Browsing by Author "Massawe, Anthony Amin Musa Tadei"

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    Analysis of consumers’ satisfaction with water and sewerage services offered by Dar es Salaam Water and Sewerage Corporation (DAWASCO)
    (University of Dar es Salaam, 2009) Massawe, Anthony Amin Musa Tadei
    Proactive monitoring and evaluation of customer satisfaction provides feedback to management on effectiveness of their strategies. However without adequate information on both the quality of services expected and perception of services received, feedback from customer surveys can be highly misleading from both policy and operational perspective (Shahim, 2004). This study was prompted by DAWASCO revenue collection problems. The researcher wanted to try marketing concepts studied in this program as a management tool to assist in identifying the possible cause for customers’ unwillingness to pay. This is because although some of customers seem to be financially capable and receiving services almost twenty four hours a day, they are not willing to pay. Therefore the study was carried out to evaluate customers’ current satisfaction level and the overall performance of the organization using quality dimensions. This is based on conceptual thinking that customer willingness to pay is a function of this or her satisfaction with a service. A modified SERVQUAL quality instrument was used ro evaluate customers’ perception of current service provision. Two null hypotheses were made and 150 respondents were obtained through a stratified random sampling. Analysis is based on 105 questionnaires which after screening were found to be responsive. Results revealed that from customers’ point of view only two out of eighteen quality attributes were above 50%. The overall performance was below 50%, showing that the organization is neither meeting nor exceeding their expectations. Customers identified major areas needing improvement in priority order as: (a) billing, (b) services reliability, (C) increase of service points and (d) customer care. Therefore DAWASCO are encouraged to formulate and implement a customer satisfaction program to manage customer expectations and therefore increase willingness to pay.