A Study of customer satisfaction and application of QFD for quality improvement in residential apartments

Abstract

There has been a significant growth in the residential apartment market in Sri Lanka during the last decade. The main reasons behind this upsurge include the growth of population, changes in living patterns and the soaring prices of property particularly in urban areas of the country. Sustainability of this segment of construction depends to a greater extent on the ability of developers to satisfy customer requirements in the long run. At present, most of the residential apartments are designed without the involvement of potential users or customers. When there is a communication gap among the parties, particularly with respect to user requirements, the goal of customer satisfaction and high quality services cannot be achieved. To ensure defects free and user-friendly form of residential apartments, the right blend of design, construction and operation phases is vital. This study has analyzed the information obtained through questionnaire survey to measure occupants' perception of characteristics of their apartment and its surroundings in terms of both 'importance' and 'quality'. The analysis considered both the private and public sector apartments and its process, critical issues regarding housing and customer attitudes were identified. Further, the results of the study revealed that understanding and determining the real customer requirements are essential for the sustainability of the residential apartment business; to address this issue, Quality Function Deployment (QFD) technique could be used quite successfully and if there is a mechanism to listen.to the voice of the customers such as the Post Occupancy Evaluation (POE) surveys presented in this research or any other that enables the involvement of users during the early stages. Key words: Residential apartments, Quality, _.Customer satisfaction, Post Occupancy Evaluation, Quality Function Deployment