ABSTRACT

The business organization operates in an environment and through is the essence of business.  The business organization is expected to continually to satisfy it customer hence this work gets to investigate the role of customer service in the operation of multinational fir with particular reference to Unilever Plc Aba.  The method applied in this study is a combination of content analysis and survey research, the data were sourced through both primary and secondary sources and the instrument used availed the researcher the opportunity to have a first hand information.  The unit of analysis Unilever of Nigeria Plc  Aba branch social artifacts, and the data collected from the units are presented in tables and analyzed using chi-square (x²) method.  Among the major finding of this research work, including that the dissatisfaction experience by customers is due to the inefficiency of the multinational company staff, there is a relationship between improved service delivery and multinational company efficiency and multinational company profitability.  But owing to the limitations encountered, further studies should be carried out  to service between two multinational company operating within the country.

CHAPTER ONE

1.0  INTRODUCTION

1.1  BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

       Services outcome, we all know the necessary prerequisites for any meaningful economic development of any nation.  This is so because the entire world economy today revolves round finance.  Therefore, the significance is the overall development of our economy.  It is on this premise that we appreciate the important role played by service delivery most especially the commercial multinational companies whose major functions is to organize, mobilize and making funds available for investment purposes by way of granting credit facilities to individual companies and government.

       According to Ronald (2000), multinational companies can be defined as giants private business companies with global organizational characteristics flowing from parent countries to subsidiaries in host countries.

       This multinational company marketing has been defined by a Media (1983) as the creation and delivery of service that will satisfy the need of customers at a profit  to the multinational companies.  From this point definition, it is seen that the customers who is the ultimate target of multinational company marketing must be satisfied.

       Multinational companies must learn what satisfaction their customers seek.  The work creation and delivery recognizes that marketing is an active creation process involving all the multinational companies staff.

       Today, the emergence of commercial multinational firms as well as the role they play has been instrument to the rapid growth and progressive development of the economy.  Multinational company as a service delivery industry, must adopt to the changing environment and requirement of the economy and it can be done t hrough effective marketing of its services.

       The multinational companying image in the country is considered bad because of the deterioration in the multinational companying service over t he years and the very poor bend in multinational customer relationship which is largely due to poor marketing.  The major problem is that existing services are not  being provided efficiently.  There is a commonly held believe that service rendered to customer is a bestorial of favour and privileges.

       Garliand Gilbert (1976) still maintains that the public impression of multinational companies and struggle for the customers to get served.  It can take an hour or more to reach the counter and sometimes get the impression that the counter staff is proud of the long lines of people queuing their favours.

       Gadzania M. W. (1989) in his chairman’s statement of allied multinational company annual report statted that customers are treated with lack of seriousness by the multi national company staffs.  They believe it is right to deliberately delay customers as a result  of their non-challant attitude to work.  It is always a daily occurrence to hear abuses flowing from customers to multinational companies st aff over the protected delay in competing multinational company’s transactions.

       Today, with Nigerians attitude towards  the idea of putting their money in the multinational companies as opposed to keeping them at home, multinational company institutes faces:

1. Poor quality
2. Poor quality of goods
3. Poor response to customers complaint
4. Unusual marketing challenges.  The level of competition between multinational companies needs the demand for multinational company service experienced an explosion that posed a challenge t o the resources of the multinational companying community.

1.2  STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

       This research work is aimed at addressing the problems associated with multinational companies which include:

1. To find out if staff training and motivation affect the ratio of services by the staff.
2. To ascertain whether customer dissatisfaction is a function of the inefficiency of the multinational company staff.
3. To determine if there is any relationship between improvement in service delivery of the multinational company and the efficiency of the multinational company and its profitability.

1.3  OBJECTIVES  OF THE STUDY

       The purposes of the study among other things are stated below:

1. To determine the extent of staff and customer relationship.
2. To determine the extent of  customer complaint of non-satisfactory service.
3. To determine the adequacy of available resources both human and material in the multinational company.
4. To ascertain the material in the multinational company.
5. To ascertain the staff customer ratio.
6. To ascertain the courses of long queues on multinational companies.
7. To identify the effect of inefficient service on the multinational companies image and profitability.