WOLAITA SODO UNIVERSITY

COL LEGE OF BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS

DEPARTMENT OF MARKETING MANAGEMENT

ASSESSMENT OF SERVICE RECOVERY PRACTICE: IN THE CASE OF

ETHIO-TELECOM WOLAITA SODO BRANCH.

A RESARCH PAPER SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF MARKETING

MANAGEMENT IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT FOR THE REQUIREMENTS OF
BATCHELOR (BA) DEGREE IN MARKETING MANAGEMENT.

BY; ERMIYAS ALEMU

ID; - MSM/WE/090/12

ADVISOR; TEMAME (MBA)

AUGUST , 2024

WOLAIATA SODO, ETHIOPIA

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 Acknowledgment
First of all, I want to pries almighty God for his favor in completing this work and his endless
help through my life. Then first and for most my sincere gratitude and thanks go to my
advisor Temame (MBA) for his unreserved advice who me to finalized this study. He has
also done all that expected from his good advice. Next, I want to thanks my profound heart
fealty mother and father for material, moral, and emotional support that enables remains in
my mind.

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Table of Contents Page
ABSTRACT.........................................................................................................................................iii
CHAPTER ONE....................................................................................................................................1
1. INTRODUCTION.............................................................................................................................1
1.1. Background of the study.............................................................................................................1
1.2. Statement of the problem..........................................................................................................2
1.1. Objectives of the study.....................................................................................................4
1.1.1. General objective............................................................................................................4
1.1.2. Specific objective............................................................................................................4
1.2. Significance of the study..................................................................................................4
1.3. Scope of the study..............................................................................................................4
CHAPTER TWO.......................................................................................................................................5
2. LITERATURE REVIEW..........................................................................................................................5
2.1 Service Industries are every where..............................................................................................5
2.1.1. Distinctive characteristics of services..................................................................................6
2.1.2 The customer service environment.......................................................................................7
2.1.3 Defining a service culture.....................................................................................................8
2.1.5The service concept...............................................................................................................8
2.1.6 Significant of customer’s services........................................................................................9
2.3 What is customer service?...................................................................................................10
2.3. Empirical literature review...................................................................................................12
CHAPTER THREE............................................................................................................................13
3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY..............................................................................................13
3.1. Description of study area..............................................................................................13
3.2. Study design......................................................................................................................13
3.2. Population...........................................................................................................................13
3.3 .sample size.........................................................................................................................13
3.4. Sampling technique.........................................................................................................13
3.5. Method of data collection..............................................................................................13
3.6. Data processing and analysis......................................................................................14
3.6.1. Data processing........................................................................................................14
3.6.2. Data analysis..............................................................................................................14
3.7 Data Source and Type.....................................................................................................14
CHAPTER FOUR...............................................................................................................................15

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4. DATA PRESENTATION AND INTERPRETATION....................................................................15
4.1 Types of Enterprise Customers and the Type of Service Failure they encounter...........................15
Table 1Types of Enterprise Business and Frequency of Broadband Service Failures..........................15
CHAPTER FIVE......................................................................................................................................18
5. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS........................................................................................18
5.1. Conclusion................................................................................................................................18
5.2. Recommendations....................................................................................................................19
REFRENCES..........................................................................................................................................20

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ABSTRACT
This study would have conducted in Service recovery practice, ethio-telecom
Wolaita Sodo branch customers, to identify the service delivery and customer
satisfaction. The main purpose of this study was to investigate the level of
services that customers were getting and recommend for continuous
improvements as customers would have the only reasons behind the
banks survival and profitability. Data which were relevant to the study
would be collected from both primary and secondary sources. The primary
data would have collected through questionnaire, interview and
observation. The study’s target populations are primary customers of

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commercial bank of Ethiopia and random sampling technique would be
applied for taking the sample.

KEYWORD; - Service recovery practice, ethio-telecom enterprise wolaita sodo branch

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 CHAPTER ONE
1. INTRODUCTION

1.1. Background of the study

Service recovery is old practice, defined as “the action of a service provider in response to
service failure” (Gronroos 1988). It is a systematic business process that must be designed
properly and implemented in an organization to recognize customers with issues and then to
address those issues to the customer satisfaction to endorse customer retention (McCollough
& Bhardwaj 1992). Services play a vital role in the economies of both developed and
developing countries. They account for more than half of the gross domestic product of all
developed economies and in some countries it is close to eighty percent. In 1970, GDP
contributions from service sector, industry and agriculture was 32%, 23% and 45%
respectively, but the scene has changed to a great extent as it is now 62%, 19% and 19%
respectively (Basu & Maertens 2007).

Internet and information technology has changed the scenery of service sectors which have a
key role in business and economic growth. Expansion of civilization is constantly creating
more and more possibilities of service sectors. With the increase in global competition,
service industries require highly effective and efficient ways to reduce failures and attain
error free processes (Zeithaml et al. 2009).

