Research into customer satisfaction with public services ò thach thanh ddistricts social insurance agency

Thesis for the Degree of Master June 2017 Department of Business Administration Graduate School of Soongsil University Bui Minh Thanh Research into customer satisfaction with public serv

Thesis for the Degree of Master

June 2017

Department of Business Administration

Graduate School of Soongsil University

Bui Minh Thanh

Research into customer satisfaction with public services of Thach Thanh district’s social

insurance agency

Thesis for the Degree of Master

June 2017

Department of Business Administration

Graduate School of Soongsil University

Bui Minh Thanh Thesis for the Degree of Master

Research into customer satisfaction with public services of Thach Thanh district’s social

insurance agency

Research into customer satisfaction with public services of Thach Thanh district’s

social insurance agency

A thesis supervisor: Lee Sang Ho

Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the

requirements for the Degree of Master

June 2017

Department of Business Administration

Graduate School of Soongsil University

Bui Minh Thanh

To approve the submitted thesis for the

Thesis Committee

June 2017

Graduate School of Soongsil University

Degree of Master by Bui Minh Thanh

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to thank my supervisors Prof Lee Sang Ho, who gave me valuable

assistance and advices in completing the dissertation and the Master of Business Administration course

I also thank to all lecturers and staff of Soongsil University and Hong Duc University for their supports

Thanks to Thach Thanh district‟s Social Insurance Agency in Thanh Hoa province and my workmates who provided me information to fulfill the research Specially thanks to my wife and my friends for their encouragement during the time to study and do the research

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT vi

CHAP TER 1 INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Research background 1

1.2 Purposes of the research 2

1.3 Research subject and scope 3

1.4 Research methodology 4

1.5 Research structure 5

CHAP TER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 6

2.1 Service quality 6

2.1.1 Concept of service quality 6

2.1.2 Factors of service quality 9

2.2 Customer satisfaction 13

2.2.1 Concept of customer satisfaction 13

2.2.2 Researching model of customers‟ satisfaction 14

2.3 Empirical literature on service quality and customer satisfaction in the public sector 20

2.4 Research model 27

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2.5 Summary of chapter 2 30

CHAP TER 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOG Y 31

3.1 Research process 31

3.2 Sampling 34

3.2.1 Overview of Thach Thanh social insurance agency 34

3.2.1.1 General information 34

3.2.1.2 Functions and duties 37

3.2.1.3 Some results of operations of the social insurance agency in Thach Thanh district in the past few years 38

3.2.2 Sampling method 41

3.3 Questionnaire 43

3.4 Analysis method 46

3.5 Summary of chapter 3 48

CHAP TER 4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSTION 50

4.1 Data description 50

4.1.1 Respond rate 50

4.1.2 Characteristics of the respondents 51

4.1.3 Data description of customers attitude about public service quality of Thach Thanh social insurance agency 57

4.2 Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) 63

4.3 Testing the reliability of the scale 67

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4.4 Correlation and regression analysis 70

4.5 Testing the difference according to customers‟ personal characteristics 75

4.6 Discussion 76

4.7 Summary of the chapter 4 78

CHAP TER 5 CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION 79

5.1 Suggestion 79

5.1.1 Development orientation of Thach Thanh District‟s social insurance agency 79

5.1.2 Proposed solutions 81

5.2 Research conclusion 88

REFERENCES 90

APPENDICES 97

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LIST OF TABLES

[Table 2-1] Description of the variables and items 18

[Table 3-1] The result of receiving, resolving administrative procedures in 2014 38 [Table 3-2] The result of receiving, resolving administrative procedures in 2015 40 [Table 4-1] Characteristics of the respondents 51

