DISPARITY BETWEEN EXPECTED AND PERCEIVED SERVICE QUALITY IN TOWN COUNCIL

Abstract

Recently, service quality has become more significant and with the rise in expectation of residents from the management of the estates, it has become increasingly important for service quality to be evaluated based on the residents’ inputs.

The literature review provided further insights on service quality and the gap model which identifies other gaps affecting the gap between perceptions and expectations. SERVQUAL and its application in the different service industries was examined in this study. SERVQUAL will be used to assess the service quality of Town Council services.

Service quality will be evaluated based on the perceptions and expectations of the residents. The desirability of service quality is computed by taking perceptions minus expectations to give a gap score. The gap score will then be multiplied by the weightage of the different dimensions to give a weighted gap score, indicating if the service quality is on par with the expectations of residents.

Another focus of the study is to determine whether the different demographic characteristics have effects on the evaluation of service quality and if the different characteristics affect the weightage given for the different service quality dimensions. The demographic characteristics identified are age, gender and type of housing flat. One-way ANOVA statistical test was performed to establish the relationship between demographic characteristics and the evaluation of service quality and its dimensions.

In conclusion, the findings of this study will help Town Councils to identify areas where expectations of residents are not met. Thereafter, Town Councils will be able address it by developing solutions based on the gap model and on the significance of the different dimensions as evaluated by the residents.

Keywords: service quality, expectations, perceptions, Town Council