Customer Care Practice and Its Effects in Burundian Private Hospitals

Abstract

Introduction: Contemporary, it is really difficult to attract new customers because it requires a lot of effort and resources, while retaining them is crucial for building a strong relationship and looking over things which matters in building this relationship with customers. Customer care service has become important in many ways for most organizations which had led to quality management and patient satisfaction services. Methods: A cross- sectional study design was used to find out if customer care practice provided in Burundian private hospital has any effect on customer satisfaction and consequently if it leads to customer loyalty. A purposive sampling method was used to select a sample of 55 participants by using Alain Bouchard’s formula and the questionnaire was used as data collection instrument. Results : This study unveiled that customer care practice at CVN was not sufficient as the clinic did not have the customer service unit. Participants’ age ( p = 0.004) had impact significantly the customer care service offered to patients. Lack of understanding of customer, lack of incentive, communication value, insufficient management and workload were the most practice for participants that have seen to significantly impact customer care practice ( p < 0.05). Conclusion : Customer care practice at CVN was not good which could affect customer satisfaction. In-service training and customer service department instating were highly recommended for improving participants’ knowledge and practice on customer care service and management, hence could improve customer satisfaction.