thesis about service quality

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Service quality and customer satisfaction in the post pandemic world: a study of saudi auto care industry.

• 1 College of Business Administration, Prince Mohammad Bin Fahd University, Khobar, Saudi Arabia
• 2 Department of Management Sciences, University of Baluchistan, Quetta, Pakistan

The aim of this research is to examine the impact of service quality on customer satisfaction in the post pandemic world in auto care industry. The car care vendor in the study made effective use of social media to provide responsive updates to the customers in the post pandemic world; such use of social media provides bases for service quality and customer satisfaction. The study examined the relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction using the SERVQUAL framework. According to the findings, empathy, reliability, assurance, responsiveness, and tangibles have a significant positive relationship with customer satisfaction. Our findings suggest that it is critical for workshops to recognize the service quality factors that contribute to customer satisfaction. Findings also suggest that empathy, assurance, reliability, responsiveness, and tangibles contribute to customer satisfaction. Auto repair industry must regularly provide personal attention, greet customers in a friendly manner, deliver cars after services, notify customers when additional repairs are required, and take the time to clarify problems to customers. Furthermore, workshops must screen and hire courteous staff who can clearly communicate the services required to customers both in-person and online and effectively communicate the risks associated with repairs. Service quality seems to be aided by prompt services.

Introduction

The previous studies on the effect of pandemic have focused on the behavior related to preventative measures to protect the health of the customers; however, less attention has been paid to the influence of pandemic on customer outcomes. To fill this gap, the SERVQUAL framework was employed to examine the changes in customers’ social media behaviors that have occurred since the pandemic was declared ( Mason et al., 2021 ). In the post pandemic world, the parameters for customer satisfaction have changed considerably ( Monmousseau et al., 2020 ; Srivastava and Kumar, 2021 ; Wu et al., 2021 ). Pandemic has made personal interaction more challenging ( Brown, 2020 ). To be less vulnerable to becoming severely ill with the virus, customers prefer touchless digital mediums of communications. For example, Mason et al. (2021) concluded that pandemic has altered customers’ needs, shopping and purchasing behaviors, and post purchase satisfaction levels. Keeping in view the public healthcare concerns, the governmental pandemic mitigation policies also promotes touchless mediums for shopping; therefore, the role of social media as a communication tool stands to increase at a time when social distancing is a common practice; social media provides avenues for buyers to interact with sellers without physical contact. Thus, the use of social media gains critical importance, especially after the pandemic ( Mason et al., 2021 ), and the businesses may find new opportunities to gain competitive advantage through their use of effective social media strategies.

The car care industry uses traditional means of customer communications. The company in this study made use of social media in improving their service quality through effective and safe communication with their customers. The use of social media to provide updates to customers played a significant role in improving service quality and satisfaction ( Ramanathan et al., 2017 ). The company in the study used Snapchat to provide updates on the work, thus minimizing the customers’ need to physically visit the car care facility. This use of social media gave a significant boost to the responsiveness aspect of the service quality.

Service quality and customer satisfaction are important aspects of business since a company’s growth is largely dependent on how well it maintains its customers through service and how well they keep their customers satisfied ( Edward and Sahadev, 2011 ). According to Chang et al. (2017) ; customer satisfaction is expected to result from good service efficiency, which will improve customer engagement and interrelationship. González et al. (2007) asserted that customer satisfaction is linked to high service quality, which makes businesses more competitive in the marketplace. This study uses the SERVQUAL framework to define service quality. This framework uses five dimensions to account for service quality, namely, tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy. Identifying issues in service and customer satisfaction can lead to high service quality. Furthermore, service quality can be characterized by analyzing the variations between planned and perceived service. Service quality and customer satisfaction have a positive relationship.

Recognizing and meeting customer expectations through high levels of service quality help distinguish the company’s services from those of its rivals ( Dominic et al., 2010 ). Social media plays a critical role in shaping these service quality-related variables. Specifically, in the context coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), where customers hesitated to visit auto workshops physically, the importance of online platforms such as auto workshops’ social media pages on Instagram and Facebook has increased, where customers try to get information and book appointment. For example, responsiveness is not only physical responsiveness but also digital means of communication. The car care company in this study uses social media as mode of communication with their customers due to physical interaction restriction caused by the pandemic.

Service quality becomes a critical element of success in car care industry because customer contact is one of the most important business processes ( Lambert, 2010 ). Saudi Arabia is one of the Middle East’s largest new vehicle sales and auto part markets. Saudi Arabia’s car repair industry has grown to be a significant market for automakers from all over the world. As a result, the aim of this research was to see how service quality affects customer satisfaction in the Saudi auto repair industry.

This aim of this research was to answer the following research questions:

(i) What is the contribution of individual dimensions of SERVQUAL on customer perceived service quality of car care industry in Saudi Arabia?

(ii) What is the impact of perceived service quality on customer satisfaction in car care industry in Saudi Arabia?

Literature Review

The concept of service has been defined since the 1980s by Churchill and Surprenant (1982) together with Asubonteng et al. (1996) , who popularized the customer satisfaction theory through measuring the firm’s actual service delivery in conformity with the expectations of customers, as defined by the attainment of perceived quality, and that is meeting the customers’ wants and needs beyond their aspirations. With this premise, Armstrong et al. (1997) later expanded the concept of service into the five dimensions of service quality that comprised tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy.

Extant literature on service delivery focuses on the traditional emphasis on the contact between the customer and service provider ( Mechinda and Patterson, 2011 ; Han et al., 2021 ). Doucet (2004) explained that the quality in these traditional settings depends on the design of the location and the behavior of the service provider. More recently, the proliferation of the internet has led to the emergence of the online service centers. In these cases, communication both in-person and online plays a critical role in the quality of service rendered. It follows that service quality in hybrid settings depends on quality of communications on social media as well as the behavioral interactions between the customer and the service provider ( Doucet, 2004 ; Palese and Usai, 2018 ). These factors require subjective assessments by the concerned parties, which means that different persons will have varied assessments of the quality of service received.

SERVQUAL Dimensions

Service quality has been described with the help of five quality dimensions, namely, tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy. Definitions relating to these variables have been modified by different authors. The relationship between various dimensions of service quality differs based on particular services.

The tangible aspects of a service have a significant influence on perception of service quality. These comprise the external aspects of a service that influence external customer satisfaction. The key aspects of tangibility include price, ranking relative to competitors, marketing communication and actualization, and word-of-mouth effects ( Ismagilova et al., 2019 ), which enhance the perception of service quality of customers ( Santos, 2002 ). These aspects extend beyond SERVQUAL’s definition of quality within the car care industry settings. Thus, we proposed the following hypothesis:

Hypotheses 1a: Tangibles are positively related with perceived service quality.

Reliability

Reliability is attributed to accountability and quality. There are a bunch of precursors that likewise aid basic methodology for shaping clients’ perspectives toward administration quality and reliability in the car care industry in Saudi ( Korda and Snoj, 2010 ; Omar et al., 2015 ). A portion of these predecessors is identified with car repair benefits and includes the convenient accessibility of assets, specialist’s expertise level and productive issue determination, correspondence quality, client care quality, an exhibition of information, client esteem, proficiency of staff, representatives’ capacity to tune in to client inquiries and respond emphatically to their necessities and protests, security, workers’ dependability, more limited holding up time and quickness, actual prompts, cost of administration, accessibility of issue recuperation frameworks, responsibility, guarantees, for example, mistake-free administrations, generally association’s picture and workers’ politeness, and responsiveness. Despite the innovative changes happening in the car care industry and the instructive degree of car administrations suppliers in Saudi Arabia, car care suppliers in the territory are taught about the need to continually refresh their insight into the advancements in the area of vehicle workshops and the components of administration. Thus, we argued that reliability is important to enhance the perception of service quality of customers.

