Assignment Writing Service http://StudyHub.vip/AN-ASSESSMENT-OF-SERVICE-QUALITY-ON-CUS 👈

1. AN ASSESSMENT OF SERVICE QUALITY ON
CUSTOMER SATISFACTION:
A Case Study of Tel•One (Pvt) Limited
LOVEMORE MUTSVANGA
R102387N
A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for
the Degree of Master of Strategic Marketing Management
Business Studies Department,
Faculty of Commerce, University of Zimbabwe.
Supervisor: Mr JD. Nhavira
May 2014

2. i
DECLARATION
Student’s Declaration - I, Lovemore Mutsvanga do hereby declare that this dissertation is the
result of my own investigation and research, except to the extent indicated in the
acknowledgements, references and by documents included in the body of the report, and that
it has not been submitted in part or in full for any degree in any other university.
Student Name: Lovemore Mutsvanga
Student Number: R102387N
Signature ………………………………….. Date ………………….
(Student)
Supervisor Declaration – I JD Nhavira, confirm that the work reported in this dissertation
was carried out by the candidate under my supervision as the University supervisor. This
dissertation has been submitted for review with my approval as University Supervisor.
______________________________ ________________________
Signature (Supervisor) Date

3. ii
DEDICATION
This dissertation is dedicated to my dear wife Dorica Mutsvanga and my children Silence and
Shalom Mutsvanga for making me who I am today out of their love and sacrifices.

4. iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I take this opportunity to acknowledge all those who helped me to come up with this
complete project and those who have inspired me and contributed to my deep understanding
of service quality and customer satisfaction in Business organisations in Zimbabwe and
Parastatals in Zimbabwe and particularly in Tel•One (Pvt) Ltd. My acknowledgement of
appreciation goes to my Lecturer, Mr. N. Muzondo for his leadership and encouragement in
carrying out this project. His encouragement when I needed advice and assistance helped me
so much right through the production of this project. I say Thank You.
I am also grateful for the support that I received from Dr Kaseke. His leadership and
inspiration will forever be remembered for this study. I am also indebted to Mr Gwavuya for
his assistance and support as an early Lecturer and advisor in my academic life at University
of Zimbabwe.
I have received inspiration and encouragement many times in my life from my colleague,
who is also my uncle, Mr Stanley Munyaradzi Choto. I also acknowledge the support I
received from my friends and colleagues and chief among a long list include; Mr E Woyo,
Mr. S Dube and Mr E Nyambo. To Mr E Woyo, I say your contribution and support to this
document will never be forgotten.
I am greatly indebted to my Supervisor, Mr J.D. Nhavira for constantly and patiently guiding
and supporting right through this research project, I say many thanks to you. I take this
opportunity to the encouragement and inspiration I received from my uncle and his wife
Edwel and Aretha Maposa. The encouragement has made a lot of great difference in my life
and of what I am today. To my uncle Edwel, I say you become an all round man to my life. I
say Thank You.
I take this opportunity to thank my wife Mrs Dorica Mutsvanga and children Silence and
Shalom Mutsvanga for their encouragement. I thank my wife and children for exercising
patience during the time when I was away from them working on this project and attending
lecturers during weekends and holidays. I spent several hours of study time away home at the
expense of their quality family time and they even stretch further with their financial support
towards my studies at University. Without their understanding this dissertation wouldn’t be
successful. I say Thank You so much.

5. iv
ABSTRACT
With a view to remaining competitive and for businesses to grow, service quality and
customer satisfaction are key concepts. These two paradigms are rather different concepts,
but, however, are closely correlated. (Sureshchandar et al, 2003). However, in Zimbabwe,
over the past decade, the performance of Tel•One Private Limited has been poor, and
continuously deteriorating in this regard. There was a strong reason to believe that this
exponential decline in performance has been due to the deteriorating service quality. Basing
on Sureshchandar’s propositions, it was therefore the major purpose of this study to ascertain
the perceived service quality and to explore the relationship, if any, between service quality
and customer satisfaction in the context of Tel•One, a Zimbabwean Telecommunications
Company. Basing on the SERVQUAL instrument, a questionnaire was developed and
distributed using a convenience sampling technique to 150 respondents in Harare. From the
analysis, it was found that the overall service quality in Tel•One as was relatively poor, and
that the customers were not satisfied with the services of Tel•One. Further, inferential
analysis proved true the dependency of customer satisfaction on the quality of service, and
that this relationship was a very high positive correlation. The service quality attributes that
affect customer satisfaction were also evaluated and are, in order of decresing importance,
Reliability, Tangibles, Responsiveness, Assurance, and Empathy and Products. The major
recommendation was that there was a great need for Tel•One to revisit it service quality, and
that the SERQUAL model, along with the results of this study, would help in improving
customer satisfaction, and thus improving its performance and the overall profitability.

6. v
Table of Contents
DECLARATION........................................................................................................................i
DEDICATION...........................................................................................................................ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS..................................................................................................... iii
ABSTRACT..............................................................................................................................iv
LIST OF TABLES....................................................................................................................xi
LIST OF FIGURES .................................................................................................................xii
CHAPTER ONE........................................................................................................................1
INTRODUCTION .....................................................................................................................1
1.0 Introduction..........................................................................................................................1
1.1 Background of Study ...........................................................................................................2
1.2 Problem Statement...............................................................................................................5
1.3 Research Objectives.............................................................................................................6
1.4 Research Hypothesis/Proposition/Assumption/Theory .......................................................7
1.5 Significance of the Study.....................................................................................................7
1.5.1 Benefits of the research.....................................................................................................7
1.5.1.1 Benefits to the Researcher ......................................................................................7
1.5.1.2 Benefits to Tel•One Private Limited and Other Business Organisations...............8
1.6 Scope of Research................................................................................................................8
1.7 Definition of Terms..............................................................................................................9
1.7.1 Service Quality..................................................................................................................9
1.7.2 Customer Satisfaction.......................................................................................................9
1.8 Structure of the Dissertation ..............................................................................................10

7. vi
CHAPTER TWO .....................................................................................................................11
LITERATURE REVIEW ........................................................................................................11
2.0 Introduction........................................................................................................................11
2.1 Service Quality...................................................................................................................11
2.2 Consumer Satisfaction .......................................................................................................13
2.3 The SERVQUAL Model....................................................................................................17
2.4 Service Quality Models......................................................................................................19
2.4.1 Gap 1: Customer Expectation vs. Management Perception Gap....................................20
2.4.2 Gap 2: Management Perception versus Service Quality Specifications........................21
2.4.3 Gap 3: Provider Quality Specs versus Service Delivery ...............................................21
2.4.4 Gap 4: Service Delivery – External Communications Gap ............................................22
2.4.5 Gap 5: Expected Service – Perceived Service Gap ........................................................22
2.5 Models for Measuring Quality...........................................................................................22
2.6 Criticisms of the SERVQUAL...........................................................................................24
2.7 Service Quality and Customer Satisfaction .......................................................................25
2.8 Provider Quality Concept in Zimbabwe ............................................................................30
CHAPTER THREE .................................................................................................................31
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY.............................................................................................31
3.0 Introduction........................................................................................................................31
3.1 Research Design.................................................................................................................31
3.1.1 Exploratory Research design ..........................................................................................32
3.1.2 Descriptive Research Design ..........................................................................................32
3.1.3 Explanatory Research Design.........................................................................................32
3.2 Research Philosophy..........................................................................................................33

8. vii
3.2.1 Positivism........................................................................................................................33
3.2.2 Interpretivism..................................................................................................................34
3.3 Research Approach ............................................................................................................34
3.4 Research Strategy...............................................................................................................35
3.4.1 Action Research..............................................................................................................35
3.4.2 Case study.......................................................................................................................36
3.5 Population and Sampling Techniques................................................................................37
3.5.1 Sampling and Sampling Techniques...............................................................................38
3.5.2 Sampling Unit.................................................................................................................38
3.5.3 Sample size .....................................................................................................................38
3.5.4 Sampling Techniques......................................................................................................39
3.6 Data Collection Methods ...................................................................................................40
3.7 Data Collection Instruments ..............................................................................................42
3.7.1 Questionnaire Instrument................................................................................................42
3.7.2 Interview Instrument.......................................................................................................43
3.7.3 Questionnaire Design......................................................................................................44
3.74 Administering the Questionnaire .....................................................................................45
3.8 Pre-testing the Research Instrument ..................................................................................45
3.9 Validity and Reliability......................................................................................................46
3.10 Data Analysis...................................................................................................................47
3.11 Ethical Considerations .....................................................................................................47
3.12 Problems and Limitations of Study..................................................................................47
3.13 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................48
CHAPTER FOUR....................................................................................................................49
DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS .........................................................................49
4.0 Introduction........................................................................................................................49

