Proceedings of Annual Tokyo Business Research Conference December 2014, Waseda University, Tokyo, japan, ISBN:

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1 Studying and Ranking the Effective Factors on Agents Satisfaction of Karafarin Insurance Company in Iran Hamed Haghtalab* Narrow competition in global markets has taken place due to globalization, information and communication technology. Ultimately, organizations are competing together on absorbing and attaining the customers. Therefore customers' satisfaction is of great importance. This research tends to study and rank the effective factors on Karafarin Insurance agents' satisfaction in Iran. To gain the purpose, the parent study with assumptions has been formed and the essential data for analyzing has been collected among Karafarin insurance agents by questionnaire and finally has been analyzed with SPSS software, insurance experts and consulters have confirmed the validity of the questionnaire and it's reliability which has been computed according to Cronbakh formula as alpha coefficient as much as 0.92, is confirmed. Statistical society of this research is 100 persons and the sample according to Morgan's table is 80 persons. Data has been analyzed with SPSS software. One-sample t. test has been used for analyzing and Friedman test for ranking. Results show that various factors of marketing mix such as (service, price, place, people, promotion) have significant effect on customer satisfaction. At the end some research proposals and practiced recommendation resulting from the research theory have been stated. Keywords: Satisfaction Factors, Price, Product, Place, Promotion, Product, Process and People 1. Introduction Service quality is a dominant issue in business today. Not only is superior quality linked to business success (Philips,Chang and Buzzell,1993),but some consider service quality to be a prerequisite for the survival in the marketplace(parasuraman, Zeithmal and Berry,1988). Service quality was traditionally, albeit mistakenly, equated with courtesy (Benett and Higgins,1988). Over the years, however, service quality has become more important to businesses. In the early twentieth century, service quality has been reported as having apparent relationship to customer satisfaction (Boltan and Drew,1991; Boulding et al,1993).increased competition from their traditionally, non-insurance partners in the financial services industry has forced insurance only companies to enter areas once considered exclusively part of the financial services market. The melding of the insurance, banking, and brokerage industries into one composite financial service industry has created confusion in the minds of many customers who were once able to delineate neatly company product lines. In order to remain competitive in a deregulated industry that has more or less encroached on all financial service providers, insurance companies and their sales representatives have had to reevaluate their traditional methods of attracting and keeping customers. To be successful in this endeavor, agents must take a closer look at just how they treat their customers. * Dr. Hamed Haghtalab, Department of Business Management, Torbat-e-Jam Branch, Islamic Azad University, Torbat-e-Jam, Iran. haghtalab49@gmail.com

2 2. Need for the Study Although research on the relationship between the customer satisfaction and insurance services is present in the literature, a curious gap is the relationship between customer satisfaction and insurance services. Further examination of this gap would help answer the question of why some organizations are better than others at effectively using marketing strategies to support the insurance services. Before insurance companies had little understanding or regard for marketing strategies. Insurance companies were supplied needed services. Marketing came into insurance companies in the late twentieth century, not in the form of the marketing concept but in the form of the advertising and promotion concept. Insurance companies were experiencing increased competition for customer satisfaction. A few insurance companies decided to adopt the marketing weapons. They increased their budgets for advertising and sales promotion. They managed to attract new customer. Their competitors were forced into adopting the same measures and scurried out to hire advertising agencies and sales promotion experts. The insurance companies that first introduced modern advertising and promotion soon found their advantage dissipated by the rush of imitators. They also learned another lesson: attracting people to a insurance company is easy; converting them into loyal customers is hard. These insurance companies began to formulate a larger concept of marketing, one of trying to please the customer. The first insurance companies to implement these changes began to outperform their competitors in attracting and holding new customers. Their competitors, however, quickly figured out what was happening and rushed into similar programs of friendliness training and décor improvement. Soon all insurance companies were so friendly that friendliness lost its potency as a determinant factor in insurance company choice. Insurance companies had to search for a new basis for differential advantage. Some insurance companies began to realize that they were in the business of meeting the evolving insurance needs of their customers. These insurance companies began to think in terms of continuous innovation of new and valued customer services. What happens when all insurance companies advertise and innovate? Clearly, they begin to look alike. They are forced to find a new basis for distinction. They begin to realize that no insurance company can be the best one for all customers. No insurance company can offer all products. An insurance company must choose. It must examine its opportunities and take a position in the market. Positioning goes beyond image-marketing. The image- marketing insurance company seeks to cultivate an image in the customer s mind as a large, friendly or efficient company. Therefore considering agents satisfaction is very important. 3. Review of Earlier Studies The summary of some studies that survey insurance company, as follows: Nicoletta Ferro (2010) shows that internet resources, extended media coverage and international organizations' reports recently witness the increasing interest of western banks in new models of finance, particularly microfinance. Bassam Maali and Peter Casson (2011) in his paper indicates that *the finance system is recent in origin. Its special features preclude the application of modern finance theories. Mihir Dash and Swati Gunwant (2012) in their study show thatthe most important parameters that influence perception of overall service quality found in the study are appealing