Hypotheses 1b: Reliability is positively linked with perceived service quality.

Responsiveness

Responsiveness refers to the institution’s ability to provide fast and good quality service in the period. It requires minimizing the waiting duration for all interactions between the customer and the service provider ( Nambisan et al., 2016 ). Nambisan et al. (2016) explained that responsiveness is crucial for enhancing the customers’ perception of service quality. Rather, the institution should provide a fast and professional response as to the failure and recommend alternative actions to address the customer’s needs ( Lee et al., 2000 ). In this light, Nambisan summarizes responsiveness to mean four key actions, i.e., giving individual attention to customers, providing prompt service, active willingness to help guests, and employee availability when required. These aspects help companies to enhance the customers’ perception of service quality. Therefore, we proposed the following hypothesis:

Hypotheses 1c: Responsiveness is positively linked with perceived service quality.

Assurance refers to the skills and competencies used in delivering services to the customers. Wu et al. (2015) explains that employee skills and competencies help to inspire trust and confidence in the customer, which in turn stirs feelings of safety and comfort in the process of service delivery. Customers are more likely to make return visits if they feel confident of the employees’ ability to discharge their tasks. Elmadağ et al. (2008) lists the factors that inspire empathy as competence, politeness, positive attitude, and effective communication as the most important factors in assuring customers. Besides, other factors include operational security of the premises as well as the proven quality of the service provided to the customers. Thus, the assurance has significant contribution in the perception of service quality.

Hypotheses 1d: Assurance is positively related with perceived service quality.

Empathy refers to the quality of individualized attention given to the customers. The service providers go an extra mile to make the customer feel special and valued during the interaction ( Bahadur et al., 2018 ). Murray et al. (2019) explains that empathy requires visualizing the needs of the customer by assuming their position. Murray et al. (2019) lists the qualities that foster empathy as including courtesy and friendliness of staff, understanding the specific needs of the client, giving the client special attention, and taking time to explain the practices and procedure to be undertaken in the service delivery process. Therefore, we proposed the following hypothesis:

Hypotheses 1e: Empathy is positively related with perceived service quality.

Perceived Service Quality and Customer Satisfaction

Customer satisfaction refers to the level of fulfillment expressed by the customer after the service delivery process. This is a subjective assessment of the service based on the five dimensions of service quality. Customer satisfaction is important due to its direct impact on customer retention ( Hansemark and Albinsson, 2004 ; Cao et al., 2018 ; Zhou et al., 2019 ), level of spending ( Fornell et al., 2010 ), and long-term competitiveness of the organization ( Suchánek and Králová, 2019 ). Susskind et al. (2003) describes that service quality has a direct impact on customer satisfaction. For this reason, this research considers that five dimensions of service quality are the important antecedents of customer satisfaction.

Service quality refers to the ability of the service to address the needs of the customers ( Atef, 2011 ). Customers have their own perception of quality before interacting with the organization. The expectancy-confirmation paradigm holds that customers compare their perception with the actual experience to determine their level of satisfaction from the interaction ( Teas, 1993 ). These assessments are based on the five independent factors that influence quality. Consequently, this research considers service quality as an independent variable.

This study attempts to quantify perceived service quality though SERVQUAL dimensions. We proposed that customers place a high premium on service quality as a critical determinant of satisfaction. Moreover, it is argued that satisfaction prompts joy and reliability among customers in Saudi Arabia. These discoveries infer that the perception of service quality is significantly related to satisfaction, and quality insight can be applied across different cultures with negligible contrasts in the result. Car care industry in Saudi Arabia has grave quality problems. To rectify this situation, it is essential to apply quality systems as tools for development. The SERVQUAL is one of these system options. It is used to gauge the service quality using five dimensions that have been time-tested since 1982. Thus, the significance of SERVQUAL in car care industry in Saudi Arabia cannot be overemphasized. The study further suggests that the SERVRQUAL dimension increases the perceived service quality, which in turn increases customer satisfaction. Thus, we proposed the following hypothesis:

Hypothesis 2: The perceived service quality of car care customers is positively linked with their satisfaction.

Methods and Procedures

In this study, we employed a cross-sectional research design. Using a paper-pencil survey, data were collected form auto care workshops situated in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. According to the study by Newsted et al. (1998) , the survey method is valuable for assessing opinions and trends by collecting quantitative data. We adapted survey instruments from previous studies. The final survey was presented to a focus group of two Ph.D. marketing scholars who specialized in survey design marketing research. The survey was modified keeping in view the recommendations suggested by focus group members. We contacted the customers who used social media to check the updates and book the appointment for their vehicle’s service and maintenance. We abstained 130 surveys, 13 of which were excluded due to missing information. Therefore, the final sample encompassed 117 (26 female and 91 male) participants across multiple age groups: 10 aged less than 25 years, 46 aged between 26 and 30 years, 28 aged between 31 and 35 years, 21 aged between 36 and 40 years, and 12 aged older than 40 years (for details, refer to Table 1 ). Similarly, the averaged participants were graduates with more than 3 years of auto care service experience.

Table 1. Demographic information.

We measured service quality dimensions using 20 indicators. Customer satisfaction of the restaurant customers was assessed using 4-item scale (for detail, refer to Table 2 ). In this research, the 5-point Likert scale from 1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree was used.

Table 2. Constructs and items included in the questionnaire.

Control Variables

Following the previous research, customer’s gender and age were controlled to examine the influence of service quality dimensions on customer satisfaction.

Data Analysis and Results

For data analysis and hypotheses testing, we employed the structural equation modeling (SEM) based on the partial least squares (PLS) in Smart-PLS. Smart-PLS 3 is a powerful tool, which is used for the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and SEM ( Nachtigall et al., 2003 ). Research suggests that CFA is the best approach to examine the reliability and validity of the constructs. We employed SEM for hypotheses testing because it is a multivariate data analysis technique, which is commonly used in the social sciences ( González et al., 2008 ).

Common Method Bias

To ensure that common method bias (CMB) is not a serious concern for our results, we employed procedural and statistical and procedural remedies. During data collection, each survey in the research contained a covering letter explaining the purpose of the study and guaranteed the full anonymity of the participants. Moreover, it was mentioned in the cover letter that there was no right and wrong questions, and respondents’ answers would neither be related to their personalities nor disclosed to anyone. According to Podsakoff et al. (2003) , the confidentiality of the responses can assist to minimize the possibility of CMB. Furthermore, CMB was verified through the Harman’s single-factor test ( Podsakoff et al., 2003 ). All items in this research framework were categorized into six factors, among which the first factor explained 19.01% of the variance. Thus, our results showed that CMB was not an issue in our research. Moreover, using both tolerance value and the variance inflation factors (VIFs), we assessed the level of multicollinearity among the independent variables. Our results indicate that the tolerance values for all dimensions of service quality were above the recommended threshold point of 0.10 ( Cohen et al., 2003 ), and VIF scores were between 1.4 and 1.8, which suggested the absence of multicollinearity; thus, it is not a serious issue for this study.

Measurement Model

We performed CFA to analyze the reliability and validity of the constructs. The measurement model was assessed by examining the content, convergent, and discriminant validities. To assess the content validity, we reviewed the relevant literature and pilot test the survey. We used item loadings, Cronbach’s alpha, composite reliability (CR), and the average variance extracted (AVE) ( Fornell and Larcker, 1981b ) to assess the convergent validity. The findings of CFA illustrate that all item loadings are greater than 0.70. The acceptable threshold levels for all values were met, as the value of Cronbach’s alpha and CR was greater than 0.70 for all constructs ( Fornell and Larcker, 1981b ), and the AVE for all variables was above 0.50 ( Tabachnick and Fidell, 2007 ; see Table 3 ). Thus, these findings show acceptable convergent validity.

