IMPACT OF QUALITY CUSTOMER SERVICE DELIVERY ON CUSTOMER

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ABSTRACT

The Insurance industry is beginning to assert , but itself is faced in Ghana with the problem of quality service provision. There is the general perception that insurance companies especially life insurance providers are only interested in the money (that is premium ) that clients pay and are reluctant to fulfil their obligations when it comes to payment of claims. This negative perception has affected the image of the insurance industry.

However, there has not been any scientific research to either confirm or reject this assertion. It is against this backdrop that this study assessed the impact of quality service delivery on customer retention of SicLife Insurance; to determine the extent to which Quality service delivery impact on the operations of SicLife.

A survey was conducted using the servqual survey instrument on quality dimensions among customers and staff of Sic life. The study covered 150 customers and 30 members of staff of SicLife Insurance Company Ltd. Both primary and secondary data were used. Issues relating to turn-around time, Staff participation in decision making, management response to staff concerns, training needs for frontline staff, customers satisfaction and retention levels as well as why customers surrender their policies were investigated from the perspectives of the staff and customers SicLife.

It was discovered that customers were satisfied with the services received from Sic life on four dimensions of quality but the levels vary. This according to the survey has led to the high customer retention of 99.7%.The study revealed a weak correlation between customer’s expectation and perception of service quality as depicted by the Paired Samples Correlation in the Hypothesis. The study also revealed that, SicLife is doing well on four dimensions of quality, except the reliability dimension. The quality gap in the reliability dimension is attributed to the frequent  break in the network and   technical software ‘Cebas’ as well as  frequents leading power to customers outages dissatisfaction. Non delivery of policy documents by some of the Sales representatives and issue on mis-representation of the policy terms and benefits given to customers by some of the Sales representatives were identified as a major problem which causes customers to surrender their policies. The study recommended that management of SicLife as a matter of urgency upgrade or improved its IT software or if possible finds a much improved version of the ‘Cebas’ software It is further to avert suggested that the technicians or the experts who management the software, should be decentralized to the branch for quick restoration of the system for smooth operation and service delivery.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

  1. Background of study       

Insurance was introduced in the country in the 20th century to manage risk. Some of the early companies were Royal Exchange Assurance Company, Northern Assurance Company Limited, New India Assurance Company Limited and Gresham Fire and Accident Assurance Society Limited (NIC, 2006).

Life insurance, which is normally a contract between an insurance company and an individual or an organization, provides protection against untimely death of an individual or group of people in an organization. The Life Offices Association (LOA) was born as a wing of the Ghana Insurers Association (GI effort to undertake a nationwide education on the benefits of life insurance to the public with the view of creating awareness of the need of having life insurance policy.

For  a  very  long  time  in  the  history  of  the  Insurance  Industry  in  Ghana,  the  word ‘insurance’ to most people has been synonymous with motor insurance, because insurance generally had been popularized by an ‘Act of Parliament Third Party Act of 1958” makes third party motor insurance compulsory for all vehicles plying the roads within the boundaries of Ghana. This has been strictly enforced by the Police over the years. Life Insurance, the branch of insurance that deals with lives and its exigenc”ies, is not a very popular class of insurance on the Ghanaian insurance market some years back until when the new Insurance Act 724 in 2006 which replaced the old Insurance Law, of 1989 P.N.D.C law 227 seemed to had strengthened the operation of life insurance in the country. This is to encourage investors to put in the necessary resources needed to grow the life sector and effectively play its expected role in the nation’s (NIC Newsletter July-Sept, 2006).