Effect of Service Quality on the Performance of Airline Industry in Nigeria

Abstract

This study examines the inadequacies in service delivery provided by organizations due to issues like poor infrastructure, poor budget allocations, corrupt practices, and lack of employee incentives, amongst others. The objective, therefore, is to ascertain the effect of such service delivery on the performance of the Airline industry in Nigeria. Primary data was employed in the survey research design and obtained through administration of structured questionnaires. Simple percentage was used to analyze the data collected and ordinary least square (OLS) was used to estimate the effect of service delivery on the performance of the Airline industry in Nigeria. Findings from this study revealed that the constructs of responsiveness (RES), reliability (REL) and assurance (ASS) had positive and significant effect on customer retention with the respective values of 0.0000, 0.0000 and 0.0000. On the other hand, Empathy (EMP) had a negative and significant effect on customer retention with 0.0000. Furthermore, it showed that service delivery influenced 86% of the variation in the performance of Airline industry in Nigeria with the following breakdown: Customer retention increased by 52.4% due to a 1% increase in responsiveness; Additionally, customer retention increased by 61% due to a 1% increase in reliability, whereas it increased by 43% and 53% respectively due to a 1% increase in assurance and empathy respectively. The study concludes that there is a direct impact of service delivery on performance. In view of these, this study recommends that Airline Managers identify with and prioritize the needs of their customers, among other strategies for improving service quality such as live chats, dedicated telephone lines, and suggestion boxes. This will sustain responsiveness, and reliability constructs as well as improve the constructs of assurance and empathy which are necessary for any business to succeed.