Enhancing Customer Loyalty Through Quality Service Delivery in Hospitality Industry in Nigeria

Abstract

The study examined customer loyalty through quality service delivery in the hospitality industry in Nigeria. Specifically, the study investigated how loyal customers are in the hospitality industry; the relationship between service quality and customer loyalty; customer satisfaction and loyalty, price and customer loyalty and lastly, the relationship between location and customer loyalty in the hospitality industry. The survey method of conducting research was used in this study. The study population comprised of all hotel customers in Ado- Ekiti, Ekiti State. The study adopted purposive sampling technique. The sample size of the study comprised 384 customers of hotels in Ado Ekiti. A self-constructed Questionnaire with a cronbach coefficient alpha value of 0.87 was used to get the necessary data for this study. The questionnaire contained 35 items, 8 of which provided information on the demographic variables of the respondents. The second part of the questionnaire contained 27 items which bother on the core subject matter. Two (2) research questions were raised and answered and two (2) hypotheses were posited and tested at the significance level of 0.05. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and pearson product moment correlation coefficient (PPMC).Findings in this study revealed that the quality of service (M=2.71≈3, SD=0.751) in the hotels in Ado Ekiti Ekiti State is good; customers are satisfied (M=2.63≈3, SD=0.754) with the hotels; prices of products and service (M=2.61≈3, SD=0.736) of hotels is good; the hotels (M=2.61≈3, SD=0.761) are easily located; and that customers’ loyalty (M=2.79≈3, SD=0.833) in the hotels is high; The study also revealed that there is a significant relationship between service quality (r = 0.445; P < 0.05) and customers’ loyalty; between satisfaction (r = 0.486; P < 0.05) and customers’ loyalty; between price (r = 0.395; P < 0.05) and customers’ loyalty; between location(r = 0.313; P < 0.05) and customers’ loyalty to hotels in Ado Ekiti, Ekiti State. Based on the findings, the study recommended that hotel management should implement customer loyalty improvement programme in order to create and maintain long-lasting relationships with customers so as to have competitive advantage and increase profitability; hotel should strive to differentiate from competitive by providing unique and high quality service to its clients. Keywords: Customer Loyalty, Service Quality Delivery, Customer Satisfaction