LIFE INSURANCE SERVICE QUALITY AND CUSTOMER SATISFACTION IN THE LIFE INSURANCE INDUSTRY IN UGANDA. A CASE OF UAP OLD MUTUAL LIFE ASSURANCE UGANDA LIMITED

Aim: The purpose of this paper was to assess the effect of life insurance service quality on customer satisfaction in the life insurance industry in Uganda. UAP Old Mutual Life Uganda Limited was used as a case since it registered the highest number of customer complaints amongst the life insurance companies over the period 2017-2019 according to the Insurance Regulatory Authority Annual Insurance Market Report of 2019. Study Design: The paper adopted a crosssectional field survey design employing mixed methods approaches in collecting and analyzing data. Methodology: Primary data was collected from 317 life insurance policy holders and 30 staff of UAP, both descriptive and inferential statistics were generated. Findings: The findings indicated that life insurance service quality has a positive effect on customer satisfaction (R-square value of 0.670). Therefore assurance, reliability, and responsiveness of a life insurance service are paramount in explaining customer satisfaction of the policyholders. Conclusion: UAP and other life insurance companies ought to pay attention to timely customer claim settlement, ensure compliance with the industry claim settlement guidelines, prompt handling of complaints, increase staffing for its technical areas, implement the annual training program for agents in order to avoid miss-selling and reward professional staff who meet customer expectations. In this way customer satisfaction will be guaranteed.