customer service delivery and organisational performance.

7/21/2019 customer service delivery and organisational performance.

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CHALLENGES FACING CUSTOMER SERVICE DELIVERY IN PUBLIC

ORGANISATIONS: A CASE OF THE GHANA IMMIGRATION SERVICE

(PASSPORT OFFICE)SUNYANI

RESEARCH PROPOSAL

SUBMITTED TO THE

CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF GHANA, FIAPRE

FACULTY: ECONOMICS AND BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

PROGRAMME: MANAGEMENT

By

EUNICE YEBOAH ANTWI

PROJECT SUPERVISORS NAME:DR. KWAMENA SACKEY - AKOMEAH

NOVEMBER 2014


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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Pages

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.0 Introduction. 7

2.1Overview of Customer Service Delivery in Ghana ....7

2.2Customer Satisfactionwhat it is.......................................9

2.3Defining Customers...10

2.4 Customer Purchasing Process10

2.5 Attitude and Satisfaction...11

2.6 Approaches to determining customer satisfaction.12

2.7 Factors that hinder staff in Customer Service Delivery13

2.8 Consequences of Poor Quality Service.14

2.9 Institutional Framework14

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study.1

1.2 Problem Statement...3

1.3 Research Questions.3

1.4 Research Objectives........4

1.5 Significance of the Study.4

1.6 Organisation of Chapters.........5


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CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY

3.0 Introduction... 16

3.1 Scope.................................16

3.2 Research Design16

3.3 Sample Population.....................................................................................................17

3.4 Sampling and Sampling techniques...17

3.5 Data Collection ..18

3.6 Instrumentation ..19

3.7 Data Analysis. 19

3.8 Timetable...19

3.9 Limitations.20

3.10 Delimitations...20

Reference.23

Appendix.25


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CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1

Background of the study

In todays world of business, competitive demands have made it crucial for

organizations to strategize towards attracting and retaining more customers. For this

reason, central to the operations of every business organization is the improvement of

customer service. In as much as it can be taken for granted that many of the public

organizations in Ghana are doing their best to satisfy their customers in many respects,

one area seems unattended to: the minor issues that could mean so much to customers

but may not have caught the eyes of the bosses. May be they have, but these bosses see

them as too trivial, minor or petty to be given attention. These issues though may look

or sound trivial, may have the tendency to irritate customers-both existing and potential

and eventually push them away. It is most unfortunate for customers when it happens

that these organizations in question have no ready competitors to which they can turn.

If it happens this way, the option left to customers is to make do with whatever services

they obtain from these poor performers but with great disappointment.

In many Public organizations within the country, these trivial problems range

from poor power supply by the electricity company of Ghana, no advance warning

concerning Water cut by Ghana Water Company, continuous disruption of bus

schedules at intercity State Transport Company, long queues and poor customer service

rendered by the Ghana immigration service (passport office) and other similar instances

in different public organizations in Ghana. Good customers are an asset which, when


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well managed and served will return a handsome lifetime income stream for the

company (Kotler, 1998).

Zeithaml (2000) stressed that leveraging service quality has been shown to assist

in both the retention and expansion of the existing customer base; thus in an attempt to

establish a competitive advantage, marketing practitioners often seek to differentiate

their service offering upon service quality.

Spreng & Mackoy (1996) indicated that service quality and customer

satisfaction are inarguably the two core concepts that are at the crux of the marketing

theory and practice. According to Shemwell et al., (1998) in todays world of intense

competition, the key to sustainable competitive advantage lies in delivering high quality

service that will in turn result in satisfied customers. The customers overall satisfaction

with the services of the organization is a function of all the encounters/experiences of

the customers with that organization. Similar to service quality, customer satisfaction

can occur at multiple levels in an organization, for example, satisfaction with the

contact person, satisfaction with the core service and satisfaction with the organization

as a whole.

According to a report by Daily Guide on modernghana.com on getting a

Ghanaian passport: nothing has changed, the Greater Accra Regional Immigration

Office at the ministries where receipts of applications and collection of passports are

done, revealed that many people who have applied, have not received their passports,

even though the four-week processing period had long elapsed. It was found out that the

delay might be due to genuine working constraints and limitations associated with the

processing of the passports. Again, there is administrative problems concerning the


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operations of middlemen or passport contractors at the premises of the passport office

and these factors are posing customer service delivery challenges

(http://www.modernghana.com/news/28462/1/getting-a-ghanaian-passport-nothing-has-

changed.html, 2014).

