Dimensions of customer satisfaction in the business-to- business services industry

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G. van der Heide | Small Business and Entrepreneurship | University of Groningen 1

Dimensions of customer

satisfaction in the

business-to-business services industry

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Title

Dimensions of customer satisfaction in the business-to-business services industry

Keywords

Customer satisfaction, business-to-business, services industry, business centres, incubators, SMEs, involvement, reservation services, information exchange, complaint handling

Author information

Gerard van der Heide Student number: 1801651 Jacques Perkstraat 28 9721 NC Groningen M: +31(0)6 24977660 E: gerard_1505@hotmail.com University information 23th May 2011 University of Groningen

Master of Business Administration, Specialization Small Business & Entrepreneurship

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Management summary

For the Dutch company GREYLAM we examined whether their software program can increase customer satisfaction in Dutch business centers between letters and renters. We will summarize the study chronologically according to the chapters.

Chapter 1 Introduction

The first chapter stresses the research question and its background. The business owners of GREYLAM assume that their software program, called MessageManager, improves customer satisfaction within business centres. This MessageManager supports business centre management by adopting, registering, processing, unsubscribing, archiving and analysing questions, complaints or suggestions of customers. GREYLAM also assumes that renters and letters are able to reduce time, costs and avoid unnecessary frustrations with (collective) operational activities if they use the MessageManager. However, it is never investigated if renters of business centres are dissatisfied and if yes, if the MessageManager can contribute positively. This results in the following research question: ‘Does GREYLAM’s MessageManager increase customer satisfaction?’

In order to answer this research question we provide background information about business centres in chapter 2, a literature review on customer satisfaction in the business-to-business services industry in chapter 3, the methodology used in chapter 4, findings of our research in chapter 5 and at last we presented the conclusion, discussion, limitations and further research in chapter 6.

Chapter 2 Business centers ‘a green field’?

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G. van der Heide | Small Business and Entrepreneurship | University of Groningen 4 which customers could be (dis)satisfied. Interviews with both business centre managers created a picture of their current services. When this picture is compared to scientific literature and our suggested classification it can be concluded that both centres, IDEA and MATRIX, cannot claim to be incubators. They are ‘normal’ business centres. As a result we only have to focus on customer satisfaction on those services delivered by a business centre. We can neglect customer satisfaction on additional services delivered by other type of incubators.

Chapter 3 Customer satisfaction

In this chapter we presented the concept of customer satisfaction in the business-to-business services industry and its importance, while non-scientific studies of customer satisfaction at business centres are found explicitly. Zolkiewski et al. (2007) presented a recent study on customer satisfaction in the business-to-business services industry by stressing thirty years of customer satisfaction literature in the business-to-business services industry. Their study found that measuring customer satisfaction is very situation, branch and service specific. Although dimensions of customer satisfaction differ by organisation, branch and situation, we could derive nine more generalized dimensions of customers’ satisfaction of Zolkiewski et al.’s (2007) overview. Since our research question is if the MessageManager can increase customer satisfaction we looked which of those nine dimensions could be derived from functionalities of the MessageManager. Four out of those nine dimensions are found to be applicable for our study, since they can be derived from functionalities of the MessageManager. These are: involvement of the letter, reservation services, information exchange and complaint handling. Each dimension resulted in a sub question and related hypothesis:

Hypothesis 1: The more a letter is involved at the renters’ businesses, the higher customer satisfaction will be

Hypothesis 2: The better reservation services are organized, the more satisfied renters are Hypothesis 3: The better letters inform renters, the more satisfied renters will be

Hypothesis 4: The better a letter deals with complaint handling, the more satisfied renters are

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Chapter 4 Methodology

Conceptual variables, sub variables and indicators operationalize the four hypotheses in order to test them. The hypotheses are taken as the four conceptual variables. Sub variables are used to operationalize these four concepts. Indicators resulted in the questionnaire, consisting of questions on a 5-point likert scale, which was sent to renters of two business centres, IDEA and MATRIX. Renters at both centres received an email with access to the online survey twice. Those who not responded where visited personally. Results are analysed with the use of IBM’s statistical program SPSS. Chapter 5 present the findings of our research at both business centres.

Chapter 5 Findings

In total 35 renters responded to our questionnaire. Of those 35 renters, 19 were from IDEA and 16 from MATRIX. Each renter of IDEA rents on average 2.52 offices compared to 2.88 of MATRIX. Average rental period lies between 3 and 4 years. Looking at the greatest differences between the sectors at which renters operate we found that renters of IDEA are operating more in the consultancy and jobs agency sector, whereas renters of MATRIX are relatively more IT oriented.

After the findings of the general questions are presented, we showed an overview of means at each question of all 35 respondents. Looking at the involvement of the letter it is interesting to see that renters feel that the letter has hardly knowledge of their firms (sub variable 1c). Overall satisfaction on the involvement of the letter is moderate to good (sub variable 1d). Only 19 out of 35 renters state that they make use of reservation services. Renters who made reservations were on average quite satisfied (sub variable 2c). Respondents feel to be less informed about changes and developments within the business centre and their services (sub variable 3a) than they prefer to be informed (sub variable 3b). Overall satisfaction on information services lies between neutral to satisfied (sub variable 3c). On average renters do not have lots of complaints and if they have, these are on average between 1 and 2 a month (sub variable 4a). Based on our research we do not have information about the type of complaints. Results show that renters are neutral to satisfied with the way letters deal with their complaints (sub variable 4d).

No great differences are found between responses of both business centres. Only six differences are found at which means differ by more than 0.50 point at a 5-point likert scale, with a maximum of 0.67. An independent samples t-test shows that these differences are not real, while not being significant. A greater sample would probably show significant differences.

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G. van der Heide | Small Business and Entrepreneurship | University of Groningen 6 overall satisfaction significantly higher. The second hypothesis concerned the reservation services and is rejected, because no significant relationship between reservation services and overall satisfaction was found. The third hypothesis relates to the information exchange of the letter and is adopted. The degree to which renters feel to be aware of developments and services of the letter gave significantly higher overall satisfaction grades. At last, hypothesis 4 concerns complaint handling. This hypothesis is also adopted, while 3 out of 4 sub variables shows to be significantly related to overall satisfaction.

In the upcoming chapter (conclusion) the results will be discussed and will the research question will be answered.

