THE EFFECT OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE ON SERVICE QUALITY IN REAL ESTATE PRACTICE IN LAGOS, NIGERIA

Abstract

The study examined the impact of emotional intelligence on service quality in Nigerian real estate practice. Consideration was given to examining the factors influencing the determinants of service quality in real estate practice; extent of customers’ satisfaction with the service quality delivery in real estate firms; the level of emotional intelligence of real estate practitioners in real estate service delivery, and the impact of emotional intelligence on performance of service quality in real estate practice. A sample of one hundred and eighty-nine (189) Estate Surveying and Valuations Firms and three hundred and seventy-eight (378) real estate customers were drawn for the study and questionnaires were distributed accordingly. 181 questionnaires were retrieved from the Estate Surveying and Valuation firms and 362 from the real estate customers were retrieved and found useful for analysis. Data for the study was analysed using SERVQUAL Model, Emotional Intelligence Model, Frequency Distribution Table, Weighted Mean Score, Factor Analysis, and Multiple Regression Analysis. It was found that variables (such as experience, social motivation, religion and beliefs, gender, family background (parent-child relationship), knowledge and training, personality and self-concept, attitude, skills and competencies, organization culture, and marital influences) were the common factors influencing the determinants of service quality in real estate practice. The result from customers’ satisfaction indicated that service empathy and tangibility have a positive gap score, while service responsiveness, reliability and assurance have a negative mean gap score. It was found that real estate practitioners have a high level of emotional intelligence in motivation, moderate level in relationship management and self-awareness, low level in self-management and social skills in real estate service delivery. The result of the Multiple Regression Analysis shows that the coefficient of correlation (R) is 0.856, thus indicating a strong significant effect of emotional intelligence on the service quality performance among real estate practitioners in the study area. The study recommended that real estate practitioners should concentrate on improved real estate service quality through the adoption of emotional intelligence competencies in self-management and social skills to enhance quality in real estate service delivery. The study concluded that emotional intelligence has an effect on service quality in real estate practice in Lagos Metropolis to improve customers’ satisfaction on the demand for emotional needs.