Measuring the Impact of Service Quality Dimensions and Product Quality on Customer Satisfaction: The Case of Retail Market in Egypt

Abstract

Customer satisfaction importance is increasing, as it is a key factor in any business success story. Retailers are very careful regarding the customer satisfaction factor, as it is a key determinant in customer’s decision whether to continue or discontinue their association with the retailer. In the recent years, the number and size of retailers in Egypt increased due to the swift growth in Egyptian population. Foreign hypermarkets such as Spinneys, Carrefour, Lulu, Makro, Panda,etc.have created a severe competition with the local modern hypermarkets and traditional markets. Retailers need for a reliable measure or model to test their service quality and product quality and their impact on customer satisfaction to ensure asustainable competitive advantage. Therefore, theaim of this researchisto measure the impact of service quality dimensions (physical aspects, reliability, personal interaction, policy, and problem solving) and product quality on customer satisfaction in the hypermarket sector in Alexandria, Egypt. In order to achievethis aim, a questionnaire has been created and distributed over a sample of 450 respondents to hypermarket buyers in Alexandria, Egypt. 390 questionnaires were collected with 86.7% response rate from the participants and were analysed by using the SPSS. The results of this research showed that there is a significant positive impact offive variables (physical aspects, personal interaction, policy, problem solving, and product quality) on customer satisfaction. Particularly, the hypermarket policy has the strongest impact on customer satisfaction in hypermarket sector followed by personal interaction, product quality, and physical aspects, where problem-solving factor has the least effect on customer satisfaction.

Keywords: Service quality dimensions, product quality, retail market, hypermarket sector, customer satisfaction, Egypt