5.1. Research Summary
This study was conducted to evaluate the satisfaction of customers coming to the Customs office of Ba Ria – Vung Tau to register the Customs documents. The scale first included 6 independent variables and 1 dependent variable. After the reliability test and EFA, the number of independent variables reduced to 4 variables (Infrastructure, Employee’s Attitude, Information, and Time) and the dependent variable remained the same. 200 questionnaires were delivered to participants, after inputting and cleaning data, the author removed 50 questionnaires and accepted 150 questionnaires. Data were analyzed by the software SPSS version 20.
Answering the first and second research questions, the analysis result shows that the customer’s satisfaction is influenced by three factors: (1) Employee’s Attitude (Standardized Beta = 0.784), (2) Time (Standardized Beta = 0.133) and (3) Infrastructure (Standardized Beta = 0.124). This result is understandable as the frontline Customs employees are the ones who directly work with customers. Thus, their attitude may have substantial influence on the satisfaction of customers. Besides, as customers of the Customs office are businesses, they really care about how fast their customs procedures could be completed as it directly affects the performance of their companies. This concern is displayed through the fact that Time is the second factor that has the highest influence on the satisfaction. Aside from Employee’s Attitude and Time, customers also considered Infrastructure of a Customs office as a significant factor. It could be said that a Customs office with modern facilities and equipment can really help improve the work effectiveness of customs employees. It also helps businesses to look for information and register their customs documents more easily with the help of technology. With the rapid growth of Vietnam’s economy, the number of business is rapidly growing. Thus, the application of technology in customs activities is unavoidable and significantly helpful.
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5.2. Contributions of the Research
The author has tested and explored factors influencing the customer’s satisfaction when doing register service at the Customs Office of Ba Ria – Vung Tau. The study provided insights on customer’s satisfaction which helps leaders of the office come up with better plan to improve customer’s satisfaction. Findings from this research can also serve as a reference for future researchers who want to study the similar topic.
5.3. Limitations of the Research
First of all, the research is limited in the scale of research. The author only conducted the survey only in the Customs Office of Ba Ria – Vung Tau. Thus, the study lacks the comparison between the participants in Ba Ria – Vung Tau and other locations. Besides, the author only applied the quantitative research method in this study. If a qualitative research was also conducted, the data could revealed more insights on the customer’s satisfaction and factors influencing the satisfaction.
5.4. Recommendations
Among the influencing factors, Employee’s Attitude was rated as the most significant one by the participants. It is understandable as the frontline Customs employees are the ones who directly work with customers. Thus, their attitude may have remarkable influence on the satisfaction of customers. Therefore, the Customs office should frequently check and improve the attitude of Customs employees to improve the satisfaction. The Customs office managers may consider issuing a code of conduct or a guideline that displays proper steps and manner of employees when working with customers. The Customs office should also provide training to employees based on the content of the guideline or code of conduct so that Customs employees really understand how they should respond and work with customers. The training may come from internal training source or external training source. Besides, the Customs office should also employ different communication channels such as call center or website to receive the opinions and suggestions of customers to better improve the service quality of Customs office.
The second factor influencing customer’s satisfaction is time. Because customers of the Customs office are businesses, time is very valuable for them. Thus, the Customs office should try to reduce the wasting time when working on the register documents of customers.
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The office may set a policy on how long a register document should be finished. The office should also frequently review the processing time of the Customs service and come up with plan to reduce the unnecessary time.
Finally, Infrastructure is the third factor influencing customer’s satisfaction. Although the Customs office had invested to increase the quality of infrastructure of the office in the recent years, it still needs to be improved a lot as more businesses are opnening in Vietnam.
Thus, the current infrastructure may not be able to meet the actual demand. While the budget for the Customs office is limited, the officials may consider investing in the practical things such as online register system or register software first. If the online system function well, both businesses and Customs officers can save a lot of time and money to do the register phase like before. In the author’s view, computerizing register procedure should be the priority in the investment plan in Customs office.
5.5. Suggestions for Future Researches
First of all, future researchers who want to study the similar field may consider extend the scale of the research to other provinces with larger number of participants. The extension of research scale can increase the generalizability and application of their studies. Secondly, future researches should also apply the qualitative research methods such as focus group or interviews with Customs officers or businesses representative to explore more insights on the customer’s satisfaction and factors influencing the satisfaction.
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