[Table 4-2] The last time that respondents used insurance service 54

[Table 4-3] Kinds of social insurance that customers are using 54

[Table 4-4] Customer will use the service in the future 55

[Table 4-5] Form of contact exchange information with social insurance agent 55

[Table 4-6] Inportance level of factors affecting customers transaction 57

[Table 4-7] Results of KMO and Bartlett Tests of factors 64

[Table 4-8] KMO and Barlett's Test for Dependent Variables 65

[Table 4-9] Results of the overall variance analysis of dependent variables 66

[Table 4-10] Factor Matrix for dependent variables 66

[Table 4-11] Cronbach's Alpha testing of the scale 67

[Table 4-12] Results of variables reliability measurement 69

[Table 4-13] Analysis Result of the Correlations of the Variables: 70

[Table 4-14] Summary of regression model 72

[Table 4-15] ANOVAb 73

[Table 4-16] Model coefficients 73

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LIST OF FIGURES

[Figure 4-1] Data description of customers‟ attitude about RELIABILITY element

of Thach Thanh Social Insurance Agency 58 [Figure 4-2] Data description of customers‟ attitude about ASSURANCE elements

of Thach Thanh Social Insurance Agency 59 [Figure 4-3] Data description of customers‟ attitude about RESPONSIVENESS elements of Thach Thanh Social Insurance Agency 60 [Figure 4-4] Data description of customers‟ attitude about Empathy elements of Thach Thanh Social Insurance Agency 61 [Figure 4-5] Data description of customers‟ attitude about TANGIBLES elements

of Thach Thanh Social Insurance Agency 62 [Figure 4-6] Data description of customers‟ attitude about SATISFACTION

elements of Thach Thanh Social Insurance Agency 63

Graduate School of Soongsil University

In Vietnam, the field of social insurance is specially interested by the Government in the reformation of administrative formalities to improve the satisfaction of partners and participants So, improving of the public services quality of social insurance agencies towards organizations and individuals satisfaction participating in and benefiting from social insurance is the central task

of the industry The Social Insurance Agency in Thach Thanh district, Thanh Hoa Province is not an exception from this trend Currently, they are also making a drastic change in the transition from “administrative” to “serve” to enhance customer satisfaction according to industry trends The author researched into this subject “Research into customer satisfaction with public services of Thach Thanh District‟s Social Insurance Agency” aiming to overview the service quality‟s factors of the agency toward their customers‟ satisfaction

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To do so, after an overview of related theories and experimental studies, the author used SERVQUAL instrument in order to ascertain any actual or perceived gaps between customer expectations and perceptions of the service offered by the agency through 5 elements: Reliability, Assurance, Responsiveness, Empathy, Tangibles The thesis used quantitative research to develop a scale for measuring the quality of public social insurance services with 26 observation variables aimed

at assessing the customers‟ satisfaction toward the agency Through a survey of

200 customers, the researcher found out that: both five above independent variables positively affect the dependent variable of the model due to the positive beta coefficient, in which Reliability is the most influential factor to the overall satisfaction of customers using the services of Thach Thanh Social Insurance Agency, followed by Assurance, Empathy and Responsibility Tangibles Variable has minimal Beta coefficient, so the degree of impact of Tangibles to the satisfaction of customers is the smallest

Evaluating the actual state of service quality of the agency in the past time, especially highlighting the factors that affect the service quality factors to customers‟ satisfaction in the recent time, the solutions for enhancing Thach Thanh district‟s social insurance agency concentrated into strategies in the field of improving Reliability, Assurance, Responsiveness and training staffs for increasing customers satisfaction in the future

Key words: Social insurance Agency, public service, service quality, customer

satisfaction

be delivered with integrity, centered around citizens, and responsive to their needs, particularly the needs of the most vulnerable Promoting greater transparency and enabling ordinary citizens to assess the quality, adequacy and effectiveness of basic services, to voice their needs and preferences and to become involved in innovation offers an opportunity to enable better use of public funds, and improve service delivery (Ringold et al, 2012) At a national level, public services supply human welfare to improve the citizent life's quality

In Vietnam, the field of social insurance is specially interested by the government

in the reformation of administrative formalities to improve the satisfaction of partners and participants The operation of social insurance activities is the process

of organizing, implementing the regulations and policies of social insurance organizations for the participants This type of public service activities is high social, in which operational objectives retrieve from social efficiency Therefore, improving of the public services quality of social insurance agencies towards organizations and individuals satisfaction participating in and benefiting from social insurance is the central task of the industry

of customer satisfaction in using public services in Thach Thanh Social Insurance Agency through evaluation from the service users is required to provide information to help the agencies improving public services quality, contributing to the successful implementation of the national common goals From the above

reasons, the author boldly chooses the subject: “Research into customer

satisfaction with public services of Thach Thanh District’s Social Insurance

Agency”

