Internship & Project report for Athiya - Vikranth Madabhushi

“A STUDY ON CUSTOMER SATISFACTION OF THE SERVICES PROVIDED BY ATHIYA ORGANIZATIONAL COMPETENCIES (P) LIMITED”

1 | P a g e DEPT OF BBM JAN-MAY 2014

INTRODUCTION

Markets:

A market consists of all potential customers sharing particular need or want who might be

willing and able to engage in exchange in exchange to satisfy that need or want.

Marketing:

The marketing concept holds that the key to achieving organizational goals consists in

determining the needs and wants of target market and delivering the desired satisfactions more

effectively than competitors.

Nature and scope of marketing:

Marketing is an ancient art and is everywhere. Formally or informally, people and

organizations engage it in a vast numbers of activities that could be called marketing. Good

marketing has become an increasingly vital ingredient for the success of business. Marketing

deals with identifying and meeting human and social needs or it can be defined as “meeting

needs profitably”.

The American Marketing Association has defined marketing as “an organizational function

and a set of processes for creating, communicating and delivering value to the customers and

for managing customer’s relations in ways that benefit the organization and the stake holders



Marketing management:

Marketing management is the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing,

promotion, and distribution of ideas, goods and services to create exchanges that satisfy

individual and organizational objectives.

Core concepts of marketing:

Need, wants and demand.

Products.

Value, cost and satisfaction.

Exchange, transactions and relationships.

Markets.

Marketing and marketers.

The selling concept:

The selling concept holds that consumers, if left alone, will ordinarily not buy enough of the

organization’s products. The organization must therefore undertake an aggressive selling and

promotion effort.

7 P’s of marketing:

Product.

Price.

Place.

Promotion.

People.

Process.

Physical evidence.



Customer satisfaction:

Customer satisfaction is a term used in marketing which is a measure of how products and

services supplied by a company meet or surpass customer expectation. Customer

satisfaction is defined as "the number of customers, or percentage of total customers, whose

reported experience with a firm, its products, or its services, through ratings exceeds

specified satisfaction goals. “In a competitive marketplace where businesses compete for

customers, customer satisfaction is seen as a key differentiator. In researching satisfaction,

firms generally ask customers whether their product or service has met or exceeded

expectations. Thus, expectations are a key factor behind satisfaction. When customers have

high expectations and the reality falls short, they will be disappointed and will likely rate

their experience as less than satisfying.

A business ideally is continually seeking feedback to improve customer satisfaction, as

understood by the cycle shown below:

Creating loyalty is the heart of every business. As the marketing experts Don Peppers and

Martha Rogers say, ‘the only value your company will ever create is the value that comes

from the customers- the ones you have now and the ones you will have in the future.

Businesses succeed by getting, keeping and growing customers.



Customers are the reason you build factories, hire employees, schedule meetings, lay fore-

optic lines, or engage in any business activity.

Without customers, you don’t have a business.’

This is the reason keeping a customer satisfied is given utmost importance.

Customer satisfaction is related to any human activity that is directed towards satisfying

human wants through the exchange of goods and services.

Total customer satisfaction:

Whether the buyer is satisfied after the purchase depends on the offer’s performance in

relationship to the buyer’s expectations, and whether the buyer interprets any deviations

between the two. In general, ‘satisfaction’ is a person’s feelings or pleasure or disappointment

that result from comparing a product’s perceived performance (or outcome) to their

expectations. If the performance falls short of expectations, the customer is dissatisfied.

If the performance matches the expectations, the customer is satisfied. If the performance

exceeds expectations, the customer is highly satisfied or delighted. Customer assessments of

product performance depend on many factors, especially the type of loyalty relationship the

customer has with the brand. Customers often form more favourable perceptions of a product

with the brand they already feel positive about.

Although the customer- centred firm seeks to create high customer satisfaction that is not the

ultimate goal. If the company increases the customer satisfaction by lowering its price or

increasing its services, the result may be lower profits. The company might be able to increase

its profitability by means other than increased satisfaction (example, by improving

manufacturing process or investing more in R&D). Also, the company has many stakeholders,

including employees, dealers, suppliers, and stockholders. Spending more to increase

customer satisfaction might divert funds from increasing the satisfaction of other “partners”.



Ultimately, the company must operate on the philosophy that is trying to deliver a high level

of customer satisfaction subject to delivering acceptable levels of satisfaction to the other

stakeholders, given its total resources.

How do buyers form their expectations? Expectations result from the past buying experience,

friends’ and associates’ advice, the marketers’ and competitors’ information and promises. If

marketers raise expectations too high, the buyer is likely to be disappointed. However, if the

company sets expectations too low, it won’t attract enough buyers (although it will satisfy

those who do buy). Some of today’s most successful companies are raising expectations and

delivering performances to match. A customer’s decision to be loyal or to defect is the sum

of many small encounters with the company.

Monitoring satisfaction:

Many companies are systematically measuring how well they treat their customers,

identifying the factors shaping satisfaction, and making changes in their operations and

marketing as a result. A company would be wise to measure customer satisfaction regularly,

because one key to customer retention is customer satisfaction. A highly satisfied customer

generally stays loyal longer, buys more as the company introduces new products and upgrades

existing products, talks favourably to others about the company and its products, pays less

attention to the competing brands and is less sensitive to price, offers product or service ideas

to the company, and costs less o serve than new customers because transactions can become

routine. Greater satisfaction has also been linked to higher returns and lower risk in the stock

market.

The link between customer satisfaction and customer loyalty, however, is not proportional.

Suppose customer satisfaction is rated on a scale from 1 to 5. At a very low level of customer

satisfaction (level 1), customers are likely to abandon the company and even bad-mouth it. At

levels 2 to 4, customers are fairly satisfied but still find it easy to switch when a better offer

comes along. At level 5, the customer is likely to purchase and even good word of mouth

about the company. High satisfaction or delight creates an emotional bond with the brand or

company, not just a rational preference.



When customers rate their satisfaction with an element of the company’s performance- say,

delivery- the company needs to recognise that the customers vary in how they define good

performance. Good delivery could mean early delivery, on- time delivery, order completeness

and so on. The company must also realise that two customers can report being “highly

satisfied” for different reasons. One may be easily satisfied most of the time and the other

might be hard to please but was pleased on this occasion.

Measurement techniques:

A number of methods exist to measure customer satisfaction. Periodic surveys can track

customer satisfaction directly and also ask additional questions to measure repurchase

intention and the respondent’s likelihood or willingness to recommend the company and

brand to others.

Besides conducting periodic surveys, the company can monitor their customer loss rate and

contact customers who have stopped buying or who have switched to another supplier to find

out why. Finally, companies can hire mystery shoppers to pose as potential buyers and report

on strong and weak points experienced in buying the company’s and competitors’ products.

