THE NEXUS BETWEEN SERVICE QUALITY AND CUSTOMER LOYALTY: EVI-DENCE FROM TRANSPORT SERVICE INDUSTRY

Abstract

The main objective of the study is to investigate the nexus between service quality and customer loyalty in public bus transport. The study adopted a descriptive survey method to collect data from the respondents and the instrument used for data collection was the self-administered questionnaire method. The type of data obtained for the study was the primary type. The population of the study was 1,065 customers of Gombe line transport service in Gombe and the sample size of the study was 278 customers. The respondents that took part in the study were drawn from the population through convenience sampling technique. The test was carried out using Z-test as a technique to test the hypotheses and association to measure the strength of relationship between the variables of the study. The findings of the study show that, there is a significant relationship between passenger comfort, transport fare and passenger safety with customer loyalty in public bus transport: evidence from Gombe line transport service. The strength of association among the factors was also strong. The study concluded that, passenger comfort, transport fare and passenger safety have effect on customer loyalty of public bus transport. The study, therefore, suggests that there should be improvement on passenger comfort, transport fare and passenger safety in order to improve its customer loyalty.