Factors Affecting Customer Satisfaction: A Case Study of Food Panda

ABSTRACT


Introduction
Right from ancient times, the customer is a very important stakeholder in the conduct of any business irrespective of its size (Asma et al., 2021).The evolution of business has increased the importance of customers and has changed the customer position from indirect stakeholder to direct stakeholder (Razak & Shamsudin, 2019, Ali et al., 2021).Customers now occupy a very important position in any business so now it is a need time for the businesses to keep customers satisfied.A large number of satisfied and everincreasing customers leads to more revenues resulting in more profits and business growth.Several kinds of research have been conducted by researchers for decades to find out more and more efficient ways for business to satisfy their customers (Le et al., 2020).
The term Brand image is a noteworthy topic of research for behavioral science researchers.It refers to the perception in the mind of customers toward particular products or services (Chang, 2020).Service quality refers to the difference in the performance of a company in delivering a particular service and the expectation of customers receiving the service.If the actual service level is below the customer expectations it is considered to be low service quality.If the actual service level is the same as the customer expected service, then it is called is good service quality.In some cases, if the actual service level is above customer expectations then it is considered excellent service quality (Abbas, 2020).The importance of social media is increasing day by day because of its popularity among the masses.Nowadays most firms and businesses are using social media as a tool for the marketing of their products and services because of their low cost, high reachability, and easy accessibility to the customers.In social media, marketing firms advertise their products and services mostly on channels like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc. (Mohd Thas Thaker et al., 2020).
Previous research studies have been conducted on the effect of service quality and social media marketing separately with other variables on the brand image and customer satisfaction (Wu et al., 2011, Godey et al., 2016).There was an inconsistency in their result which shows that there is an effect of a moderating variable on these relations.From the literature search, the research identifies that most of the researcher has recommended that the price should be taken as a moderate variable in this relation (Ryu et al., 2008;Dash et al., 2021).There is little evidence of research conducted on the combined model to check the effect of price on the relationship.
Service quality is one of the main factors which bring the image of any company into the mind of the customers(Y.H. Lin et al., 2021).Now a day's social media marketing play a very key role in creating the image of any brand in the mind of the customers (Savitri et al., 2021).Customer satisfaction is the perception of the brand in the mind of the customer which is initiated from the service quality and brand image (Dam, 2021).Food panda is a new e-commerce related brand which is facing numerous issues regarding the satisfaction of the customers (Yeo et al., 2021).This study aims to examine the common factors which are service quality and social media marketing on the brand image of the food panda.This study also examines the impact of brand image on the customer satisfaction state of the food panda.The main objective of this study is the mediating effect of the brand image on the relationship between service quality and social media marketing on customer satisfaction.This study also aims to examine the moderating role of the price on the relationship between the brand image and customer satisfaction.This study will address the following questions which are Is there any impact of service quality and social media marketing on the brand image of the food panda?Is there any effect of the brand image of the food panda on customer satisfaction?and does price as a moderator impacts the relationship between the brand image and customer satisfaction.

