SERVICE MANAGEMENT AND CUSTOMER CONTENTMENT: A CASE OF KEYSTONE BANK PLC. GOMBE STATE NIGERIA

Abstract

Customer contentment and service management is a well-established concept and has long been a topic of high interest in both academia and practice in several areas like marketing, banking, consumer research, economic psychology, welfare-economics, and economics. This paper attempts an examination of service management and customer contentment in a service firms using Keystone Bank Plc, Gombe state as a case study. SERVQUAL model of dimension of service quality is adopted as framework for this study. Data for the study were obtained through questionnaire designed on a five (5) point Likert scale. The questionnaire was administered on one hundred and twelve respondents all of whom were current/savings account holders in Keystone Bank Plc, Gombe branch in Gombe state out of which eighty-one questionnaires were randomly selected. The responses were analyzed empirically using descriptive statistics for mean and standard deviation in Microsoft Excel (2013). Findings shows that there is possibility that quality service management in a service firm may have a positive effect on customer contentment however this does not directly equates an increase in customer contentment on the services of the firm hence organisations/service firms should not rely on internal management efficiency alone without paying more close attention to customer behaviour, experience and ultimately contentment.

Keywords: Customer contentment – service quality – service management – service firm.