Description
The total quality management has become internationally interesting topic. Several research papers investigate the impact of total quality management on customer satisfaction in both service and manufacturing industries. Many research papers were done in developed countries, on the other hand, only a few study was done in developing countries.
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CUSTOMER SATISFACTION AND TOTAL
QUALITY MANAGEMENT: A CASE STUDY IN THE THAI CONVENIENCE STORE
by
Anuchat chamchong
Doctor of Business Administration Program,
School of Business, University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce,
Bangkok, 10400, Thailand
Email: [email protected]
and
Phusit Wonglorsaichon
School of Business, University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce,
Bangkok, 10400, Thailand
Email: [email protected]
ABSTRACT
The total quality management has become internationally interesting topic. Several research papers investigate
the impact of total quality management on customer satisfaction in both service and manufacturing industries. Many
research papers were done in developed countries, on the other hand, only a few study was done in developing countries.
This paper wills closing the gab by examines the relationship between total quality management and customer
satisfaction in the Thai service industry. The 200 questionnaires were sent to the customer of the convenience store in
Thailand. The results are reported and confirmed that the total quality management has a positive relationship with
customer satisfaction in service industry. The study also supported that customer participation and continuous
improvement can increase customer satisfaction. In addition, the study finds that total quality management can be applied
in the developing country. A discussion of the result is presented and directions for further research on total quality
management.
KEYWORDS
Customer Satisfaction, Total Quality Management, Service, Manufacturing
INTRODUCTION
The increasing competitive in economic mode such as in the Thai convenience store industry makes the
company improve the quality management practice to improve the company competitive advantage. Quality management
practice included all kind of quality program that can improved product, service, reduce cost and customer satisfaction.
The concept of quality management practice has been interested since the beginning of quality revolution in Japan in the
1950s. The quality management practice consisted of quality control, quality measurement total quality management and
ISO 9000 quality system. Most existing research only concern on the relationship between quality management practice
and business performance.
Mostly the empirical study about the impact of total quality management practice to the customer satisfaction
has done in the developed countries such as USA, EU, Japan and Australia. However, there is little empirical study in
Thailand and other Southeast Asian developing countries. The impact of total quality management on customer
satisfaction needs to be investigated more extensively, because of the limitation of empirical research especially in
Thailand. Do the total quality management has a positive impact to customer satisfaction in the Thai convenience store
industry, need to be answered. It is vital for the Thai company to improve their customer satisfaction to cope with the
higher competition by applying the total quality management practice. This study will focus the relationship between the
total quality management and customer satisfaction in 7/11 in Thailand.
LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK OF THE STUDY
History of total quality management
The very first total quality management concepts was Deming(1986) 14 points which included creating of
constancy purpose for improvement of product and service, adopt quality management as the new policy, stop
dependence on mass inspection, ending the emphasizing on the production cost, constantly and forever improve the
system of production and service, new method of training, new method of supervision, drive out of fear, cooperation
between staff areas, elimination of numerical goals for the workforce, elimination of numerical quotas, removing the
barriers that hinder the hourly worker, new program of education and training and top management involvement of
quality managements.
The next total quality management concept belonged to Juran (1986) , who explained that the management was
responsible for establish a quality council, management also should establish the quality policy, the management has to
included the time frame for quality goal and lastly management has to provided all necessary resource needed to achieve
the quality goal.
Crosby (1984) also contributed to the development of total quality management by introduced the concept of
zero defects, do it right at the first time, the system of prevention and the focusing on the measurement of quality.
Basing the idea of Juran and Deming, Ishikawa (1985) influenced the Japanese understanding of total quality
management concept. Ishikawa concern on four aspects of total quality management, which included quality circle,
continuous training, quality tools such as fish bone diagram and quality chain.
In the 1980s and 1990s, many company in the US, EU and Japan followed the quality management approach in
order to improved their product and service. As the result, the companies that implemented the total quality management
practice can save cost of production and service. Goldman (2005) noted that the customer’s need should be included to
the development of product, process and service. There were a large number of literatures that study the relationship
between customer satisfaction and total quality management practices.