1.2Problem Statement

The problem in relation to customer service delivery in Sunyani municipality and

particularly the Ghana Immigration Service illustrates failure to meet the expectations

of consumers which result in grave consequences on political, social and economic

growth of the state. Satisfying customers is based on knowing or understanding

customers need and behaviour and address such with a suitable quality products and

services as demanded by the business, and doing this above other competitors (Bitner,

1994; Boltan, 1998). A total quality customer satisfaction is a participative process that

empowers all levels of employees to work in groups to establish guest expectation and

determine the best way of meeting or exceeding those expectations (Fornell &

Anderson, 1996). In this context, the Ghana Immigration Service (passport office) in

Sunyani will be able to serve the variation in demand and preferences.

1.3Research Questions

The main research question will be, what are the challenges the passport office

division of the Ghana Immigration Service in Sunyani face in serving customers?

Other questions the study will pose include:


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1. What is the customers perception of the quality of service rendered by the

Ghana Immigration Service (passport office) in Sunyani?

2. What are the factors that hinder staff in customer service delivery?

3. What are the effects(s) of poor customer service on the organization?

1.4Research Objectives

The main research object will be challenges the passport office division of the

Ghana Immigration Service in Sunyani face in serving customers.

Other objectives the study will look at include:

1. To find out customersperception of the quality of service rendered by the Ghana

Immigration Service (passport office) in Sunyani.

2. To determine factors that hinder staff in customer service delivery.

3. To find out the effect(s) of poor customer service on the organization.

1.5

Significance of the Study

The study is immensely significant in diverse ways to business/marketing

practitioners, policy makers and stakeholders.

To the management of Ghana Immigration Service, the findings and the results

that would be reported in this study will provide a more reliable and scientific measure

and perspective for describing and evaluating the level of their customer satisfaction

with the services they deliver. It will also serve as an invaluable source of information

that brings to lime light customersperception of the quality of service they render. It

will essentially uncover factors that hinder staff in quality customer service delivery.


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This will provide empirical support for management strategic decisions in several

critical areas of their operations, and above all, provide a justifiable valid and reliable

guide to designing workable service delivery improvement strategies for creating and

delivering customer value, achieving customer satisfaction and loyalty, building long-

term mutually beneficial relationship with profitable customers.

Nonetheless, to policy makes like government agencies such as Ministry of

Foreign Affairs, the findings of this research will provide invaluable insights and a more

reliable guide to monitor the operations of the Ghana Immigration Service particularly

in the area of customer service delivery. It will also be a yardstick for measuring partly

their respective policy goals and objectives. Particularly, it will facilitate immensely the

Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Ghana in achieving some of its policy goals which

include: enhancing the reliability and efficiency in the provision of passport services.

To stakeholders like investors, shareholders, pressure groups, the study will

provide invaluable information that will allow them to provide useful suggestions to the

improvement in service delivery of the Ghana Immigration Service.

1.6Organisation of Chapters

This study will consist of three chapters. Chapter one, the present chapter gives an

introduction to the whole study. The chapter consists of the background of the study,

problem statement, research objectives and questions, significance of the study and

justification of the study, scope and limitations of the study, and organisation of the

chapters. Chapter two of the study reviews relevant literature on customer service

delivery and challenges. Sub-topics under this include: overview of customer service


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delivery in Ghana, customer satisfaction what it is, defining customers, customer

purchasing process, attitude and satisfaction, approaches to determining customer

satisfaction, factors that hinder staff in customer service delivery, consequences of poor

quality service, and institutional framework. Chapter three is about the methodology

used in gathering the relevant data for the study. Sub-topics seen under this chapter are

introduction, scope, research design, sample population, sampling & sampling

techniques, data collection, instrumentation, data analysis, timetable, limitations, and

delimitations.


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CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.0 Introduction

This chapter is generally about reviewing relevant literature from text books,

journals, articles and other publications that are relevant to the study.

