Sindh Economics & Business Review International Volume 1(1), 2019: 48 – 63 http://fandfonline.com/index.php/sebri
Investigating Customer Satisfaction towards E-Ticketing: An Empirical Investigation from Pakistan Railways Customers
Azaz Ahmed1* Hina Amin2
Abstract This study aims to find the factor that affecting Pakistan Railways customers’ preference towards e-ticketing service. Primary data was collected through a close-ended Likert-scale based questionnaire using convenient sampling from passengers who have ever experienced e-ticketing services of Pakistan Railways. The effect of customer satisfaction towards the E-ticketing service of Pakistan Railway was analyzed through a theoretical framework based on different factors which include, security, convenience, user-friendliness of the website, and privacy. The correlation results show a strong correlation between convenience and customer satisfaction of Pakistan Railways whereas privacy has low correlation customer satisfaction. In terms of regression the convenience, security and user-friendliness have an impact on customer satisfaction whereas the privacy has no impact on customer satisfaction. The finding of this study would help Pakistan railway to improve their e- ticketing service and to attract more customers and achieve their justifiable targets easily. Keywords: E-Ticketing, Customer Satisfaction, Privacy JEL Classification: D11, D12
How to Cite: Ahmed, A., & Amin, H. (2019). Investigating Customer Satisfaction towards E-Ticketing: An Empirical Investigation from Pakistan Railways Customers. Sindh Economics & Business Review International, 1(1), 48 – 63.
Introduction The main theme of globalization is to reduce the distance between countries and states based on culture, business, and economy. When globalization occurred between the times of early civilization 1600 that was known as Archaic. This term described how different countries created links while they had different languages, culture, and values, in addition, they were located in different geographical areas. After this period the early modern stage came in globalization which covers the time frame from 1600 – 1800. In this period the task was to develop the commercial link and exchange the cultural values with other countries. In the history of globalization after the early modern stage came under this stage the economies and culture of different countries came closer in the fast ways especially during the year of 1980s and 90s. The economic and cultural differences occurred during the world wars which was covered in this stage (Manimaran, 2010). Under the concept of globalization, the companies of different countries were having different visions and missions to come closer to run their business and make different strategies for survival in the market. For this purpose, the marketing department of the company played an important role and marketed their product by applying different strategies which were based on human psychology. This psychology helped to create the behavior of consumers. So higher the service quality, more customers were satisfied. Now in
1 SZABIST, Karachi, Sindh – Pakistan *Email: [email protected] 2 KASBIT, Karachi, Sindh – Pakistan http://fandfonline.com/index.php/sebri 48 Sindh Economics & Business Review International Volume 1(1), 2019: 48 – 63 http://fandfonline.com/index.php/sebri modern world technology is rapidly changing which also changes the expectation of consumers. Consumers use this technology and with the help of different applications, they purchase things online to save their time and money (Manimaran, 2010). Railway in Pakistan: Pakistan railway reduces the distance and provides the service from one corner of the country to another (Pakistan Railways). It works like a backbone of the country which provides the safest journey to the people of Pakistan and also transports the goods from one corner of the country to another (Pakistan Railways). During the mid-19th century, the opportunity of Karachi seaport was identified. In the year 1847 when Sir Henry Edward Frere was hired as a commission of Sindh, he surveyed with the permission of Lord Dalhousie (Pakistan Railways). In 1858 another survey was conducted by him which was related to the railway line. He found out, with the help of a survey, that there would be a chance to build a railway line from Karachi to Kotri which was located near Hyderabad Sindh and from Kotri to Multan. Another possibility was to develop tracks from Lahore to other routes (Pakistan Railways). 13 May 1861 was the date when first-time public traffic in the context of the railway was open between Karachi cities till Kotri which was around 105 miles in distance. On 16 May 1889, the railway track between Karachi and Keemari was introduced and this route was doubled within the 8 years in 1897 (Pakistan Railways). Alexander's line which is from the Hindu Kush to the Arabian Sea was followed by railway at that time and from Karachi to Peshawar the railway track was introduced. During the last quarter of the 19th and early 20th century, this Karachi to Peshawar line was divided into multiple sections like from Karachi to Kotri then Kotri to Lahore then Lahore to Peshawar (Pakistan Railways). Delhi railway, Scinde railway, Punjab railways, and Flotilla Company these four sections of railway were working as a single company; this company later merged into Scinde, Punjab, and Delhi Railway Company and this company was occupied by secretary of the Indian state in 1885. This company was named State Railway of North West which was further changed into railway of North West (Pakistan Railways). During the partition of India, the railway route which was 1847 miles route were given to India and the remaining 5048 miles route