Abstract

MAKANYEZA, Charles  and  MUMIRIKI, Darlington. Are all customers really the same? Comparing service quality and satisfaction between residential and business telecommunications customers. Acta Commer. [online]. 2016, vol.16, n.1, pp.1-10. ISSN 1684-1999.  http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ac.v16i1.348.

ORIENTATION: The study focused on the moderating role of the type of customer on the relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction. RESEARCH PURPOSE: The study sought to examine differences in the relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction because of the type of customer. MOTIVATION FOR THE STUDY: Previous studies have not examined the relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction between residential and business customers. RESEARCH DESIGN, APPROACH AND METHOD: The study used a cross-section of 203 customers (108 residential and 95 business) in the fixed-line telecommunications sector in Zimbabwe. Moderated regression analysis was performed to test the research hypotheses. MAIN FINDINGS: It was established that the customer category (residential versus business) does not moderate the effect of service quality on customer satisfaction. Practical/managerial implications are, generally, that it is not necessary to segment customers by customer category (residential versus business) when managing service quality to achieve customer satisfaction. CONTRIBUTION/VALUE ADD: The main theoretical contribution of the study is the comparison of the effect of service quality on customer satisfaction between residential and business customers.

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