Chapter 6 Conclusion, discussion, limitations and further research Conclusion

We introduced the first study on customer satisfaction within the business centre field. Academically our study proved that three out of four hypotheses (1, 3 and 4) could be adopted: involvement of the letter is correlated to overall satisfaction (Lewis & Craven, 1995; Schellhase, Hardock & Ohlwein, 2000), information exchange (Schellhase, Hardock & Ohlwein, 2000) and complaint handling (Gilly, Stevenson, & Yale, 1991; Homburg & Rudolph, 2001; Rothenberger, Grewal & Iye, 2008). So these three dimensions really are general dimensions of customer satisfaction, according to our research. Even the operationalization of these dimensions may differ by organisation and are branch, service and situation specific. No significant relationships are found between reservation services and overall satisfaction, resulting in the rejection of hypothesis 2. In most cases renters do not refer to overall satisfaction by intermediary variables (buffers) but link sub variables directly to overall satisfaction.

Practically we can conclude that the MessageManager of GREYLAM can increase customer satisfaction if: this software contributes to customer satisfaction on the involvement of the letter, the software make renters aware of developments and services offered and if the software contributes to the way renters are satisfied with complaint handling. This last by reducing the time to solution and let the software be a central point where all complaints can be dropped.

Discussion

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G. van der Heide | Small Business and Entrepreneurship | University of Groningen 7 be concluded that reservation services are not related to overall satisfaction on the basis of our study. Neither can it be excluded that correlations between the three dimensions that increase overall satisfaction can be different when these three concepts are operationalized in another way.

None of the studies found by Zolkiewski et al. (2007) makes clear how the dimensions are operationalized and which indicators are used. Although they argue that dimensions of customer satisfaction in the business-to-business services industry are service, branch and situation specific, a more general operationalization would be useful for well-directed research.

Besides the fact that relationships may be different at different operationalizations, relations can also be mitigated by other influences. If we for example refer complaint management to overall satisfaction, our results show not a very strong correlation (0,45). However, Gilly, Stevenson & Yale (1991) found that a greater percentage of complaints about services in relation to goods were not voiced. This may influence the correlation between both variables.

Limitations

Three main limitations are found, which are:

1. Problems with the operationalization of dimensions may occur, while we derived dimensions from existing literature on customer satisfaction at other sectors

2. After the start of this research, another researcher investigated renters of IDEA for other purposes, which may these renters believe that the letter is for example more involved

3. One of the main limitations of this research was that the software of GREYLAM was not ready for testing. This resulted in the fact that only the current level of satisfaction could be measured and not after the software was used for a certain period

Further research

The following four suggestions for further research are presented:

1. Investigate the role of intermediary variables 2. Research a greater population

3. Investigate the role of relational factors

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Table of content

Management summary ... 3 Abstract ... 10 1 Introduction ... 11 1.1 Introduction to GREYLAM ... 11 1.2 Research topic ... 11

1.3 Structure of this paper ... 13

2 Business centres ‘a green field’? ... 14

2.1 Introduction to business centres ... 14

2.2 Incubators (4th generation business centres) ... 16

2.3 A real incubator – a critical review – ... 18

2.4 A new classification ... 20

2.5 Critical review on IDEA and MATRIX ... 22

2.6 Summary... 24

3 Theory ... 25

3.1 Introduction to customer satisfaction ... 25

3.1.1 What is customer satisfaction? ... 25

3.1.2 Importance of customer satisfaction ... 26

3.1.3 Criticism of customer satisfaction ... 27

3.2 Dimensions of customer satisfaction ... 28

3.3 Dimensions of customer satisfaction derived from the MessageManager ... 30

3.3.1 Involvement ... 31 3.3.2 Reservation services ... 32 3.3.3 Information exchange ... 32 3.3.4 Complaint management ... 33 3.4 Summary... 34 4 Methodology ... 35 4.1 Research method ... 35 4.2 Data analysis ... 37 4.3 Research groups ... 37

4.3.1 IDEA Business Centers Groningen ... 38

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4.4 Summary... 38

5 Findings ... 39

5.1 Generic statistics on overall response ... 39

5.2 Differences between IDEA and MATRIX ... 43

5.3 Testing the hypotheses ... 45

5.3.1 Hypothesis 1 ... 46

5.4 Summary... 49

6 Conclusion, discussion, limitations and further research ... 51

6.1 Conclusion ... 51 6.1.1 Research question ... 51 6.1.2 Business centres ... 54 6.2 Discussion ... 54 6.3 Limitations ... 56 6.4 Further research ... 56 References ... 58

Appendix I Contact information of GREYLAM ... 61

Appendix II Typology of incubators ... 62

Appendix III Interview questions incubator managers (Dutch) ... 63

Appendix IV Questionnaire (Dutch) ... 64

Appendix V Overview of incubated firms ... 69

Appendix VI Results independent samples T-test ... 71

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Abstract

The purpose of this is research is to investigate if the MessageManager of GREYLAM increases customer satisfaction within Dutch business centres. Dimensions of customer satisfaction are derived from the business-to-business services industry. Zolkiewski et al. (2007) presented nine general dimensions of customer satisfaction in the business-to-business services industry. We tested four of these dimensions at two business centres and found support for three dimensions: involvement, information exchange and complaint handling. This study is the first on customer satisfaction in the business centres field. Quantitative research is used to test these four dimensions at both business centres.

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1 Introduction

This research is conducted for the company GREYLAM. This first chapter gives the necessary background information about GREYLAM (paragraph 1.1), the research topic (paragraph 1.2) and the structure of the paper (paragraph 1.3).

1.1 Introduction to GREYLAM

GREYLAM is a Dutch company, established in Amsterdam, who develops and sells online software to the business-to-business services industry for over ten years. The company consists of two owners: Robert Jan Lamers and Vincent Yntema (contact details can be found in appendix I). Core customers of GREYLAM are business centres. A business centre consists of several smaller companies, housed in a building. Business centre management is in most cases further referred to as ‘letter’ and firms housed in a business centre are further referred to as ‘renters’. The business centre concept will be further explained in chapter 2. The main product of GREYLAM is called the MeldingManager (further translated as MessageManager). This MessageManager supports business centre management by adopting, registering, processing, unsubscribing, archiving and analysing questions, complaints or suggestions of customers. In order to illustrate this MessageManager we will first give an example: Renters may submit their complaints and comments regarding the rental of the offices to the receptionist(e) of the business centre. The receptionist has to ensure a receipt of each notification, handling and give timely feedback to the renter. Besides informing the renters, receptionists should also inform the business centre manager. In order to facilitate this task, the MessageManager software of GREYLAM offers appropriate support. Thus, the following problem can be avoided: requests not being voiced because receptionists rotate, renters do not get status updates. The business owners of GREYLAM observed renters, and it appeared that they are dissatisfied about the letters’ services. As cause of the dissatisfaction the business owners of GREYLAM perceived unnoticed messages as the main problem. The MessageManager is designed to streamline the communication between renters and letters, by registering each request that is voiced to the receptionists and sent updates to renters and the business centre manager. GREYLAM aims to improve customer satisfaction by introducing the MessageManager.

