Plan-do-Check-Act Cycle: a Method to Improve Customer Satisfaction at a Municipal Council in Malaysia

Abstract

Purpose: This study aimed to determine the use of PDCA methods in improving customer satisfaction at SP MUNICIPAL COUNCIL. Maintaining customer satisfaction is the main responsibility of my department as we are in charge of receiving complaints from the public and providing the best solution to the public. Since the major operation for SP MUNICIPAL COUNCIL is providing services to the public, it is crucial to solving any related issue regarding poor customer services and management by SP MUNICIPAL COUNCIL, long delays in solving issues from the public and others. Hence, using appropriate tools such as the PDCA method is one of the ways to achieve a continuous improvement process and improve the service quality for SP MUNICIPAL COUNCIL. The aim of this study is to overcome this issue and improve customer satisfaction, the quality of our services and reduce complaints from the public towards the management of SP MUNICIPAL COUNCIL by using the PDCA method. Theoretical framework: Problem identification needs to be done to find the causes of customer complaints. From the findings, the factors that potentially cause the problem are customer services, workers, administration, and management system issues. Then, the next step is a repair process where the result after improvement, implementation and evaluation will be measured. Design/methodology/approach: The method used for this study is the PDCA method in the literature review. The data of this study are compiled, analyzed and concluded, to obtain the results for the method in the literature review. The literature review compares several research papers that implement PDCA methods. Findings: The findings show that Plan-Do-Act-Check method can give a positive impact on increasing service quality for SP MUNICIPAL COUNCIL. There are several solution and recommendation have been achieved after the discussion of the result. These solutions will help in overcome the issue faced by SP MUNICIPAL COUNCIL. Research limitation/implication: This research only focuses on improving customer satisfaction at SP MUNICIPAL COUNCIL and only applies to departments that focus on customer services. Originality/value: This research contributes to existing literature and use new findings to overcome problem using PDCA method and fishbone analysis to identify the cause and effect of the problem.