Facilities

Facilities management service and customer satisfaction in shopping mall sector

Eddie C.M. Hui Pei-hua Zhang Xian Zheng

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Eddie C.M. Hui Pei-hua Zhang Xian Zheng, (2013),"Facilities management service and customer satisfaction in shopping
mall sector", Facilities, Vol. 31 Iss 5/6 pp. 194 - 207
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Mohammed Ismail El-Adly, (2007),"Shopping malls attractiveness: a segmentation approach", International Journal of
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31,5/6

Facilities management service

and customer satisfaction in
shopping mall sector

194

Eddie C.M. Hui

Department of Building and Real Estate, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University,
Hong Kong, China, and

Pei-hua Zhang and Xian Zheng

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Department of Real Estate and Construction, The University of Hong Kong,

Hong Kong, China
Abstract
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify and analyze crucial facilities management (FM)
service dimensions that affect customer satisfaction with regards to the shopping mall sector, and
provide useful implications for FM companies.
Design/methodology/approach The study is based on a five-year longitudinal customer
satisfaction survey conducted in five selected shopping malls in Hong Kong. The authors first use
stepwise multiple regression method to estimate the relationship between overall customer
satisfaction level and nine specific dimensions of FM service for each year, and then compare
regression results of five years to identify crucial dimensions.
Findings The research reveals that: management and maintenance of communal facilities is the
most crucial dimension with regard to the overall customer satisfaction; the condition of a washroom is
another important dimension for customer satisfaction; communication efficiency and efficacious
promotion events are also important for maintaining customer satisfaction.
Originality/value This paper presents a longitudinal quantitative survey regarding shopping
mall FM service satisfaction and identifies several critical dimensions affecting customer satisfaction,
which deliver useful information for FM managers who intend to fulfil customer expectations.
Keywords Facility management service, Customer satisfaction, Service quality, Shopping mall,
Shopping centres, China, Shops (buildings)
Paper type Research paper

1. Introduction
Facilities management (FM) is a term that encompasses a variety of activities to
effectively manage built assets and deliver services (Amaratunga, 2000). Early FM
emphasises hardware such as buildings, furniture, and equipments (Becker, 1990),
and neglects strategic orientation and bottom-line emphasis (Nourse, 1990). However,
later researchers come to realize that FM should also include software such as
environment, space, human resource, support services, health and safety (Alexander,
1996; Then, 1999). Researchers also recommend that FM should be operated
strategically and use multi-faceted approach to enhance FM suppliers performance
Facilities
Vol. 31 No. 5/6, 2013
pp. 194-207
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0263-2772
DOI 10.1108/02632771311307070

The research was funded by the Hong Kong Polytechnic Universitys Internal Grants (G-YK32;
4-ZZC1; 4-ZCC8). The authors are grateful to the Editor and anonymous reviewers for their help
and comments.

