Relative contributions of project quality to customer satisfaction in Nigerian road construction projects

In Nigerian construction and road projects in particular, customers continue to be dissatisfied with the poor quality of constructed roads as well as uncoordinated construction activities. Identifying the key sources of satisfaction would provide a big step towards redressing this chronic problem. Hence, statistical modelling was employed to evaluate the relative contributions of key attributes of project quality to customer satisfaction. The research involved road construction projects in Rivers State of Nigeria where a total of 503 respondents participated in a quantitative survey between August 2013 and August 2014. Stepwise multiple regression analysis was utilised to show the interrelationship between aspects of project quality (i.e. performance, reliability and aesthetics) and customer satisfaction (which was measured through contractor referral and re- patronage). The constituents of customer satisfaction were regressed against the aforementioned elements of project quality and it was established that 58.3% of the variables of project quality could be utilised to explain the variations in customer satisfaction. In addition, project performance was found to be the biggest contributor to contractor re- patronage: 43.1%; while project aesthetics contributed the largest to contractor referral: 57.1%. The findings so far suggest that cost and schedule related activities, use of professional experts, implementation of quality standards, presence of excitement factors amongst others greatly influenced the level of satisfaction obtained from road construction projects in Nigeria. Further analyses are being explored in an endeavour to ensure that construction stakeholders optimise the findings from this research.