Service quality and its impact on customers’ behavioural intentions and satisfaction: an empirical study of the Indian life insurance sector

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to investigate customer-perceived service quality dimensions, satisfaction, and behavioural intentions in the context of the Indian life insurance sector. The study explores the relationship between service quality, satisfaction, and behavioural intentions by linking both constructs at their dimensional level. A modified SERVQUAL instrument was used to capture customers’ perceived service quality, followed by exploratory factor analysis to study the dimensionality of service quality, satisfaction, and behavioural intentions in the Indian life insurance industry. Structural equation modelling was used to probe the influence of the dimensions of service quality, satisfaction, and resultant behavioural intentions. The results of this study validate previous research findings that identify reliability and responsiveness as key dimensions of service quality. Reliable and responsive customer support had significant impacts on customer satisfaction and behavioural intentions in the Indian life insurance industry. The results will assist Indian life insurance companies in improving their operations.

Keywords:

• service quality
• behavioural intentions
• life insurance
• SEM

Acknowledgements

The authors are most grateful to two anonymous reviewers and Professor Jiju Antony (Associate Editor of TQMBE) for their constructive comments, which helped improve the presentation of the paper considerably.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.