Managers themselves can enter company and competitors sales situations where they are

unknown and experience first-hand, the treatment they receive, or they can phone their own

company with questions and complaints to see how employees handle the calls.

In addition to tracking customer value expectations and satisfaction for their own firms,

companies need to monitor their competitors’ performance in these areas. Influence of

customer satisfaction: for customer-centred companies, customer satisfaction is both a goal

and a marketing tool. Companies need to be especially concerned with their customer

satisfaction level because the internet provided a tool for consumers to quickly spread bad

word of mouth- as well as good word of mouth- to the rest of the world. Some customers even

set up their own websites to air their grievances and dissatisfaction. Describing events and

actions as being wronged by the company, these websites often attempt to galvanise consumer

discontent and protest. Companies that do achieve high customer satisfaction ratings make

sure their target market knows it.



Customer complaints:

Some companies think that they are getting a sense of customer satisfaction by tallying

complaints, but studies of customer dissatisfaction show that customers are dissatisfied with

their purchases about 25% of the time but that only about 5% complain. The other 95% wither

feel complaining is not worth the effort, or they do not know how or to whom to complain,

and they just stop buying.

Of the customers who register a complaint, about 54% and 70% will do business with the

organisation again if their complaint is resolved. The figure goes up to a staggering 95% if

the customer feels the complaint was resolved quickly. Customers have also complained to

an organisation and had their complaints satisfactorily resolved, tell an average of five people

about the good treatment they received. The average dissatisfied customer, however, grips to

11 people. If each of them tells still other people, the number of people exposed to bad word

of mouth may grow exponentially.

The fact is, no matter how perfectly designed and implemented a marketing program is,

mistakes will happen. The best thing a company can do is to make it easy for the customer to

complain. Suggestion forms, toll free numbers, websites, email addressed allow for

improvement ideas come from listening to customer complaints.

Given the potential downside of having an unhappy customer, it’s critical that the marketers

deal with the negative experience properly. Beyond that, the following procedures can help

to recover customer goodwill.

Set up a 7-day, 24-hour toll free hotline (by phone, fax or e-mail) to receive and act on

customer complaints.

Contact the complaining customer as quickly as possible. The slower the company is to

respond, the more dissatisfaction may grow and lead to negative word of mouth.

Accept responsibility for the customer’s disappointment; don’t blame the customer.

Use customer-service people who are empathic.

Resolve the complaint swiftly and to the customer’s satisfaction. Some complaining

customers are not looking for compensation so much as a sign that the company cares.



Product and service quality:

Satisfaction will also depend on product and service quality. What exactly is quality? Various

experts have defined it as ‘fitness for use’, ‘conformance to requirements’, ‘freedom from

variation’, and so on. The American Society for Quality Control’s definition states: Quality

is the totality of features and characteristics of a product or service that bear on its ability to

satisfy stated or implied needs. This is clearly a customer-centred definition. We can say that

the seller has delivered quality whenever it product or service meets or exceeds the customer’s

expectations. A company that satisfies most of its customers’ needs most of the time is called

a quality company, but we need to distinguish between conformance quality and performance

quality (or grade).

Impact of quality:

Product and service quality, customer satisfaction, and company profitability are intimately

connected. Higher levels of quality result in higher levels of customer satisfaction, which

support higher prices and lower costs. Studies have shown a high correlation between relative

product quality and company profitability.

Quality is the key to value creation and customer satisfaction

Total quality:

Total quality is everyone’s job, just as marketing is everyone’s job. Marketers play several

roles in helping their companies define and deliver high quality goods and services to target

customers.

First, they bear the major responsibility for correctly identifying the customers’ needs and

requirements.

Second, they must communicate customer expectations properly to product designers.

Third, they must make sure that the customers’ orders are filled correctly and on time.

Fourth, they must check that customers have received proper instructions, training, and

technical assistance in the use of the product.



Fifth, they must stay in touch with the customers after the sale to ensure they are satisfied and

they remain satisfied.

Sixth, the much gather customer ideas for product and service improvements and convey them

to the appropriate departments.

When marketers do all this, they are making substantial contributions to total quality

management and customer satisfaction, as well as to customer and company profitability.

Maximising Customer Lifetime Value (CLV):

Ultimately, marketing is the art of attracting and keeping profitable customers. Yet, every

company loses money on some of its customers. The well known 20-80 rule says that20% of

the customers often generate 80% or more of the company’s profits. In some cases, the profit

distribution may be more extreme- the most profitable 20% of customers (on a per capita

basis) may contribute as much as 150% to 300% of profitability. The least profitable 10% to

20% of the customers, on the other hand, can actually reduce profits between 50% and 200%

per account, with the middle 60% to 70% breaking even.

It’s not always the company’s largest customers who yield the most profits. The largest

customer can demand considerable service and receive deepest discounts. The smallest

customer may pay full price and receive minimal service, but the costs of transacting with

them can reduce their profitability. The midsize customers who receive good service and pay

nearly full price are often the most profitable.

Customer profitability:

A profitable customer is person, household, or company that over tome yields a revenue

stream that exceeds by an acceptable amount the company’s cost stream for attracting, selling,

and servicing that customer. Note that emphasis is on the lifetime stream of revenue and cost,

not on the profit from a particular transaction. Marketers can access customer profitability

individually, by market segment or by a channel.



Although many companies measure customer satisfaction, most companies fail to measure

individual customer profitability. However, the number of unprofitable customers in their

customer base has appalled the companies that have succeeded in linking customer

transactions.

Building customer value, Satisfaction and Loyalty:

Managers who believe the customers are the company’s only true ‘profit centre’ consider the

traditional organisation chart as shown in the figure A below.- a pyramid with the president

at the top, management in the middle, and the frontline people and customers at the bottom-

obsolete.

Successful marketing companies invert the chart as shown in the figure B below. At the top

are customers, nest in importance is the frontline people who meet, serve and satisfy

customers, under them are the middle managers, whose job is to support the frontline people

so they can serve customers well, and at the base is the top level management, whose job is

to hire and support good middle managers.

The customers are added along the sides in figure B to indicate that managers in every level

must be personally involved in knowing, meeting and serving customers.

