2014

BRAC UNIVERSITY
6/30/2014
SERVICE REPORT ON THE SERVICE MARKETING PRACTICES OF
BANGLADESH ROAD TRANSPORT AUTHORITY [BRTA]
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BRAC BUSINESS SCHOOL
BRAC UNIVERSITY

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We would like to thank the Almighty for making the preparation and completion of this
Service Report possible.

Furthermore, I would like to thank our honored faculty, DR. MOHAMMED TAREQUE
AZIZ, for his immense support and guidance for making this experience even more fruitful
and worth the hard work.

Lastly, I would also like all the group members for their continuous endeavor, dedication and
hard work for making the term paper possible in the end.

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EXECUTIVE SUMMERY






This report is done as a part of our study and helped us to understand the real life scenario of
service marketing. This report also facilitated the understanding of the academic theories
associated with the course of BBA.
This report was conducted for the sole purpose of attaining greater practical knowledge on
the course MKT-431 Service Marketing, and at the same time it is an essential part for the
completion of the course. This paper contain data input collected from 34 respondents for
around 10 issues regarding the service marketing practices by Bangladesh Road Transport
Authority. And of all these factors seem to have the majority of influence and significance in
terms of service marketing information. This report contains thorough analysis of the GAPS
model, consumer behavior, expectations, perceptions in service, service research, customer
relationship, service recovery, service development and design and integrated service
marketing communications. These variables upon being analyzed further turn out to be the
handful of factors on the Service Marketing of Bangladesh Road Transport Authority.

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TABLE OF CONTENT
SL. NO. TOPIC PAGE NO.
1. ORIGIN OF THE REPORT
OBJECTIVES
SCOPE
METHODOLOGY
LIMITATIONS


07
2. INTRODUCTION 08
3. THE GAP MODEL OF SERVICE QUALITY 09
4. CONSUMER BEHAVIOR IN SERVICE 14
5. CONSUMER EXPECTATIONS IN SERVICE 16
6. CONSUMER PERCEPTION IN SERVICE 18
7. LISTENING CONSUMERS THROUGH RESEARCH 22
8. BUILDING CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP 28
9. SERVICE RECOVERY 32
10. SERVICE DEVELOPMENT AND DESIGN 34
11. INTEGRATED SERVICE MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS 36
12. WAY FOR COMPANY IN DELIVERING BEST QUALITY SERVICE 37
13. CONCLUSION 39
14. APPENDIX 40
15. REFERENCES 41

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Origin of the Report:
For the fulfillment of the course MKT-431 Service Marketing our respected teacher Dr.
Mohammad Tareque Aziz has assigned us with a job to prepare a service report on the
service marketing practices of Bangladesh Road Transport Authority.
Objective:
The main objective of the report is to help us to develop an understanding and insights of the
Service Marketing practices of Bangladesh Road Transport Authority.
Scope:
This report works only on the recent data collected from various respondents who are the
current or past customers of Bangladesh Road Transport Authority.
Methodology:
Data has been collected for the report from mainly primary sources and very few secondary
sources. The methodology we have used here are collecting primary data from 34 current or
past customers of Bangladesh Road Transport Authority, web data and other relevant
websites which played an important role to cover the aspects we have discussed here.
Limitations:
1) Tough to collect personal information.
2) Time is a limitation that would mostly with stands a comprehensive study on the topic
selected.




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I ntroduction:
Bangladesh Road Transport Authority, widely known as BRTA, is the authority to issue
driver's licenses in Bangladesh. BRTA, stationed in 32 districts among the 62 administrative
circles, it is under the Government Organization and the Motor Vehicle Ordinance, 1983 in
the road transport sector under the Ministry of Communication mandated for providing
services namely Registration of Motor Vehicles, Issuance of fitness certificate of motor
vehicles, Issuance of Route permit for Transport Vehicles, Issuance of Motor Driving
Licenses, Issuance of Motor Driving Instructor License, Registration of Motor Driving
Training Schools, Inspection of Motor Vehicles involved in road accidents, Inspection of
Government Vehicles for Repair etc. Besides, BRTA takes different measures in order to
promote road safety and coordinates road safety prevention activities undertaken by different
agencies/organizations. BRTA prepares the Annual Report of Road Traffic Accidents on the
basis of reported data on road traffic accidents from Bangladesh Police. Using the data
received from the Police BRTA has already published 7 consecutive annual reports since
2001. BRTA believes that the Report will help find GAP in the activities aiming at reducing
accidents by the road safety practitioners.
BRTA and the Bangladesh Police have been working together to maintain the integrity of the
database and promoting its statistical accuracy. BRTA describes according to Section-3
of Motor Vehicles Ordinance 1983,
To drive a motor vehicle in a public place every one must have driving
license.
To obtain a driving license one should hold a learner driving license before
appearing the driving test.
Application for the learner's license to be submitted to the licensing authority
in the prescribed form along with related papers and fees.
An applicant not being a foreign national must be able to read and write either
Bengali or English.
Successful candidate of the driving test have to submit application in the
prescribed form to the licensing authority along with the related papers &
fees.
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The GAPS Model of Service Quality:
GAP is the most important word in service marketing. GAP is the situation when there is a
difference between the consumer expectation and promise of the service of any company.

From the inception of BRTA, there are huge amount of GAPS that exist in the service of
BRTA and day by day the condition is still not being improved. BRTA is basically
responsible for the Vehicle registration in Bangladesh, Licensing of public transportation in
Bangladesh (excluding rickshaw) and Issuance of route permit to each bus in Bangladesh.
As there are no alternative BRTA to do these necessary works, any sorts of GAP in the
service of BRTA leads to a humongous trouble for the customers leading to customer
dissatisfaction.


