Citizen Satisfaction with Public Service: What Factors Drive? 78 Citizen Satisfaction with Public Service: What Factors Drive?

Understanding citizens’ satisfaction with public service is crucial for effective and efficient governance. In this milieu, this paper intended to examine the factors that drive citizen satisfaction with public service. Data on this topic were taken from the Nepal National Governance Survey 2017/18, and analyzed using a logistic regression model. The findings revealed that compliance with the rule, responsiveness, prompt service delivery, receiving service own self, and hassle-free service have a positive effect on citizen satisfaction, whereas paid/asked bribes and service attempts have a negative effect. Hence, cautious intervention in these factors is pivotal to ensure higher citizen satisfaction with public service.


Introduction
Citizen satisfaction with ensuring citizen satisfaction with public services has increased.
Citizen satisfaction is the ultimate goal of government with public service, which is an indicator of successful governance (Paudel & G u  With the increasing recognition of citizens as the focal point of public service, the emphasis on their expectations and demands. Public service institutions are expected to deliver quality service in a fair, transparent, reliable, and responsive manner for citizen satisfaction. Although citizens' demand for improved public service is increasing, governments are not always able to respond effectively. Failure to meet citizens' expectations leads to dissatisfaction with public services. Improved institutional performance leads to citizen satisfaction; for which, citizens provide a higher rating in government (Ariely, 2013).
Increasing citizen satisfaction with public services is the basis for public sector governance.
The Government  Ensuring higher citizen satisfaction with public service is complex because several factors are associated with it. In this backdrop, this study intended to examine the factors that drive citizens' satisfaction with public services, using Nepal National Governance Survey 2017/18 data set.
The results of this paper will help overcome a gap in the existing literature on determinants of citizen satisfaction in public service.
The article is divided into four sections.
It starts with an introduction to the issues and research purpose. The following section demonstrates, citizen satisfaction, and theoretical explanation. The third section focuses on research methods. The final section focuses on the study's findings, discussion and conclusion.

Citizen's Satisfaction: An Overview
Citizen satisfaction is defined and perceived in a variety of ways in the literature. Satisfaction is a complex phenomenon that combines expectations, experiences, and previous attitudes (Van de Walle, 2018). Citizen satisfaction with public services depends on an assessment of public service encounters (Bradford et al., 2009;Brown, 2007;Cohen, 2006). Oliver (1997) argued that satisfaction is a judgment based on a comparison of pre-service provision with postservice provision evaluation of the product or service experience. Satisfaction is the outcome of a comparison of expectations and actual service experience. Indeed, it is an assessment of postservice delivery. It's a mental condition that occurs after interacting with service and comparing it to previous experiences (Oliver, 1980). Citizens compare prior service expectations to actual service experience and decide whether he/she is satisfied or not. Satisfaction is thus, a result of differences between expected and perceived service (Parasuraman et al., 1985). In general, citizens are satisfied if their expectations are met by the quality of public service. The quality of public services has a greater impact on citizen satisfaction. Citizens are more likely to be satisfied if they receive high-quality public services. That may be the reason, Oliver (2010) argued that satisfaction is a function of quality.
Satisfaction increases as service quality surges.
Satisfaction is generally high as long as quality service delivery is maintained (Engdaw, 2020).
High-quality public service not only leads to satisfaction, but also fosters citizen confidence and trust. Therefore, public sector institutions should deliver high-quality services to citizens to meet their expectations.

Citizens Satisfaction: A Theoretical Explanation
There are several models that illustrate the relationship between quality service and customer satisfaction. The expectation disconfirmation, service quality, and performance model are notable ones.

Expectation Disconfirmation Model
E x p e c t a n c y d i s c o n f i r m a t i o n i s a psychological theory that is widely used in marketing, especially in consumer behaviour, to decide whether or not a customer is satisfied after post-purchase (Chatterjee & Suy, 2019). Initially, this model was commonly applied in customer satisfaction from private sector services (Jayanti & Jakson, 1991), but it is increasingly being applied in public sector service (Van Ryzin, 2004Roch & Poister 2006;James, 2009;Morgeson, 2012) and has become one of the dominant approaches in explaining citizen satisfaction with public services (Zhang et al., 2021). The expectancy disconfirmation model posits that disconfirmation affects citizen satisfaction.
The idea of expectation disconfirmation is primarily based on the concept of customer expectations. Customer expectation represents the customer hope of service performance, and is an important determinant of satisfaction (James, 2009;Van Ryzin, 2013). Satisfaction judgment is decided not only by-product or service performance, but also by a process in which customers equate performance to prior expectations of that service (Van Ryzin, 2004;Grimmelikhuijsen & Porumbescu, 2017).
Expectancy disconfirmation is a gap between customers' expectations and actual results (Erevelles & Leavitt, 1992;Oliver, 1997). The greater the disconfirmation value, the greater is the gap between performance and expectation (Zhang et al., 2021).