2.1 Overview of Customer Service Delivery in Ghana

It is sad to note that the quality of customer service in Ghana leaves much to be

desired. First of all, it is very difficult to reach most offices and public buildings by

telephone. Telephones ring endlessly without any response whatsoever. If one is lucky,

the call is answered after the sixth or seventh ring with a localised American southern

drawl, "yedooooww!!" The question is, does the Ghanaian customer service staff

perceive prompt answering of calls as a relevant and integral part of good customer

service? Does he or she know what that means to the customer? Promptly answering the

customer's call means prompt attention to your customer. It could further be translated

to mean that your company is readily available when the customer needs you. It

improves the customer's perception of your company's reliability, and promptness in

handling customer queries and requests. Even if the service delivered itself falls below

the customer's expectation or exact satisfaction, the ease with which you were reached,

and your readiness to assist leaves a very positive impression on your customer, which

in the long run, affects corporate image and the market positioning and perception of

the quality of your service (or product).


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A second outstanding trait of customer service in Ghana is the typical "I am

doing you a favour" mentality. Basically it is perceived that the customer needs

something done for him or her and is therefore at the mercy of the whims and caprices

of the customer service staff. This translates into very hostile, rude and arrogant

behaviour by customer service staff in response to any customer perceived to be

demanding. Such customers are perceived as "beggars with choices", or "Oliver

Twists", asking for more, instead of being appreciative of what is being done for them.

Third, customer service in Ghana seems very disjointed. A simple service that could

have been rendered by one person is divided into several irrelevant and small functions.

One cannot tell whether this is meant to achieve better levels of efficiency through

specialisation and division of labour or simply create employment for more people. The

unfortunate consequence of this is that people build bottlenecks and entire empires with

the little functions they play as part of an entire process, hijacking the entire process and

in effect inconveniencing the customer beyond imagination.

Third, customer service in Ghana seems very disjointed. A simple service that

could have been rendered by one person is divided into several irrelevant and small

functions. One cannot tell whether this is meant to achieve better levels of efficiency

through specialisation and division of labour or simply create employment for more

people. The unfortunate consequence of this is that people build bottlenecks and entire

empires with the little functions they play as part of an entire process, hijacking the

entire process and in effect inconveniencing the customer beyond imagination.

Customer service staff in Ghana need to be made aware that the customers they serve

constitute the market share of the companies they work for, and that the quality of


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service they render directly has the potential to increase or diminish this market share

and consequently the profitability of the company they work for, its survival and in the

long run their job security. Put more simply, it is the customer's custom that ensures

your job security!

(http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/features/artikel.php?ID=47531, 2014).

2.2 Customer Satisfactionwhat it is

Central to the satisfaction literature is the theory of disconfirmation which has

been used extensively in marketing research to explain the subject matter of

satisfaction. The theory posits that, satisfaction is established when the customer

evaluates the gap between suppose performance and his/her cognitive standards such as

wishes and expectation of the product or service delivered (McKinney et al., 2002; Liu

& Khalifa, 2003).

Normann, R.,(1991) referred to several studies that had found that it costs about

five times as much in time, money and resources, to attract a new customer as it do to

retain an existing customer. This creates the challenge of maintaining high levels of

service, awareness of customer expectations and improvement in services and products.

Satisfaction reinforces positive attitudes toward the product/service, leading to a greater

likelihood that the same product/service will be purchased again and that dissatisfaction

leads to negative product/service attitudes and lessens the likelihood of using the same

product/service again (Assael, 1987).


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2.3 Defining Customers

Rust et.al, (2000) opined that the term customeris commonly used to refer to

end-users of a product. Smith (1997) indicated that historically, the word customer is

derived from "custom," meaning "habit"; a customer was someone who frequented a

particular shop, who made it a habit to purchase goods there, and with whom the

shopkeeper had to maintain a relationship to keep his or her "custom," meaning

expected purchases in the future. Hayes (1997) revealed that customer is a generic term

referring to anybody who receives a service or product from some other person or group

of people. Customer expectations are influenced by cultural values, advertising,

marketing, and other communications, both with the supplier and with other sources.

Customers at times do not have a clear understanding of their needs. Assisting in

determining needs can be a valuable service to the customer.