1.2 Research topic

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G. van der Heide | Small Business and Entrepreneurship | University of Groningen 12 activities if they use the MessageManager. However, it is never investigated if renters of business centres are dissatisfied and if yes, if the MessageManager can contribute positively. This results in the following research question:

‘Does GREYLAM’s MessageManager increase customer satisfaction?’

For exploring the effect of the MessageManager on customer satisfaction it first needs to be clear how and which variables of the MessageManager can be derived that could possibly influence customer satisfaction. In order to deal with this question we studied customer satisfaction within the business-to-business services industry, while GREYLAM’s software is used as a service in the business-to-business sector. Our literature study found no scientific literature on customer satisfaction within business centres explicitly. For that reason we used more general literature on business centres in order to illustrate the concept of business centres and used a recent study of Zolkiewski, Lewis, Yuan and Yuan (2007) for introducing variables of customer satisfaction. Zolkiewski et al. (2007) is used as a red tape throughout this study on customer satisfaction. The authors researched thirty years of customer satisfaction literature within the business-to-business services industry. We derived nine main variables of service quality at which businesses could be (dis)satisfied from this overview of over thirty years of research:

 Availability (e.g. Perkins, 1993; Wouters, 2001)  Complaint handling (e.g. Homburg & Rudolph, 2001)

 Delivery (e.g. Sharma, Niedrich & Dobbins, 1999; Wouters, 2001)

 Ease of contact (e.g. Lewis & Graven, 1995; Schellhase, Hardock & Ohlwein, 2000)  Information exchange (e.g. Schellhase, Hardock & Ohlwein, 2000)

 Network aspects (e.g. Tikkanen, Alajoutsijärvi & Tähtinen, 2000)  Reliability (e.g. Cunningham & Roberts, 1974; Svensson, 2004)

 Responsiveness (e.g. Gordon, Calentone & di Benedetto, 1993; Mehta & Durvasula, 1998)  (Technical) knowledge (e.g. Perkins, 1993)

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1.3 Structure of this paper

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2 Business centres ‘a green field’?

The core customers of GREYLAM are business centres. While this study test if the MessageManager can increase customer satisfaction of renters at business centres it is useful to have a perception of the business centre concept. Since there is a lot of discussion about the business centre concept in scientific literature, we decided to devote a separate chapter to this issue. Paragraph 2.1 introduces the business centre concept. Both business centres where we will test if the MessageManager can increase customer satisfaction claim to be an incubator (one form of a business centre as will be discussed later on), we will therefore discuss this generation and its importance in paragraph 2.2. The third paragraph presents a critical review on incubators, while there is quite a lot to do within this field. Paragraph 2.4 introduces a new classification and in paragraph 2.5 we will test if both business centres of our research group can claim to be an incubator. At last a summary is presented in paragraph 2.6.

2.1 Introduction to business centres

In scientific literature business centres are described as a set of premises that show a spatial coherence and are offered by a management entity to a number of independent companies that are characterized by a non-consumer caring nature and a heterogeneous group (Verhoef, 1985). Possibly supplemented with some services and amenities. The purpose of business centres is to provide a contribution to problem solving of small firms.

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G. van der Heide | Small Business and Entrepreneurship | University of Groningen 15 TABLE 1

Business centre generations by Verhoef (1985)

Generation Started at Description

1st generation Early 50s Increasing demand for office space and rising office costs of new construction due to inflation.

2nd generation Early 60s Growth of business centres due to economic growth, increased wealth, overcrowding and traffic problems in large urban centres. Small firms got the opportunity to leave their current locations to business centres (state subsidized). The unrepresentativeness of these locations causes problems for the image of those firms. Operating costs for operators were too high and they were looking for wealthy tenants rather than small ones.

3th generation End of the 60s and early 70s

Business centres were located on well accessible and concentrated business areas, especially for wholesale. Economic recession and less favourable experiences with a number of projects have decreased the interest of founding such centres.

4th generation Late 70s Business centres became interesting again for companies who wanted to produce on a human and environmentally friendly manner and scale or to collaborate with others and exchange ideas and resources. However, lack of financial resources and scepticism of banks obstruct further growth. The difficult economic position resulted into the development of new forms of business centres by means of state subsidizes. Most important are centres for starting and young companies (incubators). This concept was new in the sense that collective services and amenities were added to pure office space. Other types are: conventional business centres (no need for collective services), centres for marginal companies/aspirant entrepreneurs (need for intensive support) and Science Parks (near universities; focused on research).

5th generation Aftermath of the 80s

Developments were expected in the way people will work. It was predicted that work places become more flexible and people could rent a desk in business centres.

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G. van der Heide | Small Business and Entrepreneurship | University of Groningen 16 we now see some centres of the fifth generation business centres addressed by Verhoef (1985). That is a few years later than the prediction of Verhoef (1985). Most current centres claim to be an incubator (4th generation) and not a fifth generation centre. For example, Matrix Innovation Center in Amsterdam and IDEA Business Centers in Groningen. These two centres will be discussed in paragraph 2.4.

If we look at other studies, scientific databases show little to no hits on words as ‘business centres’. At first glance one would think that we found a green field. To some extent this seems to be truth. Little research is available on the first generation (Verhoef, 1985) business centres. Since 1987 scientific research focuses on the fourth generation business centres (Scillitoe & Chakrabarti, 2010; Grimaldi & Grandi, 2005; Rice, 2002), incubators, as discussed by Verhoef (1985). According to Aernoudt (2004) scientists use these incubators as an umbrella concept to describe different kind of business centres with completely different objectives. To provide more clarity on incubators and business centres in general, we will come up with a new classification in paragraph 2.4. In the next paragraph we will first discuss the incubator concept.