Figure A Figure B

CUSTOMERS

Frontline people

Middle management

Top management

Top management

Middle management

Frontline people

CUSTOMERS

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T

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M

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R

S

C

U

S

T

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Training & Development

Training and development play an important role in the effectiveness of organisations and to

the experiences of people in work. Training has implications for productivity, health and

safety at work and personal development. All organisations employing people need to train

and develop their staff. Most organisations are cognisant of this requirement and invest effort

and other resources in training and development. Such investment can take the form of

employing specialist training and development staff and paying salaries to staff undergoing

training and development. Investment in training and development entails obtaining and

maintaining space and equipment. It also means that operational personnel, employed in the

organisation’s main business functions, such as production, maintenance, sales, marketing

and management support, must also direct their attention and effort from time to time towards

supporting training development and delivery. This means they are required to give less

attention to activities that are obviously more productive in terms of the organisation’s main

business. However, investment in training and development is generally regarded as good

management practice to maintain appropriate expertise now and in the future.

What are soft skills?

“What exactly are soft skills?” This basic question is not easy to answer, because the

perception of what is a soft skill differs from context to context. A subject may be considered

a soft skill in one particular area, and may be considered a hard skill in another. On top of it

the understanding of what should be recognised as a soft skill varies widely. Knowledge in

project management for instance is “nice to have” for an electrical engineer, but it is a “must

to have” for a civil engineer. Training in cultural awareness might be useful for a chemist, but

it is an absolute necessity for public or human resources management in societies of diverse

cultures.



Interesting enough the internationally renowned encyclopaedias have little to say about soft

skills. The online encyclopaedia “Wikipedia” gives a very broad definition of soft skills,

which leaves much room for discussion:

“Soft skills refer to the cluster of personality traits, social graces, facility with language,

personal habits, friendliness, and optimism that mark people to varying degrees. Soft skills

complement hard skills, which are the technical requirements of a job.”

Examples of soft skills

• Communication skills • Responsibility

•

Critical and structured

thinking • Etiquette and good manners

• Problem solving skills • Courtesy

• Creativity • Self-esteem

• Teamwork capability • Sociability

• Negotiating skills • Integrity / Honesty

• Self-management • Empathy

• Time management • Work ethic

• Conflict management • Project management

• Cultural awareness • Business management

• Common knowledge



Why are soft skills training important?

After having elaborated so much on soft skills, the answer to why they are

considered as being so important is still open. There are numerous reasons for

having a critical look at a person’s soft skills.

One straightforward reason is today’s job-market, which in many fields is

becoming ever increasingly competitive. To be successful in this tough

environment, candidates for jobs have to bring along a “competitive edge” that

distinguishes them from other candidates with similar qualifications and

comparable evaluation results. And where do they find this competitive advantage?

In bringing along additional knowledge and skills, added up by convincing personal

traits and habits. This sounds familiar.

Understandably, employers prefer to take in job candidates who will be productive

from a very early stage on. If a graduate from university first has to be trained on

putting more than three sentences together, how to do a proper presentation, or how

to chat in a pleasant and winning manner with colleagues and customers, this

graduate will not qualify as a quick starter. Also basic knowledge in business

management, project management and general economy will improve the chances

of a job candidate considerably.

Where can soft skills be acquired?

There exists two methods of learning or improving soft skills. One way is enrolling

for formal training, e.g. taking evening classes on Rhetoric, languages, presentation

skills, conflict or cultural management. This is a well-proven concept with the

advantage of having some kind of certificate at the end of the course, which might

come in handy for job applications. It is not always guaranteed that a certain course

actually successfully enhanced a person’s soft skills.

The other way of acquiring soft skills we looked at is self-training, usually based on

books. Changing of personal traits often requires long-term practice and therefore

self-training might be more useful regarding the improvement of this category of



soft skills. Additionally, during the last decade another method of self-training has

become increasingly popular: Electronic Learning, usually abbreviated to e-

learning.

Conclusion

Considering the fact that during the last decades in society the perceived

importance of soft skills has increased significantly, it is of high importance for

everyone to acquire adequate skills beyond academic or technical knowledge. This

is not particularly difficult. Once a shortcoming in a certain area of soft skills has

been identified at oneself, there are numerous ways of rectifying such a deficiency.

Soft skills fulfil an important role in shaping an individual’s personality by

complementing his/her hard skills. However, over-emphasising it to such an extent

should not taint the importance of soft skills, that hard skills, i.e. expert knowledge

in certain fields, are demoted to secondary importance.



DESIGN OF THE STUDY

INTRODUCTION TO CUSTOMER SATISFACTION OF THE SERVICES

PROVIDED BY ATHIYA ORGANIZATIONAL COMPETENCIES (P)

LIMITED

Customer satisfaction plays a critical and crucial role as it deals with customers and

their needs. The major task of organisation is to satisfy customers by meeting their

needs and wants. The essence of an organisation is the customer and not the product.

It is the heart of the entire business system and emphasises on customer oriented

business. The policies and programs of an organisation are formulated in order to

serve the customer demand efficiently. Satisfaction of a customer is so basic that it

cannot be considered as a separate function in an organisation.

The project title “A Study on Customer Satisfaction of the services provided by

Athiya” focuses on the service facilities provided by them.

Athiya is an organisation that deals with soft skill and business skill training to larger

corporates. It is essential for the organisation to know its strengths and its weaknesses

for providing such services. The services provided by Athiya must be evaluated and

its effectiveness must be ascertained. The company must learn about the various

sectors that they are poor and weak in and must try improving at the same. Thus,

learning about the customer’s perception, their level of understanding and

satisfaction after utilising the service will help.



STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Athiya is an organisation that was established in the year 2004. Athiya’s main

domains are soft skill and business skill training to larger corporates. Apart from this,

Athiya are also into BEC (Business English Certificate) training which is a certificate

that is provided by the University of Cambridge, UK. The organisation helps

individuals in corporates to enhance their professional skills, personal skills and

business skills and thus become better individuals both professionally and personally.

Since Athiya is an organisation that aims at giving 100 percent always, they would

like to improve their performance and get complete satisfaction out of their

customers. The average scores out of a 5 point Likert scale that Athiya usually

reaches is around 4.53 every year. Therefore, a study on the satisfaction level of

customers on the services provided would help in evaluating the areas of

improvement and eventually reaching 4.9-5 henceforth.



SCOPE OF STUDY

The scope of the study is limited to the customers of ATHIYA in cities like

Bangalore, Kolkata, and Pune etc.

The study helps understand the customers’ needs, preferences and their satisfaction

levels on the services provided by the business owners.

It also analyses the benefits accruing to the company as a result of these services.

The study is conducted in order to determine the level of satisfaction of customers

on the services of ATHIYA as well as their perceptions about it.

OBJECTIVES OF STUDY

To understand the customer perception on the services provided by ATHIYA through

questionnaire method.

To ascertain the satisfaction levels of customers.

To identify flaws and to provide the company with suitable solutions for the same

based on the feedbacks received by the customers.

To study and analyse various concepts of marketing such as creation of customer

value, satisfaction and loyalty, analysing consumer and business markets, segments

and targets.



