PERCEPTION OF CUSTOMER SATISFACTION AND HEALTHCARE SERVICE QUALITY IN THE CONTEXT OF BANGLADESH

Purpose - Healthcare service quality and customer satisfaction have been a major research issue over the decade. Customer satisfaction ha s been measured by different researchers under varied environment. A s environment varies, desires of customers and the perception of satisfaction vary. As a result, a major issue is to define the complex nature of customer satisfaction under varied environment. On the other hand, a compromising trade-off is required in operational cost in the wake of increase in cost t o uplift service quality. This research addressed the issue from the context o f Bangladesh. Design/methodology/approach - This research used SERVQUAL, which is a very powerful tool to measure service quality. The study utilized the benefit of hierarchical nature of satisfaction. Service quality was analyzed fro m customers' view point, as well as the service providers, such as doctor s nurses, etc. Finally hypothesis tests we re performed to investigate into the possibility of relationships among the affecting quality parameters and the output service. This analysis was based on customer's perception, as well a s expectation. Findings - The research found the values of service quality parameters, such as tangibles, doctoral service, nursing, infrastructure and management. Th e established fact of dependence of perception of quality on culture has bee n proved once again. The relationship among conflicting parameters were also found using hypothesis testing. Although the study was conducted in the context of Bangladesh, the analysis procedure is well applicable to other countries. Originality/value - The study proved that the hierarchical nature o f satisfaction can well be analyzed using the powerful tool of SERVQUAL. Th e dependence of customer satisfaction on service quality has been assumed t o be a function of market segmentation and customer perception. This result can guide many of the future research works in further analysis of complex nature of service quality and customer satisfaction.