Assessment of the quality of service provided by a national regulatory institution

Abstract

Government institutions need to assess how well they meet the needs of their customers, and what their customers think about the quality of the services they provide. This is aligned with the ‘Batho Pele’ principle of the South African government. The SERVQUAL scale, augmented with a qualitative survey, was used to determine how the National Home Builders Registration Council (NHBRC) is perceived by its clients, which key factors drive such perceptions, and whether the perceptions are consistent across the different client groups of this regulatory institution. The complementary role of qualitative data in illuminating issues driving quantitative results is highlighted. Service quality scores are computed for the NHBRC. The convergence of opinions of different customer groups was studied using correlation analysis. The significance of service quality perception gaps was tested using the multivariate analysis of variance, and the reliability of the SERVQUAL scale was examined using exploratory factor analysis. It was observed that by improving the feedback mechanism of the NHBRC, their clients’ customer service quality perceptions could be enhanced.

Staatsinstansies moet vasstel hoe goed daar voldoen word aan die verwagtinge van hulle kliënte en wat die opinie van hulle kliënte is aangaande die kwaliteit van die diens wat gelewer word. Dit is belyn met die ‘Batho Pele’-beginsel van die Suid-Afrikaanse regering. Die SERVQUAL-skaal , aangevul met ’n kwalitatiewe opname, is gebruik om te bepaal hoe die NHBRC waargeneem word deur sy kliënte, watter faktore hierdie persepsies skep en of die perspesies konsekwent voorkom in die verskillende kliënte-groepe van hierdie regula-toriese instansie. Die komplimentêre rol wat kwalitatiewe data speel om lig te werp op die kwantitatiewe resultate word uitgewys. Verskeie statistiese metodes is aangewend om onder meer die konvergensie van opinie, die betekenisvolheid van diensgapings en die betroubaarheid van die SERVQUAL-skaal te ondersoek. Daar is gevind dat verbeterde terugvoermeganismes binne die NHBRC die persepsie aangaande kwaliteit by hulle kliënte sal verbeter.