Service Quality and Its Impact on Customer Satisfaction: A Study of Select Supermarkets in Mysuru City
Keywords:
Service Quality, Customer Satisfaction, Retail Sector, Supermarkets, SERVQUAL, Mysuru CityAbstract
The retail sector in India has expanded rapidly with the growth of organized formats such as supermarkets, which now compete strongly with traditional Kirana stores by offering variety, convenience, and an organized shopping environment. Service quality has emerged as a decisive factor in customer satisfaction and store loyalty within this competitive landscape. This study examines the service quality offered by select supermarkets in Mysuru city and its influence on customer satisfaction, with specific objectives of assessing the level of service quality provided, identifying the factors that shape customer satisfaction, and evaluating customer perception of the services offered. A descriptive research design was adopted, and primary data were collected from 400 respondents shopping at supermarkets in Mysuru city through a structured questionnaire based on the SERVQUAL and RSQS models, using the convenience sampling method. The collected data were analysed using percentage analysis, the Chi-square test, mean score (weighted average) analysis, and the one-sample t-test. The results show that customers hold a strongly favourable perception of cleanliness, product availability, staff helpfulness, and billing efficiency, while parking facilities and complaint handling emerged as comparatively weaker areas. All service quality dimensions tested were found to have a statistically significant relationship with customer satisfaction. The study concludes that service quality is a key driver of customer satisfaction in the supermarket sector and offers practical suggestions for retail managers to strengthen customer experience and loyalty.
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