Introduction

1.1 Background of the Study

Every service needs to achieve the success of what it is established for especially for government
service giving offices as any service giving profit making entities share the aim that their profit is
the customer satisfaction. The service industry is among the oldest and most diverse industry in
the world. Service vary in many ways and include various stages. Lovelock and Wirtz (2004)
defined service as “an act or performance made by one party to another although the process may
be tied to physical product, the performance is transitory, often intangible in nature and does not
normally result in ownership of any of the factors of production”. It is an activity that creates
value and provides benefits for customer at specific time and place by bringing about a desired
change in or on behalf of the recipient of the service.

In a service business, the customer and the front-line service giving employee interact to create
the service. Effective interaction, in turn, depends on the skill of front-line service giving
employees and, on the support-processes backing these employees. Thus, successful service
giving organizations focus their attention on both customers and their employees. (Kotler and
Armstrong, 2012) Unlike product manufacturers who can adjust their machinery and inputs until
everything is perfect, service quality will always vary, depending on the interactions between
employees and customers services.

According to Zeithaml and Bitner (2003) services are deeds, processes and performances.
Adding to this, Grönroos (2007) defined services as a process consisting of services of more or
less intangible activities that normally, but not necessarily always, take place in interaction
between the customer and service employee and/or physical resources or goods and/or systems
of the service provider, which are provided as solutions to customer problems.

A customer satisfaction is an ambiguous and abstract concept. Satisfaction is a sensation or

payoff which results from assessing what was received in contrast to what is expected
(anticipated) (Cathy & Brian, 2001). Actual manifestation of the state of satisfaction will vary
from person to person, product to product and service to service. The state of satisfaction
depends on a number of factors which consolidate as psychological, economic and physical
factors. These factors include quality of service, kinds of service that the office offer to its
customers, service delivery process, physical evidence includes the office or building and its
decorations, the people or the employees delivering the service, the technology being used by the
office.

Service quality has influence upon customer satisfaction, which has impact on the overall
acceptability of the office rendering the service. So that, service quality has a direct impact on
customer satisfaction that affects the success of an organization and the decision making of
whether to continue or stop the relationship with that organization.

The Vital event registration in Ethiopia is launched in August 2016 G.C. The Federal Democratic
Republic of Ethiopia (FDRE) issued the registration of vital events and national identity card
proclamation No. 760/20128 which was a comprehensive law that made registrations of vital
events compulsory.

Vital event registration is an important pre-requisite for measuring equity, monitoring trends and,
evaluating impact and outcomes of broader development programs, such as the Sustainable
Development Goals (SDG’s). In addition, vital events registration is essential for compiling
statistics that are required to develop policies and implement services. The demographic data
generated from such a system is critical for government planning and decision making. This is
particularly important in areas such as child mortality, maternal health and gender equality. Due
to these reasons the government of Ethiopia has given great emphasis to vital events registration
across the country by putting the appropriate policies in place, establishing a system up to the
lowest administrative level and developing massive resources in this endeavor.

This study has two variables which are service quality and customer satisfaction. Different
researchers study service quality on customer satisfaction in private sectors than government
service rendering offices. This does not necessary mean that no research has been conducted on
government sector that measures the satisfaction. But those researchers did not sufficiently
indicate how the service offered by government offices in Ethiopia affect the level of
satisfaction. Most of it these offices are considered to be in the governing rule and had no major
actions to be taken to evaluate the service quality as per the feedback form the customer. But as
mentioned before this information and data have a significant effect on the government
performance as well as plan and country development.
1.2 Statement of the Problem

Regardless of whether organizations are private or government profit making or non-profit

making, the crucial thing to their survival and success lies on their ability to provide quality of
service to their respective customers. This need measuring the satisfaction level of those
customers they serve and those factors that affects satisfaction. To create satisfied customers and
maintain good relationships with them firms should deliver prompt and effective response and
solutions to customers’ need.

According to (Kotler, 2012), firms can be successful only by creating and retaining customers
through its quality service. From a total quality management point of view, the center of every
strategy of firms is customer. One of the contributing factors of company’s achievement is the
insight of customers towards service quality. Many firms including public organizations start
giving a bold attention about customer satisfaction by measuring their service quality (Collart,
2000). (Parasuraman, Zeithaml, & Berry, 1985), sated that because of the intangible, inseparable
and heterogeneity nature of service; defining and measuring its quality is difficult than tangible
products.

The competition in service industry is growing from time to time, to survive and achieve
competitive advantage giving a huge attention in the area of service quality become absolutely
important (Anderson & Bowland, 1984). Consequently, so as to pull and keep potential
customers, firms should engage in the process of identification and satisfying the needs of
customers respectively. However, failure to understand customers’ expectation, factors affecting
satisfaction and taking corrective actions to balance between these two, will result in making an
organization to start falling apart.