SERVQUAL Model
The SERVQUAL model, introduced in the 1980s by Zeithaml, Parasuraman, and Bery, is another model for explaining citizen satisfaction based on the concept of disconfirmation (Parasuraman et al., 1988). This model originally suggested 10 factors of quality service (reliability, communication, credibility, access, courtesy, responsiveness, competence, security, understanding/ knowing the customer and tangibles). However, in the early 1990s, the model was refined with five dimensions, as shown in Table 1. Table 1.

Dimension
Descriptions Reliability Ability to deliver the promised service dependably and accuracy Assurance Knowledge and courtesy of employee and their ability to inspire trust/ confidence Tangibles Appearance of personnel, physical facilities and equipment Empathy Caring, individualization and attention closeness Responsiveness Willing to support customers and deliver prompt service Source: Parasuraman et al., 1988, p. 23 These five dimensions have an impact on consumer satisfaction, and are used to assess the quality of public services. Service quality is described by Parasuraman et al., (1988) as an organization's ability to meet or exceed customer expectations. Services quality is influenced by customer expectation and actual service performance. Customer expectation is a customer's beliefs about a service (Parasuraman et al., 1988), and is shaped by four factors: wordof-mouth communications, personal needs, past experience, and external communications (Parasuraman et al., 1985). Service performance, whereas, refers to the actual service delivered by institutions. If the service performance meets the citizen expectations, the citizen is satisfied with public service. Citizen (dis)satisfaction, therefore, is heavily reliant on citizen expectations and actual service performance.

Performance Model
The performance model is another model  (Gupta, 2021). Public service institutions should, therefore, perform their task effectively and efficiently to hoard a higher level of citizens' satisfaction.

Methods
The data for our analysis came from the paid/asked bribe, and service attempts were used as predictor variables. These predictor variables were used to examine the propensity of satisfaction with public service.

Data Management and Analysis
In this study, binary logistic regression was used to examine the effect of predictor variables on the outcome variable. For this analysis, the outcome variable 'citizen satisfaction' was split into two groups '1'=satisfaction and '0'=dissatisfaction, as required by binary logistic regression. Similarly, all predictor variables were classified and coded in the same way as the outcome variable, as shown in Table 2.
The binary logistic regression model is presented as: ---------- (1) Where, Ln= the natural logarithm, P is the probability for satisfying with public service; (1-P) is the probability of not satisfying with public service; bn is the predictor variables.
The data processing and statistical analysis were carried out using the SPSS software 26 version, and the information was organized, tabulated, presented, and described using appropriate literature on citizen satisfaction and public service. Fully satisfied and satisfied to some extent was merged and labelled as 'satisfaction' coded as '1' while fully dissatisfied and dissatisfied to some extent merged and labelled as 'dissatisfaction' coded as '0'. Not accessed services and don't know/can't say were omitted.
Compliance, responsiveness, timely delivery, receive services own self, receive and hassle-free service Strongly agree, agree to some extent, disagree to some extent, strongly disagree, don't know/can't say.
Strongly agree and agree to some extent were merged and labelled as 'yes' coded as '1' while disagree to some extent and strongly disagree merged and labelled as 'no' coded as '0'. don't know/can't say was omitted.
Paid/asked bribe Yes, no, did not receive any public service, don't know/can't say.
Paid/asked bribe is labelled as 'yes' coded as '1' while not paid/ asked bribe is labelled as 'no' coded as '0'.

Results
The results of binary logistic regression are shown in

Discussion
Citizen satisfaction is a symbol of the quality of public services and is recognized as a primary goal of all governments. Public service providing institutions strive to deliver quality services to citizens for confirming a higher level of satisfaction. Citizens are satisfied when the quality of public is delivered as per citizens' expectations, needs and demands. Citizens' satisfaction with public services is influenced by many factors, which are discussed below:

