ASSESSMENT OF CUSTOMER SATISFACTION AND QUALITY IN UNITED INTEGRATED CONSTRUCTION LIMITED, NIGERIA

Abstract

Customer satisfaction can be seen either as a goal or as a measurement tool in the development of construction quality. Improving quality and customer satisfaction has received considerable attention in recent years. This study examines construction in terms of customer satisfaction and quality. A framework is developed to evaluate the dynamics of customer satisfaction and quality. An empirical analysis is conducted to explore customer satisfaction in construction as perceived by two customer groups: public and private customers. The purpose of this study is to explore empirically the clients´ main satisfaction/dissatisfaction factors, making use of random sampling in collecting data from all the 98 completed project by UICL across the 3 prominent state in Nigeria where UICL operate in which only 85 of the questionnaire was return. Results indicate that the need for contractors to improve performance relates mostly to quality assurance, handover procedures and material. The views of customer with respect to the performance of contractors are measured using various factors; quality assurance and handover, environment and safety at work, co-operation, personnel, site supervision and subcontracting etc and their factor loading was determined and also the responsibility of client and contractor in achieving quality in construction work was ranked using the perception and expectation of customer. The Calculated Value for the Pearson correlation is 0.621 which implies that there is a correlation between quality project and customer satisfaction at UICL and the correlation is significant at 0.01 which made the researcher reject the null hypothesis and the result shows that approximately 62.1% of the variation in the dependent variable is explained by the explanatory variables which made the researcher to recommend among others that Government, being the most important client of the building industry, should set up specialist Construction Quality Council that will serve as regulatory body to ensure conformance to quality standards required in various areas (materials, labour skills, equipment, methods, etc) of the construction industry.