| Abstract [eng] |
The Master's thesis analyses the impact of service quality on the propensity of customers to recommend an educational organisation. In order to reveal the research problem, the aim of the study is to determine the influence of perceived service quality on customers' propensity to recommend an educational organisation. The thesis is structured in 3 main parts: theoretical, methodological and empirical. The theoretical part analyses the concept of perceived service quality, the factors of perceived service quality and the methods of measurement. The characterisation of customer propensity to recommend and its measurement methods are revealed. The second part of the thesis presents the chosen research methodology and justifies the research instruments. For the empirical study, a quantitative research strategy was chosen - a questionnaire survey of parents of primary school students. 369 parents of primary school pupils from 3 municipalities - Anykščiai, Rokiškis and Utena - took part in the survey. The evaluation of the quality of services provided by the educational organization to parents of primary school pupils showed that parents of primary school pupils rated the reliability and assurance dimensions of the services provided by the educational organization the highest, while the lowest rating was given to the tangibility dimension of the quality of the services: the safety of the school building for the child was rated as exceptionally low, and was linked to the insecure school infrastructure. The evaluation of all dimensions of service quality varies by municipality: the worst evaluation of the service quality dimensions is given by parents of primary school children in Anykščiai municipality, while the best evaluation is given by parents of primary school children in Rokiškis municipality. The distribution of respondents by municipalities shows that parents of primary school pupils would recommend their child's school mostly from Rokiškis municipality, while passive recommenders are dominated by Anykščiai district municipality, and detractors by Utena district municipality. The overall recommendation index (NPS) of all respondents is high, i.e. 58%: the NPS of education organizations in the municipality of Rokiškis district is the highest -70.1%, while the NPSI of education organizations in the municipality of Anykščiai district is the lowest -46.7%. The correlations between the propensity of parents of primary school pupils to recommend an organization and the dimensions of service quality were found: the dimensions of service quality are statistically significantly associated with the propensity to recommend, the better the respondents rate all the dimensions of service quality, the more likely they are to recommend an educational organization to their friends or acquaintances. Statistically significantly (p<0.05), all dimensions of service quality are rated highest in the recommender group and lowest in the detractor group. Based on the results of the study, recommendations are made to strengthen the parents' tendency to recommend the educational institution, to use marketing tools to ensure the safety of students at school, and to improve cooperation between parents and the school. |
