Service Delivery and Customer Satisfaction. The Case of Burayu Town Municipality, Ethiopia

Travail de Recherche , 2020 , 84 Pages

Organisation et administration - Administration publique

The main objective of the study was to analyze the quality of public service delivery and to examine the level of customer’s satisfaction in Burayu Town Municipality, Oromia Region. The study was conducted to identify the level of service quality and customers’ satisfaction at the municipality.

The total of 412 customers who were the service users of the municipality were selected as a sample size by using Yamane Taro’s sample selection formula as a study subjects. The study used convenience sampling method for sample selection of respondents’ and purposive sampling for interview of Public Service Manager. Open-ended questionnaires, closed ended questionnaires and interview were employed for data collection. Regarding research methodology; the researcher employed explanatory research method with both qualitative and quantitative data type. The analysis conducted using Microsoft Office Excel 2007 and presented by using tables, graphs, frequency distribution and percentage. From the study it was found that service quality dimensions were positively related to customer satisfaction; as service quality meets customers’ expectation it leads to customers’ satisfaction. The result indicates that the dimensions of service quality measures were not fully practised by the municipality, which results in low level of service quality and customers’ satisfaction. Municipal officials need to ensure that all tangible attributes related to employee performance create a desirable impact on customer perception of quality. This is important as customer continue to look for tangible cue as a means to reduce perceived service quality and describe their service experience in Burayu town municipality.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF TABLES

LIST OF FIGURES

ACRONYMS

ABSTRACT

CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
1.2 Statement of the Problem
1.3. Research Questions
1.4 Objective of the Study
1.4.1 General objective
1.4.2 Specific objectives
1.5. Scope of the Study
1.6 Limitations
1.7. Significance of the Study
1.8 Operational Definition of Terms

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Theoretical Literature Review
2.1.1 The definitions of Service
2.1.2 Characteristics of Services
2.1.3 Service Quality
2.1.4 Factors Influencing Provision of Quality Public Service
2.1.5 Principles of Public Service Delivery
2.1.6 Customer Satisfaction
2.1.7 Customer Satisfaction Measurement
2.1.8 SERVQUAL Model of Measuring Customer Satisfaction
2.1.9 Service Quality and Customer Satisfaction
2.2. Empirical Literature Reviews
2.3 The Conceptual Framework of the Study

CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1 Descriptions of the Study Area
3.1.1 Location
3.1.2 Population of the Study
3.2 Research Design
3.3 Sample and Sampling Techniques
3.3.1 Sampling Technique
3.3.2 Sample Size
3.4. Sources of Data
3.4.1 Primary Data Sources
3.4.2 Secondary Data Sources
3.5. Tools of Data Collection
3.6. Procedures of Data Collection
3.7. Methods of Data Analysis
3.8. Validity and Reliability

CHAPTER FOUR: RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
4.1 Demographic Profile of Respondents’
4.2. Service Quality and Customers Satisfaction by SERVQUAL Method
4.2.1 Tangibility of the Municipality’s Service
4.2.2 Reliability of Municipality’s Service
4.2.3 Responsiveness of the Municipality’s Service
4.2.4 Assurance of the Municipality’s Service
4.2.5 Empathy of the Municipality’s Service
4.2.6 Summary of the Municipality’s Service Quality Dimensions
4.3 Respondents Opinion on the Level of service quality of the municipality
4.4 Compliant Handling Mechanism from Customers’ Perspective
4.5 Customers Perceptions on the Practices of the Public Service Delivery Principles in the Office
4.6. Status of Customer Satisfaction on Public Service Delivery
4.7 Challenges in providing and receiving quality service at the municipality
4.8 Respondents Recommendations on how to improve customer satisfaction
4.9. Analysis of Interview with Public Service Manager of the Municipality
4.10. Discussions

CHAPTER FIVE: SUMMARY OF THE FINDINGS, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1 Summary of the Findings
5.2 Conclusions
5.3 Recommendations
5.4 Future Research Direction

REFERENCES

APPENDIXES

APPENDIX I

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

My deepest gratitude goes to the gracious God for his will in helping me to accomplish this paper . I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my advisor Dagne Tafa (Asst. professor) for his continues advice, expert guidance, concerned supervision and comments throughout the research period; his friendly approaches have contributed much to the completion of this thesis.

I would like to express heartfelt love, respect and unforgettable feeling to my friend Daraje Miecha for his unreserved support during all times of my work starting from editing words, language translation and distribution and collection of questionnaires. My sincere love and respect goes to Iyasu Mosisa, my partner for helping me by printing materials and for his assistance during data collection and analysis.

My immense gratitude goes also to Burayu Town Administration for its consent to conduct the study and for providing necessary data. Lastly, thanks go to all peoples and organizations that have been extending unreserved assistance to me from the beginning up to the end of the thesis.

LIST OF TABLES

Table 3.1. Number of households and population of Burayu Town at the end of 2011 E.C

Table 3.2 Population, Sample Size and Sampling Techniques

Table 4.1 Descriptive Summary of Respondents’ Profile

Table 4.2 Tangibility of the Municipality’s Service

Table 4.3 Reliability of the Municipality’s Service

Table 4.4 Responsiveness of the Municipality’s Service

Table 4.5 Assurance of the Municipality’s Service

Table 4.6 Empathy of the Municipality’s Service

Table 4.7 Summary of service quality dimensions

Table 4.8 complaint handling mechanism from customers’ perspective

Table 4.9 Measure of service delivery principles

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure. 2.1 The relationship between Service Quality and Customer Satisfaction

Figure 2.2 Conceptual frameworks of Service Delivery and Customer Satisfaction

Figure 3.1. Map of West Shawa Zone

Figure 3.2 Map of Burayu Town

Figure 4.1 The Municipality in Meeting Expectation and Need of Customers

Figure 4.2 Timely Performances and Commitment of Employees

Figure 4.3 Employees Interaction with Customers in Service Provision Process

Figure 4.4 The Municipality in terms of Service Improvement and Receiving Feedback

Figure 4.5 The municipality in giving what customers request

Figure 4.6 Summary of status of customer satisfaction on service delivery

ACRONYMS

ACSI: American Customer Satisfaction Index

EEPCO: Ethiopia Electric Power Corporation

FDRE: Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia

ICS: International Customer Satisfaction

ISO: International Organization for Standardization

NALF: National Alcohol and Liquor Factory

OECD: Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development

QMS: Quality Management System

QPS: Quality Public Service

SMQ: Service Monitors Questionnaires

ABSTRACT

The main objective of the study was to analyze the quality of public service delivery and to examine the level of customer’s satisfaction in Burayu Town Municipality, Oromia Region. The study was conducted to identify the level of service quality and customers’ satisfaction at the municipality. The total of 412 customers who were the service users of the municipality were selected as a sample size by using Yamane Taro’s sample selection formula as a study subjects. The study used convenience sampling method for sample selection of respondents’ and purposive sampling for interview of Public Service Manager. Open ended questionnaires, closed ended questionnaires and interview were employed for data collection. Regarding to research methodology; the researcher employed explanatory research method with both qualitative and quantitative data type. The analysis conducted using Microsoft office excel 2007 and presented by using tables, graphs, frequency distribution and percentage. From the study it was found that service quality dimensions were positively related to customer satisfaction; as service quality meets customers’ expectation it leads to customers’ satisfaction. The result indicates that the dimensions of service quality measures were not fully practiced by the municipality, which results in low level of service quality and customers’ satisfaction. Municipal officials need to ensure that all tangible attributes related to employee performance create a desirable impact on customer perception of quality. This is important as customer continue to look for tangible cue as a means to reduce perceived service quality and describe their service experience in Burayu town municipality.

