

Date : January, 2018 Degres : Master

Researcher : Pham Thi Thu Thao

Advisor :Nguyen Ngoc Quang and Chi Cheng Chang

Keywords: Customer satisfation, customer service effectiveness, the Minisiry of Health,

hotline service

Regarding to the importance of customer satisfaction, the study drives its interest towards quality of hotline services in Vietnam A case study is explored through Ministry of Health’s hotline services It is notable that health service is booming in Vietnam, Ths udy is aimed Lo identify current performance of hotline sorvicos offered

by the Ministry of Health and how current performance influencing on customer satisfaction, ‘The research questions therefore will be

- What are the impacts of determinants to customer satisfaction in handling

feedbacks in Ministry of Ilealth’s hotline service?

- What arc recommendations to further improve cffcetivencss of handling

feedbacks in Ministry of Health’s hotline service?

There are many research strategies that are being used in academic studies, including survey, interview, case study, ethnography, grounded theory, or historical

to Corrected item-total correlation and the value must be higher than 0.3 The last

requirement refers to calculation of Cronbach’s Alpha if one vanable is deleted and expeetcd value should bz lower than Cronbach’s Alpha which is obtained in first

requirement checking

Some conclusions have been made from the thesis First, descriptive statistics is

conducted with mean value calculation for each variable used in survey of

questionnaire Second, reli

validity of the survey item.Third, ANOVA analysis shows that there are no difference

ilily test and EPA lest are conducted to check reliabilily and

among the respondents who have different demographic characteristics in tenn of customer satisfaction and customer service effectiveness Vourth, multiple Linear regressions are conducted for twa pair of causal relationship

From above conclusions the author recommends that the companies need to consider the importance of treating customers politely, Morcover, the companics need

to consider the importance of service capacity as it has highest influence on customer service effectiveness Furthermore, the Ministry of Health should develop specific indexes to measure customer satisfaction with hotline sciviecs in specific and overall services in general,Finally, the Ministry of Health must align hotline service

performance with all branches ancl subsidtari

in provinces

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

T sincerely thank the teacher Assoc Pro{Dr Nguyen Ngoc Quang and Prof Chi- Cheng Chang, and corporate officers at the Ministry of Health devoted to guide and hekp me complete this thesis

Thank you! Author Pham Thi Tha Thao

TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT

1.2 Research objectives: Research question

1.3 Scope of the study

1.4 Significance of (he study

1.5 Structure of the study

2.4 the rdatouship between cuslomer service elfectiveucss and cuslomer salisfaction

3 RESKARCIL METHODOLOGY

3.1 Research philosophy

3.6 Survey of questionnatre

3.7 Sampling

3.8 Data analysts techniques

4 DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDING

4.1 Demographic analysis

42 Mean value analysts

4.3 Reliability test analysis

4.6 Multiple linear regression

5 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

LIST OF TABLE

Table 1: Survey of questionnaire

Table 2: Demographic information

‘Table 3: Mean value analysis

Table 4: Refiabilily test resull

Table 5: KMO and Bartlei°s Tesi se

‘Lable 7: Rotated Component Matrix

‘Table 8: Independent Sanrple T-Pest for Gender

Table 9: One-Way ANOVA f0r Age wncssnenenmennene

‘Cable 10: One-Way ANOVA for Place of Work

Table 11: One-Way ANOVA for Period of Using Scrvices

‘Table 12: Multiple linear regression for 1% causal elationship -

‘Table 13: Multiple linear regression for 2"° causal relationship

vii

LIST OF FIGURE

Figuue 1: Healt Expenditure per capifa USS

Figure 2: Information flow in hotline service

Figure 3: Rescarch Structure

viii

1, INTRODUCTION

1.1Urgency of the topic

Customer satisfaction is playing prominent role in almost firms today It is also

considered as strategic weapon and contribution nmch into firms’ successes Generally,

customer satisfaction brings many positive effects to firms such as higher repeat purchases from the customers, selling products or services at higher prices (Sheth,

2001) It is notable that higher repeat purchases trom the customers is assured from higher customer purchasing intention and customer retention rate when they get

satisfaction with product or service performance (Lemon et al, 2002; Bolton, 1998:

Rust and Zahorik, 1993) Fimpirical evidence Com Tawkins art Reichhetd (1990)

shows that customer satistaction helps to increase profit of the firms by more than 25%

In addition, customer satisfaction is more important than discounted prices (Gupta et al., 2004)

