The"breakout of the coronavirus disease in 2019 (COVID-19) was first reported in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei Provincein China (Zhu, Zhang, Wang, Yang, Song et al., 2019; Bedford, Gerry, Hatch, Rechner, Young and Watkinson, 2020). The international committee on the taxonomy of viruses identified the causative agent of COVID-19 as a novel coronavirus, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2). Since then, the virus has spread across the world, resulting in the World Health Organisation (WHO, 2020) declaring the disease a pandemic. By March 2022, there were 474,776,979 confirmed cases of COVID-19; 6,123,010 deaths; and a total of 4, 407, 892, 664 vaccine doses have been globally administered (WHO, 2022). As of March 16, 2022, South Africa had experienced 3,704,218 positive cases; 99,881deaths; and 33,078,995 vaccines administered" (Department of Health, 2022).

To"prevent the fast transmission of the coronavirus, countries around the globe put in place strategies including lockdown, curfews, travel restrictions, compulsory quarantines for travellers, prohibitions of public gatherings, social distancing, self-isolation, working at home, and the closure of schools and institutions of higher learning as well as businesses (Gostin and Wiley, 2020). As a result, various sectors, including the public sector, have been affected by the pandemic (Pragholapati, 2020). South Africa"has not been spared; the public sector was equally affected. Low-wage workers suffered almost four times more job losses than high-wage earners. To compensate for the negative effects of COVID-19, the South African government introduced the unemployment relief funds through DEL and administered across the country with no prior preparation" for the crisis.

This"study investigated service quality levels in the provision of COVID-19 unemployment relief funds at DELHead Office in Pretoria, South Africa. The study was triggered by the high level of complaints from clients received by the DEL (Department of Employment and Labour Report, 2020).The DEL plays a significant role in reducing unemployment, poverty and inequality through a set of policies and programmes developed in consultation with social partners, which are aimed at improved economic efficiency and productivity, employment creation, sound labour relations, eliminating inequality and discrimination in the workplace, and alleviating poverty in employment (Department of Employment and Labour, 2018). DEL regulates the South Africa labour market for a sustainable economy through appropriate legislation and regulations, inspection, compliance monitoring and enforcement, protection of human rights, provision of employment services, promoting equity, social and income protection, and social dialogue (Department of Employment and Labour, 2018).

According to DEL (2018), the DEL strives for a labour market which is conducive to investment, economic growth, employment creation and decent work. During the Covid-19 pandemic, the department has, through its entity the Unemployment Insurance Fund has been providing financial relief through the existing short term/reduced work time benefit. Since the announcement of the Covid-19 temporary employer-employee relief scheme on 26 March 2020, the Fund has made six payment iterations of the benefit covering 13923701 payments to millions of workers from 1.1 million employer applications with R57, 3 billion disbursed to date (Department of Employment and Labour, 2021). This is to fulfil its values of treating employees with: care, dignity and respect; respect and promote client services, accountability, integrity and ethical behaviour, learning and development, and living the Batho Pele Principles. This is a way of doing business with the Department of Employment and Labour clients by providing a positive customer experience before and after the service (Department of Employment and Labour, 2018).

The issue of service quality became an emerging tide in the marketing industry and academia in the early 1980s. Three academicians, Parasuraman, Berry, and Zeithaml (1985) jointly published a conceptual model of service quality and its implications for future research, which appeared in the fall issue of Journal of Marketing. Three years later, they published their approach for defining and measuring service quality (SERVQUAL). Their unique contribution called for measuring both perceived performance (P) and customer expectations (E) in service quality projects. As a result,many studies on marketing have found that customer-centric marketing philosophies are receiving significant attention in the marketing literature produced by both practitioners and scholars (Bligh & Turk, 2014; Agarwal & Kumar, 2016). Scholars and practitioners are continuously searching for the means to comprehend, entice, retain, and develop close long-term relationships with valuable customers" (Buttle, 2016).

One "of the critical issues of concern in the customer-centred marketing theory is that service providers need to ensure that existing customers are satisfied with the service they are offered (Banks, 2014). For this reason, organisations are conducting research and generating service strategies to improve service" quality. Studies"such as those conducted by Beytell (2014) and Barnes (2016) found that customers who were very satisfied with the service they received were more than six times more likely to be loyal and to buy again and to tell family members and friends about a product or service, than customers who were merely satisfied. A study by Bligh and Turk (2014) found that satisfied customers told on average more than five other people about the quality of service received. This has the potential to increase a company's profits anywhere between 25 per cent and 85 per cent. Conversely, Banks (2014) found that on average, customers with problems told between eight and ten other people about the poor service they" received.

Though scholars have conducted studies on customer satisfaction levels with service quality in different industries (Kandampully & Suhartanto, 2013; Kotler & Keller, 2016; Malhotra, 2017), there is a paucity of studies conducted on service quality in the public sector departments. In particular, there is no study that has investigated service quality at the DEL Head Office in Pretoria despite the challenges reported with regards to processing Covid-19 temporary employer-employee relief scheme benefits (City of Tshwane Report, 2020). Therefore, this study was conducted specifically to understand and address the gap between clients' expectations and experiences of service quality at the DEL Head Office in Pretoria.The study will contribute knowledge to the field of management on the difference between customer experiences and customer expectations focusing on five factors: reliability, assurance, tangibles, empathy and responsiveness of service quality.