Key words: Service Quality, Customer, Burayu, Municipality, Satisfaction.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

The world over, public sector organizations are responsible for providing essential goods and services for the benefit of the citizens of their countries. The services sector is an indispensable player of most contemporary economies (Amanfi. B. 2012)

The public sector has been under increasing pressure to improve upon service delivery and to demonstrate that it is customer-centric. Service quality has therefore been defined as an overall judgment similar to attitudes towards the service and generally accepted as an antecedent of overall customer satisfaction. Public sector organizations are responsible and accountable to the citizens and communities of their countries as well as to their customers or clients. (Zeithaml and Bitner, 1996).

According to Gowan et al (2001), service provision is more complex in the public sector than in the private sector. This is because it is not simply a matter of meeting expressed needs but of finding out unexpressed needs, setting priorities, allocating resources and publicly justifying and accounting for what has been done.

The success of any service providing organization according to Huffman & Bateson (2001) as cited by Kibret Tekeba & Ermias Worku (2018) can be measured in terms of its customers’ expectation towards the service delivery practice, which means service quality, will be the dominant element in customers’ evaluations of a given service. Customers’ go to service providers expecting to get a good service and the level of expectation among each individual varies.

The ultimate goal of public sector is to sustain the quality of the public service and to enhance the capacity to carry out core government functions so as to promote a sustained economic, social and political development in the environment of its operation (Theodore, 2003).

The effectiveness of good local governance needs to be judged by the capacity of local government structures to provide an integrated development approach to social and economic development issues and to supply essential services congruent with the needs and desires of the local communities. In this regard, municipalities should be able to identify and prioritize local needs, determine adequate levels of services, allocate necessary resources to the public (Idasa, 2018).

In many countries, developing countries in particular, the issue of service delivery is a challenge that needs to be addressed given the low quality of service provision and the pressing needs of the poor (Besley and Ghatak, 2007). Khalid (2010) supports this view when he states that local councils in Malaysia continue face pressure to improve their service delivery. The increased level of education of the population has led to a more vocal and more discerning citizenry that expects better services and accountability from its local government.

Similarly, the argument by Gwayi (2010) that municipalities in South Africa face serious challenges in implementing service delivery options that will enhance existing structures in the sphere of local government points towards the need for strategies to improve service delivery.

According to Government of Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (2000), Policy directives are formulation of mission statements, promoting positive attitudes towards serving the public, establishing compliant handling mechanisms, setting service standards, providing cost-effective service, promoting transparency in the public service atmosphere should be realized. In April 2001, the government of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia published, a service delivery policy for Ethiopian civil service. According to the document, service delivery from public sector organizations, refers to those activities of government institutions aimed at satisfying the need and ensuring the expectation of society as well as enforcing laws, regulations and directives of the government.

The ‘Customer service’ serves as an integral part to achieve customer gratification. Obviously, the preeminent reason for facing challenges by professionals, who are involved in providing customer service would be the failure to achieve customer gratification (Murali, S 2019). Public sector like Buarayu Town Municipality, which is the geographical concern of this study, is not exception to this. This research is, therefore tries to assess the service delivery practice and customer satisfaction of the municipality.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

Although the need to satisfy customer is something that goes without saying this is precisely the problem with many organizations, assumptions are made about what customers really want. Professional services in a particular sector frequently suffer from an attitude of thinking that they know best, because they are the experts. This may be true but, this attitude can create blind spots in dealing with customers (Johnson and Clark, 2002), as cited by (Yeshitila Tefera, 2018).

Mohammed Nor et al (2010), argue that the public complaint of long queues, poor service delivery and insufficient physical facilities may affect the image and level of service quality in the public sector.

According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD, 2010), throughout the world cities face the most acute challenges of Service delivery because of fast growing populations. Public sector administrators around the world face a common set of challenges, if their services are to meet the increased expectations of their customers, from both citizens and businesses. However, experience shows that while the challenges may be consistent, the ways in which they are being confronted, and the results that are being achieved, vary considerably.

In many developing countries, the issue of service delivery is a challenge that needs to be addressed given the low quality of service provision and the pressing needs of the poor. The increased level of education of the population has led to a more vocal and more discerning citizenry that expects better services and accountability from its local government. Moreover, rapid industrialization and urbanization of countries have created a challenging environment for the local government. (Besley and Ghatak, 2007).

Empirical evidence by Wescott(1999) shows many African municipality Services are characterized by corrupt, inefficient and poor public service delivery that requires capacity building and relevant reforms to change the existing trend that in turn enhances social-economic developments. To address this, the public sector must find ways of improving the efficiency and effectiveness of its service delivery. This means providing value for money by improving quality of service, and reducing the costs involved in providing those services.

The government of Ethiopia adopted the Ethiopian service delivery policy in 2001, with the main objective of ensuring efficiency and effectiveness of service delivery; equity in access to government services; ensuring accountability for failure to provide quality service, so as to ensure customer satisfaction.

The essence of public sector reform in Ethiopia is similar to elsewhere in the world, were the need to improve efficiency and effectiveness in the delivery of service to the public. The importance for the development and institution of public service reform has assumed greater prominence since a major factor in the successful formulation and implementation of socio-economic and political development policies and programs in any country is an effective, efficient and responsive public service.

Some common problems faced by consumers are lack of creating awareness on the terms of the policy, prompt claims settlement method, poor risk assessment as a result insufficient recommendation by the service provider to the customer in order to minimize the happening of the loss, delay in communication, unprofessional conduct, inflexible service, in availability of staff for advise at time of claims due to rigid working hours which leads to dissatisfaction (Ethiopian Economic Association (2012: p. 84).

According to Hussein, (2009), though public organizations are supposed to give quality service in a way that is efficient, effective, fair, transparent, reliable, and responsive that meets customer satisfaction, service delivery lacks these qualities which in turn affected the level of customer satisfaction.