The Ethiopian Federal Government and different regional governments have introduced the
registration of vital events, to advance the service the government organizations have facilitate
the offices to be near and one window service for the customer who are the residents. Even if the
government introduce such service to improve the quality in the public sectors, customers have
complaints in different offices. It has become so obvious, particularly in Ethiopia, that customers
are highly unsatisfied in services offered by organizations in general and government
organizations in particular. It has become a norm to hear that government organizations
providing service do not meet customers’ satisfactions and they are one source of complaints in
the society in general. Based on the preliminary observation and informal interviews conserving
this service at the selected sub-city, the researcher finds out the following compliant areas; lack
of well skilled employees to serve customers, lack of proper work ethics, and bribery.

Generally, it was found significant to assess and evaluate service quality and customer
satisfaction for the organization so as to see what to do to improve the service. The main aim of
this study was examining the effect of service quality on the vital event registration office at
Kirkos sub city woreda 10, though identifying the service quality dimensions or SERVQUAL
model (Tangibility, Reliability, Responsiveness, Assurance and Empathy).

1.3 Research Questions

Based on the above-mentioned statement of the problem, this research study tried to answer the
following questions:

1. What is the level of customers’ expectation and perception towards the service quality
provided by The Vital Event Registration Office of Kirkos Sub-city Woreda 10?
2. What is the effect of service quality on customer satisfaction?
3. Which of the service quality dimensions has significant effect on customers satisfaction?
1.4 Objective of the study
1.4.1 General Objective

The general objective of this study is to evaluate the service quality and its effect of customer
satisfaction of Vital Event Registration Office of Kirkos sub city Woreda 10.

1.4.2 Specific Objective

 To analyze the effect of service quality on customer satisfaction in the Vital Event
Registration Office of Kirkos sub city Woreda 10.
 To identify the perception of customers towards the service delivered by Vital Event
Registration Office of Kirkos sub city Woreda 10.
 To examine the effect of major service Quality dimensions on Customer Satisfaction in
Vital Event Registration Office of Kirkos sub city Woreda 10.
 2. Significance of the Study

Upon its completion, this study will benefit the customer who are the resident of Woreda 10, the
office of Vital Event registration office more over the Ethiopian Federal Government by
providing a clear and true information needed to make the right strategy for the country, quality
service for the customer and facilitating the working system of the office. Through providing
clear information concerning customers’ expectation and perception with regard to service
quality dimension which has significant effect on service quality and customer satisfaction.

3. Scope of the Study and Limitation of the Study

This study is delimited conceptually, geographically as well as methodologically.

Conceptually; only focuses only on the cause and effect relationship between service quality
dimensions (tangibility, responsiveness, reliability, empathy and assurance) and customer
satisfaction.

Geographically; there are 11 woredas in Kirkos sub city but this study delimits itself only on
woreda 10 due to the vast number of populations it covers due to this the study focuses only on
this particular woreda.

Methodologically; this research will be a sample survey research i.e. based on the representative
sample conclusion for the population will be made. Additionally, the main source of this data
will be questionnaire, interview and secondary data. The questionnaire will be distributed Vital
Event Registration Office of Kirkos sub city Woreda 10 the customers who stay in queue to get
the service and collected to be analysed.

The limitations of this study can arise from the scope of the study. This study mainly focuses the
effect of service quality on customer satisfaction but there might have various intervening factors
beyond service quality that cases the improvement of customer satisfaction such as marketing
strategy, brand product quality, environment and the like. Therefore, other factors beyond service
quality that affect customer satisfaction cannot be addressed by this study. More over, this study
focused only on Kirkos sub city in one selected branch woreda 10 which have the process of
vital event registration. The result may not represent the whole population.

4. Review Of related Literature

4.1 Theoretical Review
Service
Services are economic activities offered by one party to another. In exchange for money, time,
and effort; service customers expect value form access to goods, labour, professional skills,
facilities, networks, and systems; but they do not normally take ownership of the physical
elements involved (Lovelock & Wirtz, 2011). A service occurs when an interaction is established
between customers and service providers and/or the physical component of the service and/or the
systems through which the service is delivered (Shanhin & Janatyan, 2011). The concept of
service is used and defined in various perspectives by many scholars. A service is a commodity
with no physical existence, usually created and consumed at the same time.

Service is intangible in nature, it cannot be mass produced. It cannot be inventoried and stored
after production. Due to the fact that service and consumers of services are inseparable, they
cannot be produced until the consumer is ready to consumes them. Providing consistent quality
is difficult for service because of the characteristics of variability (Clow and Kurtz, 2003). When
one puts it in the simplest term; services are deeds, processes and performances (Zeithaml and
Bitner, 2004). It is apparent that services are produced not only by service businesses but also are
integral to the offering of many manufactured good producers.