2.2 Incubators (4

th

_{generation business centres)}

The concept of incubators is derived from the word ‘incubation’. Historically, this means that infants are raised under controlled conditions till the moment that they can help their selves (Aernoudt, 2004). Within the business field the American National Business Incubator Association defines incubators as a concept producing successful firms that leaves the incubator financially viable within reasonably delay and aims to encourage people to start their own successful start-up (Aernoudt, 2004). According to Verhoef (1985) incubators are business centres that offer additional collective services and amenities to the basic principle of business centres: rent office space. Their aim is to help start-ups and according to the author incubators are always state subsidized. Grimaldi & Grandi (2005) define incubators as a tool that reduce the probability of failure of start-ups and speed up business creation. These centres link capital, know-how and technology in order to stimulate entrepreneurial talent, speed up the development of new firms and exploitation of technology. Rice (2002) adds an interesting aspect of co-creation to his definition: ‘a business operator – in collaboration with the community in which it operates – is a ‘producer’ of business assistance programs’. Entrepreneurial ventures incubated in incubators are described as ‘consumers’ of those outputs.

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G. van der Heide | Small Business and Entrepreneurship | University of Groningen 17 facility that offers shared office space and infrastructure (Scillitoe & Chakrabarti, 2010) as the definition of Verhoef (1985) suspected. Only Aernoudt (2004) uses the word financially viable and Rice (2002) the co-creation concept. The focus on technology in the definition of Grimaldi & Grandi (2005) may suggest that incubators only serve New Technology Based Firms (NTBFs). Great breakthroughs in the information and communication technology (ICT) of the 90s created a huge market for new fast growing start-ups (NTBFs). By these fast growing firms the time to market and access to capital changed drastically. This changed the basic rules of incubators; the new fast growing market of NTBFs also attracted the attention of profit oriented (groups of) single individuals. In exchange for equity (groups of) individuals invest in high potential start-ups, traditionally offered by business angels and early-stage venture capitalists (Grimaldi & Grandi, 2005). This is contrary to the period before the 90s where incubators were only initiated by public not-for-profit agencies, using incubators to stimulate local and regional economies and the creation of jobs (Verhoef, 1985; Grimaldi & Grandi, 2005). This possible confusion of incubators with NTBFs seems not very strange, while 77% of incubatees are operating in the new technology sector (Aernoudt, 2004).

Referring to paragraph 2.1, Verhoef (1985) defined incubators as a form of a business centre, whereas other authors seem to use the word incubator to define all business centres. Even Aernoudt (2004), who stresses the fashion and trendy view of this term, defines different business centres as incubators (appendix II). While other authors do not agree on that view. For example: Arnoudt (2004) classified incubators by objective. One category of incubators contains Business Innovation Centres (BICs). According to Scillitoe & Chakrabarti (2010) BICs could not be called incubators, because of the lack of co-production. According to the authors incubators need to serve incubatees in a pro-active way by as well as business (counselling) as technical (networking) assistance. Offering premises and some (business) advice only makes no real incubator.

Although scientists do not totally agree on the concept of incubators, one does agree on the basic principle of an incubator. That is to require temporary care for start-ups or small firms in controlled conditions. In science it is not obvious how long temporary should be, what activities of incubatees should be controlled and what services should be delivered. In conclusion there is no broad accepted definition of incubators and what the incubation process should contain.

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G. van der Heide | Small Business and Entrepreneurship | University of Groningen 18 (Aernoudt, 2004) of both subsidized as well as privately owned incubators. This may not seem strange when we consider that many research have shown that these firms on average created a critical role in the development of local, regional, national economies (Scillitoe & Chakrabarti, 2010; Audretsch & Thurik, 2001). These NTBFs created most jobs, highest profits and most innovations. Even do NTBFs have the highest survival rates (Scillitoe & Chakrabarti, 2010).

Beside the high survival rate of incubatees, the importance for start-ups to establish in incubators can also be found in financial bootstrapping literature. Financial bootstrapping are methods for securing the use of resources at relatively low or no costs (Winborg, 2009). The author observed that cost reduction, lack of capital and fun to help and get helped are the most important arguments for entrepreneurs to choose for an incubator. In other words are incubators interesting for start-ups because sharing office space and services save financial resources. Financial difficulty strain small business’ development and growth. Due to problems in attracting external capital, the need for resources is secured without a financial transaction. Sharing resources and splitting the total costs may not always be seen as bootstrapping, unless the total costs of the resource is below market price. Experience is found to be the most significantly motive for financial bootstrapping (Winborg & Landstrom, 2000; Winborg, 2009).

2.3 A real incubator – a critical review –

At this point we have a global understanding of what the incubator concept contains and what it importance is. However, it remains unclear what a real incubator looks like. In this paragraph we present a critical review on a real incubator.

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G. van der Heide | Small Business and Entrepreneurship | University of Groningen 19 Chakrabarti, 2010). Offering business and technical assistance will not necessarily mean that success is guaranteed.

Rice (2002) argues that success is not only determined by the infrastructure, but also by active involvement of the incubator management as well as the involvement of incubatees. Rice (2002) argues that functional gaps like risks, legal, marketing, product development and finance should be remedied by the entrepreneur. The incubator management should offer access to key resources, such as access to university knowledge, technological contacts and external capital. Because Rice (2002) argues that the ability of the incubator management to serve as a beneficial resource for each venture is contingent upon the time allocated by the incubator management to venture development, the intensity of engagement or interactions with the venture, and the readiness of the venture to gain such. Incubator management serve as a primary source of social capital by offering knowledge, expertise and access to specific networks. Effects do not only rely on the active involvement of incubator management, but also on the willingness, recognition and awareness of the incubatees (Scillitoe & Chakrabarti, 2010). For all of this there should be a confidential relationship between incubator management and incubatees.

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G. van der Heide | Small Business and Entrepreneurship | University of Groningen 20 Prior research have shown that ninety per cent of incubator management’ time was spent on marketing and management of operations instead of technical assistance (Scillitoe & Chakrabarti, 2010). Whereas technical assistance was found to influence faster learning of technical know-how, which in turn leads to a higher growth potential. In summary, on the basis of counselling and networking lie trust, networks, norms, willingness and recognition. One important way to create trust and willingness by incubatees is to get to know the incubatees specific needs and situation and to serve them as an incubator management with relevant external contacts. In order to do so, incubator management should have a relevant network for their incubatees (technical assistance).

2.4 A new classification

Till this point the general concept of incubators, it’s importance for start-ups and a discussion of a real incubator is presented. So far a good classification of incubators is lacking. Both centres where we will test if the MessageManager can increase customer satisfaction claim to be an incubator. It is therefore needed to classify incubators and business centres in general and to test whether these centres are really incubators. If these centres are incubators we have to test customer satisfaction on services delivered by an incubator. Otherwise we have to test customer satisfaction on services delivered in a business centre.