NEED FOR STUDY

Customer is the person whose needs and requirements are satisfied in order to receive

a consideration in return. The consideration may be in terms of money, time or

goodwill but there is certainly some form of payment.

Satisfaction is the feeling a person has when he or she compares one product or

service with another and his or her perception on the product or service based on his

or her expectations on the particular product or service. Therefore, satisfaction is the

level of difference between the actual performance and the customer’s expectations

The need for this study is to identify the levels of satisfaction of customers from the

services provided by ATHIYA ORGANIZATIONAL COMPETENCIES (P)

LIMITED and to analyse their perception. The basic need is to identify problems and

faults in the company regarding services and their reach to satisfy the customers to

the fullest extent and to provide them with appropriate solutions so that the company

can implement them and improve their service quality, thereby improving the

company’s sales volume and performance.



OPERATIONAL DEFINITION OF CONCEPTS

Customer satisfaction:

Customer satisfaction is a term frequently used in marketing. It is a measure of how

products and services supplied by a company meet or surpass customer expectation.

Customer satisfaction is defined as "the number of customers, or percentage of total

customers, whose reported experience with a firm, its products, or its services, by

ratings, exceeds specified satisfaction goals."

Service:

A service is a set of one time consumable and perishable benefits delivered from

the accountable service provider, mostly in close coaction with his internal and

external service suppliers, effectuated by distinct functions of technical systems and

by distinct activities of individuals, respectively, commissioned according to the

needs of his service consumers by the service customer from the accountable

service provider, rendered individually to an authorized service consumer at his/her

dedicated trigger, and, finally, consumed and utilized by the triggering service

consumer for executing his/her upcoming business activity or private activity.

Product:

A product is the item offered for sale. A product can be a service or an item. It can

be physical or in virtual or cyber form. Every product is made at a cost and each is

sold at a price.

Tangibility:

A physical item that can be perceived by the sense of touch. Examples of a tangible

product include cars, food items, computers, telephones, etc.

Many businesses also need to provide packaging for a tangible product to provide

protection during its transportation.

http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/examples.html

http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/food.html

http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/item.html

http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/computer.html

http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/telephone.html



Intangibility:

Intangibility is used in marketing to describe the inability to assess the value gained

from engaging in an activity using any tangible evidence. It is often used to describe

services where there isn't a tangible product that the customer can purchase, that can

be seen, tasted or touched.

Perishability:

Perishability is used in marketing to describe the way in which service capacity

cannot be stored for sale in the future. It is a key concept of services marketing.

Inseparability:

Inseparability is used in marketing to describe a key quality of services as distinct

from goods. Inseparability is the characteristic that a service has which renders it

impossible to divorce the supply or production of the service from its consumption

Simultaneity:

Services are rendered and consumed during the same period of time. As soon as the

service consumer has requested the service (delivery), the particular service must be

generated from scratch without any delay and friction and the service consumer

instantaneously consumes the rendered benefits for executing his upcoming activity

or task.

Consumer:

The "consumer" is the one who consumes the goods and services produced. As such,

consumers play a vital role in the economic system of a nation because in the absence

of the effective demand that emanates from them, the economy virtually collapses.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing





Competition:

The act or process of trying to get or win something (such as a prize or a higher level

of success) that someone else is also trying to get or win.

Questionnaire:

A questionnaire refers to a list of questions arranged in a sequence which is used by

a researcher for collecting data. The questionnaire is distributed among a set of

respondents from whom information is required. This questionnaire is filled by the

respondents. The questionnaire is considered as the heart of the survey since this is

what is used as the major method of collecting the primary data in this project.



METHODOLOGY

The study is exploratory in nature and based on primary and secondary information.

Secondary information is collected from the different journals, internet and

periodicals. To elicit the responses, a detailed questionnaire has been designed and

surveyed online.

The questionnaire has been tried and tested before being submitted to the participants.

It is based on a 5 point Likert scale ranging from “Completely agree” at 5 points to

“Completely disagree” at 1 point.

Data collection method:

Data refers to any information or fact that is in raw form. It not only refers to

numerical figures but also includes descriptive facts. The methodology followed for

the process of data collection involves two types, namely, primary data and

secondary data.

With regard to this particular project, a structured and detailed questionnaire was

framed where the questions were formed in a way that met the objectives of the study.

The questionnaire contains definite and predetermined questions and the objective

was to obtain information regarding the service offered.



RESEARCH DESIGN

There are several types of research design. The major ones are:

Descriptive research design

Exploratory research design

Experimental research design

In this project, “A Study on Customer Satisfaction of the services provided by

ATHIYA Organizational Competencies (p) Limited”, exploratory research has been

used to collect the primary data. The data obtained by exploratory research is through

questionnaires. The data collected has been gathered and analysed and suitable

conclusions have been drawn.

SAMPLING PLAN

Sampling is defined as a process used in statistical analysis in which a predetermined

number of observations will be taken from a larger population. The methodology

used to sample from a larger population will depend on the type of analysis being

performed, but will include simple random sampling, systematic sampling and

observational sampling. The sample should be a representation of the general

population.

Sample procedure:

Sampling is a procedure by which the respondents are selected. There are basically

two types of sampling methods are:

Probability sampling methods.

Non-Probability sampling methods.

In this study, the non-probability sampling method was adopted. The required

numbers of customers were selected according to area sampling procedure. The

sample size was chosen as 100.



TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES FOR COLLECTION OF DATA

Research design tools:

To conduct any research, various tools are made use of to collect data from various

sources. The tools for collection of data in this particular study are:

Primary data:

Questionnaires

Secondary data:

Books on marketing management

Company manuals

All the questionnaires distributed were duly filled by the respondents.



PLAN OF ANALYSIS

The area of focus in the project is on the Customer Satisfaction of the services

provided by ATHIYA organizational competencies (p) Limited. The objectives of

the study include:

To understand the customer perception on the services provided by ATHIYA through

questionnaire method.

To ascertain the satisfaction levels of customers and to understand the factors which

influence the satisfaction levels.

To identify flaws and to provide the company with suitable solutions for the same

based on the feedbacks received by the customers.

To study and analyse various concepts of marketing such as creation of customer

value, satisfaction and loyalty, analysing consumer and business markets, segments

and targets.

It must be seen to it that the questionnaire meets the objectives as mentioned above.

Analysis follows collection and gathering of data. That is done by distributing the

questionnaires to a 100 customers. The analysis is done by going through each of the

100 responses from the questionnaires and recording the options chosen by them.

These options are then analysed by projecting the recordings in graphical forms like

bar graphs and frequency polygons wherever necessary. The various measures of

central tendencies are calculated and skewness of the responses on the chart is also

measured.



LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

As the time provided for the researcher was limited, time poses as one of the

limitations of the study.

The results of the study are based on assumption that all the information provided by

the respondents is correct.

The total respondents are limited to 100 since the number of participants is very high

and collection of data from such a large population would be tedious.

It is difficult to evaluate and get accurate results since the mood of the respondents

may vary from time to time.

There may also exist external factors which has got nothing to do with customers but

may still affect satisfaction.

The organization may not be able to get 100 percent results due to internal factors

like company policies, procedures and so on which may affect the performance.



AN OVERVIEW OF CHAPTER SCHEME

Chapter 1:

This chapter contains a brief introduction to the subject and the topic of study. It

covers the subject background like markets, marketing, marketing management etc.

It also covers the research topic and the basic terms related to it such as customer,

consumer, customer satisfaction, post sales or after sales services, etc.

Chapter 2:

This chapter includes a brief introduction to the subject background, the problem

statement, scope and objectives of the study, operational definitions of concepts, the

methodology in which the study is conducted, sampling size, sampling plan, the tools

and techniques for collection of data, the plan of analysis and its limitations.

Chapter 3:

This chapter must comprise of the company profile, its history, nature of business,

products and services provided by them, their competitors, capital structure, turn

over, the number of branches spread across the city, staff pattern and organisation

structure, a complete SWOT analysis etc. All the mentioned points is in reference to

the research topic.

Chapter 4:

This chapter contains an analysis of the primary data in tune with the objectives. Each

question in the survey methodology is reduced into table form and is analysed with

the help of graphs and charts and other diagrams like pie charts and bar graphs, etc.

Each of these is then followed by explanations and inferences.

Chapter 5:

This chapter provided the summary of all findings and conclusions drawn from the

study. It also includes suggestions and ways of improvements for the company.



COMPANY PROFILE

“Athiya” in Sanskrit means “excellence”.

Excellence is defined as “the quality of excelling or possessing good qualities in

hgh degree; it is an essential or distinguishing attribute of something or someone; it

is a prominent aspect of something or someone.”

About Athiya

Athiya develops and deploys strategic knowledge initiatives to promote corporate

excellence. They offer customised EDP & MDP learnings across various sectors. In

addition, they not only offer unique business coaching & HR support but also

develop content specific to corporate development needs. With its in-house

leadership team having a combined experience of more than 70 years in corporate

training, Athiya aims at being a corporate’s partner in long term people skills and

development.

Athiya was established in the year 2004. It is spearheaded by an industry veteran

who comes with more than 2 decades of experience Learning & Development &

HR consulting. It is a preferred partner in the workplace Learning & Development

space of all leading companies across verticals such as IT, ITeS, Telecom,

Manufacturing, and Financials.

ATHIYA comes with over 70 man years of experience in training

ATHIYA is the preferred L & D partner for top-notch multinational companies

across India

ATHIYA has trained over 4, 00,000 professionals across levels across industries

ATHIYA has trained companies on a wide range of training modules from Campus

to Corporate programs for their new recruits to Leadership programs for their senior

managers



ATHIYA understands the profiles of professionals that companies look for, as it

has been involved in their recruitment process

ATHIYA has been involved with training in some of the top MNC’s in India. We

have trained from new recruits to senior managers. This has placed us in the

strategic position of understanding corporate needs.

ATHIYA is into training on language, V & A, Personal skills, Behavioural skills

and Leadership skills.

Vision

“We will provide you with key insights on people skills to make your organisation

“First among equals”

Mission

We will proactively develop products/services that will give our clients a

competitive edge. Through collaborative partnerships, we will help our clients in:

Mapping competencies

Identifying training needs

Designing customized training systems

Facilitating long term training initiatives.



Nature of business and industry growth facts.

The education and training market is worth around Rs. Ten Thousand Crores with a

growth rate of approximately 25%. In this highly competitive environment,

training forms the key to a successful career path for potential candidates.

Employment in the Indian IT and ITeS Industry is over 2.5 million and expected to

grow at 15% YOY (year on year).

Revenues of all the IT/ ITeS companies in India are in excess of US$ 60 billion

and with one of the fastest growth rate.

With globalization, political boundaries have become non-existent in the corporate

world. Many non-English speaking countries like Japan, Germany, China, Spain,

France, etc., have accepted English as the link language in the business world.

Therefore, the ability to speak English drives success for the individual as well as

the country.



Athiya’s service offerings

Athiya offer’s its service to both corporates and colleges.

ATHIYA has 2 of its popular and critical modules to offer colleges

Business English Certificate program is a training program for those who want to

develop their English communication skills. This certificate is issued by the

University of Cambridge. It is valid for life and is recognized by companies across

the world.

C2C - Campus to Corporate orients a student to face interviews confidently. It also

helps the student acquire those skills that are necessary to become a global

professional.



Business English Certificate (BEC)

ATHIYA trains employees and students for Business English Certificate

examinations conducted by the University of Cambridge

The advantages of Business English Certificate training are:

BEC gives the opportunity to learn practical work-place English

BEC validates the learning one has undergone during the Business English training

Different levels of BEC give achievable goals and structure to English language

learning

Preparing for BEC improves one’s confidence in using business English,

particularly in speaking

The students will have great advantage taking up the BEC examination offered by

the University of Cambridge

Some of the leading MNC that endorse BEC are Infosys, Cognizant, Indian Oil

Corporation, Bank of America, L & T, Siemens, Tata Consultancy, Wipro,

Capgemini, HSBC, etc.

Campus2Corporate

Every year, a growing number of graduates come out of the campuses. However,

many recent surveys show that only a few are competent to secure a job in the

corporate world: the main reason being the mismatch between the skills of the job

aspirants and the requirements of the corporate sector.

This is where ATHIYA comes into the picture. These prospective young job-

seekers will go through a set of training modules on the basic skills required to

transition themselves from the campus to the corporate world.

Campus to corporate program also equips a student to write an effective resume,

participate in group discussions, communicate well and face interviews with

confidence.



Athiya’s offerings to corporates are called ORGANIZATIONAL

DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVES (ODI)

ODI’s are a variety of customized, highly relevant professional development

programs across various levels within an organization.

Personal Skills enhancement programs

Programs that enhance an individual’s soft skills portfolio, including such popular

and well received ones as Emotional Intelligence, Stress Management, Time

Management, Achievement Motivation, Cross Cultural Sensitivity, Dining

Etiquette & Social Graces, etc.

Business Skills enhancement programs

Programs that add to an individual’s professional portfolio through enhancing

behavioural skills such as Business Communication & Presentation Skills, Problem

Solving & Decision Making, Working in teams, Eye for Detail, Sensitivity at the

workplace, Facilitation Skills, Work-Life Balance, etc.