Compliance
Compliance denotes adhering to rules and existing standards that should be followed to ensure citizen satisfaction. Compliance has a positive impact on citizen satisfaction, as confirmed by this study. The enforcement of predefined rules, regulations, and guidelines during the delivery of public services positively contributes to citizen satisfaction. Public service institutions have certain predefined rules, regulations and regulations which should be enforced (Paudel & Gupta, 2019b).
Service providers (bureaucrats), according to Weber (1968), should exercise authority delegated to them in accordance with formal and predefined laws. The service provider (bureaucrats) largely follow rules, regulations, and procedures in the performance of their responsibilities (Gupta et al., 2019). A large number of citizens are satisfied with public services when moral principles and standards are codified into legal enforcement (Nguyen et al., 2016). Citizens are satisfied, and good governance is improved, when service providers deliver the service as per rules and regulations.
Following predefined rules and regulations to perform duties is a prerequisite for ensuring citizen satisfaction. Shakya (2009), however, argued that government agencies are found to be involved in violations of the rule of law. Violation of predefined rules in public services delivery creates a conducive atmosphere for a bribe, which reduces citizen satisfaction significantly. Service providers should, therefore, provide public services as per predefined rules, regulations and procedures for a higher level of citizen satisfaction.

Responsiveness
The demand for responsive public service has increased over the past year. Citizens expect public officials/institutions to be more responsive.
Citizens have a legal right to responsive service, and service providers have a legal duty to provide it. Responsive services satisfy citizen needs and expectations (Gupta, 2018). Responsiveness in public service means meeting citizens' legitimate needs and putting a human face on governance systems, processes, and practices, thus reducing the gulf between the state and the people (Pokharel et al., 2018). Responsiveness has a positive impact on citizen satisfaction with public service, as the study confirms. Citizen satisfaction rises with increasing responsiveness in public service. Citizens may be dissatisfied when they feel the service provider is careless with them (Wang, 2010), because responsiveness entails active listening, supporting and responding to citizens needs empathetically (Pokharel et al., 2018). Citizens report lower satisfaction with public services when service providers do not respond to their demands, concerns, and needs. Therefore, the service provider should respond and resolve citizens' problems and behave in such a way to meet the expectations, desires, and aspirations of citizens. Fulfilling citizens' expectations, desires, and aspirations in public service is a hallmark of responsive governance, which assures citizen satisfaction. Therefore, service providers should inform, listen, and respond to citizens' concerns empathically to increase citizen satisfaction with public services.

Time
Timely delivery service is a notable influencing factor for citizen satisfaction, and is positively contribute to ensuring citizen satisfaction, as confirmed by this study. Time has a positive impact on citizen satisfaction (Dang & Hanh, 2018). Citizens are dissatisfied if they have to wait too long or results are not delivered as promised (Nguyen et al., 2016). The inability to offer service on time has a negative impact on citizen satisfaction. The propensity to postpone and take longer to provide public services has a negative impact on citizen satisfaction.
Citizens have the legal right to receive public service on time, but evidence reveals that this right is not being met. According to the Nepal National Governance Survey 2017/18, forty-four percentage of people reported that government employees do not provide service on time (NASC, 2018). Acharya (2010) argued that the efficiency of an organization is heavily reliant on the timely delivery of services, which helps to maintain the institutions' goodwill. Furthermore, she argued that the rapid growth of communication media assists citizens in receiving services on time, and that in some cases, if service providers are unable to deliver services on time, the citizen should be notified of the reason for the delay, resulting in a positive and strong citizen perception on public institutions. The Good Governance (Management and Operation) Act 2008 mandated for the timely and cost-effective public services delivery and states that an official who fails to perform the work within a given timeframe with nasty intent to circumvent duty or fails to meet work performance indicators, he/she may be reprimanded by the senior authority. There is a legal provision that citizens pay no additional money for public service unless required by law.
However, some service providers purposefully delay and take a longer time to compel citizens to pay extra fees (Pokharel et al., 2018). In this case, citizens should pay to obtain timely service because the state has a monopoly in public services, and uses it as a weapon to gain an unfair advantage. Citizens sometimes offer extra money voluntary basis to service providers to complete work quickly. Sometimes citizens also seek the help of intermediaries to receive hassle-free services on time. These factors have a negative effect on the quality of public services, resulting in a decline in citizen satisfaction. Service providers, therefore, should offer services on time, which leads to a higher level of citizen satisfaction.