9. viii
4.1 Reliability Analysis............................................................................................................49
4.2 Response Rate....................................................................................................................49
4.3 Demographic Analysis.......................................................................................................50
4.3.1 Gender.............................................................................................................................50
4.3.2 Respondents’ Age...........................................................................................................51
4.4 Tel•One Service Delivery Status Quo ...............................................................................51
4.4.1 Quality of Service and Products from Tel•One ..............................................................52
4.4.2Perceptions on Speed of Service Delivery.......................................................................53
4.4.3Reliability of Tel•One’s Products and Services...............................................................54
4.4.4 Customer Satisfaction.....................................................................................................55
4.4.5Technical Quality.............................................................................................................55
4.4.6Responsiveness to Customers..........................................................................................56
4.4.7Price and Value for Money..............................................................................................57
4.5 Factors influencing Service Quality...................................................................................58
4.5.1 Gender and Service Quality............................................................................................62
4.5.2 Age and Service Quality.................................................................................................63
4.6 The Relationship between Service Quality and Customer Satisfaction.............................65
4.7 The Greatest Impact Service Quality Factors on Customer Satisfaction...........................67
4.8 Conclusion .........................................................................................................................69
CHAPTER FIVE .....................................................................................................................70
5.0 Introduction and Findings..................................................................................................70
5.1 Service Delivery at Tel•One ..............................................................................................70
5.2 Factors Influencing Service Quality at Tel•One................................................................70
5.3 Relationship between Service Quality and Customer Satisfaction....................................71
5.4 Major factors affecting Customer Satisfaction in Tel•One................................................71

10. ix
5.5 Conclusions of the Study ...................................................................................................71
5.3 Recommendations of the Study .........................................................................................72
5.4 Limitations of the Research ..........................................................................................74
5.4 Directions of Future Research ...........................................................................................74
REFERENCES ........................................................................................................................75
APPENDIX 1: RESEARCH QUESTIONNAIRE...................................................................81
Questionnaire...........................................................................................................................81

11. x
LIST OF ACRONYMS
POTRAZ - Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe
GOZ - Government of Zimbabwe

12. xi
LIST OF TABLES
Table 4.1: Reliability Statistics …………………………………………………….49
Table 4.2 Response rate ……………………………………………………………50
Table 4.3 Factor Analysis.......................................................................................... 59
Table 4.4: ANOVA Analysis.................................................................................... 61
Table 4.5: Independent Samples t-test, Gender……………………………………. 63
Table 4.6: Independent Samples t-test, Age………………………………………. 64
Table 4.7:Service Quality/Customer Satisfaction Contingency Table .................... 65
Table 4.8: Chi-Square Analysis.................................................................................65
Table 4.9: Spearman’s Rho Correlation Analysis..................................................... 66
Table 4.10: Regression Model Summary.................................................................. 67
Table 4.11: Multiple Regression Analysis – Coefficients ....................................... 68

13. xii
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 2.1: SERVQUAL Model................................................................................ 16
Figure 4.1 Distribution by Gender.............................................................................50
Figure 4.2: Age Distribution......................................................................................51
Figure 4.3: Quality of Service and Products from Tel•One…………………………52
Figure 4.4: Speed of Service Delivery ……………………………………………..53
Figure 4.5: Reliability of Tel•One Products and Services........................................ 54
Figure 4.6: Customer Satisfaction…………………………………………………..55
Figure 4.7: Technical Quality.................................................................................... 56
Figure 4.8: Responsiveness to Customers................................................................. 57
Figure 4.9: Price and Value for Money..................................................................... 57

14. 1
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.0 Introduction
In order to remain competitive and for business to grow, service quality and customer
satisfaction are key concepts. Service quality and customer satisfaction are different, but
related concepts (Sureshchandar et al, 2003), but however, these two exhibit a very strong
correlation. Satisfaction can be regarded as an antecedent of service quality (Carman, 1990).
Thus, satisfactory experience may therefore affect customer attitude and his or her
assessment of perceived service quality. Thus, satisfaction with a specific transaction may
result with positive global assessment of service quality. However, other authors have argued
that it is the other way round that is service quality is antecedent of customer satisfaction
(Oliver, 1997).
However, in Zimbabwe, over years, the performance of Tel•One Private Limited has been
poor in this regard. The purpose of this study was to describe how customers perceive service
quality and weather they are satisfied with services offered by Tel•One, a business
Telecommunications Company. The thrust of this study was to compose an assessment of
service quality and customer satisfaction in business organisations in Zimbabwe in
Zimbabwe within the context of Tel•One Private Limited. In this study efforts were made to
examine how service quality issues are being managed within business organisations in
Zimbabwe. It was also imperative to note that this study, also examined the factors that were
driving service quality and customer satisfaction which in this study strictly referred to the
context of Tel•One Private Limited.
Service quality and customer satisfaction are very imperative concepts to academic
researchers studying evaluations and to practitioners as a means of creating competitive
advantages and customer loyalty. Many industries are paying attention to service quality and
customer satisfaction for numerous reasons and chief among them are increased competition
and deregulation. The ever changing and competitive market environment offers challenges
and opportunities to many organisations across the globe. Customers’ perception of service
quality always pose a great challenge which is unique than other business challenges.

15. 2
Excellence in service quality has become quite imperative for organisational sustainability
(Lewis et al., 1994). The advances in information and communication technologies have
enabled a number of organisations to provide superior services for customers’ satisfaction
(Surjadjaja et al., 2003)
1.1 Background of Study
Today’s fast paced and increasingly competitive global market requires effective and
efficient strategies to survive and to make profits which can contribute toward the growth of
the organisation. Service quality and customer satisfaction and customer retention are global
issues that affect all organisations whether private or business, small or large, global or local.
Literature available showed that organisations are interested in studying, evaluating, and
implementing marketing strategies that aim to improve customer satisfaction and retention
with an intention to maximise the financial performance of the firm. International literature
showed that there has been a strong advocacy for the adoption of customer retention as one of
the key performance indicators as noted by Kaplan and Norton (2001). Service quality and
customer satisfaction have long been recognised as playing a crucial role towards the
organisational success and survival in today’s global competitive market.
It is obvious that the customers are more important stakeholders in many organisations and
their satisfaction is a priority in marketing management. Customer satisfaction and service
quality has been a subject of interest to researchers and organisations as it has been proven by
some researchers that service quality is related to customer satisfaction. Profit maximisation
can be achieved through increase in sales with lesser costs and one of the ways of achieving
that is through exceeding customer satisfaction (Wilson et al, 2008).
Customers are constantly aiming to get the highest satisfaction from products or services that
they buy from various organisations across the globe. Thus, it must be noted that winning in
today’s competitive marketplace demands that organisations need to build profitable and
lasting customer relationship . (Kotler, et al,.2002).
Much research has also gone into customer-centric marketing philosophies by marketing
researchers, scholars and practitioners. Both researchers and practitioners are increasingly
looking for ways to understand, attract, retain and build intimate long term relationships with

16. 3
profitable customers (Kotler, 2006). It goes without mentioning that one of the key and
imperative ways of building customer centred marketing is ensuring that existing customers
are satisfied with the quality of service on offer. Thus, it becomes key for this study to find
out the efforts that Tel•One Private Limited is putting in ensuring that it becomes a customer
centred organisations. In addition to this, it is also the objective of this study to assess the
current efforts by Tel•One Private Limited towards service quality and customer satisfaction
and how it has impacted on building profitable customer relationships.
It is well documented that various business organisations are studying and developing
strategies to satisfy customers and meet customer expectations. Research has shown that a
very satisfied customer is nearly six times more likely to be loyal to the organisation and
chances are high when it comes to repeat business. In addition to this, it is generally agreed
among scholars that a satisfied client is likely to make recommendation of the product or
service to family and friends as compared to dissatisfied customers (Kotler, 2006).
Tel•One Private Limited is a fixed telecommunications service provider that is 100% owned
by the Government of Zimbabwe (GOZ). Tel•One Private Limited is an organisation within
the telecommunications industry in Zimbabwe. Like any other service organisations Tel•One
has the quest to deliver quality service to satisfy its customers in the midst of fierce
competition for market share with numerous local and global competitors. The
telecommunications industry in Zimbabwe is regulated by Postal and Telecommunications
Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ), which has the object of ensuring effective
administration, supervision and regulation and control of the business of telecommunications
in Zimbabwe. Over the past decade, competition in the industry has greatly increased as
many new products and entrants have joined the industry.
In Zimbabwe, it must be noted that the telecommunications industry is undergoing a
tremendous and dramatic transformation and experiencing heightened competition. The
telecommunications industry is an important sector of the economy but often neglected area
of academic study and research. The fact is that ‘telecommunications business’ is regarded as
a low credence service and the quality of the services are difficult to prove until customers
consume the service. Given these imperative issues that need to be addressed, the purpose of
this study will be an assessment of factors affecting service quality and customer satisfaction
in business enterprises with particular reference to Tel•One Private Limited. Specifically, this