Customer satisfaction establishes the evidence to sell product or service even at

higher prices than averages in the market (Sheth, 2001) Empirical evidence from shows

that higher price selling and customer salisfaction is as

ciated with each other (Ife et

al, 2008), Moreover, when customers get satisfaction with product or service, they are likely 10 become loyalty customers and it is oritical requirement during ctisis period (Nelson ot al., 2009) Report trom Tho Institute for Working Futures (2012) inicates that loyalty customer remains purchasing volume and therefore the fimms have more opportunity to survive throughout this period Another bensfit of customer satisfaction

is gencralcd from positive word-ofmouth CWOM), as cited by Oliver (1997) Th is denoted that WOM is a process whether satisiied customers provide positive comments about product or service quality to their fiends or family members and therefore the firms have more opportunity to sell product or service to potential customers (IIa and Janda, 2008) Moreover, WOM allows the firms not too much spending to advertising efforts and therefore operating cost is saved and profit margin is higher (Khraim, 2011) Customer salisfaction is important fo the firms dus to satisfied customers often provide feedbacks about product or service quality (Keller and Libai, 2009), It is useful ideas and realistic evidences for firther improvement or even higher imovation in new

product or service design (Someshwar ct al., 2001)

Regarding to the importance of customer satisfaction, the study drives its interest towards quality of hotline services in Vietnam A case study is explored through

Ministry of Health’s hotline services It is notable that health service is booming in

Vietnam

Vietnam vs World in Health expenditure per

capita (current US$)

Vietnam vs Thailand vs Malaysia vs

Singapore in Health expenditure per capita

Malaysian, Singapore ——Thailand ——vienam

Figure 1 Health Expenditure per capita USS

Source: World Bank (2017)

The report from World Bank (2017) shows that total health expenditure per capita by US$ in Vietnam increases continuously from only US$14 in 1995 to US$142

in 2014, However, this number is much lower than global average which is stood at US$1,060 in 2014 (World Bank, 2017) Compared to other countries in ASEAN like

2

Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore, health expenditure per capita by US$ is two times lower than Thailand and three times lower than Malaysia Singapore is the country

which has highest health expenditure per capita by US$ in ASEAN with value of

US$2,752 (World Bank, 2017)

Another insight about Vietnam healthcare services is explored through recent report from Gaskill and Nguyen (2016) This report indicates that Vietnamese people

has been spent more than US$12 billion for healthcare services and this number has

consumed about nearly 7% of total national Gross Domestic Product (GDP) Moreover,

Vietnam’s healthcare system is characterised by public and private groups It is notable

that Vietnamese people are still spending a lot of their owned money to higher

healthcare services quality (Angloinfo, 2017) It leads to a critical role of Ministry of Health in term of providing adequate governance as well as national programs to further improve healthcare system in Vietnam and allow Vietnamese people to have adequate accessibility to healthcare services

Regarding important role of Ministry of Health, it is observed that hotline services is important activities whether the employees mustreceive and answer many calls to question about current healthcare policy It raises the concern of lower efficiency and effectiveness in hotline services lead to reduction of customer satisfaction In this context, the study is developed with topic “A study of survey on

enhance customer satisfaction by handling feedbacks — The case of the Ministry of

Health’s hotline.”

1.2 Research objective& Research questions

From general background information, this study is aimed to identify current

performance of hotline services offered by the Ministry of Health and how current

performance influencing on customer satisfaction Thus, research objectives will be

& To get in-depth understanding about customer satisfaction

*% To explore the characteristics of hotline service

3 TTo explore the theories related to customer satisfaction

‘%& To provide recommendations to further improve effectiveness of handling

feedbacks in Ministry of Health’s hotline service

Then, research questions will be

4+ What are the impacts of determinants to customer satisfaction in handling

feedbacks in Ministry of Health’s hotline service?

4 What are recommendations to further improve effectiveness of handling

feedbacks in Ministry of Health’s hotline service?

1.3 Scope of the study

This study focuses on the topic of customer satisfaction with hotline services of

the Ministry of Health Then, this study will provide a group of solutions to improve

customer satisfaction with current hotline services Moreover, the performance of

hotline services of the Ministry of Health will be evaluated through service capacity, convenience perception, resolving complaints, customer service, and customer service

effectiveness

1.4 Significance of the study

The study is significant in term of consolidating existing theories and concepts about customer satisfaction Hence, the readers obtain an ease to quickly understand

about customer satisfaction Another significance of the study is to provide empirical

evidence of the levels of impacts of determinants to customer satisfaction Upon on this evidence, the managers and other readers can understand what the most influenced factor to handling feedbacks

1.5 Structure of the study

This study is developed with 5 chapters Chapter 1 provide an introduction about

roles of customer satisfaction as well as rationale of choosing researched topic This chapter also provide research objectives, scope of work and significance of the research

Chapter 2 provides the content related to literature review, including the concept of

customer satisfaction and handling feedback in customer services Research model and research hypotheses are also provided in this chapter Chapter 3 is developed to choose

right research method and data collection Chapter 4 refers to data analysis and key

findings while the last chapter is prepared to summary all key findings from previous

chapters and recommendations to further improve customer satisfaction after their

feedbacks are handled and processed.

