SERVICE QUALITY ASSESSMENT OF KUMON MATH & READING

CENTER-BANILAD BRANCH

Service Quality Research Paper

Presented to the

Faculty of the Department of Business Administration

University of San Carlos

Cebu City, Philippines

In Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements for the Subject

SERVICES MARKETING, SUMMER 2019

By

FLORES, CELSO JIEF T.

MARIANO, SOPHIA ABIGAIL T.

ROSELL, AMITY GRACE K.

July 26, 2019

 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

Cover Page i

Acknowledgment

Table of Contents

List of Tables

List of Figures

CHAPTER

1 INTRODUCTION

Rationale of the Study 2

THE PROBLEM

Statement of the Problem 9

Significance of the Study 11

Scope and Limitations of the Study 12

DEFINITION OF TERMS 13

2 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

Review of Related Literature 21

Theoretical Framework 15

Conceptual Framework 19

3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research Design 77

Research Environment 79

Research Respondents 80

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 Research Instruments 81

Research Procedures 83

Gathering of Data 83

Treatment of Data 86

BIBLIOGRAPHY (APA style-American Psychological Association)

APPENDICES

A Transmittal Letter

B Research Instrument

C Timetable of Activities

D Program Budget

CURRICULUM VITAE

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 APPROVAL SHEET

This Marketing Plan entitled “THE SERVICE QUALITY ASSESSMENT OF

KUMON-BANILAD CEBU” in partial fulfillment of the course Product Management

(BMM 1205) has been examined and approved for FINAL SUBMISSION.

MRS. ANNA MARIE BALORAN

Adviser, BMM 1205

Time: M T W Th F 11:30 - 1:30 PM

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 ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The researchers would like to acknowledge and appreciate the following people

who have greatly contributed their time, effort, and participation to the success of this

study.

First, the researchers would like to appreciate the adviser in BMM 1205, Mrs.

Anna Marie Baloran, for giving this opportunity to apply the lessons learned so far

towards practical application and for her guidance throughout the process.

Secondly, for each member of this study who has actively participated and

sacrificed their time and effort in making this study possible namely, Sophia Abigail

Mariano, Amity Grace Rosell and Celso Jief Flores. Despite being all busy in their

personal lives, they have not forsaken this activity and continued to give their best until

the end.

Thirdly, are the parents of each member for the moral and financial support given

during the process of accomplishing this study.

And lastly, and most important of all, to the God almighty in whom we give all

the glory of the success of this study for the strength, wisdom, knowledge, clarity and

protection given to each member all along the way.

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 Abstract

This research aims to learn, determine and assess the relationship between the

service quality and customer satisfaction in KUMON Math & Reading Learning Center

in Banilad Branch by using SERVQUAL analysis. It seeks to observe and understand

how the services provided by the company affects its customers, specifically the students

and parents, upon acquiring and experiencing the said provision of the services.

Furthermore, this study is also to examine the critical factors using the SERVQUAL

analysis comprising the 5 service quality dimensions (tangibility, responsiveness,

reliability, assurance and empathy) that contribute most to the satisfaction of the student’s

learning experience and development upon the acquisition of the services provided at

KUMON-Cebu. Each of the dimensions of SERVQUAL will be tested to determine and

measure the relationship with customer satisfaction. Moreover, this study also wants to

concentrate on the customers’ perception and evaluation toward service performance in

KUMON-Banilad.

This research paper shall also include interview questions and a provision of

survey questionnaires that shall be participated, distributed and filled by the customers

who engaged and have known the services provided at KUMON-Banilad. The

participating respondents shall comprise specifically of students, parents and some

employees of the said company. A total of 100 customer respondents who shall

participate in the survey.

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 List of Tables
Table Title Page
1 Summary of Gaps with Diagnostic Indications 65
2 Demographic Profile of the Customers of Kumon-Banilad 74
3 Reliability Expectation of Kumon-Banilad Customers 81
4 Assurance Expectation of Customers of Kumon Banilad 82
5 Tangibility Expectation of Customers of Kumon Banilad 83
6 Empathy Expectation of Customers of Kumon Banilad 84
7 Responsiveness Expectation of Customers of Kumon Banilad 85
8 Reliability Perception of Kumon Banilad customers 86
9 Assurance Perception of Customers of Kumon Banilad 87
10 Tangibility Perception of Customers of Kumon Banilad 88
11 Empathy Perception of Customers of Kumon Banilad 89
12 Responsiveness Perception of Customers of Kumon-Banilad 90
13 Reliability Gap 91
14 Assurance Gap 92
15 Tangibility Gap 93
16 Empathy Gap 94
17 Responsiveness Gap 95
18 Summary of Perceived and Expected of SERVQUAL 96
dimensions

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 List of Figures
Figure Title Page
1 The SERVQUAL Model 62

2 Conceptual Framework 67

3 Kumon Location 69

4 Likert Scale 72

5 Gap Score 73

6 Cost Budget 78

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 Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION

Rationale of the Study

Education is far beyond one of the most important foundation that an individual

especially parents should invest on in fostering skills and capabilities that shapes one’s

career and future. Thus, investing in education is considered as a great gift a parent could

give to his/her children. It is by then giving the child an opportunity to grow not only in

knowledge but also, in discipline and character. There several ways as to how an

individual acquires and develops learning in varied designated areas and aspects. A

learning center is one designated area where a student learns to adapt with the concept of

advanced and individualized learning program through the use of manipulatives, art

materials, books, and other instructional tools. For the purposes of this study, the

researchers chose one of the most successful learning centers today and that is KUMON

Math & Reading Center. It has been greatly known way back 1954 in Japan and has

now expanded its network not just locally but as well as internationally upholding its

main goal of making a contribution to the community through individualized education

program for students and to develop and allow its students to adapt to the so called “just-

right level” of education thus this implements the “Kumon Method” of learning.

In a traditional class learning, 30 to 40 students are gathered in one room with

around the same ages to start their learning journey. As it commences, it is inevitable for

one to be more advanced than the other and vice versa. In this matter of fact, competition

ignites and one tries to avoid being left behind because of factors such as social

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acceptance and discrimination. Whereupon, students and parents seek tutorial classes to

further enhance their intellectual, communicational and social skills.

In enrolling in Kumon, it is both the desire of the teachers and parents for their

children to finish it until the end to fully maximize the benefits from their proclaimed

promises. However, it is an observable fact that there is quite a number of students who

stop halfway or just before finishing. There are many factors that contributes to this

outcome, whether external or internal. Therefore, this study will focus more on the

internal factors that contribute to this posing problem such as excessive stress and

pressure from external factors such as time and money. In doing this, the researchers have

carried out three underlying objectives. First objective focused which factor(s) of service

quality dimensions contribute(s) most to student satisfaction. Second objective, for

researchers to be able to assess what are the advantages and disadvantages of the said

study and; Lastly, cite some recommendations with regards to honing student’s learning

and development skills and capabilities.

In order to reach these objectives, the researchers made us of the theories and

concepts of Service quality. Service quality is an approach to manage a business

processes in order to ensure full satisfaction of the customers which will help to increase

competitiveness and effectiveness of the service industry especially in KUMON-Cebu.

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Background of the Company

“It is not the child who is at fault”. This is a conviction that Kumon learning

center has been holding unto way back 1954 and which had made Kumon one of the most

successful and trusted learning center of today. A company that believes that every child

has an inherent potential to grow. Through their practice of reading, writing, and

calculation, students develop the confidence to learn on their own. Toru Kumon,

founder of Kumon Math & Reading Center, believed that the work of an educator is to

foster a mindset for self-learning in children. This mindset was developed, when his son,

Takeshi Kumon, had encountered difficulty in his math test in his second year of

elementary school. His father, Toru, was a high school math teacher at that time. To

address such concern, he made math worksheets for his son. He went through much trial

and error until he was able to create the best learning materials for his son. Alongside

with this, Toru knew the fact that many senior high school students as well had problems

with their math studies because of insufficient calculation skills. This led him to focus on

developing his son’s calculation skills and created materials that made it possible for his

son to learn independently yet efficiently. Through his own educational experiences,

Toru Kumon knew that students could only gain genuine academic ability by making

progress on their own. Toru Kumon wrote out calculation problems on loose-leaf papers

for Takeshi which were his early worksheets in 1955. Eventually, it became the prototype

for today’s Kumon worksheets.

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Takeshi quickly developed his ability through studying the materials created by his father

for half an hour every day. As a result, he was able to reach the level of differential and

integral calculus when he was just a few months into sixth grade. Following his success

with Takeshi, Toru Kumon invited some children from the neighborhood to come and

study at his home, and instructed them in a similar way to how he had instructed Takeshi.

Seeing how these children greatly improved in terms of their academic ability, Toru

Kumon wished to develop the potential of as many children as possible with his learning

method. Therefore, in 1958, he decided to establish an office in Osaka and open more

Math Centers. From that year, the number of Kumon students began to increase steadily.

With reaching high school level material through self-learning as the goal, Toru Kumon’s

aim was to develop the ability of students to the maximum by enabling them to study at a

level appropriate for each individual.

Born out of a father’s love for his son, Kumon is not restricted by the barriers of

language, culture, or history. Kumon’s theory and practice of individualized instruction

and study at the “just-right” level do not apply only to children. Today, the Kumon

Method is benefitting students of all generations. As the world becomes more diversified,

an increasing number of people are calling for a greater emphasis on the individual in

education. The Kumon Method is based on over fifty years of implementing a system for

independent learning. It is established to nurture children to achieve self-fulfillment in the

future and realize their dreams and goals. As more people hear about the benefits of the

method, it continues to reach a greater number of students worldwide.

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 THE PROBLEM

Problem of the Statement

This research aims to examine the relationship between service quality

dimensions (tangibility, reliability, assurance, empathy, and overall service quality) and

customer satisfaction in order to cite recommendations specific marketing strategies to

improve the service quality of the tutorial center.

Specifically, answered the following objectives:

1. To determine the customer profile of Kumon Math and Reading Center Banilad

Branch in terms of:

1.1. Gender

1.2. Age

1.3. Nationality

1.4. Social Class

1.5. Number of children enrolled

2. To determine the service marketing mix in terms of:

2.1. Product/Service

2.2. Place

2.3. Promotion

2.4. Price

2.5. People

2.6. Process

2.7. Physical evidence

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3. To determine which dimension of the service quality model contributes most and

least to customer satisfaction through assessing the service quality of Kumon Math

and Reading Cebu Center

3.1. Tangibility

3.2. Responsiveness

3.3. Reliability

3.4. Assurance

3.5. Empathy

4. To assess what could be the advantages and disadvantages and cite recommendations

of the said study with regards to honing customer’s learning and development skills

and capabilities.

Scope of and Limitations of the study

This study’s scope are students enrolled in Kumon Banilad. They will be the

respondents of this study because they are the direct customers of the mentioned firm and

are the individuals who could objectively assess the service quality of the firm. Through

using the theory of Parasuraman, Service Quality Model with the following dimensions –

reliability, assurance, tangibles, empathy, and responsiveness, the level of customer

satisfaction is then assessed in order for the researchers to provide recommendations on

how this could be improved.

However, this study is limited only to Kumon Math and Reading Center Banilad

Branch located in Ginza Compound Old Banilad Road, Cebu City due to restrictions of

time, and money, availability of respondents and employees of the said provision to be

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able to effectively and efficiently perform the study and to be lead to an outcome that

could be simply interpreted despite limitations.

DEFINITION OF TERMS

Service quality -An area of study that has developed to define how services can be

delivered in such a manner as to satisfy the recipient (American Marketing Association,

2012).

Servqual - (service quality gap model) is a gap method in service quality measurement,

a tool that can be used by Product Manager across all industries. The aim of this model is

to: Identify the gaps between customer expectation and the actual services provided at

different stages of service delivery.

Customer Satisfaction - Customer satisfaction is a measure of how products and services

supplied by a company meet or surpass customer expectation.

Customer Perception - is a marketing concept that tells us what customers think about a

brand or a company or its offerings.

Customer expectations - refers to the perceived value or benefits that the customers seek

when purchasing a good or availing a service.

Responsiveness - the quality of reacting quickly and positively.

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Assurance - a positive declaration intended to give confidence. Kumon must provide

assurance that after their program the student can obtain the desire information nor need

that they were expecting and hoping.

Tangibility – Kumon instructors, physical materials and equipments as well as

correspondence materials.

Empathy – use to encourage employees in kumon to fully understand customer’s feelings

about the service offered.

Reliability - the quality of being trustworthy or of performing consistently well in

educating the young students in kumon and satisfying their needs and exciding their

expectations.

Cultural diversity – the existence of a variety of cultural or ethnic groups within a

society.

Service – is to provide a self-learning program that gives your child the critical thinking

skills and mindset to learn new materials independently. The key to Kumon Programs is

the individualized instruction, carefully planned by an instructor.

Quality – defined as being suitable for its intended purpose while satisfying kumon

customer expectations.

Customer retention – refers to the ability of a company or product to retain its customers

over some specified period. High customer retention means customers of the product or

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business tend to return to, continue to buy or in some other way not defect to another

product or business, or to non-use entirely.

Product it is anything that can be offered to a market to satisfy the desire or need of a

customer.

Promotion - refers to the marketing strategies of kumon for them to increase customer

awareness and improves their business image. Kumon has a lot of marketing strategies

and promotion that’s why their business is well known and many are willing to render

their service.

Price –is the quantity of payment or compensation given by one party to another in return

for one unit of goods or services. Kumon must set a price that fits their service and make

it more affordable for every consumer.

Place – this refers to the location of the kumon which is located at Ginza Compound , Old

Banilad Road, Cebu City.

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 CHAPTER 2

Review of Related Literature

Service Quality

Service quality is noted as commonly an important perquisite in order to

establish and sustain satisfying relationships with customers. In this concern, the relation

between service quality and customer satisfaction has been emerged as a topic of

considerable and strategic concern (Bolton and Drew, 1991; Cronin & Taylor, 1992).

Generally, in this era, research suggests that service quality is an important indicator of

customer satisfaction (Spreng & Mackoy, 1996). Service quality is one of the most

important research topics on a large scale in services (Zeithaml 2000; Gallifa, & Batalle,

2010). The consumers are concerned not with how a service is delivered but only with the

quality of output they receive. Conceptualization of service quality has been seen as the

difference between customer expectations about the service to be received and

perceptions received from the service (Parasuraman et al., 1988). In some previous

studies, service quality has been defined as the degree to which a service meets

customers‟ needs or expectations (Mavondo & Zaman, 2000).

The two separate constructs of “services” and “quality” were analyzed in this

study, where “services” was defined with regard to the inherent characteristics of the

particular service and “quality” was defined by making use of predominantly a user-

based approach. It is also evident from the previous chapter that service quality is a

complex and ephemeral concept. It is recognized by businesses that improving service

quality is an essential strategy for success and survival in today’s competitive economic

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environment. It is apparent from the literature that the provision of high service quality

enables a company to be competitive and, contributes to their productivity and

profitability. It increases cash flow and shareholder value, gives businesses a better

chance of success, enhances customer satisfaction, increases the willingness of customers

to positively talk about the service provider, decreases customer defection and enhances

customer loyalty (Bateson & Hoffman, 2011:326; Baumann et al., 2007; Carr, 2007:107;

Carrilat et al., 2009:96; Chen et al., 2009:49; Ehigie, 2006; Kassim & Souiden, 2007;

Kelkar, 2010:421; Kersten & Koch, 2010:196; Lee et al., 2007:2; Madhavaram & Hunt,

2008:67; Talib & Rahman, 2010:363; Von Freymann & Cuffe, 2010:406; Wiles,

2007:27; Yoo & Park, 2007:920). The benefits of high service quality also go beyond

economic indicators and have a positive social outcome as well, in that it improves

communities’ quality of life (Dagger & Sweeney, 2006:12; Lee et al., 2007:2; Young,

2008:4).

In correspondence of this study, the researchers opted to determine and assess the

service quality of a company which belongs under the education industry, more

specifically, offering tutorial support services as its core services. Service quality plays a

very important role when it comes with satisfying customer’s needs after experiencing

the services they receive. Thus, it has a great impact towards how customers would then

perceive the company’s overall performance. Owlia and Aspinwall (1996) highlight the

role of students in advanced education. According to them, service quality consists of

tangibles, competence, attitude, content, delivery and reliability. Study conducted by

Gruber, Fuß, Voss and Gläser-Zikuda (2010) at German’s universities and learning

centers showed that student satisfaction was related to person-environment relationship at

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their respective areas. Duque and Weeks (2010) indicate that support resources,

educational quality and learning outcomes positively influence student satisfaction.

Student involvement has a significant effect on the learning outcomes which contributed

to student’s perception on service quality and satisfaction. Therefore, it is important to

evaluate student learning outcomes that reflect student satisfaction (Duque & Weeks,

2010). Positive feedback on student learning environment is associated with better

learning outcomes and higher level of satisfaction.

Service quality is considered by various researchers to be used in educational

sector because of its importance and outcomes. Various researchers have investigated

service quality in various dimensions of educational set-up, like Hill (1995) investigated

the use of service quality in higher education, Anderson (1995) used SERVQUAL to

evaluate quality of administration department in educational set up; Banwet and Datta

(2002) studied impact of service quality in a library. Deming (2000) suggested that

education sector should apply service quality concept as manufacturing and service sector

of the economy. According to Gronroos (1982) service quality dimensions can be divided

into two groups, technical (outcome) and functional (process). The SERVQUAL model

given by Parasuraman et al. (1988) contains five dimensions of service quality containing

one tangible dimension (Tangible) and four intangible dimensions of service assurance,

responsiveness, reliability, and empathy. Cavana et al. (2007) has discussed five

dimensions of quality named as empathy, responsiveness, assurance, convenience and

reliability; these dimensions are considered as significantly for quality concept.

