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“Customer satisfaction: a key to survival for SMEs?”
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Letitia Fourie
ARTICLE INFO
Letitia Fourie (2015). Customer satisfaction: a key to survival for SMEs?.
Problems and Perspectives in Management, 13(3-1), 181-188
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“Problems and Perspectives in Management”
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LLC “Consulting Publishing Company “Business Perspectives”
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© The author(s) 2019. This publication is an open access article.
businessperspectives.org
Problems and Perspectives in Management, Volume 13, Issue 3, 2015
Letitia Fourie (South Africa)
Customer satisfaction: a key to survival for SMEs?
Abstract
Customers are the lifeblood of any organization and feedback on their satisfaction levels is important not only to big
corporations, but also to small businesses. Knowledge of customer satisfaction can help to better identify and satisfy
customer needs and can prevent small businesses from spending a considerable amount of money on marketing to
acquire new customers. This study investigates the customer satisfaction measuring practices of South African SMEs.
The study aims to determine if South African SMEs collect data on customer satisfaction levels as well as how they go
about to do this. A survey among South African SME owners found that customer satisfaction was of great importance
to them and that the majority believed that their businesses were customer focused and customer friendly. Based on
customer feedback, small-business owners believed their customers were satisfied with their businesses. The research
also indicated that the majority of small-business owners collected customer satisfaction feedback verbally on a
monthly basis. From this study it is clear that SMEs understand that collecting customer satisfaction feedback is
important but that they do not necessarily have a formal measurement in place.
Keywords: customer satisfaction, customer feedback, customer retention, customer loyalty, SMEs, South Africa.
JEL Classification: M31.
Introduction
Small businesses need to realize the importance of
developing relationships with their customers if they
want to survive over the long term (Tatikonda, 2013).
In order to develop these relationships it is essential
that SMEs seek to maximize customer satisfaction.
Previous research conducted in various industries
provides evidence that customer satisfaction leads to
increased profits as a result of customer loyalty and
repurchase intentions (Mittal & Kamakura, 2001;
Okharedia, 2013; Helgesen, 2006; Seiders, Voss,
Grewal & Godfrey, 2005; Curtis, Abratt & Rhoades,
2011). It is important to remember that what satisfies
customers today, may not satisfy them in a year’s time.
If overlooked, customer dissatisfaction can spell the
end for a business, especially if the impact of customer
dissatisfaction on the organization and its profitability
is misjudged time and again (Tatikonda, 2013, p. 38).
Feedback on customer satisfaction needs to be
collected regularly and if used correctly, this feedback
on how satisfied customers are with the business and
the product and service offering can be invaluable in
building relationships and customer loyalty.
Businesses that do not collect customer satisfaction
information do not know whether they are on the
right track or where they need to adapt their offering
to satisfy their consumers’ needs. For SMEs this is
important, as it is expensive to acquire new
customers. Small businesses need to do their utmost
to keep customers and get into a position where
customers distribute positive word-of-mouth about
the organization. Although a great deal of research
about customer satisfaction has been done, there is
not much literature on how customer satisfaction is
Letitia Fourie, 2015.
Letitia Fourie, B.Com. (Hons) Marketing Management, Lecturer,
Department of Marketing and Retail Management, University of South
Africa, South Africa.
measured in small businesses and how the results
from this feedback are utilized. Therefore this study
will aim to establish the customer satisfaction
measuring practices of South African SMEs in order
to extend the current limited body of knowledge
regarding the importance of measuring customer
satisfaction in small businesses.
The next section of this article will focus on the
benefits of customer satisfaction, on customer
retention and acquisition and will end the
literature review by looking at the importance of
customer feedback.
1. Literature review
1.1. The SME sector. Small and medium enterprises
(SMEs) are of great importance in developing
countries such as Brazil, Asia and South Africa.
SMEs contribute to the economy by creating
employment, increasing production and exports and
presenting opportunities for innovation and
entrepreneurship (National Credit Regulator, 2011,
p. 7). A previous study conducted indicated that the
South African SME industry account for 91% of
formal businesses and that these SMEs contribute up
to 57% to the South African GDP (Abor & Quartey,
2010, p. 218). The SME sector is not only a big
contributor to the economy in South Africa but also
in Europe and the rest of Africa. In Europe SMEs
contributed to 57.6% of the gross value added in
2012 (European Commission, 2013, p. 9). In Ghana it
is a similar situation with approximately 70% of
Ghana’s GDP being contributed to SMEs (Abor &
Quartey, 2010, p. 218).
In many countries the increasing rate of
unemployment is placing even more pressure on
people to start their own business to obtain an income
to care for their families. The Absa SME index
(Schussler, 2013) indicates that self-employment is at
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Problems and Perspectives in Management, Volume 13, Issue 3, 2015
its highest level since 2009 with 1253 000 selfemployed adults in South Africa (10% of all
employed adults). It is thus of great importance that
SMEs make sure that their customers are satisfied as
their livelihood depends on it.
1.2. Customer satisfaction. All humans need and
want certain things; this, in fact, is one of the
cornerstones of marketing. After fulfilling these
needs customers expect to be satisfied with their
purchase. According to Zeithaml, Bitner and Gremel
(2006, p. 110) satisfaction is when the customer
evaluates whether a product or service has met their
needs and expectations. Knowing what customers’
expectations of a product or service are the SME can
then tailor their product or service offering
accordingly to fulfil these needs and satisfy these
wants which in turn can lead to customer satisfaction
(Cant, 2013). The measurement of customer
satisfaction has been researched in many different
countries (Fornell, 1992; Anderson, Fornell &
Lehmann, 1994; Fornell, Johnson, Anderson, Cha &
Bryant, 1996; Kristensen, Martensen & Gronholdt,
1999; Eklof & Westlund, 2002; Grigoroudis &
Siskos, 2004; Tung, 2013; Al-Nassar, Al-Rawwash
& Alakhras, 2011; Calleros, Rivera, Serrato,
Delgado, Leon, Acevedo & Ramirez, 2012). Of all
the customer satisfaction models the American
Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) is the most
widely applied. According to the ACSI (Figure 1
below) customer satisfaction has three determinants
namely perceived quality, perceived value and
perceived expectations (Tung, 2013).
Fig. 1. The customer satisfaction model (Tung, 2013)
1.2.1. Perceived quality. Perceived quality is
measured through the market’s valuation of a recent
experience with a business and mainly consists of
two components namely perceived product quality
and perceived service quality (Tung, 2013; van
Vuuren, Roberts-Lombard & van Tonder, 2012). It
is estimated that perceived quality has a positive
effect on customer satisfaction (Tung, 2013).
Products or services of high quality are appreciated
by customers as it displays qualities that satisfy
customers’ needs (Wiid, 2014). This is important to
SMEs as it will provide them with a competitive
advantage.
1.2.2.
Customer
expectations.
Customer
expectations are the standards against which a
customer measures the performance of a product or
service (Machado, 2014). These customer
expectations have been classified by Grönroos
(2007) as fuzzy expectations, explicit expectations
or implicit expectations. Fuzzy expectations exist
when the customer requires a business to solve a
182
precise need but the customer does not know how.
Explicit expectations exist when customers know
exactly what the problem and the solution is but
have unrealistic or realistic expectations of the
provider. Lastly implicit expectations exist when
customers have clear expectations, but take it for
granted rather than intentionally considered it.
SMEs need to take all of the above expectations in
consideration when aiming to satisfy their
customers’ needs to ensure that they satisfy the
actual need that the customer has and mets or
exceeds their expectations.
1.2.3. Perceived value. Perceived value is one of the
most difficult concepts for small businesses as the
word value is used in many contexts. Zeithaml et al.
(2006, p. 527) defines perceived value as “the
consumer’s overall assessment of the utility of a
service based on perceptions of what is received and
what is given.” It is thus a trade-off between the
price, the benefits and the quality product or service
that they get and what they give. If the small
Problems and Perspectives in Management, Volume 13, Issue 3, 2015
business cannot quantify their product or service in
terms of value it will be very difficult for value to
result in customer satisfaction. This means that the
SME needs to set a price for their product or service
that the customer will be willing to pay which is in
line with the perceived value.
The last relationship in the ACSI model (Figure 1)
is between customer complaints and customer
loyalty. Overall customer satisfaction can lead to
either customer complaints or customer loyalty. If
expectations that the customers have are met,
customers are generally satisfied. If their
expectations are exceeded, the customer is likely to
express high levels of satisfaction. This in turn leads
to customer loyalty. The same applies to customer
complaints; if it is handled effectively it can result
in customer loyalty.