We made a new classification by using Verhoef (1985), Grimaldi & Grandi (2005), Aernoudt (2004) and Scillitoe & Chakrabarti (2010). Interviews with both business centres were used to test if they really are incubators. Our classification is presented in table 2.

TABLE 2

A new classification of incubators

Initiator Objective Characteristics Services

Business centre Government, private institutions

Regional development

A set of premises that show a spatial coherence, low cost flexible space

Space, infrastructure,

communication channels, visibility

Entrepreneurial incubator Private institutions, business angels, venture capitalists Create jobs, economy Stimulate innovation, technology start-ups and graduates (high tech)

Office space, pre-seed, seed and other early investments, business guidance, networks (technical), managing, hiring, pay rolling

Science incubator Universities, government

Exploit knowledge Stimulate commercialization of scientific research (niches)

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G. van der Heide | Small Business and Entrepreneurship | University of Groningen 21 Even this new classification is a simplification of a much more complicated reality; we bring current views together and add two new elements. First, we add a column with ‘services’. In our view adding ‘services’ to the classification will give a more detailed and clear distinction for identifying types of incubators. Second, we add an explanatory word for each type of incubator: entrepreneurial, science, corporate and social. This should avoid the misinterpretation of the word ‘incubator’. From the classification of Grimaldi & Grandi (2005) we add the ‘initiator’ to our classification. Aernoudt (2004) is used for his view of using the objective of an incubator to the classification. Scillitoe & Chakrabarti (2010) is used for the description of the services. Each type will be discussed shortly in table 3. At the end we will introduce the two centres of our research and test whether they are really incubators.

TABLE 3 Explanation definitions

Type Description

Business centre

The primary aim of these centres is offering flexible office space at relatively low costs to small and medium-sized firms.

Entrepreneurial incubator

This type of incubator refers mainly to the NTBFs as discussed before. NTBFs are interesting for cities as well as private investors, while they create the most jobs and stimulate the economy. Arnoudt (2004) refers to these centres as technical incubators. In order to help these firms grow, incubator management has to connect these firms to relevant partners within their industry. Science incubator These incubators are located on science parks near universities. The aim of these centres is to

commercialize knowledge created at universities. Grimaldi and Grandi (2005) describe that the government view science as a vehicle for energizing national and regional economies, which created science incubators or how they call it University Based Incubators (UBIs). Critical at science incubators is their connection to the university and more important its’ resources. Aernoudt (2004) refer to this centres as basic research centres, bridging the discovery gap by linking the incubation principle to fundamental research.

Corporate incubator Corporate incubators are created by large firms and houses spin-offs of their own businesses. They usually originate from research project spill over and happen to be the outcome of diversification strategies. It is quite common for those large firms to control all new firms by holding equity stake (Grimaldi & Grandi, 2005)

Corporate incubators Large firms Business creation Large firms support emergence of new independent business units (spin-offs)

Space, infrastructure, resources, industry contacts

Social incubator Government Create jobs Cultural non-profit subsidized organisations

Space, infrastructure,

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G. van der Heide | Small Business and Entrepreneurship | University of Groningen 22 Social incubator Socials incubators aim to stimulate and support the development, growth, and continuity of

companies employing people with low employment capacities (Aernoudt, 2004).

2.5 Critical review on IDEA and MATRIX

Both business centres where we will test if the MessageManager can increase customer satisfaction are: IDEA Business Centers Groningen (henceforth IDEA) and MATRIX Innovation Centre Amsterdam (henceforth MATRIX). We interviewed both business centre managers in order to determine what services they deliver and what type of business centre they claim to be. Interview results are presented in table 4.

TABLE 4

Interview results with business centre managers

IDEA MATRIX

Established 2002 1991

Location Science park Groningen Science park Amsterdam

Owner Private University/government

Objective Stimulate (high tech) innovation, earn money

Stimulate (high tech) innovation, Spin-offs

Type of incubator (manager’s view)

Entrepreneurial incubator Entrepreneurial incubator

Renters 46 60

Sectors All sectors (because of scarcity) ICT, life sciences, New Media

Turnaround 3-5 years 5-7 years

Business assistance Shared premises Shared premises

Technical assistance Networking (limited) University resources (limited)

Gathering knowledge of renters Walking around, open doors Payment behaviour, receptionists

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G. van der Heide | Small Business and Entrepreneurship | University of Groningen 23 this services not to exist, as is the case with the technical assistance at both centres. An analysis is given in table 5.

TABLE 5

Analysis of business centres

Initiator Objective Characteristics Services

IDEA Business centre/ entrepreneurial incubator

Entrepreneurial incubator

Business centre Business centre

Matrix Science incubator Entrepreneurial incubator

Business centre Business centre

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G. van der Heide | Small Business and Entrepreneurship | University of Groningen 24 both centres and especially to the private owned IDEA, it can be observed that 80% of their renters are consultancy firms and not NTBFs (see sectors in chapter 5).

2.6 Summary

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3 Theory

At this point the background, importance for start-ups and main developments of business centres are discussed. It shaped the context wherein we will test if the MessageManager can increase customer satisfaction. In this chapter we present a theoretical review on the general concept of customer satisfaction and its importance (paragraph 3.1), criticism (paragraph 3.1) and variables (paragraph 3.2). Of those common variables found, we derived variables that can be tested by the MessageManager. These variables are presented in paragraph 3.3. Our literature study found no scientific literature on customer satisfaction within business centres explicitly. For that reason we used more general literature on customer satisfaction within the business-to-business services industry. This can be justified, while the MessageManager is used as a service in the business-to-business sector. This chapter is concluded by a summary (paragraph 3.4).

3.1 Introduction to customer satisfaction

3.1.1 What is customer satisfaction?

Customer satisfaction can be defined as the evaluation of direct or past consumption experiences (related to service/product quality), which is based on the difference between prior expectation and actual performance perceived after consumption. It may be seen as a representation of the influence of past experience, because it is an overall evaluation of personal consumption experience (Suh & Yi, 2006). The increasing focus on customer satisfaction is rooted in contemporary managerial tools such as total quality management (Homburg & Garbe, 1999; Wen-Yi, Keng-Boon & Bishan Lin, 2009) and Customer Loyalty (Nauman, Williams, Paul & Sajid, 2009).Customer satisfaction contributes to Total Quality Management, while one could be (dis)satisfied about a certain quality of a product or service delivered. And customer satisfaction contributes to customer loyalty while satisfied customers are found to be more loyal in both business-to-customer and business-to-business markets (Nauman, Williams, Paul & Sajid, 2009).