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The Evolution of Service Quality

In contemporary economy, service quality has received a considerable research

attention in marketing literature (Teas, 1993). Substantial research has focused on the

concepts of service quality associated with customer attitudes and satisfaction, and the

measurement techniques of the service quality (Taylor and Cronin, 1992). Many

academic literatures and books address variety of definitions and concepts about service

quality and hypothesize a comparison of consumer expectations with performance.

Parasuraman, Valarie, Zeithaml and Berry (1985, p.42) defined service quality as

“perceptions resulting from a comparison of consumer expectations with actual service

performance”. In addition, Severt et al. (2006) stated that service quality is a tool for how

well the customer expectations are matched by the delivered service level and it is known

that if the customer expectations are higher than the perceived performance, then it could

affect the customer satisfaction negatively (cited by Parasuraman et al., 1985). In

consonance with this, service quality can be seen as a bond that is created between the

organization and its customers (Schneider & White, 2004). Even though there are many

different definitions for what service quality is, the general consensus in the literature is

that it is the discrepancy between the expectations and the perceptions of customers.

Zeithaml V.1 (1981) has stated that employees must be aware that dissatisfied customers

may not complain and therefore the employees should seek out sources of dissatisfaction

and resolve them. Greenrooms Christian2 (1982) had illustrated that service quality is

what differentiates hospitality establishments, lacking a clear definition of service quality.

However, a few different suggestions of how to define service quality by dividing it into

image, functional and technical components. Another way is to check service quality
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by determining its fitness for use by internal and external customers. In absence of a

definition, it is widely accepted that service quality is wholly dependent on guest’s needs

and expectations. Knowing that both service quality and value is difficult to measure,

hospitality companies heavily rely on guest’s quality perception and expectations. It

could be achieved by asking guest’s questions related to expectations and their

perceptions of the service quality through carefully designed surveys. Parasuraman4

(1988) enlists the components of perceived service quality as Assurance,

Reliability, Tangibles, Empathy and Responsiveness.

Service Quality in Tertiary Education Industry

Education sector is one of the most important sectors of economy. Many countries

are now shifting their economies from manufacturing to services sector. In our

contemporary time, competition between and among industries is now increasing

especially in the fields of service industries. Researchers and academicians are

emphasizing their attention towards improving the structure and services offered by the

educational sector. Thus, organizations operating in this field are competing with each

other on the basis of service offered and how they are likely to influence and affect

customer satisfaction. These dimensions of service quality are widely accepted and used

by researchers in various industries.

Various researchers have investigated service quality in various dimensions of

educational set-up, like Hill (1995) investigated the use of service quality in higher

education; Anderson (1995) used SERVQUAL to evaluate quality of administration

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department in educational set up; Banwet and Datta (2002) studied impact of service

quality in library. Out of the stakeholders of the educational quality, students are

considered to be one of the most important one, as these are directly affected by the

quality of service and satisfaction of other stakeholders like parents, employer etc. is

dependent upon the satisfaction of students. Considering what makes students satisfied

has been widely discussed by the researchers. One of the tools used by the researchers is

service quality. Service quality has been widely accepted and used where so ever service

quality is going to be studied. This paper is aimed to study impact of service quality on

satisfaction and motivation of students with teaching quality of higher and advanced

learning institutes. Impact of satisfaction and motivation is also discussed in the form of

students’ performance. This would be a valuable contribution in the educational

researcher and it will show importance of service quality for better performance of

students.

There is general consensus amongst researchers and practitioners that service

quality is an elusive and abstract concept that is difficult to define and measure (Bateson

& Hoffman, 2011:324; Kasper et al., 2006:175; Kotler & Armstrong, 2010:272;

Parasuraman et al., 1985:41; Sower, 2011:8). What is also apparent, is the fact that

increases in quality have numerous benefits and can have a dramatic impact on a

business’s survival (Bateson & Hoffman, 2011:326; Baumann et al., 2007; Ehigie, 2006;

Hollensen, 2010:395; Kasper et al., 2006:176; Kassim & Souiden, 2007; Kelkar,

2010:421; Madhavaram & Hunt, 2008:67; Talib & Rahman, 2010:363; Von Freymann &

Cuffe, 2010:406, Wiles, 2007:27). It is mainly for this reason that ongoing research and

much debate is done in the field of service quality and in service quality measurement.
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Definitions of service quality in the literature focus primarily on meeting customers’

needs and requirements and how well the delivered service meets customers’

expectations (Bateson & Hoffman, 2011:327; Berry et al., 1985:46; Grönroos, 1984:36;

Kasper et al., 2006:183; Yoo & Park, 2007:912; Zeithaml, Parasuraman & Berry,

1990:2).

Service Quality in Higher and Advanced Education

Service quality research in higher education sector is new, at least, compared to

that of the commercial sector. Most of the quality models that are commonly practiced in

the business world have been adapted and used in the education sector (Chua, 2004).

Service quality research in higher education develops relevant measures conceptualizing

either SERVQUAL or SERVPERF. Recently, one study reports that SERVQUAL scale

is reliable and valid when it is applied to a particular classroom environment (Stodnick

and Rogers, 2008). This study further determines predictive ability of the SERVQUAL

scale in a classroom environment using multiple regression analysis, where student

satisfaction with the instructor is considered as a dependent variable and the five

dimensions (assurance, empathy, responsiveness, tangibles, and reliability) are

considered as independent variables. However, a number of studies examine

SERVQUAL scale in university environment and none of those studies are able to

replicate five-factor structure of the SERVQUAL scale (Cuthbert, 1996a, 1996b; O’Neill,

2003; Oldfield and Baron, 2000; Sahney et al., 2004). Thus, conceptualization of the

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SERVQUAL scale on the principles of EDP and its applicability in the classroom or

higher education environment is disputable.

Like any other service industry, education is designed to meet the needs and

wants of the users of its services (Redmond et al. 2008). However, it is different from

most other services in two ways: first, education is a ‘pure service’, for there is no

physical product involved (Evans & Lindsay 2002). That means the quality of the service

is grounded in the responsiveness, dialogue and relationships that exist between relevant

stakeholders such as the teacher and student, and in the appropriateness and methods used

to achieve stated learning outcomes. In practice, this means that the teachers’ knowledge,

skills and attitudes are transferred and used in appropriate ways to facilitate students’

learning. Second, education is unlike other types of services such as retailing or catering

that focus on the interaction between a single provider and a consumer (Redmond et al.

2008). Students receiving an education are not the only beneficiaries; even though they

are the primary consumers, there are other stakeholders such as parents, prospective

employers and society as a whole, who all have an interest in how successful and

appropriate is the education for the needs of the student. An education institution is

similar to other businesses in that it needs to satisfy its primary customers (the students)

in order to survive, develop, and sustain a competitive edge within its business

environment. Maguad (2007, p. 332) supports the idea of considering education

institutions as ‘customer-driven entities’, largely because customer-driven organizations

are more effective in their commitment to satisfying customers’ (students’) needs.

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Service Quality as a Service Strategy

World “quality” means different things people and according to Gravin (1998),

identifies five perspectives on quality; transcendent quality, product- based quality, user

based quality, manufacturing based quality and value based quality. As a result of

intangible, multifaceted nature of many services, it may be harder to evaluate service

quality than goods. Because customers cannot be separated from service delivery process.

Thus, most scholars were on the view that it as a major determinant to measure the

customer satisfaction and some time as a determinant of customer loyalty too

(Parasuraman & Berry, 1991; Zeithaml et al., 1990 cited by Prasad & Jha ,2013;

Ushantha et al., 2014; Yap et al., 2012; Pathmini et al., 2014; Ball et al., 2006; Gobiraj,

2008; Martensen et al.,2000; Lin and Sun, 2009; Mosahab, R., Mahamad and Ramayah,

2010; Beneke et al., 2012 ; Koni et al., 2013) Service quality defined as the customer's

judgment about the superiority or excellence of a product (Zeithaml, 1988). Gronroos,

(1998) defined service quality as a” difference between customer expectations of „what

they want‟ and their perceptions of „what they get‟. Also, service quality defined as

“assessment of how well a delivered service conforms to the client's expectations. Service

business operators often assess the service quality provided to their customers in order to

improve their service, to quickly identify problems, and to better assess client

satisfaction”.

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Customer Satisfaction

Customer satisfaction is a term frequently discussed in marketing because it is

normally used as a key performance indicator of many businesses. It is a measure of how

products and services supplied by a company meet or exceed customer expectation.

Customer satisfaction along with customer loyalty is becoming a paramount factor in the

businesses for their long-term and short-term survival. According to Gronholdtet et

al.,(2000), customer expectation is the base for customer satisfaction. When performance

of any organization meets or exceeds the expectation, customers will be satisfied and they

are likely to do repurchase and recommend the product to others. Accordingly, Engel et

al., (1990) satisfaction is defined as the outcome of the subjective evaluation that the

chosen alternative meets or exceeds expectations. Kotler et al., (2013), defined customer

satisfaction as a person‟s feeling of pressure or disappointment that result from

comparing a product‟s perceived performance or outcome to the expectation. Juran

(1998) cited by Esmaeili, Manesh, & Golshan, (2013) argues that customer satisfaction as

a state of mind where the customers think that the product features are compatible with

their personal expectations.

According to them if the performance falls short of expectation, the customer

dissatisfied and if it matches the expectation, the customer is satisfied. If it exceeds the

expectation, the customer is delighted. Gronholdt et al., (2000), defined customer

satisfaction as “perception of customers‟ towards products or services”. Customer

satisfaction is measured as "the number of customers, or percentage of total customers,

which reported an experience with a firm, its products, or its services exceed specified

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satisfaction goals." Customer satisfaction also be defined as an evaluative response to

perceived outcome of a particular consumption experience (Cadotte et al., 1987; Bolton,

1998; Hines et al., 1987). Customer satisfaction in the service industry is driven by a

variety of latent factors such as service quality, technical and functional quality of

service, service scape, services after the sales, empathy, physical environment, facilities,

store image, store location , store atmosphere, price, reliability, waiting time, customer

relationship, technology, employees‟ involvement, interactive support, deliberation and

commitment.

The attainment of quality in products and services had become a pivotal concern

of the 1980s. While quality in tangible goods has been described and measured by

marketers, quality in services was largely undefined and unresearched. Hence,

Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry1 (1985) attempted to rectify the situation by reporting

the insights obtained in an extensive exploratory investigation of quality in four service

businesses and by developing a model of service quality, that sought to improve the

previously developed methods by developing a set of firm characteristics that could be

measured by providing the first complete set of ten service quality determinants:

tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, communication, credibility, security, competence,

courtesy, understanding/knowing the customer, and access, and thereby introduced the

value of gap measurement in customer satisfaction and named that new measurement

device as SERVQUAL. These investigators were the first to utilize gap measurement to

determine the importance of service quality in customer satisfaction.

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 Anderson, Fornell and Lehmann1 (1994) investigated the nature and strength of

the link between customer satisfaction and economic returns, in the Customer

Satisfaction, Market Share, and Profitability. They discussed how expectations, quality,

and price should affect customer satisfaction and why customer satisfaction, in turn,

should affect profitability; these results in a set of hypotheses that are tested using a

national customer satisfaction index and traditional accounting measures of economic

returns, such as return on investment. The findings supported a positive impact of quality

on customer satisfaction, and, in turn, profitability. The authors demonstrated the

economic benefits of increasing customer satisfaction using both an empirical forecast

and a new analytical model. In addition, they discussed why increasing market share

actually might lead to lower customer satisfaction and provided preliminary empirical

support for this hypothesis. Finally, they emerged with two findings: First, the market's

expectations of the quality overall satisfaction with the firm; and second, these

expectations are largely rational, albeit with a small adaptive component. Furthermore,

these investigators revealed that customer satisfaction is considered to be based upon

value; therefore it is closely related to price, unlike service quality that is not related to

price.

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Customer’s satisfaction in Education Industry

Customers form their opinions based on the experiences with people who served

them. They are either satisfied, dissatisfied or somewhere between these two poles. A

satisfied customer engages in positive word of mouth communication that can impact

positively on a business’s reputation and financial status. For example, satisfied

customers of a tertiary institute may remain with it, reenroll for more courses, or

recommend to their friends or relatives the service which they have experienced there.

Dissatisfied customers are likely to pass on negative comments about the service

provider, which could affect a business’s operation and cause damage to its reputation.

They may withdraw and reenroll at another university, or pass negative comments to their

friends or relatives that affect the university’s enrolment and retention of students.

In order to deliver total student satisfaction, Banwet and Datta (2003) stress, all

employees of learning centers should adhere to principles of quality customer service,

whether they are front-line contact staff involved in teaching or administration, or non-

contact staff in management or administrative roles. Sohail and Shaikah (2004) find

‘contact personnel’ the most influential factor in students’ evaluation of service. This

supports the findings of Galloway (1998), that front-line staff have a direct impact on

students’ satisfaction.

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Service Quality and Student’s Satisfaction

Various researchers have given their findings regarding students’ concern for

quality and use of students to measure the quality of service provided. As Gold (2001)

says that students should be considered as primary customers and educational institutes

should focus on student-centered education. Students should be assessed as the product of

the institute (Emery et al., 2001). The relationship between students and institutions is

two-fold, schools rely on students for financial needs and students depend on institutes to

impart knowledge and help to forge meaningful employment. Educational institutes are

conducting student satisfaction survey with the aim to improve quality of service offered

to students (Low, 2000). Quality has been defined “as the ability of a service to satisfy

customers” (ISO, 9004-2) (ISO, 1991). Asthiyaman (1997) defined service quality as

“Perceived service quality is defined as an overall evaluation of the goodness or badness

of a product or service”. Studies have confirmed that service quality is antecedent of

satisfaction (Cronin and Taylor, 1992; Shemwell et al., 1998). Customer satisfaction is

defined then as the end state of psychological process. Sapri et al., (2009) mentioned that

customers‟ satisfaction is a short-term attitude that results from the evaluation of

customers of their experience with the education service received. On the other hand,

Kotler and Clarke (1987) defined satisfaction as the desirable outcome of a task or job

that pleases one’s esteem.

In this study service quality model given by Parasuraman et al. (1988) is used as it

is widely accepted and used by researchers and academicians. Athiyaman (1997) found

that there is strong relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction and all

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service encounters should be managed in order to increase consumer satisfaction. Ahmed

et al. (2010) found that there is positive and significant relationship between service

quality provided and customer satisfaction. Satisfaction has been defined as consumer’s

evaluation judgment regarding pleasure derived from utilization of level fulfillment

(Oliver, 1981). “Satisfaction is emotional reaction to a product or service experience”

(Spreng and Singh, 1993). Satisfaction is an outcome of service quality (Shemwell et al.,

1998; Cronin and Taylor, 1992; Bolton and Drew, 1991). Veloutsou et al. (2004) found

that student’s main criteria for selection of university is quality of education and service

offered at university. Low (2000) notes that provision of service quality is key source of

attraction, satisfaction and retention of students and it has direct impact on funding, job

security and viability of educational institute.

The teaching staff (tangibles), the teaching methods (responsiveness and

reliability) and administration of university leads to student satisfaction (Navarro et al.,

2005). The quality issue should be considered by every personnel of institutes whether in

front-line contact, teach students or part of management (Gold, 2001; Low, 2000). The

management of university should focus on service quality, information and facilities to

increase satisfaction and loyalty of university students, and service quality is most

important of all (Helgesen and Nesset, 2007). Satisfaction of students reflects perception

of service quality differences offered (Gruber et al., 2010). Communication and

responsiveness are most crucial determinants of student satisfaction but absence of

responsiveness, tangibles, communication leads students to dissatisfaction (Douglas,

2008). Donaldson and Runciman (1995) service quality is a key performance measure in

educational excellence and is a main strategic variable for universities to increase market
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share. Perceived quality creates positive image in the mind of students which ultimately

leads them to satisfaction (Alves and Raposo, 2010). Mazzarol (1998) say that higher

education institutions should maintain a distinctive image to have a competitive

advantage. Customer satisfaction is dependent on customer expectations and perception

regarding service quality (Ekinci, 2004; Christou and Sigala, 2002; Cronin and Taylor,

1992). Students with positive experience at educational institution are more likely to be

more satisfied with institute then those who don’t have positive experience (DeShields Jr

et al., 2005). Students have certain expectations with the institutes and how well these

expectations are met affects students’ level of satisfaction with the institutions and their

perceptions regarding institutional effectiveness (Juillerat and Schreiner, 1996). Service

quality is positively related to students’ satisfaction and students’ loyalty; so management

should pay attentions most to the quality of service offered (Helgesen and Nesset, 2007).

It has been widely discussed that customer satisfaction leads towards customer

retention (Mittal and Kamakura, 2001). Quality services provided to customers bring

positive future intentions in customers to stay with the company (Ahmad et al., 2010).

Student satisfaction is positively related to student loyalty (Schertzer and Schertzer, 2004;

Navarro et al., 2005). Perceived quality and student satisfaction has direct relation with

postlecture intentions of students (Banwet and Datta, 2003).

Navarro et al. (2005) argues that teaching staff, enrolment and course

organization have an impact on satisfaction of students and satisfaction leads to intent to

return to university, helps university to improve and maintain its reputation, and its

number of students. Translating university services considers intentions of further studies

in the same institute, using ancillary services and lastly willingness to recommend others
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(Blackmore et al., 2006). Outcome of service is most important factor affecting

satisfaction regarding service (Banwet and Datta, 2002; Patterson and Spreng, 1997).