To achieve competitive advantage, service industry should reduce failure and look into the
complexity of service recovery processes (Tax & Brown 1998). Service recovery research
calls serious attention in the present time. The main objective of this research was provide an
extensive literature review on service recovery. Around 280 articles have been collected in
this work from 70 referred journals and international conferences. The selection of these
papers was done by simply putting key word “service failure and recovery” and “service
recovery paradox.

Around 500 articles were downloaded in series of keyword “service failure and recovery.”
Then 100 articles in series were downloaded on “service recovery paradox.” Then according
to the relevancy of the service recovery approaches 280 articles in total were selected. Further
these articles were divided into two broad categories of process and content which are further
defined in this study.

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Then from the content related 265 articles further nine categories were made i.e. service
failure, customer relationship, customer overall satisfaction, customer behavioural intentions,
recovery choices, service recovery paradox, best practices, performance measurement, and
literature survey. The purpose of this study was:

• Describe what constitutes service recovery research.

• Classify service recovery research articles according to their approaches and methodologies.
• Find the gaps in service recovery literature.
The concept of service recovery has been a topic of concern to the service industry for the
primary reason that consumer satisfaction has a direct link to loyalty and greater
organizational profits (McCullough & Bhardwaj 1992; Buttle & Burton 2002; Hart et
al.1990; Tax & Brown 1998). Service recovery has been defined and described in a number
of ways by researchers. Way back in 1981 Etzel & Silverman found that it is nearly
impossible to provide error free services at all times (Hart et al. 2000).

1.2. Statement of the problem

Now a day’s in Ethiopia the bank industry is being highly expanded. New
banks are entering to the market and taking shares of banks that are
facing the new challenges and surrender their potential market.
It is time for telecom transaction of Ethiopia to do a lot for its sustainable
development and profitability and also provide a good service for its
customer concerning loan user, money transfer user, depositor and other
users. If the bank could not deliver proper service for its customer, the
bank will incur extra cost for customer attraction.
As failure is unavoidable, consumer can lose its loyalty and trust with the provider if it does
not act to lessen or eradicate the effects of failure. A number of approaches were proposed
(Bell & Zemke 1987) to deal with service failure, such as apology, urgent reinstatement
tactics, empathy, symbolic atonement, and follow-up. Different models (Gilly & Hansen
1985) were offered explaining service recovery tactics and ways to implement it.

Service recovery increases improvements in customer satisfaction (Reichheld 1996) and

customer retention which leads to substantial gains in profitability. Satisfying service
recovery improves loyalty and influences future purchase behavior due to assurance by the
supplier (Boshoff 1996; Matilla 2001; Swanson & Kelley 2001; Zeithaml et al. 1996; Spreng
et al. 1995). Service failure can be seen as the prospect for service operator to resolve the

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perceived problem to enhance the consumer’s satisfaction (Spreng et al. 1995, Kandampully
et al. 2001).

Gronroos (1990) made a significant statement that the provider is given the opportunity to
deploy a service recovery strategy that satisfactorily addresses the service failure. Timely
resolution is necessary for successful recovery thereby making waiting time a key aspect.
Since the frequency and timing of the recovery strategy does impact consumer and
organizational outcomes speed of recovery (Boshoff 1996) and prompt explanation/apology
is a necessity of service recovery process (Wirtz & Mattila 2004). Customers may accept
failures, but will not excuse organizations that can’t or won’t make efforts to fix them
(Mattila 2006).

Service recovery is a multifaceted process which involves apologizing, explaining, making

offers of compensation, and being courteous in the process (Blodgett et al. 2008).

It has been found that, after the failure, accepting responsibility and explanation in
combination with some form of compensation, such as cash back, a coupon, or a discount,
was viewed by the customer in a favorable manner (Bitner 1990; Sparks & Callan , 2007).

It has been found that customers who had the opportunity to voice their views, with regards
to the service failure, were more likely to express higher levels of satisfaction (Bies &
Shapiro 1988). Successful service recovery consists of apologies, general acknowledgment,
explanation, and some form of compensation (Bitner et al. 1990). Research has evaluated that
external service recovery techniques can be defined as a blend of a) response, b) information,
c) action, and d) compensation (Bowen & Johnston, 2006).

1.3. Research question

In the view of achieving good service delivery practices, the researcher
put the following key basic questions.
What was the employees view about the working environment and
their approach with the customer?

What was the participation of customers in the decision process or

other activities in Service recovery practice, ethio-telecom enterprise broad band
customers?
Did the bank provide proper service for the depositor?
Did the customers satisfy by the existing service?

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1.4. Objectives of the study
1.4.1. General objective
The general objective of the study was assessing the service delivery
practices Service recovery practice, ethio-telecom enterprise broad band customers as a

case study Wolaita Sodo Branch.

1.4.2. Specific objective
Identify the level of the existing service quality in accordance with
customer’s perception.

To view about the working environment employees and their approach

with the customer.