17. 4
study seeks to assess the nature and relationship between service quality and customer
satisfaction within Tel•One and how it influences patronage.
However, as many industry sectors in Zimbabwe mature, competitive advantage through high
service quality is an increasingly important weapon in business survival given the height of
globalisation. The telecommunications industry from which Tel•One Private Limited
operates has certainly not been exempted from increased competition from Econet Wireless,
Telecel Zimbabwe, Africom, Powertel and Net One. In addition to this, the organisation has
not been exempted from escalating customer expectations of service quality. In Zimbabwe,
the telecommunications industry is really undergoing a tremendous transformation and
experiencing heightened competition from numerous players who are part of the emerging
industry in Zimbabwe. The telecommunications industry is a critical industry in Zimbabwe
but it has received little academic attention.
It must be noted that the performance of telecommunications in Zimbabwe has received little
or no academic attention with regards to service quality and customer satisfaction. Thus it
will be the objective of this study to assess if the performance of Tel•One Private Limited
would affect the service quality that is usually given to customers. In today’s fast-paced and
increasingly competitive market, the bottom line of a firm’s marketing strategies and tactics
is to make profits and contribute to the growth of the company. Customer satisfaction, service
quality and maintenance are global issues that affect all organizations, be it large or small,
profit or non-profit, global or local, business or private owned (Kaplan and Norton, 2001).
Many companies are interested in studying, evaluating and implementing marketing
strategies that aim at improving customer retention and maximizing share of customers in
view of the beneficial effects on the financial performance for the firm.
A high correlation between customer retention and profitability was established (Reichheldet
al, 1990), thus it becomes the aim of this study to test the correlation between service quality
and customer satisfaction within the confines of Tel•One Private Limited. Service quality and
customer satisfaction playing a very important role towards the success and competitiveness
of a firm in today’s dynamic and competitive global market (Söderlundet al, 2005). It must be
noted that, considerable research has gone into these concepts. Notably, service quality and
customer satisfaction have been linked to customer behavioural intentions like purchase and
loyalty intention, willingness to spread positive word of mouth, referral, and complaint

18. 5
intention by many researchers (Söderlund and Öhman, 2005) thus this must be assessed in the
context of Tel•One Private Limited and see if the same results can be obtained.
The focus on customer-centric marketing philosophies has received considerable attention in
the marketing literature by scholars and practitioners. Both practitioners and scholars are
increasingly looking for ways to comprehend, exert a pull on, preserve and build cherished
long term relationships with profitable customers (Kotler, 2006). One of the key areas in the
customer-centred marketing concept is ensuring that existing customers are satisfied for the
purposes of repeat business in the future. As a result organisations have been studying and
developing strategies to satisfy customers and achieve customer delight.
1.2 Problem Statement
The problem of this study is principally informed by the fact that there is very limited
empirical documentation in the area of customer satisfaction and service quality in the
telecommunications industry in Zimbabwe for both research and industrial management. It
must be noted that in Zimbabwe the empirical studies on the state of quality service and
customer satisfaction in business organisations is very scanty. As far as researchers are
concerned little academic attention has been done within the telecommunications industry in
Zimbabwe to inform stakeholders, including POTRAZ regarding service quality delivered by
Telecommunication companies including Tel•One Private Limited to its customers. Tel•One
is one such company that is failing to adapt to the change in the business environment. This is
evidenced by its relatively declining customer base (POTRAZ, 2014),public criticism for lack
of skills proficiency (Makura, 2013), diversion of company funds (Mhlanga, 2013), carrying
a bloated workforce (Bulawayo24, 2012) and general failure to adopt new technology. To
further compound these problems, Tel·One’s financial situation is unhealthy as it is owed
close to US$300 million by its customers and its owing around the same figure in long term
loans. High churn rate of customers due to failure top service bills and poor customer
satisfaction within the company.
Tel·One’s problems arose primarily from the legacy debt it inherited from the former Posts
and Telecommunications Corporation (PTC) which was unbundled in 1999. Since the debt
was passed on Tel•One the company has been failing to service it on time with interest
expenses increasing each year. Additionally, the company is still operating using equipment

19. 6
and technology that was originally put in place in the early 1900s which has since become
obsolete and inadequate to support new telecommunications services. Internally, the
company’s processes particularly service processes have not evolved much and the
organisational hierarchy is still structured in line with the original business model. To
compound this problem the country economic situation declined significantly in the past
decade which has seen the economy phase out the local currency for a multi-currency regime.
In Zimbabwe, telecommunications market is forecast to be worth $1.34 billion by 2016 in
terms of revenue (ICT Strategy Document 2012).The projections assume that companies such
as Tel•One Private Limited follow an organic growth curve in terms of building customer
relationship and infrastructure development (POTRAZ 2011). As such, there is an urgent
need to increase understanding of the factors that drive customer satisfaction in the
telecommunications industry in order to provide Tel•One Private Limited’s management with
empirical basis for developing effective service quality and effective marketing strategies that
promote growth in terms of its customer base. Thus, the research problem is that TelOne
(Pvt) Ltd is not delivering quality services inorder to meet its customer satisfaction.
With regard to the above statement of the problem, the study will seek to answer the
following specific research questions:
1. What is the status quo in terms of service delivery in Tel•One
2. What are the factors influencing service quality in Tel•One?
3. What is the relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction?
4. What are the major factors that affect customer satisfaction in Tel•One?
5. What mechanisms can Tel•One Private Limited use to continuously improve the level
of service quality and customer satisfaction?
1.3 Research Objectives
The purpose of this study will be to assess the service quality and the effect it has on
customer satisfaction within the context of Tel•One. Thus, the objectives of this study will
be:
1. To assess the status quo in relation to service delivery at Tel•One
2. To examine the factors influencing service quality in the context of Tel•One
3. To establish the relationship between service quality on customer satisfaction;

20. 7
4. To establish the major factors affecting customer satisfaction in Tel•One.
5. To identify mechanisms to continuously improve the level of service quality and
customer satisfaction within Tel•One.
1.4 Research Hypothesis/Proposition/Assumption/Theory
From the foregoing, the primary research hypotheses were:
H0: Customer Satisfaction is not dependent on Service Quality
H1: Customer Satisfaction is dependent on Service Quality
The research also sought to establish the validity of the SERVQUAL factors attributes in the
context of Tel•One, and below are further hypotheses that were proposed:
H1: Tel•One’s Empathy has an impact on Service Quality
H2: Tel•One’s Assurance has an impact on Service Quality
H3: Tel•One’s Tangibles have an impact on Service Quality
H4: Tel•One’s Responsiveness has an impact on Service Quality
1.5 Significance of the Study
This section reports on the significance of the study. The major importance of this study, was
to explore and understand the relationship, if any, between Tel•One’s quality of services and
the satisfaction of its customers, whose outcome would help in strategically resolving the
problems that this research would unfold, and thus help increase the company’s profitability.
This research will also uncover the dimensions of service quality that customers considered
as significant. This will provide empirical support for management strategic decisions in
several critical areas of their operations.
1.5.1 Benefits of the research
The benefits of the research are multifold as highlighted below:
1.5.1.1 Benefits to the Researcher
Through this research the researcher was able to further numerous skills of critical research,
make academic and evaluative judgments in practical field, thus put to test the knowledge

21. 8
acquired. In this study, the researcher was enabled to get an appreciation of the versatile
marketing environment in which business organisations in Zimbabwe and the competitive
telecommunications industry. It is in this vain that the researcher was able to develop a
positive perception of the achievements and challenges met by other researchers in
establishing the fundamentals of research foundation in terms of service quality and customer
satisfaction within business organisations in Zimbabwe and the telecommunications industry
which has been quite competitive over the years.
1.5.1.2 Benefits to Tel•One Private Limited and Other Business Organisations
Wherever possible, the results of this study will help policy makers within Tel•One Private
Limited:
 To implementing strategies that maintain and enhance service quality that
meets and exceeds customer expectations
 To develop effective and consistent service standards to relevant stakeholders
 To assist Tel•One Private Limited to understand the importance of service
quality and customer satisfaction.
 To assist Tel•One Private Limited to benchmark among the state enterprise
and telecommunications through effective service delivery and customer
satisfaction
 To understand the importance of service quality in building competitiveness
and profitable customer satisfaction within the telecommunications
1.6 Scope of Research
The study will be done in Harare using the Tel•One Private Limited as a case study. Thus, the
administration personnel of Tel•One Private Limited and workers and other respondents will
be drawn from different stations in Harare, and institutional customers who use Tel•One
Private Limited services and those who would have used the same services before. The
researcher chose to deal with Harare stations because most of the customers are dominated in
Harare than other regions and more so Harare is where it is Head Office is situated where it is
responsible for corporate strategy and decision making. It is the researcher’s assumption that
Tel•One Private Limited is somehow engaged in some kind of service quality management.
The choice of Tel•One Private Limited as a case has been motivated by the fact that the
researcher is eager to make an assessment of service quality and how it affects customer

