A post-occupancy evaluation of in-house facilities management service quality and user satisfaction in multi-tenanted office buildings in Ghana

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this study is to explore user satisfaction with in-house facility management (FM) services in multi-tenanted office buildings in Accra, Ghana using a post-occupancy evaluation (POE) approach. Design/methodology/approach The study assessed user satisfaction with FM service quality by using a POE of their perceptions about the attitude and courtesy of the FM personnel, the reliability of the FM services they provide, the responsiveness and the competence of the service providers. The study used walk-throughs and questionnaire surveys as the POE methods. One hundred and twenty-one users from 22 multi-tenanted office buildings, who have actively used the FM services for at least a year, were purposively sampled. The data was collected via a survey using a structured questionnaire. The data was analysed using descriptive statistics and principal component analysis in version 25 of statistical package for the social sciences. Findings The study revealed that users were dissatisfied with the quality of in-house FM services across all 15 services The results also showed that users’ satisfaction with the services is not affected by the differences in their age, gender, educational level, job role and number of years in the buildings. The results further demonstrated that the most critical factors that resulted in users’ dissatisfaction were electric facilities, building fabric maintenance, emergency coordination, waste management and the decoration of the buildings during festive seasons. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the present study based on POE to assess user satisfaction with FM services for multi-tenant office buildings has, presumably, not been tackled before in Ghana. The results of the study are very essential to the owners of the buildings and facility managers in decision-making concerning the delivery of FM services. Building industry-wise, the results demonstrate the need for in-house FM managers in multi-tenanted office buildings in Ghana to adopt FM service delivery methods that increase user satisfaction. The results also call for further research into user satisfaction with outsourced FM services in multi-tenanted office buildings and further research on the use of the in-house strategy on other types of buildings to ascertain whether the dissatisfaction with FM is due to other factors such as the choice of FM strategy, the property type etc.