Service Quality, Satisfaction and Student Loyalty in Malaysian Private Education

Abstract

The changing of the global demographic trends clearly suggests a growing demand for a quality higher education. In fact, several studies have been carried out in the past few years to explore the factors that have effects on the customer satisfaction and its consequences in various industries. In the same manner, this study also explores the five factors of service quality (SERVQUAL) and their relationship with the level of student satisfaction and their loyalty as well as the intervening role of satisfaction in the relationships between SERVQUAL factors and loyalty among undergraduate students.The study used self-administered questionnaires to test the proposed model and data collected from 460 questionnaires were analysed. The questionnaires were distributed at various private universities and colleges in Malaysia based on convenience sampling. The results of this study are in accordance with prior studies in this field as SERVQUAL factors do influence the level of customers' satisfaction in the service industry. This study shows that the level of students overall satisfaction is mostly affected by tangibility. This finding indicates that the physical facility on the campus plays a major role in satisfying the students. The results also show that tangibility has the highest influence (directly and indirectly) on the students' intention to continue to a higher level of studies and/or spreading good word of mouth about the institution to their friends and the society. However, to generalize the results of this study, consideration should be made to the limitation of the number of the private institutions where the samples are collected. It is suggested that for further study, more samples should be taken from a larger number of institutions.

The Effect of Service Quality and Electronic Word of Mouth (E-WOM) Towards the Loyalty Through Brand Image (The Study on the Customers of Sriwijaya Air in Indonesia)

“…The renewal of this study is that this study consists of 4 variables, namely service quality, Electronic Word of Mouth, brand image and customer loyalty, while the research done by Chen and Liu (2017) only examines service quality and customer loyalty. This result is also supported by Mansori et al (2014) in private education institutions in Malaysia, the results of which also show the quality of service affects student loyalty. The renewal of this research is that this research was conducted on aviation services, while the research by Mansori et al (2014) was conducted at educational institutions.…”

“…This result is also supported by Mansori et al (2014) in private education institutions in Malaysia, the results of which also show the quality of service affects student loyalty. The renewal of this research is that this research was conducted on aviation services, while the research by Mansori et al (2014) was conducted at educational institutions.…”

Hotel Service Recovery and Service Quality: Influences of Corporate Image and Generational Differences in the Relationship between Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty

“…Relationships between service quality and customer satisfaction are well accepted in service literature (e.g. Athanassopoulos, Gounaris, & Stathakopoulos, 2001;Duygun, 2015;Gautam, 2013;Mansori, Vaz, & Ismail, 2014;Parasuraman, Zeithaml, & Berry, 1988;Vaz & Mansori, 2013) However, such relationships have not been fully examined in the service recovery context.…”

Antecedents Brand Trust and Private Universities Reputation

“…SERVQUAL affects customer satisfaction in the service industry in which case university and tangibility have the highest influence on students' intention to continue study and spread the good news about the institution to friends and society (Mansori, Vaz, & Ismail, 2014). SERVQUAL positively affects student satisfaction but satisfaction alone is not enough for students to recommend UPHS as a good university if the services provided are not good (Jiewanto, Laurens, & Nelloh, 2012).…”