Customer satisfaction and statistical techniques for the implementation of benchmarking in the public sector

Abstract

This paper studies the opportunities of benchmarking and the improvement of public organisations when the customer satisfaction process oriented model (CS ProMod) is implemented to measure citizens' satisfaction with public services through multi-channelness.

This paper contributes to the literature by demonstrating the potentiality of the CS ProMod to support public managerial decision-making and to encourage the benchmarking process in the public sector. The model is a new conceptual and standardised method by which to measure citizens' satisfaction, and it represents one of the first proposals in the literature for multi-channel public service monitoring.

The aim of this paper was to critically discuss the methodological assumptions of the CS ProMod and to communicate the findings clearly and efficiently with the goal of improving public services and measuring service quality using an integrated multi-channel approach (Cappelli, L., Guglielmetti, R., Mattia, G., Merli, R., & Renzi, M.F. (2010). Statistical techniques for continuous improvement: A citizen's satisfaction survey. The TQM Journal Formerly the TQM Magazine, 22(3), 267–284). The paper focuses on a survey carried out in an Italian public health agency to measure the citizens' level of satisfaction with the service “Booking Medical Visits” that is delivered through two different channels.

Keywords:

• customer satisfaction process oriented model
• public sector
• benchmarking
• probabilistic expert systems

Notes

From a technical point of view, regression is applied when variables are quantitative. In many marketing applied studies, a common approach is to use the regression with qualitative data treated as quantitative data.