Why Athiya?

Key inputs for program creation comes from an advisory group of industry veterans

and thought leaders, in addition to strategic collaboration with various sectors for

WL&D (Workplace learning and Development)

An in-house team of certified instructional designers and training specialists who

skilfully transform rich and relevant conceptual knowledge into experiential

learning

Need based behavioural enhancement through perfect blend of concept exploration

with real time simulations

Highly motivating, interactive program design for optimum learning

Stringent processes to maintain content relevance

Consistent high quality programs through a standardized implementation

methodology



7-S MODEL (McKinsey)

STRATEGY: What is the plan to build and sustain competitive advantage?

Athiya has a Robust marketing team to make geographic and vertical

diversification all the time

Networking in order to know what the future WL&D trends will be

Diversified Ops Team to ensure that varied deliverables are possible

STRUCTURE: Org Structure

CEO

Business Development

BD Head

BD Assistant

Finance and Administration

MIS Exe

Director

Operations

Head Trainer

In house Trainers

Consultant Trainers



BD & FIN: rests with CEO

BD has its own org structure

FIN has its own org structure

OPS: Rests with Director – L&D

Clear top-down structure exists

SYSTEMS: Processes, procedures used to accomplish tasks

Recruitment processes

HR policies and processes

Robust PMS for Ops Team

SHARED VALUES: Core values that are reflected in the culture and work ethic of

the organization

These are Athiya’s current core values:

Tenets

TIMELINE: Athiya will respect timelines and stay committed to their client’s

schedules.

VALUE ADDITION: Athiya will implement only those training initiatives that will

be true value additions to their client.

CUSTOMIZATION: Athiya will design unique corporate training programs that

completely match their client’s organizational development initiatives.

DETERMINATION: Athiya will do all it takes to fulfil their client’s expectations.



Athiya does this all the time because they stretch themselves to deliver exactly what

the client wants; they constantly research to upgrade their content and delivery;

they are reasonable in their pricing so the client has a true value add when they

engage with Athiya.

STYLE: What type of leadership style is practiced?

Primarily Situational Leadership

STAFF: General description of staff members

We have beginners as well as veterans across the board. Each has a different set of

competencies but when put together, the team strength is formidable.

SKILLS: Specific competencies of staff members

Eg: Ops Team: ability to facilitate a training program; engage with a client SPOC

in meaningful interaction; content design and development

Eg: MIS: above average computer skills; ability to crunch numbers and present

data effectively



A Brief SWOT analysis of Athiya.

STRENGTHS

Huge Bandwidth

C3 model which means to

consult, customise and

consolidate thus providing

unique programs to different

companies.

Fairly good amount of business is

done by Athiya.

Has certifications from

institutions such as ASTD, NTL,

Dale Carniege Leadership

Development, South Asian

Association of transactional

analysis, Indian Society for

applied behavioural sciences

WEAKNESSES

Being Unable to perform in many

locations due to various

hindrances.

Website is difficult to access

from search engines because of

being in Flash format



OPPORTUNITIES

Usage of technology to teach

participants like schools,

colleges, corporates and so on

Adoption of E-learning

There exists a trend in blended

learning

THREATS

Corporates are provided with

course methodology by which

intellectual property may be

misused

Existence of competition

Availability of freelancers in the

industry which may affect the

business

Small faults in performance may

cause the organization to suffer

huge losses

Competitors

Athiya’s competitors are mainly trainers who are freelancers. These freelancers can

be recruited at cheap costs by corporates and other organisations thus posing as a

threat to them.

A few companies that act as competitors to Athiya are:

Mindspeed

Skiksha



ANALYSIS & INTERPRETATION

Question 1:

Trainer had adequate knowledge and expertise:

Table 4.1: Table showing responses of the respondents of question ‘Trainer

had adequate knowledge and expertise’

Response Number of respondents

5 66

4 33

3 1

2 -

1 -

Total 100

ANALYSIS:

66% of the respondents have given a rating of 5 & 33% have given a rating of 4.

There are no respondents for scores of 1 & 2.

From the above table the various measures of central tendencies that can be

obtained are as follows:

Mean = ∑f x/ ∑x = 4.65

Median = (n + 1 / 2)th term = 5

Mode = Value that is repeated the most = 5

Standard deviation = √ variance = 0.5



Graph 4.1: Graph showing responses of the respondents of question ‘Trainer

had adequate knowledge and expertise’

There exists a negative skewness to the extent of - 0.88435.

INTERPRETATION:

Since the average is 4.65, it is clear that the participants strongly agree that the

trainer had good knowledge and expertise.

The standard deviation is 0.5 showing that the scores vary to an extent of 0.5 on

either side.

The skewness at - 0.88435 shows that the skewness left skewed in the chart

showing that the score of the respondents is more towards 5 which means that the

respondents are highly satisfied regarding the trainer’s knowledge and expertise.

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

1 2 3 4 5

Chart Title



Question 2:

Trainer was able to give relevant examples.


was able to give relevant examples’


5 62

4 35

3 3

2 -

1 -

Total 100

ANALYSIS:

62% of the respondents have rated a score of 5 while 35% have rated a score of 4.

There are no ratings for 1 & 2.



Mean = ∑f x/ ∑x = 4.59







was able to give relevant examples’

There exists a negative skewness to the extent of -0.91652

INTERPRETATION:


trainer is able to give relevant examples.

The standard deviation is 0.55222 showing that the scores vary to an extent of

0.55222 on either side.

The skewness at - 0.91652 shows that the skewness is left skewed showing that the

score of the respondents is more towards 5 in the chart which means that the

respondents are highly satisfied regarding the trainer’s ability to give relevant

examples.

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

1 2 3 4 5

Chart Title



Question 3:

Trainer was open to answering all queries.


was open to answering all queries’


5 72

4 28

3 -

2 -

1 -

Total 100

ANALYSIS:

72% of the respondents have rated 5.




Mean = ∑f x/ ∑x = 4.72







was open to answering all queries’


INTERPRETATION:


trainer is open to all queries.




score of the respondents is more towards 5 in the chart which means that the

respondents are highly satisfied regarding the trainer’s attitude towards answering

all queries.

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

1 2 3 4 5

Chart Title



Question 4:

Trainer gave helpful observations/tips.


gave helpful observations/tips’


5 54

4 40

3 6

2 -

1 -

Total 100

ANALYSIS:

54% of the respondents have rated 5 whereas 40% have rated 4 and 6 % have rated

3.

There are no responses for 1 & 2.



Mean = ∑f x/ ∑x = 4.48







gave helpful observations/tips’


INTERPRETATION:

Since the average is 4.48, it is clear that the participants agree that the trainer is able

to give helpful observations/tips.




score of the respondents is more towards 4 and 5 in the chart which means that the

respondents are satisfied regarding the trainer’s ability to give helpful observational

tips.