2.4 Customer Purchasing Process

Customers go through five stages decision-making process in most purchase

situations, namely: need recognition and problem awareness, information search,

evaluation of alternatives, purchase and post purchase evaluation (Kotler and Keller,

2006; Lovelock and Wirtz, 2007). Lovelock and Wirtz, (2007) proposed a three-stage

model of service consumption. In this model they grouped the decision making process

of service consumption into three: pre-purchase service, encounter stage and post-enter

stage. They further explained them as follows: (i) Pre-purchase service this stage has

three main components. It includes the awareness of need, information search in which

needs are clarified, solutions explored, suppliers and alternative service products are


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identified by customers and finally an evaluation of alternative solutions and suppliers

for a decision for service purchased. This stage is affected by the customers search for

certain service attributes and the perceived risk and expectation of customer regarding

desired service, predicted service, adequate service levels as well as the tolerance zone.

Furthermore, (ii) service encounter stage this stage involves a request from

chosen suppliers or initial self-service of which payment may be upfront or billed later.

It also includes service delivery by personnel or self-service. It is the moment of truth as

the service is encountered through a service delivery system of an organisation.

Nonetheless, (iii) Post-encounterthis stage involves the evaluation of performance of

the service encountered and its effect on future intentions. It is this stage that

satisfaction and dissatisfaction occur and decisions to remain loyal are taken by

customers.

2.5 Attitude and Satisfaction

Zeithaml and Bitner, (1996) define service quality as the way in which the

whole service experience is performed. Their model of customer perceptions of quality

and customer satisfaction hypothesized that satisfaction is more of an attitude and this

attitude would influence perceptions of service quality, which in turn would influence

purchase intentions (service quality leads to satisfaction and eventually purchase

intentions. Failure to provide reliable service may result in customer dissatisfaction and

possible defection. This is based on the premise that a satisfied customer will continue

to maintain a relationship (Hallowell, 1996) and that relationship will lead to loyalty

and longevity. Zeithaml, et al.,(1990) arrived at the same idea by looking at the


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probable behaviour of the dissatisfied customer. They maintain that a dissatisfied

customer is likely to switch to a competitor and may inform others of the bad

experience.

2.6 Approaches to determining customer satisfaction

Customer satisfaction (CS) determination can be approaches from three broad

type of methods: Observation methods, database methods, and subjective methods

(Sinclair, 1995). Observational method can be classified into observational studies and

experimental studies. Observational methods used in natural sciences can also be used

to determine CS. It has the strength of objectivity to a large extent as described by

Sinclair (1995, p. 71) theidea is that you are reaching out to touch realityas direct a

possible. This approach has the difficulty of analyzing diverse qualitative data using

quantitative and qualitative tools. Secondly database methods constitute another

valuable source of information for determining customer satisfaction or dissatisfaction.

Available and effective customer relationships management technology can be used to

track customer purchase behaviour and re-purchase history, analyse customer data to

determine evidence of satisfaction or dissatisfaction. These methods offer the

opportunity to compute key performance indicators such as the proportion of regular

customers, time of delivery and interaction, reasons for purchase and non-purchase, and

likelihood to recommend. Thirdly, subjective methods have been widely used to

determine CS. Included in this group are questionnaires and interviews. The capabilities

of the internet in addition to the traditional printed questionnaires widen the scope and

the use of this method. In this group, face to face and telephone interviews, focus group


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interviews, and discussions, electronic questionnaire and online forums, chats,

community provides an invaluable sources of CS data for analysis.

2.7 Factors that hinder staff in Customer Service Delivery

One important reason why customer service can suffer in organizations is due to

bureaucracy. The more layers and red tape an employee has to go through to service a

client, the more difficult it can be. Furthermore, overworked staff can be the result of

understaffing, layoffs, rapid growth or assigning too many tasks to too few people. In

this case no client will appear as a priority to them. The exact opposite can have a

similar effect on customer service. If your staff is underworked, they will feel less

challenged, under-appreciated and unimportant. So if your staff is underworked, case

handling turnaround time can drag on longer than reasonably expected, and customers

will get frustrated.

Moreover, the workplace culture can have a substantial effect on how customer

service cases are handled. If the workplace climate is one where customers are not cared

for, where staff doesnt care about their work, or if the environment is not empowering,

your staff will under-deliver whenever presented with a customer service case. If your

staff is not held accountable for customer service, there is no reason for your staff to try

harder to make sure customers are happy. If the systems your staff uses when working

with clients perform poorly, are slow, contain insufficient data or doesnt track your

client data appropriately, you are going to run into a problem. If your staff has never

been taught the value of customers to your organization, they will most likely not know

how to treat them. Your staff must be given the appropriate incentive to give clients


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outstanding service. If they are not incented, you have given them no reason to go that

extra mile for your customers (http://www.entre-propel.com/customer-service/8-

barriers-to-outstanding-customer-service/, 2014).