Total quality management and customer satisfaction
According to Bernhardt et al. (1994), Eklof and Westlund (1998), and Geyskens et al. (1999), customer
satisfaction was very vital to the profitability of the organization. Naumann (20010 pointed that customer satisfaction is a
part of strategic planning of the organization. In addition, Augus (2000) said that implementing total quality management
could improve the company’s customer satisfaction. Ingram and Chung (1997) explained that total quality management
practices could increase customer satisfaction in health care industry. More over, Haisin (2001) added that total quality
management can improved the competitive of the hospital in Thailand. Aghazadeh (2002) also agreed that a total quality
management practice is absolutely important for business.
Many researches have study the impact of total quality management practices on customer satisfaction in the
service and manufacturing industries. Al-Saggarf (1997) revealed that total quality management practice can improved
customer satisfaction in electrical industry in Saudi Arabia. More over, Kanji et al. (1999) reported that total quality
management can increased customer satisfaction in UK. Universities.
However, some researches such as Elmuti and Kathawala (1999) indicated that total quality management fails to
improved customer satisfaction in service industry.
TABLE 1
THE DEPENDENT VARIABLE AND INDEPENDENT VARIABLE
IN TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT RESEARCHES
Independent variable Dependent variable
Employee participation Customer satisfaction
Top management commitment Quality of product
Training Variety of product
Organization support Quality of service
Customer focus Cost of the product
Team work performance
Continuous improvement Customer expectation
Statistical tools Knowledge transfer
Supplier quality management
Quality tools
RESEARCH MODEL
FIGURE 1
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
Teamwork Quality of the product
Variety of the product
Customer orientation Customer satisfaction Price of the product
Customer expectation
Continueouse improvement
Figure 1 illustrates a conceptual framework of the relationship of total quality management practices and
customer satisfaction.
HYPOTHESES DEVELOPMENT
H1. Team work in convenience store is positively correlated with customer satisfaction
H2. Solving problem by team work in convenience store is positively correlated with customer
satisfaction
H3. Multi-functional employee in convenience store is positively correlated with customer satisfaction
H4. Customer focus in convenience store is positively correlated with customer satisfaction
H5. Customer involvement in convenience store is positively correlated with customer satisfaction
H6. Customer cooperation in convenience store is positively correlated with Customer satisfaction of the
variety of product
H7. Continuouse improvement in convenience store is positively correlated with Customer satisfaction
H8. Quality system improvement is positively correlated with Customer satisfaction
RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY
This research is empirical study that investigates the impact of total quality management on customer
satisfaction of the convenience store in Thailand. To answer the research questions, the questionnaire consisting of 30
question items, was developed in the study. The study begin by pre-test the questionnaire, the managers from the Thai
Chamber of Commerce organizations member were asked to review the original questionnaire and improved it to
enhance reliability and validity. This study use five-point Likert scale (1=“totally disagree” to 5= “totally agree”) to
measure all items. Samples of 150 customers of the convenience store were selected randomly. Each was asked to
participate to the research. The questionnaire was administered in Thai. To ensured that the concept has the same
meaning in Thai and English, the study done the process of double translation. The responses were collected from July to
August in 2010 in Thailand.
RESULTS
There are significant positive correlation between customer satisfaction and each of independent variable, which
included team work, customer involvement and team work. In particular one should note that there is high correlation
between team work and customer satisfaction.
Regression analysis was employed to test the research hypotheses. For H1, the result indicated that the degree of
team work in convenience store is positively associated with customer satisfaction (adjust r square = .529, p < 0.01).
Therefore H1 is confirmed.
For H2, the result show that solving problem by team work in convenience is positively correlate with customer
satisfaction (adjust r square = .516, p < 0.01). As this result, H2 was supported. The multi functional employee in
convenience store has statistically significant associated with customer satisfaction (adjust r square = .198, p < 0.01).
This implied that H3 is confirmed.
To explore the influence of customer orientation on customer satisfaction, propose in H4, H5 and H6, regression
analyses were applied. The customer focus is statistically significant correlated with customer satisfaction, (adjust r
square = .027, p < 0.05). More over, the result provided empirical support for effect of customer involvement on
customer satisfaction (adjust r square = .027, p < 0.05). Similarly, the result also provided statistically significant data
that customer cooperation in convenience is positively correlated with customer satisfaction. Overall, we can assert that
the customer orientation have effected on customer satisfaction. This implied that H4, H5, H6 are particular confirmed.
