Service quality, customers’ satisfaction, and profitability: an empirical study of Saudi Arabian insurance sector

• Published in: Investment management & financial innovations 2018, Vol.15 (2), p.232-247
• Main Authors: Ali, Anis, Tausif, Mohammad Rumzi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Business Economy / Management; Customer satisfaction; Customer services; customers’ satisfaction; Economy; Geography, Regional studies; insurance; Insurance industry; Profitability; Profits; Quality of service; Saudi Arabia; SERVQUAL; Socio-Economic Research
• ISSN: 1810-4967; 1812-9358
• DOI: 10.21511/imfi.15(2).2018.21

Financial performance is the fundamental aspect to test the performance of the companies. The performance of insurance sector, like any other service industry, is supposed to depend significantly on customers. When it comes to customers, it is an established fact that customer satisfaction would be an important element. Customer satisfaction primarily depends on the quality of service it gets. It can be safely hypothesized that better service quality would lead to higher satisfaction, which would ultimately lead to higher profits for the company. Studies on this relationship in the insurance sector for Saudi Arabia are missing. Hence, this study aims at studying both the profitability of companies and quality of service and tries to relate it to customer satisfaction. The results are quite surprising, as the study establishes that although the qualities of services are found wanting in many areas, companies are earning good profits. A probable reason could be the statutory nature of the services. Nevertheless, this study recommends improving the quality of services and differentiating services between age groups for further improvement.