Customer Satisfaction on Public Transport in Malaysia: Analytical Essay

Introduction

Efficient public transport is a hallmark of any developed nation. Malaysia is rapidly developing its public transport infrastructure and facilities, aiming to become a high-income developed nation. Public transport represents'... greater freedom, connectivity and choice for those living in urban areas (Aziz & Mohamad, 2013, p. 1). Malaysia has, however,'... promoted a motorized society by upgrading the road system...' (Yukawa, Ladin, Ismail, & Rahmat, 2014, p. 69). As a result, this priority by the Malaysian government has led to a high level of ownership of cars and motorbikes. In addition, the same focus has led to a decline in bus services an increase in accident and a rise in congestion and air pollution.

Increasing the use of public transport systems has been a primary priority all over the world. (Cats, Abenoza, Liu, & Susilo, 2015) Malaysians have also been urged to make full use of public transport. (Nambiar, 2012) Efficient public transport is not only important for Malaysians, but also vital for the tourism industry. (Idris & Kumaran, 2014) The comprehensive light rail transit network is currently under construction in the Klang Valley. As with other cities in Malaysia, reliable public bus services have started to be implemented. In Penang, for example, Rapid Penang operates a large network of bus services.

Background of study

Customer satisfaction and service quality are key components of each organization's external relationship system, as their competitiveness is largely determined today. The desire to manage customer relationships leads to the fact that organizations are starting to pay attention to the development and implementation of service standards. The review of customer service standards as part of the corporate culture of the organization makes it easy to find more effective approaches to its development and implementation. This research focuses on customer perception of public transport in malaysia in order to investigate the level of performance of service quality by using the SERVQUAL method.

“Service organization have begun focusing on the customer perception of service quality because its helps in developing strategies that lead customer satisfaction” (Saravanan and Rao,2007).

The study uses the SERVQUAL method developed by Zeithami, Parasuraman and Berry (1990) to determine the level of satisfaction and expectation, as well as to discuss its attributes and gaps, the contexts in which the model was used and the pros and cons when this model was used to measure service quality. It is the premise of this study that understanding the expectations of public transport by consumers will improve their satisfaction.

Problem statement

Nowadays, increasing the use of public transport service throughout the world has been a key agenda (Cats, Abenoza, Liu & Susilo, 2015). Likewise, Malaysians have been urged to make full use of public transport (Nambiar, 2012). Efficient public transport is important not only for the Malaysian but also for tourism sector (Idris & Kumaran, 2014). In order to improve the public transport efficient, the extensive network of light rail transit in Klang is currently under construction. As for other Malaysia cities, the implementation of efficient public bus services also has begun.

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Given that the number of Malaysians using public transport is increasing (Bernama, 2014), therefore improving user satisfaction is also important. According to Kale (2009), a company is more important to win customer satisfaction than retaining customers. It’s because when customer satisfaction with the company they will become loyal to the company. Therefore, making the existing customer satisfaction to your company is more profitable compare to attract new customer. The cost in term of time, resource and money are five time expensive for attract new customer compare to remain the existing customer (Wagner, Tiffany & Peteron, 2008).

Therefore, customer satisfaction will become a main objective for the public transport sector in this research. According to the Chen (2010), customer satisfaction can highly influence the customer repurchase power toward the products or services. Besides, customer satisfaction also can increase the positive world of mouth among their friends, family or relative.

With improving the customer satisfaction, it can bring more benefit to the public transport industry not matter bus, taxi, LRT and so on. For example, people like to share their experience when they using or buying any service or products. If the customer satisfaction level is high and have favourable experience with public transport, it will increase the probability of the customer return purchase toward public transport service. In the other hand, if the customer satisfaction level is low and have bad experience toward the public transport, they will complaint, share their bad experience to other and switch to another company. This will damage the reputable industry in the future.

In today transportation services, the public transportation is growth rapidly among the Malaysia. Therefore, customer have more option to choose the more preference company or transport. It also means that the customer has greater tendency to switch to other competitor when they unsatisfied to the particular company. To prevent switching to competitor and bad word of mouth issue happen, public transport industry has to be enhanced and improve their service quality toward the customer in order to let the customer have a better experience.

However, to increase customer satisfaction level, Malaysia public transport industry have to identify the elements that produce quality because the satisfaction of the customer does not depend on the price of the product but on the quality of the products and services provided.

Thus, in this study clear conceptual model SERVQUAL with the five-service dimension which is tangibility, responsiveness, assurance, reliability and empathy are related to the organization of the service and contribute to customer satisfaction (Parasuraman, Zeithaml & Berry, 985).

Research Questions

1. Does reliability affect customer satisfaction towards public transport?
2. Does affordability affect customer satisfaction towards public transport?
3. Does safety affect customer satisfaction towards public transport?
4. Does condition of vehicle affect customer satisfaction towards public transport?
5. Does frequency of vehicle affect customer satisfaction towards public transport?

Research Objectives

1. To examine the relationship between reliability and customer satisfaction towards public transport.
2. To investigate the relationship between affordability and customer satisfaction towards public transport.
3. To identify the relationship between safety and customer satisfaction towards public transport.
4. To study the relationship between condition of vehicle and customer satisfaction towards public transport.
5. To analyze the relationship between frequency of vehicle and customer satisfaction towards public transport.

References

1. Abdullah, A. A., & Talip, R. M. (2013). Rapidkl Bus Service in City Center, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: An Epitome of Good Service? International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 3(4), 333-349.
2. Abdullah, H. N., & Hilmi, M. F. (2014). Service Quality as Determinant of Customer Loyalty. International Journal of Business and Innovation, 1(4), 1-11.
3. Gwilliam, K.M. (Kenneth Mason). (1964), Transport and Public Policy
4. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/280627371_User_Satisfaction_of_Public_Transport_An_Exploratory_Study_in_Penang_Malaysia
5. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/332210853_Customer_Satisfaction_of_Public_Transport_An_Empirical_Study_in_Klang_Valley_Malaysia
6. Retrieved from http:///www.C:/Users/User/Downloads/User%20Satisfaction%20of%20Public%20Transport%20An%20Exploratory%20Study%20in%20Penang-Malaysia-Hilmi%20(1).pdf