Table 3. Item loadings, Cronbach’s alpha, composite reliability, and average variance extracted.

To analyze the discriminant validity, we evaluated the discriminant validity by matching the association between correlation among variables and the square root of the AVE of the variables ( Fornell and Larcker, 1981a ). The results demonstrate that the square roots of AVE are above the correlation among constructs, hence showing a satisfactory discriminant validity, therefore, indicating an acceptable discriminant validity. Moreover, descriptive statistics and correlations are provided in Table 4 .

Table 4. Descriptive statistics and correlations.

Structural Model and Hypotheses Testing

After establishing the acceptable reliability and validity in the measurement model, we examined the relationship among variables and analyzed the hypotheses based on the examination of standardized paths. The path significance of proposed relations were calculated using the SEM through the bootstrap resampling technique ( Henseler et al., 2009 ), with 2,000 iterations of resampling. The proposed research framework contains five dimensions of service quality (i.e., tangibles of the auto care, reliability of the auto care, responsiveness of the auto care, assurance of the auto care, and empathy of the auto care) and customer satisfaction of auto care. The results show that five dimensions of service quality are significantly related to customer’s perception of service quality of auto care; thus, hypotheses 1a, 1b, 1c, 1d, and 1e were supported. Figure 1 shows that the service quality of auto care is a significant determinant of customer satisfaction of auto care industry (β = 0.85, p < 0.001), supporting hypothesis 2. The result in Figure 1 also shows that 73.8% of the variation exists in customer satisfaction of auto care.

Figure 1. Results of the research model tests. *** p < 0.001.

The main purpose of this research was to assess the relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction in the post pandemic world in Saudi Arabia. This study was designed to examine how satisfaction of auto care customers is influenced by service quality, especially, when pandemic was declared, and due to health concerns, the customers were reluctant to visit workshops physically ( Mason et al., 2021 ). It appears that after the pandemic, customers were increasingly using online platforms for purchasing goods and services. This study reveals how customers of auto repair in Saudi perceive service quality and see how applicable SERVQUAL model across with five dimensions, including tangibles, responsiveness, reliability, assurance, and empathy measure service quality. The findings of this research show that five dimensions of SERVQUAL are positively related to the service quality perception of auto care customers in Saudi Arabia. Moreover, service quality perceptions are positively linked with customer satisfaction. These results indicate that auto care customers view service quality as an important antecedent of their satisfaction. The findings indicate that the customers perceive the service quality as a basic service expectation and will not bear the extra cost for this criterion. In this research, the positive connection between service quality and customer satisfaction is also consistent with previous studies (e.g., González et al., 2007 ; Gallarza-Granizo et al., 2020 ; Cai et al., 2021 ). Thus, service quality plays a key role in satisfying customers. These findings suggest that service organizations, like auto repair industry in Saudi Arabia could enhance satisfaction of their customers through improving service quality. Because of pandemic, people are reluctant to visit auto care workshops, and they try to book appointment through social media; so, by improving the quality of management of their social media pages, the workshops can provide accurate information for monitoring, maintaining, and improving service quality ( Sofyani et al., 2020 ). More specifically, social media, which allows individuals to interact remotely, appears to be gaining significant importance as a tool for identifying customers’ products and service needs. Increasingly, customers are also increasingly engaging with retailers through social media to search and shop for product and services options, evaluate the alternatives, and make purchases.

Furthermore, the research on the customer service quality can be held essential since it acts as a means for the promotion of the competitiveness of an organization. Precisely, the knowledge about the customers’ view concerning service quality can be used by organizations as a tool to improve their customer services. For example, knowledge of the required customer service would help in the facilitation of training programs oriented toward the enlightenment of the overall employees on the practices to improve and offer high-quality customer services. Besides, information concerning customer services would be essential in decision-making process concerning the marketing campaigns of the firm, hence generating competitive advantage of the organization in the marketplace. Findings show that customers demand more from auto repair, so the company must work hard to increase all service quality dimensions to improve customer satisfaction. Thus, organizations ought to venture in customer services initiatives to harness high-quality services.

Managerial Implications

The findings of this research indicate a strong association between SERVQUAL dimensions and perceived service quality. Perception of higher service quality leads to higher level of customer satisfaction among Saudi car care customers. In particular, the results indicate high scores for reliability, empathy, tangibles, and responsiveness. These are clear indications that the immense budgetary allocation has enabled these institutions to develop capacity. Nevertheless, the lack of a strong human resource base remains a key challenge in the car care industry. The effective use of social media plays a critical role in the responsiveness dimension of service quality. Companies need to develop their digital and social media marketing strategies in the post pandemic world to better satisfy their customers.

Saudi Arabia requires a large and well-trained human resource base. This requires intensive investment in training and development. Most of these workers have a limited contract, which reduced their focus on long-term dedication. Consequently, the government should provide longer-term contracts for workers in this critical sector. The contracts should include training on tailored courses to serve the identified needs in effective communication with the customers using digital media. We suggested that the auto car care workshops should provide training to their workers, particularly, on service technicians to enhance their skills that will help to deliver fast and reliable service to their auto customers.

Moreover, the auto car care workshops also provide customer care- or customer handling-related training especially for the service marketing personnel who handles customer directly for them to better understand the customer needs and expectations. This can be done at least once a year. This will help auto care workshops to improve their service quality.

Limitation and Future Research Direction

This research is not without limitations. First, the findings of this study are based on data collected from a single source and at a single point of time, which might be subjected to CMB ( Podsakoff et al., 2003 ). Future research can collect data from different points of time to validate the findings of this research. Second, this research was carried out with data obtained from Saudi auto car care customers; the findings of this research might be different because the research framework was retested in a different cultural context. Therefore, more research is needed to improve the understanding of the principles of service quality and customer satisfaction, as well as how they are evaluated, since these concepts are critical for service organizations’ sustainability and development. A greater sample size should be used in a similar study so that the findings could be applied to a larger population. Research on the effect of inadequate customer service on customer satisfaction, the impact of customer retention strategies on customer satisfaction levels, and the impact of regulatory policies on customer satisfaction is also recommended. Third, because most of the participants participated in this research are men, future studies should obtain data from female participants and provide more insights into the difference between male and female customers’ satisfaction levels. Moreover, due to limitation of time, the sample was collected from the eastern province. Consequently, further research should include a larger and more representative sample of the Saudi population. Because of the non-probability sampling approach used in this research, the results obtained cannot be generalized to a wide range of similar auto repair services situations, even though the methodology used in this study could be extended to these similar situations. Since the sample size considered is not that large, expectations could vary significantly. When compared with the significance of conducting this form of analysis, the limitations mentioned above are minor. Such research should be conducted on a regular basis to track service quality and customer satisfaction levels and, as a result, make appropriate changes to correct any vulnerability that may exist.

Data Availability Statement

The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/supplementary material, further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author.

Ethics Statement

Ethical review and approval was not required for the study on human participants in accordance with the local legislation and institutional requirements. Written informed consent for participation was not required for this study in accordance with the national legislation and the institutional requirements. The patients/participants provided their written informed consent to participate in this study.

