SERVICE QUALITY MANAGEMENT PRACTICE AND CUSTOMER SATISFACTION OF FOOD, BEVERAGE AND TOBACCO MANUFACTURING FIRMS IN SOUTH EAST, NIGERIA

The last decade has witnessed an increase in the acceptance and use of service quality management practices even in the manufacturing industry because service quality is a way of assuring customers of best services. The recent challenge faced by most manufacturing firms in Nigeria is how to adopt a strategy for high-quality services that would satisfy the needs of the customers at a reduced and effective price and still ensure that they remained in business without any incurrence of debt. The study evaluated service quality management practice and customer satisfaction of food, beverage and tobacco manufacturing firms in South East, Nigeria. Specifically, the objectives were to: assess relationship between level of reliability of service quality and the customer satisfaction score; ascertain relationship between responsiveness of service quality and the net promoter score of food, beverage and tobacco manufacturing firms in South East, Nigeria. The population of study was five thousand, five hundred and eighty-four (5584) employees of manufacturing firm under study in South East Nigeria. The sample size of 359 was established using Ferund and William statistical formula at 5 percent error margin. A survey design was adopted for the study. Instrument used for data collection was structured questionnaire. Two hundred and ninety-seven (297) copies of the questionnaire were returned. Z - test was used to test the hypotheses. The findings indicated that there was significant positive relationship between the level of reliability of service quality and the customer satisfaction score Z (95,n = 297) = 6.600 to 8.283, p< .05. There was significant positive relationship between the responsiveness of service quality and the net promoter score Z (95,n = 297) = 7.993 to 9.096,p< .05. The study concluded that the level of reliability of service quality, responsiveness of service quality had significant positive relationship with customer satisfaction score, net promoter score of food, beverage and tobacco manufacturing firms in South East, Nigeria. The study recommended among others that managers should ensure that there existed underpinning ethos in regards to the reliability that guided organizational activities as it would help retain customers and boost organizational performance and food and beverage firms should strive to improve service responsiveness if at all they wanted to satisfy their customers, which ultimately would be reflected in higher profitability