THE EFFECTS OF PUBLIC QUALITY SERVICE ON THE LEVEL OF CUSTOMER SATISFACTION IN EMDIBER, ETHIOPIA

Abstract

The main purpose of this study was to assess the effects of public quality service on the level of customer satisfaction at the municipality of Emdiber town, Central Ethiopia. Explanatory research design was used in this study. The sample consists of 336 respondents were selected by simple random sampling to fill questionnaires and 10 informants for interview and also 14 focus group discussion participants were selected by purposive sampling technique. The study was used questionnaires, interviews, focus group discussion, and field observation as data gathering strategies to compile the primary data. Whereas secondary data has been collected from internet, quarterly, semi-annually, and annual progress reports from office. The collected data were analyzed by using of SPSS version 20.The findings of this study indicate that customers of the municipality are most satisfied with empathy and tangibility dimensions followed by assurance and reliability dimensions however some customers are dissatisfied with reliability dimensions. The correlation result show that there is a positive correlation between all service quality dimensions and customer satisfaction, among those service quality dimensions empathy and assurance have a strong correlation with customer satisfaction. The result of regression result show that all service quality dimensions (tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy) have a positive and a significant relationship with customer satisfaction. The finding of the study showed that, the performance of office in providing public quality service is not in a position to meet the satisfaction of the customers. The study concluded that because of the offices low public service quality delivery leads to the lower level of its customer satisfaction. Finally, based on the results of this study, it is recommended that the Office should prioritize the service quality dimensions for the provision of quality service to attain customer satisfaction.