Service quality of property managers of shopping complexes in Ibadan, Nigeria

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to assess the service quality (SQ) of property managers of shopping complexes in Ibadan with a view to improving management practice. Design/methodology/approach Primary data were used for the study through questionnaire administration. Ibadan was stratified into five axes using existing major roads where shopping complexes were highly concentrated. From each axis, 33, 65, 48, 64 and 66 shopping complexes were identified (Oyo State Ministry of Land, Housing and Survey, 2017), and the systematic sampling technique (20 percent) was adopted to select 57 out of 276 shopping complexes and 192 (10 percent) out of 1919 occupiers of the shopping complexes in the study area. In total, 157 occupiers responded to the questionnaire, and the data were analyzed using mean ranking and stepwise multiple regression. Findings This study found that professionalism, tangible, assurance and empathy dimensions of SQ were rated fair, whereas reliability and responsiveness dimensions were rated poor. Also, stepwise multiple regression analysis predicted 78.5 percent overall SQ of property managers, and assurance, professionalism and empathy dimensions contributed significantly to the overall SQ. Hence, reliability and responsiveness dimensions of SQ need to be improved. It is expected that the findings of this study will help property managers to understand the role of various dimensions of SQ for enhanced property management practice. Originality/value The study is one of the few studies that assessed the SQ of property managers of shopping complex with a view to improving its management practice.

Relationship between perceived service quality and client satisfaction indicators of engineering consultancy services in building projects

“…This confirmed the earlier position of Tang et al (2003), which recommended the use of service quality, product quality and relationship quality in the measurement of clients’ satisfaction in the construction sub-sector. This result equally is consistent with Ojekalu et al (2019), which stated that professionalism accounted for 52.0% of overall service quality. This result implies that engineering consultancy firms need to emphasise the improvement in the technical and managerial factors to ensure satisfaction with the overall service quality.…”

“…The mean scores for the criteria were calculated and ranked appropriately. The use of mean score to determine index of variables of service quality of property managers of shopping complexes have been carried out by Ojekalu et al (2019). This was done using responses received from the respondents based on a five-point Likert scale.…”

Recognizing and realizing the value of customer-focused property management

“…Heightened demands can be observed in the amenities tenants seek out, the lease terms they negotiate and the level of customer service they require from property management teams (Ashuria, 2010; Rasila, 2010; Seetharaman et al , 2017). This is particularly true in well developed real estate markets around the world, but tenant demands appear to be on the rise in developing markets as well (Ojekalu et al , 2019a; Taylor, 2014).…”

“…But, they do support the widely held notion that property managers can no longer do their jobs effectively when they devote more attention to buildings than to the people who occupy them (Appel-Meulenbroek, 2008; Palm, 2016; Morgan et al , 2017). In fact, there are those who now believe few factors are likely to contribute more to property managers' success in the future than the quality of customer service they provide to tenants and the strength of the relationships they build with them (Lindholm, 2008; Noor and Pitt, 2009; Palm, 2011, 2013; Ojekalu et al , 2019b; Sanderson, 2016). This is likely to be exacerbated by the repercussions of the Covid-19 pandemic, as many tenants face financial hardship, and many businesses will not survive enforced lockdown measures.…”

“…Meeting human resource needs in this area remains difficult for many firms, which undermines their ability to make customer-focused property management a priority (Dobrian, 2015; Phillips, 2014). There are also firms which struggle to provide tenants with high-quality customer service because the property managers they are able to attract lack motivation to empathise with their customers (Morgan et al , 2019; Ojekalu et al , 2019b). None of these problems has a simple solution, but what separates industry leaders from the pack is their refusal to treat poor customer service as an unavoidable product of market forces (Dobrian, 2017).…”