2.8 Consequences of Poor Quality Service

Weimershirch et al. (1994) comment that, it is important for management to

recognize the different ways that the quality of a firms product or service can affect the

organisation; and to take these into account in developing and maintaining a quality

assurance programme. He outlined some of the major ways that poor quality affects an

organisation to include the following: (i) Loss of business: failure to devote adequate

attention to quality can damage a profit oriented organizations image and lead to a

decreased share of the market, or it can lead to increased criticism and controls from a

government agency or non-profit organisation. (ii) Liability poor quality may create

potential liability for a firm due to damages or injuries resulting from either faulty

design or poor services. (iii) Productivity productivity and quality are often closely

related. Poor quality can adversely affect productivity during the production process

through rework. Conversely, improving and maintaining good quality can have a

positive effect on productivity. (iv) Costs poor quality service increases certain costs

incurred by the organisation. They include payments of discount to customers to offset

the inferior quality, rework costs, warranty cost, replacement cost.


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2.9 Brief History of the Ghana Immigration Service

A British Colonial called K.A. Price started the Ghana Immigration Service. In

the early 1940s, Ghana Immigration Service was found necessary to change the parent

unit and brought under the Police C.I.D. It was at this point that the functions of

passport control were added to its responsibilities and head of the unit was called

Headquarters Immigration Officer. It was headed by Neville Hill, a commissioner of

Police. At this point, the unit was responsible for the commuting between the various

colonies. The number of expatriates was not many and as such regulated the influx of

non-Africans. Given the political status of the country and the economic circumstances

the number of persons handled was minimal.

The rapid expansion in the economy at the attainment of independence in 1957,

coupled with Ghanas role as a peace settler in African Liberation struggle led to the

country being swamped with foreign businesspersons, African aliens in search of a

greater pastures, and tourists. Thus to control the influx, a cabinet decision in 1960

transferred the Immigration function to the Ministry of Interior as a separate

Department, whiles the Ministry of Foreign Affairs took over the issuing of passports.

In the course of time, it became abundantly clear that the Immigration function had

assume a specialized nature that could not achieve its objectives if the Institution

continues to be bonded in the Civil Services machinery, which is not designed to take

care of the dynamics of the issue of security. The indicators were that, the attraction for

Ghana was bound to grow as the economy expanded on account of the favourable

investment climate introduced under the Economic Recovery Programme (ERP).


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As a result, the PNDC in December 1989 approved the conversion of the

Department into a para-military Service with a Board and a Director to head the day to

day administration of service.


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CHAPTER THREE

METHODOLOGY

3.0Introduction

This chapter describes how the study will be conducted. The chapter also

presents the scope, research design, and sample population, sampling and sampling

techniques, data collection, instrumentation, data analysis, timetable, limitations, and

delimitations

3.1

Scope

The study will be conducted within the framework of assessing challenges facing

customer service delivery in the Ghana Immigration Service. The study will be carried

out at the passport office division in Sunyani. It is a case study approach of one

particular passport office (i.e. Sunyani) and does not cover other passport offices to

reflect the entire industry evaluation to customer care. Hence the result will not be

generalized but its findings will be placed in the relevant context of the individual

passport office studied.

3.2Research Design

Saunders et al. (2007), defines research design as the general plan of how the

research questions would be answered. The research design employed will be

descriptive because the study is non-experimental, and the researcher wants to portray

an accurate profile of customer delivery challenges at the Ghana Immigration Service

(Passport office) in Sunyani in the Brong Ahafo region. And the researcher will attempt


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to describe the challenges facing customer service delivery in public organisations: a

case of the Ghana Immigration Service (passport office) Sunyani. Again, the study

will be operated within a specific time frame with the intention of recounting the

situation as it is in the municipality at the time of the study.

