Luận văn thạc sĩ UEB public service quality and customer satisfaction at yen bai department of planning and investment hành chính công

Topic: “Public Service Quality and Customer Satisĩaction at Yenbai Department of Planning and Investnient” Level oH hesis: Master o f Public Management.. Aim: The purposes of this study

UPPSALA l M VKRSI I ÉT & £UPPSAL

A VNl! U N IV K R SIT Y O F K CO N O M K s & BUSINESS

S u pervisor: [)R PHAN C HI ANH

Class : VI PPM Intakc 7

ƯPPSALA UNIVERSITÉT VNU U N IV E R S n Y OF

UPPSALA

ECONOMICS & BUSINESS UNIVERSITET

UEB

Furthermore, 1 vvould like to thank the participants in my survey, who have willingly toshare their precioưs time during the process of intervievving

Finally, I like to thank my beloved classmate, who have supportcd mc throughout entireprocess, both by giving me useful comments to complete my master thesis and motivating me duringwording my master thesis

Respectíully,

Nguyên Ngoe Anh

This study investigates the relationship betwcen public Service quality and the customcr

satisíaction bascd on qucstionnairc survey Adopting SKRVPERK modcl (Parasuraman, et al, 1988)

this study applies statistical tools to analyze the data collected at Yenbai Department of Planning

and Investment in 2014 The rcsults of this study indicatc and the signiíicant íầctors f'or customcr

satisíầction in public Service of Yenbai Department of Planning and Investment Based on those

results, the suggestions and recommendations to improve puhlic Service qưality at Yenbai

Department o f Planning and Investment are mađe

Topic: “Public Service Quality and Customer Satisĩaction at Yenbai Department of

Planning and Investnient”

Level oH hesis: Master o f Public Management

Instructors: Prof Lars-Torstcn Erikkson and Dr Phan Chi Anh

Master deĩense day: December 5,h, 2014.

Aim: The purposes of this study are to asscss the public Service quality based on opinions of

customers making transactions at Yenbai Department of Planning and Invcstmcnt; to study on the

rclationship and factors alTecting customer satisfaction; to givc suggcstions and rccommendations

to improve public scrvicc quality at Ycnbai Department o f Planning and Investment

IMethod: By combining SERVỌUAL scale of Parasuraman, this stutiy wi 11 asscss

public Service quality through 6 dimcnsions:

: -777'." -I ỉnírastructures (INFR)

Result & Conclusions:

lu summary, researching on customer satisíầction about public Service at the

Reception and Returning Result for Business Registration Scction of Yenbai Department ơfPlanning and Investment is one of factors for leaders of city and dcpartmcnts to determinc thecurrent situation of providing public services and aims to complcte in the future This is one of thcsolutions to shorten timc to enter market o f

entcrpriscs.

On the basis of application of the scale measuring components of Service quality (SERVPERF), therelationship betvveen Service quality and custoincr satisfaction and customer satisfaction modcl ofParasuraman and Spreng - Mackoy so that the thesis has identiíìed ĩactors affecting customersatisfaction, quantifies the impact o f each factor on customer satisfaction, and develop the fírstmodcl on customer satisfaction about public services at the Department of Planning and Investment

of Yenbai city The research results show that the components o f public Service and affectingcustomcr satisíầction including empathy, competcncy ot' staffs, iníVastructurcs, procedures,transparency and attitude o f staffs

Expectations and desires o f the customers about public services arc basically shown throughrcsearch results It is consistent vvith the results ot' customer surveys before data analysis Withpublic scrvices, particularly in thc ríelcl o f public administration scrviccs, customer desiretl torcccivc polite attitudc, courtcous, reliablc o f staffs, as well as transparency o f process, proccdurcs,mcthod of payment, fees, and timc to

provide Service

Contribution of the thesis:

()n the basic of this research results, the thcsis proposcd a Iiinnbcr of solutions andrccommendations to enhance customer satisiầction bascd on the actual perception of the positiveaspects and limitations in providing puhlic Service, through íaetors illustrating the systcmatic andgencrali/ed charactcristics of thc rcscarch model

The Department should registration for intcllcctual property o f Logo and Slogan; betterimplement issued quality policy aims to shorten the time to enter the market of enterpriscs

TheDepartment o f Planning and Investment Yenbai shoulci organize to apply rescarching oncustom er satisfaction with public scrviccs in thc City, to rcspect the indcpendence o f researchimplemcntation.

Thesis liniitations:

Time and íìnancial budgct limit

Small samples, so that the author could not usc more technique to investigate (such as SEM )

Suggestions for future research:

Collecting more samplc

Using SEM (Structural equation modeling) technique to analyze the rclationship betvveen Service quality and Custom er Satisfaction

Key vvords: Public Service quality, customer satisíaction, SERVPERP,SERVỌUAL

C O N T l i N T S

1.1 Background I

1.1.1 Introduction about establisliment process ot theProccdure Reception and

Result Retum for Business Rcgistration Section 1

1.1.2 Functions, tasks of the Division of Reception and Returnof Business Registration 1

1.1.3 Results at the Reception and Returning Result for Business Registration Section o f Yenbai Department of Planning and Investment from 2008 to 2 0 1 3 4