Author Contributions

SZ helped in designing the study. ZH helped in designing and writing the manuscript. MAA helped in data collection and analysis and writing the manuscript. SUR repositioned and fine-tuned the manuscript, wrote the introduction, and provided feedback on the manuscript.

This study was received funding from University Research Fund.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher’s Note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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Keywords : auto care, customer satisfaction, service quality, Saudi Arabia, pandemic (COVID-19)

Citation: Zygiaris S, Hameed Z, Ayidh Alsubaie M and Ur Rehman S (2022) Service Quality and Customer Satisfaction in the Post Pandemic World: A Study of Saudi Auto Care Industry. Front. Psychol. 13:842141. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.842141

Received: 23 December 2021; Accepted: 07 February 2022; Published: 11 March 2022.

Reviewed by:

Copyright © 2022 Zygiaris, Hameed, Ayidh Alsubaie and Ur Rehman. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Zahid Hameed, [email protected]

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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THE EFFECT OF SERVICE QUALITY ON CUSTOMER SATISFACTION: THE CASE OF ETHIOPIAN ELECTRIC UTILITY AROUND ADDIS ABABA

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Port service quality (PSQ) and customer satisfaction: an exploratory study of container ports in Vietnam

Maritime Business Review

ISSN : 2397-3757

Article publication date: 6 August 2020

Issue publication date: 11 February 2021

This study aims to investigate the concept of port service quality (PSQ) and examine its influence on customer satisfaction in the container port sector in Vietnam. Despite the importance of the maritime industry in which port is a critical sector in the national economy, there has been no research so far which examines what PSQ entails and how it affects customer satisfaction in the context of Vietnam.

Design/methodology/approach

Following a literature review, a conceptual model of PSQ and its influence on customer satisfaction was proposed. A survey questionnaire was then developed and piloted with senior executives who are working in various container shipping lines and logistics companies in Vietnam. The questionnaire was first designed in English and then refined through the process of translation and back-translation to ensure language non-discrepancies. The survey was administered to 200 members of Vietnam Shipowners’ Association, Vietnam Logistics Associations and Vietnam Shippers’ Council. By the cut-off date, 108 questionnaires were received, in which 99 valid replies were used for further analysis.

Results from this study reveal that PSQ is a construct of 4 factors and 16 items, and that enhanced PSQ will positively influence customer satisfaction, in which the outcomes of port service performance and its image would have the greatest impact. Interestingly, most items relating to social and environmental responsibility were dropped, and this result is expected in the context of a developing country like Vietnam.

Originality/value

Findings from this research may enhance port managers’ understanding on areas of PSQ to improve so as to meet and exceed their customers’ satisfaction.

• Customer satisfaction
• Container port
• Port service quality

Phan, T.M. , Thai, V.V. and Vu, T.P. (2021), "Port service quality (PSQ) and customer satisfaction: an exploratory study of container ports in Vietnam", Maritime Business Review , Vol. 6 No. 1, pp. 72-94. https://doi.org/10.1108/MABR-01-2020-0003

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2020, Pacific Star Group Education Foundation.

1. Introduction

In the era of globalization, international trade transactions have been supported by global supply chains. In this respect, seaports play an important role as nodes for inbound and outbound flow of products. Initially, seaports were basically considered as a platform where cargoes are loaded/unloaded onto or from ship, having connectivity with other transport modes ( Branch, 1986 ). As globalization progresses, the concept of seaport has been expanded and being integrated with a function of providing value-added services (e.g. packaging and consolidating cross-docking) (World Bank, 2007), thus contributing significantly to the global supply chains. Seaports are now increasingly involved in the effective management of product movements and information transfer. Therefore, any unexpected incidents, such as accidents or delays in cargoes loading and unloading, may cause interruption in those movements, resulting in failure of performance in other stages of the global supply chains. An inefficient outcome of seaport management certainly leads to the unhappiness of other stakeholders (e.g. shipping lines, shippers and logistics service providers) because of consequences they may have to bear as a result.

In Vietnam, the role of seaports in recent years has become increasingly important because of the surge in international trade volume particularly after Vietnam became a member of World Trade Organization in 2007. In recent years, Vietnam’s seaports have showed an impressive and consistent growth in terms of throughput and were also highlighted as top logistics service expansion sector compared to others in the region. Vietnam’s seaports system is developing fast with the throughput growth in the period 2010–2015 reaching 11.8%, doubling the average level of the world. In 2018, it was recorded that seaports in Vietnam handled 12,930,071 TEU ( Vietnam Seaports Association, 2018 ), which reflected a sizable trade of containerized cargo in this country. However, Vietnam is still considered a developing country because of low average GDP per capital and thus more attention is often paid to economic rather than sustainable development in general and that in the maritime industry in particular.

Vietnam seaports system includes ports in three regions, namely, north, central and south, with three main ports being Hai Phong, Da Nang and Saigon, respectively. Among those, the ports of Hai Phong, Saigon and their respective satellite ports of Quang Ninh (e.g. Cai Lan International Container Terminal) and Vung Tau (e.g. Tan Cang – Cai Mep Thi Vai Terminal) account for 97% of the country’s total container-handling volumes (Agency of Foreign Trade, 2018). Hai Phong Port is the national gateway to the northern part of Vietnam as well as southern China and currently consists of 14 terminals. Some of these terminals, which are operated by corporations such as Germadept, Vinconship and VIMC, annually handle about 500,000 TEUs according to the annual reports of these corporations. In addition, the new 14-meter-deep sea port of Lach Huyen has been recently constructed in Hai Phong, which started its operations since May 2018 and is capable of accommodating larger container vessels (i.e. 4,000–6,000 TEU), potentially accommodating up to 8,000 TEU vessels ( Ship-Technology, 2019 ).

Meanwhile, the southern port market is currently dominated by Saigon New Port Corporation (SNP). Cat Lai Port, located in Hochiminh city and operated by SNP, accounted for 92% of container throughput in the south in 2018. Growing at a slightly slower speed than the other two strategic ports is the port system in Da Nang, which handles about 63% of container and 22% of bulk cargo volumes in this region ( Nguyen and Ngo, 2017 ). In addition, this region is being invested with projects to develop Tien Sa terminal of Da Nang Port as the regional node for trans-border transportation among Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam.

Generally, the port system in Vietnam includes three key seaport regions, which are fragmented into a number of ports and terminals managed by different port operators. This significantly stimulates competition among them. Furthermore, it is projected that some key Vietnamese seaports will compete with hubs in Singapore or China in the long run ( Nguyen and Ngo, 2017 ). In a competitive environment, service quality is recognized as a determinant of market share, return on investment and cost ( Burch et al. , 1995 ), thus playing an important role in port success. For that reason, researching about service quality dimensions of Vietnamese seaports and their impact on customer satisfaction is essential for their growth and competitive advantage. This is especially valid given the context of a developing country like Vietnam with unique political and socio-economical features which are also reflected in the distinctive features in terms of port governance, administration and management ( Thai, 2017 ). A research on port service quality (PSQ) and customer satisfaction will therefore contribute to enrich the literature of PSQ management especially in the context of developing countries.

Obviously, apart from considerable investment in upgrading infrastructure and facilities, academic research on how to improve seaports’ service quality is relatively scant, especially in the context of Vietnam. Furthermore, available studies on seaports worldwide as well as in Vietnam heavily concentrate on their impacts on national and regional economies, efficient operations and competitiveness. In the meantime, the number of studies on PSQ is relatively limited, especially in a developing country like Vietnam. Hence, this research aims to investigate PSQ constructs and their influence on customer satisfaction in Vietnam seaports system. In this paper, we propose a model of evaluating PSQ and its hypothesized relationships with customer satisfaction, and then validating this model based on data collected from a survey of seaports’ customers in Vietnam.

