ABSTRACT
In the life assurance industry in Ghana, customer care has
become a pivotal aspect. Swift delivery and efficient services are vital when
it comes to payment of claims. However, the industry is besieged with several
complaints from customers as a result of deficiencies in claim settlement. The
study therefore seeks to unravel the impact of customer care and consumer
purchasing behaviour on life assurance products in Ghana. Enterprise Life
Assurance Company Ltd was purposively selected for this study and 396 subscribers
were sampled and questionnaires administered to them. Statistical tools
embedded in the SPSS were used to analyse the data and it was revealed that
there is high level of customer care practices at Enterprise Life Assurance Ltd
in terms of proficiency of service delivery, media and presentation of messages
to customers, the physical and ethical excellence, service delivery process,
security and dynamic operations, credibility and functionality. Enterprise Life
Assurance Company Ltd also provides high level of physical and ethical
excellence in terms of the provision of proper drinking water and sanitary
facilities and visually appealing signs, symbols, advertisement boards, fliers,
and other artifacts in the branch offices. Key among the recommendations are
further improving the customer care practices of the company, training of staff
on customer care practices, awareness creation about the products and policies
of the company and customer segmentation.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the study
Excellent, quality, efficient, competent and exceptional
customer care is paramount in any viable establishment. It is therefore not
surprising that, customer care remains as the essential and most deliberated
subject in the public or private business environments. This is expected
because customers in the twenty first century are and will continue to be
elegant and value cognizant. In the context of marketing, customers will have
preference for certain kinds of product or service and these preferences, attitudes
and among others can affect consumption (Brassington and Pettitt, 2003).
Customers have less time but want to purchase products and services worth
paying for.
The lifeline of any firms depends solely on its customers,
therefore the relationship between the firm and its customers should be the
first on its list of preference. Establishments will only succeed when its
goals of attracting, building and keeping loyal customers is a topnotch
otherwise will be a failure. Therefore, meeting the needs of customers through
excellent service delivery on the part of the firm cannot be overlooked in any
organization that seeks to succeed. This is what (Timm, 2008) rightly put it as
“organization serves, and succeed through service”. In support of the argument
(Swanson & Hsu 2009) opined that customers are considered a real asset to
firms. Customer care undoubtedly plays such a significant part in a company‟s
capacity to increase productivity. In this regards, financial institutions
(Life Assurance companies) cannot afford not to include customer service in
their overall operations in an attempt to improving its business outcomes, and
consistency should be key. Negative customer service is
more likely to trigger equally negative feedbacks since customers mostly pass
on these information to friends, family and relatives (NIC, 2008). It is
imperative, therefore for businesses to strive for an outstanding customer
service to avoid the negative image which has a potential of reducing their
outcome.
“A consumer‟s buying behavior is influenced by cultural,
social, personal and psychological factors, most of these factors are
uncontrollable and beyond the hands of marketers but they have to be considered
while trying to understand the complex behaviour of the consumers” (Brosekhan,
and Velayutham, 2013). Studies on customers‟ purchasing behaviour place a lot
of value on customers and have maintained that they play three different roles:
as users, payers and buyers (Ibid). Understanding consumer behaviour can be
helpful in the Life Assurance industry in Ghana. To appreciate how clients
think, feel and purchase a products, brands among others over some and how they
are influenced by cultural, social, personal, psychological and customer care
services and salespersons and so on (Ibid). Swift delivery and efficient
services are vital when it comes to payment of claims, responsive team of
workers that are ever ready to offer help or assistance upon request and
consistent feedback and many others are some of the expectations of a twenty
first century life assurance consumer (Amartey, 2007). These concerns do not
operate in a vacuum rather in a well, efficient and proactive consumer relation
services and satisfaction.
The competitive nature of the life assurance industry in
Ghana and the ease at which life assurance policies are cut-and-pasted gives
the consumer a lot of option to select from. The challenge this present is
the „conflict‟ among assurers to amass “customers share” and the need for
reliable customers base through efficient customer care, which is a very
essential for service providing entities to be successful (Sweeney and Swait,
2008; Bowen and Chen, 2001). Loyal customers in the service industry (Life
Assurance industry) have a habit of remaining faithful to their client and tend
to pass on positive feedbacks which mostly favour their ideal assurer (Sweeney
and Swait, 2008). In an emerging economy like Ghana, where most people are
becoming more enlightened through education and becoming more informed of their
rights as consumers, they are able to complain and demand better customer care.
On one hand, many past studies in customer care and customer purchasing
behaviour in the African context in general and Ghana in particular are very
scanty. Much of the empirical research on customer focused on American,
European, and Asian consumers. Therefore, a study on customer care and
purchasing behaviour in Ghana would increase the body of knowledge in this
thematic area within the African and Ghanaian context. The study therefore
seeks fill this gap by assessing customer care and consumer purchasing behavior
based on the educational background of the consumer.
1.2 Problem Statement
The Ghanaian financial sector has been penetrated by many
private ones which is not bad in itself but the critical question is; are they
offering different services and products since their inception in the year
2000? The industry base has widened but in terms of products and services they
offer much needs to be done. This presupposes that the Ghanaian financial
industry (Life Assurance firms) has attained the maturity phase of the „product
lifecycle‟ which makes products and services provided by these firms more commoditized as a result
of the identical products. The danger therefore, is the competition for
“customer share” (Mendzela, 1999). Firms therefore remain profitable and viable
when they manage to keep as many as possible loyal customers in the mist of
this competition.
In the life assurance industry in Ghana, customer service has
become a pivotal aspect since the sector has seen significant growth and
transformation since the introduction of private life assurance firms both
within and across regions. Swift delivery and efficient services are vital when
it comes to payment of claims. Responsive team of workers that are ever ready
to offer help or assistance upon request and consistent feedback and many
others are some of the expectations of a twenty first century life assurance
consumer (Amartey, 2007). However, the Life Assurance industry is besieged with
several complaints from customers. Deficiency in life assurance claim
settlement is one of the issues pointed out by researchers concerning life
assurance consumption in the industry (Omar & Owusu-Frimpong, 2007). In
assessing consumers‟ outlooks with regards to life assurance consumption Omar
& Owusu-Frimpong (2007) pointed out that there is absence of reliance and
assurance with the life assurance firms. People reject life assurance on
grounds that assurers do not pay when it comes to claims settlement and that
the bureaucracy is cumbersome. Customer satisfaction become paramount in this
regards. The challenge for life assurance industry is to “attract” customer‟s,
build a base of satisfied clients, and create good relationship with customers
through the provision of quality services that will satisfy customers which can
also build their trust step by step hence retaining clients for a long period
of time.
Though there are volumes of
literatures assessing the relationship between customer care and consumer
purchasing behaviour, the majority fail to examine the possible effect of
moderators. The limited number of studies that examined the effect of
moderators between this relationship failed to look at the possible moderating
effect of moderators and hence the necessity for the current study. Moreover,
the limited literatures on the moderating role of constructs between customer
care and consumer behaviour are concentrated in the developed world and hence
largely ignoring developing countries including Ghana. Therefore, the current
study examines the moderating effect of education in the relationship between
customer care and consumer purchasing behaviour from an African context.
This study intends to throw more light on the impact of
customer care and consumer purchasing behaviour in the Life Assurance Industry
in Ghana of course modeling that through customers‟ educational background
which the researcher believes it can unpack some of the distrustful issues and
encourage people to patronize life assurance.
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===================================================================Item Type: Ghanaian Topic | Size: 90 pages | Chapters: 1-5
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