Browsing by Author "Ombok, John Kenneth"

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    Assessing the marketing strategies employed by health insurance service providers towards customer satisfaction: the case of Health Insurance Companies in Tanzania
    (University of Dar es Salaam, 2012) Ombok, John Kenneth
    This study aimed at assessing the marketing strategies employed by the health insurance service providers in Tanzania in order to satisfy customers. A cross sectional survey with both opened and closed-ended questionnaires was employed in which 63 individual customers of the health insurance providers were studied while depth interviews were conducted to the 10 officials. The results indicate that firms differ in terms of marketing strategies although they share some aspects. Word-of-mouth, advertising through print and electronic media, corporate social responsibilities, personal selling, engaging in social events as well as through customer mails are the most practiced promotion strategies. Income earned, total strength, and premium paid are pertinent in determining pricing strategy. Services are offered through accredited service providers and third party hospitals. Further, the firms rely on on-job and off-job training, morning meetings of staffs, feedback meetings and focus groups as training strategy. NHIF customers are generally satisfied with services provided to them while those from AAR and PROSPERITY are not very satisfied. The level of premium paid, level of customer care and services, number and variety of hospitals accessed by clients, treatment of customers from other patients who pay cash, and services charges provided to clients were some of the attributes which brought service discrepancies among the three firms. Furthermore, NHIF physical evidence satisfied customers while those of the other two firms did not. Moreover, the study has identified poor service delivery, shortage of medicines and medical equipments, lack of commitment from doctors, overworked staffs due to shortage of manpower, and lack of enough facilities for treatments as challenges faced by the firms thus created the gap of the level of satisfaction among clients . It is recommended that the managements of the Health Insurance firms should seriously revisit their marketing strategies for bettering service delivery. In practice they should make sure that they have their own clinics, own trained staffs, and regular meetings with the management of third part hospitals for better service delivery to customer.