Asian Journal of Research in Business and Management e-ISSN: 2682-8510 | Vol. 2, No. 3, 8-19, 2020 http://myjms.moe.gov.my/index.php/ajrbm Customer’s Satisfaction and Service Quality: A Study of Simunjan District Office in Sarawak Mohd Rashidee Alwi1, Gloria Panit2*, Noraini Sa’ait2, Ahmad Hadafi Kifli1 1 Faculty of Business Management, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Samarahan Campus, Sarawak, Malaysia 2 Faculty of Business Management, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Mukah Campus, Sarawak, Malaysia *Corresponding Author: [email protected] Accepted: 15 September 2020 | Published: 30 September 2020 __________________________________________________________________________________________ Abstract: This study focuses on customer service quality provided by District Office in Simunjan. Simunjan District Office is one of the areas under the administration of the Samarahan Division. Research has always been concentrated in measuring Customer Satisfaction or SERVQUAL for customer services. Apart from that, this research is also significant for the need of Simunjan District Office to improve their service to the customer. For government sector, customer service has been put as one of the government priorities in order to serve their customer or their customer more efficiently. The respondents of this study are customers who come to seek for service at the Simunjan District Office. The study focused on dimension such as quality of service, speed, facility, security, responsiveness, communication and understanding the customer. The customer of Simunjan District office is narrowed down to specifically from Simunjan area. The present study concentrates on customer perceptions of the following SERVQUAL dimensions, price and product quality. The findings showed that customer’s perception towards service quality level was consistently lower than their expectation. This implies that more effort is needed to improve the service quality level of the Simunjan District Office. Customers have higher expectations on the promptness of service, accuracy of transactions, security issues and concerns; the customer’s lowest expectations are cleanliness, ambience and others. Keywords: SERVQUAL, Customer Satisfaction, Customer Expectation, Customer Perception __________________________________________________________________________________________ 1. Introduction Parasuraman et al. (1985) defined service quality as “the global evaluation or attitude of overall excellence of services”. So, service quality is the difference between customers’ expectation and perceptions of services delivered by service firms. (D. A. Nitecki & P. Hernon) Defined service quality in terms of “meeting or exceeding customer expectations, or as the difference between customer perceptions and expectations of service”. As the research is focused on examining major users of CJCU Library, the library service quality is defined as “the overall excellence of library services that satisfy users’ expectation”. Kotler (1996) defined customer satisfaction as “the level of a person’s felt state resulting from comparing a product’s perceived performance or outcome in violation to his/her own expectations”. So, customer satisfaction could be considered a comparative behaviour between inputs beforehand and post obtainments. As the study focused on investigating user satisfaction of libraries, customer satisfaction is defined as “the levels of service quality 8 Copyright © 2020 ASIAN SCHOLARS NETWORK - All rights reserved Asian Journal of Research in Business and Management e-ISSN: 2682-8510 | Vol. 2, No. 3, 8-19, 2020 http://myjms.moe.gov.my/index.php/ajrbm performances that meets users’ expectations. The level of service quality as assessed by the external customers and their experiences towards services provided by the Malaysian public organizations is still unknown. The public sector has long been subjected to criticisms for, among others, inefficiency, red tape, lack of flexibility, ineffective accountability and poor performance. Such criticisms have paved the way for administrative reforms and reorganizations seeking to address various administrative ailments and enhance the efficiency and performance of public bureaucracies (Siddiquee, 2006). There are many government departments such as Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Education and Ministry of Housing and Local Government. The public sector refers to the part of the economy concerned with providing various government services. The composition of the public sector varies by country, but in most countries the public sector includes such services as the military, police, public transit and care of public roads, public education, along with healthcare and those working for the government itself, such as elected officials. Service quality is also known as a critical success factor in an organisation’s efforts to be competitive. Researches have shown that good service quality attracts new customers as well as retains existing ones. In addition, good service quality has led to reduced costs, an enhanced corporate image, positive word-of-mouth recommendation and enhanced profitability (A.Parasuraman, 2010). This study focuses on customer service quality provided by District Office in Simunjan. Simunjan District is one of the areas under the administration of the Samarahan Division. Simunjan District is an area of approximately 2,077 square kilometres. It is located about 176 km from Kuching City by road and 103 km by road water (river). Sebuyau and Gedong are under District Administration Simunjan. The population of the district is 37,561.00 consisting of various tribes. Overall, the main jobs of the people are farmers and fishermen. Efforts to develop the economy of Simunjan District is actively planned and executed so as not to be left behind in the current development. Basic amenities are given special attention so that all economic activities can be successfully aligned with the stimulus package. Simunjan District Office is located at Pejabat Daerah Simunjan Jalan Gunung Ngeli 94800 Simunjan. It is consisted of three departments (Finance, Development and Administration). Problem Statement This research is to study about service quality and customer satisfaction in Simunjan District Office. Research has always been concentrated in measuring Customer Satisfaction or SERVQUAL for customer services. Apart from that, this research is also significant for the need of Simunjan District Office to improve their service to the customer. For government sector, customer service has been put as one of the government priorities in order to serve their customer or their customer more efficiently. Simunjan District Office is small compare to the main office in Kuching, still they must promote the best service to their customer. At the moment, there are quite a high number of complaints filed by the public due to delays in taking actions and providing services to them by the Malaysian public organizations (A, Arawati, S. Baker, & J. Kandampully, 2007). Consequently, service quality is not as expected by the customers and therefore, it is quite low. This matter is a concern to the public since they are the taxpayers and therefore, they expect good services are provided to them as the return. Meeting with the needs and expectations of the customer means that we know what the customer wants, we know what the customer expects, and we can deliver them on a 9 Copyright © 2020 ASIAN SCHOLARS NETWORK - All rights reserved Asian Journal of Research in Business and Management e-ISSN: 2682-8510 | Vol. 2, No. 3, 8-19, 2020 http://myjms.moe.gov.my/index.php/ajrbm consistent basis. Customer satisfaction is generally assumed to be a significant determinant of repeat sales, positive word-of-mouth, and customer loyalty. Satisfied customers return and buy more, and they tell other people about their experiences, both positive and negative. The literature in marketing, retailing and service management historically has not considered customer experience as a separate construct. Instead researchers have focused on measuring customer satisfaction and service quality (Peter C. Verhoef, Katherine N. Lemon, A. Parasuraman, Anne Roggeveen, Michael Tsiros, & Leonard A. Schlesinger, 2009). The challenges facing governments today have become more formidable than in the past. Governments are pressured to seek solutions to modern social problems and cope with demands for better services from the public who are more conscious of their rights and more critical of service standards. However, there is still no clear picture of customer views on the quality services provided by Simunjan District Office to their customer. After literature search, there is no evidence of any study of this kind in Simunjan District Office. Therefore, this study is conducted to clarify the service quality of Simunjan District Office to their customer. The findings of this study will be useful for Simunjan District Office to plan and implement strategies aimed at improving customer satisfaction. Research Questions 1) What are the satisfaction levels of current customer in District Office in Simunjan? 2) What are the gaps between customer expectation and customer perception toward District Office in Simunjan? 3) What are the most important factors of service quality influencing customer satisfaction in Simunjan District Office? Research Objectives 1) To measure the satisfaction level of current customers in District Office in Simunjan. 2) To identify gaps between customer expectation