An empirical investigation of the quality of customer service offered by Kenya's ministry of finance

Abstract

There has been an explosion of interest in service quality and its impact on a firm's success in a fiercely competitive global market. Governments have not been left behind in this development. Governments in the world over are trying to improve the quality of services it offers to the public at large. Thus, customer service has come to occupy a prominent position in its development agendas. Customers' perception of the quality of service offered by the Government of Kenya was studied using the Ministry of Finance (MoF) as a case study. Thus, this descriptive study investigated effects of perceived customer service quality offered by the Ministry of Finance. Its performance on service delivery was investigated using the other Ministries as outcome variables - customers and the service provider staffs in the Ministry and the state corporations directly under it. The study intended to determine Corporate Customer's expectations of services offered by the Ministry of Finance in Kenya. It focused on all the other government ministries and the constitutional offices. It also looked at the MoF staff, to compare how they perceive the services they offer vis-a- vis the customer. The study had three main objectives: 1. To identify the Ministry of finance service attributes that customers and staff consider important. 2. To assess the extent to which the staff and customers are satisfied with the quality of service provided by the Ministry of Finance. 3. To determine the relative importance of various organizational demographics on customer satisfaction with the service delivery. A questionnaire was formulated to collect and test aggregate customer and staff perception on the quality of customer service offered.by the MoF. The data was collected using a semi-structured questionnaire containing both closed and open-ended statements and questions. It also used rating scales to measure intangible attributes like perceptions, attitudes, values and behaviours relevant to the study A sample of 50 customers was selected from the two groups (customer and staff). The researcher managed to get 21 of them fill and return the questionnaires, a response rate of 42%. The analysis showed that the factors considered most important by customers in judging quality of service in the ministry of Finance are: • Convenience of the location • Efficiency of the services offered • Promptness in handling customer requests • Accessibility of staff in their offices The results of the study revealed that 34.6% of the respondents rated the services offered by the Ministry of finance as excellent, 38.4% very good, 22% good, 2% poor and 2% very poor. Although most customers were satisfied with the quality of service offered by MoF, there is need to enhance customer awareness on the tasks performed by the Ministry of Finance, and for regular in-house training programmes to the staff. This was indicated from the difference of the perception of both the customer and staff regarding where the customer scored the perceived know ledge of service offered by staff attribute at 18 whilst the MoF staff scored it at 60. The staff also had different views regarding the promptness in handling customer requests.; where they rated themselves higher than how the customers viewed them (20 and 60 respectively). This clearly shows that the MoF staff should examine critically the gap between the promised service and the actual service delivery. The study implication revealed that there was need to enhance customer awareness on the tasks performed by MOF and sensitize customers on how money flows from the resource envelope to the other ministries since the customers perceive that it is the Ministry of Finance that disburses money to any activity funded by the government. A need for regular in-house training programmes to the staff of MOF is important for the staff to regularly update their knowledge and skills, in areas such as customer care. Future research can compare the quality of service offered by MOF as perceived by the staff, and as perceived by leading organizations in the private sector since most of them also draw essential services from MOF. It can also benchmark the services offered by MOF with those offered by private organizations.