Perception of Customers Towards the Quality of Services Offered by the Kenya National Examinations Council

Abstract

The objective of this study was to determine customers’ expectations and perceptions of quality of services offered by the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC). The study analyzed the level of service quality as expected and perceived by the category of customers of KNEC known as Contracted Professionals. Contracted Professionals include invigilators, supervisors, examiners/markers, moderators, setters, security personnel and pre-setters. To measure service quality, the SERVQUAL scale covering five broad dimensions of service quality, namely Tangibles, Reliability, Responsiveness, Assurance, and Empathy was used. This was accomplished through quantitative method of data collection and analysis, of a sample of the service providers under investigation. This study revealed that there exists a service quality gap between expectations of quality of service versus the perception of actual service quality provided by KNEC. The study revealed that the highest service quality gap occurs under the Reliability Dimension (-1.2602) followed by the Responsiveness Dimension which has the second highest service quality gap (-1.2078). The Empathy Dimension is ranked third with a gap -1.0819 while the Assurance Dimension is ranked fourth with a score of -0.9608. The Tangibles Dimension is ranked fifth with a service quality gap of -0.4247. Overall study also shows that the Un-weighted Average Service Quality Gap is -0.9871. The study further revealed that to improve quality of services, KNEC needs to improve rates of payment for Contracted Professionals and that payments should be made promptly after services have been rendered. The study concluded that to improve service delivery and hence achieve high levels of customer satisfaction, KNEC should continually monitor its service delivery systems by conducting nationwide customer satisfaction surveys. The research resulted in several recommendations for improvement of quality of services as well as the suggestions for further research.