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G. van der Heide | Small Business and Entrepreneurship | University of Groningen 26 conclusion: customer satisfaction within the business-to-business market should be understood as a relationship-specific rather than a transaction-specific construct.

3.1.2 Importance of customer satisfaction

It is now known what customer satisfaction means, but how important is it? According to Hasan & Kerr (2003) and Sharma, Niedrich & Dobbins (1999) monitoring customer satisfaction in the business-to-business industry is one of the most important goals of a firm. Sharma, Niedrich and Dobbins (1999) discussed three main reasons derived from several research studies:

1. Customer dissatisfaction is the overwhelming reason why customers leave a company

2. Customer satisfaction has been shown to increase loyalty, increase repeat purchase intentions, generate positive word-of-mouth, and generate less complaint behaviour

3. Customer satisfaction has an impact on revenue generation and cost of doing business

These findings are confirmed by Oliver (1980) who argues that satisfaction seen from past experiences precedes and influences post purchase attitudes. Or Fazio & Zanna (1981) who found that customer satisfaction was most important for explaining brand loyalty. And as a consequence it’s returns. And finally a research of Naumann, Williams, & Kahn (2009) and Reichheld & Teal (1996) show two main reasons of customer satisfactions’ importance. First, satisfied customers are more likely to stay with the company, provide repeat business over the longer term and increase their expenditures. Second, satisfied customers are more likely to tell others about their positive experiences, which generates new business for the company. The first reason refers not only to the amount of expenses but also to the range of products or services. If a customer is more satisfied one might purchase more of the same or other services. Speer (1996) adds the following: satisfied customers tend to be less influenced by competitors, less price sensitive, and stay loyal for a longer period.

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3.1.3 Criticism of customer satisfaction

Although it is discussed that customer satisfaction leads to repeated business and so on, other researchers argue that satisfaction is not necessarily a good predictor of subsequent customer behaviours. For example: customers can be very satisfied, while not being loyal (McEwen & Fleming, 2003). In their research Reichheld & Teal (1996) reported that between 65%-85% of customers who switched to competitors were either satisfied or very satisfied with their previous supplier. Price sensitivity of customers and other external factors seems to be of influence. Szymanski & Henard (2001) found that satisfaction explained less than 25% of the variance in repurchase intentions. Company profits were maximised when satisfaction scores were just above a certain scale. Aiming higher is more costly than it's worth. This is typical for many satisfaction performance relationships by which the goal of creating evangelical buyers is not effective. It is better to make them as satisfied as possible at reasonable costs (Xiaoling, Martin & Merchant, 2009). In Small and Medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) trust is also an important aspect of Total Quality Management and therefore of influence on customer satisfaction (Dayton, 2003).

Martínez-Tur, Peiró, & Ramos (2005) critizes that impact of situational constraints on customer satisfaction is an issue that has been relatively neglected. The authors make a distinction between social and technical constrains. Social constraints refer to interpersonal obstacles in the work environment that have the capacity to restrict performance. Technical constraints describe tangible or physical organisational obstacles that also limit performance. Problems that are related to interaction with others (e.g. training problems or cramped workspaces shared with co-workers) are described as social constraints. On the contrary, technical constraints do consist of malfunctions in technology and lack of material resources (e.g. work materials, tools and equipment, the physical environment). This disctinction between the constraints makes it useful to predict customer satisfaction in the services industry. In the article of Martínez-Tur, Peiró, & Ramos (2005) it is hypothesised that this relationship would be greater for social constraints than for technical constraints, because obstacles related to social interaction are more difficult to overcome and may be more visible to the customer.

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3.2 Dimensions of customer satisfaction

Now the concept, importance, and criticism of customer satisfaction are discussed, we will discuss dimensions of customer satisfaction. As a guide for describing these dimensions we rely on a study by Zolkiewski et al. (2007). We have two main reasons for doing so. First, the authors have made an overview of empirical factors to service quality and satisfaction of over thirty years of research written by fifty-three scientists. Second, the article is the most recent article found of scientists who presented an overview of satisfaction in the business-to-business services sector.

Zolkiewski et al. (2007) discusses a distinction between service quality and satisfaction. This distinction follows from an earlier study by Parasuraman, Zeithaml & Berry (1988) who created the first accepted model (called SERVQUAL) for assessing customer perceptions of service quality in a business-to-business context. The difference between service quality and satisfaction is according to Parasuraman, Zeithaml & Berry (1988) as follows: perceived service quality is a global judgment, or attitude, relating to the superiority of the service, whereas satisfaction is related to a specific transaction. The two constructs are related, in that incidents of satisfaction over time result in perceptions of service quality. In several articles both concepts are used interchangeably (e.g. Homburg & Rudolph, 2001). While our aim is to test whether the MessageManager can increase customer satisfaction, we test customer satisfaction level on current service quality. The fact that incidents of satisfaction over time results in new perceptions of service quality is evident, but out of the scope of this research.

Before we start discussing the dimensions at which firms could be (dis)satisfied, it is wise to first sketch the background of business-to-business relationships. Business-to-business relationships are long-term oriented, enduring and complex. Products and services need to be customized to buyers’ needs, because relationships in this context are bilateral. Within the business-to-business field customers are no longer passive buyers, but active partners. Initiatives come from both directions (Gummeson & Polese, 2009). This creates a background wherein customers play an important role in developing establishing and maintaining successful customer relationships in business-to-business markets. Customer satisfaction in the business-to-business services industry relates not to one certain product or transaction but is more relationship-specific (Homburg & Rudolph, 2001). Measuring customer satisfaction could be hard while the feedback between customer and supplier takes place at the same time, is often informal and people become integral to the service quality itself (Zolkiewski et al., 2007).

