Customer satisfaction in residential construction CUSTOMER SATISFACTION IN THE PROCUREMENT OF RESIDENTIAL CONSTRUCTION: THE EXAMPLE FROM BANGKOK STEPHEN OGUNLANA School of Civil Engineering, Asian Institute of Technology, PO Box 4, Klong Luang, Pathum Thani 12120, Thailand.
[email protected] NIPPITAR KHEAWKHAMSAENG Siam University, 235 Phet Kasem Rd., Bangkhae, Bangkok 10163, Thailand.
[email protected] ABSTRACT Ideally, satisfying the customer should be the aim of any service provider. However, this is possible only if the service provider knows what the customer wants. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the construction client to communicate to the contractor what the major goals in a construction project are. It is also the responsibility of the construction contractor to seek to know the client’s expectations. When there is no meeting of minds between the parties, the goal of customer satisfaction cannot be achieved. Survey of the residential construction sector shows that Thai contractors do not pay much attention to client satisfaction. Contractors do not clearly know their performance as perceived by developers. Contractors need to pay attention to client satisfaction and continuously improve themselves with respect to feedback from their clients. Developers should set up a system to evaluate the level of satisfaction with their contractors in a systematic way and communicate the results to the contractors. They should support contractors’ efforts to provide high quality service by improving on their internal management systems and contractor relations. It is suggested that a joint evaluation of performance by the client and contractor would help in meeting customer service expectations. Keywords: Customer communication
satisfaction,
residential
construction,
performance,
client
expectations,
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