Service Quality as a Panacea for Citizen Satisfaction and Trust: A Case of Chinhoyi Municipality in Zimbabwe

Abstract

Local Authorities are generally mandated with the role of providing essential goods and services to the communities they operate in, thereby promoting economic development. These days, citizens are always demanding high-quality services. The provision of high service quality plays a significant role since the majority of people strive to live in modernised cities. Therefore, this study aims to find out if service quality has an effect on citizen satisfaction and trust. It also examines the relationship between citizen satisfaction and trust. A cross-sectional survey was conducted and convenience sampling was used to sample 383 participants in Chinhoyi town, which has a population of 90800 residents. A structured five point Likert scale was used to collect data. Reliability and validity were tested using SPSS version 20. Inferential statistics, including structural equation modelling, showed that service quality positively effects citizen satisfaction and citizen trust, and citizen satisfaction positively affects citizen trust. The study revealed that there is a greater need for service delivery improvement at the municipality. The study recommends that Chinhoyi municipality adopt total quality management principles to continuously improve its service delivery to consistently improve client satisfaction. Also, regular monitoring of service quality is essential to ensure that the local government exceeds citizens’ expectations and expands its offerings.