2 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Customer satisfaction

Customer satistaction is strategic weapon that lead to business success in case of

it is being maintained well (Nguyen, 2012) Moreover, customer satisfaction is

determined as important, thoorotical and practical issuc in modern mamagemant and marketing studies (Jamal and Naser, 2003) It is notable that the concept of customer satisfaction is provided differently by different researchers over the time (Oliver, 1997)

‘The concept of customer satisfaction is generally abstract and therefore it consists of auch arguments (Olsen, 2002)

‘The simplest definition of customer satisfaction is provided by Oliver (1997)

whether il is defined as custome

to customers’ needs and demands, Before that, Yi (1990) define customer satisfaction is combined between actions and psychological responses of customers after they have

reactions giver to the qualification of service quality

actual experiences with products or services Gunderson el al (1996) asserl aboul

customer satisfaction as post-consumption judgment of the customers upon on specific attributes of products or services Next, Tse and Wilton (1998) define customer

satisfaction as how they response to actual performance of products or services given to

their expectations pricr purchasing decisions are made up Cacioppo (2000) views

customer satisfaction as state of mind of customers and it reflects level of

accomplishment of products or services towards their needs and demands Kotler (2001)

also provide another idea of customer satisfaction as his/her feclings which are derived

from perceived product or service quality and actual performance Kathleen (2005) indicates about customer satisfaction as hissher needs, wishes, expectations, and desires

in tenm of products or services fulfillment

2.2 Llotline service

Hotline service is defined as tclephone-bascd scrvice which is provided by amas

to support the customers given to range of services offred (Zeiss, 2000), In more detail, hotline service helps to deliver following services First, hotline service provides

telophone consultant and support to customers related to fixms’ commitment Second, it

is established with the objective of analysing customers’ problems occurring during the

time of using services Third, hotline service reduces negative effect from wrong uses or

operating errors, Fourth, hotline service is often available 24/7 and it even handles customers’ questions during weekends

In addition, operational framework of hotline service is provided and evaluated

by Zongling (2014) Generally, hotline service refers to information flow from

customers to operators of firms This information flow is illustrated as in the figure

below:

Follow-up enquiries

(telephone, ——> enquiry transfer —> dissemination

Figure 2 Information flow in hotline service

Source: Zongling (2014)

Figure 2 shows that hotline service consists of information as input The source

of input comes from enquiry acceptances such as telephone, short message service

(SMS), and email Information which is collected from input stage will be put into processing stage whether direct solutions are provided, In some cases, it is necessary to

make enquiry transfer to functional units or need participation from supervisors Next,

output stage is highlighted as information dissemination to the enquiries or customers It

is notable that one enquiry is not resolved for the first time and therefore it leads to the requirement of follow-up based on the result

As cited by Zongling (2014), hotline service quality is often evaluated through value drivers In case of Jinan 12345 Hotline Service, Zongling (2014) emphasises three

most important drivers, including service efficiency, service quality, and service costs

Lloiline service efficiency is determined through the number of enquiries accepted by one operator per day and how much time to process one enquiry Hotline serviee quatity

is second value driver and it 1s established to measure the rate of timely resolved

enquiries service level and service attitude, and customer satisfaction Service cost is

last value driver and it measures direct cost involved into enquiries management and

solving The cost may include equipment cost, staff cost, and management cost

2.3 Customer service effectiveness

Customer service effectiveness is detined as how effectively a company’s

service satisfy its customer, or whether customer`s demands and needs have been met

yal (Marina, 2017) The trtiris even when you feel thal your business is ruming well, itis not proved that your customer is fecling happy as well Therefor, it is crucial to ave some ways to measure your effectiveness by measuring your company’s customer- services effectiveness By doing that, the entrepreneur may find oul which departinent

of area needs to be improved,

Although there are a lot determinants of customer service effectiveness, the major factors refer to eonvenicnee poreuption, scrvice capacily, eustamer service, and resolving complaints (Tran et al., 2016)

