Document Type : Management and Economics Wood
Authors
1 Islamic Azd University, Karaj Branch
2 Islamic Azad University, Karaj Branch
Abstract
Background and Objectives: Service quality is commonly defined as the difference between a customer's expectations before receiving a service and their perceptions of the service received.In wooden furniture companies; the quality of sales services enhances customer satisfaction and helps foster long-term relationships. Accordingly, this study aimed to measure the quality of sales services provided by home wooden furniture companies by analyzing the gap between customers’ expectations and perceptions.
Methodology: Customer satisfaction with service quality was measured across five dimensions: reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy, and tangibles. The main data collection tool was a modified SERVQUAL questionnaire, adapted to the context of wooden furniture sales services based on previous studies and research conditions. The research questionnaire was presented in three sections. The first section related to the demographic characteristics of the respondents. The second section of the questionnaire included 22 questions about the desired status (expectations) of customers regarding the quality of sales services, and the third section included the same number of questions about the current status (perceptions) of the respondents. The questions were scored using a five-point Likert scale.To examine the questionnaire’s validity and reliability, content validity methods and Cronbach’s alpha coefficient were employed. The statistical population of this study consisted of all customers visiting retail stores selling wooden home furniture in the city of Tehran. As the population was effectively infinite, a sample size of 386 respondents was determined. In this research, descriptive statistics—including frequency distribution, mean, and standard deviation—were used to describe the study variables. For hypothesis testing, the Wilcoxon test was used, and to rank the service quality dimensions from the customers’ perspective, the Friedman test was employed using SPSS software.
Results: The results indicated that in home wooden furniture companies, customer expectations exceeded their perceptions in the all five dimensions of the SERVQUAL scale.The examination of the mean expectations and perceptions for each dimension of the SERVQUAL scale indicates a large gap in the sales services provided; such that the largest gap between customers’ perceptions and expectations in home wooden furniture companies relates to the responsiveness dimension (-1.27), and the smallest gap belongs to reliability (-1.13). The results of the Wilcoxon test for sales service quality and each of its dimensions showed that the gap between customers’ expectations and perceptions in home wooden furniture companies is significant at the 99% confidence level. It should be noted that this gap is negative, meaning that individuals’ expectations exceed their perceptions. The results of the Friedman test, regarding the prioritization of gaps across the dimensions from respondents’ viewpoints showed that empathy received the highest rank and physical factors the lowest. A lower mean rank indicated a larger gap between perceptions and expectations.
Conclusion: In purchasing a variety of wooden furniture products, customers’ perceptions of the physical appearance of the purchased furniture, the neatness of sales and service staff and their methods of communication with customers, and the modernity and proper arrangement of company facilities in accordance with the type of services offered all fell short of their expectations. In the reliability dimension, the smallest gap between customer expectations and perceptions was found in the quality of sales services. In the direct showrooms of wooden furniture manufacturers, the ability to communicate with customers, sensitivity to customer needs, and the staff’s competencies to provide services affect customer satisfaction. Today, increased competition in the export market for diverse wooden furniture products has prompted many companies to consider service quality- including sales services- as a strategic tool in their operations.
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