This study is to anticipate whether there is quality public service delivery and to determine level of customer satisfaction. Because the researcher is frequently hearing complaints from customers regarding to the service delivery system of the municipality, the researcher is to conduct the study with the objective of assessing the quality of public service delivery practice and customer satisfaction in Burayu Town Municipality, using the five dimensions of SERVQUAL model and its subsequent effect on customer satisfaction and to suggest possible solutions for gaps that will be identified by the study.

1.3. Research Questions

In order to assess the level of satisfaction of the customers the study anticipates finding possible and relevant responses for the following questions;

- What is the level of service quality of Burayu Town Municipality?
- What is the level of customer handling mechanism of the municipality?
- How much customers’ are satisfied towards service delivery of the Municipality?
- What challenges did customers face in relation to Burayu Town Municipality service?

1.4 Objective of the Study

1.4.1 General objective

The main objective of the study is to investigate the quality of public service and to identify the level of customer satisfaction in Burayu Town Municipality.

1.4.2 Specific objectives

The specific objectives of the study are:

- To identify the level of service quality of the municipality
- To explore the level of customer handling mechanism of the municipality.
- To assess customers’ satisfaction level towards service delivery of the municipality;
- To investigate major challenges facing customers in receiving service from the municipality.

1.5. Scope of the Study

Geographically, the study delimited to Burayu Town, Oromia Region. Thus, the scope of the study was delimited to two selected kebeles (Gafarsa Burayu and Burayu Kata), and individuals who lived in the town for at least two years, hoping they know better about the municipality service delivery. This was because of the sector itself was vast and has massive customers, which were not feasible to touch all otherwise.

Thematically, this study was delimited to assess the quality of public service delivery and customer satisfaction, using the five quality service dimensions from customers’ perspectives. While the level of customer satisfaction was delimited to be measured using variables of quality service, service delivery process, overall customer satisfaction, and giving recommendations for the concerned body.

1.6 Limitations

The study encountered a number of challenges. Key challenges among them were the issue of funding. Activities such as transportation, printing of questionnaires, pretesting of questionnaires and other relevant documents proved financially burdensome. Employees’ negligence to fill the questionnaires was also great problem. Another challenge was the difficulty in getting clients to respond to the questionnaires. Because of the prevalence of pandemic disease called COVID-19, it was very difficult to get respondents’, government launched stay home regarding to the pandemic disease. Customers the researcher met were unwilling to touch questionnaire papers, fear of Corona Virus.

The researcher was not overwhelmed by these challenges and took steps to as much as possible minimize the effects of these challenges. To reduce transport cost the researcher selected nearby kebeles having large number of population purposively, to overcome financial problem asked and gained sponsor to print materials, to meet many respondents the researcher took long period of time and for the respondents negligence to fill questionnaires fear of corona virus the researcher gave them sanitizer.

1.7. Significance of the Study

As the researcher’s main focus was to assess the quality of public service delivery and the current level of customer satisfaction on the delivery system of the municipality, emphasizing compliant handling mechanism, major challenges affecting the provision of quality and processes in the public service delivery, the study will be important in different ways.

For customers of the town, the study paves way for the improvement of service delivery system, provide formal means of feedback to service received, which may help to identify existing and potential problems regarding to the municipality. Furthermore the result of the study helps the developmental strategy held by government at country level, because it supports the existence of good governance and harmonious relationship between customer and employee.

In specific terms, the study was believed to have the following importance:

Helps the administrators of the municipality to review service delivery system in a way that it meets the customers’ needs and expectations. It also helps different levels of the sector to identify their respective status in relation to improvement of service delivery and customer satisfaction. Furthermore, it helps to identify the level of satisfaction/dissatisfaction in the prevailing service delivery and to recommend possible solutions on the causes or dissatisfying factors. Moreover the finding of the research was important to Burayu Town Municipality, to recognize the gap between customers’ expectation and their perception towards the service.

Eventually, the finding may help any interested person who wants to conduct study in the area as a point of reference.

1.8 Operational Definition of Terms

Service: - service is an act or performance offered by the municipality to its customers.

Quality: is the expressed opinion, mental standard by the respondents and the estimation given on the scale especially Likert Scale.

Service quality: -is how well the municipality’s delivered service level matches customer’s expectation.

Customer perception: -is the actual level of service the customers received from the municipality.

Customer satisfaction: -is a customer’s feeling of pleasure or disappointment resulting from comparing a service in relation to his or her expectation.

Reliability:-is the municipality’s ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately

Responsiveness:- it’s the employees’ willingness to help customers and provide prompt service

Assurance:-the municipality’s employees’ knowledge, courtesy and ability to inspire trust and confidence.

Empathy:-caring and individualized attention given to customers by the employees.

Tangibility:-the municipality’s appearance of physical facilities, equipment’s, personnel and written materials required for service delivery.

Municipality - a town, city or district with its own local government; the group of officials who govern it.

Delivery: the municipality’s providing what is expected to be provided or discharging responsibility.

Satisfaction: is the final customers’ judgment of service that is provided by the municipality.

Customers: Any person or inhabitants of the Town that demand service from the municipality.

Service provider: The municipal employees who deliver service for the customers.

SERVQUAL model: A model with five dimensions that helps to measure quality of service from customers’ point of view.

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Theoretical Literature Review

It is scientific to make a study grounded on strong and relevant theoretical literature which helps a researcher or a professional reader to evaluate what is the existing body of the knowledge and what is the gap to be filled by the topic under the study.

2.1.1 The definitions of Service

Service is intangible activities aimed at satisfying the need and ensuring the wellbeing of individual, group or society as a whole. Service delivery system requires systematic method where by activities are arranged so that the service recipients can get the service they need in effective, efficient and in equitable manner. (Peter and Ellen, 1998) defined service as “acts, deeds, and performances”. In this context he attempted to define services bearing in mind what is done by the service provider and the end result of this process on the customers.

To reinforce this more, Fogli (2006), put that customer service is the interaction between the customer and a representative of the organization and is not limited to a single function or job type within the organization but customer service is defined as” meeting the needs and expectations of the customer, as defined by the customer since the customer is the judge of quality customer service based on the expectations he/she has for the service.

2.1.2 Characteristics of Services

A number of characteristics of service have been suggested to help distinguish goods and services in the past decades. It is the combination of these characteristics which creates the specific context in which service organizations must develop their marketing policies. Though different authors suggest different characteristics of service, Kotler (2001) lists intangibility, inseparability, variability, and perish ability as the common characteristics services.