22. 9
satisfaction within the telecommunications in Zimbabwe. These and many other geopolitical,
social factors make Harare an interesting delimitation of this study.
1.7 Definition of Terms
It is of essence and indispensable that terms to be applied in this study be defined in a way
that they are going to be applied in the dissertation. These definitions are meant to spell out
the milieu, in which the terms are used and applied in this dissertation
1.7.1 Service Quality
Parasuramanet al. (1985) defines service quality as the comprehensive assessment or outlook
of overall excellence of services being provided to a number of stakeholders including the
organisation’s customers. Thus, it can be noted that service quality is the differentiation
between the customer’s expectation and perceptions of services delivered by firms. Nitecki et
al. (2000) defines service quality in terms of meeting or exceeding customer perceptions and
expectations of service. Thus, it must be noted that the definition by Parasuraman (1985) will
be applied throughout this dissertation.
1.7.2 Customer Satisfaction
Solomon (2009: 34) defined a customer as the most important stakeholder of an organisation
who provides payment in exchange for the product offering provided to a person by the
organisation with an objective of fulfilling a need and ultimately maximise satisfaction of the
same. While there is no consensus between scholars and researchers on the definitions of a
customer and a consumer, this study is going to restrict the meaning of a customer as defined
by Solomon (2009: 34) as the person who does the buying of the product offering while the
consumer will refer to the person who ultimately consumes the product. It must be noted that
when both the consumer and the customer is pleased with either the product offering or
services is termed satisfaction. Kotler and Keller (2009:789) define satisfaction as the
person’s feelings of pleasure or disappointment that results from comparing a product’s
perceived performance or outcome with their expectations. Thus, the definition by Kotler and
Keller (2009) will be applied throughout this dissertation.

23. 10
1.8 Structure of the Dissertation
This research dissertation consists of five chapters and the organisation and outline of this
study is as follows:
Chapter two examines the obtainable literature on the topic and how the research fits into the
gaps. Chapter three outlines the research methodologies and describes the study area and
parameters. It is also in this chapter where the research strategy is also outlined. It covers the
selection of the sample, sampling techniques, instrument design, data collection process,
extensive research approach and the overall methodology employed in this study including
the research’s limitations. The fourth chapter presents the analysis of data collected. The
results of the interviews with the Tel•One Private Limited’s Administration, Staff and
customers are analysed in this chapter. It includes an in depth discussion of the results.

24. 11
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.0 Introduction
This chapter provides the assessment of the literary work relevant to this research study and
also offers the theoretical framework. The first part of the chapter will be a review of the
definitions of service quality and customer satisfaction and this will be followed by literature
on the dimensions of the principles of service quality and consumer satisfaction and the
relationship between the two principles.
It is in this chapter that the researcher demonstrates awareness of the modern state of
knowledge in the research and how the research will fit in the broader viewpoint. This
chapter will additionally determine what is recognized by scholars to establish the present
state of affairs regarding the evaluation of service quality and customer satisfaction in
businesses, in the context of Tel•One. This chapter will also figure out the driving factors
behind service quality and its inherent effect on consumer satisfaction in Zimbabwe such that
the researcher will additionally be able to establish the standing position of organisations in
Zimbabwe.
The research will make an evaluation of every service provided by Tel•One as a state
enterprise on the theories of service quality and customer satisfaction. This literary review in
this chapter will eventually assist the researcher to develop the right methodology through the
recognition of the gaps that exist in the body of knowledge.
2.1 Service Quality
Parasuraman et al. (1985) describes service quality as the evaluation of the general quality of
services being provided to customers. Therefore, it can be noted that service quality is the
differentiation between the customer is expectation and the perceptions of services delivered
by organizations. Nitecki et al. (2000) describes service quality in terms of surpassing
customer perceptions and expectations of service. It is therefore important for this research to
concentrate on the assessment of service quality and its resultant impact on customer
satisfaction in the context of Tel•One as a state enterprise in Zimbabwe.

25. 12
A scrutiny of available literature verifies that not much research has been done in this respect
in the context of organisations in Zimbabwe. It is, however, well documented that in order for
an organization to achieve customer satisfaction, there is need for services and these services
more often than not depend on the type of product offering and differs from one organisation
to another. Keller and Kotler (2009:789) define a service as any intangible performance or
work that one party provides to another that does not end up in the ownership of anything”.
Therefore, a service can additionally be defined as an intangible offer by one party which in
this research relates to Tel•One, to another in change of cash. Quality, having said that, is one
of the products that customers will look for in an offer (Solomon, 2009:413). Kotler et al,.
(2002: 831) defines quality as the totality of the functions and characteristics of an product or
services that bear on its capability to satisfy stated or suggested requirements.
Scholars generally agree that quality is associated to the value of a product offering which
could either result in satisfaction or dissatisfaction on the part of the individual. Zeithaml et
al,. (1990) cited in David and Bowen (2005:340) notes that service quality is, therefore, the
level to which customers’ perceptions of service meet and/or exceed their expectations. From
the foregoing, it becomes critical for this research to discover how customers are serviced in
organisations in Zimbabwe and appraise how it impacts their satisfaction levels.
Despite Parasuraman (1988) defining service quality as the distinction that exists between
customer’s objectives and the perceptions of the service, scholars in this domain, however,
contend that calculating service quality as the distinction that exists between the perceived
and the expected service had been a legitimate means and could make the management
recognize gaps to what they provide as this research seeks to verify if this exists in Tel•One.
Gaps in service quality in organisations in Zimbabwe are to be identified in the process of the
research and the conclusions of the study will add to the current body of knowledge. It is also
rather significant for this research to confirm just how Tel•One is management determine
gaps for their products and see if it confirms the conclusions of Parasuraman (1988).
The research will discover if Tel•One has quality services which can satisfy their customers
or not. In addition to this, efforts will be made to determine service quality in the context of
Tel•One and dictate whether Tel•One is in a position to provide excellent services to its
customers. Haywood (1998) notes that there are three elements of service quality and they are

26. 13
christened as the 3Ps of service quality. The Haywood (1998), research describes service
quality as comprising three elements which are:
 Physical facilities, processes and procedures;
 Personal behaviour on the part of serving staff, and ;
 Professional judgement on the part of the serving staff but to get good quality service
(Haywood, 1998).
Haywood (1998) further states that a very carefully balanced mix of these three elements
must be accomplished and it becomes crucial for this study to understand how balanced is the
mix of these elements in Zimbabwe in the context of Tel•One and its subsequent result on
service quality and eventually customer satisfaction.
2.2 Consumer Satisfaction
Solomon (2009: 34) describes a customer as the most crucial stakeholder of an organization
who provides payment in exchange for product offering provided to him/her by the
organisation with a goal of satisfying a need and eventually maximising satisfaction of the
same. While there is no any agreement between scholars on the definitions of a consumer and
a customer, this research is will go by Solomon (2009: 34) who defines a customer as an
individual who does the purchasing of a product offering as compared to the consumer who
finally uses the product. It must be noted that whenever the customers and consumers are
happy with either the product offering or services, it is termed satisfaction.
Kotler and Keller (2009:789) define satisfaction as the feeling of delight or dissatisfaction
that results from comparing a product’s perceived performance with its expectations.
Therefore, it is generally thought by numerous researchers and scholars that satisfaction
could be the enjoyment that one derives from the usage of products and services provided and
customer pleasure is an indication of consumer satisfaction. Furthermore, Tse and Wilton
(1998:2004) define consumer satisfaction as the perceived discrepancy between previous
expectations and the real performance of the product or service as perceived after its usage,
hence they consider satisfaction as a post-purchase evaluation by the consumer as (Fornell,
1992) notes.

27. 14
There is, however, a lack of coherence among scholars on just what constitute customer
satisfaction. Sureshchander et al. (2002) concur that consumer’s level of satisfaction is
determined by one is cumulative understanding at the point of contact with the service
provider. There is indeed a need to work out the meaning of customer satisfaction since
various researchers and scholars are coming up with various definitions for the term. Hence,
it becomes crucial for this research to discover away if consumer satisfaction within
parastatals is determined by one is cumulative knowledge at the idea of contact with Tel•One
or not.
Kotler et al. (2002) define consumer satisfaction as the degree to which the perception of a
product’s performance matches a buyer’s expectation, while Schiffman and Kanuk (2004)
define consumer satisfaction as the individual’s perception of the performance of the products
or services with comparison to one’s expectations. In addition to this, Kotler (1996) defines
customer satisfaction as the level of an individual’s experienced state resulting from
contrasting a product’s perceived performance or result in violation to one’s expectations.
Consumer satisfaction could be regarded as a relative behavior between inputs beforehand
and post- obtainments. There have actually been numerous efforts to measure and determine
customer satisfaction. Despite these efforts by Kotler (1996), Kotler et al.(2002) and Kanuk
and Schiffman (2004) to determine customer satisfaction, there still remains disagreements
regarding the definition (Giese and Cote, 2000).
Hasemark and Albinsson (2004) define satisfaction as an overall attitude towards the service
provider or a psychological response to the distinction between what customers anticipate and
what they actually get regarding the fulfilment of a need. Other scholars have additionally
defined satisfaction as a person’s emotions of pleasure, delight, enjoyment, or dissatisfaction
which results from comparing a recognized product or service performance to his or her
expectations (Kotler, 2000). Ciavolino and Dahlgaard (2007) recommend that customer
satisfaction can be regarded as the overall evaluation of the performance of a service. The
lack of harmony on the definitions of customer satisfaction is a cause of concern and this will
have a an impact on future researches on this domain.
Satisfaction refers to the contentment that an individual feels whenever his/her desires have
been fulfilled or needs, objectives or expectations have been achieved. Customer satisfaction
can therefore be a measure of how delighted customers are with the services and