1.2 Research question 5

1.3 Research purpose and speciíìc objectives 6

1.4 Subjects and scope of the stu d y 6

II FRAME OF REKERENCE 7

2.1 Five gaps Service quality m odel 7

2.2 IVIeasuring Service quality: SERVQUAL sca lc 9

2.3 The studies applying SERVQUAL andSE R V PE R F 9

2.4 Kactors affecting public Service q u a lity 11

III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 13 3.1 Research m o d cl 13

3.2 Discuss relevance of research modcl ĨIIpublic sector 14

3.3 M ethodology 15

3.3.! Research m cthodology 15

3.3.2 Research process 15

3.4 Preliminary rescarch (qualitatỉve) 16

3.4 i Research purposes 16

3.4.2 Implementation 17

3.4.3 Rcsults 17

3.5 Pormal rescarch (quantitative) 18

3.5.1 Analytical ữamevvork: 18

3.5.2 Scale 18

3.6 Data analysis process 20

3.6.1 Reliability analysis hy Cronbach’s alp h a 21

3.6.2 Exploratory factor analysis 22

3.6.3 Regression analysis 23

IV DATA AN AI-V S I S 24

4.1 Data description 24

4.1.1 Gender 24

4.1.2 A g e 25

4.1.3 Education lev el 26

4.1.4 Sources of Iníbrm ation 26

4.1.5 Service used 27

4.2 Reliability analysis 28

4.2.1 Reliability o f Transparency sca le 28

4.2.2 Reliability of Procedure scale 28

4.2.3 Reliability o f Attitude scale 29

4.2.4 Reliability o f Competency scale 30

4.2.5 Reliability o f Empathy scale 30

4.2.6 Reliability o f Inữastructure sca le 31

4.2.7 Reliability o f CUSTOMER SATISKACHON scale 33

4.3 Kactor analvsis 34

4.3.1 l;actor analysis 1'or Transparcncy scale 34

4.3.2 Factor analysis for Procedure sc a le 35

4.3.3 Factor analysis for Attitudc sc a le 36

4.3.4 Kactor analysis for Competency scale 38

4.3.5 Pactor analysis for Empathy scale 39

4.3.6 Pactor analysis for Inữastructure scale 40

4.3.7 Pactor analysis o f customer satisfaction scale 41

4.4 Evaluation Hvpotheses 42

4.4.1 Evaluating customer feelings o f Service quality perfom iance 42

4.4.2 Correlation A nalysis 44

V REFLECTION AND CONCLUSION 47

5.1 Summary of rcsearch íindinịỊS 47

5.2 Solution 48

5.2.1 Transparency 48

5.2.2 Procedures 48

5.2.3 A ttitude 51

5.2.4 Competency o f the officials 53

5.2.5 Empathy of the o fficials 53

5.2.6 Inữastructures 54

5.3 Concỉusion 56

VI LEARNING EXPERIENCES THROUGH RESEARCH 57 REFERENCES 58

APPENDIX 61

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1 Rcsults at the Reception and Returning Rcsult for Business Registration

Scction o f Yenbai Department o f Planning and Investment 4

Table 2 SERVPERF s c a le 10

Tablc 3 Observed variables used to identif'y components aỉTecting customer satisỉầction with public scrviccs at Ycnbai Department ot' Planning and Investment 19

Table 4 Cronhach alpha valucs and intemal consistency (George & Mallery, 2003)

21

Table 5 Reliability statistics of Transparency s c a le 28

Table 6 Reliability statistics o f Proccdurc scalc 28

Tablc 7 Reliability statistics o f Attitude scale 29

Table 8 Reliability statistics o f Competency scale 30

Table 9 Reliability statistics o f Empathy scale 30

Table 10 Reliability statistics ofInfrastructure sc a le 31

Table 11 Pinal Reliability statistics o f Inữastructure scale 32

Table 12 Reliability statistics o f Customer satisíaction sc a le 33

Tablc I 3 Exploratory faclor analysis for transparency scale KMO and Bartlett's T e s t 34

Table 14 Procetlure scale factor analysis KMO and Bartlctt's T e s t 35

Table 15 Atlitude scale factor analysis 36

Tablc 16 Compctcncy scalc tầctor analysis KMO and Bartlctt's T c s t 3<s Table 17 Empathy scale tầctor analysis KMO and Bartlctt's T e s t 39

Tahle IX ỉnfrastructurc scale ĩactor analysis KMO and Bartlctt's Test 40

Table 19 Customcr satistầction scale íầctor analysis KMO and Bartlett's T est 41

Tablc 20 Correlation matrix 44

Tablc 21 Pinal Rcgrcssion analysis 46

LIST OF FIGURES

Fig u rel Procedurc to direct, receive, proccss and return rcsults for husiness

rcgistration 3Figure 2 Results at the Reception and Returning Result for Business Registration

Section of Yenbai Department o f Planning and Invcstment 5Figurc 3 Service quality modcl of Parasuraman 8

Figure 4 Research m o d el 14

Pigure 5 Research procedure 16

Figure 6 Means scores o f Service quality pertbrmance and customer satisíầction 42Figure 7 Mean scores o f customer satisíaction com ponents 43

I INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background

1.1.1 Introduction about establishmcnt process of the Procedure Reception and Result

Return for Business Registration SectionThe Division o f Reception and Return of Business Registration is one of proĩessionaldivisions of thc Department of Planning and Investmcnt o f Yenbai, under the direction andinanagement o f thc organi/.ation, staffing and work o f the Director of Planning and Investments;responsible for coordinating all rooms and units bclonging to thc Department, as vvcll as rclcvantlocal agcncics, working to meet the requirements of the Room, the Department and administrativerefonn The Division oi' Reception and Retum of Business Rcgistration vvhich was 1'ormed,constructed and operated since 2006 came from the actual demand for reform of administrative procedures concerning entcrprises’ Processing of cntcring the market

