Abstract
The main aim of this study was to deduce the effects of front line service delivery on customers of South African Police Service’s (SAPS) Pretoria Sunnyside Gauteng. The overall objective of this research was to analyse the role of service quality dimension for creating customer satisfaction and to find out the gaps between expectations and perceptions through the customer point of view. In so doing, cross-sectional data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire from a simple random sample of 96 customers. SPSS version 25 was used for descriptive statistics and estimation. The Servqual model was used to establish the customer’s perceptions against their expectations of service quality at the SAPS frontline service. This study is quantitative and therefore adopted the positivist paradigm. The data was collected using a self-administered questionnaire from a simple random sample of 96 customers. Pearson correlation and sample T-test were employed to test the relationship between service quality dimensions. The results show that in all five service quality dimensions: (tangible, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy) there was a negative quality gap. The result has revealed that customer’s perception of service quality at SAPS frontline service falls below their expectations, presenting a great challenge to the organisation. The significant differences between perception and expectation of customers in all five service quality dimensions were noted. Improvement is needed across all five service quality dimensions to improve service delivery. Therefore, the success of the SAPS, Service delivery was found to largely depend on the perceptions of customers. Six hypotheses were drawn out to explore the relationship that is assumed to exist between service dimensions for expectation and perception. The study concludes that service quality is relevant as it was shown that it affects customer satisfaction and perceptions. The study recommends, among other things, that SAPS should implement optimal quality assurance policies so that customers will be satisfied with all their services. Of equally critical, customers who consume SAPS services were advised to be keen to observe careful services which are offered by SAPS through active participation. The study also recommends future studies should examine the role of service quality program between parastatal and other government agencies using data from specific industries.
M.Tech. (Operations Management)