ervice quality of freight forwarders in chennai a shipper s perspective

Abstract

Global trade agreements have turned the world into larger chunks of trading newlineblocks enabling the transportation of goods across national borders. This has paved newlineway to recognize Logistics as a separate Industry. Logistics Industry can be newlineconsidered as the wheels of globalization, which acts as a key to market expansion newlineand availability of products to the consumers globally. The performance in the newlineLogistics industry in International trade is very important to the economic growth of a newlinecountry. This sector is now recognised as one of the core pillars that shapes the newlineeconomy of a country. Third-party logistics services have grown enormously in India newlineand is expected to reach a compounded annual growth rate of 18 % in the year 2025 newlinewhen compared to the 15 % growth rate in 2018. The logistics cost incurred in India newlineis almost 14% of the Gross Domestic Product, which is very high when compared to newlineother countries. It is necessary to decrease the cost, which can be done by improving newlinethe quality of services in logistics sector. newlineManufacturers and Sellers of electronic products, automotive parts, health and newlinebeauty products are always looking for logistics service provider who have expertise newlinein all facets of logistic activities from the manufacturing plant to warehouse and then newlineto the end customer internationally. Hence, exporters are majorly dependent on the newlinethird-party service provider, such as freight forwarders, who act as a middleman newlineperforming plethora of activities such as preparation of documents, consolidation, newlineinsurance, customs clearance etc., thus reducing the burden of the exporters. This newlinewould enable them to concentrate more on the core business activities. newlineThe study particularly explores the service quality of freight forwarders in newlineChennai. It tries to capture the 360-degree perspective of the shipper on the services newlinerendered by the freight forwarder taking into consideration the factors such as service newlinequality, service failure and service recovery. The SERVQUAL model has been used newlineto measure service quality. Also, service quality gaps have been identified to enable newlinethe freight forwarders to understand their drawbacks which would make them more newlineaware of the service deficiencies. The study emphasizes the importance of service newlinerecovery in freight forwarding firms in regaining the loyalty of the shipper. Moreover, newlinevi newlinethe experience of the shipper, number of years of service availed from the freight newlineforwarder influences Shipperand#8223;s satisfaction and loyalty. The study finally recommends newlinefreight forwarders to introduce effective training programs, employee reward newlinestrategies, systemised frameworks for handling complaints, annual surveys on newlineshipperand#8223;s satisfaction, standardized operating procedure to reduce service failure and newlineforbid the repeated errors. This would enhance the quality of service offered by them, newlinethereby increasing loyalty among the current shippers. The service guarantee which is newlinebeing identified by the fact that service failure influences service recovery can be newlineutilised as a marketing tool to attract new customers. newline