 To participate the customers in the decision process or other activities

in Service recovery practice, ethio-telecom enterprise broad band customers Wolaita
Sodo Branch

 To provide bank proper service for the depositor.

 To satisfy the customers by the existing service.

1.5. Significance of the study
The primary purpose of the research would have to identify the problem
which may be affect the service delivery and customer satisfaction in
The outcome of the study would have to help the transaction understand
the weakness and strength side of service delivery and customer
satisfaction. This leads to the ethio-tecom may use to take necessary
measurement to improve the strategies in the study area. The study
would have assisted the researchers to get basic research skill. Lastly, the
research results can be considerable input for other researchers, who
would have interested to assess any attributes related to bank services.

1.6. Scope of the study

The study would have focused on service delivery Service recovery practice,
ethio-telecom enterprise broad band customers. The study also will focus only on
customers issue and the relevant variable related to customers. Even if
the bank renders its service to its international customers, the study
focuses only on domestic customers.

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The study would have to compose of the opinion or ideas of those
customers selected by simple random sampling to make the study every
easy and due to limitation of resource and time to contact on the
customers of the telecom. This study would have also to describe service
of in the case of ethio-telecom enterprise Wolaita sodo branch
1.7. Limitation of the study
The study would have delimited service delivery Service recovery practice, ethio-telecom. The
study would have delimited on the head office found in wolaita sodo district.

Some of the limitation that face when the researchers make the research
includes: -
Limitation of materials like book, Journal, articles and research study
in the area

Lack of researchers’ experience.

CHAPTER TWO
2. LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Service Industries are every where

The government sector, with its courts, employment services hospitals, loan agencies,
military services, police and fire departments, postal service, regulatory agencies, and school,
is in the service business. The private non-profit sector, with its Museums, charities churches,
colleges, foundations, and hospitals, is in the service business. A good part of the business
sector, Management consulting firms, hotels, insurance companies, low firms, Management
consulting firms, Medicaid practices Motion picture companies, plumbing repair companies
and real estate firms, is in workers in the manufacturing sector, such as computer operators,
accountants, and legal staff, are really service providers. In fact they make up a “service
factory” providing service to the goods factory.” And those in the retail sector such as
cashiers, clerks, and sales people and customer service representatives are also providing
service.

We define a service as follows: A service is any act or performance that one party can offer
another that is essentially intangible and does not result in the ownership of anything its
production may or may not be field to a physical product. Manufacturers, distributors and

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retailers can provide value added services or simply excellent customer service to
differentiate themselves (kottler, 2005).

Categories of service Mix

A company offering often includes some services. The service component can be a minor or a
major part of the total offering. Five categories of offerings can be distinguished.

1. Pure tangible good – the offering consists primarily of a tangible good such as soap,
toothpaste, or salt. No services accompany the product.
2. Tangible good with accompanying services – The offering consists of a tangible good
accompanied by one or more services. Levitt observes that the m make technologically
sophisticated the generic product (e.g., cars and computers); the more dependent are its
sales on the quality and availability of its accompanying customer. Services (e.g. Display
rooms, deliver, repairs and maintenance) application aids, operator training, installation
advice, warranty fulfillment) .
3. Ay bird – The offering consists of level parts of goods and services for example people
patronize restaurants for both food and service
4. Major Service with accompanying minor goods and services _ the offering consists of a
Major Service along with additional services or supporting goods for example, airline
passenger buy transportation.
5. Pure service – The offering consists primarily of a service Examples include baby- sitting
psychotherapy and massage because of this varying goods to service mix it is difficult to
general ice about services without further distinctions, here are some additional
distinctions that can be helpful:
 Service vary as to whether they are equipment based (automated carwashes, vending
Machines) or people based (window washing, accounting services)
 Service companies can choose among different processes to deliver their service.
 Same services resource the client’s presence and same do not.
 Service differs as to whether they meet a personal need (personal services) or business
need (business services).
 Service providers differ in their objectives (profit or nonprofit and ownership (private or
public) (Kotler 2005).
2.1.1. Distinctive characteristics of services
Services have four distinctive characteristics that greatly affect the design of marketing
programs intangibility, inseparability, variability, and perish ability.

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INTANGIBILITY: unlike physical products, services cannot be seen, tasted, felt, heard, or
smelled before they are bought. The person getting a face – lift cannot see the results before
the purchase, and the patient in the psychiatrist’s office cannot know the exact outcome.

To reduce uncertainty, buyers will look for evidence of quality. They will draw inferences
about quality from the place, people equipment, communication material, symbols and price
that they see. Therefore, the service provider task was managing the evidence to tangibilize
the intangible.
INSEPARABILITY: service are typically produced and consumed simultaneously. This is
not true of physical goods, which are manufactured put into inventory distributed through
multiple resellers, and consumed later. If a person renders the service then the provider is a
part of service. Because the clients also present as the service is produced, provider client’s
interaction is a special feature of services marketing.