Satisfaction level of students has a direct bearing on performance of student (Chambel

and Curral, 2005). Eom et al. (2006) found that there is positive relation between student

satisfaction and their success ratio; successful candidates are more satisfied then

unsuccessful candidates.

Tjiptono (2001), consumer satisfaction/ dissatisfaction is the consumer's response

to a perceived discrepancy / disconfirmation evaluation between the previous

expectations (or other performance norms) and the actual performance of the perceived

product after usage. Kotler in Mulyana (2009) suggests that "Consumer is the level of

one's feelings after comparing the performance of perceived results compared with

expectations". According to Kotler "Consumer satisfaction is the feeling of pleasure or

disappointment of someone who emerged after comparing the perception or the

impression to the performance or the outcome of a product and its expectations" (Kotler,

1997). According to Day (in Tse and Wilton) quoted by Tjiptono "Satisfaction or

consumer dissatisfaction is the consumer's response to the evaluation of discrepancy or

disconfirmation that is felt between previous expectations (or other performance norms)

and the actual performance of the perceived product after its use". Indicator of

satisfaction according to Selnes (1993): Experience, Expectation and Overall

Satisfaction.

According to Rouse (2008), customer satisfaction is a degree of satisfaction

provided by the goods or services of a company as measured by the number of repeat

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customers or how service meets the customer’s expectation. Triplett (2007) further

suggests that service quality has become an important topic because of its apparent

relationship to costs, profitability, customer satisfaction, customer retention and positive

word of mouth and it is widely considered as a driver of corporate marketing and

financial performance. In our study, we are more interested in service quality and

customer satisfaction by using the SERVQUAL model to assess them the service quality

in Auto Bavaria, Glenmarie.

Satisfaction can be defined differently in the services and consumer marketing

literature. Oliver (1997) defines satisfaction as pleasurable fulfillment, which means

consumers perceive that consumption fulfills some of their need, desire and goal.

Satisfaction can be described as consumer sense of outcomes. The satisfaction concept

has been extended to the context of higher education. Elliott and Shin (2002) state that

student satisfaction being shaped continually by various outcomes and their experiences

in campus. Likewise, Richardson (2005) uses various dimensions to measure qualit y

learning environment and student satisfaction. These include student evaluation of

teaching, course modules, perceptions of academic quality and student satisfaction.

Cronin and Taylor (1992) posits between satisfaction and quality. They study realized

that institutions needed to know whether their students satisfied with campus learning

environment. They should also aim for higher service quality as a way of increasing

student satisfaction.

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Customer Expectation

Expectations are also affected by the interaction of a person with for instance, the

media, the service provider, other customers, and observation of specific situations

(Kasper et al., 2006:184). Differences between expected and perceived performances

give rise to disconfirmation, which can be either positive or negative. This is often termed

the “disconfirmation paradigm’. Expectations in this context are based on individual

norms, values, wishes and needs and are therefore very individualistic (Kasper et al.,

2006:184). Customer expectations are beliefs about the service that serve as standards or

reference points against which quality is judged (Wilson et al., 2008:155). Whether or not

these expectations are met by the service provider will have a crucial bearing on their

perceived service quality (Bateson & Hoffman, 2011:327; Kasper et al., 2006:183). It

should be noted though, that the expectations between two individuals are not necessarily

identical, even if the service delivery is absolutely identical. The perceived service

quality of the service is therefore also not necessarily identical (Kasper et al., 2006:184).

Changing personal circumstances such as income levels, educational achievement or

increasing aspiration levels may also change an individual’s expectations over time.

Understanding the expectations or needs of customers assists organizations in

how to best serve the customer and provide a basis on making improvements for their

satisfaction (Hallowell, 1996). The term ‘expectation’ differs depending on the way it is

used in the service quality or customer satisfaction literature (Parasuraman et al., 1988).

In the service quality literature, expectation means wants or desires of customers. In other

words, people’s feelings about what the service should be rather than it would. In

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contrast, in the satisfaction literature, it is used as customer’s predictions about what is

likely to happen during an exchange of service (Kunst & Lemmink, 1996). When people

attend to a particular event, they hope for positive outcomes and desire to be met their

expectations completely (Oliver, 1980). Correspondingly, expectation level of customers

about the service can vary according to these hopes and wishes. For instance; when

people accept the service which is not performed in line with their expectations, it is

known as adequate service and the service level that they hope to receive is known as

desired service (Zeithaml, Bitner and Gremler, 2009). In other words, customers assess

the perceived service quality on the basis of their desires and the acceptability level.

However, any failure to meet customers’ expectations may cause dissatisfaction so it

directly affects the future intentions and behaviors of customers. In recent years,

researchers have placed a greater emphasis on understanding the customers’ expectations

role. It is an undeniable fact that customers’ expectation level of quality is on the rise.

This proves the point that if expectation levels of customers are greater than the perceived

performance, it causes customer dissatisfaction and contributes to modest discrepancies

(Shanin & Samae, 2010).

Knowing what the customer expects is the first and possibly most critical step in

delivering quality service. Being wrong about what customers want can mean losing a

customer’s business when another company hits the target exactly. Being wrong can also

mean expanding money, time, and other resources on things that do not count to the

customer. Being wrong can even mean not surviving in a fiercely competitive market. In

this study, the researchers are also to determine and assess what are the various

expectations that customers of KUMON are expecting to receive in return for enrolling in
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the center. The level of expectation can vary widely depending on the reference point the

customer holds. In this case, depending on the reference point of the customers towards

the offered learning services of KUMON towards its students. There are several factors

that affect customer’s expectations of services offered to them. Because expectations play

a critical role in customer evaluation of services, marketers need and want to understand

the factors that shape them.

Marketers would also like to have control over these factors as well, but many of

the forces that influence customer expectations are uncontrollable. Two types of

expectation are the desired service expectation and the adequate service expectation. The

former is influenced by several factors and one of which is personal needs. Those that

states or conditions essential to the physical or psychological and functional well-being of

the customer. In this case, a student enrolled in KUMON might have the personal need to

learn math and reading as advanced as possible that in turn, makes that student hope to

acquire advanced and a complete set of learning materials and methods be offered by

KUMON to enhance and improve one’s study habits and develop a more reliable and

efficient learning coping capability.

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Customer Perception

Perceptions of customers are always considered as their reality. In line with their

perceptions of the service provided will be formed through their assessment of the quality

whether they are satisfied with the service. As perceptions may shift over time,

companies need to assess their customers’ perceptions continually in order to maintain

their success in the market place (Zeithaml, Parasuraman and Berry, 1990).

Student’s view on education

The importance of students’ views on all aspects of their higher education

experiences are now widely canvassed and regarded as essential to the effective

monitoring of quality in learning centers (Hill, Lomas & MacGregor 2003). Although this

quality is difficult to measure, student evaluation of a faculty and instruction is

considered a vital source of input data (Helms, Williams & Nixon 2001). Owlia and

Aspinwall (1998) note that a customer-oriented approach to quality is necessary to

investigating the needs of the customers. This is reinforced when considering the fact that

quality of service in general is subjective, unlike the quality of products, which can be

measured objectively; therefore, an appropriate way of measuring service characteristics

is to assess the perceptions of customers. This research concurs with a researcher, Yeo’s

(2008) argument that the perception of tertiary students as customers will have a direct

impact on the dynamics created within and outside a learning space. His findings show

that service in learning centers should aim at offering experiences that promote dialogue,

inquiry and reflection in the long term. Instructors should learn to balance the

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expectations of students without compromising academic rigor; curricula should be kept

up to date by consulting industry and economic trends; and learning support should be

student-centered rather than task-driven. There is a substantial increase in demand for the

creation and delivery of value to the customer and the effective management of customer

relationships. However, the body of knowledge about customer value, although growing,

is fragmented. Different points of view are advocated with no generally acceptable way

of amalgamating them, and related empirical study is very limited (Wang, Lo & Yang

2004).

Only a few studies have focused on how superior value is constituted from the

perspective of customers, and on how a reliable and valid measurement scale for such a

complicated and important construct might be developed (Sweeney & Soutar 2001).

Understanding value from the customers’ perspective can provide useful information to

management in allocating resources and designing programs that will satisfy the needs of

students (Seymour 1992; Shekarchizadeh, Rasli & Huam 2011); and also in helping

higher education institutions gain or maintain a competitive edge (Schmidt 2002;

Shekarchizadeh, Rasli & Huam 2011; Watson 2003). This view is in line with Eagle and

Brennan’s (2007) argument that a sophisticated interpretation of the student as a customer

of higher education can be of value to managers, policymakers, and academic staff.

Studies that examine student satisfaction in higher educational institutions from a

customer-oriented perspective may provide additional dimensions to the educational

planning activities of students (DeShields, Kara & Kaynak 2005). Student satisfaction

surveys provide institutions with a tool to understand the complexity of the total learning

experience, and include the institutional leadership more directly in quality development
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issues. When issues are addressed, satisfied students are less likely to drop out or do not

finish the class. (Wiers-Jenssen, Stensaker & Grogaard 2002).

Perceived Quality of Service – Initial Development

Perceived quality is the customer’s judgment about an entity’s overall excellence

or superiority (Zeithaml 1987). According to Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry (1988), it

is a form of attitude resulting from a comparison of expectations with perceptions of

performance. Olshavsky (1985) views quality as a form of overall evaluation of a

product, similar in many ways to attitude. Attitude is the customer’s relatively enduring

affective orientation for a product, store, or process, including customer service

(Parasuraman, Zeithaml & Berry 1988). Exploratory research conducted by Parasuraman,

Zeithaml and Berry (1985) supports the notion that the quality of service is an overall

evaluation similar to attitude. Perceived quality acts as a relatively global value judgment

(Holbrook & Corfman 1985), or attitude, relating to the superiority of the service.

Concerning the relationship between customer satisfaction and the quality of service,

Smith and Houston (1982) claim that satisfaction with services is related to confirmation

or disconfirmation expectations. They base their research on the disconfirmation

paradigm, which maintains that satisfaction is related to the direction of the

disconfirmation experience where disconfirmation is related to the person’s initial

expectations (Churchill & Suprenaut 1982). According to Gronroos (1947, p.35), ‘a

model of how the quality of services is perceived by customers is needed. When the

service provider understands how the services will be evaluated by the users, it will be

40 | P a g e
 possible to identify how to manage these evaluations and how to influence them in a

desired direction’. In line with this thinking, Gronroos (1982) developed a model in

which he contends that customers compare the service they expect with perceptions of

the service they receive in evaluating the quality of service (see Figure below).

Figure 1. Gronroos (1983). Perceived Service Quality

Basically, Gronroos (1983) argues that the quality of a service as perceived by customers

has two dimensions:

 Technical quality, referring to the result of the service or the question of what has been

provided’; and

 Functional quality, referring to the way the service has been delivered and relating to the

question of ‘how the service has been provided’.

Gronroos (1988) identifies six criteria of perceived quality of service:

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1. Professionalism and skills – The customers realise that the service providers have the

knowledge and skills required to solve their problems in a professional way (outcome-

related criteria).

2. Attitudes and behaviour – The customers feel that the service providers are concerned

about them and interested in solving their problems in a friendly and spontaneous way

(process-related criteria).

3. Accessibility and flexibility – The customers feel that it is easy to get access to the

service and the service providers are prepared to adjust to meet the demands and wishes

of the customers (process-related criteria).

4. Reliability and trustworthiness – the customers can rely on the service providers to

keep their promises and perform with the best interest of the customers in mind (process-

related criteria).

5. Recovery – The customers know that immediate action will be taken by the service

providers if anything goes wrong (process-related criteria).

6. Reputation and credibility - The customers believe that the image of the service

providers stands for good performance and accepted values (image-related criteria). In

2000, Gronroos presented a seventh criterion of perceived quality of service:

7. Serviscape – The physical surrounding and other aspects of the environment support a

positive experience (Gronroos 2000). However, according to Gronroos (1988, 1990), the

technical aspects of a service are easily copied and competitive positioning may be easily

lost. Functional quality, in contrast, can be used to create a competitive edge by focusing

on the more personal aspects of the service encounter. Saleh and Ryan (1991) add that the
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quality of functional service may even offset technical component problems experienced

by consumers. Gronroos (1988) argues that technical quality is a necessary but not

sufficient condition for higher levels of quality of service, and that functional quality is

likely to be more important than technical quality, even when the latter is of a sufficient

standard. Lagrosen (2001) warns that Gronroos’ criteria of the quality of service have an

important value for conceptual understanding of services, but may not be sufficient, as it

is important to study quality in each specific situation.

Customer Retention

Customer retention is defined as the process of engaging existing customers to

continue buying products or services from your business. These customers have already

encountered with the firm once therefore it is different from customer acquisition or lead

generation. Through customer retention, it nurtures loyalty from them to a firms brand

enables to build long term relationships. When a customer is satisfied from the repetitive

services experiences, he or she becomes an influencer to his or peers through word of

mouth.

Zeithaml et. al. demonstrated in his research that customer retention has a great

impact on the profitability of a firm. Some firms might focus too much on customer

acquisition, but it has been proven that customer retention is faster and more effective in

gaining profit. It is a more sustainable business model for sustainable growth. It is

moreover, an efficient process to focus on them because there is already an interest

towards the services offered by the firm and engagement, thus making it easy to

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capitalize their experiences with the company. However, customer retention does not

happen overnight. It is a continuous process that keeps their service quality in line with

customer perceptions and expectations.

Culture Diversity

Both educational and social institutions are highly affected by, and are

transmission agents of culture. The structure and functioning of each are heavily

influenced by the concept of culture. Culture manifests itself dramatically in the people-

to-people contact of social and educational institutions. Classroom interactions or on any

form of teacher-student interactions, vary accordingly into different fields and aspects.

Culture remains a term institutionally defined and applied. Theoretical and conceptual

definitions of culture derive out of the need to make culture discipline specific or to

understand processes or practices. Some of these disciplines include: psychology, social

psychology, education, anthropology, sociobiology, sociology, and cognitive science to

name a few. Matsumoto ( 2009 ) situates culture in the field of psychology and associates

culture with human behavior and mental processes. For Matsumoto, culture is a “meaning

and information system, shared by a group and transmitted by members.

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Notions and Studies of Culture in Learning

An interdisciplinary examination of research particular to notions of culture in

learning reveals similar conclusions that learning is actively mediated through learners

participation in their culture (Choo, Austin, & Renshaw, 2007 ; Fischer, 2009 ; Gutierrez

& Rogoff, 2003 ; Ito et al., 2010 ; Lee, 2009 ; Nasir, Rosebery, Warren, & Lee, 2006 ;

Thomas & Brown, 2011 ) . This means that situating learners within culture-based

contexts enables learning to happen naturally. Culture based encompasses culture-neutral

(generic) and culture-specific (specialized) contexts (Young, 2008, 2009 ) . Studies that

have examined culture and learning reveal culture as the primary focus of the research,

and that culture is central to determining the learning preferences, styles, approaches and

experiences of learners. Culture is determined to be central to learning. These studies

are supported through an interdisciplinary selection of theory that relates to sociocultural,

Afrocultural, cooperative learning, cognition, culture, learning styles, and language

learning. This suggests the need for an interdisciplinary interpretation of culture and its

relationship to learning.

The very focus of this research study is to determine and assess the service quality

of a certain service company. In this case, the researchers chose one of the most

successful and trusted tutorial learning center today, the KUMON Math & Reading

Learning Center-Banilad branch. It has been Kumon’s greatest principle as a center for

advanced education for students, to pursue the potential of each individual child. In

Kumon, instructors provide just enough guidance for their students to be able to do the

exercises on their own. As a result, students learn that they can do anything if they try,

45 | P a g e
build self-esteem, and develop the ability to take on new challenges for themselves.

Kumon has continually developed its services from way back 1954 up until today,

upholding their utmost objective which is to “contribute to the Global Community

through Individualized Learning for its students”. In this light, Kumon has developed its

own unique way of achieving this goal that by then introduced what they call as the

“Kumon Method” of learning. Kumon is originally founded in Japan thus making its

company adapt to the cultural practices and traditions of the Japanese culture. Spanning

back to the historical background of the Japanese culture, children in Japan learn from the

family, school, community, and nation how to be members of their society. In each

group, an individual, more specifically a child learns the value of “self-discipline,

commitment and a sense of responsibility” with their works. In the home and at school,

a Japanese child is encouraged to develop a sense of self-discipline (hansei) and hard

work. Children are expected to persist toward a goal, and it is considered more important

to try hard and not give up than to achieve the goal. Japanese society embraces the notion

that all children are capable, and children learn the phrase yareba dekiru, which means

that if you try hard, you can do it. Japanese children are encouraged by their mothers,

teachers, and peers to do their best. This has by then explained how the concept of

“individualized learning” was introduced for Kumon. Kumon aims to foster sound,

capable individuals who are able to independently carve out a path for themselves in life.

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Individualized or self-learning and the “Just-right” level of study

Individualized Learning refers to learning experiences in which the pace of

learning is adjusted to meet the needs of individual students. In other words,

individualized learning focuses on the question of “when” students receive a learning

activity. In individualized learning, all students go through the same experience, but they

move on at their own individual pace. Individualized learning is one important element of

personalized learning (along with adaptive learning).

Kumon's individualized learning method allows each student to study at a level

that is best suited to his or her academic ability, regardless of age or school grade, and

advance beyond his or her current school grade level. Kumon offers individualized

instruction to help each child develop his or her ability to the maximum.Children's level

of ability varies depending on their natural aptitude and the environment in which they

are raised. If students study the same content just because they were the same age, some

children could lose confidence because the material was too difficult, while others could

become bored because it was too easy. So it is important that every student is provided

with material that is best suited to their academic ability. Throughout their time with

Kumon, Instructors provide students with material suitable for their ability level while

taking into consideration their degree of mastery of the content.