Receive Service Own Self
A citizen may receive public services own self or with the assistance of a third party.
Receiving public service without the assistance of a third party is a sign of accessibility in public service. The issue is that not all citizens can obtain public services own self, and should seek assistance from a third party. Pokharel et al., (2018) argued that receiving public services own self depends on the nature of service and other conditions in which the citizens live, and is also affected by the citizen's confidence in service providers. Furthermore, they argued that if citizens do not believe they can receive service independently, they seek assistance from a third party. According to the Nepal National Governance Survey 2017/18, more than half of citizens (55%) reported they receive service own self, while 45 percent needed third-party assistance. Among those who take the assistance of a third party, onethird of citizens (36.4%) seek the help of family members/relative/neighbour/friend followed by a government employee (6.4%), intermediaries (3%), political party member (1%), social worker (0.7%), community leader and others (0.5%) (NASC, 2018). Receiving public service own self and citizen satisfaction are positively associated.
Citizens who obtain public service own self are more satisfied than citizens who sought help from a third party, because it imposes an additional financial burden on citizens. Citizens generally pursue third-party assistance when they have lack information about administrative processes, lack self-confidence, lack of convenient atmosphere, the involvement of intermediaries, and so on.
All of these have a negative impact on citizen satisfaction with public services.

Hassle-Free Service
Receiving hassle-free public service is a legal right of citizens and is positively related to citizen satisfaction. Citizen satisfaction increases as the services are becoming more hassle-free, as confirmed by the study. Public service should be made hassle-free and as simple as possible.

Corruption
Citizens may be dissatisfied if they believe there is widespread corruption among individuals who govern the country (Wang, 2010). The influence of corruption on citizen satisfaction is immense, and is negatively associated. The higher the level of corruption in public service, the lower the level of citizen satisfaction. Citizens who ask/pay bribes in exchange for public services rate the service poorly, and are dissatisfied. Bribing is a negative prophet of satisfaction, showing that bribing is not a feasible choice for people seeking to simplify the service acquisition process (Pokharel et al., 2018). Some service providers are inclined to accept bribes by stalling and stretching public services delivery. As per Nepal National Governance Survey 2017/18, sixty-three percentage of citizens reported that proper documentation is not enough to get work done in government offices; bribing is necessary (NASC, 2018). This figure indicates that corruption is prevalent in the public sector. Citizens' perception of bribery is needed as serious impairments to good governance (Pokharel et al., 2018). Corruption has prevailed, although the government of Nepal has taken several efforts to make Nepal a corruptionfree country . Mentioning 'I will not be corrupt, I will not allow corruption, I will work honestly for the country and the people' with high priority in the policy and program of the Government of Nepal 2077/78 indicates the evidence of corruption in public service. Asking or paying bribes before service undermines and deters the quality of public service and reduces citizen satisfaction. Hence, corruption should be significantly reduced by taking concrete steps at all levels to surge a higher level of citizen satisfaction with public services.

Service Attempts
Receiving public services in a single attempt is an indication of citizen-friendly service delivery and citizen satisfaction. Citizens have the right to get public services in a single attempt, but for a variety of reasons, they receive services in multiple attempts.
As per Nepal National Governance Survey 2017/18, almost three-quarters of citizens (73.7%) received the public service in single attempts followed by 2-3 attempts (20.2%) and 4 and more attempts (6.1%).
Whatever the reason for multiple attempts, the impact of multiple attempts is negative on citizen satisfaction. As citizens make more attempts to obtain services, their level of satisfaction rapidly drops (Pokharel et al., 2018). Citizens who receive services on their first attempt are more satisfied than those who receive services on multiple attempts. This is because multiple efforts pose additional cost and time burdens to citizens. Citizens face difficulties when the number of service attempts increases, and often negatively assess service quality. Therefore, efforts should be made to deliver public service in single attempts to confirm a higher level of citizen satisfaction. To do this, all relevant information and service procedures should be proactively communicated to citizens.

Conclusion
Citizen satisfaction with public services is the yardstick of government performance.
Ensuring citizen satisfaction through improved public service has become the ultimate goal today. Citizen satisfaction with public service, in general, is associated with service performance.
Citizens are more satisfied when public service performance meets or outstrip their expectations.
Although public service institutions pledge to satisfy citizens via improved service performance, yet many citizens complain that public services do not fully meet their expectations. Meeting the citizen expectation for satisfaction is a big challenge, because citizen satisfaction is influenced by several factors. Factors such as compliance, responsiveness, service on time, receive service own self and hassle-free service have a positive impact on citizen satisfaction, while, paid/asked bribes and service attempts have a negative impact. Therefore, intense care on these factors should be given to ensure higher citizen satisfaction with public service. satisfaction with public administrative services at the grassroots level case study of Tay Ho district. VNU Journal of Science: Economics and Business, 32 (5), 90-101. https://bit.ly/3un6tao Oliver, R. L. (1980). A cognitive model of the a n te c e d e n t s a n d c o n s e q u e n c e s o f satisfaction decisions. Journal of Marketing