Customer Service Strategy and Competitive Advantage of Getrudes’ Children’s Hospital
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Date
2020Author
Mutua, Priscilla M
Type
ThesisLanguage
enMetadata
Show full item recordAbstract
The level of customer service strategies that an organization adopts determines the customer
satisfaction level, loyalty and referrals made by the existing customers. Organizations should
therefore seek to deliver services that meet their customers' needs, especially in the competitive
business climate of today. The objective of the study was to establish the use of customer service
to enhance competitive advantage at Gertrude’s Children's Hospital, Kenya. The researcher
employed a case study research design with an interview guide being the main data collection
instrument. Out of targeted ten managers to be interviewed, the researcher was able to interview
eight managers from eight satellite hospital branches. The findings reveal that the hospital had
adopted different forms of customer service strategies to remain competitive. The dominant
customer service strategies that were found to be adopted by the hospital include timeliness of
service, equipping the employees with the requisite skills to handle customers well, equipping its
employees with relevant strategies, directing more resources to the customer service exercise,
and top management support and customer satisfaction. The findings reveal that by the hospital
training its employees in customer service skills it has been able to have satisfied clients whose
needs are met starting from the reception to meeting the doctor. The research findings also
reinforced the need for the hospital to direct not only human resources, but also financial
resources to the customer service programs which were found to increase the hospitals level of
competitive advantage as manifested by increase revenue, number of clients, branches opened
and awards, both at the national and global level. The importance of incorporating customer
feedbacks in development and adjustment of existing customer service strategies were found to
be important in realization of firm competitiveness. The study recommends tailor made training
of staff to handle the customer service challenges and always aim to make the customers
satisfied on what they are offering. Similarly, it is recommended that the management purpose to
incorporate their clients views when developing customer service strategies.
Publisher
University of Nairobi
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United StatesUsage Rights
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/Collections
- School of Business [1421]
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