At Kumon, students begin their study at a level where they can receive perfect

scores easily and advance at their own pace. By continuing to study at a level appropriate

to their ability, students become enthusiastic learners and repeatedly experience a sense

of accomplishment while increasing their academic ability. At Kumon we refer to this

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optimum level for study as a student's “just-right” level of study. Both students who

need to be challenged and those who can't keep up with their classes are able to develop

their ability to the maximum when they study at the “just-right” level. According to

varied researches, it must be teachers’ basic and number one goal to reach each and every

student. By implementing differentiated instruction, they’ll be able to meet where their

students are and provide the scaffolding and inspiration they need to move forward.

Moreover, in Kumon, they believe that the most beneficial thing that parents can

do for their children is to develop their ability to do high school level material through

self-learning as early as possible in life. With the Kumon Method, students study

independently from an early age and develop both a high level of academic ability and

the ability to learn independently. We at Kumon refers to this as “self-learning” ability.

With this, children who have done Kumon and later enter the workforce, are able to think

of solutions by themselves even when faced with difficult challenges. All in all, the skills

that students gain through doing Kumon go a long way in helping them achieve their

goals and dreams.

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Service Quality Model

Back in 1985, a study was made by Parasuraman, Zheitaml and Berry to

understand how users perceived and assessed the quality of services involving twelve

focus groups, three in each of the four different services examined namely retail banking,

credit cards securities brokerage, and repairs and maintenance. Findings of this study has

revealed common insights among the group. Henceforth, service quality is formally

defined as the degree and type of discrepancy between the perceptions and expectations

of users suggesting that they all, in general, employed similar aspects of service by which

quality could be assessed.

Parasuraman was able to summarize his findings into five dimensions with its

interrelations; however, his insights was also able to disclose five corporate gaps between

expectations and perceptions of users. Consequently, these gaps could pose a major

obstacle for users to view the provision of such services as high quality.

The five dimensions are the following: tangibility, reliability, responsiveness,

assurance and empathy. These are used as a criteria for judging the quality of service. (1)

Tangibility concerns the physical facilities, equipment, personnel and materials that can

be perceived by the five human senses. (2) Reliability is the ability to fulfill the promises

made by the provision such in a safe and efficient manner with consistent performance,

free of non-compliance, in which the user can trust. (3) Responsiveness is the ability for

employees to swiftly, attentively and promptly attend the needs of the users and also the

availability. (4) Assurance is identified as the courtesy, knowledge of employees and

their ability to convey trust. And lastly, (5) Empathy is giving individual attention to the

user which includes accessibility, sensitivity and effort. Moreover, the study found out

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that reliability is the most important dimension and the least is tangibility according to the

users.

Tangibles: Representing the service physically

As mentioned above, tangibles is defined as the appearance of physical facilities,

equipment, personnel, and communication materials. These tangible objects provide

physical representations or images of the service that customers, particularly new

customers, will use to evaluate quality. These tangibles are a factor to which drives an

impression whether positive or negative, to customers that depicts the atmosphere which

then becomes a basis of level of comfortability, convenience, friendliness and more when

experiencing the services of the provision. Such provisions that give importance to

tangibles are hotels, restaurants, café’s, retail stores, and entertainment companies.

For service companies in which tangibles play a dominant role of boosting image

like the ones mentioned, oftentimes, they combine tangibles with another dimension to

create a service quality strategy for the firm that provides continuity and that signals

excellence to customers such as tangibles with responsiveness – providing fast, effective

and efficient service. Therefore in contrast, if companies do not have a good service

quality strategy, it fails to attract new customers and retain and maintain loyal customers.

Reliability: Delivering on promises

Reliability talks about the ability to perform the promised service dependably and

accurately. Promises regarding delivery, service provision, problem resolution, and

pricing. In other words, reliability entails the promises about the service outcomes and

core service attributes.

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 Customers expect that provisions uphold an error-free record during the time of

their experience of their services. Thus, reliability entails trust and assurance from

customers that will drive them to access a company’s services on a repetitive basis and

also, become an influencer in his or her peers.

In a company’s standpoint, standardization is a critical factor in positioning itself

in the market. “Promises are meant to be kept.” Standardization helps remind its

employees to never deliver their services beyond the standard set by the company.

Instead, through the changing of time, the quality of service must continue to increase to

remain a competitive advantage in the market.

When delivering service outcomes, the customers’ emotions and feelings are a

great considerations for the company making it a hassle-free and convenient throughout

the journey. All firms must be aware of customer expectations. Otherwise, they are

expecting a fail in delivering their services

Responsiveness: Being willing to help

Responsiveness is the willingness to help customers and to provide prompt

service when dealing with customer requests, inquiries, questions and complaints. This

dimension emphasizes on the attentiveness and promptness of employees towards their

customers. It communicates through the length of time customers have to wait for

assistance to be entertained with their requests, questions, complaints, and inquiries.

In order to excel in implementing this dimension, companies must view in the

customers point of view in terms of the process of service delivery and handling of

requests. According to Zeithaml et. al., the standards are different in the internal process

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requirements in regards to standards of speed and promptness from the customers view of

standards requirements for speed and promptness. Therefore, to maximize this dimension

as to differentiate the provision from others is to hire well-staffed customer service

departments as well as responsive frontline people in all contact positions.

Assurance: Inspiring Trust and Confidence

Assurance means that to inspire customer trust and confidence through

employees’ knowledge, courtesy and the ability of the firm. This dimension is necessary

for firms that entail services in which customers perceive as high-risk or uncertain about

their ability to evaluate outcomes such as banking, insurance medical and legal services.

Professional people who has their own specialization of services are embodied with trust

and confidence from the customer’s point of view such as securities brokers, insurance

agents, lawyers and counselors. Customers who avail of the services of these professional

people will allow them to get to know individually and will coordinate all of their needs

in relation to their profession.

In other situations, trust and assurance are embodied in the organization itself.

Reliability messages such as banking companies such as BDO, “We find ways”.

Insurance companies such as State Farm Insurance Company, “For all the nevers in life,

State Farm is there.”

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Empathy: Treating customers as individuals

Empathy is the caring, individualized attention that employees provide to their

customers. The core of conveying empathy s through personalized and customized

service understanding that each customer is unique and special. Small companies often

interact with their customers directly in every transaction which most likely gives them a

clear advantage because of the ability to feel empathetic in contrast to large firms.

In a business to business transaction supplier firms are to understand the industry

and issues they supply. Though large firms have a large resource, the small firms are

often perceived as more knowledgeable in terms of customer issues and are able to

provide more customized services.

Gap Theory

However, gaps could be present due to the fact that expectations and what is

offered could differ and the higher the perceptions are than expectations, the narrower the

gaps will be and results to higher levels of satisfaction. Customer expectations are

standards or reference points that customers bring into the service experiences. Whereas

customer perceptions are subjective assessments of actual service experience. (Zeithaml

et. al 32) Customer expectation often consist of what a customer believes should or will

happen.

The goal is closing the gap between what customers expect and perceive to

deliver a quality service. This forms the basis for gap models. In delivering service

quality, understanding its customers become a critical and essential factor which leads to

customer satisfaction and customer focus are vital to the competitiveness of firms.

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 Sources of customer expectations are marketer-controlled factors such as pricing,

advertising, and sales promises and the limits are the following, innate personal needs,

word of mouth communications and competitive offerings.

Gap 1: Not knowing what users want to receive;

Gap 2: Not selecting the right design of the service and established standards;

Gap 3: Not delivering the standard service;

Gap 4: Not marrying performance with promises;

Gap 5: Established according to the four previous gaps.

Gap 1: The Listening Gap

It is the difference between customer expectations of service and company

understanding of those expectations which are caused by key factors. Firstly is

inadequate marketing research orientation. When the firm does not acquire accurate

information about customer’s expectations then the gap is large. There is insufficient

marketing research, researches are not focused on service quality and inadequate use of

market research.

Another key factor is the lack of upward communication. Frontline employees are

the ones in direct contact with the customers; however, if the frontline employees are not

in contact with the higher management and does not understand its customers, the gap

widens. This happens when there is too many layers between contact personnel and top

management.

Moreover, there is an insufficient relationship focus which means the company is

focusing too much on transactions rather than relationships. There is a lack of market

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segmentation. This happens as well when companies focus more on attracting new

customer, they may fail to give enough attention to the old ones of their changing needs

and expectations of their current customers.

And lastly is the lack of service recovery. It is important for an organization to

understand the importance of service recovery answering the questions why people

complain, what they expect when they complain, and how to develop effective service

recovery strategies for dealing with inevitable service failures.

Gap 2: The Service Design and Standards Gap

Though an accurate perception of customers’ expectations are necessary, another

prerequisite for a superior service quality strategy is the presence of service designs and

performance standards. Companies find it difficult at times to translate customer

expectations into service quality specifications that employees can understand and

execute. Customer-driven standards are different from the conventional performance

standards that companies establish for service in that they are based on pivotal customer

requirements that are visible and measured by customers. Therefore, gap 2 is to discuss

service design and standards gap with customer’s expectations.

One of the causes of this gap is poor service design. Poor service design entails

unsystematic new service development process. It is when customers are confused with

the process of acquiring their needs or services. It is vague and undefined. There is a

failure to connect service design to service positioning.

Another is the absence of customer-driven standards. This means that there is the

absence of process management to focus on customer requirements. Though services are

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intangible and that they are difficult to describe and communicate. However, when new

services are implemented the difficulty is evident. Unless everyone has the same vision of

the service and associated issues, any attempt to improve will make it suffer. There is

loopholes on the system implemented by the company that doesn’t necessarily aid certain

possible inquiries, requests or problems by the customer. Therefore, in order to close this

gap one must clearly design services without oversimplification, incompleteness,

subjectivity and bias in a manner as careful as possible.

Lastly, is the inappropriate physical evidence and servicescape. Physical evidence

includes everything from business cards, to reports, signage, Internet, equipment and

facilities to deliver service. Moreover, servicescape is the service setting where the

service is delivered. Thus, if there is failure to develop tangibles in line with customer

expectations. Moreover, the possibility of inadequate maintenance and updating of the

service scape. For some industries the servicescape is a visual image on what is the image

of the company is.

Gap 3: The Service Performance Gap

Once customer expectation and company understanding has been made, next then

would the service design be appropriate to their standards of customers would then not

necessarily provide quality service. The next gap to be closed is the service performance

gap. This means the discrepancy between development of customer-driven service

standards and actual service performance by company employees. Though there are

guidelines, there is no certainty for an excellent service performance. To achieve the

standards, there are key components that contribute to this: people, systems and

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technology. These must be effective meaning the employees must if compensated for

their labor.

The key determinants in closing this gap is one, the employees. When employees

do not understand their roles they play in the company, this means that there is a poor

employee selection, inadequate technology, inappropriate compensation and recognition,

and lack of empowerment and teamwork which all relate to the human resource function.

To deliver better service, this issue must be addressed.

Another key determinant is the customer. If the customer do not perform their

roles appropriately such as failing to provide all the information to the provider, this

would mean that service quality is jeopardized. They can also negatively influence the

service quality when they are becoming disruptive to other customers.

Thirdly, are the intermediaries. This happens when there is channel conflict over

objectives and performance, over cost and rewards. Franchisers of services depend on

their franchisees to execute service delivery as they have specified it. Therefore, firms

must develop ways to control or motivate franchisers to meet company goals.

Lastly, the key determinant is the need in service to synchronize demand and

capacity. Without proper management, a firm could experience over or under demand.

This hiders the firm from maximizing profit. In order to close this gap, practices such as

price changes, advertising and promotion and alternative service offerings can help it

from the failure to match of supply and demand.

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Gap 4: The Communication Gap

This gap is the difference between service delivery and the service provider’s

external communications. Through different types of mediums in advertising your claims

regarding a company’s services, there is a gap between the exaggerated claims versus the

actual service. Oftentimes, service companies fail to educate its customers to use their

services appropriately. Moreover, they neglect to manage customer expectations of what

will be delivered in service transactions and relationships.

One of the challenges faced in closing this gap is that it cross organizational

boundaries. Though there are manuals and standards, people cannot be controlled like a

robot or machine. When these employees do not understand the reality of service

delivery, they will make exaggerated promises and the result will be poor service quality

perceptions. Therefore the solution for this issue is that is to have an effective

coordinating actual service deliver with external communications.

Another issue for this gap is that regarding with the prices of services. Customers

do not have internal reference points for prices before purchasing and consumption.

Therefore, it is more complicated than pricing tangible goods.

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.

Figure 2. The gaps from customer expectation and perception

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 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

Theoretical Framework

Figure 3. The SERVQUAL Model

Figure 3 represents the Theoretical Framework to be adopted in this study. The

Theoretical Framework is a projection of the proceedings to be undergone from the

associated literature gathered and reviewed by the researchers. The SERVQUAL model

served as an essential asset with regards to the costumer’s expectation and the

management’s perception on the services offered by the provision. It suggests variations

on the expectation of the customer’s and as to what the management has validated true

when they provide and satisfy customer’s needs.

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 These five dimensions had been recognized by A. Parasuraman, VaZeitham & LL

Berry trying to achieve the consumer’s expectations of the customer’s journey that the

management provides.

This study about KUMON Math & Reading Learning Center shall evaluate the

following dimensions or attributes provided.

Tangibility customers derive their perception of service quality by comparing the tangible

associated with these services provided. It is the appearance of the physical facilities,

equipment, personnel and communication materials. In this survey, on the questionnaire

designed, the customers respond to the questions about the physical layout and the

facilities that Kumon-Banilad branch offers to its customers.

Reliability the ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately.

Reliability means that the company delivers on its promises-promises about delivery,

sevice provision, problem resolutions and pricing. Customers want to do business with

companies that keep their promises, particularly their promises about the service

outcomes and core service attributes. All companies need to be aware of customer

expectation of reliability. This ensures the customers of Kumon-Baniald branch to trust in

the firm by providing them with great service in an efficient manner. Customer do

business organizations that keep promises to the customers, in particular about the carrier

results and service attributes. It has been recognized as one of the most essential and

quintessential dimension seeing that it focuses on assembly the expectations of the

customers to the firm.

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Responsiveness encourages the willingness of employees to help customers and provide

prompt service. This dimension emphasizes attentiveness and promptness in dealing with

customer’s requests, questions, complaints and problems. Responsiveness is

communicated to customers by length of time they have to wait for assistance, answers to

questions or attention to problems. Responsiveness also captures the notion of flexibility

and ability to customize the service to customer needs.

Assurance it is the capacity to inspire trust and confidence. Assurance is defined as

employees’ knowledge of courtesy and the ability of the firm and its employees to inspire

trust and confidence. This dimension is likely to be particularly important for the services

that the customers perceives as involving high rising and/or about which they feel

uncertain about the ability to evaluate. Trust and confidence may be embodied in the

person who links the customer to the company, for example, the marketing department.

Thus, employees are aware of the importance to create trust and confidence from the

customers to gain competitive advantage and for customers’ loyalty.

Empathy to supply heed and instruction. It means to provide caring individualized

attention the firm provide its customers. In some countries, it is essential to provide

individual attention to show to the customer that the company does best to satisfy his

needs. Empathy is an additional plus that the trust and confidence of the customers and at

the same time increase the loyalty. In this competitive world, the customer’s requirements

are rising day after day and it is the companies’ duties to their maximum to meet the

demands of customers, else customers who do not receive individual attention will search

elsewhere.

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Conceptual Framework

Figure 4. Conceptual Framework

Figure 4 Conceptual Framework on the corresponding possible end results and

recommendations using the 5s Key Dimensions Model, 7P’s, Demographic and

Geographic.

Figure 4 shows what concepts this study will be investigating on to determine the

level of customer satisfaction during their experience with the services of Kumon Math

and Reading Center Banilad Branch. Firstly would considering the demographic profile

of the customers of the said provision. This is for the researchers to know who are the

customers of this firm, the market segment. Moreover, since the firm is founded in Japan

and has been implemented in the Philippines for many years already, it does not only

carry its services but also the culture embedded in it, thus the geographic profile.

After knowing the basic segments of the customers, RATER scale and the 7Ps

will be used by the researchers to determine the quality of service of Kumon Math and

Reading Center Banilad Branch. Whereas it would lead then to the evaluation of service
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quality of the mentioned firm. And lastly, to complete this study, the researchers ought to

give recommendations to the firm to make the quality of service better in a way that the

firm is able to do an effective way of achieving their ultimate goal.

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 CHAPTER 3

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research Design

It provides the framework that specifies the type of information to be collected, its

sources and collection procedure (Kinnear & Taylor, 1996; Churchill & Iacobucci 2005)

define research design. MacMillan and Schumacher (2001:166) define it as a plan for

selecting subjects, research sites, and data collection procedures to answer the research

question(s). According to Durrheim (2004:29), research design is a strategic framework

for action that serves as a bridge between research questions and the execution, or

implementation of the research. Commonly, it means that research design is about

providing result where the respondents answer the questionnaire that has given to them.

According to the Creswell (2003) researcher primarily uses post-positivist approach

to develop knowledge when quantitative research is selected (i.e cause and effect

thinking, use of measurement and observations, and test of theories), employs strategies

of inquiry such as experiments and surveys, and collects data on predetermined

instruments that yield statistical data.). A survey obtains information from a sample of

people by means of self-report, that is, the people respond to a series of questions posed

by the investigator (Polit & Hugler 1993:148).

In this study the data was gathered through questionnaires that would personally

contribute to the respondents. This is to determine the relationship between the service

quality and customer service in Kumon Math & Reading learning and to figure out the

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ways to improve the students learning in order to develop a high level of academic

ability.