Philip Kottler (2000) defines services as “A service is any act or performance that one party can
offer to another that is essentially intangible and does not result in the ownership or anything, it’s
production may not be tied to a physical product.”

According to Zeithaml and Bitner (2004) Services include all economic activities whose output
is not a physical product or construction, is generally consumed at the time it is produced and
provides added value in forms (such as convinces, amusement, timelines, comfort or health) that
are essentially intangible concerns of its first purchaser. Lovelock & Wirtz, (2007) indicated that,
service is “time based” and the out come of a service may result in desire change in consumer or
any property of the consumer.

Characteristics of Services

It is generally accepted that services have four main characteristics that differentiate them from
goods: intangibility, inseparability, variability, and perishability (Armstrong & Kotler, 2011)
these characteristics create unique challenges for services.

Service intangibility refers to the fact that services can not be seen, tested, felt, heard, or
smelled before they are bought. For this reason, customers try to evaluate the quality of a service
by looking at tangible components such as the place, people, price, equipment and
communication apparent. (Armstrong & Kotler, 2011).

Service inseparability refers to the fact that services cannot be separated from their providers,
whether the providers are people or machines. This means that the employee providing the
service becomes part of the service, in most cases, the customer is also present at the time of
providing the service. Therefore, the provided-customer interaction become important in
determining the out come of service (Armstrong & Kotler, 2011).

Service Variability refers to the fact that the quality of services depends on who provides them
well as when, where, and how they are provided (Armstrong & Kotler, 2011). This means that
the quality of a service provided is not just determined by the company but by the service
provider too. Therefore, understanding the role of service providers is crucial to understand
perceptions of service quality.

Service Perishability refers to the fact that services cannot be stored for letter sell use
(Armstrong & Kotler, 2011), although Lovelock and Wirtz (2011) argue that “ Not all service
performances are perishable” like video recordings of events and concerts. One problematic
situation that accompanies this characteristic is when demand exceeds supply (Armstrong &
Kotler, 2011). This can be applied to the vital event registration service when there is traffic at
the decks and no enough service providers, thus the service in that case cannot be stored for later
use. In this case, office should think of better ways to match the service supply with the demand.
For this reason, understanding perishability of services is important in the context of the study.

Customer Service

Customer service is the provision of service to customers before, during and after a purchase.
According to Turban et al. (2002), customer service is a series of activities designed to enhance
the level of customer satisfaction, thus the feeling that a product or service has met the customer
expectation. From the point of view of an overall sales process engineering effort, customer
service plays an important role in an organization’s ability to generate income and revenue.
Considering this perspective, customer service should be included as part of an overall approach
to systematic improvement. A customer service experience can change the entire perception a
customer has of the organization.

Moreover, a challenge one may encounter when working with customer service is to ensure that
you have focused your attention on the right key areas, measured by the right key performance
indicator. There is no challenge to come up with a lot of meaningful key performance indicators
but the challenge is to select a few which reflect your overall strategy. In addition to reflecting
your strategy it should also enable staff to limit their focus to the areas that really matter. The
focus must be of those key performance indicators, which will deliver the most value to the
overall objective. It must also be done in such a way that staff sincerely believes that they can
make a difference with the effort.

Quality

According to Reid and Sanders, there is no sole definition for quality. For some quality is
performance to standards while for others it is meeting or satisfying the customer’s needs. The
Quality of a product or service is the fitness of that product or service for meeting or exceeding
its intended use as required by the customer (S. Anil Kumar and N. Suresh) Dr. Ram Naresh Roy
defined quality as the totality of features and characteristics of a product or service that bear on
its ability to satisfy stated or implied needs.
The definition of quality depends on the point of view of the people defining it. Most customers
have a difficult time defining quality, but they know it when they see it.

Some definitions of Quality according to Reid and Sanders:

Conformance to specifications: How well a product or service meets the targets and tolerance
determined by its designers.

Fitness for use: A definition of quality that evaluates how well the product performs for its
intended use.

Value for price paid: Quality defined in terms of product or service usefulness for the price
paid.

Support services: Quality defined in terms of the support provided after the product or service is
purchased.

Psychological criteria: a way of defining quality that focuses on judgmental evaluations of what
constitutes product or service excellence.

Defining quality for service organization is difficult because of the intangible nature of the
product. Since a service is experienced, perceptions can be highly subjective. In addition to
tangible factors, quality of service is often defined by perceptual factors. In most cases, defining
quality in services can be especially challenging. (Reid and /sanders, operation mgt 4 th edition).
Some of the terms used to define quality in the service industry according to Reid and Sanders
are:

Consistency: ability to provide same level of good quality repeatedly.

Responsiveness to Customer needs: willingness of service providers to help customers in

unusual situations and to deal with problems.