From our research survey of BRTA that had been conducted to 34 different customers of
BRTA, sharing their experience of BRTA and future expectations. From this survey, a short
comprehensive GAP analysis is done to develop and understand the GAP model of BRTAs
service quality.


Firstly, based on the primary data when it comes to developing/maintaining a good
relationship with the customers there are significant GAP. Among these 34 respondents 15
respondents that is 44% respondents rated 1 out of 5; 12 of the respondents that is 35% rated
2 out of 5; 6 respondents rated 3 out of 5 that is 18%; and only 1 respondents rated 4 out of 5.
So, if we consider the majority response of the respondents then there is a GAP of 4 exists in
the rating given by the majority of the consumers.
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Chart 1: GAP analysis of BRTAs relationship with customers.
Secondly, based on the primary data when it comes to the service design of BRTA there are
significant GAPs that exists. Among these 34 respondents 8 respondents that is 24%
respondents rated 1 out of 5; 15 of the respondents that is 44% rated 2 out of 5; 9 respondents
rated 3 out of 5 that is 26%; and only 2 respondents rated 4 out of 5. So, if we consider the
majority response of the respondents then there is a GAP of 3 exists in the rating given by the
majority of the consumers.

Chart 2: GAP analysis of BRTAs Service design.
GAPs also exist with any sorts of service recovery or any Initiatives taken by BRTA reduces
customers dissatisfaction in case of service failure. Among these 34 respondents 9
respondents that is 26% respondents rated 1 out of 5; 19 of the respondents that is 56% rated
1 out of 5
Rating
2 out of 5
Rating
3 out of 5
Rating
4 out of 5
Rating
5 out of 5
Rating
Total Respondents 34 34 34 34 34
Rating 15 12 6 1 0
GAP 4 3 2 1 0
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
1 out of 5
Rating
2 out of 5
Rating
3 out of 5
Rating
4 out of 5
Rating
5 out of 5
Rating
Total Respondents 34 34 34 34 34
Rating 8 15 9 2 0
GAP 4 3 2 1 0
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
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2 out of 5; 5 respondents rated 3 out of 5 that is 15%; and only 1 respondents rated 4 out of 5.
So, if we consider the majority response of the respondents then there is a GAP of 3 exists in
the rating given by the majority of the consumers.

Chart 3: GAP analysis of BRTAs Initiatives taken by BRTA reduces customers
dissatisfaction in case of service failure.
There are GAPs on BRTA providing the services within the promised period. Among these
34 respondents 10 respondents that is 29% respondents rated 1 out of 5; 15 of the respondents
that is 44% rated 2 out of 5; 7 respondents rated 3 out of 5 that is 21%; and only 2
respondents rated 4 out of 5. So, if we consider the majority response of the respondents then
there is a GAP of 3 exists in the rating given by the majority of the consumers.

Chart 4: GAP analysis of BRTA providing the services more or less within the promised
period.
1 out of 5
Rating
2 out of 5
Rating
3 out of 5
Rating
4 out of 5
Rating
5 out of 5
Rating
Total Respondents 34 34 34 34 34
Rating 9 19 5 1 0
GAP 4 3 2 1 0
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
1 out of 5
Rating
2 out of 5
Rating
3 out of 5
Rating
4 out of 5
Rating
5 out of 5
Rating
Total Respondents 34 34 34 34 34
Rating 10 15 7 2 0
GAP 4 3 2 1 0
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
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When it comes to meeting the expectations of the customers BRTA still fails to deliver
proper service that meets the customers expectations creating a GAP in their services. One
of the main reasons of this failure is not keeping the promise that BRTA gives. From the birth
of BRTA it is even uncertain that how many people knows BRTAs promises of their
services clearly. Among these 34 respondents 12 respondents that is 35% respondents rated 1
out of 5; 17 of the respondents that is 50% rated 2 out of 5; 5 respondents rated 3 out of 5 that
is 15%. So, if we consider the majority response of the respondents then there is a GAP of 3
exists in the rating given by the majority of the consumers.



Chart 5: GAP analysis of BRTA meeting the expectations of the customers.

According to the secondary data, if we look back at the data from the fiscal year of 2001/02,
20% of the total budget was allocated for the road transport sector. Among these 20% of the
budget only 3% was actually allocated to the transportation sector (Paul Majumder, 2002).
Creating a GAP of 17% in the year of 2001/02, which is even 12 years before and still the
situation has not improved significantly.
Even in 2014, the commuters of the newest taxi cabs by Toma Group and Army Welfare
Trust has to bear at least 30% of the fares proposed for the new taxi cabs in Dhaka City as
hidden costs and loss of account in traffic jams (Sultana, 2014) which results in a GAP of
more than one-fourth of the total fare of a customer.
1 out of 5
Rating
2 out of 5
Rating
3 out of 5
Rating
4 out of 5
Rating
5 out of 5
Rating
Total Respondents 34 34 34 34 34
Rating 12 17 5 0 0
GAP 4 3 2 1 0
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
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Many of the donor agencies, international NGOs and multinational companies working in
Bangladesh, have used thousands of vehicles brought under the governments duty-free
scheme in violation of the rules for use. Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA), is the
leading agency for registering the duty-free vehicles with yellow number plates. BRTA,
records show that BRTA registered at least 4710 vehicles from 1972 to 1994, and among
these 4710 vehicles only 1281 vehicles were properly handed over or saw any cancellation of
the registration (Chowdhury Reza, 2014) allowing a huge GAP of 3429 vehicles or 73% of
the total vehicles with yellow number plates; which are completely traceless. This is the GAP
till 1994, the actual GAP of these types of vehicles in 2014 is totally unpredictable.
The BRTA has launched several programs by spending over Tk 12 billion to digitize issuance
of driving licenses and number-plates as well as the payment system. It has also set up a
central data system for storing all kinds of information on motorized transports. It was
assumed that digitization would help check corruption, malpractices and financial
irregularities in BRTA services, but it failed to live up to the billing, they say. Under the
digitization programs launched in 2011, the BRTA has completed development of the central
data system, where all the information about 2.0 million transports is recorded. But
unfortunately, The BRTA data shows that 300,000 vehicles out of 2.0 million received digital
number-plates during the last one and a half years (Mustafa, 2014), still keeping a GAP of 1.7
million vehicles receiving digital number-plates. Although BRTA was successful on revenue
earnings increased to Tk 7.69 billion in the last fiscal year from Tk 6.85 billion in the earlier
fiscal year (Mustafa, 2014).
According to a recent survey by Transparency International Bangladesh, sixty one per cent of
Bangladeshi drivers received their driving licenses from the authorities without undergoing
the necessary test (Sidwell, 2009). The legal process of issuing license takes around five to
seven months and costs around Tk 7,500 (Khan Tazlina, 2014). According to the
experiences of those polled during the two-year survey: a person can bribe officials crating an
entire GAP of Tk 100 to Tk 7,000 to receive a driving license, and Tk 100 - 500 to pass a
driving exam; the registration of a car or motorcycle may be obtained with a bribe of Tk
1,000 - 50,000 or Tk 100 - 10,000 to receive a certificate of roadworthiness without having
the vehicle tested (Sidwell, 2009).

