Customer satisfaction on semi luxury apartments in Sri Lanka

Abstract

There has been a significant growth in the residential apartment market in Sri Lanka during the last decade. The main reason behind this upsurge include the growth of population, changes in living patterns. demand for the second house concept. high density in the urban areas of the country and 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 the customer requirements in the long run. At present most of the residential apartments are designed without the involvement of potential users or customers. Further, specification of the finishes, maintenance of common services, duration of handing over the end product and the final cost factor which were promises by the developers leads to make conflicts. To ensure conflicts free and customer friendly form of residential apartment, the right blend of design, construction and operation phases are vital. This study has analyzed the information obtained through questionnaire survey to measure customer's perception of characteristics of their apartment and its surroundings in terms of difference between the "Importance" and "Satisfaction". i.e., Quality Gap. This study has more emphasized on the owners of the Semi Luxury apartments who occupied their own ...apartment, rather than occupant rented in the apartment buildings. The analysis considered private sector apartments and its process; critical issues regarding housing, customer satisfaction and customer attitudes were identified. Further, the results of the study revealed that understanding and determining the real customer satisfactions are met in the residential apartment business; to address the issue of promises given by the developers to customers -~ during the pre-sales done before the construction been started in the apartment building 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.