Abstract
In the Malaysian Umrah industry, there are so many new participants selling and offering similar products and services. As a result, Umrah providers must compete to survive in this industry, as there are currently so many competitors. They need to focus on customers’ special needs and preferences to maintain and retain the long-term relationship. Thus, the objective of this study is to examine the relationship between service marketing mix and Umrah service quality on customer loyalty towards Umrah travel agents, and the mediating effect of customer satisfaction in the relationship between service marketing mix/service quality and customer loyalty towards Umrah travel agents in Malaysia. This study explored and integrated two new dimensions (not Ps) for service marketing mix namely after-sale service and marketing communication rather than traditional service marketing mix of 7 P’s. The study’s research framework was supported by the Stimulus-Organism-Response theory. Three of the four main constructs namely; service marketing mix, Umrah service quality and customer satisfaction were conceptualised as second order constructs and assessed via the reflective-formative approach. Customer loyalty which acted as the dependent variable was measured reflectively through seven multi items. All the items were assessed using the 5-point Likert scale. Data was derived from 384 Umrah customers who have used Umrah traveling services. All the constructs such as product, price, promotion, place, people, process, physical evidence, marketing communication, and after-sale service (marketing mix), Umrah service quality includes tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy had significant effects on customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. However, second hypothesis Umrah service quality and customer loyalty which were found not significant. Two indirect effect hypotheses to examine the role of customer satisfaction as mediators were accepted as full mediation. The study findings were discussed thoroughly and concluded with a discussion on the implications, the limitation of the study and recommendations for future study.
Highlights
According to Paul et al, (2017) marketing mix is still in its evolution phase, especially for different industries like its most popular four Ps and seven Ps with additional three Ps
As we already discussed in our previous sections that promotion plays a very important role in creating the satisfaction in customers of travel services (Jabbar et al, 2020) .we propose the following hypothesis: we propose the following hypothesis: H3c If the promotion provided by Umrah travel agents are excellent, this will lead to Umrah Customer satisfaction
The questionnaire consists of sixteen measurement scales that includes (1) nine deminsions represented by service product, price, place, promotion, people, process, physical evidence, marketing communication and after sale service to form service marketing; (2) Umrah service quality is formed through five deminsions that is tangible, Technium Social Sciences Journal Vol 22, 553-618, August, 2021 ISSN: 2668-7798 www.techniumscience.com reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy; (3) multiple items scale are used to measure mediating variable of Umrah customer satisfaction to travel agents; and lastly, (4) multiple items scale are used to measure dependent variable of Umrah customer loyalty to travel agents
Summary
According to Paul et al, (2017) marketing mix is still in its evolution phase, especially for different industries like its most popular four Ps (product, price, promotion, place) and seven Ps with additional three Ps (people, process, physical evidence). Rafiq and Ahmed (1995) and Borden (1964) supported the usefulness of the service marketing mix at a generic level as a strategy All of these studies were restricted to only social marketing area. The literature on Umrah travel services revealed that the generic marketing mix strategy is not enough (Haq et al 2009) This preliminary information revealed that service marketing mix for Umrah services have to include two additional dimensions (1) marketing communication as proposed by Fill and Jamieson, 2014; Halim et al 2017; Senguo, Xixiang, and Kilango, 2017) and (2) after-sales service as proposed by Egonsson, Bayarsaikhan, and Ting, 2013; Issac et al 2013; Maghsoudlou et al 2014). The present study is aimed at investigating how satisfaction affect customer loyalty in Umrah travelling services
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