STUDY OF INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION AND ITS IMPACT ON CUSTOMER SATISFACTION AND LOYALTY TO THE SERVICE PROVIDER

ABSTRACT

This study is on study of interpersonal communication and its impact on customer satisfaction and loyalty to the service provider. The total population for the study is 200 staff of selected fast food in Asaba, Deltat state. The researcher used questionnaires as the instrument for the data collection. Descriptive Survey research design was adopted for this study. A total of 133 respondents made of human resource managers, managers, cooks and junior staff were used for the study. The data collected were presented in tables and analyzed using simple percentages and frequencies

 CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

• Background of the study

Attracting and retaining customers in today’s world has led entities to the development of relationship marketing strategies to attract and retain customers and service providers take advantage of relationship marketing and the profitability and competitiveness in the world to survive. In such a competitive environment, it is the loyalty of customers which can retain previous customers and, also, attract new customers. Research has shown that a 5% increase in retaining customers may increase 35 – 90 % in customer lifetime value. In view of relationship marketing, customer is a valuable asset with a value that should be created in the future to increase the frequency and amount of the purchase and use of services. Interpersonal communication is one of the most important factors in the behavioral sciences. Undeniably, there is always communication between the individuals and there are many aspects that affect individual and social life. The role of interpersonal communication can take customers away from companies and organizations or help them to get closer to them. Thus, interpersonal communication can be a good strategy to build up customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Rezaee (2009) in his research showed that communication between individual employees and customers together impacted customers` satisfaction and loyalty. Guenzi & Pelloni (2004) in their research on health and fitness clubs concluded that customer loyalty only would be affected through close relationships between customers and employees. Bojei (2010) indicated the quality of the relationship including interpersonal dimensions (close relationships, communication quality and attention) and organizational dimensions (commitment, trust and satisfaction) influence customer loyalty. Customer satisfaction is a key issue for every company wishing to increase customer loyaltyand thereby create a better business performance (Gronholdt et al, 2000). Competition puts amateur companies out of market place. To remain in the bazar, we need to act professionally. The importance of professionalism among junior and nonmanagerial staff has been generally overlooked (Cheng and Wong, 2015). Persistency in good quality is a reflection of the professional job. Services that provide a different outcome/experience each time they are purchased and that are not line with buyer expectations are likely to be perceived as unreliable (Brentani, 1990). The trust in higher management, which is created through the managers’ behaviors, words, and applications and is perceived by personnel, was found to be an important variable for creating commitment in the personnel (Tekingündüz et al, 2015). Today as market and marketers have come up with more effective and sophisticated ways of sales, in order to deliver higher customer value as a means to gain competitive advantage (Zaheeruddin, 2015),organizations are first supposed to satisfy customers. Satisfaction is an overall customer attitude or behavior towards the difference between what customers expect and what they receive regarding the fulfillment of some desires and needs (Hansemark and Albinson, 2004; Hoyer and Maclnnis, 2001). Employees are faced with some obstacles in servicing. For instance, employees or customers may not be in good mood one time. As a result, they would not behave suitably. In particular, frontline service employees are frequently exposed to situations involving customer incivility (Han et al., 2015). An amateur employee can respond to customer awfully. Employee incivility directed at customers would generally motivate customers to take revenge against the wrong doer (the “uncivil employee”) and/or the service providing organization. Such an effect can be explained by the fact that even mild- and low intensive form of rude behaviors engaged by service staff might lead to psychological contract breach among customers (Bavik and Bavik, 2015). Role of managers to change this route is important. Supervisors should focus on the development of employee self-concept, especially the collective level self-concept that drives teamwork and organizational achievement (Luo et al., 2015).