was given to Pakistan. Later on, Pakistan Railway extended this railway line from Peshawar to Mardan and Charsadda which was located in KPK (Pakistan Railways). Besides the railway track was also upgraded from 2’-6’’ to broad gauge between Jacobabad and Kashmore from 1969 to 1973 the Kot Adu to Kashmore railway track was introduced which was also the substitute route from Karachi to other cities of Pakistan which were located on the upside of the country (Pakistan Railways). Significant Contribution of Railway Ministers in Pakistan Mr Saad Rafique was the railway minister of the Pakistan railway from 2013-2018. When he became a minister he said that at that time there was corruption, favouritism, and over the hiring of employees. He said that the Pakistan railway was near to privatization at that time (Pakistan Railway Success story 2013-2018). Further, he said that he took different steps during five years in which he assigned the right person at the right time on the job due to his hard working at the end of turnover of government he enjoyed the fruit of efforts (Pakistan Railway Success story 2013-2018). He said that during his turnover the trust of passengers increased to 70% which was previously 42% during 2012-13 (Pakistan Railway Success story http://fandfonline.com/index.php/sebri 49
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2013-2018). The major steps are taken and railroad renewals/new railroads statistics (see Table 1) from 2013 to 2018 are given below. Introduce e-ticketing Application Reduce fare on several occasions Train up gradation Public-private partnership Restoration in Railway Table 1. Pakistan Railways (2013 – 2018) Description of 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16 2016-17 2017-18* track Railroad 133.2 83.51 212.16 220.56 80.51 renewals (KM) New railroad 28 77 0 33 0 (KM) Note: The table of taken from ((Pakistan railway success story 2013-2018) *the statistic of 2018 is till 31.3.2018.
Mr Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed: After the turnover of Saad Rafique, Sheikh Rasheed became a railway minister in 2018. He also comes intending to make the railway successful. It’s less than one year to measure his achievement with the previous minister but he did a lot of work in his first year. The major steps are taken and in progress are discussed are given below. Inauguration of a new train: Sheikh Rasheed inaugurated 10 new trains which included Rawalpindi Express, Faisalabad Express, Jinnah express, Rehman Baba Express, and others (The News, 2018). Gwadar railway station: As Gwadar played an important role in CPEC so Pakistan railway announced Gwadar as their 8th division for this purpose railway purchased the land of 227 acres for Gwadar railway station. (Times of Islamabad, 2018). Produced new coaches: Railway minister announced that he tried to avoid imported railway coaches and made new railway coaches in Pakistan railway carriage factory PRCF. (Business Recorder, 2019) Reduced the fair: Minster railway Sheikh Rasheed reduced the fare of different trains which included Akbar Express which ran between Quetta and Lahore and Bolan express Karachi – Quetta bounded train (Pakistan Today Profit, 2018) Installed Wi-Fi: Sheikh Rasheed also installed Wi-fi at different stations which included Karachi, Rohri, Lahore, and other big railway stations of Pakistan (Pakistan Today Profit, 2018). Open new job vacancy: Within the first year of Sheikh Rasheed as a minister Pakistan railway opened 23000 new jobs for people of Pakistan in which 10,000 were based on skilled employees (Daily Times, 2019). Convert railway engine on LNG: Initially, Pakistan railway issued a tender to convert the diesel engine to LNG (Liquid Natural Gas). If it is successful then this project would be implemented to all engines. According to the railway minister, with the help of http://fandfonline.com/index.php/sebri 50
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this conversion Pakistan railway reduced 9 Billion rupees from fuel expenses as the railway spent 18 billion rupees per year (Pro Pakistani, 2019). Increase Revenue: According to railway minister revenue earned 4 billion revenue as compared to the previous year the same period (Pro Pakistani, 2019). Plans: Introducing research and planning cells for railways with the help of this cell Pakistan railway made better decisions (Pro Pakistani, 2019). He also planned to open a radio channel that gave updates related to the Pakistan railway (Pakistan today profit, 2019). Pakistan railway planned to run a luxury train named Sir Syed Express between Rawalpindi and Karachi in the year 2019 (The Nation, 2019). The current Government of Pakistan (2019) also planned to issue health cards for the employees of Pakistan railways (The Nation, 2019). When employees would be satisfied and happy, they would work more effectively. Sheikh Rasheed planned to get 10 billion rupees in the year 2019 (The Nation, 2019). According to railway minister, his aim was to operate 20 new freight trains in the year 2019 whereas the quantity was 15 (Pakistan Today Profit, 2019)
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Comparison of Railway performance between Sheikh Rasheed and Saad Rafique: Although there was no comparison between Sheikh Rasheed and Saad Rafique because he spent 5 years and Sheikh Rasheed spent less than one year but still the comparison of the first six months of Sheikh Rasheed and last six months of Saad Rafique is given below (Finance department Pakistan, 2018). Table 2. Comparison of Mr Sheikh Rasheed and Mr Saad Rafique Performance Subject July – December (2017) Saad July – December (2018) Sheikh Rafique turnover Rasheed turnover
Traveller Traffic Kms (Million) 12132 12785.0
