SERVICE QUALITY AND CUSTOMER SATISFACTION AT THE TEMA BRANCH OF TOYOTA GHANA COMPANY LIMITED

ABSTRACT The Ghanaian automobile service industry has in recent times seen a lot of competition with the proliferation of various brands, grey vehicles, genuine and non-genuine spare parts in the market. The establishment and progress of any industry is completely dependent on the customer and its satisfaction. The research work used Toyota Ghana Company Limited as a case study to understand the relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction. The purpose of the study is to look at service quality and customer satisfaction at the Tema Branch of Toyota Ghana Company Limited. This study adopted the SERVQUAL model with its five dimensions (tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy) to measure customer’s satisfaction of service quality. A total of 120 customers were chosen from customers who purchase and service vehicles from the Tema branch of Toyota Ghana Company Limited. A self-completion questionnaire with a total of 27 closed questions and 3 open ended questions was developed to gather field data. The items were measured by using a five Point Likert-type response scale. SPSS version 20 was used to carry out the analysis of the data. The findings revealed that there exists a positive relationship between all the five dimensions of service quality. The results again, showed that Toyota Ghana, Tema branch customers have a positive perception of services rendered to them from all the three service providers; sales, service and spare parts leading to their high level of satisfaction. The study made recommendations that will serve as a guide to all stakeholders in the field of the automobile business such as improving on communication at the frontline and offering more souvenirs such as pens and T-shirts to customers.