Child care service quality, customer satisfaction and customer loyalty in Dar es Salaam Tanzania

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume V, Issue I, January 2021 | ISSN 2454–6186

Child care service quality, customer satisfaction and customer loyalty in Dar es Salaam Tanzania

Mary Asheri Mashoke¹, Dalphina Libent-Mabagala², Fauzia Mohamed^3
1Assistant lecturer- National Institute of Transport
^2,3 Lecturer- Open University of Tanzania.

ABSTRACT:- Service quality and satisfaction are essential areas that organizations need to consider for their effectiveness and growth. Satisfied customers form the foundation of a successful business as customer satisfaction leads to repeated purchase and brand loyalty. The study used service quality SERVQUAL collected data from 411 working mothers using structured questionnaires data were analyzed using PLS-SEM. It was revealed that service quality both influence customer satisfaction and customer loyalty, even when the effects of all constructs are considered simultaneously. The study recommends that, child care centres endeavor to improve all aspects of service quality as elaborated in SERVQUAL model to attain working mother loyalty on child care centres. Moreover, Ministry of Community Development, Gender, and Children in Tanzania need to review and amend policies, laws, and regulations on childcare services to incorporate working mothers view of child care services, customer satisfaction and customer loyalty as per finding of the study

Key words: Customer loyalty, Customer satisfaction, child care, SERVQUAL, Service quality.

1. INTRODUCTION

The formation of customer loyalty has been an important area of research by scholars and practitioners over the past 35 years (Heri, 2017; Setianawan & Sayuti, 2017).It is practically impossible for a business organization to survive without building customer satisfaction and brand loyalty (Iddrisu & Mensah, 2015). Customer loyalty is considered as a major tool for retaining customers, repurchase and customer relationship in any particular service(Kobbekaduwa,et al.,2019). Studies shows that customer loyalty in most cases depends on service quality and customer satisfaction of the service offered (Hasdiansa & Raju, 2018). Working mother’s loyalty to childcare services is based on the fact that it allows them to work without worry of their children’s welfare while at work.
Traditionally, women in Sub -Saharan Africa depended on other family members in the extended family for child care and housework support. Participation of women in labor force outside their home had come with families challenges. Women are facing challenge on how they can bring up the little one while they are at work. One of the challenges concerns managing households as well as their profession. Family life and care of young children have been affected by this change as households with young children have to be reliant on different ways of managing childcare responsibilities such as formal care (Singh,2018). The situation had caused pressure to working mother to balance work-family challenges.

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