SERVQUAL and Customer Engagement in Nigeria’s Telecom Industry: Utilitarian versus Hedonism Perspectives

Abstract

The telecommunication industry has been contributing to the GDP of Nigeria with services that cut across numerous sectors of Nigerian economic space. The sector faces numerous challenges; rising customer complaints on dropped calls, voice and data quality, and poor connectivity are raising concerns about service quality. The study examined the SERVQUAL and customer engagement among service providers in Nigeria’s telecom industry with attention on the utilitarian value and hedonistic perspective. Face-to-face intercepts were adopted via non-probability sampling in data collection. 315 samples were validated as CB-SEM was utilized in the analysis of ten (10) hypothesized relationships. Service empathy and service tangibility were significant in predicting both utilitarian and hedonistic drives of customer engagement, while service responsiveness predicted only the utilitarian drive of customer engagement. Thus, the basic or functional needs are the major drivers in customer engagement in the telecommunication industry, with emotional connections and tangibility of services at the core of the functional and hedonistic needs. The study recommended that telecom service providers encourage training and re-training of their contact service personnel on empathetic connections during a service encounter as well as improve their responsiveness while creating positive tangible evidence that connects to the functional and emotional needs of telecom customers.