Impact of Service Quality Dimensions on Citizens’ Satisfaction with Land Services in Rwanda.

Abstract

Purpose: This study aimed to establish the correlation between service quality dimensions and citizen satisfaction with land transfer services in Rwanda. Methodology: The study employed a mixed research approach; in quantitative research, two two-stage simple random sampling techniques were used to select the sample to be surveyed while key informants were selected purposively from service seekers. Data were gathered from a sample of 422 service seekers who obtained land transfer services from January to December 2019 using a five-item Likert scale. Sixteen (16) key informant interviews were carried out with representatives of service seekers to gather their experience of the service received. A reliability test was conducted and produced a result of 0.932, which is greater than 0.7 indicating excellent reliability of the research tool. Findings: The findings indicate that all five service quality dimensions are positive and significant predictors of customer satisfaction. The predictive power of each of the five service quality dimensions is as follows: responsiveness (B: 3.349, SE: .4755, Exp. (B):28.473: P-value: 0.00<0.05); tangibles (B: 3.267, SE: .4969, Exp. (B): 26.231: P-value: 0.00<0.05); reliability (B: 2.747, SE: .4293, Exp. (B): 15.596: P-value: 0.00<0.05); empathy (B: 2.248, SE: .4362, Exp. (B): 9.467: P-value: 0.00<0.05) and assurance (B: 1.827, SE: .4490, Exp. (B):6.215: P-value: 0.00<0.05). Contribution to Theory, Policy, and Practice: The study established that the five service quality dimensions are significant and positive predictors of satifastcion and recommends that, where resources are limited, institutions should focus more efforts on dimensions (Responsiveness, Tangibles and Reliabiity) that predictor satisfaction more than others. It is also recommended that land service delivery model be redesigned in line with decentralisation policy and to fully digitize land services to ensure that, the time taken to process land transfer services is reduced.