Author(s)

V. R. Shinde, N. Hirayama & S. Itoh

Abstract

The objective of this study was to develop a model to evaluate and quantify customers’ satisfaction (CS) with water supply service using statistical analyses, and develop a relationship between the CS and selected performance indicators of supply service systems to understand how the performance of the system is affected by changes in CS. This study used an Internet based questionnaire survey to evaluate the CS, and was conducted in the Kansai region of Japan in December 2011. A five point Likert scale was used to evaluate the responses received for the questionnaire items based on a literature review for an insight into what consumers in Japan really want or expect from their water utilities. Quantification of the CS was done by factor analysis which suggested that ‘Trust in water utility’ and ‘Good quality water’ are the main variables of the CS factor, which are both intrinsically related to water quality. In addition, ‘Price of water’ and ‘Equity of distribution’ are among the other variables that have some influence on the customers’ satisfaction factor. In order to understand the impact of CS on different components of the supply system, a regression relationship was developed between the CS and selected performance indicators used to evaluate the system performance. Keywords: consumers’ satisfaction, evaluation model, factor analysis, internet based questionnaire survey, water supply.

Keywords

consumers’ satisfaction, evaluation model, factor analysis, internet based questionnaire survey, water supply