Page 838 - MARSIUM'21 COMP OF PAPER

VIVA FYP

AHIBS UTM SKUDAI

ONLINE BOOKING IMPLEMENTATION FOR NASESZ ENTERPRISE

SUBHASS A/L SANDRAN SEGARAN, THOO AI CHIN

Azman Hashim International Business School, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Johor Bahru

*Corresponding author: subhass@graduate.utm.my

Abstract
Booking services have gained popularity among various industries in the recent years due to rising importance in offering services to consumers in a
convenient way. Now, website is playing a crucial role in developing customer’s perception toward a business which consequently affects decision-making
process when it comes to online transactions such as booking. Nasesz Enterprise is a company providing home maintenance services with challenges such
as declining rate of customer acquisition. Hence, this study aims to investigate website quality and e-trust on online booking system. Further, the study
proposes online booking as marketing strategy for the business to overcome their problem using the service innovation. Firstly, the study investigated the
relationships between home maintenance service provider’s website quality attributes (usability, ease of use, entertainment, complementarity), e-trust and
booking intention. A questionnaire survey was used for data collection, and 150 samples were collected from property owners, tenders, and tenants using
purposive sampling technique. Findings show that usability and complementarity of website have positive and significant impacts on e-trust and online
booking intentions. In addition, e-trust is positively and significantly related to online booking intentions. Secondly, using the findings from the survey, an
intervention was conducted to implement online booking by creating a website using the key website qualities. Finally, the online booking strategy successfully
increased the customer acquisition of Nasesz Enterprise. In essence, this study is the first research to extend online booking studies in home maintenance
industry and revealed the key website qualities that influence e-trust and online booking intention of customers in home maintenances services.

Keywords: Booking Intention, Website Quality, E-Trust, Online Booking, Home Maintenance Services

■ 1.0 INTRODUCTION

The developments in internet and technology have paved way to an enormous transformation in almost every sector using human
touchpoints (Plomin, 2020). People are using pocket-sized smartphones for purposes other than communication, such as online shopping and
appointment scheduling via the internet. With internet access at everyone's fingertips, the global digital population has expanded and created
new opportunities for organisations in both public and private sectors to leverage their presence in internet (Verhoef, 2019). The internet has
developed as a new medium for the commercialization of products and services (Abdul-Talib and Teong, 2019). Studies have found that
website is an essential tool for any business to survive and grow in the increasingly competitive market (Alcántara-Pilar et al., 2018). The
constant technological and service innovations enable people to carry out daily activities in an easier way (Bari, 2020). Many people prefer
the convenience of self-service using their devices to making reservations over the old-fashioned phone call (Cort, 2018). As a result, online
booking culture has emerged among customers that allows them to select their preferred time in advance to enjoy the services. Undeniably,
trust has become a key driver in the customer’s online booking intention because trust is very vital in the online environment due to the
perceived risk and uncertainty in online transactions (Kim et al, 2017). According to Lazaroiu et al. (2020), trust in the online platforms
could dematerialize the fears by having a website that is rich with information and pictures of the services.

Evidently, four attributes of website quality including usability, ease of use, entertainment and complementarity have positive
influence on e-trust and booking intention (Li et al., 2017). Moreover, a good user experience and booking service on the website have
significantly reduced the cost of customer loss (Mustafa et al., 2020). According to Liu et al, (2019) online booking, which was initially
popular in the hospitality industries, has gained popularity in other sectors. For example, field service industries such as home maintenance,
which traditionally rely on word-of-mouth referrals, are now offering online booking services. 'Kaodim' and 'Service Hero' are emerging
Malaysian home maintenance service marketplaces that allow customers to book home repair services online (Russel, 2017). Hence, online
booking services could drive growth and development of field services businesses like Nasesz Enterprise. Nasesz Enterprise is a home
maintenance service provider in Johor since 2010 where primary source of customers is from referrals. Unfortunately, this company is facing
gradual decline in customer acquisition and needs to explore better customer acquisition channel. According to Shona (2016), existing field
service websites with high visits traffic such as Kaodim are still having difficulty in convincing customers to book services online. Hence, it
is important to investigate the factors related to website quality that could influence the online booking intention. Further, the findings are
used to help the Nasesz Enterprise for the online booking service implementation.

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