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Consumer Behavior in Service:
The primary objectives of services producers and marketers are to develop and provide
offerings that satisfied consumer needs and expectations.to achieve these objectives, service
providers need to understand how consumers choose, experience and evaluate their service
offering.
Service Properties:
Experience Qualities: Attributes that can be discerned only after purchases or during
consumption. From our research we came to know that, BRTA is not efficient enough to
meet their consumer demand, not only that they cannot satisfy their consumer by providing
their service. For an example, we came to know that most of the times it fails to give driving
license to the consumer in time. Without taking the help of illegal brokers or from consumer
employees by any other means BRTA dont usually want to do anything. Besides, those who
have not any link in BRTA don`t even get the license within one year. So, efficiency is
missing here. Consumers are totally unhappy after experiencing their poor service. But the
service of BRTA does not fall under experience qualities because even after getting the
service consumers are still uncertain about the service provided by BRTA.
Credence Qualities: Characteristics those are impossible to evaluate even after purchase and
consumption. BRTA is bound to give proper service to the customer but majority times they
fail to do this. Consumer can not get license on right time even they can not behave well with
their consumer, they will give registration number along with an individual number of the
car. On the other hand, sometimes they lost consumers information and creates many
problems. Even BRTA is uncertain that how many people knows BRTAs promises of their
services clearly. As even after getting the service it takes considerable time for the customers
to evaluate the service of BRTA which makes BRTA service a credence quality.
Post Purchase Evaluation:
Word-of-mouth Communication: One of the best ways is, to get positive word of mouth to
create memorable and positive service experience but BRTA is mostly failing to do so in this
issue. Which results in dissatisfaction of the customers creating a negative word of mouth
communication to other consumers.
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Attribution of Dissatisfaction: As BRTA mostly fails to provide their service properly, they
usually dont do anything with great efficiency and effectiveness to make the service delivery
process more comfortable for the customers. This tends to be one of the most common
attributes of dissatisfaction even other attributes are also associated with it.
Positive and Negative Biases: Though people are not satisfied to BRTA but they have no
other option because BRTA is responsible for the Vehicle registration in Bangladesh,
Licensing of public transportation in Bangladesh (excluding rickshaw) and Issuance of route
permit to each bus in Bangladesh and there are no alternatives. It has no competitor around.
Those people who are using any sorts of vehicles excluding rickshaws in Bangladesh has to
go to BRTA for registration, fitness, tax token for car and license for individuals which
makes biasness factor to affect the customers very less for the lack of alternatives but most
customers do have a negative bias about the service of BRTA.
Brand Loyalty: The degree to which consumers committed to particular brands of goods or
services. BRTA is not good enough in providing quality services to the customers. The
employees are permanent. So they are serious about their work because the government will
not throw them away. They just do their job somehow when they think this should be done
and thats the one of the main reasons of the lack of quality service of BRTA as the
employees do not have the proper mentality to give the best services to the customers. There
are questions of being loyal to BRTA as the consumers must have to take the services of
BRTA no matter what as there are no alternatives. As a result, even though most of the
customers mind set is not loyal to BRTA but they do not have any options left with them but
to take the services of BRTA.

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Consumer expectations in Service:
Consumer has many expectations on BRTA because this government organization has the
full authority to give the transport licenses in Bangladesh.
Consumer Level of Expectation:
Ideal expectations: Consumer think the service of BRTA is very good and they are
very systematic, organized and no chance for corruption. Consumers also think that
there is no harassment in infrastructure and applying process.
Normative Should expectation: As BRTA is authorized by government the service
should satisfactory.
Experience based norms: BRTA must be maintained their policy and take fair
decision for every consumers.
Acceptable expectation: Consumer will accept technical delay if BRTA informed
their consumer.
Minimum tolerable expectation: Consumer will not tolerate about license delivery and
there is no response from BRTA.

Factors That Influence Consumer Expectations of Service:
Sources of desired service expectation: Consumer has desire expectation on BRTA
such as they can go through the applying process easily after that diving test
evaluation must be done fairly and finally they can get the license paper on time.
These are the actual demand of a consumer and they always expect this type of
service from the BRTA.
Sources of adequate service expectation: Consumer always finds acceptable service.
Consumer judge an organization with service. They expected quick response and
delivery form BRTA.
Service encounter expectations versus overall service expectation: Consumers
compare their past experience with current experience. They hold expectation about
the overall service quality of an expectation. Consumers think that service of BRTA
remains same and they made no change in their system.
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Sources of both desired and predicted service expectation: promising exactly what
will be delivered would seem and proper way to manage consumer expectations.
Sometimes BRTA did not fulfill consumers demand and wants because of their
implicit service promises. Explicit service promises influence the level of both desired
service and predicted service.
In our survey we found the opinion from different consumers about BRTA. The result of
their opinion is BRTA fail to give the proper service.

