Insurance activity: The quality of service perceived by health plan/insurance customers

• Autor(a) principal: Ferreira, Miguel Lourenço Viçoso de Arraes
• Data de Publicação: 2022
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10071/27155
• topic: Qualidade dos serviços -- Services quality; Satisfaction; Loyalty; Seguro de saúde -- Health insurance; SERVPERF; Servqual; Análise de componentes principais -- Principal component analysis; Mediation analysis; Satisfação; Lealdade; Análise de mediação

In the era of intensive globalization, the growing number of options available and the increasing awareness of customers leads to a continuous increase in their quality service demands. Therefore, one of the biggest challenges companies faces today is to differentiate their services through quality improvement. The present study aims to identify the dimensions underlying the formation of service quality perceptions in the Portuguese health insurance sector and assess their relationships with satisfaction and loyalty. The primary data has been collected from a non-probabilistic sample of 128 Portuguese citizens over 18 years of age and subscribers to at least one health plan or insurance. Service quality was measured using the SERVPERF methodology (Cronin et al., 1992) and a 26-item scale, structured according to the SERVQUAL five dimensions (Parasuraman et al., 1985), was applied. Principal Component Analysis led to the identification of a four-dimensional hierarchal structure: “Reliability & Responsiveness”, “Assurance & Empathy”, “Tangibles” and “Convenience”. Based on the relevance of each of these factors, the health insurance providers can propose appropriate action plans based on the most crucial dimensions in shaping customer service quality perceptions. Correlational analysis indicated that the perceived quality of service, in all its dimensions, significantly relates to both satisfaction and loyalty, the latter also relating to each other. The mediation analysis showed that quality influences loyalty both directly and indirectly, through satisfaction, which means that to get a competitive advantage over the competitors, the service quality should be used as a strategic tool. It was found that age and gender differentiate satisfaction levels and that loyalty differs depending on product type and age.