Measuring Service Quality and Customer Satisfaction the Case of Ethiopian Insurance Corporation
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Date
2014-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
One of service marketing issues, Service quality, has been an interesting as well as debatable subject matter over the years because of its relationship with variables like profitability, customer satisfaction and customer retention. Its difficulty as a concept and measurement had been the center of focus for researchers. Whereas, in service delivery, there is a gap in expectation of customers and the actual service they obtain which is called customers perception in this context. The aim of this paper is to measure this discrepancy and assess service quality with regard to its dimensions in the Ethiopian Insurance Corporations. Additionally the relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction in the context of Ethiopian Insurance Corporation has been measured. The widely accepted SERVQUAL model for measuring service quality is used, with adjustments to suit the insurance industry. The population of the study comprises of all the individuals who are policy holders and use the claim service of Ethiopian Insurance Corporation in Addis Ababa for the period of the data collection which is from April 1 to April 30. A sample of 285 respondents were taken in a multi stage sampling technique and Methodologies like paired t test, correlation, multiple regression and ANOVA are used in the research. The findings of the study suggest there is a wide gap in terms of service quality dimensions and in how customers perceive the service provided by the organization and their expectations. The highest gaps are registered in tangibility and reliability dimensions. Even if there is a moderate and high relationships between service quality dimensions and customer satisfaction the multiple regression result indicate that responsiveness and empathy have the highest and significant relationship with customer satisfaction in the EIC context. Assurance dimension is found to have no significant influence in customer satisfaction. Lastly customer group difference, retail and corporate, failed to have a significant influence in customers’ expectations.
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service quality, SERVQUAL, Insurance