Satisfaction of General Users of Institute for Population and Social Research’s Meeting Rooms

Abstract

         The study of Satisfaction of General Users of Institute for Population and Social Research’s Meeting Rooms was aimed to explore the general users’ satisfaction on the use of meeting rooms, to explore problems from the use and to utilize the study’s findings and recommendations for improved services. This study employed two study groups, namely 10 organizations that requested the meeting room booking and 531 people invited by these organizations to meetings held at the Institute for Population and Social Research (IPSR). Data collection was taken between February 15 and March 30, 2014, and from the questionnaire made of open-ended questions. This study worked with SPSS to find statistics and calculate into percentage and, then, made use of content analysis.

         Findings This study on the satisfaction of IPSR’s meeting room users was conducted in two sample groups: 10 organization users and; 531 meeting participants. By analyzing the overall satisfaction of the first group who were 10 organization users, most (85.5 percent) reported the highest satisfaction (4.29). Three categories of satisfaction were on: 1) Facilities; 2) Catering service  and; 3) staff. The assessment of facilities included meeting rooms (4.3), VIP room (4.4), dining area (4.29), restrooms (4.6) and parking area (3.7). Most facilities received high satisfaction and the highest score belonged to restrooms. The parking area gained the lowest score and this would be in IPSR’s plan for improvement. Next is the assessment on catering service in the meeting room package, about which 10 users (50 percent) from 10 organizations had already known and ever used. Fewer users (30 percent) had never known about this service. 50 percent of respondents did not use it for every meeting of theirs, reasoning about having regular catering providers and budget constraint. 40 percent used IPSR catering service every time because of good service, inclusion in the room package and convenience. In general, IPSR’s catering service gained high satisfaction. The highest satisfaction went to the convenient, quick and on-time service (4.2), similar to clean, beautiful and appropriate tableware. Suggestions for better services concerned a variety of food, cleanliness, deliciousness, enough amount of food and worth paying (all these gained 3.6). The last assessment on staff reports that the most satisfaction was given to staff from building and management unit (4.85) for attention, friendliness, serviced-mind and information support, followed by coordinating staff (4.62). Audio-visual staff and catering staff received the same satisfaction (4.0) and security staff received the least satisfaction (3.85).   

         With regard to the second sample group, 531 meeting participants, they were asked to assess the satisfaction on meeting venue and catering service. The overall satisfaction to both items was high (4.01).

         Firstly, the assessment on meeting venue reports high satisfaction on all items. The restrooms gave the highest satisfaction to nearly all users (4.24), then meeting rooms (4.19). The catering areas gave the lowest satisfaction to users (4.01). As for the meeting rooms, most users were much satisfied with them, especially on room facilities and preparation (4.32), room environment such as greens and smell-free (4.31) and modern and a variety of audio-visual equipments (4.31). However, room arrangement and decoration satisfied a few users (4.02) and, therefore, needed improvement. For the catering areas (including the canteen and other dining areas), the highest satisfaction was on preparation and cleanliness of areas (4.09) and appropriate size to the number of participants (4.09). The convenience to service access seemed not to satisfy all users (3.88). On the contrary, the restrooms were likely to satisfy most users considerably. Most preferred the equipment in good condition such as toilet paper, hand soap, rinse spray, etc. (4.28), then enough light and automatic light sensor system (4.23) and preparation and hygienic smell (4.22).

         Secondly, the assessment on catering services reveals quite less satisfying results overall (3.61). This brought in some suggestions for improvement such as having many choices of food and beverages.