An Analysis of the Effect of Procurement Procedures on Customer Satisfaction: A Case Study of the United Refineries Limited in Bulawayo

Abstract

The exploration sought to analyse the effects of procurement procedures on customer satisfaction through a case study of United Refineries Limited. As the industry in Zimbabwe had been enlarging in size and intricacy, so too did the challenges met across the procurement sector. Instances of such challenges comprised inter alia varying customer preferences, the requirement for ecological practices and the need to sustain relationships in the supply chain. The study was based on the network theory which highlighted that businesses in a network cannot create procurement procedures at liberty and independently without involving others in the network. The investigation assessed the effect of procurement procedures on customer satisfaction through the utilisation of the descriptive design. The research population comprised of 107 employees and 25 customers aggregated based on daily walk-ins. The sample was 84 respondents for employees and 20 for customers in terms of which judgmental sampling was utilised. The results showed that the majority of customers were not satisfied with procurement procedures given the incidence of malpractices such as bureaucracy and red-tape which fought against the effectiveness of procurement procedures which led to dissatisfaction as well as substantial discrepancies in procurement procedures. It was concluded that the strategic significance and the latent forthcoming influence of procurement procedures at United Refineries was impossible to ignore. There existed room for improvement in procurement procedures to bring about customer satisfaction. Recommendations included, training, supplier development and supplier streamlining.