1.1.2 Functions, tasks of the Division of Reception and Retum of Business Registration

Direcl instruction, receiving the rccords o f business rcgistration; considering the validity

o f business registration records and provide or dcny a certitìcate of business registration tocntcrpriscs

Construction, management and opcration o f information systems for busincssrcgistration within the City; provide iníbrmation on busincss registration to the city People'sCommittee, thc Department of Taxation, thc Department of Statistics and the relevant agenciesregularly, as wc!l as to organizations, individuals having requirements

Requiring cnterprises to report business status under the provisions of specitìcd inscntence c, clause 1 o f the article 163 business law; supervising thc implementation of thc annualrcport o f the entcrprises

I

Direct inspection or request the competent State agcncy to inspect enterprises according

to the contents of business registration rccords; instruct enterprises and who wants to run abusincss on the order and procedures for husiness registration

Require enterprises to pause business operation whcn detecting that the enterprises donot qualify following the law

Rcvocation of thc ccrtifícate of busincss registration in the cascs spccitìed in Clause 2,Article 165 of the Business lavv

Registration for business for other business forms following the law Handling cascs, which brcak the law about rcgulations for business

registration under the law; Revocation oi'the certificate of business rcgistration and rcquiringbusincss to wind up its opcrations undcr thc la\v; Taking rcsponsibility for violations o f businessregistration

- To collect, analyze, and give periodic reports on the situation of períbrming assigncd tasks in accordancc with thc rcgulations; to rcport thc ditĩiculties and problems in the work of business registration to the compctent authorities

Managing records and documents relating to the duties and assets to ensure the satety and compliance with regulations

Coordinate with spociali/cd departmcnts, rcsearch units to suggestions for lcadcrs o f departmcnts about thcir assigncd areas

In addition to the above tasks, the Department of Reccption and Return for BusinessRegistration have to be rcsponsible for otlier duties assigned by the Dircctor o ĩth e Department

Regarding to the tasks o f instructions, reccptiơn, Processing and return of busincssregistration rcsults, thc Department o f Planning and ỉnvestment has establishcd procedures andreceived the certiíìcate of quality management system following ISO 9001:2000 standards from

2011 and re-ccrtiíìod in 2014, the detail proccdure as follows:

Kigure 1 Procedure to direct, receive, process and rcturn results for

business registration

1.1.3 Results at the Reception and Rcturning Rosult loi Business Registration Section o f

Yenbai Department of Planning and lnvestmcnt froni 2008 to 2013

Tho division of Reception and Return busincss registration has successíully completed itsassigned tasks during the period 2008 - 2013 Registration business has made improvementstowards transparent and simple The lavvs and guidelines ơn business registration arc publishedtransparently Inữastructures are investcd with modern equipment, now are facilitated with

intormation tcchnology systems supporting business registration, storage and Processing

procedures Most o f the processes and procedures are pertbrmeđ on software to ensure theaccuracy, safety and fast Staffs that perform the Processing operations are regularly traincd toimprove proíessional skills

As a result, the Processing time and the providirm registration certiíìcate have now becnshortened eonsidcrably compared to regulations in the Business Law The rcgistration for ncwcstablishmcnt is 3-4 days; rcgistration for changing is 1-2 days The number of enterprises,branches, representative otììces that are solved procedures in Reception and Retum businessregistration accounts for an average of 5000-7000 per ycar

In thc pcriod of 2008 - 2013, Department of Rcception and Return results businessrcgistration has períbrmed ovcr 10,000 activitics on examination and rcvicw ol business activitics

in the city, in vvhiclì the number ơt violations ot' thc husincss lavv, and he revocated rcgistrationccrtificatc is ovcr 4,000 busincsses

Table 1 Results at the Reception and Rcturning Result for Business Registration

Section of Yenbai Department of Planning and Investment

C riteria

Number of new entorpriscs

Growth ratc comparcd to the

Growth rate compared to

the previous ycar (%)

Number of new branches,

C r itc r ia

Growth rate compared to the

prcvious year (%) Number of

customers changing the contents

o f business rcgistration Growth

rate compared to the previous

year (%) Number of enterprises

rcgistering to vvind up Growth

rate compared to the previous

year (%)

Number of branches,

representative ottìces stopping

operations Growth rate

coniparcd to the previous year

2.000

1,000 500

> Nevv branrhps Rpp ottirps 142 138 128 108 96

c hanging the contents of business Reg 1,995 ;./Uj 1,f>97 l,s% l,r>0S

Figure 2 Results at the Reception and Returning Result for Business Registration

Section of Yenbai Department «f Planninị> and Investment

1.2 Research question

How is the relationship bctwcen public Service quality and customer satistaction?

What íactors have impact on customer satisíaction level about public Service quality atYenbai Department of Planning and Invcslmcnt?

What are suggestions for improving public Service quality and increasing customersatisíầction at Ycnbai Department of Planning and Investment?

