CHAPTER ONE

 INTRODUCTION

Customer service is a very important aspect of every operating business. Many startups have failed because of poor customer service. It reduces growth rate by deducting profitability. It also gives the business a bad reputation to the public.

This chapter of the study therefore presents the background to the study, the background to the case study, the problem statement, the research question, the objective, the research hypothesis, significance of the study and the structure of the study.

1.2 Background to the study

Customer service is the direct one-on-one interaction between a consumer making a purchase and a representative of the company that is selling it. Most retailers see this direct interaction as a critical factor in ensuring buyer satisfaction and encouraging repeat business (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Customer_service assessed 20/07/2020).

Today ‘s economic turbulence resulting from COVID 19 pandemic and the socio-political unrest in the South West and North West regions of Cameroon has created an emerging need of customer service for all businesses both in the public and private sector. Serving customers put greater attention in fulfilling this need.

In this state of affairs, the act of polishing employees’ skills, knowledge, teamwork and passion is needed as a process of ensuring better performance delivery. The growth in customer demand requires growing research attention on improving the customer service performance delivered to contribute to desirable customer outcomes (Fiori et al., 2007).

Customers today are highly informed and more demanding. Service quality, service speed and responsiveness to customer needs and wants has become important for businesses to succeed which brings about the improvement of sales growth and employee growth thus, the enhancement of organizational growth status (Olomi et al., 2002).

Customer service is an asset to any company and in the urge to improve and transform a business; employees are always considered as an important driving force (Galbreath, 2012). Improvements to ensure better employee performance and are also linked to achieving company goals through customer services enhancements (Liao and Chuang, 2004).

Likewise, ensuring better quality customer service is always crucial in today ‘s servicing industry as organizational performance can be best evaluated based on the service delivered to customers (Rosenblatt, 2003).

In relation to performance outcome and high delivery on quality services, customers that are satisfied with services received will purchase more, and come back to get the services (Belal and Owen, 2007). Therefore, mutual relationship and bonding between employee and customer is very important in determining good interactions and satisfaction as the employee behavior and motivational level plays an important role in influencing customer’s perception of the service being delivered (Liao and Chuang, 2004).

Furthermore, feedback is also an important outcome mechanism in ensuring good service deliverance as with this, it can be alleged that customer feedback and employee performance becomes one directional improvement initiative (Rhee et al., 2002).

Every business organization`s success depends on the satisfaction of the customers. Whenever a business is about to start, customers always come “first” and then the profit. Those companies that are succeeding to satisfy the customers fully will remain in top position in a market. Today’s business companies have known that customer satisfaction is the key component of their success and at the same time it plays a vital role to expand the market value.

In general, customers are those people who buy goods and services from the market or business that meets their needs and wants. Customers purchase products to meet their expectations in terms of money (value for money). Therefore, companies should determine their pricing with the quality of the product that attracts the customer and maintains the long-term affiliation (Maharjan, November 2017).

Also, companies today are more competitive than ever. In the past, customers made their decisions based on prices, products, or locations. Today, with internet growth, customers are focused on their experiences with the brand or organization. In the past year, 49% of United States of America customers made the switch to escape bad customer service (Rajcic, 2017).

Providing amazing customer care will not only reduce customer churn, but it will also increase customer retention. Above all, companies with amazing customer service culture will also have loyal customers as brand ambassadors who will gladly recommend their product or service to their family, friends, or colleagues. Word of mouth and customer advocacy is the most valuable (and a quite cheap one) form of marketing.

Customer service is a series of activities designed to enhance the level of customer satisfaction that is, the provision of service before, during and after so that the product or service meets customer expectation (Rhee and Bell, 2002). Customer service can be thought of as knowing what customers want and seeing that they get it. Sometimes, in business we think this is solely the job of the marketing department.

According to Kotler (1997) good customer service is an important aspect of the whole business process. It also creates customer satisfaction, loyalty, high profitability and eventually increases organizational performance (Areni, 2003).

Thus, a good customer service is the primary reason that customers differentiate a company from its competitors. So, it is worthy to mention that business success highly depends on good customer service. In other words, if the customer service of any organization increases, the growth of the organization increases in terms of sales growth, profit, brand equity and employee growth (Birdir, 2002).

Customer service is an important means for organizations to gain a competitive advantage in today ‘s service economy, in addition, customers who are satisfied tend to return for future business and sometimes assist in marketing service organization through word-of-mouth (Areni, 2003). Previous research has demonstrated that customer retention is increasingly profitable year after year in many industries (e.g., automotive, banking).

Further, exerting efforts to retain current customers is significantly less costly than gaining new customer. Because service effectiveness is increasingly becoming a critical organizational objective, it is important to examine how the delivery of service differs from more traditional manufacturing and delivery of goods (Samson and Little, 1993).

According to Haupt (2002) customer service can be measured in many dimensions such as: service empathy, access time and courtesy of staff. Although delivering superior service can generate numerous benefits to service providers, such as time saving, cost reducing, increased market shares and profits; consistently delivering good service is difficult even when companies can benefit from high quality services (Olomi and Rutashobya, 2012).

In a competitive environment, service companies have to focus on providing high customer service to maintain customer satisfaction and retain profitability for customers. Although satisfying customers is the main challenge to an enterprise, delighting them with unexpected quality (e.g. attractive service attribute) is also a worthwhile effort (Thompson, 1985). It is in the light of the above surrounding that the exploration of the effects of customer service on small businesses is vital for the firms’ development.

 1.3 Statement of the problem

If small businesses in the world were able to implement effective customer service, then they will record a high level of success in their performance which will intern increase profit and open door for possible expansion. Customer service being one of the key performing factors in every small business will be highly improved when these businesses focuses on utilizing customer satisfaction techniques and having customer retention as a goal.

Despite the fact that there is stiff competition, poor customer service poses as one of the main problems of these businesses in their attempt to attract and retain customers. Customer services in most of these businesses are still very poor. It is however very unfortunate that over the years, small businesses have been focusing on improving other segments of their circle whereas very little emphasis has been placed on customer service which is the reason for their stagnation. The inadequate use of customer satisfaction practices and negligence of customer retention strategies has resulted to the poor customer services offered by these businesses today.

Poor services usually arise when the sales persons refuse to attend to customers with love and attention. This leaves customers disappointed and dissatisfied with the business thus unhappy. Poor customer service has a negative effect on customer life time value. It is from this background that this study is aimed at improving the customer service of small businesses in Buea.

1.4 Research questions

1.4.1 Main Research Question

How does customers’ services provided by Restaurants in Buea Municipality be improved?

1.4.2 Specific Research Questions

1. How does customer service influence customer satisfaction in selected restaurants in the Buea Municipality?
2. How does customer service impact on customer loyalty among restaurants in the Buea Municipality?
3. What are the challenges faced by restaurants in providing quality customers services in the Buea Municipality?
4. What measures can be put in place to improve customers’ services among Restaurants in the Buea Municipality?

1.5 Research Objectives

1.5.1 Main research objective

The purpose of the research was to examined customers’ services provided by restaurants in the Buea Municipality

1.5.2 Specific research objectives

1. To evaluate how customer service affects customer satisfaction in selected restaurants in the Buea Municipality.
2. To establish how customer service impacts customer loyalty among restaurants in the Buea Municipality.
3. To examine the challenges faced by restaurants providing quality customers services in the Buea Municipality
4. To examine measures that can be put in place to improve customers’ services among Restaurants in the Buea Municipality.