ABSTRACT

The study was carried out to determine the effect of customer service quality on customer patronage of banks in Rivers State. The specific objectives are to ascertain how service atmosphere relates with customer commitment to banks in Rivers State. Also, to assess the degree of relationship between service atmosphere and customer loyalty to banks in Rivers State; to determine how service reliability relates with customer commitment to banks in Rivers State and to determine the multiple effects of customer service quality dimensions on customer patronage. Various studies have been carried out on service quality using customer satisfaction and loyalty as the measures. In this study, a four dimensional construct (service atmosphere, service reliability, customer care responsiveness and service failure recovery) were used as proxies of customer service quality. This study adopted causal research, involving cross sectional survey design. Forty one (41) statement items from a structured instrument weighted with 5-point Likert measurement scale was used to measure data from Three Hundred and forty seven (347) customers of the twenty Three (23) registered commercial banks in Rivers State that constituted the sample size as drawn from the population. The reliability test exceeded the benchmark. Multiple regression and Spearman Rank Correlation analyses were adopted as analytical tools for data analyses aided by SPSS version 23 to cross validate the analytical test result. The study unveiled a very strong relationship between all the dimensions of customer service quality (Service Atmosphere, Service Reliability, Customer Care Responsiveness and Service Failure Recovery) with the proxies of Customer Patronage (Customer Commitment and Customer Loyalty). We therefore conclude that banks under study in Port Harcourt offered reasonable level of customer service and therefore, enjoyed reasonable customer patronage given the strong relationship among them. Given the finding, it is suggested that the banks should continue to improve on their customer service quality level as to delight the customers.