Convenience perception is defined as a set of things that are provided by the companies or the suppliers to ensure that offered services are useful, convenient, and

casy wo usc to the cuslomers (Laitamaki ct al., 1997), During the time of using ssrviecs,

the companies need to ensure service capacity at proper level Service capacity is delined as the qualifications when services are delivered to the customers (Tran et al., 2016), Scrvice capacity addresses the impoitanee of provision of which the employees can serve the customers as well as system support to capture information during services 1o be delivered (Tran et al., 2016) This nalable thal service capacity addresses the assurance aspect of a service and it is strictly required to keep the customer service effectiveness and customer satistaction at proper level (Cronin and Taylor, 1992) Moreover, when the companies deliver services to the customers, they must ensure that customer service is dctivered al righ! direolion (Tran et.al, 2016) Customer service is detined as after-sale services or additional activities to be conducted by the companies

in the way of maintaining customer satisfaction and customer experiences (Zeithamt,

1993) Customer service also highlights the value of interaction belween the customers.

and the companies’ employees related to specific characteristics or performances of services (Tran cl al., 2016) As cited by Roulding (1997), onstomer service is part of corporate culture of the companies, The last determinant of customer service effectiveness refers to how the companies can handle customers’ complaints or resolving complaints 11 is “a set of steps in the process as collecting information, receiving fecdback, appcasing the anger of customers, analyzing the complaint and determining the remedial action, applying skills in communication ete, to convince

to customer satisCaction level towards the companies” produals ar sarvie

customer service and its effectiveness to bringing delight to customers during the time they utilisc product or service of the companies (Solomon ct al., 2015) In this eortext, many studies arc delivered with high concentration on customer service effectiveness and it is highlighted in many marketing literatures as it contributes largely to the survival of businesses (Reny, 1995, Morgan and Ihmt, 1994; Sheth and Parvatiyar, 1995), As cited by Kotler (2012), customer service is center or it is considered as strategic weapon that helps the companies to compete with other competitors from the markets as well as pulting customers al Ihe center of the companies? activilies with the objective of leveraging customer satisfaction level The study of Peng and Wang (2006) indicates that customer service must be maintained frequently and its effectiveness must

‘be moasured Ip ansure that customers ara delight with euront product or scrvice and

higher level of customer service effectiveness reflect the stenglh in commitment

‘between the companies and their customers in long term In addition, the companies who perceive about the importance of customer service always provide in-time actions

to maintain castomer scrvice at proper level and they often nurturc and maintain a healthy balance between the companies’ benelits and customers’ benetits (Solomon et al., 2015) Moreover, when the companiss provide adequate attention and high quality

in customer services, they gain the benefit of customer retention (Kerstetter, 2001;

Reinartz and Kumar, 2002, Winer, 2001) One of the most important part in customer

service is to understand the relationship with customers and the relationship is

maintained throughout the understandings of the cultural dimension of each customer or

each group of customers (Solomon et al., 2015), The practice has become such an

important standard in modern business that it is common for businesses to establish

some loyalty incentives and programs for maintenance, nurturing and keeping a healthy

customer relationship (Kotler, 2012)

2.4 Research Structure and Hypothesis

From the discussion of determinants of customer satisfaction, a research

structure is developed as below:

Figure 3 Research Structure

From this research structure, research hypotheses are stripped,

“& HL: Service capacity has positive impact to customer service effectiveness

“+ H2: Convenience perception has positive impact to customer service

effectiveness

H3: Resolving complaint has positive impact to customer service effectiveness

H4: Customer service has positive impact to customer service effectiveness

eee HS: Customer service effectiveness has positive impact to customer satisfaction

3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 Research philosophy

Rescarch philosophy re(lcets belief of the researchers regarding lo spseifie

social phenomenon (Saunders et al 2009) Currently, there are many types of research

philosophy, including positivism, interpretivism, realism, and pragmatism (Saunders et

al, 2009) However, posilivism and interyretivism are dominating in academic studies

(Levin, 1988) Positivism research philosophy is belief of researchers to carry out their

studies with scientific or objective observation (Gephart, 1999) while interpretivism

sescarch philosophy is determined as the adaptation of cmpathctic stances to get in-

depth understandings of social phenomenon (Kura, 2012) In this study, positivism is

chosen as main research philosophy

The reason of choosing positivism rescarch philosophy is thal posilivisls seck

for causal relationship between dependent and independent variables (Lewis, 1993)