Figure: BRTA meeting the expectations of the customers
One of the main reasons of this failure is not keeping the promise that BRTA gives. From the
birth of BRTA it is even uncertain that how many people know BRTAs promises of their
services clearly. Among these 34 respondents 12 respondents that is 35% respondents rated 1
out of 5; 17 of the respondents that is 50% rated 2 out of 5; 5 respondents rated 3 out of 5 that
is 15%. So, if we consider the majority response of the respondents there is huge lacking and
it is focused in survey as well as the rating given by the majority of the consumers.



1 out of 5
Rating
2 out of 5
Rating
3 out of 5
Rating
4 out of 5
Rating
5 out of 5
Rating
Total Respondents 34 34 34 34 34
Rating 12 17 5 0 0
GAP 4 3 2 1 0
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
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Consumer Perception in Service:
How consumers perceived services, how they assess whether they have experienced quality
service and whether they are satisfied are the main concern of customer perception. The key
prospect of service success is how differently you can serve your customer. Here, we have
analyzed it by basing on core seven factors which are very much significant to ensure quality
service.
Efficiency: Efficiency refers that, how fast marketers can serve or deliver
service to the consumers. Research has shown that, BRTA is not efficient
enough to meet their consumer demand. Moreover, they cannot satisfy their
consumer by providing their service. For an example, we came to know that it
takes almost three/four months to deliver one driving license. Sometimes
employees ask for money and make the whole process more complicated.
Besides, those who have not any link in BRTA don`t even get the license
within one year. So, efficiency is missing here.
Fulfillment: BRTA is trying to provide digital name plate to all the cars and
motor bikes. But most of the time consumers are getting wrong number plates
and distorted information. Which means though BRTA is trying to solve
problem, the result is missing in the end. Consumers are not at all happy after
experiencing their poor service.
Reliability: Reliability is like delivering on promise. But BRTA is totally
opposite as our research suggests. We came to know that, though BRTA
promise to provide their service within a particular time but most of the time
they failed to provide desired service to its customer. This refers that they
cannot deliver promised service on time.
Privacy: In order to develop a quality service, keeping confidentiality is
important. BRTA keeps customers information is a secure way so that they
can take help from it in future. On the other hand, sometimes they lost
consumers information and creates messy condition.
Responsiveness: As say goes Slow and steady wins the race. But BRTA is
totally opposite. Research has shown that, the procedure of BRTA is as slow
as a tortoise. They can assure you that you will get the service but they will
not give you any specific time.
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Compensation: BRTA does not compensate to its customers even if fails to
provide service.
Contact: In BRTA there is no dedicated contact person to contact or share
problems with them. The condition of BRTA`s help line is very poor. Usually,
it is really hard to find a contact person to talk about the particular problem.

Service encounters:
It states about customer`s actual interaction of a service providing company or that period of
time during which a customer directly interacts with its service. Service encounter also
considers as source of pleasure or displeasure or satisfaction or dissatisfaction. Here, two
factors are most important like Recovery and Adoptability.
Recovery: We came to know that, BRTA does not even follow or give any
recovery to its consumers when they fail to provide service. Rather than they
make some lengthy process to get the desired service. For the betterment of
their service they may provide better service like
o Flexibility of operation flow process.
o Charging low to its consumers.
Adoptability: As BRTA does not even try to adopt with their consumer, does
not provide any recovery to the consumer. Adoptability is like employees
response to customer needs and request but BRTA not likely to follow those.
In order to develop better service they may follow some basic features like
o Giving preferences to its customer.
o Stopping nepotism.
o Delivering service on desired time.


The evidence of service:
Service evidence is the most important factor in service marketing as well as in service
providing company. As services are intangible, customers are seeking for evidence of service
in every interaction they have with an organization. There are three major categories of
evidence as experienced by customer.
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1. People

Contact people: Consumers never experienced good quality service from
BRTA as research has shown us. So, consumers ultimately spread bad words
of mouth to other consumers.
Customer himself/herself: Research shows that most of the BRTA customers
are dissatisfied or their experience with BRTA was not memorable or good.
Other customer: It is hard to find any customer who enjoyed the service of
BRTA and refer to others.

2. Process

Operation flow of activity: The flow of activity of BRTA is very slow and
poor. For an example, customer might wait one or two hour to check the
fitness of the car. It takes more than what consumers expect.
Steps in process: Process should be more flexible and enjoyable. On the other
hand, BRTA follows a lengthy step to get work done. Sometimes it is
intolerable for the customer.

1.Collecting
forms
2.Providing
additional
documents and
submit.
4.Appring in
driving test.
5.Medical test
3.Appring in
written test.
6.Licence
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Flexibility versus Standard: The service of BRTA neither flexible nor
standard.
Technology versus Human: As BRTA is not enough technologically updated,
most of the work got done by human. So, human touch is there.

3. Physical evidence

Tangible communication: As a tangible communication BRTA provides
license, digital name plate and other documents.
Servicescape: It refers the overall service quality of BRTA.
Guarantee: BRTA does not provide any service guarantee to its customer.
Technology: BRTA is not enough technologically updated. In order to serve
their service like checking fitness of cars, vehicles class etc. still use manual
system.
Website: BRTA has own website but is not satisfactory and not that much
advanced. Besides their E-ticketing system is very poor. Most of the time it
does not work as research shows.