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(Nutt, 2000; Tay and Ooi, 2001). On the other hand, good property management service
has a significant and positive relationship on property prices (Hui et al., 2011)
FM performance assessment is important for FM suppliers to refine their market
strategies. Traditionally, FM uses cost as the only indicator to measure service
performance (Tranfield and Akhlaghi, 1995). Pitt and Hinks (2001) point out that FM is
usually entertained as a management of cost-efficiency rather than an art to achieve
multi-dimensional enhancement of competitiveness (see also Noor and Pitt, 2009).
Using cost-only approach to assess FM service performance may lead to the
consequence that FM simply becomes a commodity service bought at the lowest price
from non-differentiated suppliers (Loch, 2000). This measurement method only pays
attention to the competitive positions of FM suppliers but ignoring the unique needs of
customers (Shaw and Haynes, 2004). Researchers argues that FM service should be
reformed to be customer-focused and be able to provide high-quality and cost-effective
service to support customers in meeting their core objectives (Shaw and Haynes, 2004;
Rondeau et al., 2006). It is now widely accepted that service quality and customer
satisfaction are two core concepts that are central to marketing theory and practice
(Spreng and Mackoy, 1996). Service quality and customer satisfaction are two relative
but distinct concepts. Van Ree (2010) clarifies that service quality is a long-term overall
evaluation, whereas customer satisfaction is a transaction-specific assessment, he
further argues that service quality is an antecedent of customer satisfaction. Customer
satisfaction could reflect the difference between perception and expectation of service
quality. Therefore, a higher level of perceived service quality would lead to a higher
level of customer satisfaction (see Parasuraman et al., 1988 and Van Ree, 2010).
In todays world with high competition, the key for service companies to maintain
sustainable competitive advantage and customer loyalty is to deliver high quality service
and achieve customer satisfaction (e.g. Shemwell et al., 1998; Shaw and Haynes, 2004).
The same can be applied to FM suppliers, who also face the challenge of high competition
in current market. Hong Kong is characterised by service based economy with the service
sector accounting for more than 90 per cent of Hong Hongs GDP (HKRMA, 2001). Hong
Kong is also well known as a shopping paradise. Retail industry is the most important
service industry in Hong Kong and it contributes to about 28 per cent of Hong Kongs
GDP in 2010 (HKRMA, 2001). It is conceivable that the shopping mall sector becomes
essential and vital in Hong Kong by providing space and facilities for retail transaction
activities. Besides, excellent service is one of the most important attributes of Hong
Kongs retail industry, and the quality of service depends on both direct service provided
by each shop and indirect service delivered by FM companies. In order to successfully
attract retailers and satisfy consumers, high quality facility management should be
provided in the shopping mall sector to create a good shopping environment. This study
aims to investigate how overall customer[1] satisfaction is influenced by perceived FM
service quality regarding the shopping mall sector in Hong Kong.
In this study, questionnaire surveys are continuously conducted from 2006-2010 in
five large shopping malls to evaluate customers satisfaction level on FM service in
terms of nine dimensions as well as their overall satisfaction level toward FM service.
The data are analysed by hierarchical regression analysis method. This study delivers
useful implications for FM companies who are willing to provide higher service quality
and improve customer satisfaction. The rest of the paper is organised as follows. The
next section presents a brief review of service quality, customer satisfaction and FM

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196

studies regarding the two issues. Section 3 describes the questionnaire survey and data
set. Section 4 discusses the estimation results of panel regression and stepwise
regression of the survey data. The last section concludes the paper.
2. Literature review
Service quality
As perceived service quality is defined as customers overall appraisal of service,
i.e. customers subjective judgment on the excellence or superiority of service, it is
considered to be similar to attitude (Parasuraman et al., 1988; Sureshchandar et al., 2002;
Zeithaml, 1988). In service quality theory, two main different approaches are employed
by researchers to operationalize service quality: disconfirmation model and perception
model (Rosa Bastos and Mu oz Gallego, 2008). The disconfirmation model regards
service quality as the comparison of customers expectations of service with their
perceptions of actual service performance (Amaratunga, 2000). Therefore, service quality
is a function of the gap between expectation and perception. Based on the
disconfirmation model, Parasuraman et al. (1988) develop the SERVQUAL instrument
to measure service quality. Specifically, the instrument contains five service dimensions:
reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy and tangibles. However, researchers
criticise that the application of SERVQUAL depends on service type (e.g. Cronin et al.,
2000), and it may only be possible for existing services but not new services (Rosa Bastos
and Mu oz Gallego, 2008). Besides, based on the contrast theory, Woodruff et al. (1983)
point out that consumers may raise or lower their performance belief based on how
closely perceived performance approximates expected performance. They conclude that
including both perception and expectation only introduces redundancy. Therefore,
researchers argue that using performance perception alone is adequate and effective for
measuring service quality (Anderson and Sullivan, 1993; Cronin and Taylor, 1992). An
alternative measurement instrument SERVPERF is proposed by Anderson and Sullivan
(1993) based on the perception model. Many studies employ SERVPERF to examine
service quality and report good predictive power of SERVPERF (e.g. Mittal and Lassar,
1996; Olsen, 2002). In some studies, perception is even empirically proved to be a better
predictor of service quality than disconfirmation (e.g. Babakus and Mangold, 1992;
Cronin and Taylor, 1992). Anderson and Sullivan (1993) suggest that performance based
approach may actually be more in line with an antecedent/consequent conceptualisation.
Tucker and Smith (2008) argue that customer satisfaction can be interpreted as the end
product of ones perception. In other words, service quality and customer satisfaction are
evaluations toward a service providers performance rather than involving customers
performance expectation. Accordingly, this study measure service quality by
investigating customers perception on FM service.
Customer satisfaction
Customer satisfaction, which is a multidimensional concept, is defined as post-choice
cognitive judgment associated with a specific purchase decision (Selnes, 1993).
Researchers claim that service quality and customer satisfaction are related but two
conceptually distinct constructs (Anderson and Sullivan, 1993; Becker, 1990;
Sureshchandar et al., 2002). As Parasuraman et al. (1988) suggest that perceived
service quality is a global judgment, or attitude, relating to the superiority of the
service, whereas satisfaction is related to a specific transaction. Specifically, customer