Cargo carried Tonnes (Million) 2.4 2.4
Cargo Tonnes Kms (Million) 2160.1 3501.3
Gross Earning (Rs. Million) 18548.1 23505.5
Note: The table is taken from (Finance department Pakistan, 2018)
Important Practical Issues In Pakistan the economical mode of transportation was provided by the Pakistan railway only; they also offered the service which included safety for their passengers. Besides, the railway is the organization in Pakistan which offered the largest number of employment in Pakistan but due to different issues like limited budget shortage of attention and ineffective policies halted the Pakistan railway (Ahmed, 2011).
Different companies got benefit from technology. With the help of technology companies wanted to communicate with their customers efficiently and effectively. In Pakistan, railways introduced the service of e-ticketing to reduce the cost and attract the customer towards the railway and make them more satisfied. “The purpose of this research is to identify which factor that affects customer satisfaction of Pakistan railway towards e-ticketing service”. We get the answer to the following question through this research. What was more important for male customers regarding the e-ticketing service provided by the Pakistan railway? Which service factor is important for the Pakistan railway E-ticketing website?
From the literature, we found that the improvement of information technology changes the working style of local citizens and government. Now a day’s internet is used as a major source to share the data. The public uses the internet as a commercial instrument in several areas including shopping, promotion, getting the hang off, and other events of life (Malik, 2016). As governments started to adopt electronic technology in their work this helped them to make their work more efficient and effective and almost every country's government, other than the developing or underdeveloped countries, started to adopt this electronic technology in the field of the lawmaking process, online management and other departments (Malik et al., 2016). Being loyal to the electronic service provided by the government is a tough task http://fandfonline.com/index.php/sebri 52
Sindh Economics & Business Review International Volume 1(1), 2019: 48 – 63 http://fandfonline.com/index.php/sebri for the people of countries nowadays, as the internet provides various options to the public within seconds (Malik et al., 2016). Although it was an important point, the internet was very important for people to do online shopping. There were a lot of researchers who said that doing the shopping online was the necessary parameter nowadays (Karami, 2006). The Gap in Previous studies Various researchers found out that website based business in multiple countries was adopted by the people and they not only adopted the online-based shopping but they also made loyalty towards this concept. In emerging countries like Pakistan, very few research was directed on customer satisfaction in terms of Pakistan Railway, that’s why this research was conducted. The second main reason was the Pakistan railway tried their best to make a profitable department and there was very little research on that department so with the help of this research the Pakistan railway found out the reason why people didn't use or avoided the e-ticketing application (Malik et al., 2016). Internet in Pakistan In Pakistan, the amount of online-based business clients is increasing day by day it means that this concept will increase the demand of internet in the people of Pakistan in future as Pakistan is placed at the tenth number in the online base client’s population in Asia (Internet World Stats, 2019). Still, the economy of Pakistan is a great level of cash-based and unplanned. Maximum exchanges are engaged in actual cash, away from those that are important, and require a bank draft or salary application. Approximately 60% of the economy is unplanned, this was said by a few studies (Export.Gov, 2018). There are a lot of government offices that have inaugurated their administration employing the Internet. In Pakistan, almost all the banks offer web-based financial administrations and currently four airline companies that fall in the private sector offer electronic ticketing facilities. As there are 44.6 million Internet users in Pakistan which are expected to double in the future so this part of the economy is relied upon to develop consistently (Export.Gov, 2018). Nowadays it is a trend adopted by firms to market the product on social media through Facebook because the number of Facebook user in Pakistan is more than 32 million E-Commerce and Current Market The online business segment had concentrated predominantly on end-user items. Online clients in Pakistan looked for and bought electronics equipment and cell phones, job-related questions, online learning, and mentoring, gathering facts and figures about vehicle trading. (Export.Gov, 2018). Concept of E-ticketing The perception behind electronic tickets was that it was an electronically generated document without using the paper which was used by the rail user during the travelling mostly when they travel domestically or internationally. Practically almost all the travelling companies would have to implement the concept of E-ticketing (Rouse, 2015). This electronic ticket was generated when any passenger contacted the travelling company so at that time when he entered or told his information, at that time this information was stored in the data bank of the company and with the help of that data the electronic ticket was generated and this electronic ticket was then sent to the passengers' email. But if any passengers demanded the hard copy of the electronic ticket, the printed form of this electronic was provided to him. This electronic ticket comprised the information of travelling http://fandfonline.com/index.php/sebri 53