The remaining sections of this paper are structured as follows. Section 2 focuses on reviewing literature of service quality, PSQ and customer satisfaction, upon which the conceptual model of PSQ is based. Section 3 provides details of research methodology, including the research framework, hypothesis development, methods of data collection and sampling. The analysis and findings are presented in Section 4, while research implications are discussed in Section 5. The paper concludes with the summary of findings and a brief elaboration on limitations and future research in Section 6.

2. Literature review

2.1 review on port service quality measurement.

Some scholars argued that quality of a service can be assessed by a set of specifications developed by the organization. In this connection, Cronin and Taylor (1992) introduced SERVPERF, arguing that customer preferences are more relevant to the long-term service quality than impending differences in expectations and performance. Hopkins et al. (1993) evaluated cognitive service quality in the logistics sector using the SERVQUAL model, and identified the meeting of customer expectations as the fundamental requirement for customer satisfaction. Another approach which is much more popularly applied is to compare the extent of customer experience with the level of his or her expectation of service quality as defined by Rushton et al. (2014) . This idea is similar to the research of Parasuraman et al. (1985) , who proposed the SERVQUAL model – one of the most commonly applied service quality measurement tools. SERVQUAL model covers five dimensions of quality, namely, tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy. These five dimensions can be differently interpreted when SERVQUAL is applied in different industries. However, those dimensions concentrate on assessing the process of delivering service. There are some other models of service quality measurement, such as those developed by Gronroos (1984) and Lehtinen and Lehtinen (1991) . These two models have compensated SERVQUAL’s shortage by adding outcomes-related components, for instance, technical and functional quality in the former, and process and output quality in the latter. Albeit these models have been applied in quality assessment in various fields, even in the port sector ( Ugboma et al. , 2004 ; Hu and Lee, 2017 ), and there is still the need for construct and variable customization for each industry ( Babakus and Boller, 1992 ; Caro and Garcia, 2007 ; Ladhari, 2008 ; Van Dyke et al. , 1997 ). Some scholars have proved that SERVQUAL is not suitable to some businesses, for example, corporate banks ( Guo et al. , 2008 ) or supply chains ( Seth et al. , 2006 ). This view was also echoed by Chowdhary and Prakash (2007) that general dimensions cannot reflect precisely the level of service quality, and thus industry-specific factors are needed. Also, another shortcoming of the SERVQUAL framework is that it was used to measure PSQ without taking into account the specifications of port operation and management ( Lee et al. , 2013 ). Additionally, port service attributes could not be found or the necessity of reflecting the viewpoint of container carriers was not clearly illustrated in several papers using SERVQUAL model ( Lee et al. , 2013 ). Meanwhile, Brady and Cronin (2001) defined the aspects of service quality as “relational quality,” “result quality” and “physical environmental quality.” Leveraging on this, Cho et al. (2010) defined sub-factors being introduced by Brady and Cronin as the internal capacity of a port or an “endogenous quality.” Furthermore, the study is also supplemented by exploring the influence of cognitive service quality on customer satisfaction, loyalty and referral intentions. In terms of conducting research studies on PSQ, understanding port users’ expectations and perceptions of service quality becomes crucial in light of the importance of ports (Ugoma et al. , 2004). This emphasis is highlighted in PSQ studies in both developing and developed countries.

Studies of service quality in the maritime sector in general, and in the port industry in particular, have not been widely conducted in the literature. Most of these studies focus much on port efficiency, selection of port or carrier and so on. The first studies on assessing port services could be dated back to the late 20th century, conducted by Foster (1979) , Slack (1985) and Murphy et al. (1987) . These researchers merged the two concepts of PSQ and port selection by asking surveyed participants to identify key factors for choosing a port. This approach does not match with the idea of customers’ expectation and perception comparison mentioned above. Table 1 provides a summary of existing studies on PSQ dimensions.

According to Table 1 , the criteria of PSQ measurement vary significantly from study to study. While some of these dimensions only suit specific sectors such as passenger port (e.g. parking facilities), others can hardly reflect service quality, focusing much on infrastructure and facilities of the port (e.g. available facilities) and pricing (e.g. ports costs). Another point which should be highlighted is that “social responsibility” has not yet been added in the above research, given that green advocacy and sustainable development have been increasingly prevalent in the port literature. Ports’ customers (shippers, carrier, logistics providers, etc.) are increasingly concerned about green initiatives from ports, especially in the context of International Maritime Organization (IMO) 2020 regulations.

A model which was designed specifically for measuring service quality in maritime transport, ROPMIS, was introduced by Thai (2008) taking into account the aforesaid gaps in the literature. This model contains resources-, outcomes-, processes-, management-, image- and social responsibility-related service quality factors. Compared to earlier studies, this model adds new dimensions of management, image and social responsibility to comprehensively cover aspects of service quality in maritime transport. ROPMIS has been adapted in various studies on service quality in container shipping ( Tepe, 2015 ; Le, Ho and Nguyen, 2018 ), tramp shipping ( Thai et al. , 2014 ), passenger shipping ( Thamrin, 2012 ), freight forwarding ( Gil-Saura et al. , 2018 ) as well as container terminals and ports ( Thai, 2015 ; Yeo et al. , 2016 ; Chang and Thai, 2016 ; Pham and Yeo, 2019 ) with high validity and reliability.

In these studies, in-depth interviews with senior executives and experts were often conducted to check the relevance of the variables in the specific maritime context, followed by quantitative results which confirmed the validity and reliability of variables and constructs. The model was also applied in a recent study by Nguyen (2015) to measure service quality and examine its effect on customer satisfaction of ports in the same system of Saigon Newport Corporation. For this reason, we also adopt this model in the current study, and revisions were made to suit the context of seaports in Vietnam. Compared to the earlier study on PSQ conducted in Vietnam, the current study shall encompass a wider population in which ports of all groups in Vietnam will be included in the research and not limited to those which belong to any specific port operator.

2.2 Customer satisfaction measurement

Customer satisfaction is initially considered as customers’ assessment on a purchasing transaction ( Anderson et al. , 1994 ), highlighted as the state of positive fulfillment when judging product, service or working relationship ( Gaski and Nevin, 1985 ; Oliver, 1997 ; Farrelly and Quester, 2005 ). Customer satisfaction concept generally includes two components, namely, pre-event expectations and post-event evaluation ( Hill et al. , 2003 ). The result from a difference between these two items reflects whether customers are happy with the service or products they purchase.

There have been numerous papers and research works on the links between customer satisfaction and service quality. For example, Parasuraman et al. (1994) , Brady and Robertson (2001) , Santouridis and Trivellas (2010) and Liao (2012) proved that this was a positive relationship. This means that the better the quality of products or services, the more satisfied the customers. In the context of the transportation sector, the positive link between service quality and customer satisfaction was also elaborated in the work of Anderson et al. (2009) and Cao and Chen (2011) in their examination of transport by aircraft and train, respectively. There have also been several studies which examined this link in the port sector, most recently by Cho et al. (2010) , Miremadi et al. (2011) , Thai (2015) , Yeo et al. (2016) and Chang and Thai (2016) .

Although there are several studies on service quality and how it influences customer satisfaction, research focusing on service quality in the port sector, particularly its impacts on customer satisfaction is still limited. This also applies in the case of Vietnam as a developing country and thus this current study is a timely contribution to the relevant body of knowledge.

3. Methodology

3.1 research context.