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satisfaction is regarded as a function of service quality (Fornell, 1992). It is the link

between service quality and post purchase phenomena, e.g. attitude change, repeat
purchase and brand loyalty (Churchill and Surprenant, 1982). Recently, Tucker and
Pitt (2009) develop a generic Customer Performance Measurement System (CPMS)
framework and investigate how the strategic use of customer performance
measurement processes contribute to increase customer satisfaction level in FM
industry. Tucker and Pitt (2010) adopt the same conceptual framework and establish
generic customer satisfaction benchmarks for the FM industry in terms of two
successive annual customer satisfaction surveys in both UK and Ireland. The results
deliver useful implications regarding how customers perceive FM services.
The reasons for using customer satisfaction to assess FM service are two-fold. First,
customer satisfaction is experiential and unique to the customers (Oliver, 1993).
Customer satisfaction concerns customers subjective evaluation of service
performance rather than organisations objective standards of quality. Thus,
focusing on customer satisfaction addresses the importance of understanding the
consumer when making marketing decisions (Kincaid, 1994). Second, customer
satisfaction is found to mediate the relationship between service quality and
behavioural intention. Specifically, customers cognitive evaluation of service quality
leads to the emotional satisfaction assessment. This emotional satisfaction further
leads to post-purchase behaviour (Loch, 2000). Researchers report that customer
satisfaction exerts influence on customer retention (Nourse, 1990), purchase intentions
(Anderson and Sullivan, 1993; Nutt, 2000) and willingness to repeat business (Fornell,
1992). Satisfied customers tend to loyal while dissatisfied customers are more likely to
exit the transaction (Oliver, 1993). Therefore, for FM suppliers who intend to make
wise market decisions and attract customers, they should take customer satisfaction
into account when assessing FM performance.
FM research on service quality and customer satisfaction
The importance of customer-oriented approach to facility management has been
addressed in many FM studies. For instance, Amaratunga (2000) and Amaratunga et al.
(2002) apply the balanced score-card concept to develop a framework[2] for measuring
facility management performance. One important component of the framework is
customer perspective, which captures the ability of a FM company to provide quality
service, the effectiveness of their delivery, and overall customer service and
satisfaction. Tranfield and Akhlaghi (1995) suggest that performance measurement
system should reflect the primary task of the organisation, considering the different
goals of various stakeholders. As the end user of the FM service, customers
satisfaction should be taken into account when developing FM performance
measurement systems (Kincaid, 1994; Walters, 1999). Besides, Shaw and Haynes
(2004) employ a survey and factor analysis method to identify dimensions underlying
FM service[3], which are then used to investigate customers satisfaction level on each
service dimension. Their study provides FM managers with a useful customer-oriented
tool to measure FM performance. Hui and Zheng (2010) use a Structural Equation
Model to explore crucial factors of customer satisfaction with regard to housing FM
service. They find that increases in service and management quality lead to increases
in customer satisfaction levels, and the effect of service quality is larger than the effect
of management quality.