In the case of entertainment and professional services buyers are very interested in the
specific provider. It is not the same concert if Madonna is indisposed and replaced by Shania
Twain, or if a legal defence would have supplied by John Nobody because antitrust expert
David Bias is unavailable. When clients have strong provider preferences price is raised to
ration the preferred providers limited time

VARIABILITY: Because service depends on who provides them and when and where they
are provided, they are highly variable. Same doctors have an excellent bedside Manner others
are less patient with their patients. Same surgeons are very successful in performing a certain
operation others are not service buyers are aware of this variability and often talk to others
before selecting a service provider. Here are three steps service firms can take to increase
quality control.
PERISHABILITY: services cannot be stored. Perish ability is not a problem when demand is
steady. When demand fluctuates, services firms have to own much more equipment because
or rush hour demand than if demand were even throughout the day same doctors charge
patients for missed appointment because the service value exists only at that point.
- Refer more sources – prior research work
- Books
- Articles
- Since your title is service delivery and customer satisfaction your literature should focus
on this so incorporate a service delivery.

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- Meaningfully organize and analyze the information you obtained (not simply writing
whatever it is) (kottler 2005).
2.1.2 The customer service environment
In this section the six components that make up a service environment and contribute to
customer service delivery are discussed. Use the factors to ensure that a viable customer
service environment is the responsibility of every employee of the organization not just the
customer service representatives.

Let’s take time to examine that six key components of a customer service environment which
will illustrate many factors that contribute to customer service delivery:

1. The customer
2. Organizational culture
3. Human resources
4. Product/ deliverables
5. Delivery systems
6. Service (Robert W. Lucas, 2005).

2.1.3 Defining a service culture

Concept many elements contribute to a service culture. What is service culture in an
organization? The answer is that it is different for each organization. No two organizations
operate in the same manner, have the same focus or provide management that accomplishes
the same results.

2.1.5The service concept

The service concept is the specification that describes the benefits offered by the service. This
becomes a key element in the customer’s perception of the ‘moment of truth’, when the
service provider and customer actually meet. The service concept can include a complex set
of values –
Physical, psychological and emotional – and these affect both what the company does and
how it is perceived by its customers and clients. The Service concept also describes the way
in which the organization would. Like its employees and stakeholders to perceive its service
offering. The service concept includes the service package within the offer, and includes both
the physical and tangible elements of the service offering and its intellectual/intangible
elements. The total service package – the Bundle of goods and services– includes:

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Physical items – the physical good that is changing hands, if any (Often called facilitating
goods in services);
Sensual benefits – aspects that can be experienced through the Sensory system (explicit
intangibles);
Psychological benefits – emotional or other aspects (implicit Intangibles).
The service delivery system is the way in which the service concept and Service package are
actually delivered to the consumer. This process May include customer participation in the
manner in which the offer Is designed and delivered to customers, including personnel,
clients, Technology and physical support. The service delivery system is dictated by and
defined by the service concept (Heskettet al., 1990).

2.1.6 Significant of customer’s services

Customer service allows a company to build a number of important strengths regarding
competitive advantage there are four major advantage of customer service:-
i. Building competitive barriers
ii. Ensuring customer loyalty
iii. Differentiating products
iv. Decreasing marketing costs. (Bate son, 1999) Service quality

Quality: - is a measure of how closely a product conforms to customers’ needs, wants and
expectations. It is the degree to which a product conforms to customer expectation and
specification (palmer and Cole 1999).

Determinant of service quality

The criteria used by customers that are important in molding their expectation and
perceptions fit the following dimensions:
Reliability involves consistency of performance and dependability. It means that the firm
performs the service right the first time. It also means that the firm honors its premises
specifically.
Responsiveness: concerns the willingness of employees to provide service.
Competency: means possession of the required skills and knowledge to perform the service.
Courtesy: Involves politeness, respect, consideration, and friendly approach
Communication: Means keeping customer informed in language they understand and
listening to them. It may mean that the company has to adjust its language for different
customer.

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Credibility: involves trustworthiness, believability, and honesty. It involves having the
customer’s best interests at here.
Security: It freedom from danger, risk or doubt.
2.2. Service recovery

In this review, service recovery literature has been examined. A total of 280 (266 from 70
refereed journals and 14 from International conference) papers have been studied. These
papers have been taken from 70 journals which include Journal of Services Marketing,
International Journal of Service Industry Management, Journal of Marketing, Managing
Service Quality, Journal of Service Research, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science,
European Journal of Marketing, Journal of Retailing, International Journal of Contemporary
Hospitality Management, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Marketing Research,
Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Research, Journal of Consumer Research, and Journal of
Hospitality and Leisure Marketing.