1.3 Research purpose and specific objectives

Purpose

The purposes of this study arc to assess the public Service quality based OI1 opinions ofcustomers making transactions at Yenbai Department o f Planning and Investment; to study onthe relationship and factors affecting customer satisfaction;

to give suggestions and recommendations to improve public Service quality at

Yenbai Department of Planning and Investment

Speciíic objectives

Examine fundamentally theoretical issues oí' Service, public Service, and

quality management, quality management in public Service, customer and customer

satisfaction to have an overview on this issuc

Collect and analyze survey data from customers using public services at YcnbaiDepartment o f Planning and Investment

(ìive somc suggestions to improve quality and efficicncy in public Service performancetovvard higher customer satisfaction

1.4Subjccts and scope of the study

Subjects of the study

Public Service quality, customer satislaction vvhen using puhlic Services at YenbaiDepartment of Planning and Investment, and íactors aíìccting customer satisfaction about publicservices performed hy Yenbai Department o f Planning and Investment

Scope of the study

In terms of space: The thesis focuses on studying public services períbrmed by YenbaiDepartment o f Planning and Investment at Reception of receiving and rcturning results forBusiness Rcgistration Section

In terms o f time: survey time from July 2014 to Auuust 2014

Participants o f thc survey: customers who COI11C to make transactions at the

Rcccption o f rcceiving and retuming results ibr Business Rcgistration Section

II FRAME OF REFERENCE

2.1 Five gaps Service quality model

Parasuraman et al (1985) arc the pioneers of making specitìc and detail studies on Service quality in marketing These researchers proposed a five GAP model of

C ap 2: is the difference between nianagement’s perceptions of consumer’s

expectations and Service quality specifications This gap results from constraints

and obstacles Service providers have to face when they try to convert their perceptions ofcustomers’ expectations into quality speciíìcations to meet customers’ expectations Thesespecifìcations will become marketing iníbrmation to customcrs

G ap 3: is the differcnce between Service quality spcciíìcations and Service actually dclivercd;i.c the Service perlbrmancc gap This gap refers to the case vvhen

cmployees deliver Service for customers but it is not mcct the defined criteria The

rolc of front linc staff is vcry important in creating quality services

G ap 4: is the differcncc bctween Service delivery and thc information customer reccived aboutService delivcry This iníòrmation may make increase in expectations hut also make decrcase inperceived quality when customcrs do not

received vvhat Service providers committed.

(ỉap 5: is thc difference between consumer’s expectation and perceived Service Parasuraman et

al (19X5) stated that Service quality is Gap 5 This gap depends on the above 4 Gaps

Figure 3 Service qualitv model of Parasuraman

Parasuraman statcd thai Service qualily is on

the four previous gaps, namely Gap 1 Gap

a íunction of Gap 5 (ìap5depends 2, Gap 3, and Gap 4 Thereíore, in

order to increase Service quality, Service managers should attcmpt to shorten this gap Service quality model, in this study can bc illustratcd as follows:

SỌ = F {G_5 = f(G J , G 2, G 3, Cì 4)Ị

Wherc: s ọ is Service quality;

G _1 Ci 2 G_3, and G_4 are Gap !, Gap 2, Gap 3, and Gap 4, respectively

2.2 Measuring Service (Ịuality: SERVQUAL scalc

Service quality model of Parasuraman ct al (19sX) can bc considered as a

com prehcnsive picture o f Service quality Hovvever, tliis modcl is conceptual and

needs a series o f studies to test this measuring scale One o f the most important

studies is m easuring custom ers’ perceivcd Service quality

Parasuraman et al (1988) have developed and tested the scale including 5 components of Servicequality Finally, SERVỌUAL scale consists of 21 observed

variables to nieasure 5 components o f Service quality, namely:

1 Reliability: refers to ability to períorm Service dependably and accurately righl at the íìrst time

2 Responsiveness: refers to willingness and ready to provide services to customers

3 Competence: refers knoxvledge and skills of cmployces to períorm Service. Thcscmentioncd knovvledge and skills arc vcry important for cmployecs who directly communicate with

customers, provide Service, and affcct the ability to capture relevant information needed for serving

customers

4 Empathy: refers to caring and attention towards each individual customer

5 Tangiblcs: rcicrs to appcarance o f pcrsonnel and other physical faci 1Ìtics and

cquipmcnt for providing scrvices

The tìvc Gap Service quality modcl and SHRVỌUAL scalc cover almost spcciíìc attributes

of Service quality Parasuraman ct ai (1991, 1993) confmned that SKRVQUAL is acomprchensivc scalc measuring Service quality, with reasonable reliability and validity, and can

be applied in dilTerent Service types However, each

diffcrent Service type has its own characteristics, so there may be some

modiíìcations for the scale depending on specitìc type and market

2.3 The studies applying SERVQUAL and SERVPERF

Aíter many previous studies, S1ÌRVỌUAL has becn accepted as a valid scale in

theory and practice Hovvever, there is still many dcbated, criticized and

questionable issues about this scale especially in tcrms of thc gencrality and the accuracy Onemore thing is that thc SHRVỌUAL mcasurcmcnt procedure is quite

complicated Theretore, there is a modiíìcation of SHRVỌUAL is SERVPERF

scalc

This scale was introduced by Cronin & Taylor (1992, citeđ in Thongssamak, 2001),

dctìning Service quality by measuring only perccived quality o f Service (instead o f

measuring both perccption and expectations as SERVQUAL) This mcans, according toSFRVPFRF:

Service Quality = Level of perceived quality

The authors stated that Service quality is the bcst reílected by perceived quality, ncithcr includingquality expectations nor asscssing thc wcight of each compơncnts Ít is notice that to originalfrom SERVỌUAL scale, components and observed variablcs o f this SERVPERP scalc arc thesame as in SHRVQUAL This measurement modcl is called Perception Model

SERVPERF model o f Cronin & Taylor is used to evaluate the quality o f Service, including 5speciíìc íactors:

Table 2 SERVPERP scale Keliability

1 When company X has promised to do something on a speciíic timc pcriod, the

company will perform.

