SERVICE QUALITY AND CUSTOMER SATISFACTION IN SMES IN BENIN CITY
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SERVICE QUALITY AND CUSTOMER SATISFACTION IN SMES IN BENIN CITY
Chapter one
Introduction
1.1 Background of the Study
Despite the potential benefits of ensuring customer happiness, several researchers (Harwood and Garry, 2006) believe that recent research has mostly focused on buyer relationships in major corporations. There are few empirical research on customer satisfaction in small and medium-sized businesses (Simpson et al., 2006).
Furthermore, the majority of the preceding arguments took place within the setting of Western cultural (Yau et al., 2000). As a result, customer satisfaction developed in the Western world may not necessarily apply to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in various socio-cultural contexts.
In most developing countries, SMEs have the power to accelerate monetary growth and create jobs. In Nigeria, SMEs create 250,000 employment every year and account for roughly 30% of the country’s GDP. They provide new jobs in the country and contribute significantly to income production, particularly among the poor (Small and Medium Enterprises, Business Guide, 2008).
SMEs must be efficiently managed if they are to contribute to the growth of national economies. As a result, researchers and policymakers must have a thorough understanding of SMEs’ marketing operations.
This will encourage diagram management to enhance customer satisfaction, allowing SMEs to succeed in creating solid buyer relationships (Boag and Dastmalchian, 1988, as referenced in Davis, 1997, p.32).
Despite the fact that SMEs have been considered as a bastion for job creation and technical growth in Nigeria, the sector has also suffered from neglect, with negative consequences for the economy. In a seminar titled “Career Crisis and Financial Distress
– The Way Out”, the General Manager of Enterprise and Financial Support Company Limited, Mr. Oluseyi Oluboba, identified in his paper the following as the fundamental problems of SMEs, which are alternatively not insurmountable: low degree of entrepreneurial skills, poor administration practices, constrained access to cash and capital markets
low equity participation from the promoters because of inadequate person Despite these efforts, there is only scarce knowledge of how service quality contributes to customer satisfaction in SMES, thus the need for this study to find out Service quality as a catalyst for customer satisfaction in SMEs with a better understanding of the relationship between the two to better tailor stimulation programmes to target SME competence needs. (Storey, 1997).
1.2 Statement of the Problem
Without a doubt, a nation’s ability to create and successfully bring invention to market will be a critical driver of its global competitiveness during the next decade.
Policymakers are increasingly conscious that innovative activity is the primary driver of economic advancement and well-being, as well as a potential factor in addressing global concerns in fields such as industry and academia.
Even governments that have traditionally avoided active industrial policy in recent years are looking for new methods to improve the climate for innovation in order to boost productivity and growth. The United States, for example, introduced the “Innovate America” initiative.
In addition to rapid improvements in scientific discovery, customer satisfaction drives the growing speed of innovation. This is therefore the reason for this research.
SMEs have experienced increased competition and ongoing price constraints. In the face of competition, SMEs around the world have been looking for innovative strategies to survive and increase profitability.
To deal with these changes, a variety of marketing strategies have been developed over the last decade. Of these, achieving customer satisfaction has received the most attention from both academics (Wang, 2006) and practitioners.
Since the corporate climate is more dynamic now and customers are more demanding, enterprises have shifted their attention towards RM in order to remain competitive (Boyd et al., 2002).
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