THE INFLUENCE OF TRANSPORT MANAGEMENT PRACTICES ON CUSTOMER SATISFACTION IN FAST-FOOD SECTOR: EVIDENCE FROM SOUTH-WESTERN NIGERIA

The fast-food business over the years have been experiencing issues arising from the inefficient transport management practices (TMP), such as delays in delivery, high costs and variable service quality. Such issues negatively affect customer satisfaction (CS) and overall business performance as evidence from the literature. This research examines impact of TMP on customer satisfaction in fast-food sector of Nigeria. The data were sourced from primary source. A structured questionnaire was directed to 400 participants who are customers of fast-food industries from all the six states in south-west Nigeria. Moreover, data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The SEM and EFA were used to evaluate relationship amid TMP and CS. The results show high load factors (TMP: 0.884–0.978; CS: 0.846–0.983) and excellent fit criteria for the model (CMIN/DF = 1.20523, RMSEA = 0.029, GFI = 0.951), indicating critical role of TMP in service speed, dependability, and product quality. The research concludes that efficient TMP results in higher customer satisfaction and suggests the use of the GPS-based route planning, computerized delivery systems to curtail delays and inefficiency in operations. It is recommended that the fast-food companies should adopt the real-time order tracking and also regularly train their delivery workforce so as to satisfy their customer as much as possible.