Assessment of service quality in urban water and sewerage authorities in Tanzania: the case of Dar es salaam Water and Sewerage Corporation

The main objective of the research was to find out the factors affecting service quality in DAWASCO. Five hypotheses were developed which rested on the five service quality dimensions including; tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy: The study shows that there are differences between the provided services and those expected by customers. The managements inability to correctly perceive what customers want: led to customers dissatisfaction hence contributing to gap No 1 in all dimensions except tangibles. The study also indicated that lack of market research, many management service levels, poor job evaluation and poor service standardization led to wrong specifications of service quality, hence contributing to gap No 2. Cap No 3 indicated that there is discrepancy between service quality specifications and service delivery. Gap No 4 allowed that there is discrepancy between service delivery and external communications which disorted customer`s expectation. The failure of DAWASCO to delivery quality services is related top various organizational factor responsible for the size of each the service quality gaps. The research therefore recommends low DAWASCO on offer quality services to customers including managements visible involvement and commitment to service, quality values, undertaking frequent market research implementing human resources development, putting in more effort and resources in order tio improve the provision of quality servive and conducting internal audit of DAWASCO own service performance in regard strengths and weaknesses.