Service quality and customer satisfaction in savings and credit cooperatives: a case of electoral commission staff savings and credit society

Abstract

The study sought to examine the relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction in savings and credit cooperatives with specific focus on Uganda Electoral Commission staff SACCO. It focused on addressing six objectives that included; (i) to establish the relationship between reliability of services and customer satisfaction at EC Staff SACCO, (ii) to establish the relationship between service responsiveness to customer needs and customer satisfaction at EC Staff SACCO, (iii) to establish the relationship between service assurance and customer satisfaction at EC Staff SACCO, (iv) to establish the relationship between empathy and customer satisfaction at EC Staff SACCO, (v) to establish the relationship between tangibility and customer satisfaction at EC Staff SACCO and (vi) to examine the moderating effect of competition (bank salary loans) on the relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction at EC Staff SACCO. This study was guided by: the expectancy disconfirmation theory, SERVQUAL model and Michael Porter's generic strategies. The study adopted a case study research design that was rooted on both quantitative and qualitative approaches on which data was collected from a sample of 248 from a study population of 693 members of the EC SACCO that was determined using simple random sampling. The study used univariate analysis such as descriptive statistics to analyze sample characteristics. Bivariate analysis was conducted in form of Pearson's correlation analysis to address the study objectives that sought to establish the nature of relationships. A multivariate analysis, using a hierarchical regression model was performed to determine the moderation effect of competition on the relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction. From the analysis, the study established that there is a significant positive relationship between service reliability and customer satisfaction, there is a significant positive relationship between service responsiveness and customer satisfaction. there is also a significant positive relationship between assurance of service quality and customer satisfaction. Similarl y, it was also established that there is ai[gnificant positive relationship between empathy and customer satisfaction and there is a significant positive relationship between service tangibility and customer sati sfaction. Furthermore, the study established that competition may not be a good moderator of the relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction given that the moderating effect is insignificant. The study concluded that improving service quality at the SACCO is observed to register high level of customer satisfaction. with all the elements of service quality that were tested in the study indicating a statistically significant relationship with customer satisfaction. The study recommends that savings and credit cooperatives should strengthen efforts in enhancing their responsiveness to the customers· needs by initiating online services as much as possible. EC staff savings and credit cooperative should increase its loan repayment period and reduce interest rates as a means of showing empathy to the customers.