Customer Satisfaction
Customers play a vital role in the profit generation of the business; customers are the main focus and ambassadors of business (Tien Dat et al., 2021).Due to these important roles which are played by the customers for business so it is always necessary for the business to ensure their satisfaction with the brands manufactured by the company.Customer satisfaction is highly important for the organization because this directly affects the financial position of the business and also has a high-level positive impact on the organization's perception of the general public.So that is why any business must ensure the satisfaction level of the customers by providing them good services, the best products, and excellent solutions after the post-purchase of a product or service (Aminuddin et al., 2020).If we observed past researchers, they mostly have considered satisfaction as a one-dimensional construct and they gauge this construct by gauging the overall satisfaction of the customers.As a result, an aggregate judgment was taken from the customer for their satisfaction but with the passage, the researcher has discovered its further dimensions to gauge it more properly and more accurately (C.F. Chen & Tsai, 2008;El-Adly, 2019).
Customer satisfaction is defined as it is the judgment of the customer about a product or service or a brand after the consumption of any goods or services which are provided by that business or that brand (Bodet, 2008, Otto et al., 2020).It is also defined as that customer satisfaction is how many levels the services, and goods are capable to meet the expectations of the customers.There are different the measurement of customer satisfaction, among which one way is to gauge the expectations of the customers about the benefits which they have experienced in the past by buying its product or services of that brand and the other way which we gauge the customer satisfaction is the life cycle of the relationship of the brand and the customer that how long it is (Malik et al., 2012, Li et al., 2021).Customer satisfaction is a cognitive state of the buyers about the brand whether it is satisfactorily or unsatisfactorily after the purchase of a product or service of any brand.From the above concept, two definitions of customer satisfaction will be extracted the first definition is the conceptual definition which describes that customer satisfaction is the outcome of the purchase of goods or services from a particular brand in which the customer compares the cost of that goods with the benefit of that product or goods.The second definition is the operational definition of customer satisfaction which means the attitude of the customer from which we can assess the total satisfaction of the customers and that attitude is built by the various attributes of that service or product (Churchill et al., 2013;S Ratnasari et al., 2020).
If we see the success of any organization, we see that Customer satisfaction has a key role, especially in the service sector industry.Customer satisfaction has been widely discussed and studied by researchers in recent years because of its increasing importance for business organizations (L.F. Chen, 2015;Tontini et al., 2017;Bi et al., 2020).Customer satisfaction is the extent how much any customer judges that the product and the services of a particular brand meet its expectations.If the Customer satisfaction of a business increases it will automatically increase the market share of that business.The organization tries its best to make necessary modification to its products and services so that they will become more responsive according to the expectations and needs of the customers to whom the business want to serve (Al-Omari et al., 2020).
Customer satisfaction is the collected reaction of consumers as a consequence of using a certain brand's product or service.Customer satisfaction is a set of happy feelings or disappointed feelings which are emerged by the comparison of the expected performance and the actual performance of a product or service of a brand.According to many researchers, Customer satisfaction is the response of the customers by the evaluation of the perceived performance and the actual performance of a product or service after its use.From the above definitions, it can be concluded that customer satisfaction is the response of the customer to the perceived performance and the actual performance of a product or service after its use (Anwar et al., 2019, Cuong & Khoi, 2019, Ramadhan, 2020).Especially in the service sector business, Customer satisfaction is considered to be a highly important element that is responsible for the sustainable and profitable growth of businesses in this era of business competition.Customer satisfaction is the resultant feelings of buyers after experiencing a brand product or service whether it is in line with his or their expectation or not if it is in line or above its expectation then he or she will be satisfied and try to prioritize that brand as compared to the other brands (Top & Ali, 2021).If his or her experiences are not in line with expectations then he or she becomes dissatisfied and will not prefer to use this brand and also try to advise others not to use this brand.So To meet customer satisfaction, businesses must consider several factors which are including the quality of the product or service, the emotions of the customers, prices, brand image, and product or service costs (Ferdani, 2020).
Satisfaction is the mixture of two things which are emotions and cognition.Moreover, It is a judgment of a customer about the features of a product or service or itself the product or service which are being provided a level of pleasure of the consumption-related fulfillment (Tu, Yu-Te, 2012).Customer satisfaction is like an evaluation for the customer during a purchase decision whether the chosen product gives him the same or different result as compared to the alternative products of that.If it gives him the same or exceeds the result as compared to expectation then will be satisfied otherwise will be dissatisfied.It also can be gauged by the post-purchase and the post-usage of a goods or service where the customer evaluates the worth that it is satisfactory or not (Kinasih & Albari;2012, Anggoro, 2013)).