3.3Sample Population

De Vos et al. (2008), describe a target population as the total amount of persons,

events, units, case records or other sampling units with which the research problem is

concerned. The target population of this study included all citizens of the Sunyani municipality

(N=147,301) (Ghana Statistical Service, Sunyani, 2010). A representative sample will be

drawn from the population using the formula below by Rexroat etal.(1992):

n=

1+(2); Where; n =sample size N = Sampling Frame

1 = Constant a =Margin of error

With a confidence level of 93%, and a sample of 7% of the total population the result

for the sample size is as follows:

n=)N(a+1

N2

n=)7147301(0.0+1

1473012

n=204

n= 204 N= 147,301 a= 7% 1= constant

3.4Sampling & Sampling techniques

Two separate samples were selected based on staff and valued customers of the

organization. The sampling techniques used in this study were purposive and simple

random sampling. The purposive sampling was adopted because the intension was to


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gain an insight into the customer service phenomenon, hence the need to choose

personnel who were well versed in the industry.

Simple random sampling was important to the study, since the study was

intended to ensure some randomness and representativeness in the sample. The

selection of the respondents for the study was guided by sampling procedure: the

process involving sampling frame identification and the determination of relevant

sample size. At the targeted branch, stratified random sampling was used to select staffs

for the study. This was guided by the structure of leadership that is in use by the

organization at the Sunyani branch. This method of sampling therefore ensured that

staffs in the clerical/technical, supervisory and managerial categories were contacted.

3.5Data Collection

The study was based on both primary and secondary data. The secondary data

was based on information from journals, books and articles that were of much relevance

to the study. Primary data, on the other hand which formed the core of the work was

collected by way of questionnaire and interview. A structured questionnaire was used

to collect data from the official of the Ghana Immigration Service (Passport Office)

Sunyani concerning the challenges that they face in delivering customer service and the

effect of such challenges on the organisation. Another set of questionnaire was used to

collect data from the general population. The questionnaire contained both closed and

open ended questions and was formulated to capture their perception of the quality of

service rendered by the Ghana Immigration Service (passport office) in Sunyani. A


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sample of the questionnaire as well as interview guide can be found at the appendix to

the work.

3.6Instrumentation

The main instruments that will be used to collect data for the study will be

questionnaire and interview (both structured and unstructured). The study will depend

on primary data collected from the staff, customers and some secondary data. The

questionnaires comprise both close-ended and open ended questions. In this study, the

questionnaires will be administered by the researcher by group discussion and face-to-

face interview. De Vos et al. 2008) the biggest advantage of self-administered

questionnaires is that respondents can complete them on their own, while the researcher

is available if problems arise. Respondents with difficulties will be aided by the

researcher to ensure high response rate and reduction in errors.

3.7

Data Analysis

Data was analysed with the IBM Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS)

Statistics version 20 for windows. This contained both nominal and ordinal scales. The

results were presented in the form of charts and tables with their corresponding

descriptive statistics.

3.8Timetable

i. Prepare and complete proposal by 14thNovember, 2014.

ii. Complete literature review by 30thJanuary, 2015.


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iii. Complete fieldwork by 7thFebruary, 2015.

iv. Complete analysis by 30thMarch, 2015.

v. Complete final report by 30thApril, 2015.

3.9Limitations

Challenges can never escape a person or a researcher in any field of human

endeavour and this study is no exception. The researcher will be faced with the

challenge of mobilizing enough money to print and get resources on time. The

researcher will also encounter few non-response rate and different attitudes and

behaviours - friendly and unfriendly. Again, it is very difficult in Ghana to elicit official

information from individuals and households and even from government departments

and agencies. As a result people feel uncomfortable to divulge the correct and absolute

information to researchers for fear of being taxed. No matter how open a researcher is,

some respondents prefer to either hide their identity or not to give out the real

information. This might be linked to the literacy level of the population as many people

of low education are not well informed and exposed to the full relevance of research.

The officials of the Ghana Immigration Service (Passport Office) in Sunyani

always have heavy schedules. Due to their extra responsibilities as well as travelling

and attending conferences it was difficult to get them to fill their questionnaires. This

necessitated the use of emails and telephone calls in some cases to complete the data

collection.


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3.10 Delimitations

The study will be confined to the challenges facing the Ghana Immigration

Service (Passport Office). Only Sunyani municipality will be studied.


