Effect of Facility Layout Environment on Perceived Service Quality- the Case of National Bank of Kenya
Abstract
Facility layout environment (FLE) refers to the physical place or surrounding where services
take place. It is a visual metaphor that acts as package (in the same way as product package)
to convey or express an organization‟s image. The elements of FLE comprises of the
ambient conditions, spatial layout and functionality, artifacts, signs and symbols and the
social elements. Service organizations customers have become more demanding with an
ever growing expectation not only in regard to quality of service but also the surrounding
where these services are offered. Minimal studies have focused on facility layout
environment and those that did so mainly focused on the hotel industry. This study had two
objectives the first objective was to establish the extent to which elements of facility layout
environment are considered by NBK branches and secondly to find out the effect of facility
layout environment on perceived service quality at National Bank. The study used
descriptive cross-sectional survey design and the population of the study comprised of the
entire National Bank of Kenya branches. Questionnaires were the ones used to collect data..
The respondents comprised of branch operations manager and branch customers and the
response rate was 53.3 %. From the study findings, the elements of FLE were adopted to a
large extent. Social elements was highly ranked followed by artifacts, signs and symbols
third was the ambient conditions and lastly spatial layout and functionality was the least
adopted. The study also showed a positive relationship between FLE and perceived service
quality however, the relationship was not significant. The study thus recommends that the
management should invest more on a good facility layout environment as it affects
customers‟ perception on organization‟s service quality. An appealing FLE will greatly
contribute to organizational goal achievement as it enhances customer retention, attracts
new customers and creates differentiation
Publisher
University of Nairobi
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United StatesUsage Rights
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/Collections
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