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G. van der Heide | Small Business and Entrepreneurship | University of Groningen 29 organisation and branch and are very service- and situation-specific. Although each firm, branch and situation has different dimensions, we could derive nine factors that were mentioned most frequently. These nine dimensions are:

1. Availability (e.g. Perkins, 1993; Wouters, 2001) 2. Complaint handling (e.g. Homburg & Rudolph, 2001)

3. Delivery (e.g. Sharma, Niedrich & Dobbins, 1999; Wouters, 2001)

4. Ease of contact (e.g. Lewis & Craven, 1995; Schellhase, Hardock & Ohlwein, 2000) 5. Information exchange (e.g. Schellhase, Hardock & Ohlwein, 2000)

6. Network aspects (e.g. Tikkanen, Alajoutsijärvi & Tähtinen, 2000) 7. Reliability (e.g. Cunninggam & Roberts, 1974; Svensson, 2004)

8. Responsiveness (e.g. Gordon, Calentone & di Benedetto, 1993; Mehta & Durvasula, 1998) 9. (Technical) knowledge (e.g. Perkins, 1993)

These factors are rather abstract and related to products, services and processes (people). Dimensions are derived from different business-to-business sectors e.g. consultancy, retailing, software, industrial manufacturing, engineering and telecommunications. We will discuss each dimension shortly in table 6.

TABLE 6

Dimensions of customer satisfaction

Dimension Description

Availability

Availability refers to the degree at which products and services are available. Availability is found important for customer satisfaction in a business-to-business context (Perkins, 1993).

Complaint handling Complaint handling refers to the way firm deals with complaints of customers. Since it is known that the majority of dissatisfied customers do not complain, and if they complain, the problem is usually very serious, it is very important that a supplier makes a strong effort to respond adequately to valid complaints and provide satisfaction where possible (Homburg & Rudolph, 2001). Complaints can be directly related to product performance as well as to other aspects of the purchase and use process.

Delivery Delivery refers to the activity of providing the promised goods and services on time to the customer (Sharma, Niedrich & Dobbins, 1999)

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G. van der Heide | Small Business and Entrepreneurship | University of Groningen 30 Information exchange

Information exchange consists of two main components: contents and contact pattern. Contact contents relates to the type of information requested and provided. Contact pattern includes the number of persons involved, frequency of exchange, scope and depth, and level of formality. Information exchange between a client and a professional service provider is expected to be frequent and formal (Woo & Ennew, 2005).

Network aspects Network aspects refer to the complex network of internal relationship as well as the actions of other actors in the immediate and wider network. Tikkanen et al. (2000) observed that customer satisfaction occurs within a buyer-seller relationship within a network context and satisfaction of both parties is prerequisite for relationship formation.

Reliability Reliability refers to ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately. Reliability was found to be one of the most important quality dimensions (Parasuraman, Zeithaml & Berry, 1988). Lewis & Craven (1995) add that reliability reduces the uncertainty of perceived risk of a buying decision.

Responsiveness Responsiveness is explained as the willingness to help customers and provide prompt service (Parasuraman, Zeithaml & Berry, 1988). According to Wouters (2001) responsiveness services consists of communication skills and commercial flexibility.

(Technical) knowledge Knowledge is explained as product-related information (Homburg & Rudolph, 2001). Based on a business-to-business study within the industrial markets the availability and content of technical documentation or other documentation materials have to be considered in the context of industrial customer satisfaction.

These factors are fairly abstract and derived from diverse sectors and specific situations. In order to deal with our research question we need to know which dimensions of the MessageManager might increase customer satisfaction within business centres. Or as stated by Zolkiewski et al. (2007): ‘Our

research suggests that it may not be feasible to produce one all embracing measure of service quality in a business-to- business context. Rather, managers and researchers alike must be aware of the components that appear to be able to be generalized across industries and those which are specific to the context in which they are operating’. In the next paragraph we present four dimensions.

3.3 Dimensions of customer satisfaction derived from the MessageManager

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G. van der Heide | Small Business and Entrepreneurship | University of Groningen 31 MessageManager can increase customer satisfaction, it has to be known what this software can and cannot do. Or in other words what its functionalities are. Based on the functionalities of the MessageManager we derived four variables of the nine found by Zolkiewski et al. (2007) and we explained these four dimensions by the specific context of business centres. The conceptual model in figure 1 shows from which dimension of Zolkiewski et al. (2007) our four dimensions are derived. Each of our dimensions will now be explained shortly. Afterwards we will present our four hypotheses based on our sub questions. Hypotheses are shown between brackets in the right column of figure 1.

FIGURE 1 Conceptual framework

3.3.1 Involvement

We derived involvement from ‘ease of contact’. According to Homburg & Rudolph (2001) ease of contact refers to the reachability of the relevant persons and quality of their reactions to the customers’ requests. Within this research involvement consist of the way a letter is reachable for renters and the degree to which the letter is involved at the renters businesses (e.g. activities of the firm and rental wishes). When a letter is interested in their renters’ companies and their (rental) wishes, they are able to make links between renters, give advice to renters, look for customer needs with regard to office facilitaties (purchase intentions) and may become aware of dissatisfaction. In this way involvement may lead to more satisfied customers purchasing more and it may also result in customers advicing the service to others by word of mouth (Dick & Basu, 1994)

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G. van der Heide | Small Business and Entrepreneurship | University of Groningen 32 the supplier. Scientists also argue the importance of knowledge of each other’s business (products and services) for customer satisfaction (Zolkiewski et al., 2007). As already introduced in chapter 1, Rice (2002) and Scillitoe & Chakrabarti (2010) found involvement of the letter to be of crucial importance for business and technical assistance in business centres. Even studies of Lewis & Graven (1995) and Schellhase, Hardock & Ohlwein (2000) point at the importance of involvement or ease of contact for customer satisfaction.

It is expected that customer satisfaction increases if a letter is involved in the renters’ companies. In order to determine if the MessageManager can contribute to the improvement of a letter’s involvement, the current satisfaction level with regard to involvement should be researched. This lead to the following hypothesis, which is a result of our first sub question.

Sub question1: Does the letters’ involvement increase overall customer satisfaction? Hypothesis 1: The more a letter is involved at the renters’ businesses, the higher customer

satisfaction will be

3.3.2 Reservation services

In this study reservation services are derived from what Perkins (1993) and Wouters (2001) described as availability. Availability was found to be one of the most important factors of customer satisfaction and referred to the degree products available. Within business centres meeting rooms are one of the few ‘products’ that could be rented. Or in other words that could be available or not. With use of the MessageManager, reservation processes could be efficiently and effectively organized (accurate data). It answers the second sub question and resulted in the next hypothesis.

Sub question 2: Does good reservation services increase customer satisfaction?

