Impact of Social Media on Customer Satisfaction: Safaricom Call Center

This research project, submitted for a Master of Arts degree in Project Planning and Management at the University of Nairobi in 2013, investigates the influence of social media on customer satisfaction, specifically within Safaricom's call center in Nairobi County, Kenya. The study explores the impact of ease of use, speed, awareness, and generational change on customer satisfaction levels. Employing a descriptive survey design, the research collected data through questionnaires from Safaricom subscribers, analyzing both quantitative and qualitative data. Key findings reveal the significant influence of social media awareness on customer usage, followed by the speed and time of social media interactions, and finally, the ease of use and generational changes impacting user behavior. The research concludes with recommendations for Safaricom to enhance customer satisfaction by increasing awareness programs, improving response times, and optimizing the user-friendliness of social care platforms.

THE INFLUENCE OF USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON CUSTOMER
SATISFACTION.THE CASE OF SAFARICOM CALL CENTER,
NAIROBI COUNTY, KENYA.
BY
GACHAGUA MARY NYAMBURA
A RESEARCH PROJECT REPORT SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT
OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE AWARD OF MASTER OF ARTS
DEGREE IN PROJECT PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT,THE UNIVERSITY
OF NAIROBI.
2013

ii
DECLARATION
This research project report is my original work and has not been presented to any
university for academic award.
Signature: ----------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------
Gachagua Mary Nyambura Date
L50/70542/2011
This research project report has been submitted for examination with my approval as the
University supervisor.
Sign------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------
Prof Christopher. M .Gakuu Date
Department of Extra Mural Studies

iii
DEDICATION
This research project report is dedicated to my loving parents Mr. George Gachagua and
Mrs. Joyce Wangui Gachagua for their moral and financial support undertaking the
research,

iv
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
First and foremost I wish to take this opportunity to thank my supervisor Professor
Christopher Gakuu for his dedicated supervision. Thanks for your time, patience and your
coaching all the way through .
My sincere gratitude goes to my all the lecturers of University Of Nairobi for their
professional support either directly or in directly in making the undertaking of this
research work a success and all staff of Extra Mural Department and School of
Continuing and Distance Education for giving me the opportunity to pursue the Master’s
program.
I am extremely grateful to Mr. Daniel Kariuki, the Safaricom social media data leader for
his support in preliminary information gathering with regards to this study. I also thank
social media staff for their input towards this study.
To all Project Planning and Management students for the year 2011, I wish to
acknowledge your contributions towards making this work successful through group
discussions and continuous consultations. Lastly, I also wish to acknowledge my friends;
Judith Maiko, Evelyn Peters and Faith Wanderi for their moral support and advice.
Thanks again to all who helped me.
.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
DECLARATION.............................................................................................................. ii
DEDICATION................................................................................................................. iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT .............................................................................................. iv
LIST OF TABLES .......................................................................................................... ix
LIST OF FIGURES ......................................................................................................... x
ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS ....................................................................... xi
ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................... xii
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ............................................................................ 1
1.1 Background of the Study ............................................................................................. 1
1.2 Statement of the problem ............................................................................................. 5
1.3 Purpose of the Study .................................................................................................... 6
1.4 Research Objectives ..................................................................................................... 6
1.5 Research Questions ...................................................................................................... 6
1.6 Significance of the study .............................................................................................. 7
1.7 Delimitation ................................................................................................................. 7
1.8 Limitations of the Study............................................................................................... 7
1.9 Assumptions of the Study ........................................................................................... 8
1.10 Significant definition of terms ................................................................................... 8
1.11 Organization of the study ........................................................................................... 9
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................. 10
2.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................ 10
2.2 Theoretical Framework .............................................................................................. 10
2.2.1. Transaction Cost Theory ........................................................................................ 10
2.2.2 Service quality theory ............................................................................................. 11
2.2.3 Expectation Confirmation Theory of Customer Satisfaction.................................. 11
2.2.4 Social Media and Customer Satisfaction ................................................................ 11
2.3 The Influence of Use of Social Media on Customer Satisfaction .............................. 13

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2.3.1 Ease of use of social media ................................................................................... 13
2.3.2 Speed of social media ............................................................................................. 14
2.3.3 Awareness Level on Social Media .......................................................................... 14
2.3.4 Social Influence on Use of Social Media ................................................................ 15
2.3.5 Generational Change on Use of Social Media ........................................................ 15
2.4 Empirical Review....................................................................................................... 16
2.5 Conceptual Framework .............................................................................................. 17
2.6 Research Gap ............................................................................................................. 19
2.7 Summary of Literature Review .................................................................................. 19
CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY .................. 21
3.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................ 21
3.2 Research Design......................................................................................................... 21
3.3 Target Population. ...................................................................................................... 21
3.4 Sample size ............................................................................................................... 22
3.5 Data Collection and Analysis..................................................................................... 22
3.5.1 Research Instrument................................................................................................ 22
3.5.2 Instruments Validity and Reliability ....................................................................... 23
3.5.3 Pilot Test ................................................................................................................. 23
3.5.4 Data Collection Method .......................................................................................... 25
3.5.5. Data Analysis ......................................................................................................... 25
3.5.6 Ethical Consideration .............................................................................................. 26
3.6 Operational Definition of Variables ........................................................................... 27
CHAPTER FOUR: DATA ANALYSIS, PRESENTATION AND
INTERPRETATION ..................................................................................................... 28
4.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................ 28
4.2 Response Return Rate ................................................................................................ 28
4.3 Background information ............................................................................................ 28
4.3.1 Distribution of respondents by gender .................................................................... 28
4.3.2 Distribution of respondents by Age brackets .......................................................... 29

