An assessment of factors affecting quality of service delivery in municipalities (A case of Blantyre City Council)

To deliver quality services to customers is the desire of every public organisation, but what matters is to find a proper way on how it should be done. The main purpose of this research was to investigate and establish factors affecting the quality of service delivery in municipalities and recommend a theory or a framework that could enhance it using Blantyre City Council as a case study. A survey was conducted using three zoning areas of Blantyre city thus; residential (high, medium, low) density, industrial (light, heavy) and commercial areas. Three aspects of service delivery (technical, financial and community participation & customer relations) were used to identify problems that affect service delivery in municipalities. To identify factors contributing to poor service delivery, five key elements of service quality (responsiveness, reliability, assurance, empathy and tangibles) were used. To make sure that there was triangulation, structured interview with key persons of the areas and the researcher’s personal judgment were used. Being a qualitative study, purposive sampling with maximum variation was used to choose the samples. There is a great need for Blantyre City Council to improve on its existing infrastructure, find a technique of sustaining its finances and improve on its customer relations/community participation to pave way for quality delivery of services. This could work well if the services of the Council are reliable with a quick response to people’s needs while the employees show empathy and are able to assure the customers of their needs. Physicality of all the resources used need to be in good condition. The evidence collected in the research could be used with a few areas that could need further research although the study was meant to be for academic purposes