Quantitative Research

This is a quantitative research in nature and will use the survey approach

specifically the use of questionnaire. This is also to determine the relationship of service

quality and customer satisfaction in Kumon Math & Reading learning. This study utilized

quantitative descriptive research because it can provide information regarding the

preferences, attitude and concerns and also to classify data about the cause and effect

relationships. Descriptive type of research according to Best (1993), involves the

collection of data to answer questions concerning the current status of the subjects in the

study.

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Research environment

Figure 5. The area of the study. GINZA, Compound, Old Banilad Rd, Cebu City

Kumon is an educational network created by Toru Kumon which uses his Kumon

Method to teach mathematics and reading for young students. The math and reading

enhancement company has 12 branches all over Cebu educating and developing the

mathematical and reading intelligence over the young students.

Kumon is a structured, proven self-learning program that gives your child the

critical thinking skills and mindset to learn new materials independently. The key to

Kumon Programs is the individualized instruction, carefully planned by an instructor.

The study was conducted at the GINZA Compound, Old Banilad Road, Cebu

City, Cebu. The GINZA Compound, is the district in Cebu that integrates business, high-

rise, shopping, and sports and recreational facilities, and is also the home to some of the

top local and international companies. GINZA offers a comprehensive range of support

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services like learning centers, malls and recreation centers, convention facilities, and

other special interest and attraction establishments which can cater to the needs of its

growing population.

Research Respondents

Respondents are the participants in a particular study and have become involved

with it. Respondents chosen for this study are the customers who perceive the services of

Kumon Math and Reading Center Banilad branch. Total of 100 customers and __ of

employees from ages 12 to 50 years old were chosen. The target population of this study

which is defined as the group of people the researchers intend to analyze and interpret

relevant information for the objectives of the study are both the employees and customers

of Kumon Math and Reading Center Banilad Branch. They will be surveyed and

interviewed with questions that in lines with the objectives of the study. Simple random

sampling is the technique used in determining who are the respondents to be surveyed

and interviewed because each individual has the chance to be chosen and equal

likelihood.

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 Research Instrument

Various approaches of research techniques and methods were used by the

researchers to reach the accurate and target study results. One is through a distribution of

questionnaire surveys and the other is a conduct of an interview with the target

respondents of this study.

A. Questionnaire Survey: SERVQUAL Model

Questionnaire survey has been used in this study. ‘Surveying’ is the process by

which the researcher collects data through a questionnaire (O’Leary, 2014). A

‘questionnaire’ is the instrument for collecting the primary data (Cohen, 2013), a

presentation of series of questions that aims to gather prompt and accurate information

from participating respondents. Thus, in order to perform a good research, a good

questionnaire must be designed. Hair, Babin, Money, and Samouel (2003) mentioned that

effectiveness and high response rate are the reasons for researchers use questionnaire

widely to collect primary data if the population of respondents is well-educated.

The researchers made use of Parasuraman’s SERVQUAL Analysis Model as

the study’s research instrument design, a multi-dimensional research instrument,

designed to capture consumer’s expectations and perceptions of a service along the five

dimensions that are believed to represent service quality.

A SERVQUAL dimension is a good scale to measure the service quality

performance in various specific industries. In this regard, researcher uses this model

because it takes deep attention on customer’s expectation and perception of service

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 provided at an organization (Shahin, 2005, p.3). Parasuraman’s SERVQUAL model is

widely used to measure perceived service quality in various industry such as retailing,

restaurants, banking, telecommunication, services, airline, catering, hotels, hospitals,

automotives, education and so on (Ladhari, 2009).

B. Interview

Another research instrument used to gather information in this study is through a

conduct of an interview. An ‘interview’ is typically a face-to-face conversation between a

researcher and a participant involving a transfer of information to the interviewer

(Cresswell, 2012). We will investigate each data collection instrument independently,

starting with the interview. The researchers shall conduct an interview with the manager

and some selected employees of KUMON-Banilad branch in regards to the services

offered by the provision. The said interview shall be in consideration of the proceedings

under the three departments: the Human Resource Department, Operations Management

and the Marketing Management Department at KUMON-Banilad branch.

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 Research Procedures

Gathering of Data - describes how primary and secondary data were collected. This is

the procedure of collecting, measuring and analyzing accurate insights for research using

standard validated techniques. The researchers are to evaluate their hypothesis on the

basis of their collected data.

In this study, there are two ways in gathering data which is through primary and

secondary data.

A. Primary Data

a.1 Survey Questionnaire

Various techniques were used to get accurate and good research results.

According to Naresh (2010, p. 132), primary data will be organized for the specific

purpose of addressing the problem on hand. Thus, the primary data that will be used

would be a questionnaire survey whether by online or paper to recover raw data in this

case. The questionnaire shall comprise of two parts, one part shall be answered by the

external customers and the other part shall be answered by the internal customers so as to

be able to answer the research questions.

The gathering of data in this study shall range from a simple observation at

KUMON-Banilad’s provision to collection of information through a questionnaire survey

from 100 customers, in this case- the students and or their parents and a selected number

of KUMON’s employees- the company’s facilitating teachers. While distributing the

questionnaire, the researcher shall need cooperation and clarification from the

respondents. Alongside, primary data may refer as firsthand information or data obtained

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originally by the researcher on the variables of interest for the specific purpose of the

study (Sekaran & Bougie, 2009, p.180). The questionnaires that will be distributed to the

respondents whom their respond and answers may differentiate on specific issues

regarding to the topic. Questionnaires can be efficient data collection mechanism of what

and how to measure the selected variables. Those questionnaires were administered

personally to the respondents.

a.2 Interview

The other part of this research study’s data collection method shall also comprise

of a conduct of an interview. Interviews are primarily done in qualitative research and

occur when researchers ask one or more participants general, open-ended questions and

record their answers. Often audiotapes are utilized to allow for more consistent

transcription (Creswell, 2012).

In consideration of gathering information from the three departments ( HR, OM &

MM), the researchers shall conduct a face to face interview with KUMON-Banilad

branch’s manager and some selected employees, regarding the company’s provision of its

offered services to its customers.

The data to be collected shall then be analyzed using charts and percentages.

Responses will be analyzed and tallied. Moreover, discussion of data results shall then be

made in relation to the research and interview questions.

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 The agenda of the conduct of the interview shall specifically cover the following:

 Credentials and qualifications of the teachers employed by KUMON

 Proceedings and Instructional manual for students, parents and employees; and

 Service marketing strategies done by the company.

B. Secondary Data

According to Sekaran & Bougie, (2009, p.184), secondary data refer to

information gathered by other party that already conduct a previous study. It helps

researchers to get better understand and define the problems. In this light, the researchers

are to determine and assess how KUMON’s offered services affect its customer’s, thus,

the researchers made use of the different theories and concepts of services marketing and

the factors affecting customer perception and satisfaction. These concepts are gathered

through the use of secondary research such as information retrieved from school

libraries, online websites and internet-based articles. The advance of technology helps a

lot in finding resources especially the Internet.

Treatment of Data

In gathering data and information from the conducted survey and interview, the

researchers will be using descriptive analysis in analyzing the data of this study.

Frequency and rate will be used for presenting the demographic profile of the

respondents of this study. Consequently, in order to determine which service quality

dimension contributes most and least to customer satisfaction the ‘mean’ or average was
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calculated to determine the normal scores of each dimension. Additionally, in each

dimension with every statement, the difference between expectation and perception was

calculated as (P – E). This would present the gap between every statement of each

dimension. Every gap per statement in each dimension will be totaled and then divided

by the number of statements in each dimension which is equaled to the average score of

the specific dimension. The five average scores will be added and then divided by five.

The answer to this would be labeled as the unweight measure of service quality.

Gap Average Formula

Average Score (per dimension) = Perception score – Expectation score

Total Unweighted Score = (Average Tangibility Score + Average Reliability Score +

Average Responsiveness Score + Average Assurance Score + Average Empathy Score)

÷5

The survey questionnaire in the form of Likert scale ranged from 1 to 5, having 1

as the lowest and 5 as the highest rate. It uses a five-point scale as to which each point

has its own interpretation. Every point was interpreted as the level of satisfaction through

given statements in the survey.

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Table 1. Rater Scale

Point Range Verbal Interpretation

5 4.50 – 5.00 Strongly Agree Kumon Math & Reading Learning Center
Banilad Branch has exceeded the
expectations of their customers.

4 3.50 – 4.49 Agree The services of the learning center meet

the expectations of the customers.

3 2.50 – 3.49 Neutral Represents the uncertainty of the

customers on whether they are satisfied
or not.

2 1.50 – 2.49 Disagree The services of the learning center are

poor or need instrument.

1 1.00 – 1.49 Strongly Disagree Most of the strategies of Kumon Math &
Reading Learning Center Banilad Branch
need to be changed.

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Table 2. Gap Score

Gap Score Interpretation

If Gap is from -0.01 to -5 It means that Kumon Math & Reading Learning Center
Banilad Branch did not meet the expectations and
service quality needs to improve.

If Gap is from 0.01 to 5 It means that Kumon Math & Reading Learning Center
Banilad Branch has exceeded service quality.

If Gap is from 0.00 It means that Kumon Math & Reading Learning Center
Banilad Branch has met their customer expectation and
satisfied their customer.

Perception of Gap Score

The table above will be the basis in interpreting the gap between the expectation

and perception of the customers of Kumon Math & Reading Learning Center Banilad

Branch.

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 CHAPTER 4

PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF DATA

This chapter presented the data that were collected from the responses of the
participants of the study to the questionnaires as well as the results of the interview that
was conducted to the management of Kumon Learning Center-Banilad Cebu. The
presentations of the responses of the customers of Kumon-Banilad were made using
tables and graphs, while the results of the interview that was conducted to the
management of Kumon-Banilad was as well presented qualitatively.

I. Demographic Profile

Table 3. Age Profile of the Customers

Age Frequency Percentage

3-12 37 37%

13-18 21 21%

20 above 42 42%

Total 100 100

In consideration of Kumon’s main goal which is grounded on providing

“individualized-learning” in order to acquire Kumon’s concept of a “just-right” level of

education, individuals would want to advance with their levels of knowledge and

academic proficiency and this could only be done with prior learning preparations and

develop their cognitive abilities at an early age. This is where the Kumon Method takes

place.

The survey questionnaires were given to the parents to answer the following

information needed due to the young age of their children enrolled. In the given sample

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size of this study, the researchers wanted to know how many of them belong to the age

range of secondary and tertiary education.

From the data gathered, majority of the enrollees (42%) age ranges from 20 years

old and above who are considered college level students. According to research, the so

called The Higher Education Quality Progress (HEQP) concept reported an investigation

into the effectiveness and sustainability of the tutorial system in terms of supporting

students in achieving expected learning outcomes and resulted to have a positive impacts.

(Unisa, 2011:20). It is consistent with the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (Lester, 2013) in

that the students feel esteemed and confident when they can get into the university,

especially the ideal

Table 4. Gender

Items Frequency Percentage

Male 28 28%

Female 72 72%

Total 100 100%

From the table shown above it indicates that there are 60 females and 28 males

out of 100 respondents that are equal to 68.2% for females and 31.8% for males,

respectively.

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Table 5. Nationality

Items Frequency Percentage

Filipino 91 91%

Filipino Chinese 4 4%

Filipino Japanese 2 2%

Filipino Thai 1 1%

Filipino Thai 1 1%

Chinese 1 1%

Total 100 100%

Spanning back to the historical background of Kumon way back 1954, the

establishment of the business originated from Japan. This means that Kumon’s method of

providing educational services and approaches are influenced highly by the Japanese

culture. Japanese culture in this aspect is said to be grounded on the concept of “self-

learning”, thus encouraging its students to practice self-discipline and responsibility.

From the data gathered, majority of the respondents which is 91% of the total

percentage are Filipinos. This is an obvious fact knowing that the target Kumon-Branch

is here in Cebu City. This in regard could imply that Filipinos has also adopted to the

educational system and culture of the Japanese. Furthermore, Filipinos are captivated

with the concept of acquiring advanced programs specifically for Math and Reading

through “individualized-learning”.

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Table 6. Social Class

Items Frequency Percentage

Elite Class 3 3%

Upper Middle Class 65 65%

Lower Middle Class 28 28%

Working Class 2 2%

Poor 2 2%

Total 100 100%

The table above indicates the different social classes of our respondents. There are 53

respondents out of 100 that belongs to the Upper Middle Class which equals to 60.2% out

of 100%. These respondents’ families have a range of 2 Million - 3 Million per year

which means they have the luxury and the capability of spending for these kinds of

expenses.

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Table 7. Number of children/siblings enrolled

Items Frequency Percentage

Alone 25 25%

2 50 50%

3 16 16%

4 9 9%

More than 5 0 0%

Total 100 100%

The data gathered shows the No. of Children/Siblings enrolled in kumon. The

table above indicates that there are 25 respondents that are enrolled alone that equals

28.4% and 38 of those who enrolled with a sibling are equivalent to 43.2%. 16 are those

who are enrolled with 3 siblings and 18.2% and 10.2% are enrolled with 4 siblings.

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Table 8. Subject enrolled

Items Frequency Percentage

English 12 12%

Math 58 58%

Both 30 30%

Total 100 100

Numbers are all around us and being able to work with them quickly and

efficiently is a great life skill an individual can acquire. Thus, mathematics is one

important subject a child should learn and develop. It is the language of everything,

however, it is one of the most poorly understood by both children and adults. This is due

to the fact that math is about practical problem solving, noticing patterns, recognizing

shapes and learning to count and think analytically and logically.

From the data gathered, survey results show that 58 out of 100 respondents which

is 58% enrolled in Math compared with English with only 12 out of 88 which is

approximately 12%. This would imply that out of the two subjects offered, Math yields

the most number of enrollees and that students are having a hard time in learning its

concepts and are then in great need to fully improve their mathematical skills and abilities

with such. According to studies, there are a no. of reasons as to why a child may be

having problems with learning math at school, from low motivation caused by math

anxiety, to a poor understanding of how to apply and perform mathematical operations.

The most commonly associated condition is “dyscalculia”, in which individuals struggle

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with performing basic calculations and have trouble manipulating numbers in the same

way as their peers.

Further research conducted by Dr. Tanya Evans of Stanford University indicates

that children who know math are able to recruit certain brain regions more reliably, and

have greater gray matter volume in those regions, than those who perform more poorly in

math. The brain regions involved in higher math skills in high-performing children were

associated with various cognitive tasks involving visual attention and decision-making.

Thus, math helps a child think analytically and have better reasoning abilities.

Enrolling in the Kumon Math Program helps build and advance a child’s math

skills, for an advantage in school and beyond. Daily Kumon Math worksheets takes about

45 minutes to complete in 2 sessions a week at a Kumon Center, and then another 5

sessions to be completed at home. The child works at his or her own pace, mastering each

new concept before moving on. With each worksheet, the child then develops important

math skills. Many Kumon parents ultimately find their children mastering concepts that

put them grade levels ahead of their peers.

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Table 9. Behavioral frequency of visit

Items Frequency Percentage

Once 51 51%

Twice 33 33%

Thrice 11 11%

Four times 5 5%

More than 5 times 0 0

Total 100 100

From the data gathered above, when the customers were asked about the

frequency of their visit at Kumon Center-Banilad branch, most of the respondents, 39 out

of 88 which is 44.3% of the total number of enrollees visit the center once in a week,

some 37.5% visits twice, others 12.5% thrice and only 5 out of 88, 5.7%, visits the center

four times in a week. Most of the students enroll following a set or chosen schedule of

their own chose.

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Table 10. Reason for enrolling in Kumon Banilad

Items Frequency Percentage

Build good study habit 24 24%

Academic Advantage 60 60%

For review purposes 2 2%

To develop time management 6 6%

To build strong learning foundation 7 7%

Forced by parents 0 0

Total 100 100

The Kumon Method aims for students to go beyond their school grade level

through self-learning and study advanced level material at an early age. Whether parents

hope to have their early learners reading before kindergarten, are looking for a little extra

help for their struggling student or want to give their children a competitive advantage in

the classroom, thus, this is one of the reasons why parents seek out academic enrichment

programs. From the data gathered, most respondents with a percentage of 54.5% sees

acquiring academic advantage as their topmost reason as to why they enrolled at Kumon-

Banilad, 27.3% responded to build good study habit, 8%, to build strong learning

foundation, 6.8% to develop time management and only 2.3% responded for review

purposes.

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 It’s true that children gain a wealth of knowledge from a variety of topics

introduced at school, but some students could really benefit from additional academic

programs. The goal of enrichment programs is to help students develop a love for

learning, while demonstrating proficiency in academics. The programs also help children

develop critical thinking skills and effective learning methods. Some academic

enrichment programs, like Kumon, allow children to advance based on their ability rather

than their age or grade. This can result in children studying above their school grade

level. Students studying above grade level usually have more positive attitudes towards

school, improved concentration skills, better study habits, increased accuracy and the

ability to work independently. In fact, research shows there are many benefits to studying

above grade level. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, students

reading above grade level in the 3rd grade are more likely to graduate from high school,

and students who take advanced math courses are more likely to attend and graduate from

college.

The Kumon Method is a learning method that pursues the potential of each

individual student and develops his or her ability to the maximum. The company believes

in the vast potential of every student and want to further develop each student’s ability

through a provision of a more advanced and enhanced educational system and mediums

for their students.

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Table 11. Effectiveness of Kumon’s Method

Items Frequency Percentage

Very Effective 66 66%

Effective 34 34%
Not effective at all 0 0
Total 88 100
The most beneficial thing that a parent can do for his children is to be able to

furnish them with the ability to advance to high school level material through self-

learning as early as possible in life. Kumon is an individualized learning method that

allows each student to study at the 'just-right' level, regardless of age or school grade.

