The relationship of business intelligence of managers in fitness club of Mashhad with the rate of customer satisfaction and loyalty

Transcription

1 International Research Journal of Applied and Basic Sciences 2015 Available online at ISSN X / Vol, 9 (9): Science Explorer Publications The relationship of business intelligence of managers in fitness club of Mashhad with the rate of customer satisfaction and loyalty Atefeh Darkooti *1, Mohammad Reza Esmaeilzadeh 2, Hassan Fahim Davin 3 1. MSc of Sport Management, Islamic Azad University, Mashhad Branch, Mashhad, Iran & Physical Education Teacher Of Education Office of Khorasan Razavi 2 & 3. Assistant Professor, Faculty of Physical Education and Sport Sciences, Islamic Azad University, Mashhad Branch, Mashhad, Iran *Corresponding author shiva_f75@yahoo.com ABSTRACT:In today s constant changing business environment, the need for useful business information is not only essential in success of a business, but also important its survival. Considering the ineffectiveness of information management system in meeting the expectation of decision makers in the competition of recent years, the role of technologies like business intelligence became an important concept in information management systems. This culture has become institutionalized in the leading organizations and is placed at the forefront of information technology to support management's decisions. The aim of this research is to understand the relation between business intelligence of body building gym owners with customer loyalty and customer satisfaction. This is measured using Cochran's sampling method and a sample group of 60 gym owners (from a total of 150 gyms) and 473 costumers. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient rate of all questionnaires were bigger than 0.7 (0.824 for business intelligence questionnaire, for customer satisfaction questionnaire and for customer loyalty questionnaire) and this confirmed the consistency of questionnaires. Considering the distance of the studied variables, the Kolmogorov Smirnov test was used to analyze the relation between business intelligence with customer loyalty and customer satisfaction. The resulted co-efficient showed that a positive and meaningful relation exist between business intelligence with customer loyalty and customer satisfaction (P 0.005). Also, the analysis of the co-efficient rates indicated a meaningful relation between strategic perspective, common fate, desire to change and performance pressure with customer satisfaction(p 0.005), but no meaningful relation was found between spirit, teamwork and co-operation and use of knowledge with customer loyalty and customer satisfaction(p 0.005). Also, analyzing the standardized coefficients showed that performance pressure, desire to change, common fate, use of knowledge, strategic perspective, teamwork and co-operation and spirit are the most influential parameters respectively. Key words: business intelligence, satisfaction, loyalty, customer, fitness club, Mashhad INTRODUCTION Competitiveness in business atmosphere, the significance of internal and inter-organizational integrity in the chain atmosphere of supply and extensive upheaval in the field of communication systems have been always considered as the constituent factors resource planning system of an organization. These systems promote the operational efficiency and effectiveness of any organization prepare them for business competitions through creating integrated operational system inside and outside the organization and accelerating and alleviating business process (Olson, 2004). Different organizations with different work background may encounter a variety spectrum of problem in optimal consuming of the preexisting data prevalent in systems such as sales, storage and finances. In many situations, data are extracted from various resources and sometimes the process of integrating them to achieve analytical reports turns out to be a time-consuming and delicate task for organizations. Functional software in any organization such as sales, financial, human resource, storage and wage programs may provide reports for middle managers. It rarely occurs that superior managers benefit from the above-mentioned issues as a source in the process of decision making and a great deal of the reports are provided by middle managers taking lots of time and sometimes these proceedings should be repeated daily. Lee Boutinez (2006) states that intelligence business does not include all the processes, application programs or an independent project, but it

2 is a framework including processes and various technological tools that are used to transmit the data into the information required for the task. Through the obtained knowledge, managers of organizations can make decision better and do business activities in a more effective way (Lee Boutinez, 1999). Due to the design of functional software, making bulky reports of the available information will be slow. Most of the reports are prepared by simple functional report programs and are indicative of the operations in the system and it is not possible to make multi-dimensional and analytical reports in short time intervals based on the status quo (Turban & Aronson, 2005). Industrialization of sport and healthy recreations has been considered as one of the most significant phenomenon of the past century and refers to the set of activities associated with producing and marketing sports yields and services that promotes value creation process (Pitz & Statler, 