Operations Improvement App Roaches and Customer Satisfaction Among Private Security Firms in Nairobi County

Abstract

This study sought to determine operations improvement practices in private security firms in Nairobi County and to establish the relationship between these approaches and customer satisfaction. Primary data was collected using two sets of semi structured questionnaires, designed to be completed both by the customers and the managers of these firms, with a preference of the operations managers since they are the people incharge of transforming business resources into profitable and sustainable services. Descriptive statistics of mean and standard deviation were used to analyze the first objective while regression analysis was used to show the relationship between the adopted operations improvement approaches and customer satisfaction. Regression statistics were interpreted to determine the strength of the relation. The study reveals that indeed private security firms in Nairobi County indeed have adopted operations improvement approaches. Respondents of the study were able to outline operations improvement methods adopted by their firms while the customers of these firms indicated the extent they were satisfied with services offered by these firms. The study also reveals that there is a correlation between the adopted operations improvement approaches and customer satisfaction in these firms. This research paper concludes that adopting operations improvement approaches such as TQM, lean management, Kaizen, automation and six sigma indeed have an influence on the levels of customer satisfaction. The study suggests that further studies should be undertaken to determine the nexus between private security firms‟ financial performance and their adopted operations improvement approaches. The study recommends similar studies to be undertaken in other service industries to provide more evidence on the relationship between the operations improvement approaches and customer satisfaction levels.