Spanning back to the historical background of Kumon where it has been first established

in Japan way back 1954, we are to note that Kumon’s way of teaching and providing

quality education is highly-influenced by its culture. Japanese culture in this aspect

happens to value “self-growth and independence” through an individualistic approach of

learning.

According to Young 2008, culture is one underlying factor that determines the

learning preferences, styles, approaches and experiences of learners. Culture is

determined to be a central factor to learning. Children in Japan learn from the family,

school, community and nation how to be members of the society. In each group, an

individual learns the value of “self-discipline, commitments and a sense of

responsibility”, with the goal of acquiring advanced and quality education independently

and productively.

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 From the data gathered, most of the respondents 61.4% finds Kumon’s method

prior to coping up with school academics as a very effective approach as it molds not

only the student’s ability to work independently but also to be able to build confidence

and growth through enhancement and preparation for what they might be encountering in

a real classroom setting. This gives all children the possibility to benefit from Kumon,

whether they need to build on more basic concepts, be challenged by more complex work

or somewhere in between. Through continued study at the 'just-right' level, student’s

progress at their own pace, going on to study work beyond their school grade level.

Instructors determine what level students should be studying at based on ability

and fluency. Students start at a comfortable level, allowing them to build confidence,

concentration and pace before progressing on to higher level work. Completing work at

the 'just-right' level enables students to become enthusiastic learners, believing in their

own capability and developing a positive attitude to study.

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Kumon Learning Center-Banilad & Its Marketing Mix

Kumon Learning Center is a pure service company in which instructors offer their

services to the students with the help of worksheet in which it is the tangible service

provided. The target market of this company could be of any age. The distinct nature of

Kumon was its method of guiding students is the self-learning. They believe in the

limitless potential self-learning wherein students are not spoon fed but guided properly to

let them feel the joy of advancing on their own. The marketing mix of the company was

identified.

Product

Kumon Math & Reading Learning Center-Banilad is an established learning

institution that provides enhancement programs for Reading & Math subjects. The

center’s main product offering is its tutoring services with the use of its “worksheets”.

These worksheets are used as basis of assessing student’s knowledge capacity as one

moves on from one level to another. The higher the level of a student, the lesser the

worksheets to be accomplished.

Kumon-Banilad’s aim is to provide advanced and quality education adapting the

process of developing both a high level of academic ability and the ability to learn

independently through the concept of Kumon’s “just-right” level of education through

“individualized-learning”. Between the two subjects offered, Math & Reading, the former

was reported to have the most number of enrollees, this is due to the fact that it requires a

deeper critical thinking and analytical skills.

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 In comparison to a normal classroom setting in educational institutions, Kumon’s

way of teaching is based on the company’s “Kumon Method”. This is where education is

best served when students are encouraged to adapt to the concept of “individualized-

learning” or “self-learning”, thus, this method is in line with the company’s values of

fostering independence and a sense of responsibility. Instructor’s main responsibility is

very important as they deem to facilitate and monitor a student’s performance, whether

he or she is able to keep pace with his required tasks and whether or not he/she is stuck

within a certain level. In this aspect, the instructor has to reassess student’s performance

until he/she is able to continue and move forward.

Price.

Upon enrolling in Kumon, parents are to pay a registration fee of 500 pesos with

inclusions of Kumon bag and pencil. Afterwards, parents are required to pay 1,800 pesos

monthly tuition fee in order for their students to continue to acquire the benefits of

Kumon. The rate of monthly tuition fee in Kumon currently, varies in every region as of

last year. In National Capital Region, the tuition fee has already reached P2,000 for

Grade 6 students and younger while for Grade 7 students and above, it costs P2,150

which is a higher rate compared to the younger students. Outside of NCR Region,

however, remains to have a rate of P1,800 for Grade 6 students and younger. Higher

levels is priced for P1,950. Kumon has its own team who decides the tuition rate for their

students in Manila headquarters and they are the ones who monitor the price changes in

the market.

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Place.

In Cebu City, there are around 15 franchises. Each franchise has its own control

in terms of the delivery of teaching and guiding the students in answering their

worksheets, promotions, interior design and many more as long as it is still in par with

the mission and vision and goals of the company as whole. The franchises will ask

permission in the head office per region for the activities they are planning to do and was

said according to Mr. Louie, the Admin of the head office of Kumon Cebu that the

process of getting permission is not long and difficult. Therefore, this implies, the

encouragement and support Kumon gives to these franchisees to promote their company

as a whole.

The chosen franchise of the researchers to be studied is Kumon Math and Reading

Banilad Center located in Ginza Compound. The franchise has around 300 students from

different ages. This chosen location is considered accessible according to the chief

instructor of the franchise, Mrs. Joan Tiu. The reason is that their target market are the

people living in the residential areas around the place. One advantage of their location is

the large parking lot in the compound which makes it convenient for parents and

guardians to pick up their children. However, the disadvantage of their location is the

traffic faced on the main road especially during peak hours when students are dismissed

from classes and at the same time employees are out from the day’s work. Each student

has their own schedule for attending the Kumon center thus, traffic is a hindrance at

many times to arrive on time and this lessens their spent time in the center doing their

planned activities.

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Promotion.

The famous promotion strategy of Kumon is the two weeks free trial in which

attracts many customers to enroll for two weeks for free. The word itself, ’free’, attracts

many potential customers because no money is spent yet benefits are received. Kumon

relies on Word of Mouth heavily because they acknowledge that family has a great

influence to each other that spreads the word of the services of Kumon in a wider range.

People.

Under the provision of the Chief Instructor and owner of the Kumon franchise

located in Banilad Cebu City, Joan Tiu, there are 11 full time employees and around two

to three part-timers. The teachers employed by the mentioned company does not

necessarily have to be under the program of education. Majority of the employees are

college graduate. Employees employed by Kumon are trained in the head center located

in 2Quad Cebu Business Park to be qualified to guide and teach the students along their

journey with Kumon. Each teacher has approximately 30 students under her or him. In

per department, there has to be at least one instructor while the others are trainees which

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depends on the franchisees decision of system. However, this is the standard per

franchisee. Employees of Kumon Banilad are provided with a Kumon T-shirt as part of

their uniform and a way of promoting their company. Besides the t-shirt, they are allowed

to wear formal corporate attire in going to work.

Process

Every student in Kumon has their own schedules agreed by the teachers, parents

and the child. They can visit the center once, twice, thrice or even everyday if it is their

desire. Once the student comes in the learning center, the Admin assistant Mrs. Cheree,

greets each one of them a good morning or afternoon with their given names. The

seemingly expressionless students immediately gets their bag that has their name on it

that consists of their worksheets to be answered corrected, and those that are finished

already. Afterwards they go to their teachers to know their activities to be completed by

the day and before going home, they will be given worksheet assignments to be answered

before they come back again.

In order to motivate their students, Kumon Banilad used to have a point system.

However, it is no longer used today. They give stamps to younger children. For students

who are advanced their level, they are given a certificate with the title Advanced Student

Honor Roll. For students who are advance for more than five years, they are given the

award of Advanced Student Porum. Along with this certificate, it comes with medals as

well.

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 In regards to the system of tardiness and absences of employees, the head of

Kumon Banilad used to give a grace period of 50 minutes, however, it was abused and

was reduced to five minutes and beyond that is a deduction in their pay.

Physical Environment

Kumon Banilad Cebu’s interior design is a little bit different from the other

franchisees. Its tables are of wooden design with a length that could fit two people at one.

It is according to the preference of Mrs. Joan Tiu, Chief Instructor of Kumon Banilad.

The doors aside from the main door are in sliding wooden design as well as the door to

the chief instructor’s office. The facilities that they provide to aid a child’s learning

development are flashcards for the young children and a small library and a number

board.

Process

The management of Kumon-Banilad believes that customer satisfaction is very

important. That is why to ensure this, the management as much as possible operates to

provide customers quality and convenient affordable services to be offered. The objective

of the center is to be able to contribute to the global community through giving quality

education by the Kumon Method of developing “individualized-learning” having been set

to provide the “just-right” level of learning for its customers. In order to help a much

wider scope of customers, the services are offered at an affordable cost of Php 1800 pesos

per month as for its enrollment fee inclusive of a Kumon bag and pencil. In addition, the

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center provides a free registration and a two-week trial of its classes for those who are

interested to enroll and is yet to consider enrolling.

Aside from customers, employees also play a very important role for Kumon-

Banilad. The teachers at Kumon before being employed, they must undergo a series of

trainings and assessment evaluations to ensure a provision of highly-equipped and

professional educational services to customers, especially to students. Instructors would

then be the ones to monitor student’s required tasks and concerns. They will be held

responsible with the student’s performance and to assess whether or not the student is still

at pace and if not, teachers then reassess through observation and paying a closer

attention to the student. This will then be the time when necessary, teachers would call

the student or his/her parent for a discussion of the student’s performance, especially

when having a hard time with a certain task. Parents may approach the teacher whenever

there would be concerns and the teacher or the company would then do something to

address the concern.

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The Service Quality of Kumon Math and Reading Banilad Center

A. The Service-Quality Expectations of Kumon Banilad Customers

Table 12. Reliability Dimension Expectation of the Customers of Kumon Banilad Cebu

Items Mean Interpretation

Kumon staff provide great service in a 4.41 Agree

dependable and
in an efficient manner.
Employees knows on handling customer issues. 4.48 Agree

Employees are professional and competent. 4.3 Agree

Offices are open at promise office times. 4.52 Strongly Agree

Teachers arrive at respective faculty area on time. 4.57 Strongly Agree

Teachers provide reasonable amount of worksheet 4.52 Strongly Agree

assignments to students on a weekly basis.
Expected Reliability 4.47 Agree

Based from the table above, it shows the expected reliability of Kumon Banilad

employees rated by the customers using the Parasuraman SERVQUAL. Results have

shown that the customers expected that they agree with the reliability dimension of

Kumon Banilad of an average of 4.47. As defined, reliability is the ability to deliver

promises in a dependable and accurate way. Customers has rated that they strongly agree

that teachers arrive at respective faculty area on time with an average of 4.57, that offices

are open at promise office times with an average of 4.52 and that teachers provide

reasonable amount worksheet assignments to students on a weekly basis with an average

of 4.52. However, there is a difference in rating the expected reliability of employees are

professional and competent of an average of 4.3, employees knows how to handle

customer issues with an average of 4.48 and that the staff provide great service in a

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dependable and efficient manner with an average of 4.41. The most probable factor as to

which it rated only as ‘agree’ is that Kumon promotes an individualized learning which

focuses on the independence of the child to study, learn and progress on his or her own

with the support of the parents and guidance of the teachers. This implies that the teacher

does not have a big role in the learning development of the student like a teacher in a

classroom would have towards her children in a school setting. Therefore, this gives an

impression to the parents and students that the competence and credibility of the

employees of the learning center is not high as the ones employed in a formal school

setting.

Table 13. Assurance Dimension Expectation of the Customers of Kumon Banilad Cebu
Items Mean Interpretation

Customers are treated with respect and dignity. 4.68 Strongly Agree

Employees of Kumon are approachable 4.63 Strongly Agree

Employees of Kumon are knowledgeable with 4.47 Agree

the customer’s concerns.
Employees of Kumon are courteous. 4.60 Strongly Agree

Employees can be trusted. 4.62 Strongly Agree

The teachers have the ability to plan out the 4.59 Strongly Agree
student’s progress level efficiently and effectively.
Expected Assurance 4.60 Strongly Agree

The table above shows the expectation of the customers of Kumon Banilad in

terms of the assurance dimension of Parasuraman SERVQUAL. Results have shown that

they strongly agree in most statement given regarding the ability of employees of the

mentioned firm to inspire customer trust and confidence through employees’ knowledge

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and courtesy with an average of 4.60. The table above shows that they strongly agree that

customers are treated with respect and dignity with an average of 4.68, that the

employees are approachable with an average of 4.63, that they are courteous with a mean

of 4.60, that they can be trusted with an average of 4.62 and that they have the ability to

plan out the student’s progress level efficiently and effectively with a mean of 4.59.

According to Mr. Louie, Admin of the head office of Kumon Cebu, the utmost important

ethical value they hold is to deliver trust to the parents that they are able to monitor their

child’s learning development. That the company is able to deliver the outcome they

project for every student under them. However, they rated that employees are

knowledgeable with customer’s concern as only ‘agree’ with an average of 4.47. In

relation to the reliability statement in which employees knows on handling customer

issues with an average of 4.48, which are both very close result would infer that there is

something lacking in this aspect. Nevertheless, it is understandable due to the fact that

Kumon is just an extracurricular activity on top of their priorities in school.

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Table 14. Tangibility Dimension Expectation of the Customers of Kumon Banilad Cebu
Items Mean Interpretation

Employees are well dressed and neat in 4.61 Strongly Agree

appearance.
Facilities are well maintained. 4.48 Agree

Provides complete facilities that aids a child’s 4.47 Agree

learning at Kumon.
Kumon environment is visually appealing 4.49 Agree
to the customers.
Location is convenient for the customers. 4.57 Strongly Agree

Worksheets are clean and neat. 4.75 Strongly Agree

Expected Tangibility 4.56 Strongly Agree

Shown above is the expectation of customers of Kumon Banilad in terms of the

tangibility dimension of Parasuraman SERVQUAL. In this section, the respondents rated

the expected tangibility of the mentioned provision such that the physical facilities,

equipment, personnel, and communication materials provided by the company aids the

students learning and development and drives them to progress. Results have shown that

they strongly agree that employees are well dressed and neat in appearance with a mean

of 4.61, location is convenient with a mean of 4.57 and that their worksheets are always

clean and neat with an average of 4.75. However, their expectations on the tangibles of

Kumon Banilad such that they are well maintained, that they provide complete facilities

that aids a child’s learning and that the environment is visually appealing to the

customers is only on the interpretation of ‘agree’ with an average of 4.48, 4.47, and 4.49

respectively. Mrs. Joan Tiu, chief instructor of Kumon Banilad mentioned that the

facilities she provide for her students are flash cards and a mini library for Reading

students and number board for the Math Students. The center have also benches for

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parents to sit and wait for their children, a comfort room, water dispenser, and tables and

chairs. The fact that the mean was not able to reach 4.50 and above means that their

facilities are satisfactory however, not excellent or outstanding.

Table 15. Empathy Dimension Expectation of the Customers of Kumon Banilad Cebu
Items Mean Interpretation

Kumon operating hours are convenient 4.64 Strongly Agree

to customers.

Employees of Kumon give customers 4.51 Strongly Agree

individualized attention.
Employees if Kumon manifest ethical values. 4.52 Strongly Agree

Customers concerns and interest are valued by 4.50 Strongly Agree

heart.
Expected Empathy 4.54 Strongly Agree

The table above shows that the expected rating on the empathy dimensions of

Kumon Banilad using Parasuraman SERVQUAL. The result has shown an average of

4.54 which interprets as strongly agree. Kumon promotes their own method of learning

which is called individualized learning. Therefore, it requires individualize attention and

the results have shown a high expectation of service delivery in this aspect. The factors

that have greatly contribute to this result are all the entries above which was all

interpreted as strongly agree.

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Table 16. Responsiveness Dimension Expectation of the Customers of Kumon Banilad
Cebu

Items Mean Interpretation

Employees are confident when dealing with 4.60 Strongly Agree

customers.
Service is prompt and ready 4.56 Strongly Agree

Employees of Kumon are not too busy to 4.50 Strongly Agree

respond to the customer’s needs.
Employees of Kumon are willing to serve more 4.56 Strongly Agree
than what is asked.
Employees’ efficiency in dealing with 4.48 Agree
complaints.
Expected Responsiveness 4.54 Strongly Agree

Shown above is the expected rating on the responsiveness dimension of Kumon

Banilad using Parasuraman SERVQUAL. The expected responsiveness of Kumon

Banilad resulted to 4.54 which means strongly agree of their willingness to help. The

factors that have greatly contributed to this result are that the confidence of employees

when dealing with customers (4.60), service is prompt and ready (4.56), availability to

respond customer needs (4.50), and the willingness to serve more than what is asked

(4.48) which are all interpreted as strongly agree. Their opinions in this aspects are high.

However, with the mean of only 4.48 which means they agree with the employees’

efficiency in dealing with complaints. This small difference is the difference of opinion

based on first impressions.

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 B. The Service – Quality Perceptions of Kumon Banilad Customers

Table 17. Reliability Dimension Perception of the Customers of Kumon Banilad Cebu

Items Mean Interpretation

Kumon staff provide great service in a 4.41 Agree

dependable and
in an efficient manner.
Employees knows on handling customer issues. 4.46 Agree

Employees are professional and competent. 4.57 Strongly Agree

Offices are open at promise office times. 4.56 Strongly Agree

Teachers arrive at respective faculty area on time. 4.57 Strongly Agree

Teachers provide reasonable amount of worksheet 4.58 Strongly Agree

assignments to students on a weekly basis.
Perceived Reliability 4.53 Strongly Agree

The table above shows the perception rating on the reliability dimension of

Kumon Banilad using the Parasuraman SERVQUAL. In comparison to expectation,

perception is the actual service rendered by the employees of the company and the

experience of the customers. The customers rated the perceived reliability of Kumon

Banilad as strongly agree with an average of 4.53. This implies that the customers are

very satisfied with the service rendered by the employees that exhibits a reliable attitude

and image. The respondents have strongly agree that employees are professional and

competent, offices are open at promise office times, teachers arrive at respective faculty

area on time and that they provide reasonable amount of worksheet assignments to

students on a weekly basis after experiencing the services of Kumon Banilad with an

average of 4.57, 4.56, 4.57, 4.58 respectively. Moreover, they remained to agree that the

staff provides great service in a dependable and efficient manner and that the employees
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knows on handling customer issues with the averages of 4.41 and 4.46 respectively. The

outcome of this table depicts the consistency of performance, free of non-compliance in

which customers can trust. The firm has been complying to its promises with no need for

any reformat.