Courtesy: the way employees treat customers.

Time: the amount of time a customer has to wait for the service.

Reliability: the ability to perform dependably, consistently and accurately.

Convenience: the accessibility of service provider to its customers.

Service Quality

Quality can only be judged in a context of customers’ expectations and experience. Its value to
the customers which should be the driving force of quality needs to be dynamic factor
responding to change. Jim whittles (1995) cited in Ken Irons (1997) said “service is the one
unique opportunity we have to be better than competitors and make sure our customers return”
which would mainly be the result of a quality service. Gronroos (1984) defined service quality as
the outcome of an evaluation of process where the customer perceived service quality is a
function of expected service, perceived service, and image quality.

Lehtinen and Lehtinen (1982) defined service quality in terms of physical quality, interactive
quality and corporate (image) quality. Physical quality is associated with tangible aspects of the
service. Interactive quality involves the interactive nature of services and refers to the two-way
flow, which occurs between the customer and the service provider, or his/her representative,
including both automated and animated interactions. Corporate quality refers to the image
attributed to a service provider by its current and potential customers, as well as other publics.

They also suggested that, when compared with the other two quality dimensions, corporate
quality tends to be more stable over time.

Researchers argue that the distinctive nature of services requires a distinctive approach to
defining and measuring service quality. As a result of the intangible multifaceted nature of many
services, it may be harder to evaluate the quality of a service than of a good. Because customers
are often involved in service production particularly in people processing services, distribution
needs to be drawn between the process of service delivery and the actual output of the service.
Perceived quality of service is the result of an evaluation process in which customers compare
their perception of service delivery and its outcome against what they expect.

The most extensive research in to service quality is strongly user oriented. Valarie Zeithmal and
Leonard Barry (1990) cited in Lovelock and Wirtz (2004) identified criteria consumers use in
evaluating service quality. In subsequent research, they found a high degree of correlation among
several of these variables and so consolidated them into five dimensions.
 1. Tangibles: the appearance of physical facilities, equipment, personnel and
communication material. The customer perceives that all the tangible aspects of the
service are fit for the task and is customer friendly.
2. Reliability: the ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately.
3. Responsiveness: the willingness to help customer and provide prompt service. The
customer’s perception that the service provider responds quickly and accurately to his or
her specific needs and demands.
4. Assurance: the knowledge and curtesy of employees and their ability to convey trust and
confidence so that the customer feels he/she is in courteous, able and competent hands.
5. Empathy: providing caring and individualized attention for customers to make them feel
they are receiving caring services and individualized attention.

Measuring Service Quality

Without doubt, conceptual service quality models are useful in so much as they provide an
overview of the factors which have the potential to influence the quality of organization and
its service offerings. They facilitate our understanding and can help organizations to clarify
how quality shortfalls develop. However, human behavior significantly affects the quality of
an organization and its offerings, and this is more evident in-service organizations.

The most widely used models in measuring service quality are the SERVQUAL and
SERVPERF model.

Using SERVQUAL to Measure Service Quality

According to Clow and Kurtz (2003) a test instrument called SERVQUAL was developed to
measure service quality.

Parasuraman et al. (1985) is believed to be the first who introduced the conceptual frame work
for the SERVQUAL model to measure consumer perceptions of service quality and later refined
the model. According to the SERVQUAL model (Parasuraman et al., 1988), service quality can
be measured by identifying the gaps between customers’ expectations of the service to be
rendered and their perceptions of the actual performance of the service.
It was developed to measure perceived service quality as the key output variable and in its
finalized form it has 22 pairs of Likert-type scales. The first 22 items are designed to measure
customer satisfactions of service for a particular service industry (expectations), while the
remaining 22 are intended to measure the perceived level of service provided by a particular
service organization (perceptions). Service quality is then measured by calculating the difference
in scores between the corresponding items (i.e. perceptions minus expectations).

Parasuraman et al. (1985), in other words, it is a technique that can be used for performing a gap
analysis of an organization’s service quality performance against customer service quality needs.
Research has shown SERVQUAL to be an effective and stable tool for measuring service quality
across service industries Parasuraman et al. (1985, 1988; Zeithaml et al., 1990; 1993).

SERVQUAL is based on five dimensions of service quality. The model was initially developed
for financial service sector an it has been used for other sectors such as telecommunication,
healthcare, and banks. When perceived performance rating exceeds expectations, the outcome is
considered as a sign of good quality whilst the reverse is indication of poor quality. (Lovelock
and Wirtz, 2007).

SERVQUAL has been adopted for conducting many studies. As it easily identifies the strength
and weakness of service provided by organizations, areas of weakness can be prioritized. It also
serves as a standard for organizations to measure the quality of service in the same industry.