It has been observed that 47.94% of papers have been published in five journals (Journal of
Services Marketing, International Journal of Service Industry Management, Journal of
Marketing, Managing Service Quality, and Journal of Service Research). The distribution of
articles in various journals is given in Table 1. All these papers are classified on the basis of
process and content as given in Appendix. Content includes service failure, customer
relationship, customer overall satisfaction, customer behavioural intentions, recovery choices,
service recovery paradox, best practices, performance measurement, and literature survey.
Process includes pattern and procedure of service recovery process development and
implementation.

2.3 What is customer service?

Customer service is not merely customer relations or how nice frontline workers are to
customers. Rather, satisfying or even delighting customers is the goal of excellent customer
service. Because customers for different types of services have different needs, customer
service strategies will differ and must be tailored to the target customer.
What are the guiding principles of companies that deliver effective customer service?
In the customer service literature, five guiding principles are adopted by public as well as
private agencies delivering excellent customer service:
1. Embrace change and persistently strive to improve (be a learning organization).
2. Continually ask the target customers what they want and then give it to them.

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 3. Empower, support, and reward frontline personnel.

How does an organization develop and implement an effective customer service

strategy?

1. Identify the Target Customer.

 Begin by identifying the target customers and by considering the point of purchase, point
of service delivery or receipt, and point of consumption.
 Cluster or segment target customers based on their common behaviors, knowing that
targeting the wrong customers can have adverse effects on the organization.
Determine the priorities of various clusters of customers, knowing that the capabilities of the
organization are crucial in addressing these priorities.
2. When possible, focus on customers with high current or future value.
3. Determine What Customers Want.
 Determine what target customers want (not just what they need right now) by asking them
in person or as part of a mail or telephone surveyor by using other mechanisms (e.g.,
electronic tracking and researching marketing trends) to determine what they want?
 Determine how well the organization can meet the customers’ "wants" in comparison
with competitors. The success of other companies at meeting and exceeding customer
expectations changes a customer’s frame of reference and increases a customer’s
expectations.
 Determine which "wants," if performance delivery were to be improved, would most
impact the organization’s bottom line (profit, cost, loyalty, trust, or compliance).
4. Establish an Organizational Culture Supportive of Customer Service.
 Utilizing the information gathered, establish the company’s customer-focused vision.
The vision statement should be simple and may also identify what the company does
not want to be. Some examples of simple vision statements include "Absolutely,
Positively Overnight" by Federal Express and L.L. Bean’s promise "Guaranteed.
Period."
 Live up to what is promised by concurrently developing and applying externally and
internally oriented strategic service concepts that reflect the vision.).

5. Implement an Externally Oriented Strategic Service Concept.

The externally oriented strategic service concept establishes how the organization’s service is
designed, marketed, and delivered to target customers.
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 Take into account the costs of providing services and ways to minimize those costs while
implementing quality control. The service concept must be developed with the frontline
worker at its center.
 When planning, realize that control of information can take the place of assets. The added
knowledge of the building layout allows fewer fire fighters to accomplish the same task
that requires more firefighters when they do not have this advance knowledge And
convenient way to allow customers to complain by installing video.
 One final element of an externally oriented service strategy was regularly measure
customer satisfaction or delight in the products and services. (Harvard Business Review,
1994).
6. Implement an Internally Oriented Strategic Service Concept.
The internally oriented strategic service concept establishes how the organization’s internal
processes will support the customer-focused vision. The premise behind the internally
oriented strategic service concept is "…capable workers who are well trained and fairly
compensated provide better service, need less supervision, and are much more likely to stay
on the job. As a result, their customers are likely to be more satisfies (Harvard Business
Review, 1994).
2.3. Empirical literature review
Nowadays, delivering quality service has become a very important factor for successful
companies. Companies have the difficult task of fulfilling all the needs and expectations from
their customers. According to (Ishikawa, 1985) quality must be built into each design and
process, because quality cannot be created afterwards through inspections. Poor quality
creates losses of sales in a competitive market and increases the costs of production through
customer complaints and remanufacturing. There are a number of ways in which distinctive
competitive positions can be developed and maintained. A key way to building a strong
competitive position is through product/ service differentiation which creates a clear image of
the ethio-telecom and its products/services in the eyes and minds of customers. Strong
competitive positions can be maintained by building barriers to competitive action by various
means (Mosad, 1996).

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 CHAPTER THREE

3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1. Description of study area

This study would have conducted at in the case of Ethio-telecom enterprise wolaita

sodo branch which is located in Wolaita Zone in Southern Ethiopia and

People Regional State (S E)). The researcher selected this branch because
of he works in this branch. So he hopes to collect the relevant information

3.2. Study design

The study design would have to descriptive, specifically cross-sectional
design. This study would have also to describe service of in the case of ethio-

telecom enterprise Wolaita sodo branch and its customers in terms of the quality
dimensions only during the study period.

