Six sigma approach to improve quality in E-services : an empirical study in Jordan

In the last two decades, Six Sigma approach has found its success in manufacturing sectors. The relevance of Six Sigma methodologies in service sector has been realised more recently. This paper investigates the application of Six Sigma approach to improve quality in electronic services (e-services) as more and more countries are adopting e-services as a means of providing services to their community and people through the Web. In particular, this paper presents a case study about the use of Six Sigma model to measure the customer satisfaction and quality levels achieved in e-services that were recently launched by public sector organisations in a developing country, such as Jordan. An empirical study consisting of 280 participating customers of Jordan‘s e-services is conducted and the problems are identified through the DMAIC phases of Six Sigma. The service quality levels are measured and analysed using six main criteria, namely, Website Design, Reliability, Responsiveness, Personalization, Information Quality, and System Quality. The overall result of the study indicating a 74% customer satisfaction with a Six Sigma level of 2.12 has enabled the Greater Amman Municipality to identify the usability issues associated with their e-services offered by public sector organisations and to take the leads from the results of the study to improve customer satisfaction. The aim of the paper is not only to implement Six Sigma as a measurement-based strategy for improving e-customer service quality in a newly launched e-service programme, but also to help widen its scope in investigating other service dimensions and perform comparative studies in other developing countries as future research.