Effect of service quality on customer satisfaction in supermarkets in Kisumu, Kenya

Abstract

Supermarkets are essentially entities in the economies global due to their crucial function of providing and distributing basic human needs such as food items, customer goods and lifestyle products. Intense competition among retailers in Kenya enables customers to easily switch between supermarkets in their quest to satisfy their dynamic preferences and needs. Supermarkets are thus striving to attract and retain a loyal customer base through superior service quality. Studies with regard to service quality and customer satisfaction have been done in other parts of the country and the only studies in Kisumu were on the relationship marketing and customer loyalty to brand choice and e-business strategy on performance of selected supermarkets. However, little seem to have been done on service quality and customer satisfaction in supermarkets in Kisumu County. Therefore, the aim of the study was to determine the effect of service quality on customer satisfaction in supermarkets in Kisumu, Kenya. The objectives were to establish how tangibility, responsibility, reliability, empathy and assurance factors affected customer satisfaction in supermarkets in Kisumu. Descriptive survey research design was used with population being the five major super stores in Kisumu. Target population was the 409,928 supermarket shoppers in Kisumu town. A sample of 384 shoppers was selected using stratified sampling methods. Data wascollected using self-administered questionnaire. Reliability was tested using Cronbanch’s alpha coefficient and a value of 0.958 was obtained, which is above the recommended 0.7 for assumption of internal reliability. The validity of the instruments was established using expert reviews. Data was analysed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. According to the findings, the supermarkets in Kisumu generally offered high quality services (mean 4.1588). The study established that all the constructs of service quality (tangibility, responsiveness, reliability, assurance and empathy) have a positive relationship with the customer satisfaction (0.360, 0.192, 0.178, 0.294 and 0.450 respectively). The results of the study revealed that empathy had the most significant effect on the customer satisfaction followed by tangibility. The results show that reliability had the lowest effect on customer satisfaction. The study therefore concludes that service quality had a significant effect on the customer satisfaction (p-values<0.05). The study recommends that the management of the supermarket adopt the SERVQUAL scale to determine the aspects of service quality that require improvement. The supermarket management focus on tangibility as a competitive advantage by putting more resources on the layout and design in order to achieve higher customer satisfaction level. The management to organize more training through workshops and seminars on effective complaint handling and product knowledge. More emphasis placed on improving on aspects of reliability, empathy and assurance.