Hypothesis 2: The better reservation services are organized, the more satisfied renters are

3.3.3 Information exchange

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G. van der Heide | Small Business and Entrepreneurship | University of Groningen 33 Research of Schellhase, Hardock & Ohlwein (2000) found information exchange to be important influential variable of customer satisfaction. From business centre literature (chapter 2) it is discussed several times that a good relationship between letter and renter is of great importance. In order to give good business (and technical) assistance to renters, information about their firms is found to be of great importance (e.g. Rice, 2002). Information exchange forms the base for each relationship. The MessageManager is a tool for letters (and renters) to inform a renter or all renters at the same time and offer them most accurate information at each time. The third hypothesis gives answer to the third sub question.

Sub question 3: Will good information exchange increase overall satisfaction? Hypothesis 3: The better letters inform renters, the more satisfied renters will be

3.3.4 Complaint management

As described by Homburg & Rudolph (2001) complaint handling refers to the way firms deal with complaints of customers. Complaint handling is important for each and every organization. Rothenberger, Grewal & Iye (2008) found that satisfaction with complaint handling was key to consumer recommendation of the service to others. Gilly, Stevenson, & Yale (1991) described that consumers experience problems in 20% of their purchases, complain to the seller 40% of the time and perceive that they received satisfaction from this complaining behaviour 60% of the time. Interesting is that a greater percentage complaints about services in relation to goods, were not voiced. One reason is that complainers do not know what to do or think that it would not do any good. It has to be said that most research on complaint management in the service industry was done by health care organizations (e.g Hickson, et al., 2007; Holmes-Bonney, 2010), hotels (e.g. Ekiz, 2009) or mechanical machinery (Homburg & Rudolph, 2001). Another interesting finding of Gilly, Stevenson, & Yale (1991) was that consumer perceptions of complaint response were more important than the response itself in determining satisfaction and repurchase decisions. Within business centre literature (chapter 2) complaint handling is not mentioned at such. However, it feels legitimate to assume that a better complaint handling will result in a better relationship between letters and renters. Registering and handling complaints in an efficient and effective way is the core activity of the MessageManager. This resulted in the last sub question and hypothesis.

Sub question 4: Will the way complaints are handled effect overall satisfaction?

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3.4 Summary

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4 Methodology

In this chapter we will present how this research is conducted. It describes the research method (paragraph 4.1), data analysis (paragraph 4.2) and research groups (paragraph 4.3). Paragraph 4.4 presents a summary.

4.1 Research method

The research objective, research question and related hypotheses determine the research method: qualitative or quantitative. Quantitative research involves large samples and is a more structured approach (Keller, 2009). Results of well-conducted quantitative market research are representative, accurate and reliable and provide objective information about behaviours, opinions and motivations. In other words it has a testing nature. Qualitative research on the other hand is a more unstructured approach and involves the nature of the problem. It put less attention to generalization. Qualitative research is a form of empirical research that mainly uses qualitative data in order to describe and interpret research problems, situations, events and people. Not mapping of numbers, but the exploration and new insights into a theme or issue are important.

This study relies on both research methods, although it is mainly based on quantitative research. The owners of GREYLAM want to know if their MessageManager results in greater customer satisfaction. Because the main customers of this software are business centres, we decided to first get to know this field better and introduced this concept. A literature study showed that there is discussion in science on business centres and so we presented a new classification (chapter 2). Beside scientific research we gave two practical examples. Qualitative research was used for this example, because we want to interpret and describe a specific new situation. Two business centre managers were interviewed on the same topics as we found in scientific literature. Emans (2004) is used as a guideline for these questions. The interview questions can be found in appendix III. These interviews were also used to get more insight on customer satisfaction of renters that brings us to the testing part of this study.

The testing part of this study (quantitative research) investigates if we found enough prove to support our four hypotheses. Whereas the qualitative research was conducted with the business centre management or so called letters, this part focuses on the other side: the renters. A questionnaire is used to test these hypotheses (appendix IV). Our four hypotheses are:

Hypothesis 1: The more a letter is involved at the renters’ businesses, the higher customer satisfaction will be

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G. van der Heide | Small Business and Entrepreneurship | University of Groningen 36 Hypothesis 3: The better letters inform renters, the more satisfied renters will be

Hypothesis 4: The better a letter deals with complaint handling, the more satisfied renters are

First, scientific literature was used to introduce the concept of customer satisfaction in the business-to-business services industry in general. Thereafter we discussed variables of customer satisfaction in general and discussed those variables of customer satisfaction that can be derived from functionalities of the MessageManager to a greater extend (chapter 3). We operationalized our hypotheses in the following concepts: active involvement of the letter, reservation services, information exchange and complaint handling. The conceptual variables, indicators and raw variables we selected, are presented in table 7.

TABLE 7 Conceptual variables

The indicators are the basis of the questionnaire (appendix III), which consists of administrative, general and specific questions. As in previous research on customer satisfaction, we used likert scales for measuring current levels of customer satisfaction (e.g. Martínez-Tur, Peiró, & Ramos, 2005). Prior to drafting the questionnaire one company at each business centre is interviewed in order to Conceptual

variable

Nr. Sub conceptual

variable

Indicator(s) Data type Question

(Appendix IV) 1. Active

involvement of letter

1a Contact hours Average hours of contact with the letter Ordinal Q 4 1b Visibility Degree to which the letter is visible to renters Ordinal Q 5 1c Knowledge of

renters

Degree to which renters feel that the letter knows their organization

Ordinal Q 6 1d Satisfaction Degree to which renters are satisfied with the level

of involvement of letters Ordinal Q 8 2. Reservation services 2a Number of reservations

Average number of reservations (meeting room or car)

Ordinal Q 10 2b Time needed Average time needed to make one reservation

(meeting room or car)

Ordinal Q 11 2c Satisfaction Degree to which one is satisfied with the reservation

service Ordinal Q 12 3. Degree of information services 3a Aware of developments

Degree to which one feels to be informed of changes and developments within the business centre and their services

Ordinal Q 14

3b Information preferences

Degree to which one would like to be informed of changes and developments within the business centre and their services

Ordinal Q 15

3c Satisfaction Degree to which one is satisfied with the way they are kept informed

Ordinal Q 16 4. Complaints

handling

4a Number of complaints

Average number of complaints Ordinal Q 18 4b Time to solution Average time needed to fix problems Ordinal Q 19 4c Help desk Acquaintance with the desk/person in favour for

each problem

Ordinal Q 21 4.d Satisfaction Degree to which one is satisfied with problem

solving

Ordinal Q 23 5. Overall

satisfaction

- Satisfaction grade Degree to which one is overall satisfied with the renters services