28. 15
products of a telecomunication company. It's of benefit for organizations or business firms
to keep their customers happy. Satisfied customers have a greater likelihood of remaining
loyal, would consume more of services of the business organisation, and would recommend
friends and relatives to the service provider. Customer satisfaction can make the customers
faithful to one telecommunication service provider. Earlier researchers have found that
satisfaction of the consumers can assist the brands to build profitable and long relationships
along with their consumers will result.
Therefore, customer satisfaction is the enjoyment obtained from consuming a service offered.
Measuring the effect of service quality on the satisfaction of customers could be very difficult
at times because it is an effort to determine how human being beings feel. NBRI, 2009
suggests that the probable measurements that can be used in measuring satisfaction of a
consumer consist of:
• Quality of service;
• Speed of service;
• Pricing;
• Complaints or problems;
• Trust in employees;
• The closeness of the relationship with associates in the firm;
• Other kinds of services needed; and
• The positioning of the company in the minds of the customers (NBRI, 2009).
It is the goal of the dissertation to find the status quo of Tel•One with regards to customer
satisfaction in terms of the dimensions identified by NBRI (2009). The literature shows that
consumer satisfaction is calculated via service quality of which service quality is measured
by different measurement tools developed by many researchers and and chief among them
are the SERVEPERF, SERVQUAL, and WEBQUAL (Kumbhar, 2011). Many studies
addressed the part of customer satisfaction in service contexts but a few researches have been
done in the context of state-enterprises. Literature suggests that service quality is a more
specific judgement which can lead to a wide assessment of customer satisfaction (Oliver
1993; Parasuraman et al. 1985, 1988, 2005). Therefore, it is recognized that perceived service
quality results in increased customer satisfaction and whenever perceived service quality is
less than expected service quality this would mean that the customers will be rather

29. 16
dissatisfied (Jain and Gupta, 2004). This view must be validated in the context of Tel•One as
a company firm.
Customer satisfaction has been conceptualised as transaction-specific meaning that it is based
on the customer’s acquaintance on a specific service encounter (Taylor and Cronin, 2002).
Nevertheless, other scholars such as Jones and Suh (2000) argue that consumer satisfaction is
a construct that is significantly increasing based mostly on the assessment of the service
encounter by the consumer. These deviating views show that consumer satisfaction is
familiarity based and are the result of the service that is rendered to the customer by the
service provider.
While there is an opposing view on exactly what constitutes consumer satisfaction, another
school of thought suggests that customer satisfaction is just a mindset the customer has for a
service rendered (Los Angeles and Yi, 2004). This notion features has to be confirmed in the
context of Tel•One as a state enterprise in Zimbabwe. Parasuraman et al., (1988:17) argue
that more frequently there are various views whenever it comes to the expectations of the
customer in both the existing satisfaction and service quality literature.
Expectations on one hand are regarded as predictions by customers about what is most likely
to happen during a specific deal and having said that, service quality literature see the exact
same as the desires or desires the customers might have or feel as the service provider should
provide or would instead provide. For the purposes of this research, the researcher will
explore how service quality and customer satisfaction are defined in the operations of
Tel•One and establish whether this might be based on previous experiences and information
that a customer would have gotten in the past (Douglas and Connor, 2003). It is going to be
crucial for this research to understand and at the same time determine the customer’s
expectations in order to identify any gaps in delivering services with quality that could assist
Tel•One ensure satisfaction (Negi, 2009).
The perceptions of customers are entirely based on just what they would have gotten from the
service provider (Douglas and Connor, 2003). Therefore, this research will be based on the
differences that might occur between expected service quality and perceived service from the
viewpoint of the consumer. There is an urgent need in this research to understand exactly
how Tel•One customers perceive service quality. Parasuraman et al. (1985) argue that there

30. 17
are ten determinants on exactly how organisations can assess service quality in their
operations and they are; protection, competence, courtesy, access, interaction, credibility,
dependability, empathy, responsiveness, and tangibles. Nevertheless, it must be noted that
many of these service quality determinants calls for a customer to have previous knowledge
in order to provide an assessment of the service quality of the service provider and therefore,
there's need to get information from older customers of Tel•One other than getting
information from possible or brand new customers.
2.3 The SERVQUAL Model
The SERVQUAL Model had been recommended for this research and its features have been
used as a framework. One of the most valuable dimensions of service quality is the
proportions from the popular SERVQUAL model and therefore the research recommended it
for that reason. Parasuraman (1985) identifies numerous characteristics that have an effect of
service quality on consumer satisfaction in the SERVQUAL model. This model is
additionally recognized as the gap model whose features has been proven by practitioners and
scholars to be one of the best methods to determine that quality of services provided to
customers by service providers across the world. This evaluation technique has been proven
dependable by many scholars and practitioners across the world (Brown et al. 1993) and this
research seeks to show if the same can be validated in the context of Tel•One as a state
enterprise in Zimbabwe and see if the same conclusions can be found.
Scholars on this domain generally express certainty that whenever the experienced service is
less than the expected service, it suggests less than satisfactory service quality; when
perceived service is more than expected service, the apparent inference is that service quality
will be more than satisfactory (Gupta and Jain, 2004:27). SERVQUAL best fits the analysis
of service quality from the viewpoint of the customer because it compares the perceived and
anticipated service. It is also key for this research to test the elements of the SERVQUAL
model in the functional context of Tel•One as a state enterprise in Zimbabwe.
It must be noted that researchers such as Parasuraman et al. (1985) analysed four various
types of services, and the outcomes revealed that service quality was defined in terms of
dependability, responsiveness, competence, access, courtesy, communication, credibility,

31. 18
security, understanding the customer and tangibility. This current research seeks to verify
these findings identified by other researchers such as Parasuraman et al (1985).
Generally researchers within this area concur that the assessment of service quality is much
more difficult to compare than in the instance of real product offerings (Parasuraman et al.
1985). Customers can decide on purchasing physically present products after evaluating the
aesthetic characteristics of the product. Nevertheless, services are intangible as they cannot be
seen, handled or believed (Hoffman and Bateson, 2002) and this makes it much more difficult
to make sound judgements of the quality. Service quality is therefore a multifarious, and
subjective. To different people, it means different things. Nevertheless, the most common
meaning of service quality among scholars and practitioners have been the one provided by
Parasuraman et al (1988) which defines it as a contrast that customers make between their
perceptions and expectations of the accepted service.
Quality as a concept features many dimensions. Lehtinen and Lehtinen (1982) determined
three measurements of service quality, which are, physical quality, interactive quality and
business quality. Likewise, other researchers such as Grönroos (1984) contend that service
quality comprises of many elements and chief among them is practical quality, technical
quality, as well as corporate image. The SERVQUAL scale had been created by
Parasuraman et al. (1985; 1988) to be the absolute most popular tool for calculating service
quality. The scale identified five key proportions of service quality particularly empathy,
tangibles, responsiveness, assurance and empathy (as shown in Fig 2.1 below) and this
research seeks to rate these elements in the context of Tel•One given that such type of
studies have not been carried out in Zimbabwe. The SERVQUAL scale features 22 items for
evaluating consumer perceptions and objectives regarding the quality of service. A level of
agreement or disagreement with an offered product is ranked on a seven-point Likert scale.
Outcomes are then used to determine negative and positive gaps and this research seeks to
unearth the level of disagreement of the service that Tel•One provides to its customers. The
gap is calculated by the distinction between perception and expectation ratings and suggests
the level of service quality.