3 brochures, pamphlets; time related promises being kept; services being provided at the promised time and employees individual attention to customers. Antonio Coviello and Giovanni Di Trapani (2012)develop a conceptual foundation for investigating the customer retention process, with the use of the concepts of customer satisfaction and relationship quality. Customer satisfaction is a key metric for insurance companies to monitor in order to gauge which areas of their customer service are strong and which areas need improvement in order to maintain or increase their membership base. Clara Xiaoling Chen (2009) found that Satis faction measures are multi-dimensional, and that future revenues are positively associated with certain, but not all, dimensions of client, patient, and doctor satis faction. Drawing on stakeholder theory, he predicts that the revenue implications of stakeholder satis faction vary with the power of different stakeholder groups. Specifically, he examines the moderating effects of the percentage of voluntary patients, business unit age, and market penetration on the relation between stakeholder satis faction and future revenues, finding evidence consistent with my prediction. 4. Study Objectives This study surveys methods and policies of Islamic banking financial services in Iran. Therefore the main objectives of this study are: 1- Survey the effect of price on agents' satisfaction of Karafarin insurance company in Iran. 2- Survey the effect of price on agents' satisfaction of Karafarin insurance company in Iran. 3- Survey the effect of price on agents' satisfaction of Karafarin insurance company in Iran. 4- Survey the effect of price on agents' satisfaction of Karafarin insurance company in Iran. 5- Survey the effect of price on agents' satisfaction of Karafarin insurance company in Iran. 6- Survey the effect of price on agents satisfaction of Karafarin insurance company in Iran. 5. Hypotheses The present study aims at testing a set of hypotheses on the basis of its findings. The following hypotheses are formulated keeping in view the objective of the study: 1- Price has effect on agents Satisfaction of Karafarin Insurance Company. 2- Service has effect on agents Satisfaction of Karafarin Insurance Company. 3- Place has effect on agents Satisfaction of Karafarin Insurance Company. 4- Promotion has effect on agents Satisfaction of Karafarin Insurance Company. 5- Personal has effect on agents Satisfaction of Karafarin Insurance Company. 6- Process has effect on agents Satisfaction of Karafarin Insurance Company. 6. Research Methodology The data for the study was collected from two sources: primary and secondary. The secondary sources are comprised of the publications of the Central insurance company of Iran, research publications relevant to the study, and some necessary data that has been collected directly from the insurance companies. The primary source is comprised of responses from agents of Karafarin insurance company. Interviews and questionnaires are used for collection of data. In the first step of data collection the interview was used. Analysis of the data collected in the first step and experience gathered from the interaction with the respondents were used to develop questionnaires. To select agents from Karafarin insurance company, simple random sampling has been used. Statistical society of this research is 100 persons and the sample according to Morgan's table is 80 persons.