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Though existing FM literature provides some insights into service quality and
customer satisfaction, little or none has been done to empirically examine the overall
customer satisfaction for shopping mall sector. This study attempts to fill the
knowledge gap and further identify individual FM service dimensions that have most
significant influence on customer satisfaction in the shopping mall sector. This study
also advances FM theory by developing dimensions underlying FM service in the
shopping mall sector. FM service quality is assessed in terms of nine dimensions
(please refer to the list in the Appendix for details).

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3. Data collection and description

In this study, we aim to capture the performance of FM service in both cross-sectional
and longitudinal dimensions. This research fills the gap of existing literature which
looks at FM service with only cross-sectional data. To enlarge the sample size, we
selected five large shopping malls (coded as A, B, C, D and E) with over 650 shops of
different retail business types (see Table I). These five shopping malls are among the
most representative malls, in terms of size and shop profile, in Hong Kong. Therefore,
potential selection bias is controlled and it is feasible to synthesize scores of different
dimensions. Specifically, questionnaire surveys were conducted annually for those five
shopping malls during 2006 to 2010. The questionnaire was pilot-tested to verify the
validity of the questions being used and gauge the likely feedbacks from respondents
(i.e. stakeholders, facilities managers and tenants). For each of the past five years, a full
scale survey was conducted covering all tenants of the selected shopping malls.
Specifically, the questionnaire contains 37 regular questions, which assess
satisfaction level toward nine dimensions of FM service (please refer to the list in the
Appendix for details about this questionnaire). These nine satisfaction dimensions are
specified as follows: Property Management Officers (PMO), Management and
Maintenance of Communal Facilities (MMCF), Cleaning Staff and Cleanliness (CSC),
Wash Room (WR), Promotion (PRO), Property Management Services (PMS), Security
Guard (SG), Security Services (SS), Management of Common Areas (MCA). One extra
question (i.e. Overall Property Management Services, OPMS) is introduced to gauze the
overall satisfaction of FM service[4]. All the questions are rated on one to five-point
scale (i.e. very unsatisfactory, unsatisfactory, average, satisfactory and very
satisfactory respectively). A total of 3204 self-administered questionnaires were sent
to all tenants of five selected shopping malls in Hong Kong during 2006-2010. The
demographic profiles of the shopping malls are shown in Table I. Self-addressed

Table I.
Demographic profiles of
shopping mall

Name

Area (sq. m)

Shops

Mailed

Returned

Response rate (%)

A
B
C
D
E
Total

16,500
46,000
27,000
83,000
5,600
178,100

86
140
115
250
65
656

86
140
115
250
65
656

42
97
61
100
35
335

48.84
69.29
53.04
40.00
53.85
51.07

Note: The number of mailed and returned and the percentage of response are based on the survey of
2010

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Business Mail return envelopes were provided to the respondents for returning the
completed questionnaires. 1352 of questionnaires were completed and returned. The
overall response rate is around 42 per cent. Details of the response rate for each year
are illustrated in Figure 1 and Table I. Table II briefly demonstrates the overall
customer satisfaction level of each shopping mall. Generally, the integrated scores of
customer satisfaction are centralized at around 4.0. It is worth noting that the overall
satisfaction rates continuously increase each year at an average rate of 2.94 per cent.