Lastly, the H7 and H8 also confirmed. Continuous improvements as well as quality system improvement have a
statistically significant effect on customer satisfaction (adjust r square = .027, p < 0.01).
In summary, the results show that all of the total quality management practices have a statistically significant
effect on customer satisfaction. This mean implementing total quality management practice can increase customer
satisfaction.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
This study examines the total quality management practices – customer satisfaction relationship. The study
provided empirical evidence that total quality management practices have a positive impact on customer satisfaction.
Besides, the result highlight the important of role of each total quality manage practices, which include team wok,
customer focus and continuous improvement, has a statistically significant direct link to customer satisfaction.
Evidences from this study support a strong relationship between the extent of total quality management
implementation and customer satisfaction. The result is supported by the study of Anderson et al. (1995) and Forza and
Filippini (1998), which explain that the out come of total quality management is customer satisfaction. Rungtusanatham
(1998) and Choi and Eboch (1998) provide support for the total quality management have a strong impact on customer
satisfaction. Additionally, the study associated with Das et al. (2000) that total quality management practices have a
positive correlation with customer satisfaction.
This lead us to conclude that there is no merit arguing that total quality management practice can be successful
only in developing countries. The total quality management can also be useful in developing country like Thailand.
Furthermore, the study found that total quality management can be equally effective in service industry. The
results are in line with resent study (Mehra and ranganathan, 2008). In addition, the research reinforces Hasin et al (2001)
assert that hospitals in Thailand can increase competitive advantage by applying total quality management practice.
From the manager‘s perspective, the empirically validated the positive effect of quality management practices
on customer satisfaction is encouraging for those manager who are consider implementing total quality management
practice.
MANAGERIAL IMPLICATIONS
This study is applied able for manager of convenience store in many ways. First, it explained that total quality
management practice, especially team work, is benefit to customer satisfaction. Managers should invest money as well as
time to implement the total quality management practice to enhance the customer satisfaction.
Second, this implies that team work of employee is the most important part of total quality management
program that can affect the customer satisfaction. Manager should encourage solving problem by team work as well as
train employee to multi task.
Third, the manager should develop the customize skill of work force to more understanding customer need as
well as let the customer to participate in product and service selection.
LIMITATIONS
The firm in this study were draw from 7/11 convenience store, the biggest convenience store in Thailand, and
there for may only be generalized to that industry. Even though a sample size of 150 is adequate for statistical analysis,
should be careful of generalizing the finding beyond associated hypothesis test. The research use self-rating scale to
measure total quality management practices is likely to have higher value of mean.
DIRECTION FOR FUTURE RESEARCH
This study provides some direction for future research. The empirical study should examine the relationship
between total quality management practice and customer loyalty. Besides, the future study should focus on the
implementing total quality management in new economy market in Asian countries, like Thailand, Malaysia and
Vietnam, whose economy is expanding nowadays.
REFERENCES
Aghazadeh, S. (2002), “Implementation of total quality management in the managed care industry”, The TQM
Magazine, Vol. 14 No. 2, pp. 79-91.
Agus, A. (2004), “TQM as a focus for improving overall service performance and customer satisfaction: an empirical
study on a public service sector in Malaysia”, Total Quality Management and Business Excellence, Vol. 15 No. 5, pp.
615-28.
Al-Saggaf, H.A. (1997), “Application of TQM at SCECO-EAST: a case study”, Journal of quality in Maintenance
engineering, Vol.3 No.1, pp. 40-54.
Anderson, J.C., Rungtusanatham, M., Schroeder, G.G., Devarag, S., (1995), “A part analytic model of a theory of quality
management underlying the Deming management method,” preliminary and empirical finding, Decision Science 26, pp.
341-359.
Bernhardt, K.L., Dontho, N. and Kennett, P. (1984), The relationship Between Customer Satisfaction, Employee
Satisfaction, and Profitability: A Longitudinal Analysis, Department of Marketing, Georgia State University, Atlanta,
GA.
