Delivery of Service Quality in the Mobile Telephony Industry in Kenya

Abstract

Quality, in the today’s business environment has been recognized as a sustainable source of competitive environment. Due to the competitive nature of the telecommunication industry in Kenya, it has become paramount that the network providers consider service quality as a means of gaining and retaining market share. This research project sought to find out what is the level of service quality delivery in the industry and what dimensions of quality do the customers consider as most important and thus establish the focus that the providers should take. The research was carried out through a descriptive research design. The population of the study comprised of the mobile phone users in Kenya. Information was gathered from the customers because this study’s aim was investigating on the service quality from external customers’ perspectives.The rank order of service dimensions indicated that network quality is the most preferred dimension by customers in the industry, followed by responsiveness, reliability, assurance, empathy and tangibles in that order.The order of priority does not mean that providers can focus only on some dimensions; all the dimensions have to be provided. But provider’s first and best efforts should follow in the order. The study further revealed that Essar Telecom (Yu), the smallest network provider by market share, is ranked the top by its customers in service quality delivery as compared to the other networks. It is closely followed by Safaricom Ltd, Airtel networks and Telkom Kenya (Orange) in that order.