Impact Of Onboard Experiences On Customer Satisfaction: A Case Study Of Malaysian Airlines

Research Aim

Discuss about the Market Research and Project Management.

Customer satisfaction is an essential element for organizations to achieve competitive advantage in the market (Steven, Dong and Dresner 2012). Specifically, aviation industry has experienced continues changes for past few decades, as more number of people are looking to avail airline services. For that reason, maintaining the satisfaction level of the customers with provided quality of services has emerged as one of the major challenges for the airline organizations. Moreover, introduction of private global companies in the Malaysian market has enhanced the significance of maintaining proper onboard experiences in order to achieve sustainable expansion in the market.

In this study, the focus would be on the provided quality of onboard services by Malaysian Airlines for keeping the satisfaction level of the customers at the desired level. Malaysian Airlines was established on October 1972 with the objective of providing domestic and international airline services to the customers (malaysiaairlines.com 2017). Presently, Malaysian Airlines is facing challenges to compete with the other prime organizations regarding the provided quality of services. In this study, the focus would be on the kind of impact that proper onboard experiences can have on the satisfaction level of the customers. The study would also focuses on providing suggestions to Malaysian Airlines regarding the kind of onboard services they will have to provide in maintaining the satisfaction level of the customers at the desired level.       

The study aims to analyze the impact of onboard experiences provided by Malaysian Airlines on the customer satisfaction.

The study would consider following objectives,

• To highlight the significance of maintaining superior quality onboard services for achieving sustainable expansion in the market
• To identify the factors that affects quality of the onboard services provided by the Malaysian Airlines
• To critically evaluate the impact of provided quality of onboard services by Malaysian Airlines on customer satisfaction
• To provide effective recommendations regarding the best possible way to enhance the quality onboard services for Malaysian Airlines

The significance of maintaining customer satisfaction:

As opined by Baker (2013) customer satisfaction is a great indicator for moving the business forward. Thus, it actually helps organizations to assess the kind of demand it would have to face in near future. For that reason, organizations have always focused on developing effective strategies so that the satisfaction level of the customers remains at the optimum level. Specifically, in the present extremely competitive industry like aviation sector, organizations will have to be extremely careful in maintaining the customer satisfaction level. As per the article by Namukasa (2013) customer satisfaction can be use as a indicator to understand the loyalty and purchasing decision of the people. It has been assessed that satisfied customers are more likely to come back to that particular organization in future. Therefore, it would help organizations to retail its customers for long period of time. Moreover, satisfied customers also help organizations to use the word of mouth publicity in an effective manner. As a result, it helps organizations to establish strong brand image on the market (Wu and Cheng 2013). Furthermore, satisfied customers also help organizations to differentiate itself from all other business entities in the market, which eventually create positive impact on the overall business perspective.  

Research Objectives

As highlighted by Suki (2014) with the increasing level of competition in the airline sector, every aviation companies have focused on providing superior quality of onboard services to maintain the satisfaction level of the customers at the optimum level. For that reason, airline organizations have focused on segregating the customers in different class including first class, business class and economy class. Different organizations have focused on providing different luxurious facilities to its entire customers so that they remain loyal to the organization. For instance, first class services include luxurious cabin with excellent personalized services to fulfil all the requirements of the customers. On the other hand, business class customers are provided with spaciousness, comfort and advance technologies so that they do not feel bore at the time of travelling (Osman and Sentosa 2013).  Moreover, economy class customers are also provided with excellent services to maintain the satisfaction at the desired level. Moreover, airline organizations have focused on providing onboard connectivity services to the customers so that they remain updated about the flight details. In fact, airline organizations are currently trying to provide onboard Wi-Fi services to the customers for achieving competitive lead in the market.

As suggested by Hussain, Al Nasser and Hussain (2015) it is necessary for the organizations to focus maintaining the quality of onboard services for achieving optimum satisfaction level of the customers. In fact, organizations need to evaluate the effectiveness of the implemented strategies for maintaining the satisfaction level of the customers in an effective way. For that reason, airline companies focuses six service metrics or standards including overall service, personnel service, information given, n-board comfort, on-board cleanliness and on-board food services, which can directly impact on the satisfaction level of customers. For instance, on-board food services and cleanliness can have direct impact on the satisfaction rate, which eventually create adverse impact on the businesses. For that reason, majority of the airline companies focuses on utilizing Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI) for understanding the satisfaction level of customers continuously (Liat, Mansori and Huei 2014). 

From the above discussion, it is obvious that maintenance of standards in the provided quality of on-board services is essential for maintaining the satisfaction level of the customers at the desired level. However, due to continues changes in the customer preferences, airline sector has to change the provided onboard services for maintaining the satisfaction of the customers at the desired level. Moreover, increasing demand of airline industry has also increases the level of challenges associated with the business process. Therefore, the study will focus on understanding the exact amount of impact that provided onboard services can have on the customer satisfaction level.    