Choi, T.Y., Eboch, K., (1998). “The TQM paradox: relations among TQM practice, plant performance, and customer
satisfaction”, Journal of Operation Management 17, pp. 59-75
Crosby, P.B. (1979), Quality is Free, McGraw-Hill, New York, NY, pp.1.
Crosby, P.B. (1984), Quality with out Tear, McGraw-Hill, New York, NY, pp.67.
Das, A., Handfield, R.B., Calantone, R.J., Ghosh, S. (2000). “A contingent view of quality management- the impact of
international competition on quality”, Decision Sciences 31, pp. 640-60.
Deming, W.E. (1982), Quality, Productivity and Competition Position, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, pp.17.
Deming, W.E. (1986), Out of the Crisis, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA
Eklof, J.A. and Westlund, A. (1988), “Customer satisfaction index and its role in quality management”, Vol. 8 No. 1,
pp.1-27.
Elmuti, D.S. and Kathawala, Y.(1999),”Small service firms face implementation challenges”, Quality Progress, Vol. 32
No. 4, pp. 67-65.
Feigenbaum, A.V. (1983), Total Quality Control, McGraw-Hill, New York, NY, pp.112.
Forza, C., Flippiny, R., (1998), “TQM impact on quality performance and customer satisfaction: a conceptual model,”
International journal of production economic 55, pp. 1-20.
Geyskens, I., Steenkamp, J.E.M. and Kumar, N. (1999), “A Meta-analysis of satisfaction in marketing channel
relationships”, Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 36 No.2, pp222-38.
Goldman, H.H. (2005), “The origins and development of quality initiative in American business”, The TQM Magazine,
Vol. 17 No. 3, pp. 217-25.
Hasin, M.A.A., Seeluangsawat, R. and Shareef, M.A. (2001), “Statistical measures of customer satisfaction for health
care quality assurance: a case study”, International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, Vol. 14 No. 1, pp. 6-13.
Ishikawa, K. (1985), What is Total Quality Control?, Prentice-Hall, Eaglewood Cliffs, NJ, pp. 44.
Ingram, B.L. and Chung, R.S. (1997), “Client satisfaction data and improvement planning in management mental health
care organization”, Health care management review, Vol. 22 No. 3, pp. 40-52.
Juran, M.J. (1986), “Quality trilogy”, Quality progress, August, pp. 14-24.
Kanji, G.K., Malek, A. and Tambi, B.A. (1999),”Total Quality management in the UK higher educational institutions”,
Total Quality Management, Vol. 10 No.1, pp.129-53.
Mehra, S. and Ranganathan, S. (2008), Implementing total quality management with a focus on enhancing customer
satisfaction, International Journal of Quality & Management, Vol. 25 No. 9, pp.913-927.
Naumann, E., Jackson, D.W. Jr and Rosenbaum, M.S. (2001), “How to implement a customer satisfaction program”,
Business Horizons, Vol. 44 No. 1, pp. 177-207.
doc_712183954.pdf
The total quality management has become internationally interesting topic. Several research papers investigate the impact of total quality management on customer satisfaction in both service and manufacturing industries. Many research papers were done in developed countries, on the other hand, only a few study was done in developing countries.
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CUSTOMER SATISFACTION AND TOTAL
QUALITY MANAGEMENT: A CASE STUDY IN THE THAI CONVENIENCE STORE
by
Anuchat chamchong
Doctor of Business Administration Program,
School of Business, University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce,
Bangkok, 10400, Thailand
Email: [email protected]
and
Phusit Wonglorsaichon
School of Business, University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce,
Bangkok, 10400, Thailand
Email: [email protected]
ABSTRACT
The total quality management has become internationally interesting topic. Several research papers investigate
the impact of total quality management on customer satisfaction in both service and manufacturing industries. Many
research papers were done in developed countries, on the other hand, only a few study was done in developing countries.
This paper wills closing the gab by examines the relationship between total quality management and customer
satisfaction in the Thai service industry. The 200 questionnaires were sent to the customer of the convenience store in
Thailand. The results are reported and confirmed that the total quality management has a positive relationship with
customer satisfaction in service industry. The study also supported that customer participation and continuous
improvement can increase customer satisfaction. In addition, the study finds that total quality management can be applied
in the developing country. A discussion of the result is presented and directions for further research on total quality
management.
