Factors influencing customer satisfaction in public marketing boards. a case of national cereals and produce board

Abstract

Customer satisfaction is a fundamental marketing construct in the last three decades. In The past, it was unpopular and unaccepted concept because companies thought it was More important to gain new customers than retain the existing ones. However, in this present decade, companies have gained better understanding of the importance of customer satisfaction (especially service producing companies) and adopted it as a high priority operational goal. In Kenya, competition in marketing organizations has been on the rise, especially for the public marketing Boards. Soaring competition within marketing Boards has led to escalating consumer demands on performances, driving the organizations to become more customer-oriented. This study aimed at identifying factors influencing customer satisfaction in public marketing Boards a case of National Cereals and produce Board. The study used descriptive research design for describing the basic features of data. In addition a, structured questionnaire with both closed and open-ended questions was used for data collection. The questionnaires were distributed to 96 farmers, with 15 farmers in each of the six divisions of Uasin-Gishu who were selected using the purposive sampling method and the data collected were analyzed using Microsoft excel software. The findings of this study are based on the analysis of a sample of 88 respondents. The Factors influencing customer satisfaction in public marketing Boards was studied and five Factors were identified. These factors include customer service, service delivery, service encounter, service quality and customer complain handling process. The findings reveal That these five factors are positively related to customer satisfaction in public marketing Boards, and of these factors, customers place highest value on customer service (b, = 0.793),followed by service delivery (b2 = 0.234), customer complain handling process (b, = 0.092), service encounter (b, = 0.070), whereas service quality (b, = - 0.l46) is Perceived as the least important factor. Service quality is the least important factor as Perceived by the Board customers.