Table 18. Assurance Dimension Perception of the Customers of Kumon Banilad Cebu
Items Mean Interpretation

Customers are treated with respect and dignity. 4.68 Strongly Agree

Employees of Kumon are approachable 4.69 Strongly Agree

Employees of Kumon are knowledgeable with 4.47 Agree

the customer’s concerns.
Employees of Kumon are courteous. 4.66 Strongly Agree

Employees can be trusted. 4.67 Strongly Agree

The teachers have the ability to plan out the 4.60 Strongly Agree
student’s progress level efficiently and effectively.
Perceived Assurance 4.63 Strongly Agree

Shown above is the perceived assurance of the service quality of Kumon Banilad

using the Parasuraman SERVQUAL Model. According to the ratings of the customers of

4.63, which means that they are very satisfied with the services offered since perceived

assurance is interpreted as strongly agree. Grounded on the results from above, they

strongly agree that they are treated with respect and dignity (4.68), employees are

approachable (4.69), courteous (4.66), trusted (4.67), and ability to plan out the student’s

progress level efficiently and effectively (4.60). In regards to the result, this implies that

the assurance dimension of this provision is beyond acceptable. It upholds their values

and goals with an excellent service provided with consistency of performance.

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Table 19. Tangibility Dimension Perception of the Customers of Kumon Banilad Cebu

Items Mean Interpretation

Employees are well dressed and neat in 4.66 Strongly Agree

appearance.
Facilities are well maintained. 4.45 Agree

Provides complete facilities that aids a child’s 4.54 Strongly Agree

learning at Kumon.
Kumon environment is visually appealing 4.50 Strongly Agree
to the customers.
Location is convenient for the customers. 4.58 Strongly Agree

Worksheets are clean and neat. 4.79 Strongly Agree

Perceived Tangibility 4.59 Strongly Agree

The tangible dimension is perceived to be more than acceptable because of the

rating of 4.59 which is interpreted as strongly agree. The factors that greatly contributes

to this outcome are that employees are well dressed and neat in appearance (4.66),

provides complete facilities that aids a child’s learning (4.54), environment is visually

appealing (4.50), location is convenient (4.58), worksheets are clean and neat (4.79). This

indicates that the tangibles present in the learning center such as the tables, chairs,

library, comfort room, cleanliness, and space exhibits a positive image and helps the

students to do their activities in a comfortable and clean place.

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Table 20. Empathy Dimension Perception of the Customers of Kumon Banilad Cebu

Items Mean Interpretation

Kumon operating hours are convenient 4.63 Strongly Agree

to customers.
Employees of Kumon give customers 4.53 Strongly Agree
individualized attention.
Employees if Kumon manifest ethical values. 4.55 Strongly Agree

Customers concerns and interest are valued by 4.51 Strongly Agree

heart.
Perceived Empathy 4.56 Strongly Agree

The table above shows the perceived empathy of customers of Kumon Banilad

using the Parasuraman SERVQUAL. The results have shown that they strongly agree

with the actual experience they received in terms of the individual attention given. In fact,

all entries are equated to strongly agree with the corresponding averages. In this

competitive age, the more complex each customer need is. In relation to education, the

pace of each student is different, it may be slow or fast, and their level of understanding

differs as well. Kumon, in fact, acknowledges this matter. Toru Kumon, the founder, said

that there is never good enough and there must be always something better. This means to

have not only confidence of yourself today but also of tomorrow. This statement

promotes building good habits in studying. The Kumon Method is to self-learn. This

meant that they find it more effective to meet the desire of the children to grow and that

there is limitless for the potential to grow through self-learning. In this regard, it requires

a lot of individualize attention to each child recognizing each one is special. Henceforth,

the firm is able to show more than acceptable results rated by customers.

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Table 21. Responisiveness Dimension Perception of the Customers of Kumon Banilad
Cebu

Items Mean Interpretation

Employees are confident when dealing with 4.64 Strongly Agree

customers.
Service is prompt and ready 4.61 Strongly Agree

Employees of Kumon are not too busy to 4.75 Strongly Agree

respond to the customer’s needs.
Employees of Kumon are willing to serve more 4.59 Strongly Agree
than why is asked.
Employees’ efficiency in dealing with 4.56 Strongly Agree
complaints.
Perceived Responsiveness 4.63 Strongly Agree

The table has shown the perceived responsiveness of the customers in Kumon

Banilad using Parasuraman SERVQUAL. Responsiveness is the willingness to help.

Moreover, results have shown a high average of 4.63 which corresponds to strongly

agree. Kumon instructors duty is to find out how much the students understand the

problems before giving them hints. Kumon Instructors do not spoon-feed students

problem-solving methods. Instead, Instructors focus on guiding students to complete

exercises on their own so that they enjoy a sense of achievement and are able to master

new material independently. They try to maximize the potential of each student. The fact

that in every entry given to evaluate the responsiveness of their instructors, all has been

evaluated as strongly agree.

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 C. Gap Analysis Between Perceptions’ and Expectations Ratings of the Customers

Table 22 Reliability Dimension Gap

Items Expectation Perception Gap Interpretation

Kumon staff provide great 4.41 4.41 0.00 Met Customer

service in a dependable and Expectation
in an efficient manner.
Employees knows on 4.48 4.46 -0.02 Needs to
handling customer issues. improve service
quality
Employees are professional 4.3 4.57 0.27 Exceeded
and competent. Customer
Satisfaction
Offices are open at promise 4.52 4.56 0.04 Exceeded
office times. Customer
Satisfaction
Teachers arrive at respective 4.57 4.57 0.00 Met Customer
faculty area on time. Expectation
Teachers provide reasonable 4.52 4.58 0.06 Exceeded
amount of worksheet Customer
assignments to students on a Satisfaction
weekly basis.
Reliability 4.47 4.53 0.06 Exceeded
Customer
Satisfaction

The reliability dimension of the service quality model has received adequate

results in knowing whether there was a difference between the perception and expectation

of the following entries thus the gap. The following has exceeded the customer

satisfaction: employees are professional and competent (0.27), offices are open at

promise times (0.04), and that teachers provide reasonable amount of worksheet

assignments to students on a weekly basis (0.06). Furthermore, the following has met

customer expectation which means the gap equates to 0: Kumon staff provides great

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service in a dependable and in an efficient manner and that teachers arrive at respective

faculty area on time. However, a following entry has revealed that it needs to improve in

the service quality which is for employees to know on handle customer issues. Due to the

fact that the system of Kumon is an individualized learning in the form of answering

worksheets which could be viewed as an extra activity on top of school workload.

Kumon faces continuous problems due to this conflict and implies that this center lacks in

skills on how to handle this issue. It is in the form of negative sign which indicates that

perceptions are lesser than expectations.

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Table 23. Tangibility Dimension Gap
Items Expectation Perception Gap Interpretation

Employees are well dressed 4.61 4.66 0.05 Exceeded

and neat in appearance. Customer
Satisfaction
Facilities are well 4.48 4.45 -0.03 Needs to
maintained. improve service
quality

Provides complete facilities 4.47 4.54 0.07 Exceeded

that aids a child’s learning at Customer
Kumon. Satisfaction
Kumon environment is 4.49 4.50 0.01 Exceeded
visually appealing to the Customer
customers. Satisfaction
Location is convenient for 4.57 4.58 0.01 Exceeded
the customers. Customer
Satisfaction
Worksheets are clean and 4.75 4.79 0.04 Exceeded
neat. Customer
Satisfaction

Tangibility 4.56 4.59 0.03 Exceeded

Customer
Satisfaction

Reflected above is the difference between perception and expectation of

customers in the tangibility dimension of Parasuraman SERVQUAL. In all aspects, it has

exceeded customer satisfaction such that employees are well dressed (0.05), provides

complete facilities that aids a child’s learning (0.07) , environment is visually appealing

(0.01), location is convenient (0.01), and that worksheets are clean and neat (0.04). This

indicates that However, a negative gap was the outcome of the statement, facilities are

well maintained with a rating of -0.03. This indicates that there is a need for improvement

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in the maintenance of facilities. This requires additional attention in keeping every

facility clean and comfortable to satisfy the customers and close the gap.

Table 24. Assurance Dimension Gap

Items Expectation Perception Gap Interpretation

Customers are treated with 4.68 4.68 0.00 Met Customer

respect and dignity. Expectation

Employees of Kumon are 4.63 4.69 0.03 Exceeded

approachable Customer
Satisfaction
Employees of Kumon are 4.47 4.47 0.00 Met Customer
knowledgeable with the Expectation
customer’s concerns.
Employees of Kumon are 4.60 4.66 0.06 Exceeded
courteous. Customer
Satisfaction
Employees can be trusted. 4.62 4.67 0.05 Exceeded
Customer
Satisfaction
The teachers have the ability 4.59 4.60 0.01 Exceeded
to plan out the student’s Customer
progress level efficiently and Satisfaction
effectively.
Assurance 4.60 4.63 0.03 Exceeded
Customer
Satisfaction

According to forte group, assurance is ‘a way of preventing mistakes or defects in

manufactured products and avoiding problems when delivering solutions or services to

customers.’ The results above has shown that the average gap score for the assurance

dimension. It rated 0.03 which indicates that it has exceeded customer satisfaction. For

every statement, the results shown is either it has met customer expectation or exceeded
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customer satisfaction. This suggests that there is consistency of performance in inspiring

trust and confidence towards their customers with respect and dignity, being

approachable, knowledgeable of customers concern, trusted and the ability to plan out the

progress of the child’s progress efficiently and effectively.

Table 256. Empathy Dimension Gap

Items Expectation Perception Gap Interpretation

Kumon operating hours are 4.64 4.63 -0.01 Needs to

convenient to customers. improve service
quality

Employees of Kumon give 4.51 4.53 0.02 Exceeded

customers individualized Customer
attention. Satisfaction
Employees of Kumon 4.52 4.55 0.03 Exceeded
manifest ethical values. Customer
Satisfaction
Customers concerns and 4.50 4.51 0.01 Exceeded
interest are valued by heart. Customer
Satisfaction

Empathy 4.54 4.56 0.02 Exceeded

Customer
Satisfaction

Empathy is giving the individualized attention to the customers. In this

dimension, the overall gap score is 0.02. This equates to exceeding customer satisfaction

which indicates that the employees are capable in guiding and teaching their students to

continually progress. The average ratio for teacher per student is 1:30. The factors that

greatly contributed to this are: employees are able to give individualized attention (0.03),

employees of Kumon manifest ethical values (0.03), and that customer concerns are

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valued by heart (0.01). Unfortunately, Kumon operating hours needs to be improved

because of the negative gap score, -0.01 which indicates that perceptions is lesser than the

expectation. During the younger stage of a child, it is normal for an individual to be

involved in many extracurricular activities such as sports, tutorials, dance and many

more. It depends on the prioritization of the parent towards the activities of the child but

results have shown that indicates a need to be adjustments in the operating hours.

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Table 26. Responsiveness Dimension Gap

Items Expectation Perception Gap Interpretation

Employees are confident 4.60 4.64 0.04 Exceeded

when dealing with Customer
customers. Satisfaction
Service is prompt and ready 4.56 4.61 0.04 Exceeded
Customer
Satisfaction
Employees of Kumon are not 4.50 4.75 0.25 Exceeded
too busy to respond to the Customer
customer’s needs. Satisfaction

Employees of Kumon are 4.56 4.59 0.03 Exceeded

willing to serve more than Customer
what is asked. Satisfaction
Employees’ efficiency in 4.48 4.56 0.08 Exceeded
dealing with complaints. Customer
Satisfaction

Responsiveness 4.54 4.63 0.09 Exceeded

Customer
Satisfaction

In the responsiveness dimension, which requires the willingness to help customers

and provide prompt service, has a total gap score of 0.09 which interprets that it has

exceeded customer satisfaction. All statements under the given dimension has exceeded

customer satisfaction. This indicates that the customers are well satisfied with the

responsiveness of the employees towards their children. The perception or experience of

the service is greater than what they have expected. Consistency of performance is what

the company should do and there seems to be no area of improvement according to the

results.

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Table 27. Summary of Perceived and Expected of SERVQUAL Dimension
Items Expectation Perception Gap Interpretation

Tangibility 4.56 4.59 0.03 Exceeded

Customer
Satisfaction
Reliability 4.47 4.53 0.06 Exceeded
Customer
Satisfaction
Responsiveness 4.54 4.63 0.09 Exceeded
Customer
Satisfaction
Empathy 4.54 4.56 0.02 Exceeded
Customer
Satisfaction

Assurance 4.60 4.63 0.03 Exceeded

Customer
Satisfaction

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Proposed Marketing Strategy

Product
Kumon offers worksheets as their primary product offered. Through these

worksheets, a child is able to solve, learn and progress on his or her own. However, this

might not apply to everyone. There are multiple types of intelligence. Having the basic

skills in Math and Reading would definitely help an individual in his or her academics

and daily activities. Therefore, the researchers proposes to the provision to provide notes

and reviews and support materials in a detailed manner patterned to the style of

worksheet problems so that before starting a new topic, the child will have a better

understanding and in this way, it refrains from having stress on not being able to

understand the questions in the worksheets or to force a child from doing things that are

not advisable into helping a child progress such as taking worksheets for granted.

Though it is acknowledged that Kumon promotes individualized learning, a little

interaction would do no harm and increases motivation for students in answering their

worksheets. The researchers believe the company should invest on providing support

materials for the student.

Price

Currently, Kumon Cebu is priced for P1800 for Grade 6 students and younger and

P1950 for Grade 7 students and higher. Parents are to pay monthly similar to a schools

system, tuition fee. However, according to Mr. Louie the Admin of head office, if a

parent cannot pay for the month, the child has is to be forced to stop going to Kumon for

a while until the parent is able to pay their dues. It seems that they are strict on this

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methods. However, there might be factors that the parents weren’t able to pay the

monthly tuition dues. Therefore, the researchers would like to suggest to allow students

to acquire their services with an extension of 3 months payables. In this way, both the

students and company will be able to benefit. It is still a win-win situation.

Place

The location of Kumon Banilad is actually very accessible to its customers and

convenient because many of them are living in the area. In fact, Banilad is full of

subdivisions nearby. The exact location for this center is away from the main road and

cannot be seen easily. Actually, when the researchers tried to visit the place using Waze,

we got a little bit lost because it is somewhere located inside a compound.

Therefore, the researchers suggest that they to put posters along the roads before

the destination to help drivers who are not familiar of the place which prevents them

being lost and it is also a form of promotion to residents living near the area that there is a

Kumon Center near their houses.

Promotion

As mentioned earlier, Kumon focuses on their promotion of two weeks free trial

and word of mouth. Each Kumon franchisee has an average of 300 students. However,

with more extensive promotion, the franchisee is able to cater more students and their

branding will become more established in the market. Moreover, they are able to greater

fulfill their goal which is to contribute to the global community through individualized

learning.

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 Since we are in the digital era, the researchers think that they should acknowledge

the impact of social media. Therefore, if they have resources, they should make a team

for monitoring and maintaining the social media accounts for the firm. In these social

media accounts, they are able to post and spread their achievements and promotions

which helps attract families who are willing to apply their children for other education

resources other than schools.

People

Kumon Math & Reading Center-Banilad Branch have 11 full-time employees

and around 2-3 part timers all in all. Every company’s employees play a very important

role in facilitating in the preparation and performance of the services to be offered to its

customers. They are the one’s representing the company’s brand and image and their

performance reflects the entire business operation and can affect customer’s perception

towards the company. Thus, it is best that the employees, specifically the teachers of

Kumon-Banilad should know and have an adequate knowledge of its products, services

and process.

They must also be able to project professionalism and efficiency in their

performance especially in dealing with their students. They shall be able to not just

effectively provide knowledge but also build a deeper relationship with their students that

they’ll be find trustworthy and reliable, in this sense are able to immediately address to

their student’s concerns and to facilitate in the monitoring the performance of the child

through allotting schedule time in every month to have a counselling between the parents,

child, and teacher. It has to be an environment wherein the child is given the freedom of

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speech and not feel judged and pressured. During this time, the teacher should be able to

provide compliments and areas to improve to the child in an encouraging way. The

employees of Kumon must maintain an attitude wherein the student’s progress is valued

and praised and an area of improvement to be an alarming duty with required additional

attention so that these actions and attitude are according to what the company promises

and ordains.

Process

Kumon Math & Reading Center-Banilad allow their students to have their own

choice of class schedule agreed by both the teacher and parents. To be able to fully

monitor its students, there must be a record of the student’s class schedule. This is for the

benefit of center and the customers. Concerning the teachers, the management should be

strict with the tardiness and absences of the teachers. For students, the management

should also keep track of the student’s absences or tardiness in order to easily monitor

and help them keep track with their unfinished tasks or to be able to catch up with what

they missed.

As soon as the child arrives and enters the center, employees should greet or

welcome them with smiles on their faces that shall encourage them to do well in their

tasks and to uplift their moods. Teachers should not let their students fell stressed out or

pressured. It would be best if the management would also consider conducting counseling

sessions to hear out student’s concerns regarding the student’s performance and give him

advices to manage his/her tasks well. The management can encourage students even more

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by showing appreciation to student’s achievement and progress level may it be through

stamps or certificates.

