THE ROLE OF SERVICE QUALITY ON CUSTOMER SATISFACTION: A CASE STUDY ON KOLFE KERANYO SUB-CITY WOREDA 8 PRIVATE KINDERGARTEN AND PRIMARY SCHOOLS

Abstract

This study is concentrated on the role of service quality on customer satisfaction in Addis Ababa Kolfe Keranyo Sub-City Woreda 8 kindergarten and primary private schools. The five service quality dimensions namely, Tangibles, Reliability, Responsiveness, Assurance and Empathy are assessed by a total of 44 items in which 22 items were used to measure the general expectation of customers concerning service and the remaining 22 items measured the perception of customers regarding the level of service actually provided by the private kindergarten and primary schools within that service category. They identify the level of customer satisfaction by measuring the gap between customers' expectation and actual performance on the quality of service delivered by private schools. The study used mainly quantitative approach. Data were collected through SERVQUAL model questionnaires and the study used both primary and secondary sources to collect the data. Three hundred thirty five (335) respondents were sampled from the total population of two thousand forty parents of five kindergarten and three primary schools by using the sample size determination table developed by Yamane Taro (1967) through stratified random sampling techniques. Out of the distributed 335 questionnaires only 292 were returned constituting 87.16% response rate. The study used both descriptive and explanatory methods of data Analysis. The findings of this study implies that parents of students in the stated schools are not satisfied in all service quality dimensions which shows expectation of parents exceeds the actual performance of schools. According to the results of the correlation analysis it was found that all service quality dimensions are strongly and positively correlated with customers' satisfaction. The result of regression analysis also indicated that all independent variables had significant impact on the dependent variable. Based on this it is recommended that private schools should give greater attention to improve its service quality and satisfy its customers by meeting or exceeding customers' expectation through assessing and improving the gaps in all service quality dimensions. In addition, different stakeholders such as Ministry of Education, General Education Quality and Relevance Regulatory officers, school owners and managers should discharge their own responsibility and ensure quality education.