CHAPTER ONE

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

The increased significance of the service sector to the economy and competition in the marketplace has led printing organizations continually seeking strategies to increase profitability and expand their market shares. These strategies often concentrate on improving service quality, increasing customers’ satisfaction and trust, and fostering customers’ retention. Service quality (SQ) has become an imperative research issue because of its noticeable relationship to costs (Crosby, 1979), profitability (Buzzell and Gale, 1987) customer satisfaction (Bolton and Drew, 1991), customer retention (Reichheld and Sasser, 1990) and a positive impacts on firm’s revenues (Bolton 1998). Service quality has gained great attention from managers and academics due to its substantial influence on business performance, cost reduction, customer satisfaction, customer loyalty and profitability .

(Gummesson, 1998; Sureshchander et al.,2002).  Customer retention on its part refers to the activities and actions companies and organization take to reduce the number of customer defections. The goal of cutover retention programs is to help companies retain as many customers as possible. Often through customer loyalty and brand loyalty initiatives.

It is important to remember that customer retention begins with the first contact the customer has with the company and continues through the entire lifetime of the relationship.

 There is only one valuable goal for every firm which is customer retention. Today, customer orientation is one of the important concepts involving the managers’ time and efforts (Ghasemi, 2003). In the current era in which most of the markets are matured and attracting a new customer is a difficult task, companies requires customers’ retention and their loyalty. So it is said that a new customer attraction costs are six to nine times more than retaining current customers (Peppers and Rogers, 2004).

Customer retention is considered an essential input to organizational success and profit. Firms with are able to maintain large groups of customers have been shown to have large market shares. Market share, in turn, has been shown to be associated with higher rates of return on investment (Raj, 1985; Reichheld & Sasser, 1990).

 As a matter of fact, many organizations agree to the fact that high customer satisfaction will lead to greater customer loyalty and thus returning them (Anderson and Sullivan, 1993) which in turn, leads to future revenue (Fornell, 1992; Bolton, 1998). For that matter, many Organizations (including printing) have been found to be market leaders in terms of sales and long-term customer loyalty and retention. Differentiation based on service quality can be a key source of competitiveness for printing Companies and hence have implication for leadership in such organizations. The trend of printing companies shifting from a product-focused view to a customer-focused one has been The Impact of Service Quality on Customer Satisfaction and retention in Cameroon printing Industry.

The link between service behavior and service quality has confirmed its role and significance in management as well as in marketing (Valarie et al., 1996; Heskett & Sasser,2010)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 During previous decades, the notions of service quality and service satisfaction have been highly considered and used in marketing. Marketing researchers have praised the advantages of satisfaction and quality, and have mentioned them as indices of an organization competitive benefit (Ruyter, 1997). On the other hand, service loyalty is one of the most important structures in service marketing, due to its final effect on customers’ repeated purchases, and in fact, those loyal customers who purchase repeatedly are considered as the base of any business (Caruana, 2002).

The first rotary offset lithographic printing press was in England and patented in 1875 by Robert Barclay. This development combined mid-19^th century transfer printing technologies and Richard March Hoe’s 1843 rotary printing press that used a metal cylinder instead of flat stone. This offset cylinder was wrapped in a specially treated cardboard that transferred the printed image from the stone to the surface of material. The subsequently developed offset printing is attributed to two independent investors; the American Ira Washington Rubel and the German US-immigrant Caspar Hermann.Au24, 2018 the history of printing started as early as 350 BE, when the proto-elamite and Somarian civilization use cylinder seals to certify document written in clay. Other early forms include blovk seals, hummered coinage, pottery imprints, and cloth printing.Initially a method of printing patterns on cloth such as silk, woodblock printing originated in Chian around 200AD, and was transferred to paper by the 7^th century, leading to the spread of book production in Asia. Movable type was invented in the Song dynasty in the eleventh century but it received limited use compared to woodblock printing was also used in Europe until the fifteenth century when a process of large product metal type and the printing press were invented to support an economical book publishing industry.

The first newspaper to appear in Cameroon was those produced by European religion missions in the early 1900’s. Written in the native language, they attempt to teach the norms and value of’ the civilization’ being introduced to the local tribes. From the very beginning, the Cameroonian press had as its intention not only to inform but also to persuade reading to agree to the point of view.

