Open Eng. 2017; 7:26–30
Research Article
Open Access
Rudolf Kampf, Lenka Ližbetinová*, and Kamila Tišlerová
Management of Customer Service in Terms of
Logistics Information Systems
DOI 10.1515/eng-2017-0006
Received June 24, 2016; accepted July 29, 2016
Abstract: This paper is focused on perceiving the logistic
services as the competition advantage in frame of the ecommerce. Customers consider their purchases in its complexity and all the logistic services should be designed to
meet with customers’ preferences as much as possible. Our
aim was to identify and evaluate of customers perceiving
in frame of sales proposals offered by e-shops. Collected
data of research were processed with the usage of cluster analysis. The aim of this paper is to present the results
and conclusions from this research with focus on the elements of logistics services within e-commerce. These outputs can be used for knowledge base of information systems through which enterprises evaluate their decisions
and selection of variants. For the enterprise, it is important
to appropriate decisions about resource allocation and design of the structure of logistics services were set based on
real customer preferences.
Keywords: e-commerce, preference of customers, logistics, knowledge base, logistics information systems
1 Introduction
Customer logistics service is not an idea of these days.
More than 50 years, it has been defined as a research issue and it is under development, since that time. It may
mean different views for various organizations. Great emphasis in one organization may be placed on availability
Rudolf Kampf: The Institute of Technology and Business in
České Budějovice, Department of Transport and Logistics,
Okružní 517/10, 370 01 České Budějovice, Czech Republic, E-mail:
[email protected]
*Corresponding Author: Lenka Ližbetinová: University of Economics and Management, Department of Marketing, Nárožní
2600/2a, 158 00 Praha 5, Czech Republic, E-mail:
[email protected]
Kamila Tišlerová: University of Economics and Management, Department of Marketing, Nárožní 2600/2a, 158 00 Praha 5, Czech
Republic, E-mail: [email protected]
of a product at the time, at the place and in the quantities desired [1]. In another enterprise, it may be desirable to preserve the relative freedom in timing and in a
way of processing customer orders [2]. At other cases and
in other organizations, management concentrates on improving the condition of goods delivered to customers. Finally, the speed and dependability are the most important
parameters in many logistics systems, i.e. the primary concern is to give to available items ordered to customers [3–
5].
Customer satisfaction, service quality and relationship management [6] are among measures of success in
dealing with the customer point of view. To achieve these,
organizations must engage in practices that provide superior value [7] and services to their customers than the other
competing organizations or channels provides, thus the
level of customer satisfaction improves [8–10].
The information can be a "good" or "phenomenal" and
without them, the proper operating of the enterprise is not
possible. In the era of today’s solutions for the acquisition and transmission of information, information systems
have an increasingly important role in the enterprise’s processes realization [11].
Because of the increase in volume and complexity ecommerce, information systems are the only way to accurately manage the product flow towards the customer [12].
Logistics information systems are an essential precondition for the effective operating logistics of enterprise [13].
Without the interactive transmission of current information, logistics flows could not be adequately secured [14,
15]. For decision-making and choice of variants [16, 17] in
logistics, not only input data obtained from the evidence
and analysis of the business have an important role, but
also data of Knowledge Base are needed with intuition
and experience of their users [18]. Within sales logistics in
terms of orders processing via e-shop, we often encounter
with conflicting solutions [19] how to meet customer expectations as much as possible without unnecessarily extra costs [20, 21].
We will be able to optimize the selection of alternatives when making decisions if we have knowledge about
the preferences of customers in these decisions, [22–25].
© 2017 Rudolf Kampf et al., published by De Gruyter Open.
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 License.
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anagement of Customer Service in Terms of Logistics Information Systems
Buying through e-shop is associated with increased risk of
customer dissatisfaction with the delivered goods and the
necessity of its replacement or refund. That’s why, for enterprises, it is effective to monitor and reduce risk of target
segment [26]. Better understanding of the customers based
on precisions of segmentation is necessary [27, 28].
This article demonstrates a way to improve customer
service and the potential to achieve competitive advantage. The aim of this paper is to present the results and conclusions from the research focused on identify and evaluate of customers perceiving elements of logistics services
within e-commerce. These outputs can be used for knowledge base of information systems which enterprises used
for evaluate their decisions and selection of variants. For
the enterprise [29, 30], it is important to appropriate decisions about resource allocation and design of the structure
of logistics services were created based on real customer
preferences.
2 Methods
For filling the aim of paper, we used data from the research
of customer preferences in the context of e-commerce. It
was released in the Czech Republic in 2015 by questionnaire survey. There were interviewed 650 respondents of
which we obtained 503 valid responses. In this research,
the view was focused on the preferences of buyers of goods
through e-commerce. The topics of questions were economic, logistic, and risk character. Addressing respondents was based on the quota selection, in which intention was to simulate a normal sample population of the
Czech Republic. Therefore, the quotas were set at the ratio
of respondents in terms of age, gender, income and place
of residence (town/city) [31].