2 VVhcn you has prohlems, com pany X expressed sincere intcrest in solving

prohlcms

3 Company X performeđ services right at the first timc

4 Company X proviđes scrviccs cxactly as their promised timc

5 Companỵ X notiíỵ to customers when thcir Service will bc done

Responsiveness

6 Employees of company X serves you 0 1 1 time

7 Eniployces o f company X inform you exactly when services will he implementcd X

Employees o f company X are always willing to hclp you

9 Etnployees o f com pany X is never too busy to responsc to your rcquiremcnts _

Assurancc

10 Employees of company X can create trust towards the company for you

11 You feel safe when making transactions with company X

12 Employees o f company X are alvvays polite and courteous with you

13 Employecs ot companỵ X havc knovvleđge to answer your q u e s t i o n s _

Kmpathv

14 Company X has expressed attentions and cares to cach individual customer

15 Company X has employees who cxprcsscd attcntions and carcs to cach individual

customcr

16 Company X expressed special care customers’ conccrns

17 Hmployees of company X can understand your special nceds

18 Company X has a convenient working time to you

19 Company X has modcrn facilities and cquipmcnts

20 Pacilities of the company X looks very appealing

21 Employees of company X have neat and beautiful appearance

22 The physical facilities supporting serving services in company X looks very

appealing

(Source: Measuring Service Quality with SERVPERF)

2.4 Factors affectinị» public Service qualitv

Through synthesis of previous research on Service quality and customer satisfaction, thisstudy examines several traditional scales as above Hovvever, the diiTerences in fíelds, regions,political - economic - cullural characteristics,

perceptions ơ f cili/ens lead to the đifference in way to assess Service quality and

customer satisíầction

This research aimeđ towards respondents who are using public scrvices applied ISOstandards at thc Department of Planning and Investment o f Yenbai As an economic andpolitical center of Vietnam, with rclatively high literacy levels, Ycnbai’s citi/.ens obcy to the law,State regulations as wcll as aware of values and

quality can hc aíTected hy following components:

1 Rcliability is customer expectations about implcmentation o f the

commitments made by State administrative agcncies for them in the process o f

pcrforming public services Based on previous studies, com bining thc principles o f

applicd ISO standards, the authors used qualitative methods to dcvelop the tầctor

"Reliahility" includes the following criteria:

- The transparency of administrativc procedurcs

- Records do not miss deadlines

- Being reliable place for customers when tlicy contact to resolve thc administrative procedures.

Service area, equipment, tools and other technical íầcilities especially equipment

in the reception area - vvhere people come to contact vvith íront staff that represents

Ibr the administrative agcncics Bascd on prcvious rcscarch combining vvith thc principles ofISO standards, the authors used qualitative methods to build factor "Inữastructures" including thefollowing criteria:

- Airy, clcan and spacious rooms

- Comĩortable íacilities such as air conditioning, desk, chair

- Equipment supporting services are rclativcly modcrn(automatic Iiumbering,

computers, and computers for records lookup )

- The layout of thc area for receiving, Processing and returning results

- The publishing o f administrativc procedures and tbrms

3 Staffs’ competency, including the skills and proíessional knowledge to accomplish the assigned tasks This is a very important element which reflects the quality o f thc public services Based on previous research combining vvith the principles o f ISO standards, the authors used

qualitative methods to build factor "Competency o f staíTs" including the following criteria:

- Communication skills

- K nowlcdge and skills in handling works.

- Proficicncy in protessional tasks

- Resolving complaints of customers quickly and rcasonably

4 Regarding to attitude of serving a Service, it is imporìant for public servants to listen,

be patient, speak clearly, have friendly attitude, and handle work on timc Bascd on prcvious rcscarchcombining with thc principlcs of ISO standards, the authors used qualitative mcthods to build tactor

"Attitude of staffs" including the following criteria:

- The attitudc whcn rccciving, Processing and retuming thc rcsults - Attitude

when answering people's qucstions

- The inconvenience for people vvlien Processing records.

- The fair treatmcnt in all administrativc scrviccs transactions

- Being high responsible for customers’ records

5 Empathy rcfers em ployees’ attcntion to customers This is the fundamentalrcquirement o f thc organi/ation which expresses commitment to dedicatedly serve the pcople throughíìnding thc right solution for cvcry situations to solvc customcrs’ rcquirements Based on previousresearch combining with the principles of ISO standards, the authors used qualitative methods to builđfactor "Empathy" including the following criteria:

- Customer can contact with staffs who are Processing their records

- Handling rccords ílexibility and promptly

- The attention o f the otTiccrs to rcasonablc requcsts of the people

- Staffs easily to understand the customers’ requirements

6 Administrative proccdurcs, including rccords rcquircd when submittcd,

Processing the records, the period o f contact directly between staffs and customers.

