Improving business performance with INEQUAL and SERVQUAL analysis (Indonesia)

In Deli Serdang Regency, North Sumatera in Indonesia, the population’s access to proper and safe sanitation facilities needs improvement. In 2016, it was found that around 158,000 residents did not have proper sanitation facilities, around 95,000 residents practiced defecation and around 26,000 residents disposed of wastewater directly into drainage channels. One of the Government’s efforts to achieve the goal of safe sanitation is to implement the Scheduled Sludge Service (called LLTT) which is a program that connects septic tanks to sewage treatment plant. Using the INTEQUAL tool, this study aims to identify the dominant factors that affect business performance from the manager’s perspective (technical, financial aspects, institutional and public relations), and SERVQUAL tool in terms of LLTT customers perspective (reliability, tangibility, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy). This study was conducted to investigate the suitability of the LLTT practice of 78 managers and 78 customers using purposive sampling technique. It was found that the model used fitted well to observed data. It was also found that INTQUAL statistically significantly affected business performance of LLTT. The recommendations given are focused on the management practices, namely product characterization strategy by implementing product/service technical strategies, pricing and ease of payment methods, development and marketing, and promotion.