1.3. Benefits of customer satisfaction. Numerous
researches have been conducted in various industries
showing that there is an array of benefits that come
from having satisfied customers. It has been found that
if customers experience satisfaction consistently that it
should lead to customer loyalty, the intention to
repurchase a product or service, as well as positive
word-of-mouth from consumers who in turn pay less
attention to competing brands (Boshoff, 2014;
Okharedia, 2013; Helgesen, 2006; Seiders, Voss,
Grewal & Godfrey, 2005; Curtis, Abratt & Rhoades,
2011;Cant & Van Heerden, 2013).
Markey, Reichheld and Dullweber (2009) argue that
organizations should view each purchase by a
customer as an occasion to recruit a promoter for the
organization. According to Boshoff (2014) when
customers are satisfied with the product or service
offering and can be retained by the business it can
increase profits as:
i acquisition cost decline;
i new customers will be referred by the satisfied
repeat customers;
i marketing in the form of word of mouth is free;
i new customers do not buy as much as existing
customers;
i loyal customers are less price sensitive than new
customers;
i it costs less to serve existing customers.
It is widely known that if customers are satisfied,
they will refer potential customers to the
organization. A satisfied customer will tell less
people about his or her good experience than a
dissatisfied customer, which can cause considerable
damage to any organization. Goodman (2006)
conducted research on customer complaint behavior
during the 1980s, and the study was repeated in
various countries and industries with the same
results. From these findings Goodman developed
the tip-of-the-iceberg phenomenon which is
illustrated in Figure 2 below.
Source: Adapted from Goodman (2006, p. 27).
Fig. 2. Tip-of-the-iceberg phenomenon
It is evident from the figure above that half (50%) of
customers with problems do not complain; this is
the part of the iceberg which is below the surface.
Customers who complain are, however, more likely
to do business with the organization again, even if
their problems were not solved (Goodman, 1999).
Without the necessary feedback from customers, an
organization never truly knows if the customer is
satisfied and it will not have an opportunity to
correct its mistakes.
1.4. The importance of measuring customer
satisfaction. It is evident from the above discussion
that measuring customer satisfaction is of the utmost
importance to businesses. In order to establish and
to improve on current customer relations small
businesses should collect and analyze data about the
customer. This should be done in order to truly
understand the data gathered and get new data from
the customer on a regular basis by means of
communication (Berndt & Tait, 2014). Data that
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Problems and Perspectives in Management, Volume 13, Issue 3, 2015
should be collected include those whose primary
target is market, what they perceive as providing
them value, how they can be brought closer and how
the business can serve them better (Wiid, 2014).
i the extent to which small businesses in South
Africa focus on customer satisfaction;
i the extent to which small businesses in South
Africa measure customer satisfaction levels.
Grigoroudis and Siskos (2010) identified some of
the reasons why businesses should be measuring
customer satisfaction, namely:
In an effort to determine whether SMEs focus on
customer services in their businesses, a sample of
small business owners who have registered their
businesses at an official state institution for SMEs,
they were asked to indicate the extent to which they
agree that a list of statements regarding customer
service and how they measure customer satisfaction
of their customers and how often they measure
customer satisfaction.
i to get reliable insight into the market and its own
competitive position;
i to be aware of dissatisfaction amongst customers
as customers do not like to share dissatisfaction;
i to reveal potential market opportunities;
i to develop a customer satisfaction measurement
process that is tailored for the specific business;
i to expose differences in quality service
perceptions between management and the
customers.
Organizations can achieve a considerable
competitive advantage if they know exactly what
their customers need and if they can meet their
customers’ expectations. By collecting customer
feedback, organizations are able to hear directly
from their customers what they are doing right and
what they are doing wrong (Kumar & Bhagwat,
2010). Collecting feedback should be an easy
process. Feedback from customers about their
satisfaction with the organization’s product or
service should be “…natural, interactive and
effortless…” (Kumar & Bhagwat, 2010).
Customer satisfaction can be measured in various
ways, either directly from customers or indirectly
through monitoring and tracking (Machado, 2014,
p. 148). Complaints and comments from customers
can be collected from comment cards, websites, social
media sites, telephone calls and frontline personnel. In
addition, the organization can conduct more structured
research by using self-administered or telephone
surveys to get customer satisfaction feedback on
specific issues. It is important to note that customer
satisfaction feedback should not be collected if an
organization does not intend to act on it, especially on
the negative feedback. Therefore organizations need to
determine what they want to do with the customer
satisfaction feedback before they start collecting it
(Temkin, 2014). Customer satisfaction feedback
should be measured on a regular basis to make sure
that all concerns are addressed to avoid any damage
(Cant & Van Heerden, 2013).