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1 2 3 4 5

Chart Title

Series 1 Column1 Series 3



Question 5:

The learning process was well structured.

Table 4.5: Table showing responses of the respondents of question ‘The

learning process was well structured’


5 48

4 45

3 7

2 -

1 -

Total 100

ANALYSIS:

There exists an almost equal rating at 4 & 5 with 45% and 48% respectively.

7% have rated 3.



Mean = ∑f x/ ∑x = 4.41






Graph 4.5: Graph showing responses of the respondents of question ‘The

learning process was well structured’


INTERPRETATION:

Since the average is 4.41, it is clear that the participants agree that the learning

process was well structured.





respondents are satisfied regarding the structure of the learning process.

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1 2 3 4 5

Chart Title




Question 6:

The Learning process was practical & helpful.


Learning process was practical & helpful’


5 62

4 33

3 5

2 -

1 -

Total 100

ANALYSIS:





Mean = ∑f x/ ∑x = 4.57







Learning process was practical & helpful’

There exists a negative skewness to the extent of -1.02824.

INTERPRETATION:


learning process was practical and helpful.



The skewness at – 1.02824 shows that the skewness is highly left skewed showing

that the score of the respondents is more towards 5 in the chart which means that

the respondents are highly satisfied regarding the practicalness and helpfulness of

the learning process.

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

1 2 3 4 5

Chart Title

Series 1 Column3 Column2



Question 7:

The learning material added value.


learning material added value’


5 39

4 44

3 17

2 -

1 -

Total 100

ANALYSIS:

There are more respondents who have rated 4 at 44%.





Mean = ∑f x/ ∑x = 4.22







learning material added value’


INTERPRETATION:

Since the average is 4.22, it is clear that the participants agree that the learning

material added value.




score of the respondents is more towards 3, 4 and 5 in the chart which means that

the respondents are neither satisfied nor dissatisfied regarding the value added by

the learning material.

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4 5

Chart Title




Question 8:

The session was interactive.

Table 4.8: Table showing responses of the respondents of question ‘The session

was interactive’


5 74

4 23

3 3

2 -

1 -

Total 100

ANALYSIS:


23% of the respondents have rated 4 and 3 % have rated 3.




Mean = ∑f x/ ∑x = 4.71







session was interactive’


INTERPRETATION:


session was interactive.




that the score of the respondents is more towards 4 and 5 in the chart which means

that the respondents are highly satisfied regarding the interactiveness of the session.

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

1 2 3 4 5

Chart Title




Question 9:

The content was easy to understand.


content was easy to understand’


5 67

4 31

3 2

2 -

1 -

Total 100

ANALYSIS:


31% have rated 4 and 2 % have rated 2.




Mean = ∑f x/ ∑x = 4.65







content was easy to understand’


INTERPRETATION:


content was easy to understand.





that the respondents are highly satisfied about the ease of understanding the

content.

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

1 2 3 4 5




Question 10:

The content was relevant to the topic of the program.


content was relevant to the topic of the program’


5 62

4 37

3 1

2 -

1 -

Total 100

ANALYSIS:


37% have rated 4.




Mean = ∑f x/ ∑x = 4.61







content was relevant to the topic of the program’


INTERPRETATION:


content was relevant to the topic of the program.



The skewness at – 0.68945 shows that the skewness is left skewed showing that the


respondents are satisfied regarding the content being relevant to the topic of the

program.

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

1 2 3 4 5




Question 11:

The stated objectives of this workshop were met.


stated objectives of this workshop were met’


5 48

4 47

3 5

2 -

1 -

Total 100

ANALYSIS:

There exists a close response between 4 & 5 at 47% and 48% respectively.

5% of the people have rated 3.



Mean = ∑f x/ ∑x = 4.43







stated objectives of this workshop were met’


INTERPRETATION:

Since the average is 4.43, it is clear that the participants agree that the stated

objectives of the program were met.





respondents are satisfied regarding the objectives of the program being met.

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1 2 3 4 5

Chart Title

Series 1 Column2 Column3



Question 12:

The program was interesting


program was interesting’


5 69

4 23

3 8

2 -

1 -

Total 100

ANALYSIS:






Mean = ∑f x/ ∑x = 4.60







program was interesting’


INTERPRETATION:


program was interesting.





that the respondents are highly satisfied about the program being interesting.

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

1 2 3 4 5

Chart Title




Question 13:

Would you like to participate in more such workshops?

Table 4.13: Table showing responses of the respondents of question ‘Would

you like to participate in more such workshops?’


5 65

4 28

3 5

2 2

1 -

Total 100

ANALYSIS:

65% of the respondents have rated 5. 25% of the respondents have rated 4.

5% of the respondents have rated 3 and 2 % of the respondents have rated 2.

No respondents for 1.



Mean = ∑f x/ ∑x = 4.56






Graph 4.13: Graph showing responses of the respondents of question ‘Would

you like to participate in more such workshops?’


INTERPRETATION:

Since the average is 4.56, it is clear that the participants strongly agree that they

would like to participate in more such workshops.





that the respondents completely agree that they would like to participate in more

such programs.

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

1 2 3 4 5

Chart Title




Question 14:

The timing of the workshop was convenient.


timing of the workshop was convenient’


5 52

4 35

3 10

2 2

1 1

Total 100

ANALYSIS:

52% of the respondents have rated 5. 35% of the respondents have rated 4. 10% of

the respondents have rated 3. 2% of the respondents have rated 2. 1% of the

respondents have rated 1.



Mean = ∑f x/ ∑x = 4.35







timing of the workshop was convenient’


INTERPRETATION:

Since the average is 4.35, it is clear that the participants neither agree nor disagree

that the timing of the workshop was convenient.




that the score of the respondents is more towards 3, 4 and 5 in the chart which

means that the respondents are neither satisfied nor dissatisfied regarding the timing

of the workshop.

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1 2 3 4 5

Chart Title




Question 15:

The duration of the workshop was perfect.


duration of the workshop was perfect’


5 46

4 28

3 20

2 4

1 2

Total 100

ANALYSIS:


28% of the respondents have rated 4 and 20% of the respondents have rated 3.

2% and 4% are the respondents at 1 & 2 respectively.



Mean = ∑f x/ ∑x = 4.12







duration of the workshop was perfect’


INTERPRETATION:

Since the average is 4.12, it is clear that the participants neither agree nor disagree

that the duration of the workshop was perfect.




score of the respondents is more towards 3, 4 and 5 in the chart which means that

the respondents are neither satisfied nor dissatisfied regarding the duration of the

workshop.