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Figure 1.
Response rate of five
shopping-mall survey:
2006-2010

2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
Average

Total

Changes (%)

3.99
3.77
3.82
4.28
4.34
4.04

3.78
4.12
4.16
4.36
4.53
4.19

3.75
3.81
4.08
3.90
4.23
3.95

4.03
4.19
4.03
3.99
4.03
4.05

3.71
3.63
3.99
4.30
4.49
4.02

3.85
3.90
4.02
4.17
4.32
4.05

N/A
1.35
2.87
3.74
3.79
2.94

Note: The integrated service satisfaction score is defined as the average value of all dimension scores
for each shopping mall

Table II.
Integrated service
satisfaction scores of five
shopping malls:
2006-2010

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Due to the limited observations of each year, we first calculate the average scores of
each dimension in every questionnaire, and we further use these average scores to
estimate the coefficients between OPMS and other dimensions. This process will also
reduce the heteroscedasticity of variables to some extent. Table AI in the Appendix
provides the Pearson correlations between OPMS and the nine specific dimensions for
each year, which confirms the significant and positive relations between OPMS and the
nine dimensions.

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4. Stepwise multiple linear regression

Stepwise multiple linear regression method is employed to identify which dimensions
of FM service have the most significant impact on overall customer satisfaction.
Stepwise regression excludes variables that have insignificant impact on the
dependent variable as well as identifies variables that exert significant influence on the
dependent variable. Technically, stepwise regression starts with selecting the variable
that has highest correlation with the dependent variable. Then it follows the principle
that variables producing the greatest R 2 change with suitable significance level
(generally lower than 0.05) are added to the regression equation, and variables
producing smallest R 2 change are removed if the significance level is higher than 0.10
(Stern, 2010). In this study, five rounds of stepwise regression are separately conducted
to analyse the longitudinal survey data.
5. Results
In this study, estimations of multiple regressions for each year are performed with
SPSS software. The results summarised in Table III indicate that critical FM service
dimensions with regard to OPMS vary largely from year to year. Specifically, in 2006,
dimensions of PMO, MMCF and CSC significantly contributed to OPMS and accounted
for 45.2 per cent variance of OPMS. It is noticed that overall customer satisfaction was
sensitive to more dimensions in the following two years of 2007 and 2008. In 2007, four

Variables (dimensions)
MMCF
WR
PMS
PMO
CSC
PRO
SS
MCA
SG
R2

2006
Beta
t

2007
Beta
t

0.27 * * * 3.84 0.35 * * *

0.27 * * *
0.11 *
0.32 * * * 4.93
0.20 * * 4.93
0.18 * *

Standardized betas
2008
2009
Beta
t
Beta
t

5.27 0.32 * * * 4.84 0.24 * *

4.53
0.19 *
2.49 0.14 *
2.39
0.18 * * 2.81

2010
Beta
t

2.95 0.17 * 2.09

2.55 0.22 * * 2.82
0.22 * * 3.00
0.17 *

3.38 0.12 *
0.15 * *

2.03

2.02
2.84
0.27 * * * 3.57

0.45

0.56

0.56

0.41

0.43

Notes: * * * , 0.001; * * , 0.01; * , 0.05; () denotes t-value; PMO: Property management officers;
Table III.
Longitudinal comparison
on impact of FM
dimensions on OPMS

MMCF: management and maintenance of communal facilities; CSC: cleaning staff and cleanliness; WR:
wash room; PRO: promotion; PMS: property management services; SG: security guard; SS: security
services; MCA: management of common areas; Dependent variable: OPMS Overall property
management satisfaction

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dimensions (i.e. MMCF, WR, PRO and PMS) were identified to be critical to OPMS and
they explained 55.5 per cent of variance for OPMS. In 2008, up to five dimensions
(i.e. MMCF, PMO, SS, PMS, and PRO) were found to significantly impact OPMS and
they together account for 55.9 per cent of variance for the dependent variable. Then in
2009, only 41 per cent of variance was explained by three critical dimensions of MMCF,
WR and MCA. When it came to 2010, four significant dimensions (CSC, PMS, WR,
MMCF) were identified and accounted for 43.1 per cent of variance for OPMS.
Figure 2 provides a visual comparison regarding the time-varying impact of each
dimensions on overall satisfaction. Though critical FM service dimensions change
every year, several dimensions are frequently identified to have significant impact on
OPMS. Therefore, quality of those service dimensions should be particularly
emphasised in order to improve overall customer satisfaction on FM service delivery. It
is noted that MMCF is a critical service dimension to OPMS in each of the five years. It
is also the most significant dimension showing the highest path coefficient with OPMS
in two years (i.e. 0.347 with p , 0.001 in 2007; 0.323 with p , 0.001 in 2008). The
dimensions of WR and PMS exert significant impact on OPMS in three years. For PMS,
the path coefficients show an increasing trend of in recent years (i.e. from 0.114 with
p , 0.05 in 2007 to 0.223 with p , 0.01 in 2010). Besides, PMO, CSC, and PRO are
identified to be critical dimensions in two years.

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6. Implications
The results from longitudinal comparison provide useful implications for FM firms in
delivering their services to shopping malls and maintaining a high level of customer
satisfaction. First, FM firms should ensure that communal facilities (e.g. elevators,
escalators, central air-conditioning system, and supply of electricity) are well managed
and maintained to avoid causing any inconvenience to customers. Second, FM firms
should pay attention to the environment of washrooms. This study shows clear
evidence that customer satisfaction is highly associated with management of
washrooms in terms of cleanliness, security level, usability of washroom facilities, etc.
Third, FM firms should provide adequate communication channels to customers so
that customers can easily express their opinions. Considering end users needs is
always the key to maintain high customer satisfaction. Fourth, property management

Figure 2.
Comparison of
standardized coefficients
for each dimension

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202

officers should show good manner in dealing with customers requirements. For
instance, they should be courteous to customers, respond quickly to tenants requests,
and handle complaints in an effective and efficient way. Fifth, FM firms should ensure
a clean and comfortable environment in the shopping malls, e.g. the floor is regularly
waxed, and pest control is performed in the common areas. Regarding their cleaning
staff, suitable occupational health and safety training could be provided to them so that
they would work properly. In addition, FM should attach much importance on the
quality of promotion (e.g. festival decoration, promotion events). This is because
suitable promotion plays an important role in attracting consumers, who are vital and
essential to tenants business.
7. Conclusions
FM is a relatively new and fast developing profession in the service industry. The
quality of FM service plays an important role in the overall service performance of
shopping mall. This study empirically investigates the relationships between overall
perceived customer satisfaction and satisfaction concerning nine FM service
dimensions with a five-year longitudinal survey, which aims to reveal how the
variations of the overall satisfaction can be attributed to different variations in the
satisfaction of each specific dimension. It is worth noting that the average customer
satisfaction scores increase continuously from 3.85 (2006) to 4.05 (2010) with an annual
growth rate of 2.94 per cent. This result suggests that the FM companies are successful
in fulfilling clients satisfaction, which is crucial for service based business. In addition,
we identify that FM service dimensions contributing to OPMS change over the years.
We also identify several critical dimensions to which the overall customer satisfaction
of FM service is sensitive. These results imply that FM providers could effectively
improve customer overall satisfaction by enhancing the satisfaction level of those
critical dimensions. In addition, this longitudinal study offers valuable FM findings for
shopping malls, and complements other previous studies on the residential sector in
Hong Kong (e.g. Hui and Zheng, 2010). This research offers implications for research
and practice in many ways. First, it can identify the strengths and weaknesses of the
customer services by the Facilities Management Department. Second, it also helps
formulate strategic plans and tactics to improve customer services of the Department
in particular, and similar/relevant organisational practices in a wider context,
according to the results rendered by the study. Finally, the research findings shed light
on benchmarking customer services in various groupings locally and internationally.
Notes
1. Please note that we only focus on the relationship between retailers and FM company in this
study, hence customer particularly refer to the direct service receivers of FM company,
namely, the retailers in the shopping mall.
2. The framework measures FM performance from four perspectives: customer perspective,
internal business processes perspective, innovation and learning perspective, and financial
perspective.
3. They identified six dimensions underlying FM service: professionalism, provision of
competent staff, communications, understating the customer, reliability, and demonstrating
value.
4. Namely, Overall Property Management Satisfaction (OPMS).