2007). Meanwhile, the issue that is considered significant in stores and process of marketing is the presence of customers. Topfer (1999) believes that customer satisfaction is not a function of the type of business activity of any organization or its validity in markets, but it strongly depends on the ability of that organization in providing the quality expected by the customer (Topfer, 1999). Business intelligence is nothing but the process of promoting organizational profit in competitive market using the preexisting data in decision making process; but in simple words business intelligence is applicable for improving the communication management with the customer through analyzing the information related to the customer. The remedy for improving customer services is mutual discovery of sales and sales opportunity and generally increasing customer loyalty (Lushin, 2003). Taking into consideration the fact that an exact update systematic approach like business intelligence can affect organizational proficiency and performance, some other factors also may have impact on the performance of business intelligence. To mention some of these factors, one can allude to some issues such as customers, rivals, business partners, economic environment, and internal employees (Golestani, 2008). The information resources associated with business environment and related activities can be obtained and effectively applied for strategic planning (Rothberg H& Erickson, 2005). The fact that knowledge is one of the most significant organizational properties is undeniable and is increasingly managed to preserve organizational competitive privileges (Marco, 2002). Nowadays, organizations have to accept that their survival philosophy has changed. It can be claimed with certainty that benefitting from the remedy of business intelligence (enterprise) can increase competitiveness of any organization and makes that organization be different from others. This remedy provides the organization the opportunity to develop using the preexisting information about competitive privileges and have a better conception of customer demands and needs and consequently makes it possible for them to develop communication management with customers and control positive or negative changes. In these days, the significance of resources associated with knowledge has increased regarding management challenges and this had led to the evolution of brand new management concepts and tools such as business intelligence (Kadayam, 2002). With regard to the conducted researches in this field, Chin Liu (2008) investigated the quality of services, customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty in swimming pools in Taiwan and concluded that there is a significant difference between the quality of services and the age, monthly income, educational level and membership experience of the customers and also the prediction of customer loyalty is stronger compared to the service quality (Liu, 2008). In their research, Pedragosa and Coria (2009) investigated customer satisfaction from three point of views namely expectations, equipment, and customer loyalty rate. Through investigating the perspectives of 463 customers of fitness and health clubs in Lisbon, Portugal, and concluded that satisfaction is a variable that is significantly related with customer expectations and club equipment and plays critical role in determining customer loyalty rate to the club (Pedragosa and Coria, 2009). In a research under the title of investigating the impact of systems related to customer and business intelligence on success, Rezaei et al (2010) came to the conclusion that using customer communication system and business intelligence help stores to achieve success in competing with their rivals and plays significant role and specially using proper methods of price discrimination and adverting to replacement costs and consequently building proper relationship with customers and satisfying their needs can help them to achieve more success (Rezaei et al, 2010). With regard to the increasing extension of the needs of today s societies for sport and health and the use of sports products and considering the fact that sport clubs are the most significant center of people s sports activities, implementing business intelligence systems leads to the improvement of quality of services and customer satisfaction. A successful business should not only keep its customers satisfied, but also compete with the rivals that have always been trying to attract the customers. Business intelligence can help organizations to recognize the strategies that the rivals apply to attract customers (Davis, 2002; Olzack & Zimba). For this, this research poses its main question which is: Does business intelligence have relationship with customer satisfaction and loyalty? And how are the conditions of the managers of sports clubs regarding business intelligence rate and its dimensions? 1546