Moreover, it serves as a signal to management to take in consideration the perception of both the
management and the customer helps them to know the customer’s impression about the service
provided. (Buttle 1996 cited on Aborampah Amoah Mensah 2010).

However, major criticisms have been made against the SERVQUAL model. The major one
being, the five-service quality dimensions are not universal and cannot be applied in all service
industries. Further Buttle (1996) cited on Aborampah (2010) argues that there is a little proof that
customers evaluate the quality of service on the basis of the difference between perception and
expectation. Landhare also supported his idea saying the difference score do not give any
additional information beyond that already existed in the perception’s item for the result showed
that the dominant contributor to the gap scores comes from the perception’s score.
Moreover, using two sets of questionnaires with the Likert scale is confusing and tiresome.
SERVQUAL also fails to provide remedies for the identified Gaps. (Aborampah Amoah Mensah
2010)

Using SERVPERF to Measure Service Quality

The SERVPERF model was carved out of SERVQUAL by Cronin and Taylor in 1992.
SERVPERF directly measures the customer’s perception of service performance and assumes
that respondents automatically compare their perceptions of the service quality levels with their
expectations of those services. Cronin and Taylor agrued that only perception was sufficient for
measuring service quality and therefore expectations should not be included as suggested by
SERVQUAL (Baumann et. al, 2007). Instead of measuring the quality of service via the
difference between the perception and expectation of customers as in SERVQUAL, SERVPERF
operationalizes on the perceived performance and did not assess the gap scores as expectation
does not exists in the model. Thus, it is performance-only measure of service quality. The model
adopts the five dimensions of SERVQUAL and the 22-item scale is used in measuring service
quality. In the SERVPERF model, the results demonstrated that it had more predictive power on
the overall service quality judgement than SERVQUAL (Cronin and Taylor 1994). “The
SERVPERF scale is found to be superior not only as the efficient scale but also more efficient in
reducing the number of items to be measured by 50% (Hartline and Ferrell, 1996; Babakus and
Boller, 1992; Bolton and Drew, 1991)” cited by Mesay Shita 2012. Many studies have been
conducted by asopting the SERVPERF model. Also, Wall and Payne (1973) cited by Meron
Melaku (2015) note that when people are asked to indicate the “desired level” (expectations) of
a service and the "existing lever(perceptions) of the service, there is a ps ychological constraint
that people always tend to rate the former higher than the latter (E>P).

Due to the above-mentioned facts the researcher also preferred to use SERVPERV model to undertake the
study.
Measuring Quality Gaps

According to Lovelock and wirtz,( 2012), a service performance that surprises and delights
customers by falling above their desired service levels will be seen as superior in quality. If
service delivery falls within their zone of tolerance, they will feel that it's adequate. But if
perceived quality falls below the adequate service level expected by customers, a discrepancy or
quality gap—has occurred between the service provider's performance and customer
expectations. Service gaps can occur at seven different points in the design, production, and delivery
of services, The service gap is the most critical, because it involves the customer's overall assessment
of the service, comparing what was expected against perceptions of what was received. The ultimate goal
in improving service quality is to narrow this gap as much as possible. The seven potential gaps in
service quality are:

1.The knowledge gap-the difference between what service providers believe customers expect and
customers' actual needs and expectations
2.The standards gap-the difference between managements perceptions of customer
expectations and the quality standards established for service delivery

3.The delivery gap-the difference between specified delivery standards and the service provider's actual
performance.
4.The internal communications gap the difference between what the company's advertising
and sales personnel think are the product's features, performance, and service quality level and what the

company is actually able to deliver.

5.The perceptions gap-the difference between what is actually delivered and

what customers perceive they have received (because they are unable to accurately

evaluate service quality).

6.The interpretation gap-the difference between what a service provider's

communication efforts actually promise and what a customer think was promised by these communications.

7. The service gap – the difference between what costumers expect to receive and
their perceptions of the service that is actually delivered.

Customer Satisfaction

Early concepts of satisfaction have typically defined satisfaction as a post utility eventually and
judgment concerning a specific purchase decision (Chirchile and Sauprenant 1992; Oliver 1980).
Most researchers agree the satisfaction is an attitude or evaluation that is formed by
the customer by comparing what they expect to receive to their subjective perception
of the performance they actually get (Oliver, 1980).
Satisfaction is the customer’s fulfillment response. It is a judgment that a product or
service consumption-related fulfilment, including levels of under or over-fulfillment (Oliver
2010).

Zeithaml and Bitner (2000) defined customer satisfaction as the customers’ evaluation of a
product or service inters of whether the product or service has not their needs and expectation.