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4.3.3 Distribution of respondents by Education level ...................................................... 29
4.3.4 Safaricom service .................................................................................................... 30
4.3.5 Safaricom social care center ................................................................................... 30
4.4 Independent variables on influence of use of social media ...................................... 30
4.4.1 Ease of use of social media ..................................................................................... 30
4.4.1.1 Use social media service ...................................................................................... 30
4.4.1.2 Convenient to use safaricom social care center ................................................... 31
4.4.1.3 Safaricom social care Centre home page ............................................................. 32
4.4.2 Speed and time of social media .............................................................................. 32
4.4.2.1 Time taken to respond .......................................................................................... 32
4.4.2.2 Service offered via the social media .................................................................... 33
4.4.3 Level of awareness of social media ........................................................................ 33
4.4.3.1 Information about safaricom social care center ................................................... 33
4.4.3.2 Recommended the social care services ................................................................ 34
4.4.4 Generation change on use social media .................................................................. 34
4.4.4.1 Devices used by the respondents to access safaricom social care center ............ 34
4.4.4.2 Frequency of changing the model of mobile phone............................................. 35
4.4.4.3 Change the model of mobile phone ..................................................................... 36
4.4.4.4 Customer care channel ......................................................................................... 36
4.4.4.5 Choice of the channel........................................................................................... 37
4.4.4.6 Recommend another customer to use safaricom social care center ..................... 37
4.5 Customer satisfaction and social media ..................................................................... 37
4.6 Coefficient analysis .................................................................................................... 39
4.7 Summary .................................................................................................................... 40
CHAPTER FIVE DISCUSSIONS, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
.......................................................................................................................................... 41
5.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................ 41
5.2 Summary of findings.................................................................................................. 41
5.2.1 Ease of use of social media ..................................................................................... 41
5.2.2 Speed and time of social media .............................................................................. 42

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5.2.3 Level of awareness of social media ........................................................................ 42
5.2.4 Generational Change on Use of Social Media ........................................................ 42
5.3 Discussions from the findings. ................................................................................... 43
5.4 Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 44
5.5 Recommendations ...................................................................................................... 45
5.6 Recommendation for further research ....................................................................... 46
REFERENCE ................................................................................................................. 47
Appendix 1: Transmittal Letter ........................................................................................ 52
Appendix 2: Structured Questionnaire............................................................................. 53

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LIST OF TABLES
Table 3.1: Reliability Coefficients .....................................................................................25
Table 4.1: Gender of respondents ......................................................................................28
Table 4.2: Age brackets .....................................................................................................29
Table 4.3: Respondent’s level of education .......................................................................29
Table 4.4: Safaricom social care center .............................................................................30
Table 4.5: Use social media service ...................................................................................31
Table 4.6 Convenient to use safaricom social care centre .................................................31
Table 4.7 Safaricom social care Centre home pages .........................................................32
Table 4.8 Time taken to respond ........................................................................................33
Table 4.9 Service offered via the social media ..................................................................33
Table 4.10 Information about safaricom social care centre ...............................................34
Table 4.11 Recommended the social care services ............................................................34
Table 4.12 Devices used to access social care ...................................................................35
Table 4.13 Frequency of changing the model of your mobile phone ................................35
Table 4.14 Change the model of mobile phone .................................................................36
Table 4.15 Customer care channel .....................................................................................36
Table 4.16 Choice of the channel ......................................................................................37
Table 4.17 Recommend another customer to use safaricom social care center. ................37
Table 4.18: Customer satisfaction and social media ..........................................................38

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LIST OF FIGURES
Fig 1: Conceptual framework ............................................................................................. 18

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ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS
CCK Communications Commission of Kenya
GSM Global System for Mobile Communications
ICT Information communication technology
IT Information Technology
SPSS Statistical Package for Social Sciences

xii
ABSTRACT
Customer satisfaction is the measure of organization total product performance in relation
to a set of customer requirement. The research was undertaken on the influence of use of
social media on customer satisfaction a case of safaricom call center, Nairobi, Kenya.
This study was guided by the following objectives; To establish the influence of ease of
use of social media service on customer satisfaction; to establish how speed and time of
social media service influence customer satisfaction; to determine how the level of
awareness of use of social media service influence customer satisfaction and finally to
assess how generation gap influence the use of social media service. The study employed
descriptive survey design; the target population comprised of safaricom subscribers who
use social media services. Simple random sampling and purposive sampling was used to
select the retail center to participate .The selected shops include; Moi Avenue, IandM,
Buru Buru, Eastleagh, Nakumatt junction and the Village market shop based on their
convenience and location of the shop. The instrument used for data collection was self-
administered questionnaires. A total of 384 questionnaires were issued and only 255
returned fully completed questioners giving a response return rate of 66%. There were
ethical issues related to the study and they were addressed by maintaining high level
confidentiality of the information volunteered by the respondents. Both quantitative and
qualitative data was collected. The quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive
statistics by employing Statistical Package for Social Scientists and presented using
frequencies tables, bar graphs and tables. Qualitative data was analyzed using thematic
analysis. It was expected that the results of the study was to be used to make
recommendations on how social media can be used to increase customer satisfaction. The
study concludes that regarding the influence of use of social media the level of awareness
of social media had more on use on social media usage, followed by speed and time of
social media and finally the ease of use and generation change has the same influence.
The study recommends that, more awareness programs be created, social media
subscribers get timely feedback and resolution on their queries and the social care home
page should be user friendly and attractive.