Moreover, according to the results above, it has shown that there was a need to

improve in the operating hours of Kumon Banilad. This requires a reassessment on how it

would change to cater on the available time each student has. The firm must look into the

common dismissal time of the students and adjust accordingly to keep a pleasant

relationship with both parties.

Physical Evidence

Since Kumon Center-Banilad is an established tutorial services center, an

environment that foster a child’s learning and study approaches shall be implemented. It

shall have an interior design that aids and does not distract the student’s from attending to

his/her tasks. It shall provide a bright and minimalistic vibe for students to learn. The

management shall also provide a well-maintained facilities and a complete set of tools

and materials for students to use.

They can also consider to provide a personalized locker or drawer for students to

place their personal stuff in the center. The materials should be well-organized and are

within reach of the students. Lastly, the center could also consider having a separate area

for students while waiting for their parents to pick them up and parents while waiting for

their child to finish the tasks given within the day.

Furthermore, the results have shown that there is a need for improvement in the

maintenance of the facilities. The firm can either hire sanitary team for fixed schedule

cleaning in their center or be partner with a firm that offers the following services. But if

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it is not a hassle to current employees, they could assign weekly assignments into

maintaining the cleanliness of the center.

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 CHAPTER 5

SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

SUMMARY

Education is deemed to be one of the greatest investment an individual should

acquire especially parents could provide to their children. Thus, it is best served when the

services quality offered by companies under tertiary industries are in lined to meet or

better yet exceed customer’s satisfaction and expectation of their services. Good service

quality of an existing firm equates to good customer satisfaction and projects a good

brand image.

In our contemporary times, delivery of quality service is one major challenge that

most businesses are facing especially for firms belonging under tertiary industries such as

educational institutions and learning centers. In this study, researchers are to assess the

service quality of Kumon Math & Learning Center-Banilad Branch and evaluate how it

affects customer’s satisfaction and expectation of their services. In order to reach this

goal, the researchers used the Service-Quality Model of Parasuraman et al. (1998). This

concept investigated the marketing mix of Kumon Math & Reading Center-Banilad

Branch and the expectations and perceptions of its customers in the five dimensions: (1)

Reliability, (2) Assurance, (3) Tangibility, (4) Empathy and (5) Responsiveness, in order

to propose marketing strategies to contribute to the improvement of the service quality

Kumon Math & Reading Center-Banilad Cebu.

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 The study made use of descriptive research method employing the questionnaire

as the main tool for data gathering, and also the interview method was used to collect

information from the management of Kumon Math & Reading Center-Banilad. A total of

100 customers were selected and chosen using random sampling to answer the

researcher-made instrument which was adopted from Parasuraman et al (1998) Service

Quality Model. After all the collection and gathering of data, the researchers then

summarized and presented the results in tabular forms using frequencies and percentage

distributions and descriptive statistics. A Gap analysis was conducted by subtracting the

perceptions and expectations’ ratings of the customers of Kumon Math & Reading-

Banilad Branch Cebu. A quantitative research was done in answering questions

concerning the current status of the subjects in the study and to present the results of the

interview conducted by the researchers in this study.

CONCLUSION

Based on the results and findings of the study, the following conclusions were

made. In the five (5) dimensions of Parasuraman SERVQUAL Model - tangibility,

reliability, assurance, empathy and responsiveness, the expectations of the customers of

Kumon Banilad were high with an average of 4.56, 4.47, 4.60, 4.54, 4.54 respectively.

The perceptions of the customers of Kumon Banilad was also considered very high with

the ratings of 4.59,4.53, 4.63, 4.56 and 4.63 respectively. It can be observed that the

perceptions or the actual service experienced by the customers are larger than their initial

expectations of the services of the company which resulted to positive gaps that was

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interpreted as exceeding customer satisfaction. This result is considered good news to the

company and shows their high level of standard in delivering the services. Consequently,

in knowing how much gap is it per dimension, the results have shown the following, 0.3,

0.6, 0.3, 0.2 and 0.9, respectively. The lower the positive gap is, the greater customer

satisfaction experienced.

The lowest gap dimension with 0.9 is the responsiveness. Responsiveness as

defined is the willingness to help. The aspects that greatly contribute to this fact are the

confidence of employees to deal with customers, the availability to respond to customer

needs, willingness to serve more than what is asked, efficiency in dealing customer

complaints and delivery service promptly and ready. When the expectations were low,

the actual service (perception) delivered was larger, which contributed to the lower gap

and greater customer satisfaction. In the field of education, there is a teacher and student.

Moreover, their roles are self-explanatory. This leads then to the attribute of quick

responsiveness to be able to serve wisely, efficiently and effectively with customer

issues. The results implies that employees of Kumon Banilad are able to delivery a high

level of responsiveness which is more than acceptable.

Additionally, the next dimension is the reliability which is defined as the ability to

deliver promises. In this aspect, there seems to be no problem in knowing that offices are

open at promise times, teachers arrive at respective faculty are on time, and that teachers

provide reasonable worksheets to work at their homes. But ratings differ by a small gap

in the aspects of employees are professional and competent and the staff provides great

service in a dependable and efficient manner. But this means it is not one of the greatest

factor to stopping of acquiring the services of Kumon. This dimension simply belongs to

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the second least to which contributes to customer satisfaction. In fact, the employees

needs to improve on how to handle customer issues.

The next dimension to reliability in which contributes to customer satisfaction is

with a tie of a gap of 0.3 which is assurance and tangibility. As defined, assurance is the

ability to inspire trust and confidence and tangibility is the representation of the service

physically. With the given gap, this implies that it has exceeded customer satisfaction.

With the given entries, the employees treat their customers with respect and dignity,

approachable, courteous, knowledgeable of their concerns, trusted, and ability to

foresight the progress of a child. Moreover, the firm is able to provide facilities that aid

the development of the child, environment is visually appealing and their worksheets are

clean and neat and that employees are well dressed and neat. All these imply that the firm

is able to give the best facilities and attitude towards their customers that inspire

satisfaction, retention, comfortability and motivation to continue with their progress in

Kumon. However, the maintenance of the facilities has to be improved.

Furthermore, the least dimension that contributes to customer satisfaction is the

empathy with the gap of 0.2. As defined, empathy is the ability to give individualized

attention. This service quality dimension contributes most to customer satisfaction. In the

nature of this learning center, the Kumon Method is ‘individualize learning’ would then

require the teachers ability to give individualize attention. Fortunately, there is no issue in

this aspect and that results have shown that the employees of the firm are highly

competent in this area of service delivery which explains the small difference of

expectations and perceptions of the customers. However, results have shown that the

operating hours of the firm is not convenient. This implies that there are situations at

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preset where customers are having a hard time with their respective schedule with the

center.

To clarify the statement, ‘the lower the gap, the greater customer satisfaction,’

this meant the ability of the firm to exceed customer satisfaction. Therefore, the closer the

gap is to 0, this meant that the service delivered is what was expected with an added

incentive attribute which would highly depend on the person who delivers it.

Therefore, the advantage of Kumon Banilad is their high level of standard to

deliver service quality in the five dimensions. However, their disadvantages are the lack

of additional maintenance in their facilities, knowledge of handling customer issues and

that their operating hours is not very convenient.

RECOMMENDATIONS

From the data that the researchers have gathered and evaluated, the following

recommendations were made:

(1) In order to improve the maintenance of the facilities, the researchers would want to

recommend the management to provide weekly assignments in maintaining the facilities

among employees;

(2) For the management to reassess their operating hours in relation to the average

dismissal time of their students;

(3) In order to have a continuous monitoring of student’s performance, the management

should consider to conduct counseling sessions for students, parents and teachers twice a

month;

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(4) Lastly, according to the proposed marketing strategies mentioned earlier, the

management should consider the following:

a. Product. To provide support materials for advanced levels

b. Price. To provide grace periods for 3 months for parents who are not able to pay

monthly tuition fee.

c. Promotion. To provide posters along the streets before the destination as a form of

promotion and a guide to new customers.

d. People. To encourage employees to project a continuous show of a pleasing

personality towards students just so to lift up their moods and to do well with their tasks

e. Process. To provide a system that monitors the tardiness and absences for both students

and teachers.

f. Physical Evidence. To provide lockers for students to leave and place their personal

stuffs and to consider to provide a separate waiting area for students and for parents.

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Expectations for Japanese Children. Retrieved July 11, 2019, from

http://www.socialstudies.org/sites/default/files/publications/yl/1003/100306.html

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Checklist: Learning Activities That Connect With Multiple Intelligences. Retrieved July

11, 2019, from https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/articles/teaching-content/clip-save-

checklist-learning-activities-connect-multiple-intelligences/

Performance of Sophomore Secondary Students Exposed in the . Retrieved July 11, 2019,

from https://www.wjrr.org/download_data/WJRR0603015.pdf

A New Approach to Learning Centers | Scholastic. (2019). Retrieved from

https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/articles/teaching-content/new-approach-learning-

centers/

(2019). Retrieved from

https://www.michigan.gov/documents/mde/SESProvider_PDFDetail_104_210989_7.pdf

Journals:

Bandyopadhyay, S. and Martell, M. (2007), “Does attitudinal loyalty influence

behavioral loyalty? A theoretical and empirical study“, Journal of Retailing and

Consumer Services, Vol.14 No.1, pp. 35–44.

Chang, K. and Chelladurai, P. (2003). System-Based Quality Dimensions in Fitness

Services: Development of the Scale of Quality, The Service Industries Journal, 23: 5, 65-

83.

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 APPENDIX A

TRANSMITTAL LETTER

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 APPENDIX B

RESEARCH INSTRUMENT

A. COMPANY INTERVIEW GUIDE

The researchers will be conducting a personal interview with the management. All

information will be strictly confidential and will only be used for academic purposes.

Name of Employee: _______________________________________________

Date Established: _______________________________________________

No. of Employees: ________________________________________________

No. of branch within Cebu city: __________________________________________

Company Profile

1. Who is your target market?

1. What services or amenities do you offer?

2. How do you ensure customers satisfaction?

3. What is your branding strategy?

4. How do you handle your employees?

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Products

1. What are your services offered?

2. What do you think are the benefits that students would get from the services

offered?

3. Which among the subjects offered has the greatest number of enrollees?

4. How is the teaching methods of Kumon different from the teaching methods of a

school?

5. What is the number of worksheets to be finished per day or week?

6. What are some ethical values you deem very important in your company?

7. How significant or impactful is the role of the teacher in assuring the time of

progress of the student?

Price

1. How much is your tuition fee?

2. What is the basis of your pricing?

3. What is your pricing strategy?

Place

1. Is the chosen location accessible for your customers?

2. Does this branch have the highest number of enrollees?

3. What are the advantages and disadvantages of the location of your center?

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Promotion

1. What strategies do you use to promote services offered?

2. Which medium do you find the most effective in attracting customers?

People

1. How many employees do you have under your company?

2. What are the credentials in employing your teachers?

3. What is the ratio of students per teacher?

4. What is the dress code for employees in your company?

Process

1. What is your payment method for parents?

2. How do you determine the “just-right” level of your students?

3. What are the support materials you give to your students in your system of “self-

learning”?

4. What do you do when you find your students stuck on a level for quite some

time?

5. What are the services you offer to the students who wish to quite before

completing Kumon?

6. What are the motivational systems or rewards systems you have for both students

and teachers?

7. What is your system regarding tardiness and absences of your employees?

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 8. How often does the teacher and the parent talk with each other regarding the

student’s performance?

9. How often do you receive batches of worksheets? From where?

10. How do you deal with complaints from students or parents?

Physical Evidence

1. How is the interior design of your learning centers in line with the image of your

company?

2. What are the facilities you provide to aid a child’s learning development

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B. Survey on Service Quality of Kumon Math and Reading-Cebu Branch

Good day! We are students from University of San Carlos, we are here to conduct a study
on the Service Quality of Kumon Math and Reading Learning Center Cebu Branch. We
would appreciate if you could share a bit of your time with us and help us in completing
our analysis of the study. Your response will be beneficial in helping us understand the
level of service quality of Kumon. Rest assured that your answers will remain
confidential and be solely for academic purposes. Thank you very much!

I. Demographic Profile
Age: Social Class:

Gender: No. of children/siblings enrolled:

Nationality:

Instructions: Please check the box of your best answer:

1. What subject are you currently enrolled in?

[ ] English
[ ] Math
[ ] Both

2. How often do you visit the center in a week?

[ ] Once

[ ] Twice

[ ] Thrice

[ ] Four times

[ ] Five times

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3. Reason for enrolling at Kumon:
[ ] Build good study habits

[ ] Academic advantage

[ ] For review purposes

[ ] To develop time management

[ ] To build solid learning development

[ ] Others pls. specify:

4. How effective is Kumon’s method prior to coping up with school academics?

[ ] Very effective

[ ] Effective

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C. Survey on Service Quality of Kumon Math and Reading-Cebu Branch

This survey refers with your opinion and experience regarding the service quality of
Kumon Math and Reading Learning Center-Cebu. Please indicate the extent to which you
think that Kumon should acquire the following features. What we intend here is to
identify the number that best shows your expectation towards Kumon.

5-Very satisfied 3-Neutral

4-Satisfied 2-Dissatisfied 1-Very Dissatisfied

EXPECTED PERCEIVED
Your opinion about Your experience on
the service quality of the service quality
Kumon-Cebu of
Kumon-Cebu

RELIABILITY 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
1.Kumon staff provide great service in a
dependable and in an efficient manner.
2.Employees knows on handling customer
issues.
3 .Employees are professional and competent.
4. Offices are open at promise office times.
5. Teachers arrive at respective faculty area on
time.
6.Teachers provide reasonable amount of
worksheet assignments to students on a weekly
basis.
ASSURANCE 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
7. Customers are treated with respect and
dignity.
8.Employees of Kumon are approachable
9. Employees of Kumon are knowledgeable
with the customer’s concerns.
10 .Employees of Kumon are courteous.
11. Employees can be trusted.
12. The teachers have the ability to plan out the
student’s progress level efficiently and
effectively.

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 TANGIBILITY 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
13. Employees are well dressed and neat in
appearance.
14. Facilities are well maintained.
15. Provides complete facilities that aids a
child’s learning at Kumon.
16. Kumon environment is visually appealing to
the customers.
17. Location is convenient for the customers.
18. Worksheets are clean and neat.
EMPATHY 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
19. Kumon operating hours are convenient to
customers.
20. Employees of Kumon give customers
individualized attention.
21. Employees if Kumon manifest ethical
values.
22. Customers concerns and interest are valued
by heart.
RESPONSIVENESS 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
23. Employees are confident when dealing with
customers.
24.Service is prompt and ready
25. Employees of Kumon are not too busy to
respond to the customer’s needs.
26. Employees of Kumon are willing to serve
more than at is asked.
27. Employees’ efficiency in dealing with
complaints.

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 APPENDIX C

TIMETABLE OF ACTIVITIES

1st Week of July 2nd Week of July 3rd Week of July 4th Week of July

Task 1 2 3 4 5 8 9 10 11 12 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26

Lectures
Brainstorming
Identifying
Research
Problems
Visit to
Kumon-Branch
Submission of
Initial Paper
Submission of
Transmittal
Letter
Interview &
Start of
Survey
Making of
Chap 1-3
Making of
Chap 4 &5
Presentation
of Report
Revisions of
Final Paper
Submission of
Final Output

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 APPENDIX D

PROGRAM BUDGET

Activities Costs
Printing 162.00 Php
Folder 10.00 Php
Clipper 5.00 Php
Internet 7.00 Php
Photography 51.00n Php
Gasoline 300.00 Php
TOTAL AMOUNT 535.00 Php

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 APPENDIX E

CURRICULUM VITAE

Personal Information

Name : Amity Grace K. Rosell

Date of Birth : August 8, 1999

Address : M. Borces Street, Mabolo Cebu City

Contact No. : 09151625524

Email Address : graceamity08@gmail.com

Educational Attainment:

Secondary:
Colegio de la Inmaculada Concepcion- Cebu- Grade 7- Senior High School
45 Gorordo Avenue, Cebu City, Philippines

Grade School:
Colegio de la Inmaculada Concepcion- Cebu- Grade 7- Senior High School
45 Gorordo Avenue, Cebu City, Philippines

Primary:
Colegio de la Inmaculada Concepcion- Cebu
45 Gorordo, Avenue, Cebu City, Philippines

Trainings/Seminars/Workshops:
USC Accountancy Convention v.3.0
CIC Leadership Training
IEC Youth Camp at Hoops Dome, Mactan

Work Experience

Marketing Representative at GT Vertical Realty

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Personal Information
Name : Sophia Abigail T. Mariano

Date of Birth : November 11, 2000

Address : Advent Homes, Salvador Extension,

Labangon

Contact No. : 09661824695

Email Address : satmariano2@gmail.com

Educational Attainment:

Secondary:
Oro Christian Grace School – Grade 8 – Senior High School
Cagayan de Oro City
*Did not enter Grade 7 rather was accelerated with the approval of DepEd

Grade School:
Oro Christian Grace School – Grade 6
Cagayan de Oro City

Primary:
Oro Christian Grace School – Grade 6
Cagayan de Oro City

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Personal Information
Name : Celso Jief T. Flores

Date of Birth : May 3, 2000

Address : Whitesands Villas Maribago,

Lapu-lapu City

Contact No. : 09210974963

Email Address : Celsoflores60@gmail.com

Educational Attainment:

Secondary:
Maritime Ernestine School-Grade 7-Senior High-School
Mandaue City

Grade school:
University of Lapu-Lapu-Grade 7-Senior High-School
Mandaue City

Primary:
University of Lapu-Lapu-Grade 7-Senior High-School
Mandaue City

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