Intangibility of Services

Unlike physical products, services cannot be seen, tasted, felt, heard or smelled before purchased. Obviously, opinions and attitudes may be sought beforehand, but a repeat purchase may rely upon previous experience. To reduce uncertainty buyers will look for signs or evidence of service quality. They will draw inferences from place, people, equipment, price, etc. that they see. Therefore the service providers task is to “manage the evidence”, to “tangibilize the intangible”. According to Kotler (2001), Services are essentially intangibles, in which the service marketers are able to manage evidences and visualize the intangible services or the abstract offers. Regan (1963) also introduced the idea of service as activities, benefits or satisfactions which are offered for sale or provided in connection with the sales of goods. The degree of intangibility has been suggested as a means of differentiating tangible products with services.

Inseparability of Services

The other characteristic of service is inseparability. Services are typically produced and consumed simultaneously and often cannot be separated from the person who sales the service. Thus, performing the service occurs at the same time as full or partial consumption of it. Unlike physical goods, services cannot be manufacture, put into inventory, distributed through seller and consumed later. Whereas, services are produced, sold and consumed at the same time. According to Zeithaml (1981), inseparability is taken to reflect the simultaneous delivery and consumption of services.

Variability of Services

Variability of service quality depends on who provides the service, where and when they are provided. Knowing this, service firms can take three steps towards quality control according to Kotler (2001). The first one is that recruiting the right employees and providing them with excellent training regardless of whether they are professionals or low-skilled workers. The second step is standardizing the service performance process throughout the organization. The third and final step is that to monitor customer satisfaction through suggestions, compliant system and customer surveys. Having this in mind, service providers can apply these steps in their organization so as to improve their service provision.

Perishability of Services

Contrasting to physical goods, services cannot be stored and carried forward to the future time period Zeithaml et al. (1985). The perish ability of services is not a problem when demand is steady. When demand fluctuates, service firms have problems.

2.1.3 Service Quality

Researchers have tried to operationalize service quality from different perspectives for different service applications. Authors (Parasuramanet al., 1988) agree that service quality is an abstract concept, difficult to define and measure. Key characteristics of service quality can be difficult to define due to the highly subjective nature of service quality. This is underlined by Deming (1986) when he stated that; quality can be defined only in terms of the agent.‟ In essence; ultimately this means that it is the consumer that will form a judgment about the quality of any given service that they receive”. A further complexity in trying to understand the service quality is its dynamic nature. Firstly, the speed of a consumer’s reaction to service quality is immediate, compared, for example, with the speed of reaction to manufactured goods.

Additionally, because of the immediacy of the consumers’ service quality evaluation, attempting to understand a consumer’s reaction to a future service cannot be ascertained today as consumer needs and expectations continually change. Therefore, the relevant characteristics are those which are important to each individual consumer at a specific point of time (Deming, 1986). This is particularly well summarized by Peters (1985) who stated that; “consumers perceive service in their own unique, idiosyncratic, emotional, irrational, end-of-the-day, and totally human terms. Perception is all there is.”

Nonetheless, in spite of the intangible, difficult to pin down nature of service quality, what can be concluded is that a good service experience will depend on the organization’s ability to understand consumer needs, wants and expectations, and then to deliver service in a way that meets or exceeds those expectations. Several measuring instruments have been developed aiming to capture and explain the service quality dimensions. SERVQUAL has been developed in a series of stages leading to consecutive more refined versions.(parasureman, 1985)

In the most commonly used version (Parasuraman et al., 1988), service quality is calculated as the gap between customer expectations and perceptions, and is characterized by five dimensions namely reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy, and tangibles. Parashuraman et al (1985) have found that consumers consider five dimensions in their assessments of service quality: reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy and tangibles. These dimensions represent how consumers organize information about service quality in their minds. These five dimensions are explained below.

Tangibility: the physical appearance of the facility which includes materials, equipment and personnel. This enhances the image of the company and provides a more positive image in the way the customer perceives the service. All of these provide physical representations or images of the services that customers‟ particularly new customers‟ will use to evaluate quality.

Reliability: this refers to service reliability, which is different from product reliability and involves the service provider to be able to perform the services accurately and dependably. This means that the company fulfills its promises with regard to the delivery of the service, the price and solving the customer's problems. Customers want to do business with companies that keep their promises, particularly their promises about the core service attributes.

Responsiveness: the readiness to provide timely service by the service provider. This includes paying attention to the customer, and dealing with the customer's complaints and problems in a timely manner. Responsiveness is being flexible with the customer and trying to accommodate the customer's demands and performing the service without delay.

Assurance: the ability to deliver services at a professional level. This includes the employee's knowledge and courtesy which inspires confidence in them. Having trust and confidence in the employee leads to the customer having more trust in the company itself. This dimension is likely to be particularly important for services that the customer perceives as involving high risk and/or about which they feel uncertain about their ability to evaluate outcomes, for example, banking, insurance, brokerage, medical, and legal service.

Empathy: is defined as the caring and individualized attention the firm provides to its customers. The essence of empathy is conveying, through personalized or customized service, that customers are unique and special. Customers want to feel understood by and important to firms that provide service to them. Service quality is considered an important tool for a firm’s struggle to differentiate itself from its competitors (Ladhari, 2008).

2.1.4 Factors Influencing Provision of Quality Public Service

The inescapable fact is there are a number of factors that affect the potential capacity of an organization in the service delivery processes and environments. There are a number of researches that have been done regarding those factors in different countries and organization context. According to a research finding Wanju, Mururi and Ayodo (2012), low employees’ capacity, ineffective communication, insufficient number of staff and skills required, insufficient finance, poor management of problems, challenges of collective action, policy incoherence and levels of performance are the major challenges that can affect provision of quality public service in an organization.

Furthermore, a study conducted in Rwanda RALGA, (2010) show that poor coordination of staff, poor planning ability, low motivation, geographic location of the center of service recipients. Lack of effective performance oversight: that is manifested mostly in the form of infrequent and non-periodic monitoring and evaluation of service delivery processes and quality. Therefore, a manager of an organization should pay attention to these problems and their effects in a way that can reduce or eliminate if possible.

2.1.5 Principles of Public Service Delivery

These days, according to different findings, public service delivery is the burning issue in the public sectors and non-profit organization for achieving their objectives. It is obvious that there is no single prescriptive way to provide services, but the following points are major service delivery principles along which public sectors should frame its service delivery as stated by Naidoo (2004).

Consultation: Naidoo (2004,) indicated that customers should be asked about the level and quality of the public services they receive and wherever possible should be given a choice about the services that are to have service standards.

Courtesy: politeness and consideration for public is one of the fundamental duties of public servants by specifying that public servants treat members of the public as customers who are allowed to receive the highest standards of service without restriction Naidoo,(2004).

Information: -customers should be given complete and reliable information about the public service they are to receive as required. This is in a sense that information is one of the most important to accomplish the service delivery in a well-organized way.