1.2 Purposes of the research

The general purpose of the research is to find out how is customers satisfaction with Thach Thanh Social Insurance Agency To accomplish with this common goal, specific purposes of this research are divided into three Firstly, research will systematize issues of service quality and customer satisfaction in general and public service of social insurance agencies in particular Secondly, it will identify the factors affecting customer satisfaction with public services quality, from those assess customer satisfaction with public services quality of Thach Thanh Social Insurance Agencies, involving the use of SERVQUAL instrument in order to

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ascertain any actual or perceived gaps between customer expectations and perceptions of the service offered (Brooks et al,1999) Lastly, researcher propose solutions to improve the public services quality of Thach Thanh Social Insurance Agencies in the future

Following those purposes, the main research question is: “How is customer

satisfaction with Thach Thanh Social Insurance Agency?”

This is the basic question of the research as the starting point that flows from the

research idea Following this question, other questions can be made such as: (1) What is service quality and customer satisfaction? (2) How importance is for the development of the organization? (3) What factors affect the customer satisfaction? (4) What models can be used to assess the customer satisfaction? (5) How is customer satisfaction with Thach Thanh Social Insurance Agency? (6) What are strength to promote and weaknesses to improve? (7) What are solutions to improve the customer satisfaction with Thach Thanh Social Insurance Agency?

1.3 Research subject and scope

The subject of the research is the customer satisfaction with Thach Thanh Social

Insurance Agency

Contents of customer satisfaction are varied and plentiful, including many different affecting factors with space and time immensely Due to the limited investment capacity, the researcher cannot hope to fully resolve in depth all the issues related to the topic Researcher limit the scope of the research content that mainly focused on description, evaluation and analysis of the 5 elements following

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Servqual Model of service quality (Parasuraman, 1985) affecting customers satisfaction; since then proposed appropriate strategic solutions Other affecting factors belong to customers and business environment will not go further Primary and secondary data will be collected at Thach Thanh Social Insurance Agency

Secondary data was considered from recent 3-year period, from 2014 to 2016

Secondly, researcher uses the questionnaire that was designed to gather primary information prior to the investigation Primary data was collected by taking the opinion of customers who used public service of Thach Thanh social insurance agency about the affecting factors of satisfaction, their demand, their assessment about public service of the agency (through five elements consulting Parasuraman‟s 1985 - Service Quality Model) The five elements of service quality are used to design the servey; analyse and assess customer satisfaction with public service of Thach Thanh agency The results of the analysis were used to suggest the solutions for the agency in the future

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Convenience sampling technique was used to collect quantitative data from customers of Thach Thanh social insurance agencies to get their satisfaction levels, which are substituted, in the SERVQUAL model

1.5 Research structure

Chapter one is the introduction of the research

Based on the above research question and objectives, the researcher undertook a review of literature to have a relevant understanding about the background of this research area The literature review is written in chapter two

Chapter three of this thesis explained the research methodology used in performing the study purpose including the approach, philosophies, research techniques and design, sample of the survey, data collection methods, analyzing tool, other research problems

The results of the data analysis of this research are contained in chapter four This chapter comprises the discussion regarding the primary research findings

Finally, chapter five are the suggested solution and conclusions determined from the discussion and the overall study Furthermore, the limitations and benefits of this research and recommendations for future research are presented

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CHAP TER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Service quality

2.1.1 Concept of service quality

Service is understood as a process of interaction between service providers and customers; the purpose of this interaction is to satisfy the needs and wants of customers as the way of customers‟ expectation (Zeitthaml & Bitner, 2000) Service has some unique characteristics as following:

Firstly is invisibility: Service is an intangible product Customers receive products through some activities of communication, collecting information and received comments Best feature is that customers can only assess the quality of the entire service after "buying" and "use" them