Research philosophy:

Literature Review

Research philosophy represents a significant part of research methodology that tries to cover all possible aspect of the topic. Effective use of research philosophy allows study to create different assumptions and beliefs regarding the consumer satisfaction perspective. Positivism, realism and interpretivism are the three parts of research philosophy that studies use for fulfilling objectives (Mackey and Gass 2015). Now, in order to understand the impact of onboard services on customer satisfaction, the focus would be on positivism philosophy. The study would consider positivism, as it would allow predict and explain different factors associated with the topic. Moreover, it would allow the study to establish hypothesis regarding onboard services and customer satisfaction concept. Positivism philosophy would also allow the study to include logic regarding different concept, which eventually add value to the study. On the other hand, due to limitation of time, the study would not consider other philosophies.

According to Silverman (2016), research approach is another crucial factor that can have major impact on the successful completion of the study. Inductive, abductive and deductive are the three parts of the research approach that studies try to use for successful completion of the topic. For highlighting the significance of onboard services on the satisfaction level of the customers, the study would consider deductive approach. It has been assessed that deductive approach would allow the study test the formulated hypothesis in an effective way. Moreover, it would also allow the study to include different previous theoretical concept about the onboard services and customer satisfaction within the airline industry. Therefore, it would also help to add value to the research study. In addition, deductive approach would also help the study to minimize the risk level as much as possible. Conversely, the study would not consider other approach, as it does not require introduction of any new theories or concepts.

Research design represents a general plan that a particular study will consider for fulfilling all the research objectives in an appropriate manner. Conclusive and exploratory are the types of research design that studies consider for completing all the requirements within given timeframe (Flick 2015). In order to analyze the significance of the onboard services on customer satisfaction concept, the study would select exploratory research design. The study would consider exploratory design, as it would help to analyze different research questions in an effective way. Moreover, selection of exploratory design would allow the study to become flexible. Therefore, it would help to make necessary changes in the research process. Exploratory design would also help the study to understand the future challenges associated with research topic. Therefore, it would help to provide proper and effective recommendation about the research topic.

Importance of Maintaining Superior Quality in Onboard Services

Data collection represents a significant part of the methodology, as entire outcome of the study heavily depends on the collected information. Now, studies can consider primary or secondary data collection process for capturing appropriate information (Panneerselvam 2014). In order to understand the impact of onboard services on customer satisfaction level, the study would consider primary data collection technique. The study would consider primary technique, as it would help to portray the present picture of the market effectively. Moreover, it would also help the study to highlight all possible factors that can have impact on the research topic.

For understanding the impact of onboard services on customer satisfaction, the study would consider both qualitative and quantitative approach. Selection of both the approach would help the study to identify the trend and also differences in perspective in an effective way. The study would utilize sampling technique for the fulfilment of the research objectives. According to Neuman and Robson (2012), probability and non-probability represents two part of sampling technique that studies consider for completing all the requirements within the given timeframe. However, non-probability sampling technique would be considered for this study to collect proper information about the research topic. The study would consider 100 regular customers of Malaysian Airlines for the collection of quantitative data. On the other hand, the study would select 5 senior managers of Malaysian Airlines for capturing qualitative data about the research topic. The study would select online survey technique for imprisoning quantitative data. On the other hand, telephonic interview will be conducted for the collection of qualitative information. The study would consciously try to include different statistical tools like mean, median and mode for ensuring the collected information can provide desired outcome.

Research process:

According to Miller et al. (2012), planning or proper selection of research process is vital for completing all the activities with the given timeframe. For that reason, the study would select systematic approach to ensure successful accomplishment of all the objectives. Firstly, the study would evaluate among the different topics related to aviation industry for selecting an interesting topic. Therefore, it would allow the research to select topic with different alternatives. Secondly, the study would focus on the formulation of clear aim and objectives for ensuring proper future path. Thirdly, the study would focus on developing literature review section based on onboard services on customer satisfaction. In this step, the study would select and analyze different previous models and theories related to onboard services and customer satisfaction concept. Here, focus will be on including different perspective of different articles so that it can add value to the research study. Fourthly, the research process will focus on developing effective research methodology for ensuring it can accomplish all the requirements in an appropriate manner. This step would also include selection of data collection technique so that the collected data can fulfil the research objectives. It would also focus on identifying best possible data analysis technique for achieving desired outcome effectively. 

Activities	WK 1-2	WK 3-4	WK 5-6	WK 7-8	WK 9-10	WK 11-12	WK 13-14
Selection of research topic
Identification of previous journals and articles
Formulating layout
Literature review
Configuration of the research plan
Methodology selection
Selection of primary data collection process
Identification  of statistical tools for data analysis
Expected outcomes
Development of Rough Draft
Final Submission

Table 1: Gantt chart

(Source: Created by the author)

References:

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