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4 5

Chart Title




Question 16:

The Learning environment was comfortable.


Learning environment was comfortable’


5 68

4 29

3 3

2 -

1 -

Total 100

ANALYSIS:



3% of the respondents have rated 3. There are no respondents for 1 & 2.



Mean = ∑f x/ ∑x = 4.65







Learning environment was comfortable’


INTERPRETATION:


learning environment was comfortable.





the respondents are satisfied regarding the learning environment.

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

1 2 3 4 5

Chart Title




FINDINGS, SUGGESTIONS &CONCLUSION

Findings

From the project “A study on customer satisfaction of the services provided by

Athiya Organizational Competencies (P) Limited”,

The following observations have been made from the questionnaire:

It is clear that the participants strongly agree that the trainer had good knowledge

and expertise as the mean is 4.65

It is clear that the participants strongly agree that the trainer is able to give relevant

examples as there exists a high negative skewness at -0.91652

The respondents are highly satisfied regarding the trainer’s attitude towards

answering all queries as the mean is high at 4.72

The respondents are satisfied regarding the trainer’s ability to give helpful

observational tips as there exists a negative skewness at -0.73568

It is clear that the participants agree that the learning process was well structured as

the average obtained is 4.41

It is clear that the participants strongly agree that the learning process was practical

and helpful since the skewness was high at – 1.02824

The respondents are neither satisfied nor dissatisfied regarding the value added by

the learning material since the average is low at only 4.22 and the standard

deviation at 0.718866. There also existed low skewness at 0.35599

The respondents are highly satisfied regarding the interactiveness of the session as

the mean obtained is 4.71

The participants strongly agree that the content was easy to understand as the mean

that is obtained is 4.65

The respondents are satisfied regarding the content being relevant to the topic of the

program as there exists a high negative skewness at -1.07325

The participants agree that the stated objectives of the program were met as the

mean obtained is 4.43

The participants strongly agree that the program was interesting as the skewness is

high at -1.62801



The respondents completely agree that they would like to participate in more such

programs since there exists a high average at 4.56

The respondents are neither satisfied nor dissatisfied regarding the timing of the

workshop since the mean is low at 4.35

The respondents are neither satisfied nor dissatisfied regarding the duration of the

workshop since there exists a skewness at -0.99253 and the responses being close to

3, 4 and 5.

The respondents are satisfied regarding the learning environment since the mean is

high at 4.65

The following general observations have been made:

The workshops conducted have been useful to the customers to improve their

professional/business skills

The overall average of the customers who have availed the services of Athiya is

4.52 which on the likert scale lies between highly satisfactory and satisfactory thus

being a positive response.

Customers have a fairly decent impression regarding Athiya

Athiya’s primary focus is to ensure that the participants learn and understand what

is being taught by them

Most questions like trainer’s knowledge, relevant examples, attitude towards

answering queries, content and so on have had positive responses from the

customers

Timing and duration poses as a threat to customer satisfaction.



Suggestions

Based on the overall findings of this project, the following suggestions are pointed

out:

The learning material provided by Athiya has been a cause of concern as it has not

been as effective to the customers availing the training. Thus it is suggested that the

organization improve the content of the material provided by using the help of

manuals, books, internet and so on.

Visual aid, Audio files, Case studies, and pictorial representation would add value

to the training and this may also be added to the learning material to improve the

training quality. It is seen that the learning material is insufficient to the customers

and thus, this can help in improving the quality as well as the quantity of the

material.

The timing of the workshop has also been affecting overall satisfaction. It may be

useful if the customers are contacted well in advance and a proper time and date is

fixed to conduct the workshop/program.

The duration of a program has also been a cause of concern as this has had a variety

of responses. Ratings of 1-3 show that customers are highly dissatisfied regarding

the duration of the program. Thus Athiya must contact the companies and inform

them well in advance that the program would be spread over a period of time to

ensure that the duration of the program reduces and is spread out over a number of

days.

Although many questions have had positive responses, it is to be noted that there

has been no average above 4.85. Thus Athiya must put more effort into their

preparation on their content before training the customers

Since this is a sample size of only 100 there may exist a high variance from the

actual results of this project and thus, effort must never be reduced in learning and

preparing to provide quality training.



Conclusion

From this project “A study on customer satisfaction of the services provided by

Athiya Organizational Competencies (P) Limited”, it is evident that customers are an

integral part of every business organisation and ensuring their satisfaction is one of

its major functions in order, not only to attract them, but also to retain them.

Having stated this, the study of customer satisfaction shows that the company is

doing pretty well at ensuring that its customers are satisfied.

The Training and Knowledge industry is a customer oriented industry and apart from

the revenue aspect, which requires the company to attract customers, they must also

concentrate on retaining the customers, which can be accomplished by providing

appropriate services that ensures customer satisfaction.

This project helped ascertain the levels of satisfaction of customers and also to

identify the flaws of the company that affect the satisfaction level of the customers.

This project also helps to understand the various concepts, not only pertaining to

customer satisfaction, but also concepts of marketing as a whole.



BIBLIOGRAPHY

Authors: Philip Kotler, Kevin Lane Keller

Title: Marketing Management 14th Edition

Edition: 13th

Publisher: Pearson

Wikipedia- The online encyclopaedia

Measures of central tendency

Terms of Marketing

Customer Satisfaction

www.athiya.com

Marketing Management 5th Edition

Authors: Namakumari, Ramaswamy

Publisher: McGraw Hill Education

www.businessdictionary.com

http://www.athiya.com/

http://www.businessdictionary.com/



ANNEXURE

Dear respondents,

I, Vikranth S Madabhushi, a student of BBM semester-6 studying at PES College

of Business Management, Bangalore am conducting a feedback on the level of

satisfaction of customers of the services provided by Athiya Organizational

Competencies (P) Ltd. This project is a part of our BBM curriculum and thus would

require your cooperation to complete it.

Participant’s name: Trainer’s name:

Company: Program:

SL. NO. FEEDBACK CRITERIA highly satisfactory

highly unsatisfactory

5 4 3 2 1

SUBJECT MATTER EXPERTISE

1 Knowledge and expertise

2 Examples

3 Answering all queries

4 Helpful observations/tips

METHODOLOGY

5 Well structured learning process

6 Practical and helpful learning process

7 Learning materia

8 The session was interactive

CONTENT

9 Ease of understanding content

10 Content Relevance

OVERALL LEARNING EXPERIENCE

11 The stated objectives of this workshop were met

12 Interesting

13 Willingness to participate in more workshops

LOGISTICS

14 The timing of the workshop was convenient

15 The duration of the workshop was perfect

16 The learning environment was comfortable



Documents

Internship & Project report for Athiya - Vikranth Madabhushi