Openness and transparency: -customers should be informed how public service is conducted and delivered, what they cost, and who is responsible for any activity and for the outcome of the delivery of the service. Thus, Public servants are required to be open enough in making the customers confident on the service they receive.

Redress -A right of redress is of particular importance in the public service. In the absence of a choice of supplier, individuals need mechanisms to settle their grievances fast, simply and fairly Common Wealth Secretariat, (2002). It is putting things service right through explanation of terms like apologizing and compensating for customers in a way that enable them get rid of their grievances.

Value for money: public services have to be provided cost effectively and efficiently to offer customers the best possible worth for money improving service delivery and expanding access to the general public must be achieved parallel to the need for reducing the public expenses and creating a more cost effective public service. For example a considerate and respectful salutation requires no monetary asset.

2.1.6 Customer Satisfaction

Customer satisfaction has been a popular topic in marketing practice and academic research since Cardozo's (1965) initial study of customer effort, expectations and satisfaction. Despite many attempts to measure and explain customer satisfaction, there still does not appear to be a consensus regarding its definition (Giese and Cote, 2000). Jamal and Nader (2002) argued that customer satisfaction is not only linked with the view of customers, but also on their experience with the service delivery process. (Abram P. and Amah. M. 2010) Customer satisfaction reflects the degree of a customer’s positive reaction for a service provider, it is necessary for service providers to recognize the customer’s vision of their services. A high level of customer satisfaction can have a positive impact on customer loyalty (Deng et al., 2010).

The most widely accepted conceptualization of the customer satisfaction concept is the expectancy disconfirmation theory (Mc. Quitty, Finn and Wiley, 2000). The theory was developed by Oliver, who proposed that satisfaction level is a result of the difference between expected and perceived performance.

Satisfaction (positive disconfirmation) occurs when product or service is better than expected. On the other hand, a performance worse than expected results is dissatisfaction (negative disconfirmation).

Studies show that customer satisfaction may have direct and indirect impact on business results. Luo and Homburg (2007) concluded that customer satisfaction positively affects business profitability. The majority of studies have investigated the relationship with customer behavior patterns (Dimitriades, 2006). According to these findings, customer satisfaction increases customer loyalty, influences repurchase intentions and leads to positive word-of-mouth. Given the vital role of customer satisfaction, it is not surprising that a variety of research has been devoted to investigating the determinants of satisfaction.

Satisfaction can be determined by subjective (e. g. customer needs, emotions) and objective factors (e. g. product and service features). Applying to the hospitality industry, there have been numerous studies that examine attributes that travelers may find 360 important regarding customer satisfactions.

Atkinson (1988) found out that cleanliness, security, value for money and courtesy of staff determine customer satisfaction. Knutson (1988) revealed that room cleanliness and comfort, convenience of location, prompt service, safety and security, and friendliness of employees are important. A study conducted by Akan (1995) showed that the main determinants of hotel guest satisfaction are the behavior of employees, cleanliness and timeliness. Choi and Chu (2001) concluded that staff quality, room qualities and value are the top three hotel factors that determine travelers’ satisfaction.

ACSI (American Customer Satisfaction Index) model is a series of causal equation, linking customer expectation, perceived quality, perceived value and customer satisfaction together. In the model, customer satisfaction leads to two results: customer complaints and customer loyalty. Loyalty is regarded as the source of customer retention and their tolerance to price. In the last decades lots of causal models were constructed to indicate the relationships among perceived performance, customer satisfaction and loyalty, most of which concluded that increase in satisfaction led to improvement in loyalty which might lead to repurchase, positive word-of-mouth behavior, cross buying and price tolerance.

The concept of customer satisfaction transforms all industries from production centralized to customer based. Several evaluation models or indices exist for assessing customer satisfaction in various industries. To achieve a highly reliable and stable index of satisfaction, the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) defines the satisfaction as a weighted average of three survey ratings: perceived quality, perceived value, and customer expectations.

Generally, the evaluation result for customer satisfaction is highest for competitive products, lower for competitive services and retailers, and lowest for government and public agencies.

2.1.7 Customer Satisfaction Measurement

Measuring customer satisfaction is a key performance indicator within business and is often part of the balanced score card. The main aim of measuring customer satisfaction is to make a prompt decision for the continuous improvement of the business transactions. Attracting a new customer as a source to build on existing relationship, customer satisfaction measurement is essential to be measured. Similarly, to retain the current customer base, measuring customer satisfaction is equally important. Actionable information on how to make customers more satisfied is, therefore, a crucial outcome.

Unless the organizations focus on their improvement efforts in the right area the organization cannot maintain the competition level of business in a market. To recognize the needs of the customer is to satisfy the customer and to meet the need of the customer, a measurement of customer satisfaction is what matters the organization (Hill et al, 2007).

Measuring a customer satisfaction may be different in the different organization since there are different approaches to measure customer satisfaction. As one of the measurements of the performance of the quality management system, the organization shall monitor information relating to customer perception as to whether the organization has met the customer requirements. The methods for obtaining and using this information shall be determined (American National Standards Institute/International Organization for Standardization/American Society of Quality 9001-2000).

Every organization seeks customer satisfaction where these sorts of parameters help an organization to measure the customer’s satisfaction and demands so that organizations can provide them with appropriate services as per their requirements. The possible dimension to measure customer satisfaction could be quality, price, trust relationship, complaints, problems and many others. The key point of measuring customer satisfaction is to conclude how to improve it and how to keep building a good relationship with customers and potential customers.

International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 9000:2000 states "As one of the measurements of the performance of the Quality Management System, the organizations shall monitor information relating to customer perception as to whether the organization has met customer requirements. The methods for obtaining and using this information shall be determined".

The requirement has been there in the Quality Management System (QMS) 9000 standard clause which says,

“Trends in customer satisfaction and key indicators of customer dissatisfaction shall be documented and supported by objective information. These trends shall be compared to those of competitors, or appropriate benchmarks, and reviewed by senior management."

International Customer Satisfaction (ICS) is an international quality guideline that encourages to create and to implement a Quality Management System (QMS). ISO certification 9001 allows any organization to gear towards achieving the quality goal (ISO Update 2017.) Many strategies exist regarding the customer satisfaction measurement, but overlooking the fundaments of how to measure customer satisfaction can be detrimental to a business. Measurement of customer satisfaction refers to the collection of data and providing information about how customers are satisfied or dissatisfied with the products and the service.

During 1960-1980 customer satisfaction was initially considered as a problem of consumer behavioral analysis and the most important effort from this was the following. (Grigoroudis & Siskos 2010). Nowadays organization has started to track the satisfaction level so that they can improve the services. In addition, it has a great impact on understanding the issues that cause the satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the service experience. In this way, if the organization is able to understand why and how the customers are satisfied then, they can focus on its resources. (Hill et al, 2007.)