The aim of this research is to assess the prospective causal relationship between service quality of seaports in Vietnam and the satisfaction of their customers encompassing shipping lines, shippers and who being on behalf of them to handle logistics activities (forwarder agents and logistics service providers). Vietnam’s seaport system includes six seaport groups. The first group contains northern seaports (locating between Quang Ninh and Ninh Binh provinces); the second group consists of northern central seaports (situating between Thanh Hoa and Ha Tinh provinces); the third includes mid-central seaports (locating between Quang Binh and Quang Ngai provinces); the fourth group consists of southern central seaports (situating between Binh Dinh and Binh Thuan provinces); the fifth group includes southern seaports (Ho Chi Minh City and provinces of Dong Nai, Binh Duong and Ba Ria - Vung Tau); and the sixth group contains seaports in the Mekong Delta. The northern seaports of Vietnam play the crucial role as gateway connecting the country with Northeast Asian countries and territories such as China, Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong ( FPT Research, 2017 ). Meanwhile, the southern seaports are strategically located linking Vietnam with other Association of Southeast Asian Nations countries and those in other continents. Currently, Vietnam has 45 seaports, 265 terminals and 402 berths for accommodating vessels with a total length of nearly 87,550 km. At present, there are 2 seaports of category IA (international gateway ports), 12 seaports of type I (general ports at regional focal economic regions), 18 seaports of type II (local general ports) and 13 seaports of type III (offshore oil and gas terminals) (Agency of Foreign Trade, 2018).

3.2 Background theory, conceptual framework and measures

This study is grounded in the well-known resource-based view theory, which postulated that the firm performs better than its competitors through unique and firm-specific resources that are costly for others to imitate and substitute ( Barney, 1991 ; Madhani, 2010 ). The firm’s resources include both tangible and intangible resources. In the context of seaports, tangible resources refer to physical resources which consist of channel, berth, gates, container yard, forklifts, etc. ( Wanke and Barros, 2015 ; Bichou, 2013 ), while intangible resources may exist in the form of knowledge, information and capabilities, to name just a few ( Pak et al. , 2015 ). In this connection, the quality of port service can be considered a form of intangible resources, and it is essential to examine whether such a resource would contribute to enhance one of the most important aspects of port performance – customer satisfaction in this study.

Resources-related : Readiness and availability of cargo handling facility, convenience of cargo track and trace, condition of infrastructure, etc.

Outcome-related : Just-in-time provision of service, consistency of service performance (time of delivery and acceptance), homogenous service supplied, safety assurance for cargoes, correctness of documents and diversification of service.

Process-related : Employees’ attitude in serving customers, employees’ interaction with customer needs, employees’ profession and awareness about customer enquiries and needs and technological application in providing service to customers.

Management-related : Technological application in operations and management, performance in operations and management, understanding of customer needs and customer needs-oriented continuous improvement.

Image/reputation-related : Reputation for good relationship with other supply chain partners and reputation for service reliability.

Social responsibility-related : Safe and environmentally responsible operations and social responsibility fulfillment.

In a recent study ( Thai, 2015 ), the resources-related quality dimension was removed because it influences others in the large extent. The new dimension, namely, “image and social responsibility” was introduced as the consequence of combining two separate dimensions of “image” and “social responsibility” when revising the model of PSQ. This combination was validated in the research of Thai (2015) and Yeo et al. (2015) . In these studies, several variables which are used to analyze each PSQ dimension have been revised to reflect the distinctive context of the port sector. For instance, the initial “physical infrastructure” under the resources-related dimension of ROPMIS model was revised to include “physical infrastructures such as berths, yards, warehouses, distribution center and hinterland connection networks.”

It can be observed in the existing literature that the customer satisfaction construct is well developed. Besides, this also encompasses measurements of satisfaction being reflected by equipment and facilities, services, as well as overall satisfaction ( Anderson et al. , 2009 ; Pantouvakis, 2010 ). Additionally, a primary logical inference is that customers just only maintain continuously their selection of the given service and propagandize positively about it to others only when they have the satisfaction with the service provided ( Cao and Chen, 2011 ). For this reason, the current study also included these two measurement items in the customer satisfaction construct. Table 2 presents the conceptual framework for this research and summary of measures. The ROPMIS model of Thai (2008) and PSQ models of Thai (2015) and Yeo et al. (2016) are the fundamental models of service quality to be applied and adopted in this study, in which the measurement items of quality dimensions in these models are also used but amended to be in relevant to the Vietnamese port context in our model of PSQ.

3.3 Research hypotheses

Outcomes-related PSQ positively influences customer satisfaction in Vietnamese seaports.

Process-related PSQ positively influences customer satisfaction in Vietnamese seaports.

Management-related PSQ positively influences customer satisfaction in Vietnamese seaports.

Image and social responsibility-related PSQ positively influences customer satisfaction in Vietnamese seaports.

3.4 Sampling and data collection

The data that were used to examine how PSQ affects port customers’ satisfaction were obtained from a national survey with port customers including shipping lines and shippers and/or their representatives such as freight forwarders and logistics service providers. The population that was selected to conduct the survey includes three customer groups in three regions of north, central and south of Vietnam. The first group is of domestic shipping lines which are members of Vietnam Shipowners’ Association (VSA). In total, 30 questionnaires were delivered in person to representatives of VSA’s members who are holding senior positions in business department, operations and customer service in their respective organizations. Meanwhile, the second group of prospective respondents includes 120 members of Vietnam Logistics Association to which the questionnaires were distributed via email. The same method of survey administration (email delivery) was also applied to distribute the questionnaire to 50 members of the third group, Vietnam Shippers’ Council.

The non-probability random sampling is the method selected for the national survey. The questionnaires were delivered to prospective organizations from October 2018 to February 2019. Prior to this, the questionnaire, which was initially designed in English, was translated into Vietnamese, then back-translated into English. The back-translated English version was compared with the original one to ensure thematic consistency. Next, the Vietnamese version of the questionnaire was piloted with several senior executives that are holding senior managerial positions in various container shipping lines and logistics firms in Vietnam. Only when this was done, the Vietnamese version of the questionnaire was administered for the survey. The main contents of the questionnaire consist of two main parts. The first part comprises 28 statements corresponding to 4 variables of PSQ and customer satisfaction. The second part collects demographic information (type of business, name of port and region, experience and current designation of respondents) for classification purpose. Likert scale ranging from 1 to 5 is used, with “1” indicating “Strongly disagree” and “5” denoting “Strongly agree.” By the cut-off date, the authors collected a total of 108 questionnaires from respondents, in which 99 valid replies were used for further analysis, yielding a response rate of 49.5%. About 30% of respondents are currently working in shipping companies, while 56% and 14% are freight forwarders/logistics service providers and shippers, respectively. Additionally, 47% of respondents have less than 5 years of working experience, 35% of respondents have 5 to 10 years of experience, while 18% of the remaining respondents have had more than 10 years of experience. It can be seen from these descriptive statistics that the respondents participating in this research are well eligible given their work experience in the maritime industry.

4. Analysis of results

4.1 factor analysis of the port service quality model.

Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and Cronbach’s alpha are the traditional tools being used to test how well the measured variables represent the number of constructs by measuring the validity and reliability. Several rounds of EFA were run using SPSS Version 20 software to derive the most accurate results and remove inconsistent variables with factor loading lower than 0.5. Table 3 reveals that the strength of inter-correlations, which is assessed by Bartlett’s test of sphericity and the Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin (KMO) measure of sampling adequacy was good. The KMO index is 0.882, greater than the normally suggested minimum value of 0.60 ( Hair et al. , 1995 ), and Bartlett’s test of sphericity is significant ( p = 0.000), indicating the suitability of a factor analysis. The factor analysis adopts the principal component analysis (PCA) technique and applies the varimax with Kaiser normalization approach. In the EFA process, seven items were removed, including PR4, MA2, MA3, MA6, CSR5, CSR6 and CSR7 as the conceptual meaning of the factor representing them is not jeopardized because of their absence. The last round of factor analysis of 21 measurement items found 5 components with eigenvalues above 1, explaining 70.054% of the variance ( Table 4 ). This analysis also produces a rotated component matrix which demonstrates how each measurement item is loaded on each of the factors ( Table 5 ).