KEYWORDS
Customer Satisfaction, Total Quality Management, Service, Manufacturing
INTRODUCTION
The increasing competitive in economic mode such as in the Thai convenience store industry makes the
company improve the quality management practice to improve the company competitive advantage. Quality management
practice included all kind of quality program that can improved product, service, reduce cost and customer satisfaction.
The concept of quality management practice has been interested since the beginning of quality revolution in Japan in the
1950s. The quality management practice consisted of quality control, quality measurement total quality management and
ISO 9000 quality system. Most existing research only concern on the relationship between quality management practice
and business performance.
Mostly the empirical study about the impact of total quality management practice to the customer satisfaction
has done in the developed countries such as USA, EU, Japan and Australia. However, there is little empirical study in
Thailand and other Southeast Asian developing countries. The impact of total quality management on customer
satisfaction needs to be investigated more extensively, because of the limitation of empirical research especially in
Thailand. Do the total quality management has a positive impact to customer satisfaction in the Thai convenience store
industry, need to be answered. It is vital for the Thai company to improve their customer satisfaction to cope with the
higher competition by applying the total quality management practice. This study will focus the relationship between the
total quality management and customer satisfaction in 7/11 in Thailand.
LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK OF THE STUDY
History of total quality management
The very first total quality management concepts was Deming(1986) 14 points which included creating of
constancy purpose for improvement of product and service, adopt quality management as the new policy, stop
dependence on mass inspection, ending the emphasizing on the production cost, constantly and forever improve the
system of production and service, new method of training, new method of supervision, drive out of fear, cooperation
between staff areas, elimination of numerical goals for the workforce, elimination of numerical quotas, removing the
barriers that hinder the hourly worker, new program of education and training and top management involvement of
quality managements.
The next total quality management concept belonged to Juran (1986) , who explained that the management was
responsible for establish a quality council, management also should establish the quality policy, the management has to
included the time frame for quality goal and lastly management has to provided all necessary resource needed to achieve
the quality goal.
Crosby (1984) also contributed to the development of total quality management by introduced the concept of
zero defects, do it right at the first time, the system of prevention and the focusing on the measurement of quality.
Basing the idea of Juran and Deming, Ishikawa (1985) influenced the Japanese understanding of total quality
management concept. Ishikawa concern on four aspects of total quality management, which included quality circle,
continuous training, quality tools such as fish bone diagram and quality chain.
In the 1980s and 1990s, many company in the US, EU and Japan followed the quality management approach in
order to improved their product and service. As the result, the companies that implemented the total quality management
practice can save cost of production and service. Goldman (2005) noted that the customer’s need should be included to
the development of product, process and service. There were a large number of literatures that study the relationship
between customer satisfaction and total quality management practices.
Total quality management and customer satisfaction
According to Bernhardt et al. (1994), Eklof and Westlund (1998), and Geyskens et al. (1999), customer
satisfaction was very vital to the profitability of the organization. Naumann (20010 pointed that customer satisfaction is a
part of strategic planning of the organization. In addition, Augus (2000) said that implementing total quality management
could improve the company’s customer satisfaction. Ingram and Chung (1997) explained that total quality management
practices could increase customer satisfaction in health care industry. More over, Haisin (2001) added that total quality
management can improved the competitive of the hospital in Thailand. Aghazadeh (2002) also agreed that a total quality
management practice is absolutely important for business.
Many researches have study the impact of total quality management practices on customer satisfaction in the
service and manufacturing industries. Al-Saggarf (1997) revealed that total quality management practice can improved
customer satisfaction in electrical industry in Saudi Arabia. More over, Kanji et al. (1999) reported that total quality
management can increased customer satisfaction in UK. Universities.
However, some researches such as Elmuti and Kathawala (1999) indicated that total quality management fails to
improved customer satisfaction in service industry.
TABLE 1
THE DEPENDENT VARIABLE AND INDEPENDENT VARIABLE
IN TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT RESEARCHES
Independent variable Dependent variable
Employee participation Customer satisfaction
Top management commitment Quality of product
Training Variety of product
Organization support Quality of service
Customer focus Cost of the product
Team work performance
Continuous improvement Customer expectation
Statistical tools Knowledge transfer
Supplier quality management
Quality tools
RESEARCH MODEL
FIGURE 1
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
Teamwork Quality of the product
Variety of the product
Customer orientation Customer satisfaction Price of the product
Customer expectation
Continueouse improvement
Figure 1 illustrates a conceptual framework of the relationship of total quality management practices and
customer satisfaction.