Surveys are administered to measure customer satisfaction of quality, satisfaction and loyalty. The basic steps in the development of surveys are survey objectives, what information is required, segmentation, sampling and survey methods. Lovelock (1997) notes that ,when customers visit a service factory, their satisfaction will be influenced by such factors as encounters with service personnel, appearance and features of service facilities-both exterior and interior, interaction with self-service equipment ,and characteristics and behavior of other customers.

2.1.8 SERVQUAL Model of Measuring Customer Satisfaction

Customer satisfaction and service quality are interrelated, the higher the service quality, the higher its customer satisfaction. Many agree that in the insurance sector, there are no recognized standard scales to measure the perceived quality of the insurance service. However, competitive advantage through high quality service is an increasingly important weapon to survive. Measuring service quality seems to pose characteristics of service: intangibility, heterogeneity, inseparability and perish ability (Batson, 1985). Because of these complexities, various measuring model have been developed for measuring perceptions of service quality (Gronroos, 1990; Parasuraman et al, 1985).

The SERVQUAL Model of Parasuaman et al (1988) Propose a five dimensional Construct of perceived service quality: tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy- with item reflecting both expectation and perceived performance. Service quality has become an important research topic because it’s apparent relation to cost, profitability, customer satisfaction, customer retention and positive word of mouth. There are many research instrument developed to measure the perceived service quality. Among such general instrument the most popular being the SERVQUAL model, a well-known scale developed by Parasuraman et al. SERVQUAL has been widely acknowledge and applied in various services setting for variety of industries in the past decade.

Example, including health care setting, dental school, clinic, business school placement center, tire store, banking, insurance, pest control etc… the SERVQUAL measuring tool main benefit is its ability that allow researchers to examine numerous service industries such as, health care, insurance, banking, financial service and education. The fact that SERVQUAL has criticism received concerning SERVQUAL measuring tool may have more to do with how researcher use the tool, SERVQUAL formulated by Parasuraman et al (1985) show case ten various components. Letter in 1988, these ten component were collapsed in to five different dimensions. They are Assurance, Reliability, Tangibility, Empathy, and Responsiveness.

2.1.9 Service Quality and Customer Satisfaction

A review of the literature suggests that service quality and satisfaction are distinct constructs. The most common explanation of the difference between the two is that perceived service quality is the form of attitude, a long run overall evaluation whereas satisfaction is a transaction specific measure. This distinction is important to managers and researchers alike because service providers need to know whether the objective should be to have consumers who are “satisfied” with their performance or to deliver the maximum level of “perceived” service quality.

Service quality researchers suggested that the proof of service quality is in its flawless performance (Berry and Parasuram1991) a concept akin to the notion of “Zero defects” in manufacturing. Others have noted that break through service managers pursue the goal of 100% defects free service (Heskett et al., 1990). From the customers’ point of view the most immediate evidence of service occurs in the service encounter is the “moment of truth “when the customer interacts with the firm. Thus one central goal in the pursuit of “Zero defects” in service is 100% flawless performance in service customers.

Zeithamal and Bitner (2000) portray satisfaction as a broader concept arguing that perceived service quality is one component of customer satisfaction, which also reflects price quality tradeoffs and personal and situational factors. Satisfaction can be defined as an attitude-like judgment following a purchase act or a series of consumer product interactions.

Figure. 2.1 The relationship between Service Quality and Customer Satisfaction

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Source: Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research (2010)

2.2. Empirical Literature Reviews

Various studies conducted in the areas of public service delivery in Ethiopian civil service institutions indicate that several problems exist and have been leading to poor quality public service delivery. In April 2001, Government of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia published a service delivery policy of the Ethiopian civil service realizing that the existing system requires reforms or adjustment to improve public service delivery. The policy came up with the assumption that effective implementation of the policy requires that all civil servants, service users and other concerned bodies have sufficient understanding of the objectives, contents, concepts and principles that enables civil service initiations to carry out what is expected of them and makes service users aware of their rights to receive services and benefit thereafter.

Among the reviewed works of others, the case study research conducted by Aman, (2008) to determine the effect of service delivery and quality on customer satisfaction in the case of EEPCo was the one. Accordingly, the researcher came up with the findings that there were problems with provision of service delivery process and quality service indicating it was below the average customer expectations. Similarly, Zeritu (2010) conducted a research with a topic of “service delivery and satisfaction‟ in the same organization. Lastly, her researches findings revealed that similar problems identified by the former researcher were still ongoing. Based on her findings she concluded that because of poor quality service and performance of the organization, the needs and expectations of customers were not met to the level that it had to be.

Further, Zegeye (2013) conducted a research entitled as‟ public service delivery and customer satisfaction‟. He used case study method to conduct his research at EEPCo-South Addis Ababa center. The study came up with the findings like mass dissatisfaction with the corporation indicating that there were long waiting time for getting service signifying the organization’s unresponsiveness to customers‟ requests, clear procedures, and predetermined service standards were not in place and/or not posted officially; absence of communication to customers, no consultation process and feedback collection; no training for developing skills of service delivery and no consistent service delivery. Eventually, he concluded that the corporation was still could not achieve excellent public service delivery to the extent required.

Tibebe, (2011) conducted a research with the purpose of evaluating the service quality that the national Alcohol and liquor factory (NALF) provides to its customers by measuring customers’ perceptions relative to their expectations of the service by the factory. He used the five–dimensional format of SERVQUAL model to assess the relationship among the five dimensions and customer satisfaction. The findings of his study indicate that the five service quality dimensions are positively related to overall service quality and are indeed drivers of service quality which in turn has an impact on a customer’s satisfaction.

The empirical Jamal and Anastasiadou, (2009) worked on investigating the effects of service quality dimensions and expertise on loyalty. In their paper they had investigated the effects of individual dimensions of service quality in creating and enhancing customer loyalty via customer satisfaction. They had discovered the direct and indirect effects of customer expertise on customer loyalty.

A research finding shows the following characteristics in customer behavior when buying services: greater risk perceived when buying services, use of information prior to buying services and price and physical facilities are seen as major indicators of service quality the following generic dimensions used by customers to evaluate service quality credibility, security, access, communication, understanding customer, tangibles, reliability, Responsiveness, competence, and courtesy.

Thus, this study will attempt to assess the quality of public service delivery and level of customer satisfaction in Burayu Town Municipality, depending on variables indicated and theoretical knowledge, by giving more emphasis on quality service delivery processes, customer satisfaction, major problems encountering the office to provide quality service, and customers’ compliant handling mechanism.

