The Effects Of Ease Of Technology Use, Service Quality, And Product Benefits On Customer Satisfaction: A Case Study On Uber

The ease of technology use

Discuss about the Effect Of Ease Of Technology Use, Service Quality And Product Benefits.

The key to success in today’s business environment is the satisfaction of the needs of customers in order to attract and retain them. This means that the business should be able to give value to the products, provide quality service and make use of easy modern technology. To remain competitive, a business must have a deep understanding of the customer needs and work to satisfy them. Uber, a personal transportation network with operations in over 633 countries worldwide, has mastered an art to improve quality in their service consequently leading to customer satisfaction. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of ease of technology use, service quality and product benefits and how these can lead to customer satisfaction using Uber as a case study.

The ease of technology use

Successful businesses use the evolution of technology to their own advantage. In an era where technology is at the heart of many major businesses, strategies have to be put in place to address customer needs in the most convenient and easy techniques. Provided that the technology used is user-friendly and meets the needs of the consumer, the customer derives satisfaction.

Service quality

In his study, Nikecki (2010) described service quality as a measure of how a customer’s perceptions or expectations are met or exceeded. Research in this area by several scholars portrays that a proper strategy in the implementation of quality service has a profound influence on the satisfaction of customers. Majority of customers are inclined towards the technical and functional quality of a service to derive satisfaction (Caruana 2010, p.105-108).

Product benefit

Product benefit refers to a customer’s perception of the value obtained in buying using and consuming a product. Halonen (2013) claims that for a product to meet the needs of a consumer it should provide any of the following benefits: social benefit, functional, affective, epistemic, aesthetic, hedonic, situational, and holistic. If the product provides any of these benefits, they achieve customer satisfaction. This shall be further discussed later on in this paper.

Literature review

This section reviews the concept of product benefit, service quality and ease of technology use in relation to customer satisfaction. There are a number of scholarly literature explaining the about customer satisfaction. Developments around the globe have brought awareness to consumers. Businesses have to align their strategies towards satisfying customers in order to retain customers. Measuring satisfaction calls for the accommodation of the continuously shifting interests and expectations of clientele. The paper begins by explaining the ease of use of technology and the implications on the perception of a consumer of the technology. In the proceeding section, the paper looks at service quality and its importance. Further, the paper defines customer satisfaction and why it is important. Towards the end, an analysis of the relationship between ease of technology, service quality, and product benefits are made.

Service quality

A user-centered and user-friendly technology has a better chance of being accepted by consumers (Bocker & Meelen 2017 p. 34). In simple term, the ease of use in the belief that a system is not complicated. Uber offers a peer-to-peer transaction. It connects passengers to drivers through the Uber App as the main platform for all transactions. The drivers provide the main service but the Uber offers the channel to link the two sides of the market: the passengers and the drivers. It is a simple easy to use model, where the passenger orders for the cab and pays directly to Uber which then forwards the payment to the driver.

A lot goes into the designing and evaluation of a technology to make it user-friendly (Bocker& Meelen 2017, p.28). An easy to use interface can be directly linked to the final usage of the technology. As technology continues to spread across all aspects of life, competition to capture new opportunities presented by these technologies increase. Service providers such as Uber have to ensure that their platform is attractive not only to passengers but to drivers as well. This means that it provides an easy interactive process that brings many subscribers from both ends of the market while at the same time providing quality. Once this is achieved, customers are likely to be more satisfied with the service. The technology acceptance theory proposes that a person is likely to use a service if they perceive it to be useful.

A new client may easily give up on a technology if they find it to be too difficult to use. If the interface is easy to decipher, new prospects are will proceed on to use it (Kim 2017, pg. 56). Moreover, exceptional ease in usage minimizes the cost that would be used in setting up support. For instance, Uber only provides an interface where passenger and drivers meet for transaction. If the model in the technology were a complex one, this would have significant impact on the costs of operation. But currently due to its simplicity in the application, the company has very minimal costs. If anything most of the cost is born by the drivers themselves. Not to forget that a satisfied customer is likely to recommend the app to other users leading to more sales.

It is also important for the technology to be transparent in the packages it is offering to create trust. The services and benefits offered must be observable, clear and consistent. Fundamentally, the goal is to create satisfaction to boost future sales and increase the number of recommendations.

Product benefit

Service quality as previously explained is the comprehensive nature of a service to meet or exceed customer expectation. From a customer’s perceptive, the service quality is assessed from their stand stemming from their values and understanding of different situations unique to them (Groonoross 2008, p.39). Due to its multidimensional quality, it is at times difficult to assess the worth of the quality of service. The SERVPERF model was developed by Caruana (2010) as a more reliable tool for judging the quality of service. He argued that the previously commonly used tool “SERVQUAL” only focused on customer expectation yet the quality of service was best measured by performance. On top of that, he advanced that expectations of customers vary with their experience and changing tastes. SERVPERF measurement instrument has 5 major determinants of quality. It assesses the reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy, and tangibles of a service. Uber offers a platform to rate the drivers. If a customer is unsatisfied with the service they can easily give a low rating until their customer service of the driver improves. This is one of the measures Uber uses to ensure quality. Unlike in previous times when taxies would charge exorbitantly, technologies such as Uber allow customers to be more informed hence would not settle for average services.  Since people are more aware. They demand quality and it is the duty of service providers to meet and exceed the expectations of the passengers if they would like to remain successful.