HYPOTHESES DEVELOPMENT
H1. Team work in convenience store is positively correlated with customer satisfaction
H2. Solving problem by team work in convenience store is positively correlated with customer
satisfaction
H3. Multi-functional employee in convenience store is positively correlated with customer satisfaction
H4. Customer focus in convenience store is positively correlated with customer satisfaction
H5. Customer involvement in convenience store is positively correlated with customer satisfaction
H6. Customer cooperation in convenience store is positively correlated with Customer satisfaction of the
variety of product
H7. Continuouse improvement in convenience store is positively correlated with Customer satisfaction
H8. Quality system improvement is positively correlated with Customer satisfaction
RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY
This research is empirical study that investigates the impact of total quality management on customer
satisfaction of the convenience store in Thailand. To answer the research questions, the questionnaire consisting of 30
question items, was developed in the study. The study begin by pre-test the questionnaire, the managers from the Thai
Chamber of Commerce organizations member were asked to review the original questionnaire and improved it to
enhance reliability and validity. This study use five-point Likert scale (1=“totally disagree” to 5= “totally agree”) to
measure all items. Samples of 150 customers of the convenience store were selected randomly. Each was asked to
participate to the research. The questionnaire was administered in Thai. To ensured that the concept has the same
meaning in Thai and English, the study done the process of double translation. The responses were collected from July to
August in 2010 in Thailand.
RESULTS
There are significant positive correlation between customer satisfaction and each of independent variable, which
included team work, customer involvement and team work. In particular one should note that there is high correlation
between team work and customer satisfaction.
Regression analysis was employed to test the research hypotheses. For H1, the result indicated that the degree of
team work in convenience store is positively associated with customer satisfaction (adjust r square = .529, p < 0.01).
Therefore H1 is confirmed.
For H2, the result show that solving problem by team work in convenience is positively correlate with customer
satisfaction (adjust r square = .516, p < 0.01). As this result, H2 was supported. The multi functional employee in
convenience store has statistically significant associated with customer satisfaction (adjust r square = .198, p < 0.01).
This implied that H3 is confirmed.
To explore the influence of customer orientation on customer satisfaction, propose in H4, H5 and H6, regression
analyses were applied. The customer focus is statistically significant correlated with customer satisfaction, (adjust r
square = .027, p < 0.05). More over, the result provided empirical support for effect of customer involvement on
customer satisfaction (adjust r square = .027, p < 0.05). Similarly, the result also provided statistically significant data
that customer cooperation in convenience is positively correlated with customer satisfaction. Overall, we can assert that
the customer orientation have effected on customer satisfaction. This implied that H4, H5, H6 are particular confirmed.
Lastly, the H7 and H8 also confirmed. Continuous improvements as well as quality system improvement have a
statistically significant effect on customer satisfaction (adjust r square = .027, p < 0.01).
In summary, the results show that all of the total quality management practices have a statistically significant
effect on customer satisfaction. This mean implementing total quality management practice can increase customer
satisfaction.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
This study examines the total quality management practices – customer satisfaction relationship. The study
provided empirical evidence that total quality management practices have a positive impact on customer satisfaction.
Besides, the result highlight the important of role of each total quality manage practices, which include team wok,
customer focus and continuous improvement, has a statistically significant direct link to customer satisfaction.
Evidences from this study support a strong relationship between the extent of total quality management
implementation and customer satisfaction. The result is supported by the study of Anderson et al. (1995) and Forza and
Filippini (1998), which explain that the out come of total quality management is customer satisfaction. Rungtusanatham
(1998) and Choi and Eboch (1998) provide support for the total quality management have a strong impact on customer
satisfaction. Additionally, the study associated with Das et al. (2000) that total quality management practices have a
positive correlation with customer satisfaction.
This lead us to conclude that there is no merit arguing that total quality management practice can be successful
only in developing countries. The total quality management can also be useful in developing country like Thailand.