2.3 The Conceptual Framework of the Study

In their understanding, the authors put it as service need not be of the highest quality to satisfy customer rather customers trade off various factors in their assessments of quality and satisfaction. For some customers adequate service at a convenient location or a lower price may be more satisfactory than higher service levels elsewhere that triggered the authors to introduce the term Zone of tolerance to represent a range of service quality out comes that are deemed neither particularly good nor bad by customers. That is the gap between desired service and the perceived service by the customers.

Customer satisfaction is a customer’s global evaluation of service provider’s provision of service. Dissatisfaction of customers on service provision comes when performance does not meet an acceptable level of expectation. The two most important variables of this study were quality public service (Independent variable) and customer satisfaction (dependent variable). The independent variable (QPS) has effect on customers satisfaction while the independent variable could be conditioned based on the status of the independent variables was tested in correlation in the analysis part of the study.

Figure 2.2 Conceptual frameworks of Service Delivery and Customer Satisfaction

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Source: Siddiqui M.H and Sharm T.G (2010)

Quality public service was measured in terms of its five dimensions of Quality Service: tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy of the service. But this Quality public service was affected by different factors that can affect the process of service provision. In addition, the way an organization receives feedback and makes service recovery affect the satisfaction level. Effective system of handling in place the most likely result was customer satisfaction and, the reverse was occurred in the service delivery process. It was also obvious that the customers’ attributes like word of mouth, personal needs and past experiences affect the customers’ expectations and perceptions that lastly result either in satisfaction and dissatisfaction.

CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 Descriptions of the Study Area

3.1.1 Location

Burayu was founded in 1946 E.C by land lord named Girazmatch Robi Kelecha. Burayu town got its name in Afan Oromo word, Burayu means, a known indigenous tree that was found at the heart of the town. Burayu is one of a local municipal government which experienced fastest urbanization since 1991. It is located in the western fringe of Addis Ababa, along the Addis Ababa-Ambo road at about 15 km from the center of Addis Ababa city administration office. Administratively, Burayu town is found in Finfine Special Zone, Oromia Regional State. It got municipality reform in 2005/1997 E.C. (Burayu Town office of Plan and Economic Development, 2011/2019).

According to the rank given by Oromia National Regional State to all urban centers of the region; the town is the first grade city in the region starting from 2006/1998 E.C and has got its master plan in December, 2007. The Town has a total land mass of about 9,057 square kilometers and shared more than 15 kms total length of border with Addis Ababa city administration. It is bounded by Addis Ababa city administration in the East, Sebeta-Hawas district in the South, Sululta district in the North and Walmera district in the Western. The coordinates of the city at the center in X: Y is 463096.5 and 1002340 respectively. (Burayu Town office of Plan and Economic Development, 2011/2019).

The existing built up area is estimated to be nearly 9,057 Hectare, while the area under the administration of the town, including the adjacent peasant associations and the other remaining area is used for farming and forest and occupied by illegal settlement. (Burayu Town office of Plan and Economic Development, 2011/2019)

Figure 3.1. Map of West Shawa Zone

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Source: Burayu Town office of Plan and Economic Development, 2011/2019.

Figure 3.2 Map of Burayu Town

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Source: Burayu Town office of Plan and Economic Development, 2011/2019.

3.1.2 Population of the Study

The study area is characterized by rapid population growth. The total population of the town in 1977 E.C was 4,138, in 1987 the population grew to 10,027, in 1999E.C. 63,873 and in 2009 E.C the population growth reached 250,000. As it is mentioned below in the table Burayu town had 375,349 total populations in 2011 E.C with growth rate of 15.5 % per annum according to House and Population census at gote level, (Burayu Town office of Plan and Economic Development, 2011/2019.

The municipality has six (6) kebeles. The kebeles being governed under the rural district which was the neighbor of the municipal become recently demarcated to the town because of urbanization. However, the researcher aimed to collect better data from all sections of the society in each kebeles that has an experience in providing relevant information for the study, the researcher targeted on two purposively selected kebeles.

Thus, all customers who lived in the Town for at least two years and the target study population of Gafarsa Burayu and Burayu Kata households and individuals were selected conveniently. There were 10,154 Households and 91,314 total populations in Gafarsa Burayu and 5,304 households and 56,291 total populations in Burayu Kata. The total populations of purposively selected kebeles were 147,605. In this study any individual who was able to understand the manner of the municipality service was selected as a sample. In addition, the employees of the municipality who worked in the office for at least two years were expected to provide better information about the service rendering & customer feedback were taken as the populations from which the sample of the study was drawn. This is because the researcher thinks they were more experienced about the ongoing process of service delivery of the municipality.

Table 3.1. Number of households and population of Burayu Town at the end of 2011 E.C

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Source: Burayu Town Office of Plan and Economic Development, (2011E.C)

3.2 Research Design

The researcher’s intention was to clearly show the service quality and the customer satisfaction on service delivery, customer and employee relationship and service delivery system, the municipality delivers to various customers. The design of this research study was cross-sectional (descriptive), which helped to assess service quality at a predetermined moment of time. This method is often used to make inferences about possible relationships or to gather preliminary data to support further research and experimentation. Quantitative method was employed to gather and analyze data for the case and qualitative for concepts that were in the form of distinct variables described with generated numerical data. The researcher compared factors of service quality to find top priorities which help to understand the customers’ criteria in judging service quality.

This study used descriptive inquiry to describe the service quality dimensions that led to customer satisfaction and explanatory inquiry to explain and control the relationship between dependent and independent variables of the study.

3.3 Sample and Sampling Techniques

3.3.1 Sampling Technique

It was forgone that taking a sample was required since collecting data through questionnaires from whole population was expensive and time consuming. The municipality understudy had 375,349 populations directly or indirectly customers registered active in 2011/19.

To go with the available resource and to be economical, the researcher employed non- probability sampling methods. The sampling techniques were adopted in this study were believed by the researcher as an appropriate technique to draw a representative sample from the population under study.

Accordingly, the researcher used Purposive sampling to conduct interview with the concerned body (Public Service Manager) regarding to service quality, customer satisfaction and mechanism of avoiding/reducing customers’ complaints and select sample kebeles. This sampling method was chosen hoping public service manager may have better knowledge about the ongoing process in the municipality and to hear the problems facing the customer and employee from the concerned body.

The researcher used convenience sampling to choose respondents, which was assumed to help the researcher reach the target group. Where samples are selected from the population only because they are conveniently available to the researcher. This sampling method is important, because of its speed, cost-effectiveness, and ease of availability of the sample. Accordingly, the researcher selected 2 kebeles from six kebeles using purposive sampling technique. The kebeles chosen were Gafarsa Burayu and Burayu Kata, each having 250 and 150 population respectively employed as sample size. Then after, the researcher administered the questionnaires for those of individuals who lived for more than 2 years in the two kebeles, hoping that they experienced more about the municipality and give accurate information.