This is mandatory principles o f ISO standards in which procedures must be improved in theprocess o f applying It is also an objective demand from the fact that administrative proceduresarc cumbersome under ovcrlapping rcgulations, so

Service quality Using qualitative mcthods, the autlior builds factor "proceđures"

mcluding thc following criteria:

- Rcqucst for rcasonable list o f documents

- Time to handling documents following publishcd procedures is suitablc

- Procedures, Processing steps reasonably records.

- The law on administrative procedures is rcasonable

III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 Research niodcl

Bascd on qualitative research, studying on customcr satisfaction model, invcstigating thcrclationships bctwccn scrvicc quality and customcr satisfaction through research models o fParasuraman and Spreng - Mackoy, the components of

Service quality proposed by Parasuraman and SOI1K'other authors, this studyproposed theoretical model with following hypotheses.

Transparency (TR)

Attitude o f staffs (AT)

Administrativc proccdures (PR)

C om pctency o fstaffs (CO)

Hmpathy ot staíTs (EM)

Inữastructures (INFR)

Figure 4 Research model

Hypotheses:

III: Procedures have signiíìcantly positivc impact on custoiner satisfaction

H2: Attilude oi' staíls has signiíìcantly positive impact on customer satisíaction

H3: Competcncy of staíĩs has significantly positive impact on customer satisfaction

114: Empathy has signitlcantly positive impact on customer satisfaction

115 Inữaslructurcs havc significantly positive impact on customcr satisíaction

H6: Transparency has signiíìcantly positivc impact on customer satisfaction

3.2 Discuss relevance o f research model in public sector

From experts’ ideas in Service quality and customcr satisfaction rescarching íìelds, we develop corc ideas vvith basic survcv to implement into public sector, for some

explanations:

Public sector providcs public services so that the relationship in this case is still betvveen Service provider and customer

In anothcr hands, the relationship betvvcen thc civil servant who \vorking

for public organization and customcrs vvho arc citi/.ens or reprcsentativc o f another organization, in generally, is relatiơnship of human to human Kinally, from the ữam e

o f references wc have interview somc leadcrs, civil servants and some people involve into the topic research, in Appcndix 2 and Appcndix 3 The rcsults rctlcctcd the suitahle of tactors

(dim ensions) to investigate the relationship betvveen public Service

quality and customer satisfaction

In conclusion, troni thesc reasons the rescarch modcl is relevant for \vorking on

our master thesis

3.3 Methodology

3.3.1 Research methodology

Preliminary research was conducted using qualitativc methods through lcgal documents, directinterviews with experts in the field of puhlic administration management (Appendix 2, 3) Thisstage of study aims to explore íactors atTecting satisíầction, as well as the ohserved variables used

to measure these factors Then, we design a research modcl which is suitablc tbr Yenbai citycontext and a questionnaire for quantitative research The qucstionnairc designing will hcconsulted by expcrts in c Ị u a l i t y managcmcnt and quality rcprcscnlatives of Yenbai Departmentof' Planning and Investment before conducting a formal survey

The forrnal rescarch uses quantitative approach through qucstionnairc survcy Time to collect data

is from July 15lh 2015 to August 15th 2014 at the receiving and retuming documents section o fYenbai Department of Planning and ỉnvestment The purposes o f this study are to valid the scale

to determine the importance of

each Service quality factors, to m easure custom er satisfaction as vvcll as to test the

hypothesis stated in the previous section

3.3.2 Research proccss

The study will be conducted in two phases including preliminary research and formal research,

as followed:

Kigurc 5 Research procedure 3.4 Preliminary research (qualitative)

3.4.1 Research purposcs

Qualitative research is a kind of exploratory research in vvhich data collected are tliroughsecondary data and discussion The iníbrmation in the research process includes documcntsrcgulating the administrative procedures, group discussions

vvith cxperts and specialists in the fíeld of public administration, prcvious studics as a basis forbuilding research model and modifying measurement scale of puhlic Service quality and customersatisíaction So through qualitativc research, qucstion items inherited previous studies will becustomized and supplemcnted to suitable for actual situation of public services in Yenbai city.

3.4.2 ỉrnplementation

Bilateral discussions are technique to collect data through discussion betvveen researchers,and applied this approach to leaders because of time constraints

Group discussion is a technique to collect data through focus group discussions This method

is suitable for management activities o f the intemal quality department based on periodicmeetings to review and evaluate the proposed quality objectives

In this research, interviews and discussions with leader the city, representative for Service

quality management, head of intemal quality management, the management staffs (head o fdivision, dcputy head of division) to collect extensive inỉormation on the whole quality system ofproviding public services

Group discussions with experts vvho handle docuinents in the fíeld oi' public administrationvvith application of ISO 9000, team members of the intemal quality management deparlmcnt(The Department o f Ọuality Management) about the implcmcntation of administrativeprocedures, in order to collect information on drawbacks in the system, to analyzc and constructquality componcnts and critcria Ibr customcr satisfaction evaluation in publie serviccs

Dircct intcrview with customers to collect suggestions and learn morc about practical nccdsvvhile using public services

