Uma investigação das percepções e evidências do nível de serviço ao cliente, de uma empresa metalúrgica cearense, sob um enfoque comparativo: cliente e gestor

Abstract

Because of growing customers’ needs, companies face increasingly difficulties to keep their market share stable. Throughout this problem it is observed in logistics and marketing a way of adding value to companies’ activities by customer service quality analysis. Variables such as inventory and service availability, physical distribution to customers, delivery time, information transparency, operational flexibility, price, warmth, operational quality, and others, are main attributes that comprise four dimensions, indicative of the company’s service quality: availability, performance, reliability and marketing. This study reveals concerns with customer service quality investigation, in which is developed a comparison of the perceptions that customers and managers have with regard to logistics attributes’ quality, in a metallurgical company, located in the state of Ceará, in Brazil. The research pursued this company’s service quality assessment, in a comparative analysis of the customers and managers’ perceptions. As a methodological path, it was considered a pragmatic philosophy, mixing qualitative and quantitative approaches. It was used survey and unique case study as research strategies in a concomitant mixed method research. The questionnaires applied are structured in a 5 options Likert scale, and have some semi structured topics as well. Interviews were applied as a mean to deepen the perception of the researcher about the issue approached. The GAP’s analysis tool revealed that, out of the four dimensions, availability and performance are those that offer the best service quality management in the company studied. The statistics analysis, through non-parametric tests of Mann-Whitney and Wilcoxon rank sum, revealed that the only dimension that had a good company’s service quality management was the availability. The other dimensions are not statistically representative of a good company’s service quality management. Analyzing the more subjective interview tools and the semi structured topics, it was verified that the reliability dimension represented the lowest quality management service offered by the company. It was concluded that, as soon as it was known the variables that represent weaknesses and competitive strengths of the company, an opportunity was produced to define strategies that combat these weaknesses and stabilize or improve these strengths, in a way that its market share is kept in representative levels of customer attraction.