3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY Considering the goal of the present research, it can be claimed that this is an applied research and regarding the methodology, this is counted as a descriptive correlational research in which the data are collected through field study. The statistical population consists of all the fitness clubs in Mashha of which 170 clubs have license. With regard to the research subject, the club manager and customers are considered as the responding units in each club. Taking into consideration the features of the statistical population, simple random sampling was applied in this research. Each club in Mashhad was considered as a sample unit and each manager and customer as a responding unit. Morgan s table was used for determining the sample size. Based on the Morgan table formula, the number of sample size among the statistical population is obtained according to the following formula: Morgan s formula n= sample size N=the total number of the statistical population t 2 = the amount of student s t, when the significance level is lower than d 2 = approximation in estimating the population parameter which is equal to P=the probability of the trait (1-P)= lack of the probability of the trait Thus, regarding the present formula and calculating the digits, the sample size of intelligence business for managers was obtained equal to 58 according to the following formula: Morgan s formula : n 2 N. t. p(1 p) 2 2 N. d t. p(1 p) Therefore, the task is done through selecting at least 58 clubs of the total statistical population. Regarding the indefiniteness of the number of club customers and also the fact that no exact statistics are available on the number of the total customers, the minimum size of 384 people was considered as the sample based on Morgan sample size. Thus, the researcher visited each club and distributed the questionnaire of satisfaction with service and loyalty among the manager and customers of that club. Under the supervision of the statistical consultant in each club and considering the number of customers, 7 to 10 questionnaires were distributed. Totally, 473 questionnaires were completed and returned by customers. The variables of this research include: The predictor variables (independent): in this research, the business intelligence of sports club managers was a dependent variable and its dimensions are as follows: Strategic insight of business intelligence Common fate of business intelligence Desire for change of business intelligence Spirit of business intelligence Alignment and congruence of business intelligence Applying commercial knowledge of business intelligence Pressure performance of business intelligence And criterion variable is a variable whose changes are function of the independent variable. In this research, the dependent variables are as follows: Customer satisfaction of the provided services Customer loyalty to the club After several studies and interviews with people and experts, the standard questionnaire for research was set. Two questionnaires were applied in this research. General questions: in the section of general questions, the main purpose is collecting general and demographic information of the respondents. This section consists of 6 questions which includes some items such as gender, age, marital status, educational level, major, and work experience. Business intelligence questionnaire: this questionnaire was prepared according to Albretch s theoretical model. The questionnaire includes 49 statements categorized in 7 headings. The statements related to each question are scored based on a 5-point scale as follows: Table1. the coding method in business intelligence questionnaire Strongly disagree disagree neutral agree Strongly agree

4 The questions related to each heading are as follows Table 2. the heading of each question in business intelligence questionnaire heading The number of related questions Strategic perspective 1 to 7 Common fate 8 to 14 Desire to change 15 to 21 spirit 22 to 28 Team work and co-operation 29 to 35 Use of knowledge 36 to 42 Performance pressure 43 to 49 Club customer questionnaire: which contains 3 sections. General questions: in this section, the main purpose is collecting general and demographic information of the respondents. This section contains 10 questions and includes some items such as gender, age, marital status, occupation, income, experience of membership in clubs, exercise goals, and the reason for choosing a specific club. Customer satisfaction and loyalty questionnaire: this questionnaire was used based on Yi- Chin Liu (2008)'s dissertation in which the quality of services and customer loyalty and satisfaction of the swimming pools in Taiwan was investigated. The questionnaire consisted of 20 statements in 5 headings. The statements related to each question were scored based on 5-point Likert scale. Table 3. the headings of customer satisfaction questionnaire headings The number of the related question Club appearance 1 to 4 Employees behavior 5 to 9 facilities 10 to 12 promotion 13 to 15 equipment 16 to 20 The questionnaire allied in this research was standard and Albrecht obtained the reliability equal to 0.89 and also Ali Akbar Jalali (2010) obtained the reliability for this tool equal to 0.84 in a research under the title of investigating proper strategy for implementing business intelligence among police force of the Islamic republic of Iran. Moreover, in a research the application of business intelligence as a strategic information technology in banking, Mohaghar (2008) obtained the reliability equal to Besides, in a preliminary model, the reliability more than 70 % was estimate for that. In addition, after being translated and localized with cultures and different countries and communal features, the customer loyalty and customer satisfaction was supervised by 7 professional professors of sport management for determining its content and face validity. In this research, Cronbach s Alpha, which is mostly applied as an evaluation basis, was used. Through this method, the components or parts of the tests are used to