4 Data has been analyzed with SPSS software. One-sample t. test has been used for analyzing and Friedman test for ranking. 7. Research Hypotheses Test The results of research hypotheses test is in table below: Table 1: Descriptive characteristics of variables Variable N Mean Std. Std. Error t df P-Value Deviation Mean price services place promotion personal process Results of this table show that various factors (service, price, place, personal, promotion and process) have significant effect on agents satisfaction of Karafarin insurance company. Friedman test for ranking shows that service factor is the most important factor. Table 2 : Ranking of Variables Variable Mean rank service 1.64 price 2.41 process 3.29 place 3.79 personal 4.28 promotion Suggestions In the light of the observations made in the present study a few suggestions may be offered for improving in the marketing efforts of insurance company. 1. In the present context it is not possible to serve all the needs of every customer. It is essential to specialize and open specialized branches to cater to the specific needs of a particular target group. Insurance company should keep up the strategy adopted in this regard. 2. The insurance company on aggressive marketing of services, particularly at the launching of a new service, which will inform the prospective customers regarding the service and, at the same time, relieve staff members at branch levels from repeatedly explaining the services to all customers. 3. A position such as marketing and development research officer at the agent level should be created in all branches. It will be beneficial to the insurance company in order to improve their activities. 4. Educating the public about the concept, services, and benefits of this unique Islamic financial system will allow to raise the efficiency and effectiveness of Islamic banking. 8. Insurance company, being information intensive and having effective marketing management, needs a well designed management information system (MIS). Insurance company should learn to use the available information with an open mind set along with modern attitudes and approaches to work.

5 9. Scope for Further Research The present study has exposed some aspects of marketing strategies in insurance companies, but it does not cover all the upcoming aspects of that. Although there is vast amount of literature regarding insurance companies, there is myriad space in the future to develop the use of marketing concepts in insurance companies. To benefit from the well developed insurance system, a study should focus on innovations within the financial instruments. An obvious avenue for further research is to compare insurance services in with other systems in order to benefit from their strengths. 10. Study Limitation The researcher tried to distribute all the questionnaires himself in order to explain how to answer the questionnaire. Because of time limitations, however, this was not possible, so around 30 per cent of the questionnaires were distributed through branch managers, which might raise questions about the accuracy of the collected data. The second issue related to the sample selection: the procedure followed was to distribute the questionnaires randomly to agents of the Karafarin insurance company in one state. For that reason it is difficult to generalise the results of this research because the study did not cover other Iran states, then sampling technique has its own limitations. The third issue is that because there is not much research about insurance companies in Iran, there was not enough background about this title. References Nicoletta Ferro,(2010), Value Through Diversity : Microfinance and Finance and insurance Fondazione Eni Mattei (FEEM), June, FEEM Working Paper No. 87/05, pp.9 Bassam Maali and Peter Casson,(2011), Social Reporting by Islamic Banks, University of Southampton- School of Management, June, No. 2, pp Mihir Dash and Swati Gunwant, (2012), Insurance and Challenge of Economic Development,Gauhar,A. (Ed.),London: Redwood Burn Ltd., pp Antonio Coviello and Giovanni Di Trapani (2012), Islamic Financial Institutions and Products in the Global Financial System: Key Issues in Risk Management and Challenges Ahead, International Monetary Found (IMF), November, IMF Working Paper No. 02/192, pp.18 Clara Xiaoling Chen, (2009), Insurance management? Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, In Press, Corrected Proof, Available online 17 January 2008, pp.30 Philips,Chang and Buzzell,(1993), "The Impact Of Marketing Mix On Customer Satisfaction" Jurnal of Executive Excellence, pp 7-8 Parasuraman, Zeithmal and Berry,(1988), "Customer loyalty: toward an integrated conceptual framework", journal of the Academy of Marketing Science. 22(2): Benett and Higgins,(1988), "Kano s for understanding customer defined quality", The journal of the japanese society for Quality control, 3-35