Customer satisfaction can also be defined as the “customer’s response to the evaluation of the
perceived discrepancy between prior expectation and the actual performance of the product as
perceived after its consumption” (Tse and Wilton, 1998). Jemal and Nazer(2002) cited on
Aborampah argued that customer satisfaction is not only linked with the view of customers but
also with their experience with the service delivery process .(Aborhampah Amoah Mensah
2010). Customer satisfaction reflects the degree of a customer’s positive reaction for the service
provider in bank context, it is necessary for service providers(banks) to recognize the customer’s
vison of their services. A high level of customer satisfaction can have a positive impact on
customer loyalty(Deng et al, 2010) citied on Hossein Gazora*, Babak Nematia, Amir Ehsania
and Kianoush Nazari Amelehb

Mixed findings exist regarding the casual direction between service quality and satisfsction (lee,
et al, 2000) does customer satisfaction lead to service quality or vice versa. Yavas et al(1997)
explained that although some studies interpreted service quality perceptions as an out come of
satisfaction, recent studies have characterized service quality as an antecedent of outcome of
satisfaction. We expect the postion that customers that customers can evaluate a service (be
satisfied or satisfaction) only after the perceive it. Many authors who studied the relationship
between perceived service quality and customer satisfaction have shown that service quality
determines customer satisfaction. (cited on Anderson et al 1994)

Edvardsson (1998) believes that the concept of service should be approached from a customer
perspective . it is the customer’s total perception of the outcome, which is “the service”. It forms
the perception of quality and determines whether a particular customer is satisfied or not .
customers have different values and different grounds for assessment; they may perceive one and
the same service in different ways.

Therefore a company must first find out the level of satisfaction of its current customers to
improve its custome satisfaction. One common way of measuring satisfaction is to ask customers
first to identify what factors are important in satisfaying them and then to evaluate the
performance of service provider and its compititors on these factors. Many firms use a five point
scale to measure customer satisfaction, with the following format

1= very dissatisfied

2= somewhat dissatisfaction

3= neutral

4= somewhat satisfied

5= very satisfied

The result of the satisfaction can be used to estimate the number of loyal customers a firm has as
well as how many are at risk f defeating. Lovelock and wright (1999) cited on (Deborah
Mamo2014).

Factors that causes Customer Satisfaction

A customer satisfaction is an ambiguous and abstract concept. Actual manifestation of the state
of satisfaction will vary from person to person, product to product and service to service. The
state of satisfaction depends on a number of factors which consolidate a phycological, economic
and physical factors.

Several factors affect customer satisfaction. The kinds of product that office offer to its
customers can cause customer satisfaction or dissatisfaction. Consumers do no buy product or
service for its own sake. They buy to acquire benefits that the product offers. They buy to satisfy
a need product their for exist for what they fulfill in terms of consumer needs. It is the essential
feature or benefit that the buyer expects to receive from using the product that motivate buying
behavior (Boateng, 1994).

The service delivery process also plays a key role in customer satisfaction. When the process of
service delivery is too long, it lengthens customer waiting time. According to (Sasraku, 2007),
the physical evidence also plays a role in customer satisfaction. The physical evidence includes
the edifice or building and its decorations, am imposing service office with comfortable seats,
place of convivence, ETC. the office or building and its internal and external decorations and
satisfy a customer. The customer can pride him or herself as a customer of that office.

Another service element that causes customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction is the people or the
employees delivering the product or service (Covey, 2004). The employees occupied the first
point of contact with the customer. Employee behavior are their for important to customers. If
the employee is cold or rude the customer takes it as a measure of the state of the office.
Unhappy employees will have difficulties in keeping customers happy (Sasraku, 2007).

The technology being used by the bank in service delivery could be a source of satisfaction to
customers. When electronic device like computers is used, they tend to speed up the processing
time of service issuance of service. Systems and processes solely do not create satisfaction.
Service system quality, behavioral service quality, service transaction accuracy and machine
service quality are necessary to make the technology in use worth while (Aldlaigan and Buttle,
2002).

Further more, the security of customers and their information is an area of concern to customers.
When customers are assured of protection from external threats, they feel secured and happy.

For example, if a bank is situated at a place noted for criminal activities, customers are scared
and dissatisfied (Sasraku, 2007). Of course the internal security is equally important to customer
who will want to ceil with personnel with integrity and good moral values especially, the
financial institutions (Lovelock and Wirtzn, 2007)

Customer satisfaction versus service quality

Due to the dynamic nature of expectation, evaluation change over time from person to person and prom
culture to culture. What is considered quality service or the things that satisfy customers today maybe
different tomorrow. Customers perceive service in terms of the quality of the service and how satisfied
they are over all with their experience. (Zeithaml and Bitner, 2013). The reason for the focus on quality of
service and customer satisfaction is the belief that the organization can differentiate themselves by means
of providing better service quality and over all customer satisfaction.