1.2 PROBLEM STATEMENT

In past years, sector efficiency, performance and service quality has become the top issue of government administration (Kruger, 2020). Thus customer-oriented service mindset is the top task of public sectors and all employees are expected focus on customers. Empirical evidence shows that when going to public sector for public service, people often visit various departments, repeating filling out the similar forms; or going to and fro departments with documents with unclear responsibility division (Palmer, 2012). With customer-oriented service mindset, Palmer, (2012) argues that in many public sector departments customer's value is not yet important basis of service management in spite directly interacting with customers (people). The finding above is supported by evidence showing a rising level of complaints that have been received by the customercomplaints office at the DEL Head Office (DEL, 2021). For example, overall,the DEL Head Officereceived 11 500 complaints in 2021, an increase of 9.5% from 10 368 complaints in 2020. Most complaints received by the DEL Head Office were related to the departments' inability to provide the promised service consistently, accurately, and on a timely basis. The report confirms Palmer (2012)'s view that some public sector department employees lack credibility to inspire trust and confidence; a lack of good relationships between employees and people; and a failure to provide fast and high-quality service to people.

While "the DEL Head Office is making an effort to encourage offices of labour in other provinces to improve their service quality, there is no empirical information or evidence on the perceptions of clients regarding the service quality of the DEL. Therefore, it is important for the DEL Head Office management to be informed empirically about how clients feel about the service quality in the departments. Both local and international studies (Bakes, 2013; Palmer, 2012) show that poor service quality delivery in the service industry can be destructive and may be the reason why the DEL Head Office is one of the leading departments being targeted in terms of violent service delivery protests (DEL, 2018). Surprisingly, there is a lack of empirical research conducted on the DEL overall. A large portion of what does exist comes from the organisational marketing and private sector and very little from the management community (Saks, 2016; Nienaber & Martins, 2014). Therefore, this study was aimed at filling this gap in literature while at the same time alluding to the factors that impact on quality service delivery.

While "scholars have researched customer satisfaction levels with service quality in many other industry contexts such as health and education (Kandampully & Suhartanto, 2013; Kotler & Keller, 2016; Malhotra, 2017), few have researched service quality in the context of customer service departments in developing economies. There is, therefore, a need to amplify the understanding of factors that promote customer experience and expectation in the customer service public sector. This knowledge may provide management in the DEL with an empirical basis for developing an effective marketing mix within their departments. In consideration of the above, the study investigated the gaps that exist between the clients' expectations and experiences focusing on the reliability, assurance, tangibility, empathy and responsiveness of the service quality provided by the DEL. The gap in service quality reported by clients need to be addressed for the departments to continue registering negative clients' responses.

This "study may be the starting point for the provision of high-quality service within DEL offices. The extent of the gap between the perceptions of the clients and the actual product offering will determine the extent to which the departments can improve their service quality. As mentioned above, gaps between the product offerings and clients' expectations are at present not known or measured by South African departments (Beytell, 2014).

1.3 AIM OF THE STUDY

The study explored service quality provided to clients by the DEL. The findings may help to develop a model of service quality that will identify factors causing customers to experience poor or good service quality, and how these factors can be addressed, respectively.

1. OBJECTIVES

• To determine the clients' expectations on resources in providing coronavirus relief funds at the DEL.
• To ascertain the clients' experiences with monitoring in providing coronavirus relief funds at the DEL.
• To ascertain the clients' experiences with responsiveness in providing coronavirus relief funds at the DEL.
• To evaluate the competitiveness of service quality in providing coronavirus relief funds at the DEL.
• To develop a model for the provision of optimal service quality at the DEL in the Gauteng province.

1.5 QUESTIONS

• What are the clients' expectations on resources and skills in providing coronavirus relief funds at the DEL?
• What are the clients' experiences with monitoring in providing coronavirus relief funds at the DEL?
• How have been the clients' experiences with responsiveness in providing coronavirus relief funds at the DEL?
• How do clients view the competitiveness of service quality in providing coronavirus relief funds at the DEL?
• What model can be used for the provision of optimal service quality at the DEL Gauteng province?

1.6 HYPOTHESES

• H1: There is a statistically significant relationship between resources availability and quality service delivery at the DEL.

• H2: There is a discord in resource allocation and the monitoring process of providing coronavirus relief fundsatthe DEL.

• H3: There is some dissatisfaction with the responsivenessin providing coronavirus relief funds atthe DEL.

• H4: There is a negative view of the competitiveness of service qualityin providing coronavirus relief fundsatthe DEL.

1.7 SUMMARY OF RESULTS OBTAINED

Part 1: Demographics

Table 1: Demographics of gender, race, age, income, marital status and level of education

Gender Race Age (years) Income Marital status Education unspecified tertiary some/all high school some/all primary school no schooling unspecified single widowed divorced/separated married unspecified >R30000 R20001 - R30000 R10001-R20000