由服務行銷觀點探討國內航空公司服務品質改善策略

Abstract

台灣國內航空運輸市場具備寡占經濟特性，使得航空公司不能再以價格競爭來爭取客源，而必須以「服務品質競爭」代替「價格競爭」。因此，「服務品質改善」成為航空公司永續經營的重要課題。本研究從服務行銷觀點及服務行銷三角形概念，就外部行銷、內部行銷及互動行銷三個構面，分別探討航空公司服務品質改善方向、影響顧客忠誠度的關鍵因素、以及由服務行為探討員工滿意度與顧客忠誠度之關係。而本研究係以搭乘航空公司國內航線之旅客及第一線服務員工作為實例研究對象。 在探尋服務品質改善方向，係以重視度-滿意度分析法探尋不同客群對服務品質亟需改善之項目；在探尋影響顧客忠誠度的關鍵因素方面，係藉由資料探勘技術找出影響忠誠顧客(黃金客群)關鍵服務品質項目，並建立忠誠顧客之判別法則；在由服務行為探討員工滿意度與顧客忠誠度之關係方面，係將服務行為(角色內行為與角色外行為)作為員工滿意度與顧客忠誠度之中介變數，並採用線性結構關係模式分析法，探討影響顧客忠誠度之關鍵服務行為與激發員工滿意度之具體管理作為。 研究結果發現，在探尋不同客群服務品質改善之優先次序方面，航空公司應該將服務品質改善焦點擺在「班機準點率」，並維持「飛航安全」之高績效服務競爭優勢；而由不同客群對服務品質改善策略矩陣得知，不同客群對於服務品質改善之優先次序並無太大之差異。在探尋影響忠誠顧客(黃金客群)的關鍵服務品質項目方面，當以再購意願作為顧客忠誠度衡量目標變數時，其關鍵影響服務品質項目為「櫃檯服務人員能正確的為我完成服務」及「飛航安全」，因此，為爭取更多忠誠顧客的支持，航空公司應竭盡所能地分配更多資源在上述兩項關鍵因素上；而當以推薦他人作為顧客忠誠度衡量目標變數時，其關鍵影響因素除「櫃檯服務人員能正確的為我完成服務」及「飛航安全」外，尚有「訂位管道多元化」、「空服人員廣播咬字清晰易懂」、及「服務人員對於旅客的詢問能充分解答」等項目，此結果顯示推薦他人搭乘客群所考慮之關鍵因素遠較願意再購客群為多。同時，在探尋影響忠誠顧客(黃金客群)的關鍵服務品質項目時所建立之忠誠顧客判別法則，可作為航空公司目標行銷之依據。 在探尋提昇顧客忠誠度之關鍵服務行為方面，發現角色內行為與角色外行為對顧客忠誠度的影響力，都呈現顯著正向關係，唯角色外行為對顧客忠誠度的影響力量遠較角色內行為為大，顯示角色外服務行為表現為員工滿意度與顧客忠誠度之最重要中介變數，因此，對服務員工之招募與訓練，航空公司應更加著重且激勵其角色外服務行為之表現，以利提升顧客忠誠度；另外，在探尋激發員工滿意度之具體管理作為方面，航空公司應做好內部行銷，即以內部顧客(員工)需求為導向，盡力滿足內部顧客(員工)在「組織承諾」與「管理信任」方面的需求，以提升員工工作滿意度。

Due to the unique oligopoly nature of domestic market, each individual airline in Taiwan can no longer increase her market share by simply through “pricing strategies”, and needs to compete aggressively via better “service quality.” Hence, service improvement has emerged as one of the most imperative issues for all Taiwan domestic airlines. Grounded on the notion of service marketing triangle, this study has focused on the following key aspects: external marketing, internal marketing, and interactive marketing. Of particular emphases are on prioritizing items for service quality improvement, identifying key factors that may affect the loyalty of customers, and investigating the interrelationships between employee satisfaction, service behavior, and customer loyalty. The data for this study is based on of field surveys from airline passengers and the airline first-line service staffs in Taiwan. The research methodology employed in this study consists of three principal model components. The Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA) for prioritizing the list of service improvement items for different customer groups constitutes the first component. Data Mining (DM) exploration for contributing factors for customer loyalty and for distinguishing loyal customers is the core of the second component. The analysis has also been extended to the interrelations between customer loyalty and airline employee satisfaction. A Linear Structure Relations (LISREL) model, designed to analyze the impacts of employee work satisfaction level on the service behavior and the resulting customer loyalty, functions as the third component of the research methodology. The research results indicate that in identifying and prioritizing service improvement items, the foremost important tasks for the airline are to improve her service in keeping “flights on time”, and to maintain her competitive advantage in ensuring the “flight safety.” This study has also found that different customer groups share the similar concern regarding the priority list of service improvement items. This research also indicate that by using the “repurchasing intention” as the key measurement factor the most critical service items for loyal customers are “efficient and reliable services by counter staffs” and “flight safety.” Hence, airlines should first best allocate their available resources in making improvements on these two critical aspects, and then make efforts on upgrading those service items that may affect a passenger’s willingness to recommend his/her selected airline to others. Those items include a diversified reservation system, broadcast quality of the cabin crew, and friendly and efficient response of counter staffs to customer inquiries. The survey results seem to reveal that airline loyal passengers generally take into account more factors in making their recommendations to others. A byproduct of the passenger loyalty analysis is a set of rules for airline operators to distinguish different clusters of customers and their loyalty levels to their selected airlines. In the study of key factors for improving customer loyalty, the research results reflect that the quality of both the in-role and extra-role services indeed play a significant role on a passenger’s selection. Furthermore, extra-role service behavior seems to have far influence than that of in-role service behavior, reflecting its role as the most important intermediate variable associated with employee satisfaction and customer loyalty. Hence, an airline should emphasize and encourage employees’ extra-role services via training and the recruiting process so as to enhance the loyalty level of target customers. With respect to the design of management strategies for improving the satisfaction level of employees, an airline should well manage its internal marketing task based on their needs, and accomplish them through “organizational commitments” and “managerial confidence.”