User satisfaction index: An indicator on building performance

Infrastructure in rapidly developing countries like India is on an upswing and is equally flourishing in both private as well as public/government sectors. Public spending by government agencies lacks effective monitoring post construction especially on maintenance of assets. It makes the government agencies less accountable on their expenditure as also with the procedures/processes followed for maintenance of these assets. With tens of thousands of crore indian rupees being spent on maintenance of government residential accommodation, it is imperative to have a gauge to measure the effectiveness of these maintenance agencies. Presently, no such means exists to actually measure effectiveness of maintenance of government assets. Mere expenditure of allotted funds by the end of a financial year cannot be a viable indicator to vouch for the genuineness of spending. The most ideal route to measure its effectiveness is the most important stake holder, viz. the end user. This paper is a part of an ongoing research where the ultimate overarching goal is to develop a conceptual framework to implement an intervention strategy for gauging and enhancing user satisfaction based on user requirement related building performance attributes. This paper deals with development of an instrument necessary to garner feedback on user satisfaction. The content of the questionnaire is based on carefully selected attributes for user requirements that reflect building performance. An endeavor is made to convert the user feedback into quantifiable user satisfaction index to assess performance post implementation of intervention strategies by the FM agency.Infrastructure in rapidly developing countries like India is on an upswing and is equally flourishing in both private as well as public/government sectors. Public spending by government agencies lacks effective monitoring post construction especially on maintenance of assets. It makes the government agencies less accountable on their expenditure as also with the procedures/processes followed for maintenance of these assets. With tens of thousands of crore indian rupees being spent on maintenance of government residential accommodation, it is imperative to have a gauge to measure the effectiveness of these maintenance agencies. Presently, no such means exists to actually measure effectiveness of maintenance of government assets. Mere expenditure of allotted funds by the end of a financial year cannot be a viable indicator to vouch for the genuineness of spending. The most ideal route to measure its effectiveness is the most important stake holder, viz. the end user. This paper is a part of an ongoing research where the ultimate overarching goal is to develop a conceptual framework to implement an intervention strategy for gauging and enhancing user satisfaction based on user requirement related building performance attributes. This paper deals with development of an instrument necessary to garner feedback on user satisfaction. The content of the questionnaire is based on carefully selected attributes for user requirements that reflect building performance. An endeavor is made to convert the user feedback into quantifiable user satisfaction index to assess performance post implementation of intervention strategies by the FM agency.

Keywords:

User satisfaction , Building Performance Evaluation , Attributes , Questionnaire , Validation , Survey , User Satisfaction Index