EFFECT OF SERVICE QUALITY DIMENSIONS ON CUSTOMER SATISFACTION: THE CASE OF PRIVATE PHARMACEUTICAL IMPORTERS IN ETHIOPIA

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to assess the effect of service quality dimensions on customer satisfaction in the case of private pharmaceutical importers, Ethiopia. A quantitative research approach using self-administered structured SERVPERF questionnaire was employed. A simple random sampling was used. A total of 177 responses were collected and analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics such as mean, correlation, and regression by using SPSS version 23 as statistical tool. The result of the study showed 31.1%, 22% and 1.1% of the respondents are neutral, dissatisfied or strongly dissatisfied by the service provided by private pharmaceutical importers respectively. The findings of this study indicated that the five service quality dimensions (tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy) have a statistically significant positive relation to the overall customer satisfaction. The regression analysis showed that 78.3% of the variation on customer satisfaction can be explained by the variability of the five dimensions of service quality. The results also showed that reliability play the most important predictor role in determining the level of customer satisfaction followed by empathy, assurance, tangibility and responsiveness respectively. The research concluded that there are a significant portion of unsatisfied customers by the service provided by private pharmaceutical importers. Therefore, the researcher recommends private pharmaceutical importers to improve the quality of the service by giving emphasis on all of the five service quality dimensions.