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Further reading
Hui, E.C.M., Yiu, C.Y. and Yau, Y. (2007), Retail properties in Hong Kong: a rental analysis,
Journal of Property Investment & Finance, Vol. 25 No. 2, pp. 136-46.

(204)
(260)
(260)
(268)
(205)

OPMS

0.576 * * *
0.505 * * *
0.617 * * *
0.664 * * *
0.508 * * *

PMO
0.500 * * *
0.395 * * *
0.582 * * *
0.638 * * *
0.554 * * *

PMS
0.523 * * *
0.403 * * *
0.587 * * *
0.587 * * *
0.528 * * *

SG
0.509 * * *
0.297 * * *
0.542 * * *
0.590 * * *
0.470 * * *

SS

Note: * * * denotes that correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (two-tailed)

2006
2007
2008
2009
2010

Year (Obs.)
0.551 * * *
0.507 * * *
0.586 * * *
0.646 * * *
0.568 * * *

CSC
0.429 * * *
0.573 * * *
0.534 * * *
0.691 * * *
0.541 * * *

MCA

MMCF
0.574 * * *
0.688 * * *
0.676 * * *
0.742 * * *
0.551 * * *

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PRO
0.303 * * *
0.551 * * *
0.546 * * *
0.631 * * *
0.382 * * *

WR
0.492 * * *
0.642 * * *
0.559 * * *
0.679 * * *
0.555 * * *

Appendix

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Table AI.
Pearson Correlation
between OPMS and other
dimensions

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206

Dimensions of shopping mall customer satisfaction survey

Property Management Officers (PMO): four questions:
(1) Appearance.
(2) Attitude and courtesy.
(3) Responsiveness to tenants requests.
(4) Efficiency of complaint-handling.

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Property Management Services (PMS): two questions:

(1) Adequacy of communications channels.
(2) Ease of opinion expression.
Security Guards (SG): five questions:
(1) Appearance.
(2) Attitude and courtesy.
(3) Communications skills.
(4) Efficiency of complaint-handling.
(5) Performance on emergency-handling.
Security Services (SS): one question:
(1) Overall security level.
Cleaning Staff and Cleanliness (CSC): five questions:
(1) Appearance.
(2) Safety consciousness of cleaning staff at work.
(3) Shininess of floor.
(4) Pest control in common areas.
(5) Overall cleanliness
Management of Common Areas (MCA): three questions:
(1) Atmosphere.
(2) Soft landscaping.
(3) Directional signs.

Management and Maintenance of Communal Facilities (MMCF): 11 questions:

(1) Elevators.
(2) Escalators.
(3) Central air-conditioning system.
(4) Lighting in common areas.
(5) Supply of electricity.

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(6)
(7)
(8)
(9)
(10)
(11)

Supply of tap water.

Quality of tap water.
Supply of flushing water.
Availability of telecommunication.
Fire precautions.
Performance of repairing facility breakdowns facilities.

Washrooms (WR): four questions:

(1) Atmosphere.
(2) Cleanliness.
(3) Security level.
(4) Washroom facilities.
Promotion (PRO): two questions:
(1) Quality of festive decorations.
(2) Overall performance of promotion activities/events.
Overall Property Management Services (OPMS)
Corresponding author
Eddie C.M. Hui can be contacted at: bscmhui@polyu.edu.hk

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