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