Second characteristic is heterogeneity This feature is also called the differentiation of the product whereby the implementation of various services often depends on how is the serving, the waiter, the service life, objects and places in service catering

Thirdly is the inseparable characteristic which to show that the process can not assign the production and service consumption process because two processes take place simultaneously Customers and providers are together during the process of creating services

Fourthly, service can not be produced, stored and circulated as it is the case of products Service is used as soon as it is created and instantly ends

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About quality, the International Standardization Organization - ISO, in the draft DIS 9000: 2000 has a definition of quality as follows: "The quality is the ability to set the characteristics of a product, system or process to meet the requirements of customers and the relevants."

Service quality is the concept that attracted the interest and debate between researchers in the literature because of it difficulties in defining and measuring it Many scholars and researchers define service quality as the extent to which a service meets customer demand and expectation such as Lewis and Mitchell (1990); McCleary and Swan (2006)

Service quality can be defined as the difference between customer expectations of service and perceived service If expectations are greater than performance, then perceived quality is less than satisfactory and hence customer dissatisfaction occurs (Parasuraman et al., 1985; Lewis and Mitchell, 1990)

However, common definition and method of assessing the quality based on the researchers mentioned in their studies is: "service quality is seen as the gap between service expectations and customer perception when using service (Parasurman, Zeithmal and Berr, 1985, 1988) Researchers have emphasized the difference between objective quality and perceived quality (Garvain 1983, Dodds and Monroe 1984, Holbrook and Corfman 1985, Jacoby and Olson 1985, Zeithmal 1987) That means customers‟ perception of service quality is the gap between the expectation of universal level service provider‟s service performance and the real

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performance perception of the specific enterprise (Parasuraman at al, 1985) That can be showed by the following formula:

Service quality = Perceived performance – Expectation of Service

For services, the quality sometimes is invisible so it is difficult to identify In other words, the service quality is based on customer comments relevant to their individual needs (Bui and Nguyen, 2004) Due to the abstract nature of the quality and the diversity of services, in the period from 1984 to 2003, up to 19 model service quality assessment has been published (Seth et al., 2004) The researchers divided these models in two main schools: Nordic schools, which is represented by Grongross and American schools, which is represented by Parasuraman et al Parasuraman et al (1985, 1988) gave the five service quality gaps According to him, service quality is a function of the fifth distance The fifth distance depends

on the distances before; they are first, second, third, fouth distance Therefore, in order to shorten the fifth distance and increase service quality, service administrators must strive to shorten the gap

In general, the models of service quality are explained by the perception of the customer during the period of approaching, implementating services, processing and finally resulting According to several studies, when applied the model to the types of services in different countries, it is required to be adjusted to suit the specific individual studies (Carrillat et al., 2007)

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2.1.2 Factors of service quality

Many researchers have made models of service quality with five components in many service sectors as well as in many different markets

The model of quality gap by Parasuraman

Based on service quality model by Gronroos (1984), Parasuraman et al (1985) conducted the five gaps of service qualtiy with 10 component; They are reliability, responsiveness, competence, accessibility, courtesy, communication, credibility, security, understanding customer and tangibles

Distance one (GAP1) is the difference between customer expectations and perceptions of service providers The interpretation of customer expectations while not understanding service quality features and customer characteristics create this differential

Distance two (GAP2) is created when the supplier meets the objective and subjective constraints, obstacles when turning expectations to specific quality criteria and transfer them as expected These criteria become the marketing information to customers

Distance three (GAP3) formed when employees transfer service to the customer not properly as defined criteria The role direct employees is very important in creating quality services

Distance four (GAP4) is the difference between service delivery and information that customers receive This information can raise expectations but may reduce the service quality when the customer does not receive right to what was promised

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Distance five (GAP5) formed from the difference between perceived quality and expected quality when customers use the service Parasuraman et al (1985) assumed that service quality is fifth gap This gap depends on the distance of the four previous gaps as following: GAP5 = f (GAP1, GAP2, GAP3, GAP4) Therefore, in order to shorten the distance the fifth or increase the quality of services, service providers must strive to shorten the gap According to this model, service quality is a function of SQ (Service Quality) of perceptions and expectations and it can be modeled as follows:

SQ =

k j

Eij Pij

1

) (

In which:

SQ is service quality

k: is the number of properties

Pij (Perception): is the result of impacting performance i to j

Eij (Expectation): expected quality to j, impacting i

This gap service quality model has been continued to deverlop, correct and propose the model SERVQUAL of service quality measurement by Parasuraman (Parasuraman & CTG, 1988, 1991).This service quality model initially has 10 components:

(1) Reliability: is the ability to perform appropriate service and on time from the first time

(4) Access involves creating all easier conditions for customers to access services such as shortening the waiting time of customers, location and opening hours of serving facilitate customer

(5) Courtesy is to serve customers respectfully and friendly

(6) Communication involves communicating to customers in a language that they understand easily and listen to their problems and dealing with these such as the interpretation of services, costs, questions

(7) Credibility speaks on the ability to create customer confidence, make customers trust the company This ability is reflected in the company's name, the personality of the service staffs to communicate directly with customers

(8) Security concerns the ability to ensure the safety of customers, expressed through the physical safety, financial security and information

(9) Understanding/knowing the customer showns through the ability to understand the needs of clients through understanding the needs of customers, take care of customers and recognize their frequent customers

In the field of telephony services, there have the provisions on the standards, functions and measurement According to Richter & Dvorak (1988), the quality standards of telephone service are: Ready; Trust; Security; Flexible/ Versatile (support, adapt, customize, direct at individual needs); Simple (easy to understand, easy to use); Ensure (capacity and credibility); and the service quality measurement device based on the following factors: The Suppling, Technology, Private branch exchange support, Bill and Resolve Complaints In some recent studies in the field of mobile communication in China, Korea, Taiwan, India, the quality of service is measured by: Call Quality, Tariff Structure, Air Terminal,

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Value - Added service, Convenience, Customer Support (Kim, 2000; Gerpott et al., 2001, Lee & Freick, 2001)

2.2 Customer satisfaction

2.2.1 Concept of customer satisfaction

People who buy the products/ services that provided by companies are customers

In other words, customers are considered as stakeholder of firms who provide payment in exchange for the products/ service provided by firms in fulfilling demand and to get their satisfaction The term customer and consumer has some differen so that customer can be consumer, however, consumer is not necessary be customer According to Solomon (2009), customer must be a person who buys products meanwhile consumer is a consuming person of the product (Solomon,

2009, p 34.)

The final purpose of a firm is to maximise their benefits and profits and to minimise cost through increase products‟ sales as well as lesser producing/trading costs One of the important factors that can help to increase products‟ sales is increasing customer satisfaction, because satisfaction leads to customer loyalty (Wilson et al., 2008, p 79), recommendation and repeat purchase

Customer satisfaction is a interested subject of firms, organizations and researcher Actually, there are many different interpretations of the concept of satisfaction To put it simple, customer satisfaction is the customer perception after using the service of service providers (Terrence Mc Dougall HG Levesque & Gordon, 1996)

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Satisfaction is the reaction of consumers to the expectations when they are met Satisfaction levels of customers are considered a comparison between the expecting before and after buy a product or service Customer satisfaction decline reflected through their attitude when purchasing goods in the next time

Measuring customer satisfaction is not easy because it is about human feelings

It was for this reason that some existing researcher presented that “the simplest way to know how customers feel, and what they want is to ask them” this applied

to the informal measures (Levy, 2009, p 6; NBRI, 2009)

Three general components constitute latent variables “customer satisfaction” are: (1) customer satisfaction is an overall emotional response, which is the variation in the intensity of emotions, (2) The emotional response associated with separate objectives, which is a large selection of products, buying consumer goods or products, (3) Finally, to meet the appropriated emotional separately at a time, which is the change to the state

2.2.2 Researching model of customers’ satisfaction

There have been many researches to study service quality and the relationship between this concept with customer satisfaction Authors also interested in finding out the measurement of this concepts Statistics of articles about customer satisfaction in the field of business, economics and management shows latest results of 2235 studies from 1992 to 2011; 1088 on customer satisfaction and service quality from 1992 to 2011; 315 articles on the relationship between customer satisfaction and service quality from 1992 to 2011; 32 on the relationship

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between customer satisfaction and service quality with service quality dimensions from 1997 to 2011 and just 6 on the relationship between customer satisfaction and service quality with SERVQUAL dimensions from 2003 to 2010 (Search on Web of science, 02, 09, 2011) These statistics illustrated that customer satisfaction in relationship with service quality plays an important role in business, economics and management‟s researches

Model of FSQ and TSQ (Gronross, 1984)

According to Gronroos (1984), service quality result is customer satisfaction, which is reviewed based on two criteria: functional service quality (FSQ) and technical service quality (TSQ) and service quality is strongly affected by corporate image As a result, Gronroos gave 3 factors affecting service quality are functional service quality, technical service quality and corporate image (called FTSQ Model)

Techniqual Service Quality

It is the quality which customers received through access to providers and is perceivedimportant for customers In other words, technical service quality is the result of theinteraction between providers and customers in which enterprises provider service and thecustomers receive this service There are 5 criteria to evaluate this factor: Problem-solving skills, Professional Skills, Operational proficiency, Modern equipment, Information storage system

Functional service quality

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Functional service quality represents the service implementation process and reflects howservices are provided In the relationship between the two quality‟s aspects, functional servicequality plays a more important role, which is represented through 7 following criteria: Convenience in transaction, Behaviors, Service attitude, Organizations of business enterprise, Customer contact, Courtesy, Spirit of all for customers

Coporate image:

Corporate image is construed as general impression of customers about enterprises, under which,if the enterprises create a good image in the customer's mind, they easily bypass thesedeficiencies occur during service using Grönroos (1984) also showed that corporate image wasinvaluable assets of enterprises and had a positive impact to the customers‟ evaluation aboutservice quality, product value and their satisfaction Moreover, corporate image make customers more trust enterprises and become loyal customersof enterprises (Andreassen and Lindestand, 1998) As a result, the corporate image has an impacton service quality and customer satisfaction It is noteworthy that, customers who often use theservices of the enterprises will have more accurate feeling than other customers (Johnson, Fornell, Andreassen, Lervik and Cha, 2001).Corporate image is seen as filter device to help the relationship between customer‟s andenterprises better and more sustainable Additionally, customers evaluate corporate image goodor bad through their feeling for enterprises and compare corporate image with other competitors However, the influence level, more or less, depends on the specific enterprise

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Model of Servqual (Parasuraman, 1988)

Service quality is measured by a variety of factors and accurately identifying these elementsdepends on the nature of services and research environment There are many authors havestudied this issue, but the most popular and best known is the service quality‟s review criteria of Parasuraman et al

To date, the majority of the work has attempted to use the SERVQUAL (Parasuraman et al., 1985; 1988) methodology in an effort to measure customer satisfaction through service quality‟s factors (e.g Brooks et al., 1999; Chaston, 1994; Reynoso and Moore, 1995; Edvardsson et al., 1997; Young and Varble, 1997; Lings and Brooks, 1998; Sahney et al., 2004) It has five generic dimensions

or factors that are stated as following:

Tangibles are physical facilities, equipment and appearance of personnel

Reliability is the ability to perform the promised service dependably and

accurately

Responsiveness is the willingness to help customers and provide prompt service

Assurance includes competence, courtesy, credibility and security That is the

knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to inspire trust and confidence

Empathy includes access, communication, understanding the customer Empathy

is the caring and individualized attention that the firm provides to its customers

1 should do things by the time they promised

2 when customer have problems, they should be sympathetic and reassuring

3 should be dependably

4 should provide their service at the time they promised

5 should keep accurate records

7 not realistic for customer to expect prompt service

8 employees do not always be willing to help customers

9 is OK if they are too busy to respond to requests promptly

10 customers should be able to trust employees

11 customers should feel safe in their transactions with these stores‟ employees

12 employees should be polite

13 employees should get adequate support to do their jobs well

Empathy: caring,

individualized

14 company should not be expected to give customers individual attention

19 should have up-to-date equipment

20 physical facilities should be visually appealing

21 employees should be well dressed and appear neat

22 appearance of physical facilities should be in keeping with the type of services

Model of Survperf (Cronnin and Taylor, 1992)

Two authors Cronin and Taylor (1992) have adjusted SERVQUAL scale into SERVPERF scale They said that the evaluation of customers‟ perceive for services

is more important than theevaluation of customer expectations SERVPERF scale has only one group of survey questions about the customers‟ awareness of the services, which they received from providers

Cronin and Taylor (1992) research showed that their unweighted based SERVPERF scale was a better method of measuring service quality This scale's reliability was between 884 and 964, depending on industry type, and

performance 20 performance

exhibited both convergent and discriminant validity Cronin and Taylor (1992) in their empirical work controverted the framework of Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry (1985, 1988) with respect to conceptualization and measurement of service quality, and propounded a performance-based measure of service quality called

„SERVPERF‟ illustrating that service quality is a form of consumer attitude They argued that SERVPERF was an enhanced means of measuring the service quality construct Their study was later replicated and findings suggest that little if any theoretical or empirical evidence supports the relevance of the E - P = quality gap

as the basis for measuring service quality The researchers concluded that service quality can be better measured by using only the perception dimensions, rather than expectation-perception methodology Subsequently, the researchers developed an alternative measurement tool for measuring service quality named SERVPERF,

that was consisted of the 22 perception items

2.3 Empirical literature on service quality and customer satisfaction in the public sector

Public service is an operating unit within the scope of the functions and tasks of the administrative apparatus of the government That is a service implemented directly by administrative agencies (or authorized to perform under the supervision

of the state) in order to meet the needs of society and the people

In Vietnam, public services sometimes also defined as defined: activities serving the common interests of essential and basic rights and obligations of organizations and citizens implemented directly by State or transferred to firms outside the State

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with the aiming to implement effectiveness and fair (Pham Quang Le, 2004) In other words, public services are understood to be transaction directly on services between the State (or the institutions mandated by the State) and citizens, who to

be considered as customers As a broader perspective, when the State is considered

as a guarantor providing public services, these services are called public services Administrative services are defined as services related to law enforcement activities, not for profit purposes, by state agencies (or organizations authorized enterprise) competent to organizations and individuals in the form of valuab le papers in the areas of legal

Public services are those services related to law enforcement activities, not for profit purposes, issued by the Government to organizations and individuals in the form of legal value papers in areas where the Government agencies manage Each administrative services associated with an administrative procedure to resolve completely a specific job related to organizations and individuals (Decree No 43/2011/ND - CP dated 13/06/2011 of Goverment)

Public services include the provision of essential social benefits to the people, such as education, culture, science, health, sports, insurance, social security, In a narrow sense, the word "public services" refers to the professional activities to meet the needs of society and the individual citizen, mainly in areas related to the human development of literature, cultural, spiritual and physical The general trend

in the world these days is that the State only performs social public services which can not or do not want to do by the whole society, so the State has transferred some

The superiority of a society is reflected clearly through public services quality supplying, because public services are activities serving the interests of social needs, ensuring sustainable social development Public services meet the needs of the society in the following areas:

• Maintaining public order and social safety such as defense, security and diplomacy

• Protect economic order, purchase order on the market through the development and implementation of market economy institutions

• Provide public facilities for all members of society, such as health protection, education, public transport, information, public libraries

• Management of natural resources and public assets such as property management state, protect the environment and natural resources

• Protection of citizens' rights, human rights

Quality of public services is not out of the common features mentioned above, research on this topic in the UK, which is done by Market and Opinion Research International - MORI (2002) based on servqual measurement In addition, Rodriguez et al (2009) was applied to examine the scale Servperf by interviewed

Under a legal perspective, Social Insurance is the guarantee to replace or partially offset the income of workers when they lost or reduced income due to sickness, maternity, labor accidents and occupational diseases, unemployment, the working age or death

Under an economic perspective, the Social Insurance is regarded as the process of organizing and using one centralized monetary funds accrued from contributions of employers, employees and the support of the State under the provisions by law, to assist in solving the essential subsistence needs of workers and their families when they encounter risks leading to a reduction or loss of income payments

In social perspective, Social Insurance is considered to be the affiliate of the workers coming from the general interests of society, of workers and employers

Characteristics of social insurance activities are identifiable non-profit activities,

to serve the interests of the workers and the whole community, including voluntary insurance and compulsory insurance Reciprocity in Social Insurance is implemented in a whole community ensuring the themselves risks Social insurance is also an important tool for social management The state must intervene and protect the legitimate rights for workers, including the demand for wages,

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health care, care of the sick, accident, paid when the employee reaches the age pension It is considered as an important social policy of any State

A SERVQUAL type service‐quality instrument is developed for Greek Insurance

in a research of service quality, satisfaction and loyalty in Greek Confirmatory and exploratory factor analyses are used to determine the scale's dimensionality Path analysis is utilized to examine a model linking service quality, customer satisfaction and loyalty at the level of constructs' in the dividual determinants (Evangelos Tsoukatos et al, 1991) The finding showed that SERVQUAL‟s dimensionality was not confirmed because “Tangibles” does not affect Customer Satisfaction while WOM (word of mouth) is an antecedent of repurchasing intentions Satisfaction does not directly influence the latter

Quality public service with customer satisfaction in the UK done by Market & Opinion Research International - MORI (2002) is also based on SERVQUAL model The study "Assessment of service quality in the Malaysian insurance industry" by Affiaine Ahmad, Faculty of Business Administration, University of Malaya (UM), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (2007) was based on the scale of 5 components - SERVQUAL Research by Dr Masood H Siddiqui, Jaipuria, Institute

of Management, India (2010) on the customer's perception of life insurance services quality also applied SERVQUAL indicated by Parasuraman with 6 components of insurance services quality are: assurance, personal financial planning, competence, tangibles, companies images and technology

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Edvardsen et al (1994) state that, in their experience, the starting point in developing quality in services is analysis and measurement The SERVQUAL approach, which is studied in this paper is the most common method for measuring the public service quality of Social Insurance Agencies This scale measured service quality by finding out the difference between customers‟ perceptions and expectations, evaluating by 22 items that belongsed to five service quality elements: reliability, tangibles, responsiveness, assurance and empathy

Researches in Vietnam was concentrated many authors in the field of social insurance A research into the satisfaction of customers using social insurance services in Ho Chi Minh city in Vietnam also based on the theory of SERVQUAL scale and interviews to provide qualitative and quantitative measurement Research combined five measures constructive service quality measurement with twenty nine observed variables associated with quantitative research to evaluate key components most strongly influenced the level of customer satisfaction used for social security services, from those suggest the solutions for the organization

Author Nguyen Thanh Trung (2013, University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City) has done research on the topic: "Improving the quality of insurance services on Vietnam" in the market of Long An and showed seven components affect the quality of insurance services are: insurance products, premiums, compensation assessment activities, quality of staffs/ insurance agent, distribution channel, customer policy and propaganda advertisement This theme aims to improve the

2.4 Research model

Consider the researches, it shows that the criteria are the same contents of SERVQUAL components but restructured, adjusted for a better fit This provides the basis for applying to study in Vietnam.The researcher analyze customers‟ satisfaction with public service of Thach Thanh District‟s social insurance agencies

by consulting the SERVQUAL model Accordingly, the proposed model of public services quality of the Social Insurance Agencies in Thach Thanh district is determined by five fundamental components built by Parasuraman et al (1985) However, the measuring element will be edited to suit the practical situation in Thach Thanh District

Reliability components are interpreted as follows: When the social insurance

agency promised to do something in one particular time, the agency will perform acurately When customers have a problem, social insurance agencies expressed sincere and interested in solving the problem Social insurance agencies provide services right from the first time and provide services at a time when they promised