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3.2. Population
The total number of customers locally in ethio-telecom enterprise broad band

customers would have 173; this would have 114 depositors, 50 money
transfers and 20 loan users.
3.3 .sample size
To determine the total sample size, the researcher would have to use
select the sample size. By using the above method, the researchers
selected 125 from depositor, 50 from money transfers and 20 from loan
users.
Where, n= sample size
e= significance error
N= the total number of population size
173 173
n= = = 63
1+ 173¿ ¿ 2.73
Then the total sample size would have 63. Moreover, the currently there
are 29 permanent employees in the bank; the researcher would have to
use all number of the employees because their number size would have
not difficult to manage properly during the study period.
3.4. Sampling technique
Researcher would have to use random sampling to select the sample
because every single observation of the sample has non-zero chance of
being actually included the sample. So that bias would have to avoid at
the outset.
3.5. Method of data collection
For primary data collection, self-administer questionnaire issue for
customers and the method would have to determine to be best for:
Obtaining information form first large number of respondent with in
short period of time

Minimizing cost of the study

Enabling respondents to fill with privacy

Most of the questions are designed as close ended because of the
difference in economic level, perception and the like among respondents.
However, the respondents were given flexibility to answer some key open
ended question, the researchers include open ended question in the
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questionnaires. Besides, structured interview was used to collect data
from all selected permanent employees concerning service delivery. Also
observation was conducted by the researchers during data collection
period in order to strengthen data about customers to employees’
interaction. Finally, library research and internet were a worth mentioning
source of secondary data that help the researches while reviewing
previous studies and basic concepts.
3.6. Data processing and analysis
3.6.1. Data processing
At this phase, the gathered data would have to passé through editing,
sorting, classifying, and tabulating. Through editing, the data had been
checked and adjusted for admissions, legibility, and errors so that the
data become completed, consistent, and reliable.
Then the data would have to sort as it facilitates subsequent processing
and analysis. Then by classification large volumes of data were reduced
into homogeneous groups to get meaningful relationships among the
variables that affect customer service delivery.
Next by tabulating, the researcher finds easy to search facts behind the
customer service delivery and comparisons for searching problem would
be facilitating.
3.6.2. Data analysis
Here the data would to transform into understandable form and that
would have easy for interpretation. To do so,
The data got summarized categorized, rearranged
The data got tabulated for indicating the events percentages and
frequency distribution.
Graphs and charts also were used to simplify and clarify the research
data.
3.7 Data Source and Type
Primary and secondary were have used for the analysis of the study.
Primary data mainly obtain through the administering of questionnaires
while secondary data sources like some reliable literature and empirical

15
findings that can be applied in order to have a better understanding the
service Delivery construct.

CHAPTER FOUR

4. DATA PRESENTATION AND INTERPRETATION

4.1 Types of Enterprise Customers and the Type of Service Failure they encounter

Table 1Types of Enterprise Business and Frequency of Broadband Service Failures.

S/N Item Respondents %

1 In what type of enterprise is your business
engagement?
A. Financial institution 20
B. Service enterprise 15
C. Production /manufacturing 16
D.NGOS/international organizations 9
E. Government organizations 3
F.SOHO/SME 91 0
TOTAL 63 100
2 How often do you encounter broadband service
failure?
A. once 23
B. rarely 15
C. Sometimes 16
D. frequently 9
TOTAL 63 100

Item one of table 1depciates, the respondents were a mix of financial institutions, service
enterprise, Production /manufacturing, NGOS/international organizations, Government
organizations and SOHO/SME enterprise categories. 27% of the respondents were from
SOHO/SME followed by Service Enterprise and Government institutions with equal share of
20%, International Organizations / embassies and production comprises 13% each and lastly
7% were from financial institution. As illustrated in Item two of table 1, 40% of the

16
respondents have sometimes encountered a service failure , 27% of them rarely encountered a
service failure, 20% of them have encountered a frequent service failure and only 13% of
them have once in a year service failure.

Table 2Types of Service Failures, Informing Mechanism and Follow up

S/N Item Respondents %

1 State the types of broadband service failure
you encountered?
A. Equipment failure 16 59%
B. Line cut 15 15%
C. Power interruption 20 11%
D. Configuration problem 9 7%
E. LAN problem 3 4%
F. Gateway failure 0 4%
TOTAL 63 100
2 How do you inform a service failure to
Ethiotelecom?
A. Through 980 contact centre service 20 32%
B. Through sales executive 15 6%
C. Through point of sale 16 9%
D. Through complaint letter 9 5%
E. Through customer service representatives 3 4
63 100
TOTAL
3 How do you follow up the status of the
service recovery?
A. Through 980 contact centre service 20 60%
B. Through sales executive 15 10%
C. Through point of sale 16 6%
D. Through CS representatives 9 5%
E. Only when maintenance people call us 3 4%
F. Through SMS 0 15%
63 100
TOTAL

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In Item one of table 2,Gateway failures, power interruption, modem failure and line cuts are
the most causes of service failure. All customers, both enterprise and residential, are
subjected to service failure if there is Gateway failure, except few customers who use satellite
backups, the survey result also affirms this fact. Next to gateway failure (59%) the most
service failure occurred is, as shown in the table above, service failure due to power
interruption (15%), equipment or modem failures (11%) and line cuts (7%). Customers also
faced service failure as a result of LAN (4%) and configuration problems (4%).Respondents
have also stated some internal problems of their own like switch, router and server problems
cause frequent broadband internet service failure.