Sindh Economics & Business Review International Volume 1(1), 2019: 48 – 63 http://fandfonline.com/index.php/sebri date, time of departure, amount, and other travelling information. When passengers reached the airport or railway station he simply showed this ticket then staff allowed him to travel (Rouse, 2015). According to Rouse (2015), with the help of this electronic ticketing concept the cost of ticket booking got low, it was one advantage of electronic tickets. The second advantage was that it also reduced the fear of ticket loss and fear of wrong delivery of a hard copy to an incorrect address Besides, the perceptive features of online tickets had become such a main matter of concern for corporations in recent years as they struggled to grow electronic ticket progress. Online Purchasing Behavior and Socio-Demographic Factors According to Karami (2006), he initiated that there were only a few researchers who considered age matters during online shopping. The other researcher said that from the different variables of demographic age is the variable that did not have an impact on online shopping. To understand the purchase behavior towards online shopping different research conducted according to Wu (2003), we could calculate the customer approaches and check the purchaser traits of customer demographics with the help of the Fishbein model. Suleiman et al., (2008) proposed that the greater the consumers' monetary position which was calculated by the instruction, paid the more positive the shoppers' impression of web- based purchasing concerning disconnected purchasing. Besides the amount of youth who were less than 25 years, was more attracted to innovative technology like the internet. They got the information about the product which they wanted to purchase on the internet they searched, analyzed, and purchased the required product on the internet (Wood, 2002). The reason for customers to stop shopping online is trust. According to Karami (2006), the highest doubt which came during the evaluation of old-style shopping v/s virtual shopping was trust. According to Karami (2006), other phenomena related to online shopping was that customers did not rely on financial transactions for the payment of online products because they thought that their information was not safe. Besides they also thought that the product which they offered may not be as good as they perceive. Theoretical framework In the context of information security according to George (2002), approximately 57% of individuals did not use the internet. The reason behind this act as they believed that their information was not safe on the internet. And around 8% of users of the internet left the internet because they had security anxiety. According to George (2002), there are other reasons which kept the people away from the internet which was not only security, there was a trust factor also. He said approximately 86% believed that their information which was available on the internet was used by different companies and persons. 70% tried to avoid the internet because they worried that their credit card information would be outflow (George, 2002). Karami (2006), said that only security and trust did not play a role to keep people away from the internet; he further said that experience of internet use was also the matter. Besides, he said that the users who have good experience for online shopping did more online shopping according to those who had bad or less experience.
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User-friendliness According to Doll (1988), user-friendliness of websites played an important role in customer satisfaction. It was discussed in the literature that if a website was complex to use so customer satisfaction levels go down and they avoided using that website.
Convenience During the literature review it also identified that according to Awamleh & Fernandes (2005), convenience played a major role in customer satisfaction. Besides Kaura (2015), also said that nowadays customers were more satisfied if they easily found the required service because they influenced more if they accessed the website from wherever they were. Security According to Chang (2009), security had an impact on customer satisfaction and this impact was positive. Moreover, if there was more security, customers were more satisfied. They discussed that security in online shopping meant to make the customer feel safe to share their credit card information on the website; they also said that this was one of the reasons that customers avoided to shop online because they had less confidence on security, that’s why they developed a model in which they proved that security had a great impact on customer satisfaction. Privacy Tsai et al., (2011) proposed a model of privacy and customer satisfaction. He said that if there was a clear privacy policy of an internet shopping website the customer was more satisfied to prove this concept he conducted the study. As the determination of this study was to find out which feature privacy, security, convenience, and user-friendliness which feature had a higher impact on the passengers of Pakistan railway to book their e-ticket. According to Zavareh et al., (2012), in Iran effective and consistent services, security awareness, and user-friendliness created e-service quality for online banking services. Conceptual Framework I.Vs
Privacy
Security Customer Satisfaction
User friendliness of D.V E-ticketing Website
Convenience
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Hypothesis
H0: There is no impact on privacy, security, convenience, and user-friendliness on customer satisfaction.