Parasuraman et al (1988) defined service quality and customer satisfaction as service quality is a global
judgment or attitude relating to the superiority of the service, where as satisfaction is related to specific
issue. Satisfaction is a post consumption experience which comperes perceived quality with expected
quality, where as service quality refers to a global evaluation of a firm’s service delivery system. (Beliyu
Girma, 2012).

According to Zeithaml and Bitner (2013) the terms satisfaction and quality were used interchangeably.
But researchers have attempted to be more precise about the meanings and measurement of the 2 concepts
resulting in considerable debate. Consensus is growing that the 2 concepts are fundamentally different in
terms of their underline causes and outcomes. Although they Have certain things in common, satisfaction
is generally viewed as a Broder concept whereas service quality assessment focuses specifically on
dimensions of service. Based on this view perceived service quality is a component of customer
satisfaction

According to Kotler and Armstrong satisfaction is the post purchase evaluation of product or service
taking into consideration the expectations. Researchers are divided over the antecedents of service quality
and satisfaction. Some believe service quality leads to satisfaction, other think it is not. The studies of Lee
et al (2000); gilbert and velation (2006); Suleman (2011) and buttle (1996) suggest service quality leads
to customer satisfaction. To achieve a high level of customer satisfaction, most researchers suggest that a
high level of service quality should be delivered by the service provider as a service quality is normally
considers an antecedents of customer satisfaction. As service quality improves, the probability of
customer satisfaction increases (Mesay 2012).

Customer satisfaction in vital event registration service context

In contrast to products, customers are not really able to evaluate services before the service process takes
place. The interaction with the service provider and the customers, the so called service encounter, is the
key in the evaluation of service performance (Gil 2008). During this encounters, the customer is able to
get An impression of the way the office provides its services. His \her service experience is defined by the
interaction with the office, the process and the employees.

Accordingly, customer satisfaction is built upon the bases of the service encounters. Service providers
have significant opportunities to manage the interactions that together from their experience (Wirtz,
1994). They can design and the interactive production process; select, train and manage service
employees; design and maintain environment; selectively target, socialize and educate customers.

In vital event registration service, satisfaction is usually conceptualized as a multi dimensional construct
(Enku Tensay, 2021)
The list of vital event registration service attributes used for the measurement of satisfaction comprises
elements like : appearance of the facility, appearance of the office, attitude and behavior of the staff,
working hours, waiting time, decor and atmosphere.

Review of Empirical studies

According to sacky ruby, Stephan, Amponsah and Emmanuel (2012) the study aimed the effect of quality
service on custormer satisfaction, louyalty and retention in the g

Civil registration is not a privilege but a human right given to every human being (Oakeshott, 2014) cited
by (Enku Tensay Woldemariam 2021). To facialitate this the Ethipian Fedeeral Government organiza and
establish the office with One of the key features of most of the woreda registration offices is that they are
accessible by foot for the majority of the population living within their boundaries in terms of walking
distance, which is estimated to be less than 10 kilometres. The furthest household would be a walking
distance of about 3 hours from the registration office (Yakob Zewoldi, 2019)

Conceptual Framework

Some researchers argued that these ten dimensions of SERVQUAL are overlapping and give the same
meaning. So, (Parasuraman, Zeithmal, & Berry, 1988) redesigned the SERVQUAL scale, and reset it into
five dimension of service quality: loyalty, responsiveness, tangibles, assurance, and empathy.
(Fitzsimmons & Fitzsimmons, 2006), also support the scale represented by (Parasuraman,
Zeithaml, & Berry, 1985). (Bateson & Hoffman, 1999), stated that as per SERVQUAL scale, the
result from each dimension of consumers‟ expectation and consumers ‟perceptions are compared to
evaluate the gap in scores between the two components; so that the firms‟ level of service quality can
easily be defined. For instance: the higher the gap, the lower the service quality estimation; the lower the
gap, the higher will be the service quality estimation.

This study was conducted to explain the impact of service quality on customer satisfaction with in the
context of Kirkos sub-city woreda 10 vital event registration office. In order to specify the main focus of
the study and develop a strategy to the research topic, the following conceptual framework was drawn.
The conceptual framework model (as shown below in the figure ) shows the five service quality
dimensions and their impacts on customer satisfaction.
Therefore, the impact of the service quality provided by Kirkos sub-city woreda 10 vital event registration
office on its customer ‟satisfaction was evaluated using the five service quality dimensions (SERVQUAL
model), which are; Tangibility, Reliability, Responsiveness, Assurance and Empathy.

Tangibility

Reliability

Customer Satisfaction
Responsiveness

Assurance

Empathy

5.RESEERCH METHODOLOGY
Introduction

This chapter presents details of the research design and methodology. This includes research
design, population and simple, data collection and instrument, data analysis and
interpretation and questionnaires.