evaluate the reliability. If this coefficient is bigger than 0.7, the test has an acceptable reliability which is illustrated in the following table. Table 4. Cronbach s Alpha coefficient for the research variables in the final sample headings Cronbach s Alpha coefficient Business intelligence Strategic perspective Common fate Desire to change spirit Teamwork and co-operation Use of knowledge Performance pressure Customer satisfaction Customer loyalty For data analysis, descriptive and inferential statistics have been used. In descriptive part, frequency table central indices (mean) and data dispersion (standard deviation) are measured and also the related charts are illustrated. In inferential part, taking into consideration the formulated hypotheses, Kolmogorov Smirnov tests were used to determine the normality of the variables and Pearson correlation tests for answering the hypotheses with the help of SPSS software. 1548

5 Findings and research results Kolmogorov Smirnov test was applied in order to judge the normality of the data and the results revealed that all he variable and indices of the research are in normal condition which is illustrate in the table below. Table 5. Kolmogorov Smirnov test of the research variables Descriptive findings Kolmogorov Smirnov test Research variables Standard Significance result mean Z statistic deviation level Business intelligence normal Strategic perspective normal Common fate normal Desire to change normal spirit normal Teamwork and co-operation normal Use of knowledge normal Performance pressure normal Customer satisfaction normal Customer loyalty normal If the variables are normal, it is suggested that parametric test be applied and if not, the corresponding nonparametric tests will be used. The significance level should be investigated for determining the normality of the variables. If the significance level is lower than 0.05, the variables are considered abnormal and if it is bigger, they are normal. The result is that the significance level for all of the data is bigger than 0.05 and consequently they are regarded as normal. For investigating the relationship between the predictor and dependent variable, Pearson s parametric test was applied as illustrated in table 6. Between business intelligence and customer satisfaction, (r=0.005, P=0.363) and loyalty (r=0.001, P=0.433) was obtained which signifies the positive and significant relationship. Moreover, no significant relationship was found between the indices of spirit, teamwork and co-operation from the variable of business intelligence and the rate of customer satisfaction (P 0.005). Additionally, there was not significant relationship between the indices of teamwork and co-operation and customer loyalty but the relationship was significant among other indices of business intelligence variable and the rate of customer loyalty and satisfaction ( P 0.005) which is illustrated in the table below. Table 6. the results of Pearson s correlation test for determining the relationship between business intelligence and its indices and the variables of customer loyalty and satisfaction in fitness clubs of Mashhad criterion predictor Pearson s correlation coefficient (r) Customer satisfaction ) P( Significance level Customer loyalty )P( Significance level Business intelligence Strategic perspective Common fate Desire to change spirit Teamwork and co-operation Use of knowledge Performance pressure One-sample t-test was used to investigate the condition of research variables in fitness clubs and regarding the fact that the amount of business intelligence variable of managers in fitness clubs are between 1 to 5, the amounts which are less than or equal to 3 are considered undesirable and more than 3 desirable. Table 7. One-sample t-test for determining the condition of business intelligence of managers in sports clubs in Mashhad Standard Degree of variable mean T statistic Significance level deviation freedom Business intelligence As it can be observed in table 7 and taking into consideration the result that the mean of business intelligence of managers in fitness clubs of Mashhad is equal to 3.8 with the standard deviation of and the t statistic and the significance level on one-sample t-test is less than 0.05 which is equal to 0.001, it can be claimed that the condition of business intelligence of managers in fitness clubs of Mashhad is at a desirable level. 1549

6 Table 9.one-sample t-test for investigating the condition of customer loyalty in fitness clubs of Mashhad variable mean Standard deviation t statistic Degree of freedom Customer loyalty DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION Significance level This research deals with the relationship between business intelligence and customer loyalty and satisfaction. The results of Pearson s test revealed that there is a positive relationship between business intelligence and customer loyalty and satisfaction, that is customer loyalty and satisfaction increases in parallel with the increase of business intelligence. Immediate answer to the customer needs, recognition of customer needs, proper response according to the prevailing changes in the market, analyzing the quality of predicting customer needs with regard to the identification of their extant proceedings can contribute a lot to the perseverance of customers and their specific needs and leads to the optimization of control process and keeping track of the prerequisites of plans which are all the consequent and achievements of using business intelligence. Business