H1: Privacy is positively associated with customer satisfaction.
H2: Security is positively associated with customer satisfaction.
H3: Convenience is positively associated with customer satisfaction.
H4: User-friendliness is positively associated with customer satisfaction.
H5: Privacy affects Customer Satisfaction.
H6: Security affects Customer Satisfaction.
H7: User-friendliness of the e-ticketing website affects Customer’s Satisfaction.
H8: Customer’s Satisfaction effect on Convenience.
Model of study
Y = 훼 + 훽1X1 + 훽2X2 + 훽3X3 + 훽4X4 + 휀
Here, Y is Customer Satisfaction, X1 is Privacy, X2 is Security, X3 is Convenience, X4 is the user- friendliness of e-ticketing website and 휀 is the error term.
Methods Data has been collected from the passengers who used e-ticketing applications at least one for the travelling purpose, quantitative and cross-sectional because of the time limitation. The collection of data was based on a questionnaire which was close-ended in structure. Different statistical approaches like correlation and regression were used for testing the hypothesis. The population of this research was to the passengers who purchased online ticketing service or used sometimes. The reason for choosing this population was to find out the closed opinion of passengers who used online e-ticketing service. As the population was unknown so the estimated size of the sample was 384 according to (Krejcie & Morgan, 1970) while the margin of error would be 5%. This margin of error was based on a non-probability convenience sample. The target population was the people who travelled in the Pakistan railway and purchased the ticket either online or manually. The type of this research was quantitative. For the collection of data, the questionnaire was used which was validated by two researchers and two domain experts. The questionnaire was based on a five-point Likert – type scale, where 1 meant strongly agree and 5 meant strongly disagree. Besides the questionnaire was based on three different sections. Section A was the first part of the questionnaire based on the demographic question like age, gender, salary, and area of residence whereas section B based on the questions related to the independent variable and section C consist of questions related to customer satisfaction which was the dependent variable in this research. The data was collected from the customer who booked their online railway ticket. For the collection of data, an online questionnaire (based on a five-point Likert scale) and a hard copy of the questionnaire was used. A convenient sampling technique was used for data collection. Data was collected in Sindh, especially Karachi, and Punjab especially Lahore. So for the reliability of questionnaire pilot test was done on 38 questionnaires because the sample size was unknown and after collecting the data from 38 questionnaires the Cronbach’s alpha is 0.689 which was acceptable for further research. If the value of alpha http://fandfonline.com/index.php/sebri 56
Sindh Economics & Business Review International Volume 1(1), 2019: 48 – 63 http://fandfonline.com/index.php/sebri was less than 0.6 then it indicated that the instrument of research was not reliable and in this case, we would have to revise our instrument. Results & Discussion In the subsequent section, data analysis has been done. From the demographic factor (age) results, the highest response percentage was found from the age bracket 21 to 25 which was 32.4% whereas the lowest response we got from the age bracket who were less than 18 years old was 1% only and out of 104 respondents, 72 were male. Based on income 35 people fell in the income bracket of 31,000 to 60,000 PKR which was the largest frequency of population in this research; after that 23 people were those who earned less than 16000 PKR. 20 people earned 61,000 to 100,000 PKR, they fell to 3rd number. From Table 4 we also saw that 15 people fell between 16,000 to 30,000. Correlation Analysis Table 3. Correlations Analysis Variables Privacy Security Convenience UsFriend Customer Satisfaction
Privacy Pearson 1 Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) Security Pearson .567** 1 Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) .000 Convenience Pearson .269** .474** 1 Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) .005 .000 UsFriend Pearson .271** .471** .209* 1 Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) .005 .000 .032 Customer Pearson .334** .592** .677** .415** 1 Satisfaction Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) .001 .000 .000 .000 .000 **. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). *. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed). In e-ticketing, privacy was moderately related to security and less linked with convenience. Security was moderately related to customer satisfaction whereas the relationship between user friendliness and convenience was low. There was a strong relationship between convenience and customer satisfaction but this relationship was low with user-friendliness. User-friendliness had a low relationship with convenience whereas it had a comparatively high relationship with security (see Table 3). Regression Analysis The concept of regression and correlation was the same if we knew correlation between two variables but we did not predict how much other variables increased if we increased one variable or in other words were unable to predict the behavior of another variable. So in this case, we used regression for prediction.