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Appendix

Questionnaire

Dear Respondent,

I am a final year student of the Catholic University College of Ghana, Fiapre

undertaking a study on the topic; Challenges facing Customer Service Delivery in

Public Organisations: A case of the Ghana Immigration Service (Passport Office)

Sunyani.You have been selected to assist in this study. Your identity (such as name,

contact, signature, etc) is not needed. I hope you will be frank in answering the

questions and by so doing you will be helping in achieving the objective of this study.

This information is being collected solely for academic research purposes. The

information you provide will be treated as strictly confidential.

Thank you for your participation.

Name of Interviewer .Date of Survey..

Name of Respondent Status.

Location ... Age Sex Male [ ] Female [ ]

Educational background [Indicate the various levels]

Tick () for the appropriate answer in the brackets and fill the blanks where

appropriate.

SECTION A: Factors that hinder staff in customer service delivery

1.Personal Data

Rank of Respondent..........................................................

Department........................................................................

Years of service..........................

2. Do you go through more layers and red tapes to service a client?

Yes [ ] No [ ]


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3. Do you feel overworked and as such no client appear as a priority to you?

Yes [ ] No [ ]

4. Do customers get frustrated due to case handling turnaround time which drag on

longer than reasonably expected?

Yes [ ] No [ ]

5. How does your work place culture affect customer service delivery?

.................................................................................................................................

.................................................................................................................................

.................................................................................................................................

6. Are you held accountable for poor customer service delivery?

Yes [ ] No [ ]

7. How would you rate the system used to deliver services to customers?

Perform poorly [ ] Very slow [ ] Contain insufficient data [ ]

8. Do you regularly receive training on good customer care?

Yes [ ] No [ ]

9. Do you receive appropriate incentive to give clients outstanding service?

Yes [ ] No [ ]

SECTION B: Customers perception of passport office service delivery

10.How would you rate services rendered by the passport office in Sunyani?

Poor [ ] Very poor [ ] Good [ ] Very good Excellent [ ]

11.What influences your rating in question 10 above?


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12.Do you feel satisfied with the service received?

Yes [ ] No [ ]

13.Do you have any intention of going there again and why?

Yes [ ] No [ ]

SECTION C: Effect(s) of poor customer service on the organization

14.

Do you agree that poor quality service increases certain costs incurred by the

organization?

Strongly agree [ ] Agree [ ] Strongly disagree [ ] Disagree [ ]

15.How do you think poor service delivery adversely affect productivity and profit

margin of the organization?

16.Do poor quality create potential liability for a firm due to damages or injuries

resulting from either faulty design or poor services?

Yes [ ] No [ ]

17. Do you receive increased criticism and controls from a government agency or

non-profit organisation?

Yes [ ] No [ ]

18.In your own way, how do you think customer service delivery can be improved

at the passport office in Sunyani?


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INTERVIEW GUIDE

TOPIC: CHALLENGES FACING CUSTOMER SERVICE DELIVERY IN

PUBLIC ORGANISATIONS: A CASE OF THE GHANA

IMMIGRATION SERVICE (PASSPORT OFFICE)SUNYANI.

This interview is an attempt to examine the challenges facing the passport office

division of the Ghana Immigration Service - Sunyani in customer service delivery. The

information needed is purely for an academic purpose. Your assistance is therefore

needed and your response will be treated as confidential.

1. Do you go through more layers and red tapes to service a client?

2. Do you feel overworked and as such no client appear as a priority to you?

3. Do customers get frustrated due to case handling turnaround time which drag on

longer than reasonably expected?

4.

How does your work place culture affect customer service delivery?

5. Are you held accountable for poor customer service delivery?

6. How would you rate the system used to deliver services to customers?

7. Do you regularly receive training on good customer care?

8. Do you receive appropriate incentive to give clients outstanding service?

9. How would you rate services rendered by the passport office in Sunyani?

10.What influences your rating in question 9 above?

11.Do you feel satisfied with the service received?

12.Do you have any intention of going there again and why?


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13.Do you agree that poor quality service increases certain costs incurred by the

organization?

14.How do you think poor service delivery adversely affect productivity and profit

margin of the organization?

15.Do poor quality create potential liability for a firm due to damages or injuries

resulting from either faulty design or poor services?

16.Do you receive increased criticism and controls from a government agency or non-

profit organisation?

17.

In your own way, how do you think customer service delivery can be improved at

the passport office in Sunyani?

THANK YOU

customer service delivery and organisational performance.

Documents

Transcript of customer service delivery and organisational performance.