Abstract:
The Insurance industry has lately been associated with
financial steadiness, security of government programs, enhancing trade
and overall growth of a national economy. The industry however continues
to experience very low penetration. Kenya has a penetration rate of 2.3%
compared to South Africa’s rate of 7.6%. Insurance firms in Kenya are
under considerable pressure from their customers and the regulator to
invest in service blue print as a measure of analysing the impact of their
service quality which is a result of their service innovations and enhanced
processes or systems which are supposed to improve customer satisfaction
and hence profitability. This study analysed the relationship between
service blue print dimension and customer satisfaction in the insurance
industry in Kenya. The study adopted a causal research design. The unit
of analysis was 17 licensed composite insurance companies in Kenya with
a unit of observation of 400 policy holders sourced from insurance
company records. Primary data was collected using a semi-structured
questionnaire which was self-administered. R-Gui was the main
statistical software. The study applied the linear mixed-effect models of
structural equation modelling (SEM) considering the multi-level structure
of the data collected. A significant fixed effect coefficient estimate of 0.154
was established, implying that increasing the levels of service blue printing
as perceived by a customer by one unit would result into an increase in the
level of Customer Satisfaction by 0.154. The study concluded that a
client who perceives efficient and effective service processes from his/ her
insurer is bound to have higher satisfaction than a customer who does not
perceive efficient and effective service processes from their insurer. Service
blue printing however, does not significantly affect the variations of
customer satisfaction between the insurance companies. The study
recommends that insurance industry firms invest in service blue prints as
a strategy of achieving maximum customer satisfaction. Service blue print
will improve interactions between customers and service providers by
acting as a service lens and they should be developed as a service
innovation technique that may enable discovery of potential innovations
that may have otherwise been overlooked. The insurance company can
adopt service blue print as a benchmark for accreditation standards.