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Table 4. Model Summary Model R R Square Adjusted R Std. An error of Square the Estimate 1 .761a .580 .563 .62250 a. Predictors: (Constant), UsFriend, Convenience, Privacy, Security
Referring to table 4, we found that the value of R square is 0.58 which meant that the model was 58% fit and still 32% other variable was required to make this model more strong. Table 5. Regression Analysis Model Unstandardized Coefficients Standardized T Sig. Coefficients B Std. Error Beta (Constant) .013 .224 .057 .955 PRIVACY -.006 .089 -.005 .065 .948 1 SECURITY .285 .100 .265 2.852 .005 Convenience .554 .079 .514 6.986 .000 USFRIEND .175 .070 .184 2.506 .014 a. Dependent Variable: Customer satisfaction
From the above table 5, we saw that the significance value of privacy 0.948 was higher than 0.05 it meant that it had no impact on customer satisfaction. Whereas, the significance value of the security of E-ticketing websites was 0.005 which was less than 0.05 it indicated that security had an impact on customer satisfaction. We also see from table 13 that the value of significance of convenience of E-ticketing websites was 0.000 which indicated that there is a strong impact of convenience on customer satisfaction. Besides, the user-friendliness of E- ticketing websites was 0.014 significant which was less than 0.05 it means it also had an impact on customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction = 0.013 – 0.06 Privacy+ 0.285 Security + 0.554 Convenience + 0.175 User Friendly From the above equation we found that if one present security of an E-ticketing website increased, customer satisfaction would increase by 28%. It also analyzed from the equation that if 1% convenience of E-ticketing websites was increased then customer satisfaction would increase by 55%. It had the highest impact on customer satisfaction among the variables which were taken in this study. Furthermore, if 1% of user-friendliness of E- Ticketing websites was increased then the satisfaction level of customers would increase by 17%. Hypothesis Assessment Summary
Since the significant value of privacy was greater than 0.05 so the hypothesis H5 which was “There is a significant impact of Privacy and Customer’s Satisfaction” was rejected and the null hypothesis was accepted, which told that there was no significant impact of privacy of e-ticketing website on customer satisfaction whereas hypothesis 6,7,8 was accepted because the value of significance was less than 0.05 it means that there was an impact of security, user-friendliness of e-ticketing website, and convenience of e-ticketing website on customer satisfaction.
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Split – File Analysis Table 6. Split File Analysis Gender Model Unstandardized Coefficients Standardized T Sig. Coefficients Beta Std. Error Beta (Constant) .206 .309 .665 .508 PRIVACY -.114 .120 -.092 -.952 .345 Male 1 SECURITY .378 .134 .327 2.816 .006 Convenience .535 .099 .504 5.412 .000 USFRIEND .135 .087 .141 1.553 .125 (Constant) -.253 .271 -.933 .359 PRIVACY .231 .115 .250 2.018 .054 Female 1 SECURITY .083 .128 .094 .647 .523 Convenience .555 .126 .482 4.409 .000 USFRIEND .265 .113 .284 2.348 .026 a. Dependent Variable: Customer satisfaction
When the model based on gender (see Table 6), we found some differences. According to table 14, we saw that the security of e-ticketing for female customers did not matter. The satisfaction level of females did not depend on the security of the Pakistan Railway E- ticketing security factor because the significance value of female security is 0.52 which was higher than 0.05. Whereas, for male customers, their satisfaction depended on the security factor of Pakistan Railway E-ticketing service their significance value is less than 0.05 which was 0.006, very less as compared to females. Another factor which was different for female and male was user-friendliness of E-ticketing websites. For females, the user-friendliness of E-ticketing websites was more important as compared to males because their significant value was 0.026 which was less than 0.05. It meant female customer satisfaction related to Pakistan E-ticketing service depending on the user-friendliness factor. Whereas, for a male customer this factor did not matter. Besides, privacy was not important for male as compared to female because the value of significance was close to 0.05 for female, but for male, this value was more than 0.05 which was 0.345, which indicated the satisfaction of male customers did not depend on E-ticketing privacy whereas the convenience was highly impacted on male and female customer satisfaction. Conclusion The purpose of this research study was to find out the factors that affect the customer’s perception of the e-ticketing service provided by Pakistan railways. Customer satisfaction was reviewed on a source of independent variables which was discussed in the literature review. These independent variables were privacy, security, user-friendliness, and convenience. The collection of data was done with the help of a questionnaire which was closed-ended which was distributed to people who experienced the online E-ticketing service of Pakistan railway. The reliability of the question was also checked through pilot testing which was conducted on the sample size of 38 and the answer of reliability is 0.68 which indicated that the questionnaire was reliable for this research whereas, the study was limited due to limited time. In this study, eight hypotheses were developed to check the impact and
