Appraising Users’ Satisfaction Level of Facilities Management Services in Condominium Apartments
Chapter One
Aim of the Study
The aim of the study is to identify and appraise the levels of what constitute residents’ satisfaction with regard to provision of facilities management services in the study area (Egerton Place Estate, Lekki, Lagos).
Objectives of the Study
- Evaluate facilities management team’s performance with regard to users’ expectations and perceptions of service across the different SERVQUAL Dimensions
- Determine facilities management team’s areas of strengths and weaknesses
- Determine users’ behavioural intention from their experience of facilities management services in the case study estate.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
USER SATISFACTION
Companies win or lose based on what percentage of their users they can keep. Success is largely about the retention of users, which again depends on the CS level. It would be a great help to be able to comprehensively measure the quality of products and services by relating the measures of quality to real user behaviour. Some companies get feedback about CS through the percentage of complaints and some through nonsystematic surveys, but some do not measure CS at all, because “the system would not add anything useful and is very timeconsuming” (Chotipanich, 2004).
User satisfaction measurement (CSM) has become one of the commonest prescriptions to managers and organizations and comes from a wide variety of sources. These prescriptions centre on the notion that since user satisfaction is a key issue in market performance, then it follows that it should be measured and used by management in decision making (Piercy, 1996). Besides, user satisfaction measurements enable the establishment of the key factors that affect satisfaction or dissatisfaction with services. Once they are defined, one can make appropriate efforts to eliminate the negative factors. In other words, an organization can then manage its resources more efficiently.
Most markets are very competitive, and in order to survive, organisations need to produce products and services of a very good quality that yield highly satisfied and loyal users. Many practitioners and researchers have investigated a range of different user attitudes that influence both intentions and behaviours relate to loyalty. User attitudes have included user satisfaction, user value, price perceptions, the quality of the relationship and service quality. Many studies have found strong links between user attitudes and user loyalty behaviour. For example, it has commonly been found that higher levels of user satisfaction lead to higher levels of behavioural intentions, which in turn lead to stronger user loyalty behaviour, which can be measured through repeat purchases, increased share of wallet, positive word of mouth recommendations, and reduced user acquisition cost. In fact, user satisfaction has been empirically shown to be the predominant attitudinal metric used to detect and manage users’ likelihoods of staying or defecting. In other words, there is a very clear and strong relationship between the quality of a product, user satisfaction and profitability (Figure 1) (Fečikova, 2004; Williams, et al., 2011).
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
RESEARCH DESIGN
According to Sendel (2017) defines research design as the overall strategy to answer the research questions. Kervin (2008) indicates that the research design is the model for the researcher to achieve its objectives and answer questions (Kervin, 2008). A research design generally understand how to be discarded data, what are the instruments, how the instruments and the means for analyzing the collected data will be used.
RESEARCH OF THE POPULATION
All study subjects in all fields of research have a targeted population. The population is the total subjects of interest for the researchers (Bear, 2013). The population of this study included the residents in Egerton Place Estate at Lekki, Lagos State.
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA ANALYSIS
As part of the analysis of the barriers to efficient user satisfaction surveys discussed in Subchapter 2.3, it was decided to look into the perceptions of Egerton Place Estaten facilities management company about user satisfaction, CS measurement and user complaints in general. A questionnaire was compiled, and a sample of five leading privateequity estate facility management company offering FM services was surveyed.
The first two questions were aimed at learning a few facts about the estate facility management company, such as the number of employees (Figure 5) and their tenure in the market (Figure 6). The questions also attempted to verify whether or not the estate facility management company’s size and operating experience had any impact on its attitude toward user satisfaction, complaints, etc.
CHAPTER FIVE
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
CONCLUSIONS
The research introduces the concept of user satisfaction and the importance of measuring it. It also proves that focusing on users is a correct action and, in fact, can be the most important action. What is important to a business is good performance, profitability and growth. What is important to employees at all levels, on the other hand, is first and foremost, job security, good pay, good job prospects, promotion and a bright future. These are all heavily dependent on an organisation’s ability to fulfil all of its users’ needs to their full satisfaction (Zairi, 2000).
To compete with each other, facility management company must seek to improve the quality of their services and user satisfaction to ensure user loyalty and financial gain. It is one of the reasons that explain the importance and benefit of understanding the factors that affect user opinions.
RECOMMENDATIONS
The most direct way to measure user satisfaction is to ask them what makes them satisfied with a service. It is usually a twopart procedure: first, the satisfaction with the service must be assessed and then the users must be asked to assess the estate facility management company. A successful survey must:
- identify the user (knowledge about both internal and external users is important).
- initiate a tentative survey to determine the key features of a service and avoid inconsequential information (it also helps to verify the estate facility management company’s hypotheses about user needs);
- compile an efficient questionnaire for the gathering of necessary information;
- choose and develop the most fitting method for monitoring user satisfaction (i.e. different questionnaires for different respondents); make additional statistical assessments of the survey data;
- ensure feedback (i.e., listening to the user opinions and periodic surveying).
The survey of service providers suggests that Egerton Place Estaten estate facility management company realise the importance of user satisfaction as a key to successful operations, too. They ask users for their opinions and do not ignore the complaints, because they believe user satisfaction surveys are an important tool that helps to determine
possible improvements and the potential of services to analyse the performance and assess the corporate activities from the user’s perspective – all leading to the achievement of the main operating goals of the estate facility management company. Notably, a user survey is not enough: a broader dissemination of the survey data is required, because more often than not, only do the top managers discuss the results, but also each employee must be in the know about user opinions and seek to achieve their satisfaction.
The surveyed users of facility management services stated their satisfaction with the services, and although they might have a few remarks on the quality of some work, they have an overall positive opinion about their cooperation with the estate facility management company. The main suggestion to the estate facility management company is to consider the user remarks and carry out regular surveys of their opinions in order to accommodate user needs, determine user expectations, and thus improve their loyalty.
REFERENCES
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