3.4.3 Results

Iníormation will hc gathered througli intcrviews, based on the theoretical hasis and inheritedfrom previous studies and combined vvith current application of ISO quality system in publicadministration at Yenbai city Ọualitative rescarch results

contìrm the suitable o f research model vvith cuưent situation o f public Service

providing in Yenbai city through interviews and discussions with leaders, heads of

departments, and intemal quality managcment department Hy qualitative rcscarch, a

qucstionnairc survey is developcd to collect dala íor quant itative analysis

3.5 Kornial research (quantitatỉve)

3.5.1 Analytical framework:

By combining SERVỌUAL scale of Parasuraman, this study vvill assess public

Service quality through 6 dimensions:

Attitude o f slaíTs (AT)

Com petency o f staỉĩs (CO) Hmpathy o f staỉTs (EM)

C u s t o m e r

sa tisíaction (S)

-j Inírastructures (INFR)I

_ _ _ _I3.5.2 Scalc

Scalc in this study based on the thcory and thc scalc tested by previous sludies Throughqualitativc rcsearch, scale is adjustcd to he suitablc for the research context, culturalcharacteristics and cơnditions ot the local administration agcncics:

All ohservcd variablcs of all components of puhlic scrvices arc dcveloped on a lìvc pointLikcr scale as followed:

Baseđ on rcsults o f discussions (Appendix 2, 3), thc validity of Service quality

components (factors) and criteria (observcd variables) used in the

qucstionnaire can bc contìrmed bctwecn tlicơry and the actual situation in Yenbai Department ofPlanning and Investmcnt Ọualitativc analysis shows that all qucstion items are clcar and easy tounderstand Hach qucstion somehovv reílect differcnt aspccts o f the measured componcnt

Table 3 Observed variables used to identify components aííecting customcr

satislaction with public services at Ycnbai Department of

Planning and Investmcnt

I Transparency

1 Administrative procedures and fonns are published fully at the TRI

reception place

2 Administrative procedurcs and forms are published in the website of TR2

Yenbai Department of Planning and Investment

3 Administrative procedures are simple and easy to understand TR3

5 Inlbnnation and status of handling documents arc casily found in the TR5

vvebsite oí'Yenbai Department o f Planning and Investment

II Administrative procedures

6 The number and requirements ahout contents of administrative documents PR1

at Yenbai Department of Planning and Investment are reasonable

7 Time to handlc a documcnt is rcasonablc as public procedure PR2

8 Procedures and handling stcps as publishcd arc reasonable PR3

9 The administrativc proccdurcs arc in accordance with thc law and PR4

regulations

111 Attitude of staffs

I 1 StatTs who receive documents have polite attitudc when receive ATI

and rctum documcnts

12 Statĩs who rcccivc documcnts havc triendly attitudc whcn answcr AT2

queslions from customers

13 Staffs vvho receive documents do not cause any inconvenience for AT3people when handling their docunients

14 StaíYs \vho receive and retum documents are t'air witli all AT4customers

IV C.ompetency of staíĩs

16 Staffs vvho receive documents have good communication skills COI

17 Staffs who receive documcnts have knovvledge and skills in C 0 2

19

18

handling related works

Staíĩs who receive documents possess good proíessional

Statts who reccive docunicnts and Consulting customers give

19

reasonably solvc problcms o f customers

Yenbai Department of Planning and Investment settle customers’

20

complaints tiincly

V Empathy of staffs

C 0 4 C05

21 Customers easily contact to staffs who are responsible for thcir EM1

documents at the departments

22 StatTs try to deal vvith the document ílexibly and promptly EM2

23 Customers’ reasonable requirements are cared and handled EM3

VI Infrastructure

26 Location and place of room for receiving and retuming documents INFR1

arc convenient for customers

27 Room for receiving and retuming documents is spacious and airy 1NFR2

28 Room for receiving and returning đocuments has adequatc 1NFR3 facilities (air conditioning, desk, chair, etc )

~>9 Equipment are quite modem (automatic numbering machine, INFR4

Computer, Computer for customcrs to look up documents, etc )

VII Customer satisĩaction

30 You are completely satisííed with transparency ot puhlic scrvices CS1

3.6 Data analysis process

The data collcctcd will be cleaned and processed hy software SPSS 22.0 Sonicmcthods of Processing data used in this stady are as íbllovving:

20

3.6.1 Reliability analysis by Cronbach’s alpha

Cronbach’s alpha is a common measurc of intcrnal consistency (reliability) of a test or scale.Internal consistency describes the extcnt to vvhich all the items in a test measure the sameconcept or construct and hcncc it is connected to thc inncr-relatedness o f the itcms vvithin the

test (Tavakol et (li., 2011) Cronbach’s alpha is most commonly used when researcher lias

multiple Likert question in a survey or questionnaire that form a scale and the researcher vvishes

to determine vvhether the scale is reliable (Laerd statistics)

The value o f alpha (a) may be between negativc iníìnity and 1 However, only positivevalues of alpha have meaning In general, alpha coefficient ranges in valuc from 0 to 1, and theincrease o f this value means that thc correlations between the items increase (Amit Choudhury,2010) Thereíore, this Processing data method hclps analyst assess thc reliability of scale throughCronbach's alpha coefficient A commonly accepted intcrnal consistcncy using Conbach’s alpha

Besides assessing the reliability o f scales, Cronbach’s alpha analysis also hclps to checkwhether any itcm is not consistence vvith the rest o f thc scale through itcm-total correlations.Item-total correlation pertbrms the correlation o f onc variable with others in the samc scale; thehigher corrclation value, the bcttcr correlation between that item and the others Variables whichhave greater than 0.3 item-total coưclations will bc acccptcd; thc others which havc smallcr than0.3 item-total correlations vvill be eliminated from analysis data.