32. 19
Figure 2.2: SERVQUAL Model and the relationship between Quality of Service
Delivery and Customer Satisfaction
Source: (Kumar et al, 2009)
According to Kumar et al, 2009, the five hypotheses of the SERVQUAL Model are as
follows:
Source: (Kumar et al, 2009)
In accordance to Kumar et al, 2009, the five hypotheses of the SERVQUAL Model are:
H1: Tangibility will have a significant effect on customer satisfaction;
H2: Reliability will have a significant effect on customer satisfaction;
H3: Responsiveness will have a significant effect on customer satisfaction;
H4: Assurance will have a significant effect on customer satisfaction; and
H5: Empathy will have a significant effect on customer satisfaction.
2.4 Service Quality Models
A review of literature shows that service quality has been defined in a different way by
different people and there is no consensus as to exactly what the real definition is. This
research adopted the defnition by Parasuraman et al. (1988, p.5), which describes quality of
service as the discrepancy between a customers’ expectation of a service and the perception
of the service provided. Nevertheless, determining service quality has been one of the most
recurrent subjects in marketing management literature as noted by many other scholars such
as Parasuraman et al. (1988), Gronroos, (1984), Cronin et al., (1992). Thus, on this basis,
there is need for developing reliable instruments for the systematic evaluation of service
quality of Tel•One from the view point of its customers and to analyse the correlation that
exists between the perceived service quality and other key organisational outcomes such as
consumer satisfaction (Cronin et al. 2010).
Service
Quality
Tangibility
Reliability
Responsiveness
Assurance
Empathy
Customer
Satisfaction
H1
H1
H2
H3
H4
H5

33. 20
Lacobucci and Gilbert (2005) reviewed the different methods measure quality of service.
These include, the expectancy-disconfirmation approach, usually associated with the
recognition of the customer’s expectation versus what they really experienced. The major
focus was on the contrast of the service performance using the customer’s expectations. The
customer’s expectations could be examined after the encounter of by asking the customer to
remember the expectatons. In addition to this, the performance-only approach just assesses
quality of service by merely asking consumers their level of satisfaction with different service
offerings after a service had been offered. Technical and functional dichotomy techniques
identify two service elements that lead to consumer satisfaction particularly, the technical
quality of the product which is based on product characteristics such as safety, durability, real
functions while functionality quality is mainly concerned with relationships between service
provider and customer such as courtesy, speediness of service delivery and efficacy.
Renowned scholars in service quality such a Parasuraman et al., (1985) established a
conceptual model of service quality where they identified five gaps that could have an effect
on the consumer’s evaluation of service quality in four different sectors (retail banking, credit
card, securities brokerage and product repair and maintenance) and the telecommunications
companies were not part of the study in general. These gaps are as follows:
2.4.1 Gap 1: Customer Expectation vs. Management Perception Gap
According to (Kumar et al, 2009) service providers may perhaps not comprehend what
features a service must have in order to meet the needs of a customer and to what extent the
overall performance on those functions are required to deliver high service quality. Gap 1 is
developed whenever the management does not comprehend exactly what their customers
want. Sometimes business professionals may fail to comprehend just what customers
anticipate in a service and which functions are required to deliver high-quality service.
Numerous businesses conduct pilot studies to figure out just what their market wishes, but
later on become internally-focused, oblivion to the fact that customers’ need could have
changed over time.

34. 21
2.4.2 Gap 2: Management Perception versus Service Quality Specifications
Whenever the management understand just what their customers want, but are not in a
position or are not ready to develop systems which would deliver it, this results in a Gap 2
situation. A number of reasons have been specified for this gap, for instance inadequate
commitment to quality of service, shortage of perception of feasibility, inadequate task
standardizations and the lacking of goal-setting (Kumar et al, 2009).
Because some organizations may look for short-term earnings, they are reluctant to spend in
people or in equipment. This gap arises as soon as the business identifies the desires of the
customers, but without the means to deliver the expectations. Other factors that impact this
gap are resource limitations, market conditions and management indifference. These could
impact service quality perception of the customer (Kumar et al, 2009).
2.4.3 Gap 3: Provider Quality Specs versus Service Delivery
Under service quality specifications, service delivery gap propounds that organizations could
have manuals for doing service well and dealing with customers properly, but these do not
necessarily mean that the best overall performance is assured. Employees perform a crucial
part in assuring great service quality perception and their overall performance cannot be
standardised. This impacts the delivery of service which has an effect on the way customers
perceive service quality. A Gap 3 situation is often referred to as ‘the service-performance
gap’. It happens whenever the management understands just what needs to be delivered and
proper specifications have been developed, but it is the employees who are not in a position
or perhaps not ready to deliver the service. A Gap 3 situation, therefore, results from the
interaction of the employees and customers (Kumar et al, 2009).
Service operations that use devices to deliver service are unlikely to have Gap 3 errors, for
instance, ATMs in the banking sector and E-ticketing in the airline sector. This is due to the
fact that machines are not associated with human errors, while consumers anticipate less from
machines. Thus internal marketing programmes and the management of the human resource
function can be used to minimize Gap 3 errors. These human resource functions include
training, monitoring working conditions, hiring and developing reward systems (Kumar et al,
2009).

35. 22
2.4.4 Gap 4: Service Delivery – External Communications Gap
External communications impacts not just the expectations of consumers, but also, the
perceptions of the consumers from the delivered service. Organisations can neglect to notify
customers of unique efforts to guarantee quality that are perhaps not noticeable to them and
this could affect service quality perceptions by customers (Kumar et al, 2009).
2.4.5 Gap 5: Expected Service – Perceived Service Gap
From their research, it revealed that one of the keys to making sure great service quality is
achieved or exceeded relies on how customers perceive the general performance in the
context of what they expected (Kumar et al, 2009).
2.5 Models for Measuring Quality
Quality of service is an important area in the field of intellectuals because of its relevancy to
service organizations and as a result, many researchers have developed different theories and
processes to determine it, despite the claims that it is difficult to compute because of its
intangibility which is difficult to quantify (Connor and Douglas, 2003). A great deal of
research has been invested in this field to justify the importance of the subject, despite studies
not being systematic as what the researchers want.
It is generally their nature that services are intangible and therefore, assessing the customer’s
perceptions of quality can be done through interaction with the employees providing the
service (Magi et al. 1996). From their recommendation, the relationship that exists between
service and service provider is very crucial whenever measuring the quality of service
because it is through that interaction, that the service provider effortlessly understand the
consumer’s needs better and recognize just what they really want. Thus this research seeks to
determine the interaction that exists between Tel•One and its customers and exactly how it
generally impacts the levels of satisfaction of the customer.
Nevertheless, many models have been theorized as being measures of service quality, being
either attitude-based measures or disconfirmation models. It is extremely important to
measure the quality of service because it facilitates evaluations before and after

36. 23
modifications, identifies quality associated issues, and assists in developing clear criteria for
service delivery. Hence, this research is nevertheless likely to utilize the SERVQUAL model
to attempt and determine quality related challenges or issues within Tel•One Private Limited
and how such quality problems impact on the levels of customer satisfaction. The service
performance (SERVPERF) model had been developed by Cronin and Taylor, (1992), and the
model utilizes the overall performance approach method to measure service quality and this
methodology is generally based on the consumer’s general sentiments towards service. This
model is great to determine service quality but does perhaps not provide information on just
how customers will prefer service to be in order for service firms to make improvements.
Another model developed by Teas (1993) was called the assessed overall performance model.
The model was developed to solve the critics raised for the SERVQUAL and other foremost
designs (Gronroos 1984; Parasuraman, 1984, 1988). It contends that there is a need to
measure that gap that exists between recognized overall performance and the perfect quantity
of a measurement of service quality instead than making use of customer’s service
expectation.
Parasuraman et al. (1985), developed the model of service quality after researching on the
four service sectors, namely, credit card services, long distance telephone services, retail
banking and repair and maintenance of electrical appliances, and long-distance phone
services; thus, his model will also be applied in the context of Tel•One given that there has
been a lot of changes in the communications sector since the late 1980.
The SERVQUAL model represents service quality as the divergence between a customer’s
expectations of service quality and the perceptions of the service received (Parasuraman et
al., 1985). This makes it an attitude measure and these attitudes will be measured in this
research, in to the context of Tel•One.
The SERVQUAL model strives to precisely determine the consumer’s perception of the
service quality and this might depend on the size of the gap between expected service and
perceived service which in turn, depends on the gaps under the control of the service provider
such as distribution of service, marketing, (Parasuraman et al., 1985). This dimension of
service quality is based on both how customers evaluate the service procedure and the result

37. 24
of the service, (Parasuraman et al., 1985:42). Hence, it will be the objective of this research to
assess the quality of service of Tel•One from the customer’s viewpoint.
It is agreed among scholars that a high service quality is considered to be one which fulfills
or surpasses consumer’s expectations of the service (Parasuraman et al. 1985:46). It is from
this viewpoint that the researcher sought to determine the service quality of Tel•One and just
how it impacts the satisfaction of its customers. The SERVQUAL model had been made of
ten measurements of service quality. Parasuraman et al. (1985) nevertheless, later on reduced
these dimensions to five because some dimensions had been overlapping (security,
competence, courtesy, credibility, interaction, understanding access and customers) and they
included, Tangibles, Reliability, Responsiveness, Assurance; Empathy (Parasuraman et al.
1988: 23).
These primarily concentrate on the individual aspects of service distribution. Ladhari, (2009),
suggests that the SERVQUAL model is a great scale to utilize whenever measuring quality of
service in different sectors, but that it is more appropriate to select the most crucial
dimensions of the model that fit to the specific service being measured to help in assuring the
reliability and validity of the results. In this respect, the researcher will adopt this model to
suit the context of Tel•One (Shahin et al. 2006:3).
Buttle (1996:8) makes mention of a number of researchers that have actually utilized the
SERVQUAL model in different sectors such as retail, airlines, telecommunications, financial,
education, food et cetera. It should be noted, however, that this model had not been applied in
Zimbabwe. Buttle (1996) more recommends that service quality dimensions has become a
very crucial subject because of its apparent relationship to profitability, consumer
satisfaction, consumer retention and the overall economic performance it was extensively
considered as an engine for corporate marketing and financial performance. It is therefore
critical for this research to discover the meaning and importance of service quality in the
context of Tel•One.
2.6 Criticisms of the SERVQUAL
Despite the utility of the SERVQUAL model, Buttler (1996) established that the model was
not ideal enough citing two major criticisms, that is, theoretical criticism and operational
criticisms, as well detailed below.

