Customer satisfaction on the queuing practices among supermarkets in Davao City during COVID-19

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic forced all industries, especially markets, to adopt a more conservative protocol, which made it challenging for both supermarket managers and consumers in doing their transactions. This made obvious changes in the queuing practices employed in supermarkets; that is, a fundamental aspect in the consumer purchasing experience. Hence, this study is motivated to discover the perceived changes in the queuing management practices in supermarkets and the satisfaction of customers therefor. Importantly, this study also investigates the relationship between queuing management practices and customer satisfaction during the pandemic. Moreover, 300 respondents in Davao City who have made purchases in NCCC, Robinsons, Gaisano, and SM supermarkets participated in this study. Based on the results, Davaoeños agree that perceived waiting time, waiting lines/queuing, and queuing practices, and strongly agree that queuing disciplines are observed in the said supermarkets. Further, results show that the respondents demonstrated high customer satisfaction in terms of satisfaction rate, intention to buy again, net promoter score, and customer effort score. Furthermore, this study found a significant relationship between overall queuing management practices and customer satisfaction during the pandemic.