intelligence can be considered as entrepreneurial the time applied properly the people in the correct way. Through increasing business intelligence, managers will be equipped with stronger analytical methods and consequently be able to achieve more reliable information and knowledge. This deep investigation and contemplation leads to more profound awareness and logical perception in the process decision making by managers and this concurs with the research results of Olzack and Zimba (2005). The relationship between strategic perspective of business intelligence subscale of managers in fitness clubs of Mashad was confirmed and it was revealed that there is a significant and positive relationship between strategic perspective and customer loyalty and satisfaction. And the underlying reason for this relationship can be the fact that strategic perspective is the ability to create, deduct and express organizational goals and when the perspectives of managers of the organizational data is comprehensive and complete, the decisions which are made in this way are considered reliable and one can make sure that these decisions will definitely preserve the organization in competitive condition and the defined goals will be achieved. Therefore, clarifying the status quo condition of sport clubs and identifying the priorities from the perspectives of managers can lead to better planning and goal setting that consequently will result in the satisfaction of customer who is the ultimate consumer of the service. Thus, the process of privatization and customer attraction for more profitability and survival of these clubs are of high significance. Additionally, the relationship between common fate subscale of business intelligence in fitness club managers of Mashad and customer loyalty and satisfaction was confirmed by executing Pearson's correlation test and it was revealed that there was a positive and significant relationship between common fate and customer loyalty and satisfaction and the underlying reason is that when all or most people are engaged in an organization, they know that what the mission and prophecy of that organization is, and consequently feel that they share the same goal and automatically comprehend its master plans. In explaining this finding it must be noted that the underlying reasons that justify the significance of the relationship between the common fate and customer loyalty and satisfaction are some items such as: building intimate and emotional relationship of manager with employee and employee with customer, Robinson (2006) s motto that says customers visit sport clubs to spend their free time and for interest, employees participation in short-term or long-term plans, asking employees for new ideas for attracting customers and the feeling of commitment on the part of employees toward management and customers since a satisfied employees cam provide customers with better services. These are consistent with Rezaei et al (2010) and Rothberg & Erickson (2005). Of other results of this research is the relationship between desire to change subscale of business intelligence of managers in Mashad fitness clubs and customer loyalty and satisfaction and it was revealed that there is a significant and positive relationship between desire to change and loyalty and satisfaction (P<=0.005). Therefore, the existence of business intelligence in high management levels is required for the first time and is transmitted from the top of the organization pyramid to the bottom, but for creating that the lowest layers are the best point to start, and consequently organizational culture, performance, thoughts, and second reaction in workplace be promoted through proper scheduling and plans. In explaining this finding, it must be noted that adopting with environmental changes and recognition and being aware of the requirements and needs of customers and compatibility and agility of club managers in dealing with suggestions and complaints on the part of customers and gratifying needs and investigating the complaints were among the factors which underlie the significance of this hypothesis. The results also revealed that there is no significant relationship between spirit and business intelligence (P>=0.005) and this lack of consistency can be justified through paying less attention to the quality of employees lives, employees feeling about work and management and their optimism level related to duties, opportunities and development in their job. In order to justify this significance of this hypothesis, it should be noted that the club that desires for more profitability should pay special attention to the living condition of its employees, since an unsatisfied employee cause the customer to be unsatisfied either. In 1550

