Customer Satisfaction Assessment in a Power Tools Distribution Company in Lagos State

This study assesses customer satisfaction levels and identifies service quality improvement opportunities for a power tools distribution company based in Lagos State, South West Nigeria. Customer satisfaction has become an increasingly important performance indicator for industrial distributors as market competition intensifies and buyers gain access to a wider range of domestic and imported product alternatives. This research employs the SERVQUAL instrument, adapted for an industrial distribution context, to measure perceived service quality across five dimensions: tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy. Structured questionnaires were administered to sixty-five corporate and individual customers representing the company's active client base, and gap scores between customer expectations and perceived performance were calculated for each dimension. Results reveal the largest negative gaps in the reliability and responsiveness dimensions, with customers citing inconsistent delivery timelines and slow responses to after-sales technical enquiries as principal sources of dissatisfaction. Analysis by customer segment shows that corporate construction firm clients register significantly higher dissatisfaction scores than individual trade customers, reflecting their greater sensitivity to delivery reliability. Recommendations include implementing a delivery tracking and communication system, establishing a dedicated corporate account management function, and setting response time standards for technical support queries. Keywords: customer satisfaction, SERVQUAL, power tools distribution, Lagos State, service quality