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Sindh Economics & Business Review International Volume 1(1), 2019: 48 – 63 http://fandfonline.com/index.php/sebri relationship of privacy, security, user-friendliness and convenience on customer satisfaction of Pakistan railway. There were 72 males 32 females who took part in this research while the age bracket between 21 – 30 years took an active part in this research. Based on facts and figures in the data analysis, it was proved that out of four independent variables which were taken to check the impact of the independent variable on dependent variable which was customer satisfaction, there was a strong positive impact of convenience of E-ticketing website on customer satisfaction of Pakistan railway because the value of correlation is 0.677. This said that if the convenience of the Pakistan railway E-ticketing service was good, more customers would be satisfied. On the other hand, the correlation between security and customer satisfaction is 0.592 which told there should be a positive impact of security, of information which would be provided by customers to Pakistan railway E-ticketing service on customer satisfaction. Further conclusion based on regression analysis told that there was a strong impact of convenience on customer satisfaction. To find out the extent of impact linear regression was used and it was found that there is a 45% impact on customer satisfaction because of the undertaken explanatory variables. During the study, it was also found out that females did not depend on the security of Pakistan Railway e-ticketing service and for male customers their satisfaction dependent on the security factor of Pakistan Railway e-ticketing service. To find the answer to the research question of this study, convenience was a more important aspect for the customer of the Pakistan railway. If the e-ticketing application was more convenient the customers of the Pakistan railway were more satisfied with the e-ticketing service. Policy Recommendations According to the finding of this paper, convenience was the factor which customers of Pakistan railway believe created the barrier between them then E-ticketing service. Here convenience meant the website of the Pakistan railway should be easily available on the internet plus customers easily used the website and the information related to trains got by customers. Pakistan railway announced to re-open their local train service in Karachi which is the largest metropolitan city of Pakistan; where the people have a tough routine in their daily work life. So in this case, if people wanted to use a local train or circular railway and purchase a manual ticket, it would take time and people avoided it. So to make this project successful, the Pakistan railway took the following steps to make their customer loyalty towards their e- ticketing service by making their website more convenient. The first step which the railway took was to introduce the option on their e-ticketing website which told the alternate train if there was no seat in the required train of customers. With the help of this convenient step, customers automatically switch to another best alternate train and time of customer saved. Railway e-ticketing service introduced the artificial intelligence-based system which remembered the customer destination and next time it suggested the best train in terms of time-saving and cost-effectiveness so this helped to reduce customer searching time. Another step that the railway implemented was to make the font size of the website adjustable. In other words, customers could change the font size according to their requirement so in this way many customers who did not see properly can get the information http://fandfonline.com/index.php/sebri 60
Sindh Economics & Business Review International Volume 1(1), 2019: 48 – 63 http://fandfonline.com/index.php/sebri related to trains easily. Pakistan railway introduced its credit card which would be used to book e-ticket service through this step. People felt free to do transactions and this reduced their risk of online transaction security. In the future for better consideration of factors that affect customer satisfaction towards the E-ticketing service provided by the Pakistan railway, future researchers may research all over Pakistan because the data will be collected from different demographics. This will help to understand better as this research was restricted to Karachi only due to the limitation of time. Upcoming researchers may take other variables to get more clear results. Besides, this study will also be conducted for airlines as this is also a mode of transportation that has a high impact on the people of Pakistan. A large number of the middle and upper class will use the service provided by airline companies. Besides, there are a lot of bus services in Pakistan which also provide e-ticketing facilities, so to make their service more reliable, upcoming researchers should consider these areas as well.
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