As stated in Item two of table 2, here one customer can use different methods of reporting. As
indicated above in the table 32% of the respondents have access to 980 toll free center, of the
respondents 6% of them go to the nearby Ethio telecom point of sale , 9% call their sales
executives, 5% of customers use complaint letter and 48% of them have dedicated customer
service representative. Some of the respondents mentioned that they go top down the
hierarchy of Ethio telecom to get priority. Some of the respondents also use their personal
relationship with Ethio Telecom employees’ to get solved their problems. According to Item
three of table 2, Customers respond to how they will follow up the status of the recovery
process was surprising majority of respondent’s i.e.
60% stated that they will know when maintenance people contacted them, 10% stated that
they will follow the status through customer service representatives, 6% through sales
executives, 5% through point of sale and finally the remaining 4% follow service recovery
through SMS. From the analysis made on Tables 1 and 2, all of the respondents have
experienced at least a onetime service failure. Even though trouble ticket number is provided
to customers when reporting a case majority of the respondents do not use the provided
number and call contact center to check the status. This would be related with the past
experience that in most cases contact center advisors will not have the updated information
provided by the back office team related with the status of the recovery process.
I. Enterprise Customers Attitude towards Ethio telecom’s Service Recovery Process
The below question set consisted of fifteen statements which respondents had to rank by
indicating their choice on like rescale. Respondents had to indicate whether they strongly

18
agree, agree, neutral, disagree, and strongly disagreed regarding each statement. This liker
scale method therefore assessed the degree to which respondents agree or disagree with each
statement. These questions aimed at determining the enterprise customers’ perception
towards the service recovery system of Ethio telecom.
Table 3Enterprise Customer’s Response towards Ethio telecoms Employees
S/N Item Respondents %
1 When customers have a problem, Ethio Telecom
employees shows a sincere interest in solving it
Strongly agree 20 7%
Agree 15 27%
Neutral 16 6%
Disagree 9 60%
Strongly disagree 3 0
TOTAL 63 100
2 Ethio telecom employees gives individualized
attention to customers who encountered service failure
Strongly agree 16 7%
Agree 15 13%
Neutral 20 33%
Disagree 9 14%
Strongly disagree 3 33%
TOTAL 63 100
Item one (Table 3) , states “ When customers have a problem, Ethio telecom employees
Show sincere interest in receiving complaints related with service failure”,7% of respondents
strongly agree, 13% agree on the statement, while 33% and 14% of respondents disagree and
strongly disagree respectively with the above statement,33% of respondents are neutral on the
statement. This shows that most of enterprise customers are not happy with the complaint
handling of employees.

Item two (Table 3), states “Ethio telecom employees give individualized attention for
customer, when they complain about service failure”. Individualized attention means that the
employee, who is assigned to receive service failure complaints from enterprise customers,
gives adequate amount time to each customer to explain his/her case and provides appropriate

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help in making the reporting procedure clear and helpful. 7% and 27% of respondents
strongly agree and disagree with the question respectively, while 6% of them agree.

Majority of the respondents, 60%, are neutral on the statement. Here also a considerable
amount of respondents believed that enough attention is not given by employees in order to
receive service failure complaints.

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 CHAPTER FIVE

5. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

5.1. Conclusion
Service failure is an unavoidable phenomenon; what matters is how service providers recover
from failure. An effective service recovery can increase customer satisfaction, loyalty, and
generate positive word of mouth. A well designed and well documented service recovery
strategy also provides information that can be used to improve service as part of a continuous
improvement effort. On the other hand, failure to recover service to its original state leads to
the opposite. Depending on the findings discussed above the following conclusion are drawn.
The network coverage and performance of Ethio telecom is not as such secured; the
broadband service encounters failure due to international Gateway failures, power
interruptions, modem failure, line cuts and configuration problems. The severity of the
problem could range from high to low depending on the nature of the root cause. Ethio
Telecom has designed broadband service recovery procedures which give priority to
enterprise customers. Ethio telecom has assigned “980” toll free contact center to enterprise
customers. Though not accessible to all enterprise customers.

The working processes assume that a trouble ticket once created will not go smoothly till the
ultimate customer gets solution. However the application is much more difficult and a
lengthy process, the system demands coordination of different network department.
Communication inefficiencies are inevitable which further intensifies customer frustration.
As per the research findings, there is no clear procedure on how customers can follow up the
status of the service recovery and even there is no mechanism in which customers can present
their feedback about the recovery process which is higher importance for further
improvement. From the research findings by the company’s standard working processes,
customers believe that their complaints are not getting enough attention by employees, the
recovery processes are time taking, even the company do not explain the root cause of the
failure and how long will it take to recover.

