ASSESSING THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE - AN INVESTIGATION INTO TOWN SERVICEDELIVERY SATISFACTION

The ''will of the people'' is considered to be the highest authority i n a democracy and said to be the driving force behind public policies. Yet not many past studies have assessed the level of citizen satisfac tion with government services and identified ways of improving service delivery. At a municipal level, there is even less emphasis on measur ing consumer satisfaction. This study measures citizens' satisfaction with municipal services in a town in Atlantic Canada. A taxonomy of go vernment services based on user experience with the service and hetero geneity of consumer needs was developed and tested. Results indicate t hat while consumer satisfaction with municipal services is high, it do es vary based on the nature of the service. Some action guidelines are suggested at the end of the paper to improve town service delivery.