The impact of customer satisfaction on customer loyalty among telecom companies in Kuwait

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

My thanks go out to all who have helped me complete this study and with whom this project may have not been possible. In particular, my gratitude goes out to friends, facilitator and family for extensive and helpful comments on early drafts. I am also deeply indebted to the authors who have shared my interest and preceded me. Their works provided me with a host of information to learn from and build upon, also served as examples to emulate.

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DECLARATION

I, (Your name), would like to declare that all contents included in this thesis/dissertation stand for my individual work without any aid, & this thesis/dissertation has not been submitted for any examination at academic as well as professional level previously. It is also representing my very own views & not essentially which are associated with university.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSII

DECLARATIONIII

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW (CONTINUATION)1

2.14 Responsiveness and Reliability1

2.15 Empathy2

2.16 Service Evaluations2

2.17 Word of Mouth3

2.18 Patronage Purchase behaviour4

2.19 Customer Value Scales4

2.20 Managerial Implications5

2.21 Service Quality and Satisfaction6

2.22 Importance of Customer Satisfaction in the Telecom Industry13

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY21

3.1 Overview of Qualitative and Quantitative Research Approaches21

3.2 Interviews22

3.3 Research Instrument23

3.4 Informed Consent24

3.5 Confidentiality24

3.6 Validity24

3.7 Qualitative Data Analysis25

3.8 Suggestion for Future Research26

3.9 Ethical concern27

3.10 Justifying the Research Question27

CHAPTER 4: DISCUSSION29

4.1 Five main components of customer satisfaction in telecom industry29

4.1.1 Call quality29

4.1.2 Performance31

4.1.3 Pricing32

4.1.4 Branch facility33

4.1.5 Coverage & VAS34

4.2 Differences between Satisfaction and Service quality35

4.3 The conceptualization of loyalty36

4.4 Customers38

4.5 The Model39

4.6 Technology40

4.7 Organization Culture41

4.8 Network41

4.9 Regulatory Issues42

4.10 Suppliers and Partners42

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION43

5.1 Success Factors43

5.2 Pricing43

5.3 Different Ways of Payment43

5.4 Call quality performance44

5.5 Success Measures44

5.6 Competitive performance45

5.7 Recommendations46

5.8 Marketing practices47

REFERENCES50

APPENDICES53

Interview questionnaire53

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW (Continuation)

2.14 Responsiveness and Reliability

Respondents add another view on customer and service provider relationships. Thus it can be argued that the consumers' or service providers' strength of power depends on the nature of an industry. If the types of services are deeply value-added and difficult to copy, and if availability of alternative services is limited, the service provider has power over customers. In the other cases, customers have power over the service providers (Atuahene-Gima 2006).

Therefore, the relationships between customers and the service providers are shaped by the nature of an industry rather than to be generalized. Since this research is targeting telecom sector, as per respondents notion that service providers have power over consumers is expected to fit better (Hult 2008). In the high-Power Distance culture, customers who have just mere relationships are generally given more privilege than those of others. The customers tend to tolerate poor service performance due to their service providers' power from their expertise or social status (Felton 2007). In the countries in a low-Power Distance culture, marketing effort is to communicate and satisfy all customers with little or no distinction among them. Thus, in this research, it is assumed that consumers from a high-Power Distance culture would be more likely to tolerate service failure from those who have power (Dempsey ...