A self-administered online questionnaire was
designed which consists of quantitative questions
allowing small business owners to indicate their
perception on their business customers satisfaction
orientation and frequency of their efforts to measure
satisfaction levels of customers. The questionnaire
was administered randomly to SME owners in the
provinces of Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal in South
Africa. The combined contribution of these provinces
to the national GDP is 50% (Gauteng 33.9%;
KwaZulu-Natal 16.1%) and can therefore be regarded
as representative of SMEs in South Africa (Anon,
2015). A sufficient number of questionnaires were
sent out at a confidence level of 95% and a
confidence interval of 10. A total of 105 usable
responses were received giving a 95% confidence
level of and a 9.26 confidence interval at 50%.
3. Results
The demographic profile of the respondent group is
presented in Table 1 below. More than half
(56.9%) of SME owners are older than 40 years.
The gender split for the respondent group is female
dominated (58.62%). Almost half (46.1%) of the
respondents own the business and a third (34.2%)
are owner-managers, which implies that the owner
is directly involved in the day-to-day running of
the SME. Almost two thirds (63.1%) of the
respondents hold a post-matric qualification. A
large proportion (60.8%) of the respondents’
businesses have existed for less than five years.
The largest proportion (41.8%) of the respondents
report an annual turnover of less than R100 000.
Table 1. Demographic profile
% of total
Gender
2. Research objectives and methodology
The main aim of this study is to establish the
customer satisfaction measuring practices of South
African SMEs. More specifically, the following
objectives are set:
184
Age
Female
58.62%
Male
41.38%
18-24
8.62%
25-29
17.24%
30-34
6.90%
35-39
10.34%
Older than 40
56.90%
Problems and Perspectives in Management, Volume 13, Issue 3, 2015
Table 1 (cont.). Demographic profile
% of total
Qualification
Position in organization
For how long has the business
been running?
No matric
7.9%
Matric
28.9%
Certificate/diploma
31.6%
Degree
19.7%
Post-graduate degree
11.8%
Owner
46.1%
Manager
19.7%
Both
34.2%
Less than 5 years
60.8%
6–10 years
25.7%
11–25 years
9.5%
Over 25 years
4.1%
Annual turnover
R1 000 000
13.4%
3.1. Customer orientation. The small-business
owners were presented with a set of eleven aspects
regarding attitudes and actions to maintain a
customer focus. They were asked to rate the extent
to which they agree with each aspect on a four-point
scale (1 = strongly disagree; 2 = disagree; 3 = agree;
4 = strongly agree). Respondents were also given
the option of selecting N/A if they felt that a certain
aspect was not applicable to them.
Table 2. Perceived customer orientation
N
Strongly disagree
Disagree
Agree
Strongly agree
Mean
Std. deviation
Our way of doing business is customer friendly
99
0.0%
5.1%
46.5%
48.5%
3.43
.592
Our procedures are customer friendly
98
0.0%
6.1%
45.9%
48.0%
3.42
.608
We ask for feedback and comments from customers
95
2.1%
11.6%
49.5%
36.8%
3.21
.728
We analyze feedback and comments from customers
94
3.2%
10.6%
46.8%
39.4%
3.22
.764
We respond to feedback and comments from customers
91
2.2%
11.0%
47.3%
39.6%
3.24
.735
Our customers are satisfied with our business
99
3.0%
3.0%
52.5%
41.4%
3.32
.683
We measure customer satisfaction
90
2.2%
22.2%
36.7%
38.9%
3.12
.832
We find out why customers leave
84
3.6%
23.8%
41.7%
31.0%
3.00
.836
We use feedback on why customers leave to improve
our service
86
3.5%
18.6%
46.5%
31.4%
3.06
.802
Low/good prices will keep customers
92
7.6%
33.7%
35.9%
22.8%
2.74
.900
Customers are used to average service
93
19.4%
31.2%
37.6%
11.8%
2.42
.936
Fig. 3. Mean level of SME customer orientation
It is clear from Table 2 that the aspects the
respondents feel most strongly about involve
customer friendliness. Respondents tend, on
average, to strongly agree (mean agreement scores
above the third value of the response scale (3)) that
in their case, their procedures (M=3.42, SD=.608)
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Problems and Perspectives in Management, Volume 13, Issue 3, 2015
and way of doing business (M=3.43, SD=.592) are
conducive to creating a customer-friendly
experience for their customers. They also feel that
their customers are satisfied with their business
(M=3.32, SD=.683). The standard deviations for
these aspects are the lowest, indicating that there is
the least variation among the agreement levels of
respondents regarding these aspects. As a result, it is
not surprising that the next highest average
agreement score indicates that the respondents tend
to respond to feedback and comments from their
customers (3.24), followed by the fact that they also
analyze feedback from their customers (3.22) and
specifically ask for feedback and comments from
their customers (3.21).