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Listening Customers through Research:
Having the notion of customer expectation is essential to provide quality service to the
customers. Marketing research is a must for understanding customer expectations and
perceptions of services marketing research must focus on service issues such as:
What are the most important features that customers look for the service?
In which standard or level the service is being provided?
Finally, what company should or can do in case of problem in service delivery?
Marketing research not only helps the company to be aware about what customers
expectations are but also helps to stay on track with changing customer requirements.
However, while conducting the research we found out that BRTA does not conduct any
marketing research. Only recently they are being concerned about that fact that they should
do such kind of research when we asked about it. All they have done, is collecting the data of
accidents received from the Police departments and published seven consecutive annual
reports since 2001. BRTA believes that the Report will help find GAP in the activities aiming
to reduce accidents by the road safety practitioners.
Prior to that, we have conducted a simple market research. The purpose of the research is to
know the current market position which consumers hold for BRTA. Our sample size for
conducting the research was 34. We tried to conduct the research following the effective
service research program in which we tried to include all the criterias as follows:
Qualitative and quantitative research: While doing the research we kept it in our mind that
the research should have both qualitative as well as quantitative data. Therefore, from ten
questionnaires nine of them where quantitative and one of them were qualitative.
Includes both expectations and perceptions of customers: We also included both
expectations and perception of the customer. From the research we found out that 50% of
the consumers were very less satisfied in terms of expectation and perception. Followed
by 35% said they are not at all satisfied thus rest stayed neutral as they had nothing to say.
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Balance the cost of the research and the value of the information: While conducting the
research we need to think about the cost of conducting the research the worthwhile of the
information which we will get for the research. Will it be beneficial? Will the information
be valuable or not? We think that conducting such kind a research has its own intrinsic
value as well as it will be very much helpful for the company to be integrated with the
customers.
Include statistics validity when necessary: We would like to put it honest words that we
do not think that our research has statistical validity. Not all forms of research have
statistical validity. We do not know that whether our research can help to solve problems
of other countries or similar issues. However, all we can say that, there may be some
common grounds which will match with our research focused issues.
Measures priorities and importance: Customers have many service requirements but not
all are equally important or can be taken under concern and develop those services.
o Direct importance measure: Measuring the relative importance of the
attributes can be done by asking the consumers to order and priorities the
extremely effective one.
o Indirect importance measure: Using statistical correlation and regression
analysis which reflects contribution of questionnaire items or requirements of
overall service quality. These things can be done with our research.
Appropriate frequency: As we conducted the research we came to know all the
information from the consumers. BRTA should conduct such research to stay updated
about changing consumers expectations.
Measures of loyalty, behavioral intentions or behavior: Through research we can also get
behavioral intentions of the consumers. There can be positive and negative consequences
35%
50%
15%
Meets expectation with services
Not at all
Very less
Neutral
Meets
Highly meets
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or service quality. In our research we found majority in negative behavioral intentions.
Consumers spreading negative word of mouth to others, willingness in finding alternative
solutions, and constantly complaining. BRTA should track these areas very easily and
improve their relative service value.

Other research results:

We can see that in maintaining good relation with the consumers BRTA is very unsuccessful.
From the respondents 44% are not at all satisfied and 35% are very less satisfied with their
relation with BRTA.

44%
35%
18%
3% 0%
1. Successful in maintaining good relation
1. Not at all.
2. Very less successful.
3. Neutral.
4. Quite successful.
5. Very much successful
26%
56%
15%
3% 0%
2. Reduction of dissatisfaction for service
failure
1. Does not reduce
dissatisfaction.
2. Very less reduction of
dissatisfaction.
3. Neutral.
4. Fair reduction of
dissatisfaction.
5. Very high reduction of
dissatisfaction.
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In case of service failure BRTA has failed to reduce dissatisfaction of the consumers. The pie
chart shows 56% of the respondents pointed at very less reduction of dissatisfaction and 26%
said it does not reduce at all, where 15% remained neutral about it.


There are still undefined services consumers still get confused what they should do in times
of service delivery. Sometimes they get lost in bureaucracy. As the research shows 44% of
the respondents were dissatisfied with BRTAs service design, 24% claimed they are highly
dissatisfied. Although, the majority gave a negative vibe about BRTAs service design it was
quite astonishing for us that 26% of the respondents remained neutral. How? Honestly it is a
mystery for us as well.

24%
44%
26%
6% 0%
3. Service design of BRTA
1. Highly dissatisfied.
2. Dissatisfied.
3. Neutral.
4. Satisfied.
5. Highly satisfied
29%
44%
21%
6% 0%
4. Service providing
period
1. Does not
provide at all.
2. Hardly
provides.
3. Neutral.
4.Provides.
5.Timly
Provides.
18%
47%
32%
3% 0%
5. Solving problem
1. Very bad.
2. Bad.
3. Neutral.
4. Good.
5. Very good
24 | P a g e

The research shows that BRTA fails to deliver their service within the promised time. 44% of
the respondents says that they hardly provide their service on time and 29% believe they
never provide their service as promised timeframe. On the other hand, BRTA are very poor in
solving consumer problem. However, surprisingly 32% of the respondents remained neutral.
It is something they have accepted their fate that they cannot expect such service from
BRTA.

We have an interesting finding about guarantee from BRTA. It seems most of the respondent
were confused whether guarantee will make any difference or not in service providing. We
have a tie between both extremes from the respondents. 15% believes it will not make any
difference and 15% believes it will make huge difference. Rest assures, majority of 29%
believes that it will make some difference. Whereas 23% believes they will hardly see any
noticeable difference and rest of the 18% remained neutral about it.