Filter question was confirmation of the respondents
that they do their shopping through e-shops at least the
value 4,000 CZK per year. The respondents were also observed depending on what type of articles they prefer
more:
– gifts (goods for somebody else resp. Impulse goods
- when customers are not looking for specific products, but rather to inspire),
– common goods (books, music, objects to 5,000 CZK
- customers usually have a clear idea of what they
want to buy),
– purchases after a careful consideration (goods for
more than 5,000 CZK),
– configurable products (PCs compiled according to
customer requirements or any other goods where
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you can dictate the desired properties, components).
Subsequently, their answers were focused on this selected
category. These closed questions were directed to ascertain
the preferences - the reasons for the purchase of goods via
the Internet, as well as the preferences of individual elements in terms of logistics. Respondents evaluated their
level of preference for each attribute on a scale of 1 to 5,
where 1 means the lowest power preferences. Before creating the questionnaire, we had tested the hypothetical attributes - preferences of customers with the highest potential importance of perception discussed it within a focus
group (13 participants), . Based on this discussion, we had
selected 25 attributes for next search.
The questionnaire in electronic form was distributed
specifically on the basis of criteria the quota selection. Table 1 shows the structure of the survey respondents.
Subsequently, the data were subjected to selection in
terms of reliability and validity and processed by conventional statistical methods through the statistical program SPSS [32]. In this contribution, we evaluated 15 attributes, focusing on logistics and 4 on risk perception. To
determine customer segments, we used cluster analysis,
through which the customers were categorized into four
clusters.
3 The results of customer
preferences in the context of
e-commerce
The article presents research that was focused on customer
preferences within shopping in e-shops. The outputs are
suitable for use in knowledge bases logistics information
systems. In our article, we concentrate on the attributes
relating to the logistic support e-commerce and the perception of risk from the customer’s perspective. The customers’ preferences (on scale 1 – 5, where 1 is the lowest priority) are evaluated based on these selected 19 attributes. In view of these attributes with the help of cluster
analysis, we have been determined 4 clusters that divide
customers due to their personal preferences and expectations. Table 2 shows the mean values for the investigated
clusters attributes.
Characteristics of determined clusters:
Cluster 1 is represented by 44% of customers’ who prefer (in the same extent) possible delivery of goods courier
enterprise (average preference 4.2), the personal pick up of
the goods or delivery to the door. When paying, customers
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28 | Rudolf Kampf, Lenka Ližbetinová, and Kamila Tišlerová
Table 1: Structure of survey respondents.
Frequency
503
Percentage
100
Gender
men
women
The purpose of purchase
229
274
45.3
54.5
gifts, impulse purchases
common everyday goods
purchases after a careful consideration
configurable products
119
213
112
59
23.7
42.3
22.3
11.7
Total
Source: authors
Table 2: Final Cluster Centers of selected attributes.
The preference of attribute
(rate scale 1-5, where 1 is the lowest preference)
1. The possibility of delivery by courier
2. The possibility of delivery by Czech post
3. The possibility of a personal pickup
4. The possibility of delivery directly to the door
5. The possibility of transfer payments
6. The possibility to pay online by credit card
7. The possibility to pay by specialized systems – eg. PayPal
8. The possibility of payment on delivery - cash on delivery.
9. How important is the delivery time for customer
10. How important is information about the exact date of delivery for a customer
11.How important is the information about delivery - 1 day in advance (via e-mail, SMS)
for a customer
12.How important is the information about the exact delivery date in the order for a
customer
13. How important is information about the time of delivery (with an accuracy of two
hours) for a customer
14. How is the view of customer to quick delivery (number of days)
15. In the event of failure to comply with the set delivery time, how much is the customer discouraged from another buying
16. Risk perception of the misuse to credit cards
17. Risk perception of failure to deliver the right goods
18. Risk perception of complications during possible complaints
19. Risk perception of a fraudulent e-shop
Number of Cases in each Cluster
Percentage
1
4.2
3.9
4.0
4.1
4.1
4.1
3.1
4.6
4.6
4.6
4.6
Cluster
2
3
5.0 4.0
3.6 3.5
2.7 3.7
2.3 3.4
2.0 2.0
3.3 1.5
4.0 1.3
4.6 4.8
4.5 4.5
3.7 4.5
2.3 4.7
4
3.6
3.9
3.0
2.7
3.4
3.0
2.3
4.0
4.0
3.6
3.7
4.2
1.2
3.9
3.1
4.1
1.9
4.0
3.0
1.8
4.0
7.5
4.5
1.9
4.1
2.1
3.5
3.6
3.7
3.9
3.4
221
44%
3.2
2.2
2.8
3.7
11
2%
4.2
4.0
4.2
4.2
126
25%
3.2
3.3
3.6
3.1
145
29%
Source: authors
prefer the option of cash on delivery, payment transfer or
online credit card payment. This customer group attaches
the greatest importance to the delivery time and requires
current information about the status of supplies. Medium
length value fast delivery of shipments for this group un-
derstood ranging from one and a half or two days. Failure
to set delivery time is an incentive to discourage further
purchases in the e-shop. This group is formed by 50% of
customers who make common purchases (less 5,000 CZK)
and 20% consumers purchasing after due deliberation
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anagement of Customer Service in Terms of Logistics Information Systems
over 5,000 CZK. The customers in this group are mostly
concerned about the risk of card misuse and an incorrect
delivery of goods. This group is made up of 56% women.