All the aspects on the list, except for the last two,
are worded in such a way that higher values on the
agreement scale bode well for their businesses. With
all the agreement scores being three or above, it can
be deduced that, in general, the respondents do
make an effort to maintain good relationships with
their customers. The wording of the last two aspects
is such that lower average agreement scores could
have a positive reflection on their businesses since it
will indicate that they do not underestimate the
quality and service needs of their customers. With
these two aspects having an average agreement level
around the middle value of the response scale (Low
or good prices will keep customers (2.74) and
Customers are used to average service (2.42)), it
can be assumed that the respondents are on average
divided in terms of underestimating the quality and
service needs of their customers and this is reflected
by the standard deviations that are the highest on the
list.
3.2. Obtaining customer satisfaction feedback
from customers. The small-business owners were
presented with a list of six ways to measure
customer satisfaction feedback and asked to indicate
which of these methods they use to measure their
customers’ satisfaction levels. Allowances were
made for multiple selections from the list of options.
Fig. 4. Obtaining feedback from customers
It is clear from Figure 4 that over sixty percent of the
respondents measure customer satisfaction feedback
verbally (61.62%, n=61), whereas twenty percent do
so by using a questionnaire (20.20%, n=20). A small
portion (15.15%; n=15) doesn’t ask for satisfaction
feedback from customers. However, although only
three respondents selected the “Other” category, these
respondents indicated that they measure satisfaction
feedback by making use of suggestion boxes, emails,
SMSs or social media.
3.3. Frequency of testing customer satisfaction
levels. The small business owners were asked to
indicate on a list of frequency indicators how often
they measure customer satisfaction levels.
Fig. 5. Distribution of customer satisfaction testing frequency
Approximately twenty percent (19.6%, n = 19) of the
respondents test the satisfaction levels of their
186
customers on a daily basis, whereas altogether 32% (n
= 12) of the customers do so at least weekly. Of the
Problems and Perspectives in Management, Volume 13, Issue 3, 2015
10.3% (n = 10) of respondents who selected the
‘Other’ option, most indicated that they test
satisfaction levels after a contract or project for a
customer is completed. Almost one fifth (19.6%) of
the respondents indicated that they never test the
satisfaction levels of their customers.
Conclusions and recommendations
Customers are important seeing that they are the
resource on which the success of the organization
depends. It is therefore important that organizations
focus on serving their customers. A customer focus
contributes to the success of the organization and
ensures that all aspects of the organization put
customer satisfaction first. This study aimed to
determine the extent to which SMEs focus on
customer satisfaction. The research revealed that the
majority (60.9%) of SMEs conducted customer
satisfaction testing on a daily (19.6%); weekly
(12.4%) or monthly (28.9%) basis. Verbal
communication was the method used by the majority
(61.26%) to determine customer satisfaction.
Communication with customers is an important
building block for establishing long-term customer
relations. The study found that SMEs saw themselves
as customer focused; they were customer friendly;
sought customer satisfaction feedback; analyzed and
responded to customer satisfaction feedback; their
customers were satisfied; if customers left, they
wanted to know why; and they used customer
feedback to improve their service.
The study also revealed that the respondents were
divided on whether or not the use of a low-price
strategy would retain customers. Almost half
(41.3%) of the respondents disagreed or strongly
disagreed with the statement Low/good prices will
keep customers, whereas just more than half
(58.7%) agreed or strongly agreed with the
statement. Furthermore, respondents were not in
agreement about the statement Customers are used
to average service: half (50.6%) disagreed or
strongly disagreed, whereas half (49.4%) agreed or
strongly agreed with the statement. It can be
inferred that good prices and good customer service
contribute to the success of a business. It is
recommended that training programs that focus on
SME customer satisfaction measurement be
developed and implemented. These programs should
cover topics such as why customer satisfaction
should be measured and how customer satisfaction
can be measured.
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