2.
3 Service Quality The emergence of quality of service as a top priority in many corporate entities is primarily due to the globalization of world trade, and the competitive pressure brought about by the elevating demands of consumers, who want better goods and services. It ensures that the voice of the customer is always coincided by the voice of the processes (Khoshafian, S. 2016).
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Since the service quality is very important in surviving and in profit making of an organization, it affects both customer’s satisfaction and motivation, whether after shopping positively or before shopping positively (Hussain, R., Al Nasser, A., ; Hussain, Y. K. 2015). Service quality can have many different meanings in different contexts.
For example, Bansal, H. S., ; Taylor, S. (2015?) defined service quality as ”the consumer’s overall impression of the relative inferiority or superiority of the organization and its services”. While Theodorakis, N. D.
, Kaplanidou, K., & Karabaxoglou, I. (2015) defined perceived service quality as ”a universal judgment, or attitude relating to the excellence of a service”. In their efforts to reach a model for service quality Hussain, R., Al Nasser, A.
, & Hussain, Y. K. (2015) identified 5 determinants of service quality used by customers to build their own perceptions which are: reliability, responsiveness, empathy, assurance, and tangibles.2.4 Customer Satisfaction “Satisfaction is a psychological outcome emerging from an experience” a definition by (Heino, J. (2015). Also satisfaction can be defined “as an overall customer attitude towards a service provider”, or “an emotional reaction to the difference between what customers anticipate and what they receive” (Lalaram, J.
J. S., Cassim, N., & Karodia, A. M. 2016). Another definition was given by (WTO, 1985) as follows “customer satisfaction is a psychological concept that involves the feeling of well-being and a pleasure that results from obtaining what one hopes for and expects from an interesting product/service”.
2.5 Relationship between Service Quality and Customer Satisfaction (Nagle, T. T., & Müller, G. 2017) stated that the company survives only when it has customers and grows only when it can retain them and attract new ones, therefore, it should be structured and managed around these concepts. Customers always stay with those companies that are special for them, and they become devoted to the brands that make them feel special. On the other hand Kerzner, H.
, & Kerzner, H. R. (2017) stated that changes in the business environment and in the market place have changed customer behavior.
If companies fail to treat customer well and give them what they want, they will leave. Current and even prospective customers are today faced with an unprecedented range of choices, not only choices of what to buy but where to buy. It is virtually impossible for a company to succeed today if its products/services are inferior. While Lasserre, P. (2017) said that during the 1980s customer awareness led to a higher degree of customer sovereignty, and organizations could no longer neglect customer requirements.
The differentiator that provided a competitive advantage was the ‘quality of service’. Accordingly one main hypotheses and five sub-hypotheses are proposed:• H3: There is a direct correlation between service quality and customers’ satisfaction. • H31: There is a direct correlation between responsiveness as a service quality dimension and customers’ satisfaction. • H32: There is a direct correlation between assurance as a service quality dimension and customers’ satisfaction. • H33: There is a direct correlation between tangibles as a service quality dimension and customers’ satisfaction.• H34: There is a direct correlation between empathy as a service quality dimension and customers’ satisfaction. • H35: There is a direct correlation between reliability as a service quality dimension and customers’ satisfaction.
Summary The first objective of the research was to determine the performance drivers that have a positive impact on ports performance taking quality of service and customer satisfaction as a performance indicators. The second objective was to develop a theoretical framework that can be used as a guide for ports managers to establish and maintain a superior quality of service. To carry out this stage of the research, the key CSFs, service quality, and customers’ satisfaction have been extensively investigated through an intensive literature review. Based upon them, a conceptual model of CSFs implementation in relation with port performance, using service quality, customers’ satisfaction as a performance indicators was proposed, 3 main hypotheses and 25 sub-hypotheses were generated.
