Analysis of the COVID-19 Pandemic-Driven Effect Changes of Quality Factors on Customer Satisfaction in Korean Police Civil Affairs Service

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the COVID-19 pandemic-driven effect changes of quality factors on customer satisfaction in Korean Police Civil Affairs Service.Methods: This study fitted a regression model to the data collected by Korean National Police Agency from 2019 (before COVID-19 pandemic) to 2020 (during COVID-19 pandemic). In order to simultaneously estimate the effects of major seven quality factors on customer satisfaction for ‘before the pandemic’ and for ‘during the pandemic’, the regression model included not only customer satisfaction as the dependent variable, but also the fourteen independent variables consisting of the seven quality factors and their seven interaction terms. The interaction terms were defined by multiplying each quality factor by a dummy variable indicating either before or during the pandemic. Therefore, the coefficient estimates of the interaction terms indicate the changes of their corresponding quality factor effects on customer satisfaction between before and during the pandemic. The double bootstrap method was applied to test the significance of coefficient estimates.Results: Both before and during the pandemic, all quality factors had positive effects on customer satisfaction. However, these effects changed differently from before to during the pandemic: (increased) supportability, sincerity, and convenience; (decreased) integrity, professionalism, and fairness; (unchanged) promptness.Conclusion: This study found that the pandemic caused significant effect changes of quality factors on customer satisfaction in Korean Police Civil Affairs Service. This finding suggests the necessity of carefully monitoring such effect changes to effectively and efficiently improve customer satisfaction. This study also identified that from before to during the pandemic, supportability, sincerity, and convenience become more important and hence, need to be better managed.