Brand Image
With many definitions and ways of its conception, the brand image is an essential part of marketing activity; branding, and market offering (Martínez & Pina, 2003;Ogba & Tan, 2009;Gardner & Levy, 2012).Brand image is considered to be a mental image or perception about a brand or a branded service or product which includes the symbolic meanings for the customers associated with the definite attributes of a service or a product (Padgett & Allen, 1997;Gardner & Levy, 2012).Brand image is a collective set of associations that are created between the brand and the mind of the customers.If the Customers are familiar with using a particular brand, then they will constantly use that brand and a clear brand image is created in their minds for that brand.The brand is a name, sign, symbol, term, or a combination of these which is the identity of a product or a service of a particular business company or a group of the seller which will differentiate them from their competitors (Y.H. Lin et al., 2021).From the above definitions of the brand image, it is concluded that basically brand is a based on the definitions above brand image, it may be inferred that a brand is a sign, symbol, word, or a mix of these that represents the identity of a product or service of a certain commercial firm or group of sellers that distinguishes them from their rivals (Ramadhan, 2020).
Brand image is a connection that is formed between the products or services of a particular brand and the mind of the customers.From the several types of research of the past, it is investigated that the brand image always positively influences the satisfaction of the customer.So that's why the business organization must have to establish a reliable brand image to the satisfaction of its customers (Rachman, 2018).It was founded on several pieces of research of the past that the brand image directly or indirectly influences customer loyalty and customer satisfaction (Tu, Yu-Te, 2012).Brand image plays a vital role in the creation of satisfaction in the customers.Previous research of the past has proposed that the perception of satisfaction with a product or service in the mind of the customer is always created by the brand image of that company (Y.H. Lin et al., 2021).The fundamental aim of product and brand management is to build a strong brand image in the minds of the customers to generate a huge amount of profit in the long term.But it is also been noticed that the brand image has a negative influence on the brand extensions but there is a positive impact of the brand image on the commitment and the customer loyalty towards the market offering of the businesses (Malik et al., 2012;Kazemi et al., 2013).

Service Quality
Traditionally Service quality is the quality of human direct services that are used to capture the perception of the customers.Most the researchers have proposed that the service quality is a multidimensional construct that is mainly based on the expectation of the customers and it is a subjective factor and can be evaluated directly or indirectly from the perceptions of the customers (Berry et al., 1988;Choi et al., 2020).If we see the literature on service marketing, we see that it is an important factor to contributes to the image of that brand.In the service sector, favorable service quality will impact the perception of brand image and customer satisfaction and will ultimately the purchase and repurchase intention of the customers.If an organization improves its services then there will be a good perception of the brand in the mind of the service users (Lai et al., 2009;Vimla & Taneja, 2020).
For several decades the researchers have given significant attention to Service quality in the field of marketing business.It has been defined by the markers scholar as it is the difference between the customers' expectations of the brand and the real performance of the services provided by that brand.Service quality can be measured by the five dimensions which are reliability, tangibility, assurance, responsiveness, and empathy (Anwar et al., 2019;Cuong & Khoi, 2019;Cuong & Long, 2020).The literature of the scholarly articles stated that the delivery of quality level services had a positive effect on customer satisfaction and their behavioral intention (Cuong & Long, 2020;Uzir et al., 2021).Some Brands are highly famous and trusted by the public.The reason behind their trust and popularity is because they provide good quality to their customers and always provide something new to their customers.Companies always try that their brands should be recognized by the customers because the customers are habitually interested in the brand due to which they are likely to buy and use its products and services at a time or the next time (Ramadhan, 2020;Irshad et al., 2021).
The quality of the services provided by any business is the main factor that determines the level of that business's ability to provide quality service to the customers and also as a strategy to defeat the competitor and achieve success in the competition.The quality of the services is at excellent level if they are controlled and handled properly in the business will meet the wishes of the customers (Ali et al., 2021).The customer always judges the quality of the service by the difference between what he or she wishes and what he or she has received.From the above, the definition of the service quality is concluded that it is the Quality of the Service that is the level of excellent control and expected over the level of the excellence to meet accordingly to the wishes or needs of the customer (Ramadhan, 2020).
H1: There is a positive impact of the service quality on customer satisfaction

