MANAGERIAL COMPETENCIES AS AN ANTECEDENT TO CUSTOMER SATISFACTION IN SMALL AND MEDIUM SIZED ENTERPRISES (SMES) IN ELDORET MUNICIPALITY

Customer satisfaction has received much attention in the last two decades from both practitioners and researchers as one of the strategies firms can employ to remain competitive. Despite this attention, little empirical research has been performed about relationship-marketing practices among SMEs, especially those in developing countries. This study intended to investigate the effects of managerial competencies on customer satisfaction in Eldoret town. Stratified sampling was used to divide the Central Business District in terms of streets. Systematic random sampling was used to select SMEs from each street to obtain a sample size of 146 SMEs where customer was interviewed from each SME making a total of 146 customers involved in this research work. From the study findings managerial competencies (product customization, and interpersonal communication) predicts 19.6 percent variation of customer satisfaction (adjusted R square = 0.196), while R squared was 0.208. More findings indicated that Increase in product customization would improve customer satisfaction with 0.179 units (?1=0.179, P<0.05). Further the results indicated that improving interpersonal communication in SMEs would positively improve customer satisfaction (?3=0.127, P<0.05), all the beta values were significant at 0.05 level of significance. Hence it is recommended that managers should focus on developing appropriate competencies in product customization and interpersonal communication in that they have positive impact on customer satisfaction.