15%
23%
18%
29%
15%
6. Guarantee will make a difference
Will not make any difference.
Will hardly make any difference.
Neutral.
Will make some difference.
Will make a huge difference
25 | P a g e


BRTAs E-ticketing system in not up to the mark for the consumers as well. Most of them
remained neutral because they do not use the system properly. And those who has
experienced rated it as bad. Again we can see tie between two extremes, 15% rated is as very
bad and 15% rated it very good. Lastly, if we look at overall experience with BRTA we can
see it clearly that 47% of the respondents have bad experience and 26% of them are highly
dissatisfied.


15%
35% 35%
15%
0%
7. E-Ticketing
1. Very bad.
2. Bad.
3. Neutral.
4. Good.
5. Very good
26%
47%
24%
3% 0%
8. Overall experience with
BRTA
1. Highly
dissatisfied.
2. Dissatisfied.
3. Neutral.
4. Satisfied
26 | P a g e

Building Customer Relationship:
Relationship is all about communicating with the consumers by giving proper and adequate
service. It grows day by day. Customers are the main part of an organization. So the
organization should be aware of their service for every customer. Bangladesh Road Transport
Authority is under government maintenance. This is one type of organization that the
customers cannot leave or switch to other same organization. As it is the only one in
Bangladesh. It has no competitor around. Those people who are using cars in Bangladesh
have to go to BRTA for registration, fitness, tax token for car and license for individuals.
Relation between the customers and the employees of BRTA is not always good enough for
everybody. The employees are permanent. So they have many reasons not to be serious about
their work because the government will not throw them away. They just do their job
somehow when they think this should be done. As a result the customers sometimes lose their
patience. It harms the relationship between him and BRTA. Employees knows that very well
the customers have no option to go but BRTA for the legal document purpose of cars no
matter what happens they will come to BRTA. So they do not think about customer relations.
The goals of relationship marketing are not covered by BRTA. They are not successful by
giving service to their customers. Their relationship level is low. They do not get to fulfill
customers expectations as we came to know from doing survey.
When an individual comes and applies for a driving license then BRTA is bound to give him
proper treatment by giving appropriate service. Employees should communicate with him
politely that they do not do. They should give him the papers by proper time. Delaying does
not make any good. An examination is taken by the officers of the drivers who apply for
license. Those who pass this examination get the driving license within a limited period of
time. This time should not be very lengthy. But now a day BRTA takes longer time. This
should be done properly in time in order to build good customer relationships. BRTA is not at
all concerned about this. They just get the work done somehow. There are lots of brokers
roaming around the office. They will get your work done if you pay him extra money in
return. This harms BRTA. They do not get to communicate with their customers in this case.
So they are not in a position to building any relation. BRTA should get rid of these brokers
all around. They harm the reputation of the organization.
27 | P a g e

BRTA also provides with the legal documents needed for a private car, bus, truck and motor
cycles. When an individual apply for registration and fitness for his car, he will be asked to
come later on a specific day with his car. BRTA officers will check the car body, engine etc.
and fill up the form. If it meets the proper requirement of BRTA then they will give
registration number along with an individual number of the car. This is delivered few days
later. This procedure is not so lengthy. But the workers of BRTA are not at all cooperative
with customers or serious about maintaining time for them. Sometimes the users have to
suffer for longer time.
The customers should be equal. The service should be same for everybody. But some
dishonest employees take big amount of money as bribe to get the work done. Where there is
no system of doing this. If the authority finds out about this incident then the employee will
be fired. But they never found. So some customers get special treatment from the employees
where they should not.
BRTA is now also responsible for giving the digital number plate of cars. For that it needs
around 5500 taka and about 14 days. But they are so lazy to do the work done on right time.
So they sometimes hand over it after one month. This totally harms the relationship with
customers. Customers will lose faith. When committing a delivery date with consumers about
the documents, it should be done properly on the promised date. Or else the customers will be
unwilling to come for the service. It is stated before that BRTA is a type of organization that
anyone does not have any option to choose between.
BRTAs present service condition is very poor. A survey shows the actual feedback of
customers after getting service from BRTA.


28 | P a g e



Here, 64% of the customers are unhappy about the service they got, 28% of the customers
have no comment and 8% of the customers are being happy.
They need to increase their types of services and the way of providing services in order to
maintain a good relation with the users. They should consider themselves as lucky because
they do not have to worry about attracting or get new customers. Customers have to come to
them for their purpose. So if they try to maintain a proper schedule of time and
accomplishing the committed delivery on time they might get good feedback from customers.
It cannot be changed overnight. BRTA should take revolutionary initiatives to turn every
employee responsible and do their work on time. That can help to build customer relationship
fast.
Government must look after this section seriously as this is a very big issue. Only govt. can
make changes to BRTA by changing the policy that will be helpful for normal people. Like,
they do not have to wait for too long; do not have to face illiterate brokers, will get proper
treatment. They can make the security stronger and make such a way that people can apply
anything from using internet. These will make the consumers confident and they will feel
safe. Then the customer relationship will occur after satisfying them.
BRTA should make change to their staff who does not work properly. If the employee is bad
or irresponsible than customers cannot be satisfied. Satisfying customers should be their main
goal as the customers are endless. They will come to BRTA.
The promises of delivering documents should be in proper timing. Anything cannot take
longer time than committed. It is very important that BRTA maintain their time and do not
64%
8%
28%
Unhappy Happy Neutral
29 | P a g e

waste customers time. Properly treating and communicating with customers by the
employees will build relationship gradually. At least fulfilling the expectations of customers
in time will help very much to gain trust and confidence. It will make BRTA more reliable to
customers.
Customers are partners of an organization. BRTA should know this properly and treat their
customer in a good way so that everyone can have a good idea about them. As its a
government organization so their profit is not very high. For this reason any worker or officer
should not take any advantage by taking extra money from customers. BRTA can make
everything go right for the customers. They just need to focus on their work and satisfying
the customers on committed time.
BRTA has huge a negative reputation for Bangladesh govt. It should acquire its actual dignity
and position on society among users. For this they have to make some changes in the right
place so that the work goes properly. Everybody should become more responsible and
careful. Bribe should be prohibited and giving every customer attention on his/her problem.
Doing these simple things can easily create a good customer relationship among the
customers and BRTA.



