Service quality facets and hotel customer retention in Ghana: Evidence from the Volta Region

Abstract

Service quality and customer retention remain essential issues in the service sector. This research delves into unravelling the complex relationships between the facets of the SERVQUAL model (reliability, responsiveness, tangibility, assurance, and empathy) and the retention of hotel customers in less-urban areas of Ghana. A cross-sectional survey of 450 customers of hotels in the Volta Region produced data for descriptive and regression analyses using Smart PLS 4. The results show that service quality was rated moderately, only assurance and empathy significantly affect customer retention, while tangibility, reliability, and responsiveness do not. Generalizability of our findings to other regions of Ghana and elsewhere might be questioned because the study was limited to only one region. However, this seeming limitation provides novelty and value in several ways. Firstly, while SERVQUAL is widely used, its application to less-urban geographical areas like the Volta Region is uncommon. Moreover, the study provides a deeper understanding of how service quality affects customer retention by focusing on a specific, narrow regional area. Further, by differing from the usual broader hospitality research, this distinctive approach offers valuable insights into local customers' unique preferences and behaviours that larger-scale studies may overlook.