study prep | Course Paper

Factors affecting the customer satisfaction in Ireland

Student name

Harrisburg University of Science and Technology

Abstract

The objective of the research is to predict the factors that are closely associated with customer

satisfaction in Ireland. The research has surveyed 2038 participants which includes

demographics information, educational and economic condition of the participant. However, the

research has used selected main factors. The survey has explicitly asked whether the

participant is satisfied or not. Considering this as an outcome variable, research has used the

different statistical methods to find the answer of the research questions.

Introduction

The public service is a service which is provided by government to people living within its

jurisdiction, either directly through public sector or by financing provision of service [1]. The

goal of the government should be to provide public service in highly satisfaction level. So, the

quality of public service should be a very high standard. There are many ways the government

can improve the quality of the public service. Improving the capacity of the service provider,

integrating the technologies to facilitate service providing process are the key elements.

However, there are many other indirect ways we can improve the service provider. One method

could be to analyze the feedback and the other different attribute of the service receiver. To

improve the quality of public service, it is important to understand what elements are most

important in determining satisfaction with a public service which are the key drivers [2]. To do

that that the government can get feedback from the service receiver and analyze the data to find

the crucial factors that are associated with the customer satisfaction. One governmental body in

the Ireland has conducted similar research to improve the quality of public service in government

organization. The department has collected the data of the service receiver and this research is

trying to find the crucial factors in the public sector by applying different statistical tools and

methodologies.

Data Collection and Summary

The research has used the survey data collected by the department of public expenditure and

reform, Ireland. The purpose of the survey was to ascertain satisfaction levels with services

received, as well as more general perception of, and attitude to, the Civil Service. The survey

was carried out to meet a commitment in the Government’s Public Service Reform Plan 2014–

2016 to “commission, deliver and disseminate the results of a Civil Service customer satisfaction

survey”. The survey also delivers on a commitment in the Civil Service Renewal plan to “run

regular surveys of Civil Service customer to more fully understand user experiences,

expectations and requirements”. The Survey was undertaken by Ipsos MRBI on behalf of the

Department of Public Expenditure and Reform [3]. The survey was conducted with 2038

participants with diverse age, sex, marital status and other different economic condition. So, this

research tried to use the same survey data to find the main factors in customer satisfactions.

The data it has published was in CSV format which consists of 2025 observations. Each

observation is the information about one participant. The survey has asked so many question

which are related to demographics information and economic background of the participant. The

primary outcome variable is whether the customer is satisfied or not. Among 2025 survey

question, 1022 participant did not give the answer of this question. 14 participants did not give

the definite answer. So, only 989 participants gave whether they were satisfied or unsatisfied.

We removed those observations which does not have answers or do not have definite answers.

So, finally we have used 989 observations for the research. Similarly, the research has collected

other different variables. Most of those variables are categorical variable. We have selected

demographics variables and the variable which describes the economic condition of the

participants. The predictor variables which we have considered were Age, Sex, Marital Status,

participant living place either rural or urban, the accessibility of the internet for the participant

and the participant is chief income earner at house hold or not. The research as analyzed the data

considering those predictor variables and the outcome variables. First the research has analyzed

the summary of each variables and the association between predictors variables and the outcome

variable. The research has analyzed the data using proper data analysis technique considering

alpha level of 0.05

Data Summary and Exploratory Data Analysis

Total Observation(N) = 989

Variable

Levels

n (%)

P value

AGE

Sex

Marital Status

Rural/Urban

(18-29)

161(16.27)

<0.0001

(30-39)

237(26.96)

(40-49)

207(20.93)

(50-59)

194(19.61)

(60-69)

129(13.04)

70+

61(6.16)

Male

493(49.84)

0.9240

Female

496(50.15)

Single

275(27.80)

<0.0001

Married

605(61.17)

Separated

68(6.87)

Widow

39(3.94)

Other

2(0. 20)

Rural

946(46.71)

0.0143

Urban

1077(53.18)

Home Only

1109(54.76)

<0.0001

Work Only

33(1.63)

Home and Work

566(27.95)

Other

19(0. 93)

Earner Status

362(36.60)

Satisfaction

Not Satisfied

278(28.10)