Relationship between Service Quality and Customer Satisfaction in Organized Retail Outlets

Abstract

This study is designed to find out the impact of perceived service quality on overall customer satisfaction in retail outlets. In India there are more than 12 million retailers and 97% of retailers are existing in unorganized form and only 3% exists in organized form of retailing. Now perceived service quality is an important ingredient of customer satisfaction and studies have been conducted by many researchers and already shown in banking and insurance as well as in many sectors of the Indian economy. Hence we need to understand the impact of perceived service quality on customer satisfaction in retail outlets in India. In this study a sample size of 600 customers was chosen in and around Delhi City which is the capital of India and which is showing the maximum growth in terms of organized retail outlets in the region. The scale developed by Dhabolkar, Thorpe and Rentz was used.  The scale was consisting of five dimensions namely Physical Aspects, Reliability, Personal Interaction, Problem Solving and Policy.  From the data analysis it is found that value of adjusted R² indicates that there were three dimensions namely Policy, Problem solving and Reliability causing a variance of 39.2% in the customer satisfaction. Hence this study is helpful in understanding the important dimensions of service quality required for customer satisfaction. In retailing perceived service quality is having a significant influence on purchasing and repurchasing decisions, positive word of mouth as well as on complaining behavior in retailing (Singh, 2012).

Keywords: Service Quality, Customer Satisfaction, Policy, Reliability, Problem Solving etc