This paper seeks to investigate the relationship amongst service experience, customer satisfaction and brand loyalty in the Ghanaian telecommunication industry. Students from Central University College Accra were selected randomly to respond to a questionnaire. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used in analyzing the data. The study revealed that service quality significantly influences both customer satisfaction and brand loyalty; and also customer satisfaction significantly influences brand loyalty. Telecommunication firms and other firms which want to survive competition have to know what their customers want and satisfy them. Managers must also be aware that service quality must be measured in terms of customer satisfaction in order to enhance brand loyalty. This paper is one of the very few empirical researches conducted, that investigates the importance of service experience to customer satisfaction and brand loyalty in the telecommunication service industry in an emerging market economy. The findings, if well publicized, will encourage both scholars and professionals elsewhere to value the importance of using customer inputs in developing service innovation strategies in the telecommunication industry in emerging markets.

Organizations operating in emerging competitive markets like Ghana must strive for service perfection consciously to win customers and to remain competitive. This can be achieved through improved service quality, as noted by leading proponents like Grönroos (2001), Kotler and Keller (2006), and Lovelock and Wirtz (2007). Corporate competitiveness, especially in current times, is anchored around service quality, customer loyalty and customer satisfaction (Parasuraman et al., 1988; Rust and Oliver, 1994; Zeithaml and Bitner, 2003; and Voss et al., 2004). However, service quality is intuitively evaluated through customers’ perceived perspective measured through experience (Grönroos, 1982; and Nimako et al., 2012).

The telecom sector (like other service sectors) plays a significant role in improving the living standards of people around the world by facilitating information flow among individuals and businesses, especially in the current information age. In the case of the telecom sector, good quality telecom network and strong consumer-oriented strategy are essential to win and retain customers. Ghana, currently classified as a middle income economy (Ghana Statistical Service, 2010), experienced serious economic instability during the 1970s and 1980s, compelling the country to subscribe to International Monetary Fund and the World Bank’s economic reforms (Dzogbenuku, 2013). This was done with the aim of diversifying the economy by reducing state control of firms, since most state-owned enterprises were described as non-performing assets, including the state-run Postal and Telecom organization. In 1994, the Government of Ghana deregulated the telecom sector and allowed new private multi-national entrants into the country, which led to fierce competition among the service providers (Addy-Nayo, 2001; Frempong and Henten, 2004; Ghana NCA, 2010; and Nimako et al., 2012).

Brand Management Journal, Distinct Characteristics of Services, Service Experience Leads, Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), Brand Loyalty, Perspective, Telecom Sector.