5.2. Recommendations
Service recovery is likely to work after a single service failure but not after the company has
failed the same customer twice (Maxham&Netemeyer, 2002). In addition, customers’ “zone
of tolerance,” or how much variance they will accept between what they expect to receive
21
and what they perceive they actually receive, is wider when they assess the firm’s service
delivery but narrows when they evaluate its attempt at service recovery (Parasuraman, Berry,
&Zeithaml, 1991).

The researcher therefore, based on the major findings of the study, forwards the following
recommendation as key points for the improvement of service recovery of broadband for
enterprise customers of Ethio telecom: The company should monitor the application of
working processes in order to achieve full implementation. Each step set in the recovery
processes should be monitored regularly and corrective action should be made to avoid tasks
done without fulfilling the required steps.

Continues monitoring should also focus on updating working processes based on the current
resources and capabilities of employees. The ability of contact center advisors is limited to
providing information and creating and sending trouble ticket for the raised complaint to
appropriate department responsible to solve the problem. So developing culture of
transparency and empowering 980 contact center 40 employees to track each and every step
of the recovery process will close the communication gap among departments and customers,
which in turn improves the speed of the recovery process and bring about customer
satisfaction.

Documenting and sharing the history of frequently reported service failures and the recovery
steps done among employees can help Ethio telecom to make speedily root cause analysis
and solve problems of similar type in a quick manner. Furthermore, it facilitates the
knowledge transfer among employees. The company should prepare scheduled meeting with
enterprise customers to discuss on its offers and collect their feedback on the current service
recovery system. To minimize service failures the key solution for the company would be
increasing the quality of its services and network capacity. Continues programs focused on
increasing the service quality of broadband service and its network coverage should be
implemented.

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 REFRENCES
1. David L. Kurtz and Kenneth E.C low (1998) service marketing 3 rd ed. John
wiley and Sons Ltd network.
2. Harvard Business Review (1994), Command preference: the art of delivering
quality service.
3. Heskett, J. ,Sasser, E. and Hart, C. W. (1990) Service Break throughs. New
York Free press.
4. John E.G Bateson (1995), managing service marketing text and reading
(3rded). The Dryden press Orlando
5. Kottler, (2005) marketing management (12t ed.), prentice-Hall of India
private limited.
6. Michael J. Baker (1987), Dictionary of Marketing and advertising Michael
J.Baker.Ltd New York.
7. Palmer, Adrian, Cathepeter Cale (1995), service marketing, and practice
enger cliffs US prentice hill.
8. Robert W. Lucas (2005), customer service, third Edition.
9. Zelalem,Issues and challenges of Rural Watwr Scheme(2005),Sample
size determination

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 APPENDIX

WOLAITA SODO UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS
DEPARTMENT OF MARKETING MANAGEMENT
Questionnaires to be filled by Micro and Small Enterprises wolaita sodo branch
Dear Respondent, My name is Ermiyas Alemu
I am a graduate student in the field of Marketing Management at St. Marry University. I
would like to look for your assistance in completing the attached questionnaire which
forms a basic part of my MA thesis. The purpose of this research is to study “The Effect of
Marketing Strategy on the Sales Performance of MSE: Evidence from Service Sector in
Addis Ababa, in the case of Wolaita Sodo”. Therefore, your genuine and honest response
is very important for the success of the research and the researcher would like to thank you
for your cooperation in advance. Kindly be assured that all information that you provide
will be kept strictly confidential and used for academic purpose only.
General Instruction:
1. No need to write your name. 2.
2. Instruction is given at the beginning of each part of the questionnaire.
ii Part -I: Demographic Information Instruction:
Please select an appropriate option by encircling the number that reflects your opinion. 1.
Gender 1. Male 2. Female
3. Age 1. 18-29 2. 30-49 3. 50-69 4. Above 69 years 3.
4. Education 1. Secondary school and less 2. Certificate/ Diploma 3. First Degree 4.Second
degree 5. More than second degree
5. 4. Your Experience in the Enterprise: 1. 1-3 Years 2. 4 to 6 years 3. 7 to 10 years 4.
Above 10 years 5. What is size of your Enterprise: 1. Micro 2. Small
6. 6. How money employees do you have in your enterprise? 1. 1 to 10 2. 11 to 20 3. 21 to
30 4. Above 30

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7. 7. How much your total amount of capital(in ETB)? 1. Less than 50,000 2. 50,000-100,000
3. 100,001-200,000 4. More than 200,000
8. To what extent does your enterprise uses the marketing strategy (Product, price, place,
promotion, Process, People, and Physical Evidence) to increase your sales performance? 1.
Very low extent 2. Low extent 3. Moderate extent 4. Great extent 5. Very great extent

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