‘This study aims to measure causal relationship between customer satisfaction and its

interpretivism is mostly based on subjective argument fiom the researchers (Remenyi et

al, 1998) In this context, key findings under interpretivism are not objective or higher

‘bias than what arc found in positivism rescarch philosophy (Mitchell, 2003)

new one (Anderson, 2004) Another difference belween deductive and inductive

research approach is that deductive approach aims to clarify causal relationship among variables while induotive research approach obtains the fact through content analysis

(Collis and Husscy, 2003) In this study, deductive rescarch approach is utilised instead

of inductive research approach

The reason of choosing deductive research approach is thal this slucly starts with existing theories and concepts related to customer satisfaction in hotline services, Then,

10

empirical evidences are collected from previous studies and the result refers to the choice of explanatory factors towards custorner satisfaction, On the other hand, it means that the study seeks for causal relationship between customer satisfaction and its

determinants As cited by Lewis (1993), causal relationship is first sign of using

deductive approach Another reason of using deductive research approach is that it is processed quicker than inductive rescarch approach (Saunders ct al., 2009) In addition, the researchers who fotlow inductive research approach may face up with higher failure int establishment of new theories (Saunders et al., 2009) Finally, deductive research approach will be utilised when studied topic is common (Creswell, 1994) This study

aims to study about customer satisfaction and it is very common topic

3.3 Rescarch strategy

‘There are many research strategies that are being used in academic studies, including survey, interview, case siudy, ethnography, grounded theory, or historicat documents (Saunders et al., 2009), In this study, survey strategy will be used as main sesearch strategy Case study is chosen due to following reasons First, survey strategy

is ulitiscd when doductive rescarch approach is conducted (Saumders ct at, 2009) Moreover, stvey strategy helps the researchers to evaluate quantitative impacts from independent variables to dependent ones (Saunders et al., 2009) Second, survey strategy ensures that primary data is collected adequate sample size and therefore it reduces times and cfforls ta collect subscqucnt data (Sannders 31 al., 2009) Finally, survey strategy is being used widely in academic studies and it allows the researchers to collect sufficient information for later data analysis, thus, key findings are not subjective accordingly (Saunders ct al., 2009)

3.4 The choice between quantitative and qualitative

There are two rescarch methods, inchiding quantitative and qualilative

(Saunders et al., 2009) They are different to each other in term of data collection and

data processing Quantitative research method aims to collect nmmerical data from

survey of questionnaire and data proccssing refers to mathematical or cconometrical

calculation (Saunders et al., 2009), In the contrast, qualitative research method relies on

non-numerical data which is often collected from opened interviews with relevant

1espondents (Denzin and Lincoln, 1994), Morcover, qualitative rescarch method is

11

deployed with content analysis and it is not relied on data analysis techniques (Biggam,

2008) fn this study, quantitative reszarch method will be utilis

Quantitative research method is chosen due to following reasons, First, the study

is developed under positivism research philosophy and quantitative research method is

subsequent choice (Saunders et al., 2009) Second, quantitative research method helps the researchers to measure quantitative impacts from determinants to target social phenomenon (Crisp, 1957) Third, quantitative research method is relevant to the

objectives and research questions (Saunders et al, 2009) in this study, primary data

3.6 Survey of questionnaire

Due to the application of quantitative research method, primary data is expected

collecting from well-structured survey of questionnaire This survey is designed with

two parts The first part helps to collect demographic information such as gender, age, and education level of the respondents The second part helps to collect evaluation of

customers towards current quality and perfonmance of hotline service in Ministry of

12

Llealth, To help the customers’ evaluation, a Likert scale of 5 points and it ranges from

1 (strongly disagree) and 5 (strongly agree)

Staff have knowledge and qualified

Staff have high professional skills

Staif give reliable advice Staff have onthusiastic and good in sorving customers

Employees treat customers politely

Convenience perception Tnformation on produets and services found casily on the business web, and the other web sites

Advisory service hotline is good Information on products and services found easily on the business web, and the other web sites

Resolving complaints

Linterprises notice the utility for customers in transaction or in the meantime serving

such as free Wi-Fi, walcr, magazines cle

The recciving of the request and answering complaints arc convenicnec Process resolving issues arisen are to ensure customer benefits

Customer service Staff arc always interested in the needs of cach customer

The cancelation service or change service are well-done through networking

Enterprises receive requests and customer feedback quickly Customer service effectiveness

Lam very happy about now

1 will continue using the products ar services

I will introduce my fiends and family using the services of companies

You satisfy with current customer service

13