38. 25
Table 2.1: Theoretical and Operational Criticism of SERVQUAL
Theoretical Criticisms Operational Criticisms
• It dwells on the disconfirmation model
other than an attitudinal model;
• The term expectation is subjective
• Fails to conclude on established
economical analyses and and
psychological theories
• Customers often use standards rather
than expectations to evaluate the quality
of service
• There is little or no evidence that
customers ever evaluate the quality of
service
• The quality cannot just be measured in
terms of perceptions and expectations
only
• It does not at all evaluate the actual
service expectations
• Its emphasis is mainly biased towards
the process of service delivery other than
the service quality outcome
• The 5 proposed dimensions are not
exhaustive, or rather, are not enough to
reliably model service quality
• The dimensions in the SERVQUAL
model are highly inter-correlated, and
the direction of the relationship may be
difficult to establish.
• The moment of truth on expectations
and perceptions of service quality from
customers varies from time to time
Source: Buttler (1996)
2.7 Service Quality and Customer Satisfaction
Analysis of service quality and customer satisfaction has drawn the interest of researchers
and marketers because of the constructs’ relevancy in building the relationship and
competition that exists between them (Eshghi et al. 2008). More research has been done
because researchers desired to discover the connection between them with the aim of
enhancing the general overall performance of the service providers (Julander and Magi,
1996:40). Analysis into customer satisfaction has been examined by many researchers for
example Cronin and Taylor, (1992) who suggested that the consumers’ feelings towards a
service is expected to measure satisfaction while other individuals utilize a multiple-item
scale Parasuraman et al. (1985, 1988) and that satisfaction is calculated using different
measurements for instance the SERVQUAL proportions.

39. 26
According to Tse et al., (1988) customer satisfaction can be defined as a function of the
customer’s objectives and perceptions of overall performance in accordance to the
expectancy - disconfirmation theorem (Magi and Julander, 1996:34). Different studies that
concentrated on the link between satisfaction and quality argued for various views in terms of
their existing relationship. A number of researchers on one hand, believe that quality leads to
satisfaction and chief among these scholars are Levesque and McDougall, (1996, 2000) and
Negi, (2009). On the other hand, scholars such as Taylor and Cronin (1992) support the fact
that satisfaction leads to quality. Therefore, it becomes crucial for this research to establish
the validity of these divergent philosophies in the context of Tel•One and to establish which
of the two paradigms is proper. The leading scholars on this domain such as Parasuraman et
al,. (1988:16) try to link consumer satisfaction to service quality provided the challenges the
SERVQUAL model features on working with problems of just how to determine mindset in
the procedure. Parasuraman et al. (1988) argue that consumer satisfaction is seen as a
function of particular services and therefore, consumers are expected to be pleased with a
certain aspect of the service provided while observed service quality becomes a
comprehensive judgement to a service.
It additionally goes without saying that Negi (2009) clearly points out that general service
quality is considerably connected with and contributes to the general satisfaction of
customers. Nevertheless, this view is additionally propounded by Saravanan and Rao (2007)
who argue that customer satisfaction is based on the level of service that is delivered by
service providers to their customers. This generally is determined by the customer’s
collective experiences at all points of contact they would have had with the organization
(Cicerone et al,. 2009). Therefore, it can be noted through this review that there is some link
between service quality and customer satisfaction, which highlights the value of customer
satisfaction whenever determining quality (Roethlein and Wicks, 2009).
Nevertheless, all these studies verified that a significant relationship exists between service
quality and consumer satisfaction. To the contrary, Asubonteng et al., (1996) argue that there
is no relationship between the two constructs and this research will try to examine and
validateor refute this in the context of Tel•One. It must be pointed, however, that quite a
number of scholars and practitioners are in concurrence that service quality and customer
satisfaction have characteristics that are measured and it is alongside this background that this

40. 27
research will make an evaluation of service quality and customer satisfaction making use of
the SERVQUAL model with its dimensions.
The inspiration in an evaluation of the impact of service quality on consumer satisfaction
within Tel•One was enthused by the realization that consumer satisfaction does not on its
own produce customer life time value as Appiah-Adu (1999) records. It's worth mentioning
that service quality and consumer satisfaction are closely related to the market share and
customer retention and this research seeks to establish the degree to which these ideas have
actually been linked to the market share and customer retention in the context of Tel•One
(Fornell, 1992). There have been many arguments among scholars on the impact of service
quality on customer satisfaction. Giles and Hormozi (2004) note that it is much more costly
to acquire new customers than to retain the existing ones, while other researchers argue that
customer replacements expenses like marketing, promotion, and product sales expenditures
are large and it takes time for new customers to be profitable.
Worldwide literature that has been evaluated by the researcher therefore shows that there has
been significant and considerable interest from both marketing practitioners and academia
since the very early 1970s on the topic of consumer satisfaction (Suh and Jones, 2000).
Coyles and Gokey (2002) argue that researchers and organizations alike attempted to
determine customer satisfaction in the very early 1970s and learned a lesson that increasing
customer satisfaction would assist organisations to be profitable. Nevertheless, during the
1980s, researchers relied on consumer satisfaction and service quality ranks acquired from
studies for overall performance tracking, payment and resource allocation (Bolton, 1998).
The focus of the researchers in the 1990s was worried about the economic implications of
customer satisfaction (Bolton, 1998).
More research has been done by many researchers in various sectors (Caruana, 2002; Prabhu
and Ranaweera, 2003) but not much research has been done in organisations in Zimbabwe,
the telecommunications industry in particular. Therefore, this research seeks to narrow this
gap and add significantly to the present body of knowledge. This view is supported by
Caruana (2002) and it is important for this dissertation to study the impact of service quality
as a construct on customer satisfaction.

41. 28
Service quality and customer satisfaction are two separate constructs, although they are
closely related. Sureshchandar et al, (2003) identifies that strong relationships exist between
service quality and consumer satisfaction while emphasizing that these two are conceptually
distinct constructs from the customers’ point of view. For this reason, it is the goal of the
research to establish if such a connection exists between service quality and consumer
satisfaction within Tel•One.
Despite the arguments by other scholars such as Carman (1990) and Drew and Bolton (1991)
that satisfaction can be regarded as a precursor of service quality, other authors argue that it is
the other way round, and these include Suprenant and Churchill (1982) and Oliver (1997).
These scholars are of the school of thought that service quality is the precursor of customer
satisfaction and they also recommend that service quality is an intellectual assessment which
may lead to satisfaction. Thus, from the conclusions of their conclusions, it must be noted
that consumer satisfaction becomes the outcome of service quality and this research seeks to
confirm that. It additionally goes without saying that the symbiotic connection between
service quality and consumer satisfaction is rather a multifaceted one. Although there
continues to be a variety of unresolved concerns on this domain, many writers concluded that
service quality and consumer satisfaction can be sensed as separate ideas that have actually
causative this research and connection seeks to authenticate such conclusions in the confines
of Tel•One . It is going to additionally be imperative for this research to see if there's a
causative connection between service quality and consumer satisfaction.
It must be noted that the two principles that considerably impacts consumer behavior as well
as business performance are service quality and customer satisfaction. Some studies have
shown that service quality leads to greater profitability (Gundersen et al., 1996) and customer
satisfaction (Oliver, 1997). Furthermore, other studies have shown a good relationship
between customer satisfaction and customer respect (Kandampully, 2007), and additionally
the association between consumer satisfaction and good word-of-mouth (Söderlund, 1998).
Therefore, worldwide, the key approach for businesses with a customer focus is to constantly
determine and monitor service quality and customer satisfaction.
An analysis of available literature shows that there seems to be a general agreement among
scholars that service quality and consumer satisfaction are rather distinct and separate
constructs which are unique, but with a closer relationship (Oliver, 1993). Quite a number of