Service quality improves a company’s economic competitiveness. A business exists to satisfy its customers. Satisfying customers requires that the firm meet the needs to retain customers (Sharma, Shakya and Kharel 2014, p. 860). The taxi industry has relatively few barriers to entry all over the world. Uber has established a good perception of quality amount its customers to continuously attract new customers. The company has been reviewed by numerous sources all over the world to provide quality service. Quality is seen as a key indicator for performance within a business and part of the four aspects of a balanced scorecard. A customer’s experience of a service influences their decisions to make a repeat purchase. Poor customer service can end business relationships. Loss of these relationship leads to losses in revenue. While every enterprise aims at maximizing its profit, an emphasis should be placed on making certain that customers are satisfied. And this encompasses ascertaining that quality service is maintained.

Literature review

Customers tend to seek out the benefits of a service more than the attributes it has. If the benefits appeal to the customer they are likely to become return clients. Businesses require a comprehensive understanding of the type of benefits that can be achieved from their services (Nimako, L.L. Selder, K and Grewal D. 2012, p.16). Success in today’s business environment is dependent upon satisfaction gained by customers from the rewards of the service provided. These benefits are the essence of service differentiation or positioning in the market and thus have the ability to influence the customer’s choice behavior.

Customer satisfaction can be understood as the ability of the customer’s expectations to be met or exceeded. It is an aggregate outcome of things such as quality of service, ease of use of technology, benefits of a product and value of the product. Kotler & Keller (2009) described customer satisfaction as the extent to which a customer feels pleased or displeased by a service. A happy client, in many cases, is a satisfied client. Today’s market requires not just the creation of a product but also creation of a customer relationship. Uber’s customer feedback option on their app helps them gauge the level of satisfaction of client’s with the services it provides. Customer’s satisfaction can be measured through surveys to get a grip on the weaknesses in the system, loyalty of customers and strength of competitors. Measurement of customer satisfaction can also be done by looking into dimensions such as the quality of service, reception of services by the customers, complaints, speed of delivery of service, and the number of repeat customers.

A satisfied customer tends to seek a service more. They develop loyalty for the product and are likely to recommend the service to friends and family. Content customers have historically been known to contribute to a higher percentage of revenue as compared to partially content or dissatisfied clients. A satisfied customer is less susceptible to preliminaries from rival firms (Nurcahyo 2016, p.36). Ha and Park (2013) share the same view that satisfied customer becomes loyal customers relentlessly use a service over a spread of time. Of importance to note is that satisfaction comprehensively impacts the profitability of a business. It builds the company as a brand and gives it a positive image. On the other hand, dissatisfaction can damage the reputation of a company. People tend to share customer experience. More to this, customer satisfaction serves as an indicator to make an estimation of future consumption of services thus impacting on the decisions for the times ahead.

A properly designed and implemented technology that is pleasant and delightful to use prospectively achieves customer satisfaction (McDougall 2010, P. 229). A customer’s positive perception of the complexity of a technology more often than not will be spread to their social network. It is an added bonus for the service provider if this results in an additional sale. Uber’s heavy investment in an optimum technology that us efficient and uncomplicated has helped it win loyalty and thus enhanced its competitive performance.

In the competitive transport environment, companies such as Uber are compelled to focus on the quality of service as a strategy to promote customer satisfaction. Anderson and Mittal (2009) probed the relationship between the quality of service and customer satisfaction. They confirmed that high levels of service quality resulted to satisfaction and ultimately leading to loyalty and profitability for the firm.  Lower cost for a service without factoring quality of the service brings about disparities in the consumers decisions for the service.  Consumers are more satisfied purchasing a service at higher price if the quality is good.

A customer’s perception of the value of offered by a product or service determines their attitude and satisfaction of the service. This concept describes the perception by which a customer is able to associate the value of a service in terms of the benefit it offers and the cost associated with it. If a client appreciates the benefits of the services rendered, one is likely to be a return content customer.

Conclusion

The survival of a company in his era is dependent on the ability to provide appropriate services that satisfy the customer. Uber has managed to capture a large share of the global market due to its ability to provide quality service, product benefits and the easy to use technology for ordering a cab. This analysis further revealed that an enterprise that considers all the three factors in the design of their services are likely to be more successful than their competitors. A satisfied customer brings repeat business, recommendations, and more revenue. One of the main reasons why Uber is widely spread around the globe is its reliability, convenience and cost-effectiveness. These qualities make customer satisfaction to be very high. It is an app that inspires confidence and loyalty. In winding up, it is quite clear that satisfaction should the driving factor for a company if they want to remain competitive in their respective industries.

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