Impact of service quality on customer satisfaction: The case of sky bus public transport system share company in Ethiopia

In any business activity whether profit oriented or non profit, satisfying a customer is the ultimate goal and objective. In fact, it is difficult to understand what is going on in customers mind especially in service sector where the offerings are intangible. Transportation is one among service sectors and uncertain of what customers think about its offerings. This study was designed to determine the impact of service quality on customer satisfaction. It also investigated five other dimensions expected to affect customer satisfaction (customer service, price, safety, experienced quality and Word of Mouth and image) in addition to the five SERVQUAL(Service Quality) instruments developed by Parasuraman (1985)(tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy)which is analyzed separately and reported in an aggregated manner as SERVQUAL dimension. Questionnaires were distributed to 200 customers and resulted in 69% response rate. The questionnaire aimed to determine the level of customers’ expectation and perception towards the service quality of the Sky Bus Public Transport. The results revealed that the experienced quality and safety and luxury dimensions elevated the highest level of expectation, whereas the responsiveness, assurance, and safety and luxury dimensions pleased the highest level of perception. The findings showed that all the dimensions of service quality such as tangible, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy, price, safety, customer service and experienced quality are positively correlated to customer satisfaction.