42. 29
researchers and scholars in the service domain maintain that these two constructs are distinct
(Carman, 1990; Boulding et al 1993). Scholars in the service quality and customer
satisfaction domain such as Sureshchandar et al. (2002) note that customer satisfaction must
be seen in a multifaceted dimensional construct in since much as service quality is seen. This
might be therefore because customer satisfaction can happen at many levels in an
organization and this research should aim to validate whether customer satisfaction in the
context of Tel•One is occurring at many levels and just how operationalised it is.
Parasuraman et al. (1985) argue that whenever service quality is recognized to a greater
extent, then it is going to enhance consumer satisfaction. This is in line with what Saravan
and Rao (2007) discovered and it is further compounded by the conclusions of Lee et al,
(2000) who acknowledge that consumer satisfaction generally depends upon the level of
service quality that is inherently provided by the service provider who, in this instance, is
Tel•One.
Analysis has shown that the concept of relating service quality and customer satisfaction has
existed for a long time as noted by Negi (2009). Negi (2009) investigates the relevance of
consumer-perceived service quality whenever determining the general customer satisfaction
in the context of mobile services and it had been seen that dependability and community
quality had been one of the keys factors in assessing general service quality. This research
will look for to discover away if the exact same can be stated of Tel•One and see if empathy
can be and guarantee can be ignored in evaluating the general service quality and customer
satisfaction. It additionally becomes really crucial for this research to make and recognize an
evaluation of the factors which are adding towards a customer observed service quality and
customer satisfaction in the context of Tel•One as a state enterprise which drops in the
service industry in Zimbabwe.
It is critical for this research to discover if both service quality and customer satisfaction have
a good correlation with the customer’s loyalty and perform company intentions showing that
both constructs have an important part to play in the operations of Tel•One given the
competitive telecom market it runs. There is need to evaluate the service link that exists
between the two constructs whenever it comes to the operations and standing of Tel•One as a
state company. Though significant research in this direction has been carried out; not a great
deal has been done in the context of organizations in Zimbabwe in specific. Hence, the urgent
need for this research to come up with conclusions whether there exist a great dependency

43. 30
between the constructs or perhaps not offered the fact that service quality is much more
abstract than consumer satisfaction because consumer satisfaction reflects the emotions of the
customer about numerous encounters and experiences one features had with the service
company which in this instance is Tel•One.
2.8 Provider Quality Concept in Zimbabwe
The review of theoretical literature has led to the development of an analytical framework
which presents a cohesive insight into the assessment of service quality and customer
satisfaction in business organisations in Zimbabwe within the context of Tel•One Private
Limited. Importantly, the review of works from a variety of perspectives indicates that work
on service quality within business organisations in Zimbabwe and the telecommunications
industry has not been widely looked at, hence no attempt has been made to investigate
customer service quality and how it impacts satisfaction within the context of Tel One Private
Limited. The marketing literature clears that customer satisfaction is measure via service
quality and service quality is therefore subsequently measured by various measurement tools
and instruments that were developed my numerous researchers and marketing consultancy
organisations and chief among them is SERVQUAL, SERVEPERF, and WEBQUAL
(Kumbhar, 2011). Numerous studies specifically address the role of customer satisfaction in
service contexts. Research literature suggests that service quality is a more specific
judgement which can lead to a broad evaluation of customer satisfaction (Oliver, 1993;
Parasuramanet al. 1985, 1988, 2005). Thus, it is generally agreed among scholars that the
perceived service quality results in increased customer satisfaction and when perceived
service quality is less than expected service quality will be dissatisfied (Jain and Gupta,
2004).
This chapter’s thrust was to provide a review of related literature from the other researchers’
works in an attempt to expose the flaws and how to avoid them in the research design. In this
regard, the researcher gave credibility to the researchers who did the groundwork as their
works paved the way of discovering explicit recommendations for further research on this
topic. The researcher through the works of other researchers has been able to ascertain
insights in research approaches.

44. 31
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.0 Introduction
This chapter of the research outlines the research design and methodology used in collecting
data for this study. The research instruments that were employed by the researcher in
collecting data are also clarified in this chapter. In this chapter the researcher looked at a
number of research variables such as research design, population, sample procedure, sample
size, instruments used for data collection, personal interviews, presentation and data analysis,
summary. It is also the objective of this chapter to make an outline of how the research
instruments used were administered. The chapter describes also the research population and
how the sample for the study was drawn.
3.1 Research Design
A research design provides the framework that defines the data collection and analysis
procedures, and it indicates who or what is involved, and where and when will the study take
place (Du Plooy, 2007). The choice of a research design reflects decisions about the priority
being given to the connections between variables, and the size of the under investigation. The
purpose of a research design is to state what is to be achieved by the research and how the
results can be used.
Oppenhain (1992) defined research design as a basic plan or strategy of the research study
and the logic behind it that makes it possible and valid to draw more general conclusions
from it. Design refers to the format and theoretical structure under which the study would be
carried out, that is how the worthiness and contribution of certain elements are. Walliman and
Kumar (2006) agreed by stating that a research design is generally a basic plan of strategy of
a research and logic behind it, which then makes it possible and valid to make more general
conclusions. Thus, a research design is more like a strategic plan, without it, it would be
impossible to carry out the research successfully. There are three stages that one follows
when designing a research methodology and these are:

45. 32
 Exploratory;
 descriptive and ; and
 Explanatory stages (Yin 2003).
3.1.1 Exploratory Research design
Researchers employ exploratory research when little is known about the topic and previous
theories or ideas do not apply. Little is known about why food handlers violate food safety
and also whether they even know what it means, so this research design was adopted in this
study which enabled the researcher to clarify problems, gather data and create initial
hypothesis and theories about subjects. The primary point of exploratory research was to give
the researcher pertinent information and help them to form initial hypotheses about the
subject.
3.1.2 Descriptive Research Design
The researcher also used descriptive research design, which is done with a specific research
question in mind. It gave a set view of the subject, population, market segment or problem.
An example of descriptive research would be a report that provides an age and gender
breakdown of the users of a particular online service. Descriptive research provided research
questions, populations or methods of analysis before the research was started. Both
exploratory and descriptive research have their place in forming a better understanding of a
problem or issue, and understanding the difference between the two made the research more
targeted and effective
3.1.3 Explanatory Research Design
The term explanatory research implies that the research in question is intended to explain,
rather than simply to describe, the phenomena studied. This type of research has had a
contested history in qualitative inquiry, and divergent views of the appropriateness of such
goals in qualitative research are currently held. This entry summarizes the current state of this
debate and describes some of the most important qualitative methods for such explanation.
The researcher did not use this design because traditionally, the research denoted by the term

46. 33
explanatory research has been quantitative in nature, the data are analyzed using statistical
techniques this tend to be time consuming and expensive as well.
The researcher adopted both the descriptive research design, which aimed at providing
answers to questions such as who, what and how part of the topic. This research design was
adopted because it enhanced the reliability, credibility and validity of the research. Rodson
(2002) explained that descriptive research is used to portray an accurate profile of persons,
events and situations. Schindler (2003) shares the same view and further suggests that
descriptive research is appropriate for data derived from the three methods mentioned above.
On this basis descriptive approach was relevant to this study as it intended to gather data on
the assessment of service quality and customer satisfaction within business organisations in
Zimbabwe in Zimbabwe within the context of Tel•One Private Limited. This also allowed the
researcher to come up with both qualitative and quantitative data which aided meaningful
analysis.
3.2 Research Philosophy
Research philosophy refers to the systematic exploration of, knowledge, values, reason, mind,
existence and language. The research philosophy usually involves the assumptions and
beliefs that govern how people generally view the world (Saunders et al. 2000). There are
two research philosophies and these are the positivist and interpretivist philosophies. This
section reports on the types of research philosophies available.
3.2.1 Positivism
Positivism is a philosophy of science based on the view that information derived from logical
and mathematical treatments and reports of sensory experience is the exclusive source of all
authoritative knowledge, and that there is valid knowledge (truth) only in scientific
knowledge. According to Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill (1996), positivism seeks to explain
and predict what happens in the business world by searching for irregularities and causal
relationships between variables, whilst the anti-positivists oppose this arguing that the
business world can only be understood from the point of view of individuals directly involved
in the activities under study.

47. 34
3.2.2 Interpretivism
Interpretivism or phenomenological philosophy holds that reality of the world is thought to
arise out of the creation and exchange of social meaning during the process of social
interactions (Sullivan, 2001). This philosophy refers to the approaches which are used to
emphasize the meaningful nature of the people's participation in both social and cultural life.
Phenomenological uses qualitative, more subjective, naturalistic approaches in inductively
and holistically to understand human experiences in context-specific settings.
Phenomenology implies that knowledge is of a softer, subjective and spiritual nature based on
personal experience and insight, so that it has to be personally experienced.
The researcher chose the positivism philosophy more than interpretivist philosophy because
the researcher believed that an assessment of service quality and customer satisfaction
constructs as pertaining to business organisations in Zimbabwe within the context of Tel•One
Private Limited can be assessed more objectively through the use of established theoretical
frameworks and structured instruments to examine and analyse it upon generalisations that
can be made from findings. It can also be noted that in this debate the researcher chose to
incline towards the positivist approach, which acknowledges that knowledge can be acquired
and shared with others. This was done through the use of questionnaires which were
administered to Tel•One employees and management, organisational customers and
individual customers of Tel•One Private Limited. The other reasons for the use of the
positivist approach are;
i) Clear theoretical focus for the research;
ii) Easily comparable data;
iii) Researcher control of the research process and
iv) Economical collection of data.
3.3 Research Approach
The research approach is a method of producing new knowledge or deepening your
understanding of a topic or issue. An inductive research approach was used by the researcher
which is the type of research approach which moves from specific observations to broader
generalizations and theories. Qualitative research is most appropriate where explanation and