Moreover, we can also evaluate the validity and reliability by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Based on the results of EFA, the validity and reliability of the extracted 4-factor PSQ model of 21 items and customer satisfaction of 5 items were conducted using CFA in the current study ( Churchill, 1991 ). The results of this measurement model are presented in Figure 1 and Table 6 . Looking at the results of CFA summarized in Table 6 , it can be seen that the standardized loadings for all items are above 0.6, reflecting a good correlation between these observed items and the latent variables. These obtained results are suitable as these values are higher than recommended minimum value of 0.50 ( Bagozzi et al. , 1991 ). Meanwhile, Litwin (1995) stated that the success of a social scientific research significantly depends on many factors besides accurate set of research tools and consistent sampling methods. For this reason, the comparative fit index (CFI), goodness-of-fit (GFI) index, composite reliability (CR), average variance extracted (AVE), maximum shared squared variance (MSV) and average shared squared variance (ASV) are examined to verify the convergent and discriminant validity, as well as CR of the measurement model ( Hair et al. , 2010 ). According to Bollen (1989 , p. 27), fit indices of CFI as low as 0.85 are “reasonable” for the model. Hair et al. (2010) also suggested the threshold for key fit indices e.g. GFI index should be more than 0.80 (good level), CR should be greater than 0.7, while there is no convergent validity issue when CR is bigger than AVE and AVE is greater than 0.5. Meanwhile, the discriminant validity is confirmed when both MSV and ASV are smaller than AVE. The results in Tables 6 and 7 show that no CR value is smaller than 0.7, all AVE values are bigger than 0.5 (convergent validity) and AVE values are bigger than all those of MSV and ASV (discriminant validity). These observed results prove that the required thresholds for reliability and validity in CFA are ensured for all factors extracted. Thus, the overall GFI of the model of 5 factors and 21 items is properly assured and the model is reliable and valid as an acceptable representation of the hypothesized model of PSQ and customer satisfaction in the context of Vietnam.

4.2 Impact of port service quality on customer satisfaction

To investigate the influence of service quality (independent variables) on customer satisfaction (dependent variable), the multiple regression was used with the confidence level of 95%. Given the sample size, it is deemed inappropriate to use structural equation modeling, and the deployment of multiple regression analysis in this study is also consistent to that in the previous research. Tables 8 and 9 illustrate the analysis results. All four factors of PSQ could be included in the regression equation as they match the entry requirements. Considering the result gained from multiple regression analysis, it can be seen that a suitable correlation between the dependent variable (customer satisfaction) and four predictors with the value of the multiple R (R = 0.780) is achieved, and this is statistically significant ( p = 0.000). In addition, the adjusted R 2 value is 0.591, indicating that about 59.1% of variance of the dependent variable (customer satisfaction) in this regression analysis can be explained by those of the independent variables (four predictor variables). The Durbin–Watson index is 1.546 being in the range from 1.5 to 2.5, meaning no autocorrelation problem exists.

As the value of significance tests of the regression demonstrating the coefficients of independent variables are all less than 0.05, these independent variables have meaningful explanations for the dependent variable, and no variables are excluded from the model. Additionally, there is a positive influence on customer satisfaction observed from all four predictors. Specifically, the greatest positive influence on customer satisfaction ( β = 0.538) belongs to the outcomes-related PSQ factor, while image and social responsibility-related PSQ ( β = 0.450) and process-related factor ( β = 0.248) stand at the second and third position, respectively. Standing in the last position is management-related ( β = 0.233) factor. Given the beta values and significance ( p -values) of the multiple regression test, it can be concluded that all four hypotheses in this research are supported, confirming that the PSQ of outcomes-based, image and social responsibility-based, process-based and management-based factors all have positive influence on customer satisfaction in Vietnamese seaports.

Generating the same result as the research of Thai (2015) , outcomes-related PSQ factor has the most positive influence on customer satisfaction. However, it is interestingly found that the second most important factor affecting customer satisfaction is image and social responsibility. It is undeniable that ports play a crucial role as an integrated node in global supply chains, and thus they should concentrate on all factors of PSQ as an all-rounded approach to managing service quality. In accordance with the general theory of service quality, the experience of user with the service is fundamentally shaped by encountering the outcome generated from the service. Thus, perceived service quality can be derived through comparing with the customer’s service expectation. Besides, it is also worth noticing that the image and social responsibility-related factor of PSQ deserves its second important position, thanks to its huge contribution to port sustainability nowadays; although, in this research, only those items measuring the port’s image were retained. It is evidenced that the reputation elements in the image and social responsibility-related factor of PSQ are the desirable elements of all business organizations in general and seaports in particular. Reputation is absolutely one of the most efficient tools for boosting ports’ brand equity but owning a positive reputation is not easily attained without implying the emphasis on the port’s corporate social performance as an important service quality enabler. This finding is crucial as it proves a pre-conception that, apart from reputation for reliability, safe and environmentally responsible operations are also essential to the quality service in the maritime industry, including that of ports. This industry frequently encounters a number of maritime accidents and incidents recorded daily which often cause the disasters affecting adversely the maritime ecosystem and surrounding areas. In terms of ports, customers’ perception of quality can be easily affected by the performance being relevant to reliability and safe and environmentally responsible operations. Indeed, ports around the world have been also aware of this issue, for instance, the biggest seaports worldwide currently are racing for automated and smart port concepts, which encourage and incentivize ships to use alternative and green energy and unmanned vehicles and are in line with IMO 2020 requirements. For example, the “Ghost Port Concept” has been used to refer to Qingdao in China and Singapore, where there is almost no presence of human ( Yun, 2017 ). For this reason, it is important to recognize that image and social responsibility-related factor positively influences customer satisfaction. Furthermore, this positive effect also contributes to justify port’s investment in this aspect.

5. Discussion and implications

This paper validates the dimensions of PSQ model constructed from the generic models in the research of Thai (2008 , 2015 ). Besides, in the context of a developing country like Vietnam, the investigation of how the dimensions of PSQ model influence customer satisfaction in the port sector is also carried out. Through the aforementioned analyses, it was unveiled that PSQ in Vietnam is a 4-dimensional construct consisting of 16 items relating to outcomes, process, management and image and social responsibility. It was also found that PSQ positively influences the satisfaction of ports’ customers, in which outcomes-related factor plays the most influential role, followed by image and social responsibility factor. The next paragraphs discuss the implications and recommendations to improve the customer satisfaction of port services in Vietnam.