7 addition, motivating the employees through offering desirable work life quality, proper reward and good working position associated with their proficiency and sufficient furloughs are among the reasons which are effective on the employees spirit which may results in employee satisfaction and consequently customer satisfaction of the provided services. The results revealed that there is no significant relationship between teamwork and co-operation. This lack of consistency is due to the low rate of group work, interfering personal issues in work, inhomogeneity of personal and team goals, ignoring the regulations, etc. In explaining this hypothesis, it should be noted that proper co-operation between employees and manager, as well as good relationship, can contribute to employees development to participate and enlist in coaching classes and promote their knowledge and behavior with customers which consequently leas to more customer satisfaction. Of other research results was that there was a significant and positive relationship between use of knowledge and customer loyalty and satisfaction (P<=0.005). Increase in educational level, employing experienced and knowledgeable people in sport clubs and specialization in sports clubs which was the product of privatization for attracting more customers. Since nowadays competitions among private organization specially sports clubs to win higher number of customs is among the factors that managers of sports clubs take into account for increase customer loyalty and satisfaction which is consistent with Liu (2008) and Pedragosa &Koria (2009) s research results. To mention other results of this research was the fact that there is positive and significant relationship between performance pressure and customer loyalty and satisfaction (P<=0.005). It can be claimed that small size and agility of sport clubs and lack of coherent structure and hierarchy in such organizations and also nonofficial relationship between manager and employee resulting from low rate of organizational hierarchy all allude to the low rate of performance pressure; and the fact is that if employees are more comfortable and allowed to think freely, they will behave customer more properly and respond to customer needs better which consequently leads to customer satisfaction and loyalty. Lushen (2003) has claimed that business intelligence applicable to improve the relationship of management with customer through analyzing the information related to customer, to improve responding services to customer, mutual discovery of sale and opportunity to sale, to improve customer loyalty, to help evaluate organization expenditure which can improve the analysis of credit risk; and this is consistent with Davis (2002) and Pedragosa & Coria (2009) s research results. Moreover, the results of one-sample t-test for investigating the condition of research variables revealed that business intelligence variable with the mean of 3.8, which was bigger than 3, alluded to the desirable condition of this variable; it can be claimed that thought and establishment competitive intelligence for attracting customers and prospering business is already prevalent in sports clubs and this variable is also developing in the field of sport services. Additionally, the mean of all the competitive intelligence indices was higher than 3 which indicates that all of them were desirable and common fate index with the mean of 4.06 possessed the highest mean among other competitive intelligence indices; this signifies that the club is important for both employee and manager to set their goals along with the improvement of this variable. Of other results of onesample t-test was that the means of satisfaction 3.7 and customer loyalty 3.38 were higher than 3 which alluded to the relative desirability by customers. In total, it should be stated that competitive intelligence and its application by managers and implementation be employees can directly affect both satisfaction and loyalty but it does not mean that if the customer is satisfied with the provided services, it will certainly lead to customer loyalty in that club. Taking into consideration the previous researches, the establishment business intelligence can directly lead to customer satisfaction and indirectly to loyalty. Totally, effectiveness rate of business intelligence indices on customer satisfaction and loyalty could be ranked as follows: Table 1. Customer satisfaction Performance pressure Desire to change Common fate Use of knowledge Strategic perspective Teamwork and co-operation spirit Customer loyalty Use of knowledge Performance pressure Desire to change spirit Common fate Strategic perspective Teamwork and co-operation Today, it can be claimed with certainty that applying the solution of business intelligence increases the power of competitiveness of an organization and makes that organization stand bold among other organizations. This solution provides the organization with the chance to benefit from competitive privileges and be a forerunner to other organizations and help them to comprehend customer demands and needs and manage customer communication. 1551

8 REFERENCES Aronson J, Liang T, Turban E Decision support systems and intelligent systems. Yoyakarta: Andi. Kadayam S New business intelligence: the promise of knowledge management, the ROI of business intelligence. Leibowitz J Key ingredients to the success of an organization s knowledge management strategy. Knowledge and Process Management, 6(1), Liu YC An analysis service quality, customer satisfaction and customer loyalty of commercial swim clubs in Taiwan. ProQuest. Loshin D " The Value of Business Intelligence"Business Intelligence, Pages Marco D The key to knowledge management, available at: article.asp. Olson DL Managerial issues of resource planning systems. MacGraw- Hill. Pitts BG, Stotlar DK Fundamentals of sport marketing. Fitness information technology. Rothberg HN, Erickson GS From knowledge to intelligence: Creating competitive advantage in the next economy. Routledge. Shahbazi E Investigating the impact of information technology on business intelligence. The first conference of organizational and business intelligence. Toepfer A Customer satisfaction measure and increase, Second Edition, Luchterhand Publishing House, Germany. 1552