Abstract:
Every organisation must be sensitive to client perceptions about its service quality for its good. Given recent protests across the country about poor service quality, government departments in South Africa will do well to ensure that the services they provide meet the expectations of clients to arrest these protests that sometimes result in property destruction and fatalities.
At the same time, since a primary focus of total quality management (TQM like most Quality Management Systems (QMS) is to improve customer satisfaction by having a customer focus and consistently meeting customer expectations it, needs to be emphasised that government departments across South Africa need to ensure that their QMS conform to TQM. Literature indicates top management commitment, employee involvement, employee training, organisational culture as the key TQM dimensions.
This study utilised the quantitative approach by conducting a sample survey to investigated client perceptions of service quality in the Welkom regional office of The Home Affairs Department in South Africa along these dimensions of TQM. The key finding is that clients have positive perceptions about service quality dimensions tangibility, assurance, reliability and empathy but hold negative perception about responsiveness.
Among others Based on the findings, the following recommendations are made to based on the findings from the study. Firstly, to enhance service quality, the department needs to make TQM a priority. Also, the department should establish a dedicated research unit should with the key task being to continuously seek for clients’ feedback on services provided by the department.
