Analysing the Impact of Customer Service among Taxi Drivers in the New Juaben South Municipality.

Marketing was previously considered as synonymous with selling of tangible products therefore much emphasis was placed on physical products to the service industry.  Many people did not find it necessary to practice marketing in the service industry, not knowing that this is the sector that needs marketing.  Kotler (1999) defined a service as any act of performance that one party can offer to another, that is essentially tangible as does not result in the ownership of anything. This research work was about Taxi Driver’s level of awareness of the role of quality customer service in the provision of transport service to passengers in New Juaben North. The research was to evaluate customers’ perception about services provided by the Taxi drivers, to evaluate Taxi drivers understanding of quality customer service and to establish the relationship between taxi drivers and the customers. .  The sample size for the study was one hundred and fifty (150).  It comprised of one hundred (100) customers and fifty (50) taxi drivers. The researchers used non-probability sampling, convenience sampling and purposive sampling.

 Researchers choose this topic simply because empirical evidence proves that Taxi drivers in New Juaben South do not value passengers, they feel they are doing the passengers a favour because of taxi’s fastness as compared to the “Trotro”.   To help us carry out this research we developed two questionnaires for Taxi drivers and the passengers. The study revealed that Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) and other Transport Associations organize training for its members to escape not from road accidents alone, but also how to handle passengers in that the passengers will intend develop positive relationships with them to improve customer relations and preferences towards taxi services than the Trotro which is in serious competition with the taxi business. Researchers concluded that providing quality service to passengers is the main marketing problem that Taxi drivers are facing and need special attention.  The study recommends that various Transport Associations in conjunction with customer groups in New Juaben South Municipality must educate Taxi drivers on the importance of the customer and why it is necessary to satisfy the customers.

Keywords: taxi, trotro, customer relationship,  quality service,  customer value.