Effect of service quality on customer patronage in the Nigerian hotel industry
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Date
2017
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Journal of business & value creation
Abstract
In this dynamic world market environment in addition to cut-throat competition, service quality has become imperative in order to be able to satisfy and retain customers. This study therefore, investigated the effect of service quality on customer patronage in the Nigerian hotel industry, with major focus on selected five-star hotels in Lagos, Nigeria. The objectives of the study were to: i. examine the effect of service quality on customer patronage of the selected hotels; ii. determine the difference between customers’ actual and expected satisfaction. The study adopted the survey design. The population of the study comprised top ten 5-star hotels in Lagos, Nigeria and their respective infinite number of customers. Convenience and random sampling were used in selecting three 5-star hotels and 128 customers from each hotel since they are of the same rating. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data from 384 respondents. Data were analyzed using multiple regression and gap analysis to test the research hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study were that: i. Service quality has a significant effect on customer patronage in the Nigerian hotel industry with (empathy: = b-0.482, t = -3.495, p < 0.05; responsiveness: = b -0.306, t =-2.913, p<0.05, reliability: 0.283, t=2.443, p<0.05; tangibles: 0.694. t = 4.165, p<0.05 and Assurance 0.021, t=0.144, p<0.05) and (r2= 0.492, p<0.05). ii. There is a significant difference between customers expected satisfaction and the actual satisfaction in the selected hotels. Conclusively, service quality has a significant effect on customer patronage in the Nigerian hotel industry. Based on the findings, it was recommended that the selected hotel should allocate more resources and time to the area of service quality and improve more on their assurance which has no significant effect and also on empathy and responsiveness which are significant but with inverse relationship
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Keywords
Customer Patronage, Customer Satisfaction, Service Quality, hospitality sector, Customer Loyalty
Citation
Imouokhome, E. O., Bello, K. A., & Abdulraheem, M. (2017): Effect of Service Quality on Customer Patronage in the Nigerian Hotel Industry. Journal of Business & Value Creation (JBVC); 7-18, Published by the Department of Marketing, Faculty of Management Sciences, University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria.