Using SERVQUAL to assess customer satisfaction with public sector services

The UK Government’s Best Value initiative is intended to ensure that local authorities provide best value in service delivery and emphasises the importance of ensuring a clear customer/citizen focus across all services. Local authorities are already using a variety of methods to capture the voice of the customer, with customer surveys being one of the most popular. Such surveys, however, have tended to focus solely on customers’ perceptions of services and not their expectations. This paper presents the results of using an adapted SERVQUAL approach across a range of Scottish council services. The results of the studies will be discussed, the use of SERVQUAL results by service managers reviewed and the contribution of SERVQUAL to continuous improvement assessed.