Cluster 2: is made up 2% of customers who prefer priority delivery of a consignment by courier (value preferences 5) and pay only until the delivery of the consignment
or using specialized payment systems (eg. PayPal). Delivery time for this group of customers is very important, but
information about the time of delivery and shipment status, day and hour of delivery are not necessary for them.
However, if the delivery time is not complied strictly, it
discourages customers from buying another in a given eshop. Fast delivery is an average of about 7.5 days for this
group. The possibility of fraudulent e-shop is the most perceived as risk factor for these customers, unlike others that
are not so important. This group is composed by 91% of
customers buying configurable products (PCs assembled
according to their requirements or any other goods where
you can dictate the desired properties, components). The
vast majority of the cluster is consisted by customers in the
age category up to 25 years with the predominance representation of men (72%).
Cluster 3 consists of 25% customers who prefer the
possibility of delivery by courier (preference 4.0) and also
welcomed the possibility of a personal pickup (3.7). This
group of customers chooses only the possibility of payment on delivery. Delivery time is important to them, like
information about the exact time of delivery, the current
status of the consignment and the day and hour of delivery.
Time for quick delivery of a consignment is within 2 days.
Failure a predetermined delivery times induces in him a
tendency to discourage further purchase. Purchase in eshop is too risky for them in terms of all stated factors. Respondents of this cluster most often mentioned concerns
about the non-delivery of ordered goods (card misuse, incorrect deliveries, complications of complaints and fraudulent e-shop). Customers in this group are characterized
primarily as making purchase after a careful consideration (33 %), 30 % of them are from the ordinary purchases
group (items for 5,000 CZK) and 20 % giftware - impulse
purchases (they do not look for exactly specific goods, but
rather are inspired).
Cluster 4: This group consists of 29 % respondents.
They prefer delivery option mainly by Czech post or
courier. They prefer payment on delivery of goods, like
members of other clusters. Other ways to payment are not
so interesting for them. The customer of this group does
not give high emphasis on time of delivery and provided
information about the date and time of delivery compared
to clusters 1 and 3. He can be more tolerant of failure to
comply with the exact delivery times and clearly that does
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not deter him from making another purchase. By "fast delivery time of goods" he understands around 2 days. Mentioned risks are distinctly problematic for them, most perceived is the risk of complicated claim (3.6). Cluster is consisted of 43% customers buying common everyday goods
(books, music, items for 5,000 CZK - without having a clear
idea of what they want to buy) and 32% of customers who
presents gifts and impulse purchases (regardless of exactly specific goods, rather are getting inspired).
4 Discussion
Segmenting customers into four clusters according to their
preferences regarding logistics support and risk perceptions while shopping in e-shops was done to find out and
outline a major group. In general it can be stated that most
customers prefer delivery through the courier service and
payment on delivery of goods [33–35]. It is caused by the
fact that customers perceive a strong risk of failure to deliver the goods particularly by unverified e-shops.
It follows that the preferences in case of repeated purchases are subject to change due to a reduced perception
of risk. A separate group of customers are customers of
cluster No. 2, who buy mainly configurable products (PCs
assembled according to their requirements or any other
goods where they can dictate the desired properties, components). This group is composed mainly of customers
lower age groups (91% up to 25 years) and 72% of them are
men. This group is less demanding for delivery time and
information about it and prefers payments via specialized
systems. These data are obtained in the Czech Republic
and we can assume that in other states, these preferences
are different.
5 Conclusion
The preferences of customers shopping in e-shops acquired due this research can be used as a basis for considering alternatives for the enterprise when deciding on the
way of sales logistics. The data can be used for so-called
Knowledge Base in these information systems. By optimizing the choice of elements of sales logistics, the costs can
be more effective incurred with meeting customer requirements and thus, to obtain a satisfied customer having high
potential of both current and future purchases.
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30 | Rudolf Kampf, Lenka Ližbetinová, and Kamila Tišlerová
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