Social Media Marketing
Now a day there is a new trend in marketing which is social media which is becoming more and more popular over time.Social media has introduced different new channels for brand communication and marketing among customers.It was identified from several research findings that social media has a huge role in creating a well-established brand image (Meesala, 2017).Social media has several descriptions due to people's diverse comprehension and use.The most simple and complete description of social media is "a cluster of web-based applications built on web 2.0 allowing the making and interchange of user-created content.The social media range includes microblogs, BBS, photographs, video sharing, etc (Wibowo et al., 2021).The arrival of social media channels like YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram led to its immediate acceptance and immense popularity since it allowed easy sharing of information and also aided firms to achieve their typical ordered goals like marketing, advertising, branding, and any other promotions.Several firms are using the social media platform to interact with prospective users and promote their business information (Nisar & Whitehead, 2016;Zu et al., 2019).
Social media can be termed as an online application suite, stage, or mass communication tool which facilitates communication, cooperation, or allocating of information among users in general and generating sales, acquiring new customers, and retaining existing customers for a business (Bilgin, 2018;Sanny et al., 2020).Social media marketing is a marketing strategy used by businesses to be part of an online network of online customers network (ElAydi, 2018).Social media marketing includes five scopes: entertainment, communication, personalization, trendsetting, and word of mouth (WOM).In this particular study, social media marketing will be considered entertainment, advertisement, communication, setting trends, personalized messages, and word of mouth (WOM).Studies investigating the use of social media in professional sports teams indicate that top athletes are the center of attention for almost 40% of Twitter posts and 34% of Instagram posts and athlete related posts gain the highest attention rates (Anagnostopoulos et al., 2018;Na et al., 2020).
H2: There is a positive impact of social media marketing on Customer Satisfaction

Price
One of the main determinants of customer satisfaction is the price (Tarmidi et al., 2021).If the prices of certain goods or services are right then the customers will be able to buy them and as a result of that, he or she will be satisfied with that product or service.Especially service sector businesses must have to consider the quality of the services which they provide to the customers.If the services of a business are good this will feel comfortable with the customers and they will wish to use this service in the future if they needed it.All the forms of service providers have to maintain the service quality to retain their brand image perception positively in the minds of their customers (Ramadhan, 2020).Price is mostly judged by the customers concerning the service quality of a business organization if it is reasonable then customers will be satisfied otherwise will be dissatisfied basically which is the principle of equity.Customers always want to deal with those companies that charge a fair price for the quality of the product or service which they provide.For the calculation of price perception, there were two ways are used.The first one is that your prices should be as compared to your competitor who is almost providing the same service or goods of the almost same quality.The second one is the value of the money for the customers whom he or she provides in return for the goods or services (Gani & Hillebrandes Oroh, 2021).Normally, those services which are high in quality are more costly as compared to those that are low in quality.Many researchers also say that customer satisfaction is nothing else just trust which is mainly influenced by price perception.Also, the price was considered a major issue for the switching of the customers (Malik et al., 2012;Peng & Wang, 2006;Wierman, 2008).
Satisfied customers and a successful brand image are the two important factors for a business organization to win over its competitors.There are so many businesses in the market which provide almost the same services at almost similar prices but regardless of these two factors some of these business organization is very top as compared to others.The reason behind this is only one factor they don't compromise on the quality of the product and sell their products and services at reasonable prices due which their customers are satisfied and they hold a good brand image (Borishade et al., 2018;Rita et al., 2019;Afif et al., 2020).One of the main factors which create a positive image of a certain product or service of a business or itself business is the price which ultimately leads the customer towards satisfaction.Price is something that customers sacrifice for the obtaining of a certain product or service.If the magnitude of that price is reasonable compared to the quality of the products and services which are offered then the customers will be satisfied (Ellitan, 2021).Previous researchers have found that the main factors which make the customer delighted and satisfied are the product price as compared to quality.So that is why the Business organization must have to follow the proper pricing strategy to make its customers satisfied (Taylor & Bearden, 2002;S. Y. Lin, 2013).From the above arguments, it can be concluded that the price in which the customers pay in reward for the goods and services to a business is the main factor for the satisfaction of the customers of that business.H3: Price negatively moderates the effect of the brand image on customer satisfaction 2.6.Conceptual Framework:

