Effect Of Service Quality On Customer Satisfaction And Loyalty In The Telecommunication Industry

ABSTRACT

The study investigated the effect of service quality on customer satisfaction and loyalty in the telecommunication industry in Nigeria specifically in Port Harcourt. The research was conducted after Nigeria has just introduced the mobile number portability (MNP) system which provides dissatisfied customer the opportunity to port other network in search for better mobile services. The objective of this study is to examine the strength of the relationship between service quality and customer loyalty in the telecommunication industry in Nigeria. The study seeks to examine the responsiveness of an individual customer to certain products/services offered due to the effectiveness or otherwise of a particular goods or services because of the ultimate satisfaction derived from the product by the said customer/consumer of the product. The SERVQUAL instruments postulated by parasuraman, zeithami and Berry were used to measure service quality. Customer satisfaction and customer loyalty construct were also established relying on studies done by Zhang and Feng, Ozer. A total of 400 questionnaires administered out of which 311 valid responses were obtained for the study. The findings from the study revealed that service quality variables such as tangibles, responsiveness, reliability, assurance and empathy have a positive influence on customer loyalty assurance customer satisfaction. Besides, customer satisfaction was found to have a direct relationship with customer loyalty. The study recommends that mobile operators should endeavor to improve the quality of mobile services offered to clients in order to achieve brand loyalty; mobile telecommunication operators should adopt appropriate strategies such as relationship marketing in order to promote customer satisfaction; mobile operators should invest more funds into network expansion and maintenances in order to ensure reliable mobile telecommunication services at all times instead of spending too much funds on advertisement and promotion.