Furthermore, the study found that total quality management can be equally effective in service industry. The
results are in line with resent study (Mehra and ranganathan, 2008). In addition, the research reinforces Hasin et al (2001)
assert that hospitals in Thailand can increase competitive advantage by applying total quality management practice.
From the manager‘s perspective, the empirically validated the positive effect of quality management practices
on customer satisfaction is encouraging for those manager who are consider implementing total quality management
practice.
MANAGERIAL IMPLICATIONS
This study is applied able for manager of convenience store in many ways. First, it explained that total quality
management practice, especially team work, is benefit to customer satisfaction. Managers should invest money as well as
time to implement the total quality management practice to enhance the customer satisfaction.
Second, this implies that team work of employee is the most important part of total quality management
program that can affect the customer satisfaction. Manager should encourage solving problem by team work as well as
train employee to multi task.
Third, the manager should develop the customize skill of work force to more understanding customer need as
well as let the customer to participate in product and service selection.
LIMITATIONS
The firm in this study were draw from 7/11 convenience store, the biggest convenience store in Thailand, and
there for may only be generalized to that industry. Even though a sample size of 150 is adequate for statistical analysis,
should be careful of generalizing the finding beyond associated hypothesis test. The research use self-rating scale to
measure total quality management practices is likely to have higher value of mean.
DIRECTION FOR FUTURE RESEARCH
This study provides some direction for future research. The empirical study should examine the relationship
between total quality management practice and customer loyalty. Besides, the future study should focus on the
implementing total quality management in new economy market in Asian countries, like Thailand, Malaysia and
Vietnam, whose economy is expanding nowadays.
REFERENCES
Aghazadeh, S. (2002), “Implementation of total quality management in the managed care industry”, The TQM
Magazine, Vol. 14 No. 2, pp. 79-91.
Agus, A. (2004), “TQM as a focus for improving overall service performance and customer satisfaction: an empirical
study on a public service sector in Malaysia”, Total Quality Management and Business Excellence, Vol. 15 No. 5, pp.
615-28.
Al-Saggaf, H.A. (1997), “Application of TQM at SCECO-EAST: a case study”, Journal of quality in Maintenance
engineering, Vol.3 No.1, pp. 40-54.
Anderson, J.C., Rungtusanatham, M., Schroeder, G.G., Devarag, S., (1995), “A part analytic model of a theory of quality
management underlying the Deming management method,” preliminary and empirical finding, Decision Science 26, pp.
341-359.
Bernhardt, K.L., Dontho, N. and Kennett, P. (1984), The relationship Between Customer Satisfaction, Employee
Satisfaction, and Profitability: A Longitudinal Analysis, Department of Marketing, Georgia State University, Atlanta,
GA.
Choi, T.Y., Eboch, K., (1998). “The TQM paradox: relations among TQM practice, plant performance, and customer
satisfaction”, Journal of Operation Management 17, pp. 59-75
Crosby, P.B. (1979), Quality is Free, McGraw-Hill, New York, NY, pp.1.
Crosby, P.B. (1984), Quality with out Tear, McGraw-Hill, New York, NY, pp.67.
Das, A., Handfield, R.B., Calantone, R.J., Ghosh, S. (2000). “A contingent view of quality management- the impact of
international competition on quality”, Decision Sciences 31, pp. 640-60.
Deming, W.E. (1982), Quality, Productivity and Competition Position, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, pp.17.
Deming, W.E. (1986), Out of the Crisis, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA
Eklof, J.A. and Westlund, A. (1988), “Customer satisfaction index and its role in quality management”, Vol. 8 No. 1,
pp.1-27.
Elmuti, D.S. and Kathawala, Y.(1999),”Small service firms face implementation challenges”, Quality Progress, Vol. 32
No. 4, pp. 67-65.
Feigenbaum, A.V. (1983), Total Quality Control, McGraw-Hill, New York, NY, pp.112.
Forza, C., Flippiny, R., (1998), “TQM impact on quality performance and customer satisfaction: a conceptual model,”
International journal of production economic 55, pp. 1-20.
Geyskens, I., Steenkamp, J.E.M. and Kumar, N. (1999), “A Meta-analysis of satisfaction in marketing channel
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