Methodology
The methodology of any research is influenced by its assumptions i.e. what is the nature of reality (Ontology) and how this reality can be understood is called epistemology (Doolin, 1996).In the positivist philosophy, reality exists independently from the knowledge of the individual and the researcher tries to understand an already fixed relationship with different phenomena by using structured instruments like the Likert scale and gathering several responses from different individuals (Irshad et al., 2021).As this study is quantitative in nature and its result and findings are independent of the researcher's biases so the researcher will use the positivist paradigm.Primary data for this study will be collected through a closed-ended questionnaire.Almost all the quantitative studies used the approach of deductive logic for the solution to their research problem (Lee, 2016).As in this study, the researcher will use the deductive approach because this study is quantitative.While the sampling design used in this study is non-probability sampling because the sampling frame of the study population is not available.The sampling technique used by the researcher for the collection of the data is purposive sampling because the researcher has to collect in-depth data from the service users of food panda.Purposive sampling is used by the researcher when they want to collect the exhaustive knowledge of a certain phenomenon from the respondents (Akhlaq, 2016).As this study focuses on food panda users the sampling units are individual users of food panda.PLS-SEM is mostly used in research that uses latent variables to gauge a phenomenon (Carranza et al., 2020).As our study is based on constructs that are latent variables and cannot be measured directly but with the help of different indicators so that why the researcher used the PLS-SEM technique by the PLS smart for the data analysis of this study.

Measures
The questionnaire used in this study is adopted.There are five constructs used in this study which are service quality, social media marketing, brand image, customer satisfaction, and price.Each construct is measured with the help of four items.The construct of Brand Image and Customer Satisfaction has been taken from the study of Taqi & Muhammad (2020).While the construct of Price was from (Lien et al., 2015).Four times construct of the Service Quality was from the study of Loke et al., (2011) and Social Media Marketing was from (Hanaysha, 2017).

Mardia Multivariate Analysis
Below table 1 of the Mardia multivariate Analysis has significant p values that are less than 0.05 which shows that the collected data by the researcher is not normal.So that's why the researcher used the PLS-SEM for the data analysis because it has no assumption of the normal data.

Mahalanobis Test for Outliers
Mahalanobis Test for the outliers has been conducted for the detection of outliers.There were 22 outliers in the data.Before the analysis, the researcher removed the outliers from the data.After the removal of the outliers, the net sample size became 332 for the further analysis of the data.

Demographic Variables
The following table 2 of the Gender order frequency cross-tabulation shows the usage of the services of the food panda by the gender distribution of the respondents.Of the total 332 users, 161 were male and 171 were females.Almost the usage frequency of both genders was the same.The following table 3 of the age frequency cross-tabulation shows us the usage of the services of the food panda for the age bracket of the respondents.This shows that those who are smaller in age will use the services of food panda more than compared to higher ages.Of the total 332 users, 300 belonged to the age group of 21 to 30 years, 25 belong to the age group of 31 to 40 years, 4 belong to the age group of 41 to 50 years and only 3 belongs to the age group of above 50 years.The following table 4 of the education frequency cross-tabulation shows us the usage of the services of the food panda concerning the education level of the respondents.This shows that those who are lower in education qualifications will use the services of food panda more than compared to a higher level of education.Of the total 332 users, 192 belonged to undergraduates, 86 belong to graduates, and 54 belongs to Post graduates.

Measurement Model
Table 5 of the outer loadings shows the outer loading values of each item of each construct.The threshold value for the outer loading is 0.708.All the items have an outer loading value of more than 0.708 only one item of the Brand Image has the outer loading value of 0.611.as this value is insignificant but it is above 0.5.those items that are above 0.5 will remain in the study if the AVE values of a construct are significant (Hair Jr et al., 2016).

Reliability
Table 6 of the Reliability shows the Cronbach's Alpha, rho A, and composite Reliability values.The threshold value for all three is 0.7.Table 6 shows that all the constructs have Cronbach's Alpha, rho A, and composite Reliability values above 0.7.So, from this, it is concluded that the gathered data for this study is reliable for further testing and analysis.

Discriminant Validity
Table 7 of the HTMT values show the discriminant validity of all the constructs of the study.The threshold value for the Discriminant validity is 0.90 or less than 0.90.The HTMT value for the brand image is 0.824, for customer satisfaction is 0.52, for the price is 0.312, for the social media marketing is 0.341, and for the service, quality is 0.518.All the HTMT values are less than 090 which shows that the data is discriminant validity.

Structural Model
Figure 2 of the structural model shows the relationship of all the items with their respective construct and all the constructs with customer satisfaction.the R Square value is 0.426 which is very good for the cross-sectional data.This value of the R square shows that the 42.6% variation in customer satisfaction is due to the variables service quality, social media marketing, price, and brand image which are present in the model.