The French colonial period saw the emergence of the first “opposition” press in the 1920’s, produced by Cameroonians themselves and challenging European domination. This press was “a means of expression, a weapon for the colonized Blacks, and in the final analysis, played a role in the integration of the dominated African masses. A relaxation of colonial rule allowed a wave of nationalist spirit to sweep the region in the period from 1945 to 1959, and a correspondant explosion of political propaganda in the form of ‘newspapers.’ Of the 71 newspapers that came and went in this period, at least 40 were attached directly to one of the 91 political parties in the country. After Cameroon gained independence in 1960 the opposition press still existed but lost much of its impact. More neutral and pro-government papers appeared, notably the paper

 La Presse du Cameroun. The former British colony of West Cameroon was joined to the East, and the more oppressive style of government inherited from the French was imposed on that region.

1.2. Statement of the Problem.

 The activities and services offered by offset paper printing can be seen as an aspect that does much work in booming the economy of Cameroon. My observation in Presprint Plc Limbe as one of the printing firm in the country during my observation in 2019 made me understand some aspects about printing. While in this firm, the I discover some negative aspect in the company that could affect the satisfaction of most external customers of the companies (buyers and users of their products) like;

       Late delivery of customer’s jobs,

Poor responds to customers demand sometimes because of poor communication during the job request or when an order is placed.

Lack of consistency in the performance of some companies machines that leads to unclean paper printing that can cause customers not to be satisfied.

 It was also observed that workers of Presprint Plc sometime pay less attention in listening to the nature of the job customers are demanding for. With such I noticed a quarrel between the customers and workers which was not a good experience.

With the above experiences I had in the firm, they draw my attention to make me ask  myself  if such negative performance  impact the loyalty of customers that can discourage the customers from coming back to the firm? Yes it may discourage customers from coming back to the company thus bringing a problem in the firm in the domain of retaining customers. But I could not just conclude if I don’t carry out a research concerning service quality dimensions and customer retention.

In view of the above, I was pushed to investigate and carry out research concerning service quality dimensions and its impact on customer retention in the context of Cameroon printing Industry focusing on Presprint Limbe Plc following the problem stated as:

 Poor performance of customers job sometimes due to poor communication concerning customers order in things like the agreed quality of paper to be used, late delivery, and unclean printing that caused some customers to be dissatisfied.

Printing industry is one of those which has received particular importance due to the boost in literacy index and development of consumer goods and services markets leading to the increase in demands for written information and advertisements. Increasing demand for business, consumer and daily journals has helped the industry boom and has attracted more attentions for investment due to good profitability.

Offset printing has a notable contribution in Cameroon because of needs for better speed and quality. Today, printing has transformed into a media which is a part of the communication technology. If we believe in printing as a media in the locus of this technology, we will correct our attitudes toward it as a marketing tool. Those who even know a little about modern methods of marketing are rarely using one type of message or advertisement for all customers. Offset printing had been the lonely way to print high quality colored written papers till now. Wholly, it is the most lucrative and abundant printing.

Organizations are often faces with two kinds of customers. (Chrissy Kidd and Heaher Mclatchie 2020) Concerning this study in Presprint Limbe, the first type (internal customers) of is the organizational are the different employees in the organization. The other customers (external customers) are the actual buyers or users of the products. Though both internal and external customers need to be satisfied in every organization to ensure its smooth functioning,  This study is focus on the external customers of the organization.

1.3. Research Question (Main research question).

More specifically, this study answers the main research question;

What is the impact of service quality dimension on customer retention of offset printing products in Limbe?

Specific Research questions

1. What is the impact of tangibes on customer retention of offset printing products in Limbe?
2. What is the impact of reliability on customer retention of offset printing products in Limbe
3. What is the impact of empathy on customer retention of offset printing products in Limbe?
4. What is the impact of assurance on customer retention of offset printing products in Limbe?
5. What is the impact of responsiveness on customer retention of offset printing products in Limbe?

1.4 Objective of the Study.  

1.4.1. Main objective.

The general objective of this study is to evaluate the impact of service quality dimensions on customer retention in the Cameroon printing industry.

1.4.2. Specific objectives.

• To assess, evaluate and analyze the impact of tangibles on customer retention of offset printing products in Limbe.
• To assess, evaluate and analyze the impact of reliability on customer retention of offset printing products in Limbe.
• To assess, evaluate and analyze the impact of empathy on customer retention of offset printing products in Limbe.
• To assess, evaluate and analyze the impact of assurance on customer retention of offset printing products in Limbe.
• To assess, evaluate and analyze the impact of responsiveness on customer retention of offset printing products in Limbe.