Water and Sewage Service Quality: A Proposal of a New Multi-Questionnaire Monitoring Tool

The measurement of a service Quality is a relevant issue for organizations. In this paper we describe an application of the Parasuraman, Zeithalm and Berry’s (PZB) conceptual model of service Quality in the field of the water and sewage service. The PZB model determinants have been specialized for this specific target and a multi-questionnaire has been developed. This activity has been developed basing on Quality Function Deployment methodology. The described approach is structured into two parts. The first one concerns a general evaluation of the service Quality, while the second one considers specific service aspects enabling to better understand possible reasons of dissatisfaction. A specific software application to support data collection and statistical analysis is described. The proposed monitoring tool ensures an overall evaluation of service Quality from the customer point of view. Its organization into two parts allows reducing the overall costs of data acquisition as well as maximizing the information got from customers. The multi-questionnaire can be tailored in order to meet the needs of both customers and service controller in the monitored areas. The results of the survey show the perceived Quality of the service. Future work will be focused on the comparison between the customers’ perceptions and the Quality which is actually assured by the service provider (the offered Quality). Copyright Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010