5.1 Improving port service outcomes

Regarding the outcome-related PSQ factor, it is suggested that the senior management of seaports in Vietnam should improve the promptness in carrying out their port services. It is widely agreed both in the literature and port management practice that ship owners and operators always want their vessels to be dispatched as soon as possible, as berthing at ports for a long time costs a huge amount of money and is not economically efficient for them. This is also one of the most important factors for these customers to decide whether or not to bring their vessels into a port. Similarly, shippers and their representatives (i.e. freight forwarders and other logistics service providers) may not prefer a port whose cargo’s dwell-time is lengthy. Therefore, to meet the demand of these port customers, the operations department of any seaport would need to significantly outline detailed berth, ship and yard planning well in advance of vessel berthing (depending on the quality of human resource and computer software available at the port). Currently, the terminal operations system has been installed at many seaports in Vietnam to facilitate the operational activities of these ports. For this reason, there is the need to educate and train more staff and stevedores working at ports on technicalities in using the software and other operations. However, it was mentioned earlier in the introduction section that seaports in the north of Vietnam possess distinctive features compared to those in the south. Specifically, the concentration of seaports in the south and fragmentation of those in the north leads to the discrepancy in applying technology. Such a fragmentation and non-unification also reflect a piecemeal mindset in policy and management planning in Vietnam in several economic sectors, including that in the national logistics ( Banomyong et al. , 2015 ) and seaport ( Thai, 2017 ) systems. Because of the fragmentation, the seaport system in the North of Vietnam faces difficulties in unifying interchange information systems between seaports, shipping lines and other dry ports and inland container terminals. In this context, it is strongly recommended that the northern seaports of Vietnam should, under the guidelines of relevant government agencies i.e. Ministry of Transport and Vietnam Maritime Administration as well as professional peak body i.e. Vietnam Seaports Association, discuss and implement various measures for smooth application of technology in ports. For example, uniform standards and operating regulations should be established in ports which will then facilitate the unobstructed flows of ship and cargo movements, thus reducing turnaround time for ships and dwell-time for cargoes, and improving service quality for port users. This is important given that the efficiency of seaports especially container terminals is associated with their technical and technological efficiencies ( Yang and Yip, 2019 ). Meanwhile, with a higher proportion of electronic commerce port transactions in the south, seaports in this area should pay more attention on measures to enhance the security of all electronic transactions against cyber-security attacks.

Besides, for all seaports in Vietnam, the efficiency in shipment delivery and receipt and the price of these services also inevitably contribute to improve the outcomes of port services. Therefore, especially in this era of industrial revolution 4.0 (IR4), which includes Internet of Things, robotics and automation, the other recommendation to all ports and terminals in Vietnam is to effectively combine both human resource effectiveness and technology advancements to enhance port operational efficiency and service quality.

5.2 Improving port image, social responsibility and management

In terms of image and social responsibility, we offer recommendations relating to two elements being associated with this factor, namely, reputation and environment. Reputation reflects the image of the port, and significantly influences the subconscious feeling of customers when deciding to use the service at a certain port. Obviously, the reputation of a port could not be enhanced without customers’ positive experience of its service quality, and in the era of IR4, just a negative customer experience can be easily propagandized to the community with incredibly fast speed through social media. Hence, the responsibility of senior managements in a port is inevitably crucial, as they should set the role model of a leader to inspire employees to follow, especially when it comes to activities to enhance the port’s service quality.

In terms of the environmental aspect, this has always been an issue of much public concern globally; however, it has not been paid much attention in the context of maritime activities in Vietnam compared to profit. This is evident from the findings of this research in which all items related to social and environmental responsibility were dropped. With the new IMO 2020 (low sulfur fuel regulation), the issue of lowering and limiting harmful effects of economic activities on the environment has increasingly become critical. In the seaport sector, many seaports worldwide, such as Rotterdam and Long Beach, have been supplying liquefied natural gas and electricity to all vehicles and equipment (Port of Long Beach, 2020). Moreover, Rotterdam and Gothenburg ports provide incentives in terms of discount of port dues and charges for vessels berthing at port that are operated by clean or low sulfur fuel (Port of Gothenburg Port Tariff for 2018 and Port of Rotterdam, General Terms and Conditions Including Port Tariffs). As such, environmental education and implementation of environmental friendly measures in ports should be the pivotal solution for improving port image and social responsibility in Vietnamese seaports. These will help contribute to Vietnam Green Growth Strategy (GGS), which includes the measures necessary to achieve sustainable development and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and indicates the direction of measures that should be implemented in stages into the future ( Climate and Development Knowledge Network, 2013 ). Implementing GGS and Green Growth Action Plan is critical for the Government of Vietnam, and seaports undoubtedly play an essential role in this respect.

Previous research highlighted that social and environmental responsibility PSQ elements seem to affect customer satisfaction in developed countries of Singapore and South Korea ( Thai, 2015 ; Yeo et al. , 2016 ). In these port areas, environmental criteria in seaport activities have always been highly appreciated by port users. In contrast, some social responsibility-related indicators in port operations seem to be ignored by both port users and port service providers in Vietnam. Indeed, applying these in the context of Vietnamese seaports seems to be difficult given the implied cost constraints. Nevertheless, a suitable suggestion which can be applied now in seaports of Vietnam is the use of sewage disposal treatment (for ballast water) of vessels berthing at these seaports.

6. Conclusion, limitation and future research

The impact of service quality on customer satisfaction in the port sector is an under-researched area in the literature with only a few studies conducted quite recently, and scant research was found in the context of developing countries like Vietnam. Based on the results obtained from this research, it is evidenced that there are four factors contributing to PSQ, and customer satisfaction is significantly influenced by the enhancement of PSQ, in which the greatest impact is from the outcomes performance of port service. It can be seen from the findings of this research that there are academic and managerial implications, both in terms of contribution to knowledge and practical applications. First, this research contributes to enhance a comprehensive understanding of service quality as a key element of marketing strategy, especially in the context of the seaport sector in a developing country like Vietnam. The results affirm the significant and positive impacts of four PSQ factors, namely, outcomes, process, management, and image and social responsibility, which confirm the multi-dimensional nature of service quality on customer satisfaction. Second, some managerial and policy recommendations can also be derived from findings of this research. On the one hand, port managers in Vietnamese seaports are provided with guidelines on which areas of PSQ to focus their attention on so as to enhance their customers’ satisfaction. Specifically, improvements in various aspects of outcomes-related PSQ factors, i.e. timeliness, reliability, shipment safety and security, price and flexibility, should be made as these were perceived by port customers as critical contributors to their satisfaction with a port’s service quality. Besides, as port customers in Vietnam also appreciate the relationship that a port builds and maintains with its maritime supply chain partners, its operations and work safety as well as reputation for reliability in the market, policies and strategies for a more comprehensive and meaningful collaboration with other port stakeholders will be critical to a port’s performance in terms of service quality and customer satisfaction. This is especially important for seaports in the North of Vietnam to overcome the fragmentation and non-unification in port development which is partly because of the absence of the implementation of “port authority” similar to that elsewhere in the world ( Thai, 2017 ). Relevant government agencies i.e. the Ministry of Transport and Vietnam Maritime Administration therefore should look into this issue seriously and provide prudent guidelines for various port operators. Meanwhile, for seaports in the south, more attention should be focused specifically on the next stage of development. Whereas seaports participate more intensively in e-commerce based business, and thus important issues such as cyber-security and diversification of port services would be needed to enhance more values for port customers.

Despite the significance of this study’s findings, both in terms of theory building and managerial and policy implications, the generalization of this study should be done with caution. Being a developing country with unique political and socio-economic systems which are different from those of other emerging economies, the governance, administration and management of seaports in Vietnam possess some distinctive features (e.g. lack of “port authority” mentioned earlier) which may affect port customer satisfaction in some different ways. Therefore, it is recommended that the conceptual model developed in this research should be further tested in the context of other developing countries so as to improve the validity and reliability of the study instrument and enrich the theory of PSQ accordingly.

PSQ and customer satisfaction measurement model based on CFA

Summary of studies on PSQ dimensions

Constructs and measurement items

Total variance explained

Model summary – coefficient of determination

a Dependent Variable: CS

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