30 | P a g e

Service Recovery:
A customer is the most important visitor on our premises; he is not dependent on us. We are
dependent on him. He is not an interruption in our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an
outsider in our business. He is part of it. We are not doing him a favor by serving him. He is
doing us a favor by giving us an opportunity to do so.
- Mahatma Gandhi

As a marketer, everyone should follow this inspirational message once said by the honorific
Mahatma Gandhi. But because of some problems some organizations just cannot maintain
the right and supreme quality of their service. And for that they have to either apologize to
their customers amicably or do something to compensate for their wrong doing.
The term service recovery refers to the actions a service provider takes in response to service
failure. By including also customer satisfaction into the definition, service recovery is a
thought-out, planned, process of returning aggrieved/dissatisfied customers to a state of
satisfaction with a company/service. Service recovery attempts to solve problems at the
service encounter before customers complain or before they leave the service encounter
dissatisfied. Service recovery is considered as customer retention strategy.
An effective application of recovery strategies may enable service mangers to maintain or
even increase loyalty. Generally, good service recovery not only turns angry and frustrated
customers into loyal ones, but it also has the potential to create more goodwill than if things
do go wrong.
Customers are a vital asset of service companies- in spite of knowing that BRTA does not
really do anything for its customers.
But there are some suggestions that we as a consumer would like to offer to BRTA and also
hope that someday it might use them. By looking at the survey we can easily say that, what
the places BRTA should improve are:


31 | P a g e

Firstly, BRTA maintaining a good quality of relationship hereafter with its customers
by simply talking and listening to them patiently can be a good start.
Then not just listen but actually take an action to solve the customers problems
within a certain period of time can be a big step.
There are a lot of new service designs that BRTA should implement. One of them is-
providing more traffic signs with meaning. Because there might be some signs that
even the drivers might not understand. For example:


No passing without stopping.

From the entering into the center till the customer goes out, it is the responsibility to
all the employees to provide each customer utmost the value.
Make a list of all the complaints the customers bring with them so they can
effortlessly pick every problems and solve as it should be.
One of our interviewer commented that there should be more vehicles on all the
routes. This is for me the major need now-a-days. The government should pay
attention to it immediately.

Things that happened in the past, mistakes that done by the Bangladesh Road Transport
Authority cannot be changed. But if BRTA starts taking this strategies as their service
recovery, then to some extent the consumers will be satisfied and can see some real hope in
it.

32 | P a g e

Service Development and Design:
FRONT END PLANNING:
Business Strategy Development and Review
In July last year, Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) signed an agreement with
the Army Trust and Toma Paribahan. A meeting at the communications ministry on March
23 made the decision upon requests from the cab service operators -- Bangladesh Army
Welfare Trust and private firm Toma Paribahan.
State Minister for Jute and Textiles Mirza Azam is one of the owners of Toma Paribahan.

New Service Strategy Development
Toma which is basically a construction firm, the firm was awarded the job as it fulfilled all
the conditions set by the BRTA in operating taxi cabs. The government had engaged the army
in the venture to maintain transparency and security.

Idea Generation
The taxi fare has been fixed in the meeting. Tk 100 for the first two kilometers, Tk 34 for
every next kilometer and Tk 8.5 for a minute's wait in the traffic for air conditioned cabs. For
non-AC cabs, the rate is Tk 50, Tk 20 and Tk 5 respectively. This means, if one takes a trip
on an AC cab from Dhanmondi-8 to Shahjalal International Airport (16km) and is caught up
in the jam for 20 minutes, he will have to cough up Tk 746. It will be Tk 430 in case of a
non-AC cab.

Business Analysis
The revenue and cost cant be found, but it can be estimated that the revenue would be higher
than the cost if people accept it. If the people dont accept the fare, BRTA should take steps
to reduce the fare as soon as possible to make profit as well as the development of our
transportation system.
33 | P a g e


IMPLEMENTATION:

Service Development and Testing
From the survey, we came to know that people are not happy with the fare set by BRTA.
They want it to be reduced. One of the customers, who took the taxi, went to Banani from
Uttara and was charged 1400tk which was unreasonable. He also told us that the fare was
irrational.

Market Testing
The market testing period is running now. Communications Minister Obaidul Quader said,
Let the cabs start operating first, and then we will see how people take the service. We will
look into the matter after evaluating the reality," he said when asked if the authorities would
reduce the fare.

Commercialization
The new cab service was launched on April 14, the Bangla New Year. Initially, each of the
two operators will import 30 Japanese AC cars for the capital.

Post Introduction Evaluation
It has been 2 months since the service has been introduced. The customers have no
complaints about the quality of the taxi cabs, but they have complaints about the taxi fare.
To conclude, it can be said that BRTA should arrange a meeting again and reevaluate the
problems the people are facing right now in order to have a better communication system in
Bangladesh. People suggested not only to reduce the fare, but also to start an online service,
for example, they can have an online service where people can place an order to take the taxi
cabs after a particular time. BRTA should consider the opinion of the consumers, because
consumers are the boss one of the marketing guru said so.
34 | P a g e

I ntegrated Service Marketing Communications:
Integrated marketing communication refers the secret of covering all the information to the
entire consumer segment and to all the time. BRTA has reduced integrated marketing
communication system. But if they want to develop proper integrated marketing
communication, they have to develop new strategies. For an example-
Giving an offer that, 10% off in registration(R) and 10% off in license.
This offer is only for bike riders (B).
Validity from 1
st
July of 2014 to 1
st
July of 2015(P).
Communication medium would be Television Commercial (T), Radio (R), Print
media (N).
After planning all those BRTA may decide that, from 1
st
July to November 31
st
they will go
for T and cover R+B+P. After telecasting three months successfully BRTA can change the
medium like they move from T to R. In order to avoid disintegrated service marketing
communication BRTA will prove the same information throughout all the media. For an
example while telecasting through radio BRTA will cover R+B+P and so on. That means
December to March they can continue with R along with same information. Moreover, from
March to July they can move from R to N and by giving the same information to the
customer. If BRTA can manage the integrated service marketing communication in this way,
most consumers will come and there will not be any miscommunication among the customers
and the service providers.

