Improving service provision through better management and measurement of customer satisfaction in facilities management

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the application of a customer performance measurement system (CPMS) to demonstrate how facilities management (FM) organisations can enhance their existing processes for measuring the customer satisfaction of their service provision. Design/methodology/approach – Customer performance measurement in FM is the process of capturing, measuring, and improving the satisfaction of FM customers. A generic CPMS was developed that FM organisations can adopt to improve their existing service provision. The CPMS was developed using a mixed methods approach was adopted. An instrumental case study was used to test the CPMS. The case study represented what was deemed as a typical FM organisation in the UK. The effectiveness of the CPMS application was first validated internally by the instrumental case study. A series of collective case studies were then used to validate the CPMS externally, by testing a series of other FM companies in the UK to provide further understanding of the potential application of the CPMS. Findings – The findings suggest that by adopting a strategic model that incorporates a balance of quantitative and qualitative methods to gain customer satisfaction of FM service provision, can enhance an FM organisation's existing processes of gaining customer satisfaction. Originality/value – Although there are many studies researching performance measurement in FM, there is a lack of knowledge on the application of customer performance measurement. This paper contends that there is a need to develop a mixed methods system that is not limited to gaining quantitative findings of customer satisfaction, but also gains wider qualitative findings that investigate customer expectations and perceptions of FM service provision. Generic customer satisfaction benchmarks in the UK FM industry were also established, and formed a crucial component of the CPMS.