Specific Indirect Effects
Table 9 of the Specific indirect effect shows the indirect relationship of the model.There are two indirect relationships between social media marketing to customer satisfaction and service quality to customer satisfaction by the mediation of brand image.The p-value of the first relationship is 0.049 with a beta value of 0.037 and the p-value of the second relationship is 0.009 with a beta value of 0.079 respectively.Both p values are less than 0.05 which shows that there is a significant impact of social media marketing and service quality on the customer satisfaction of food panda.

Moderation Analysis
The below table 10 of the moderation analysis shows the moderation relationship in the model.There is one moderation relationship in the model.The moderation effect of the price is on the relationship between the brand image and customer satisfaction.as mentioned in table 10 that the p-value for this relationship is 0.192 with a beta value of -0.044 which is greater than 0.05.This means that there is no moderation effect of the price on the relationship between the brand image and customer satisfaction.

IPMA Analysis
Table 11 of IPMA Analysis shows the importance and the performance of all the constructs concerning the dependent variable customer satisfaction.Service quality is showing the highest importance for customer satisfaction which is 0.433.While the brand image has 0.314, the price has 0.136, and social media marketing has .0146.while the brand image shows the highest level of performance with a value of 70.734.the performance value for the Price is 62.440, for the social media marketing is 61.139, and for the service, quality is 59.634.

Discussion
The main purpose of this study was to see the impact of social media marketing and service quality on the satisfaction of the customers by the mediation effect of the food panda.This study also aims to examine the moderation effect of the price on the relationship between the brand image and customer satisfaction.The hypotheses suggest that there is a positive relationship that exists between service quality and customer satisfaction by the mediation of the brand image.As per the result of this study, this hypothesis is highly supported that there is a positive impact of service quality on the satisfaction of the customers of food panda.The result of this study is consistent with the study that suggests in the literature that has found that there exists a positive relationship between the service quality on the brand image and brand image to customer satisfaction (Malik et al., 2012, Vimla & Taneja, 2020).The second hypotheses of the study suggest that there is a positive relationship that exists between social media marketing and customer satisfaction through the mediation of the brand image.As per the result of this study, this hypothesis is highly supported that there is a positive impact of social media marketing on the satisfaction of the customers of food panda.The result of this study is consistent with the study suggests in the literature that has found that there exists a positive relationship between social media marketing on brand image and the other relationship is from brand image to customer satisfaction (Meesala, 2017, Ramadhan, 2020).

Conclusion
From the study, the researcher has concluded that social media marketing and service quality have a strong impact on the brand image and the customer satisfaction of Food Panda.The company to attract more and more customers has to improve its service quality and improve its social media presence.In this study, the researcher has introduced Brand image as the mediator and price as the moderator to gauge the impact of service quality and social media marketing on final customer satisfaction.From our empirical analysis, it is evident that there is a positive variation in customer satisfaction due to the variables of service quality, social media marketing, brand image, and price.The IPMA analysis shows that the most important variable is service quality, followed by brand image and social media marketing while the price is the least important factor in gaining customer satisfaction.The variable price was introduced as the moderator between the brand image and customer satisfaction but it shows that price does not moderate the relationship between brand image and customer satisfaction.

Limitation
The limitation of the study was that the data were only collected from the food panda users of Karachi and not from other parts of Pakistan where Food Panda has a presence.The researcher tried to access as many respondents as possible 332 but the results would have been much better if the respondent's base had been more and from other locations like Quetta, Peshawar and Lahore, and other major cities of Pakistan.

Recommendations for Further Studies
The researcher further recommends that the study may be conducted on a larger scale i.e., encompassing major cities of Pakistan where Food Panda has a presence to get a better idea of consumer feedback.The further researcher can also introduce another independent variable such as ease of food app use to see its effect on consumer satisfaction and Brand image.We can introduce another moderator like the quality of food supplied to check its impact on final consumer satisfaction.

s own elaboration Note. The above table shows the discriminant validity 4.6. Convergent Validity Below
table8shows the AVE values for the convergent validity of the data.The threshold value of AVE for the convergent validity is 0.5 or above.All the values of AVE (Average Variance Extracted value) for all the constructs are above 0.5 which shows that the data is convergently valid.