35 | P a g e

Way For the Company in Delivering Best
Quality Services:
Service quality is compared between expectations and performance. Company with high
service quality will be able to satisfy their customers. Consumers now a day are very savvy.
They are smart and will look for the best alternatives in terms of choosing their services.
BRTA is the only authority in this sector therefore people have lot of expectations from it.
Not only that, as a government organization it should provide the best possible service to the
people of these country. For them, they should think serving the people as part of their
responsibility for their country people. In contrast, we saw quite the opposite. BRTA can
improve their service quality as referred by us:
First of all BRTA should conduct effective research to find out the GAP of their service.
They should develop better service design.
They should always care about customers perceptions and expectation.
They should make their process faster.
They should make their service from the perspective of the consumers.
More careful in choosing efficient and effective employees.
They should deliver service within the promised period.
Build better relation with the customers.
Customer service should be their first priority.
Build effective design and planning for service recovery.
They should focus more on R&D [Research and Development] sector.
Should form efficient and effective management pool.
Last but not the least they must gain the trust of the consumers.

Customer perception of best quality service
In the above we gave our technical insights about what BRTA should do to offer best quality
service. Now let us look at some of the common grounds of which our respondents believe
that they should get from BRTA for best quality service.
Most of the respondents focused on better service providing, keeping the promise, delivering
the service on time. They believe better and faster process can improve their service quality.
36 | P a g e

Along with that they expect BRTA to be more technologically advanced and equipped. There
should be more online services from BRTA such as, online based application, online based
paper update, online based maintenance. Customers should get full transparency providing all
the needed information. Customers feel insecure as there has been reports that BRTA cannot
keep their customer information properly, therefore, suggested to maintain a better internet
based server with proper security measures.
More importantly, respondents focused that BRTA should stop practicing illegal activities. In
Bangla we call them Dalal (broker), they want a service atmosphere which is free from
brokers. They focused on Bureaucratic issues, sometimes in every step of the process the
consumer faces unfair means of bribing and unethical obligations. The respondents believe
that reduction in corruption in BRTA will improve in providing best quality services.
Last but not the least, customer expects better caring for them. Consumers want to share their
problem but someone needs to listen. One of the respondents said, Respect! Earn some
respect from the people at first. BRTA should consider all these facts under serious
consideration to provide best quality service. After all the future is about service marketing,
there is no other best alternative than listening to the consumers to offer best quality service.
37 | P a g e

Conclusion:
Finally, in conclusion we want to say our most valuable experience. It may sound a bit
informal but we think it is a risk worth taking. The report continued with its insights,
theoretical approaches, research methodologies, customers perceptions and expectations,
their preferences and has reached all the way to the end. Information that we gathered is very
little but the experience of gathering all the information is priceless. It may be little but it is
valuable information from service marketing point of view. The most valuable information
for us was able to the sense the intensity service marketing in the future. How consumers can
be immensely important for providing services. Consumers are smart, savvy, emotional, and
they are sensitive. Most importantly, now we know that to survive in the service industry
proper communication, relation and caring for consumers is a must.

BRTA is running the service under the government. We think it is their monopoly in the
market for which they are still alive and able to operate. It may sound harsh, but with such
kind of service they wont be able to fulfill the expectations of the consumers. Thus for the
consumers, it is as clear as it can be if there were able to find a little better alternative of
BRTA they would definitely go for that option.

Last but not the least there is no denying the fact that they are trying. They were able to
reduce accidence from past decade. They are trying to come up with better solutions as they
think for the consumers. However, without getting to know about customer expectations,
communication, maintaining good relation and listening to them, how far BRTA will be
successful is a doubtful matter.
38 | P a g e

Appendix
Survey questionnaire on Bangladesh Road Transport Authority
Questions
Highly
Dissatisfied
Dissatisfied Neutral Satisfied Highly
Satisfied

1. How much successful do you think BRTA
is in terms of maintaining good relation
with the customers?
2. Initiatives taken by BRTA reduces your
dissatisfaction in case of service failure.
3. Service design of BRTA (process/way it is
provided/ defined or undefined services).
4. Your overall experience with BRTA (from
Service processing to overall infrastructure)
5. BRTA provides the service more or less
within the promised period.
6. How good are they to solve your problem
(did something extra to help out)?
7. What would be your preference score to its
E-Ticketing system (Internet and IT use)?
8. Do you believe Guarantee in providing
service will make a difference?
9. Does BRTA meets your expectations with
their services?
10. Your future expectations from BRTA.



Research results
Question
s
Highly
dissatisfied(1
)
Dissatisfied(2) Neutral(3) Satisfied(4) Highly
satisfied(5)
1. 15 12 6 1 0
2. 9 19 5 1 0
3. 8 15 9 2 0
4. 9 16 8 1 0
5. 10 15 7 2 0
6. 6 16 11 1 0
7. 5 12 12 5 0
8. 5 8 6 10 5
9. 12 17 5 0 0
39 | P a g e


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