Exploratory study on pest management service quality determinants on customer satisfaction

Service quality is a vital competitive policy to keep customers support and long-term cooperation. In the pest management industry service quality and customer satisfaction are noted as a critical prerequisite for satisfying and retaining customers. Pest control operators are continuously put efforts to win customer satisfaction by proving enhanced quality services. Numerous researches have discussed on service quality and customer satisfaction, yet there is still gap particularly in pest quality services. Hence, the aim of this study is to examine the relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction in pest management service industry. Data was collected from the Pest Control Companies’ clients, mainly from the food and beverage restaurants in a big shopping mall in Malaysia. 72% of the sample responded. The results of the analysis found that the five service quality determinants in the study that are reliability, assurance, tangibles, empathy and responsiveness have significant relationships with the customer satisfaction. Even though the study has a limited sample size, the result provides insight on the customer satisfaction in the Pest Management services. Future research may improve the findings by using a wider size of sample and employ other variables of service quality and customer satisfaction.