Research Design

The research is quantitative and data will be collected on the service quality dimensions
using SERVPERF model. The researcher used the descriptive-correlational form of research
design to provide solutions to the research problems. Descriptive research involves gathering
data that describe events and then organizes, tabulates, depicts and describes the data
collection. This research design would be used because it often uses visual aids such charts to
aid the reader in understanding the data distribution.
Population and Sample

All the times under consideration in any field of inquiry constitute a population. According to
Sekeran (2001) cited in Hirut S. (2015), a population is “the entire group of people, events or
thing of interest that the researcher wishes to investigate.”

Target Population

The target population for the study is customers of Kirkos sub-city woreda 10 population
who came for service in vital event registration office, for the service of birth certificate,
residence ID, certificate for marital status, and employment status. As the current total
number of residents in the woreda indicates that there are 15,000 house holds; the
researcher use these residents as a target population to carry out the study.

Sampling technique and sample size

In principle, perfect information about population could be obtained from census study,
but due to the reason that total population size of the study is larger (15,000) and difficult
to manage, the researcher will take samples and the investigation has been conducted on
samples.

Sampling techniques provide a range of methods that enable one to reduce the amount of
data needed for a study by considering only data from a sub-group rather than all possible
elements. Since the population leaving in this woreda are vast enough as of the data of
the office administration they are about 15,000 and from the random interview it is
assessed that there are a lot of dissatisfaction in the service.

With a 95% level of accuracy, 390 samples will be selected from the total 15,000 resident
population using the sample size determination formula developed by (Biruk, 2017) to
calculate the required sample size from the total tax payers as follows;

n= N
1+Ne2
where n = the sample size

N = the population size

 e = the margin of error (0.05) or maximum tolerable error

Therefore:

n = 15000 = 389.61 ͌ 390

1+15000(0.05)2
With restriction of education to fill the questionnaire, willingness of the customer to give
response and availability of time to fill the questionnaire this study use random sampling
otherwise the missed questionnaire will me maximized.

Data Collection and Instrument

A survey is a method of collecting data in which people are asked to answer a number of
questions (usually in the form of questionnaire). The reliability of a survey’s results depends on
whether the sample of population from which the information will be collected in free from bias
and sufficiently large. According to Leary (2004), the major advantages of questionnaires are
that they consuming than other measuring instruments.

Therefore, the researcher would be collecting the relevant data from primary and secondary
sources. The primary data will be gathering through structured questionnaire comprised of close
ended questions.

Data Analysis and Interpretation

The researcher is using statistical process for social science (SPSS), with graphical and table
presentation for the analysis. In addition, researcher will analyse the data by using both
qualitative and quantitative analysis techniques.

Quantitative analysis techniques would be used to demonstrate processed data in absolute terms
through the use of descriptive statistical tools such as frequency, valid percentages, mean and
standard deviation of results with the help of SPSS by employing descriptive and inferential
analysis techniques.

Questionnaire

The questionnaire is prepared in three parts. The first part of the questionnaire consists of issues
related to the personal information of the respondent. It includes the age, gender and educational
back ground, occupation, frequency of visit. The second part will concern with the questions
used to assess service quality of the vital event registration office of woreda 10 office. The
research instrument design is based on the five dimensions of service quality and the 22 service
items of the SERVPERF model. The tailor-made questionnaire includes four items which
correspond to the tangible dimensions, five items which correspond t the reliability dimension,
five items which correspond to the assurance dimensions. Respondents will be asked to indicate
their degree of agreement with each of the items on five-point Likert scale. The third part of the
questionnaire measures the level of customer satisfaction using a five-point Likert scale which
ranges form ‘highly satisfied’ to ‘highly dissatisfied’.
 6. Budget and time
Budget
In doing the research, the following budget and time will be required to finish the study

S/n Description Amount in Birr

1 Stationary 1050
2 Intermate expense 700
3 Transportation expense 800
4 Mobile card 300
5 Other expense 500
Total in Birr 3,350

Time Schedule

Description Time [2022]

Research Proposal & Literature review May 15 – June 15
Questionnaire: -
 Preparation June 15 – June 20
 Distribution & collection June 20 – July 15

Preparation of data for analysis July 16 – July 30

Data analysis and interpretation August 1 – August 15
Finding conclusion and recommendation August 16 – August 20
Paper submission and returned
 Draft paper August 20 – August 30
 Final paper September 1 – September 15

Total Time 4 months

 7. Organization of the Paper

This thesis is organized into five chapters. The first chapter is an introduction which consist
background of the study, statements of the problem, objectives significance of the study, scope
and limitation of the study. The second chapter addresses review of related literatures which
consists theoretical backgrounds, review of previous empirical studies and conceptual
frameworks. The third chapter consists of the research methodologies applies in the study.
Chapter four focus on the result discussion of the study. Finally, chapter five focused on
conclusions and Recommendations of the study.
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