3.6.2 Exploratory factor analysis

Exploratory íactor analysis is a powerful statistical technique which is used for datareduction and summarization The primary ohjcctives of an exploratory factor analysis are todetermine ( I ) the number of common factors intlucncing a set o f measures; (2) the strength o fthe relationship between each factor and each observed measure (DeCostcr, 1998)

At íìrst, it is necessary to test the sampling adequacy of factor analysis base on Meyer-Olkin (KMO) Measure In case of KMO has value between 0.5 and 1.0 and Sig is smallerthan 0.5, íầctor analysis is more appropriate factor analysis In case of KMO has value smallerthan 0.5 or Sig is greater than 0.5, it indicatcs that factor analysis may not he appropriate

Kaiser-By perlbrming exploratory factor analysis, invcstigator can decidc the nunihcr oí' tactors

to extract in the model The Kaiser creation statos that invcstigator should usc a number of factorsequal to thc numbcr of the eigenvalucs of the correlation matrix that are greater than one(DcCostcr, 1998) In this research, the cigcnvalues vvill bc plot in descending order, then thenumber of tactor will cqual to the number of eigenvalues that occur prior and have grcater than1.0 values

An important part in exploratory factor analysis is interpreting factor matrixes Thisresearch will usc Varimax rotation process to producc multiple group íactors Pactor loadingswhich indicate correlatiơns bctvvccn the variables and thc factors are requircd to havc greatcrthan 0.5 values Then, a factor can be interpreted in tcrms of the variables that have high load onit

3.6.3 Regression analysis

Regression analysis is a modeling technique for analyzing the relationship bcíwecn arcal-valucd dcpcndent variable Y and one or more independent variables X| X 2, X ĩ .Xk

(Ragsdale, 2007) The goal in regression analysis is to identiíy a

ĩunction that describes the relationship bctween these variables as closely as possible so that wecan assess the impact of each independent variahie on depcndent variable as well as prcdict thcchange in dependent variable when there is any change in independent variables

The regression model in this research is:

- hi t>2 bk= Regression co-cíTicicnt oỉ'independent variables

- bo = an intercept í: = an crror tcrni

At first, It is nccessary to tcst assumptions for rcgression analysis The principal assuiiiption

is that thcrc is a linearity of the relationship bctvveen dependent and independcnt variablcs Thisrcsearch investigates the modcl vvith more than one independent variables, the corrclationamong indepcndent variables (multi-collinearity) should be checked Variance inílation factor(VIF) is used to measurc the multi-collinearity in this rcgrcssion analysis Rcgression modelacccpt variables

vvhich have VIF smaller than 10 If ViF for one variablc is around or greater than

10, there is collinearity associated

rcmoved from the regression model

with thai variable; this variablc should be In addition, it is assumed that tho error tcrms e

are indepcndcnt, normally distributed random variables vvith mcan value o f 0, and

constant variances As long as these assumptions are not seriously violated, regression modelwill bc established Once regression function was given, the research can investigate rclationshipbetween Service quality and customer

satistầction in Ycnbai Department ot' Planning and Investment R-squarc (coeHìcient o fdctermination) will provide a goodncss-of-íìt measure With higher R-square valuc, the modcl ishighcr fit for analysis.

IV DATA ANALYSIS

4.1 Data description

Among 100 questionnaires proviđed to customers, the researcher collected 51 responses Afterinputting data and screening questionnaires, there were 51 valid samplcs as in thc tablc abovcand 49 missing samples Data analysis excluded 49 missing samples because participants did notprovide sulTicient iníbrmation or their ansvvcrs wcrc the samc choicc for all questions

/n collecting surveys process, we do not collect ull surveys fo r so me reasons:

Based on Table 1 the total number transaction activities in 2013 is 2,642, and 278 vvorkingday per ycar Ít means 25 transaction activitics pcr day so that we will collect 10% the numberpeople The survey time period is 01 month so that we can collect maximum 60 survey Afterrevising and deleting insutTicient information samples, 5 I samples what we collected isreasonable number

In iact, not many pcople willing to illl in survey so that wc nced to pay a littlc bit moncy (1USD/ 01 rcsponsc) to motivate thcm With tight budget, vvc could collccted around 51responscs

In conclusion, vvith all reasons abovc wc strongly believe thai all of responses are rcliablc tousc for rcscarch and rcílcct cxactly vvhat happcns in rcal litc

G ender

■ Ma le Male

• Pemale

Among 51 participants who answered questionnaires, there are 23 temales and 28 males givetheir responses back which correspond to 45.1% and 54.9%, respectively It can be seen that thenumber ot' male respondent is more than the number o f female respondent

25

have small proportiơn ot' 19.6% and 17.6%, respectively It can be secn that

customers using public services are mostly the middle age group in our society

H ish sc h o o l Vocational school Colleee Uiúversity and ovei

As thc chart shovvs, a great dcal o f participants has cducation level at College

and University and over Among them, tho number ot' customers’ attained

University and over degrce is 22 people, vvhich account for 43.1% of thc pool

samplc The amơunt of customers obtaincd Collcge degree is 13 people,

corrcsponding to 25.5% Participants who have High school or Vocational school

levcl account for a smallcr volumc with 11.8% and 19.60% respectivcly

4 1.4 Sources ot' information

26