3.3.2 Sample Size

A simple random sampling was employed to select sample from the study population. The reason for using simple random sampling was that first, the researcher had more precise information inside the sub-population about the variables the researcher studied. Second, the researcher raised precision of the estimate of the variables of the whole population.

According to Taro (1967), study was applied as simplified formula to determine the required sample size at 95% confidence level, and allowable error = 0.05%.

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Using the Taro Yamane’s Formula of sample calculation, the researcher intended to draw the following sample size:

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Where, ‘n’ is the sample size, ‘N’ represented for both of the total number of customers in the municipality, and ‘e’ is the level of precision.

Employees in the office who worked for more than two years were selected through calculating the sample size by substituting the numbers into the Taro’s formula. The samples determined by the researcher were 400, who have lived for more than two years and (12) employees of the municipality were selected as the targets subjected for the study. After all, considering such constraints as financial, material and time, the total sample size was as follows.

Table 3. 2 Population, Sample Size and Sampling Techniques

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Source: Researchers own computation, 2019/20

3.4. Sources of Data

To ensure the reliability of the research and meet the objectives of the study, the researcher collected relevant data from both primary and secondary data sources.

3.4.1 Primary Data Sources

The primary data were collected from the urban dweller customer of the selected villages. The information that had been gained from the staff and Burayu city administration was used as primary sources. The data collection techniques used to collect firsthand information were self- administered questionnaires, and interview.

3.4.2 Secondary Data Sources

To robust the study, the researcher collected relevant secondary data related to the study’s topic by analytically reviewing different documentary sources. Among such sorts of sources books, articles /thesis, journals, internet, reports and any other relevant scholarly or academic writings were the most ones. Secondary sources of data were obtained from Burayu City Administration annual reports, and performance appraisal documents, manuals and other related documents that were used by the organization.

3.5. Tools of Data Collection

With the aim to investigate the satisfaction/dissatisfaction level of customers with regard to services delivery of Burayu Town Municipality, detailed research instruments were developed and pretested before they were administered. A comprehensive questionnaire was designed and administered to customers drawn from the selected kebeles. The items were carefully selected and administered and meticulously edited bearing in mind the research objectives. In general the researcher employed the following two instruments of data collection.

A. Questionnaires

Questionnaires were designed in open ended and closed ended. The closed ended questionnaires prepared in Five Likert Scales to let customers and employees express their opinion on the scales. To measure the responses a five-point Likert scale ranging from strongly disagree=1 to strongly agree=5 were used. In addition, questions like “Yes” or “No” questions were used when appropriate. The questionnaires were administered to 400 customers and 12 employees, to enable the researcher collect relevant data. Once the questionnaires had been developed in English, it was translated in to Afan Oromo.

The questionnaires were divided into seven parts. Part I had nine questions and sought some background information about the respondents; Part II had twenty-one (21) questions relating to the customers’ expectations and perceptions towards service quality in Burayu Town Municipality (the SERVQUAL model was adopted); Part III sought information about status of customer satisfaction on public service delivery; Part IV held nine questions about complaint handling mechanism; Part V sought to assess information on the practices of the public service delivery principles. Part VI sought to elicit recommendations to improve service quality and customer care at Burayu town municipality (open ended). Questions regarding to challenges of quality service delivery were prepared for employees.

B. Interview

One interview guide was designed and formed the basis for interview with the public service Manager. The guide for the Management which had ten (10) questions sought to find out the policy direction of the office with regards to service quality, client care and satisfaction, the level of implementation, successes and challenges, their understanding of service quality, importance and participants of training and their recommendations to enhance service quality and customer satisfaction .

In interview, the researcher used purposive sampling technique to interview the public service manager of the municipality. Accordingly, problems faced in delivering quality service at the different levels of the sector focusing on work related variables such as challenges of providing quality service, processes in providing service, time usage, customers’ compliant handling mechanism and employee’s related attributes were considered and asked.

3.6. Procedures of Data Collection

Up on request, the researcher asked permission from Burayu Town Municipality to gather data on service quality and customer satisfaction specifically service users’ of municipality. Then, questionnaires were distributed to the respondents with the necessary explanations on how to complete. The survey pack included a copy of the cover letter and the main questionnaire. Collection of filled out questionnaires ended up to 5 days from the date of distribution.

3.7. Methods of Data Analysis

For the purpose of achieving the objectives of the study, data gathered through these different techniques were analyzed and interpreted qualitatively and quantitatively. To this effect, data gathered through questionnaire were analyzed quantitatively and displayed by using tables, pie charts, frequency distribution and percentage. In this sense, tools of data analysis used to describe the service delivery processes, improvements in service quality and perception level of customers’ satisfaction. Similarly, data gathered through interviews and observations were analyzed qualitatively. Microsoft Office Excel Windows 2007 was used to analyze the data as it assists the researcher to manage it.

3.8. Validity and Reliability

Validity is fundamental in evaluating measures in the thesis. In this thesis, the research is valid because the collected data and the research questions are in a systematic way. All the things that needed to be measured have been measured. The answers given by the participants are truth full and beneficial for those who are not parts of the research. Additionally, the purpose of the research was to know how satisfied the customers are with the services provided by the municipality. In order to ensure the validity of thesis the author has conducted the questionnaire. Before conducting the survey Burayu town municipality was informed and also had an open discussion about what the office wants to know about the customers. However, the validity will determine whether the research truly measures the exact thing which is intended to measure or how truthful the research results are.

Reliability is a concept to evaluate quality in quantitative study with a purpose of explaining and quality concept in qualitative study with the purpose of generating understanding which relates to the concept of a good quality research. The researcher has gathered the information to understand how the customer feels about the services of the municipality and to create improvements where needed This research work is reliable because the data were a true reflection of what the customer felt. The questionnaire was conducted in May 2020 using clear format and respondents reply accordingly. Therefore, the questionnaire was distributed in the written paper to the customers for 5 days. The number of the respondents’ within these 5 days was very high therefore the time period in collecting and analyzing the data was perfect for reliable results.

The questions were arranged into a meaningful order and format where the subjects were provided with easy to answer background questions at the opening section, which lead them easily to the next. This is because it was likely that respondents broke off unless they find the opening questions easy to answer. Besides, to minimize the risk of possible cut off owing to fatigue, questions those were of special importance included in the earlier part of the questionnaire.

[...]

• Auteur: Ebisa Bakana (Auteur)
• Année de publication: 2020
• Pages: 84
• N° de catalogue: V940677
• ISBN (ebook): 9783346270375
• ISBN (Livre): 9783346270382
• Langue: anglais
• mots-clé: service, delivery, customer, satisfaction, case, burayu, town, municipality, ethiopia