SERVICE
Berry define service as act, deeds, & performance.
AMA define service as activities, benefits or satisfaction that are
offered for sale, or provided in connection with the sale of goods.
QUALITY
In the words of Crosby: - Quality is conformance to requirements
ASQC Define: - Quality is the totality of features and characteristics
of a product, or service that bear on its ability to satisfy stated or
implied needs.
Fully satisfy customer requirements at the lower cost.
SERVICE QUALITY
An assessment of how well a delivered service conforms to the
client's expectations. Service business operators often assess the
service quality provided to their customers in order to improve their
service, to quickly identify problems, and to better assess client
satisfaction.
Fig: Service Quality
SERVICE QUALITY GAP
Customer perception of the firm and its offer are shaped by word of
mouth publicity like recommendation of friend, relative, neighbor
and peer at workplace, personal experience on the part of the
customer, personal need of individual customers, external
communication like the publicity of the firm in the media and its
advertisements and other corporate communication.
When positive perceptions are not confirmed by the actual
performance of the firm, a gap occurs, and this has been called the
Service Quality Gap.
FIVE GAPS OF SERVICE QUALITY MODEL
Customer perceptions are needed to be met and exceeded. It requires
from companies to study the buyer behaviour of their existing and
potential customers and to devise programs and initiatives to offer
superior customer service.
According to Parasuraman et al (1991, p.42), customer services
expectations consist of two levels: desired and adequate. Desired
level of expectations is the level of service a customer wanted to be
performed, while the adequate level of expectation is the “acceptable”
level of service by the customer.
A service quality model, highlighting the main requirements for
delivering high quality service which identifies five gaps as causes for
unsuccessful service delivery has been formulated by Parasuraman
et al (1985, pp.41-50):
1. Gap between expectation of client and perception of
management. In order to be able to exceed customer
expectations, and in this way to insure customer satisfaction
service company management has to have a clear and accurate
perception about customer expectations. A lack of such
knowledge creates a gap that can be one of the main reasons for
service customers not being satisfied.
2. Gap between perception of management and service
quality specification. Even if management accurately perceive
customer expectations there are still chances of customer
dissatisfaction that can be caused by the gap in planning quality
of the service according to customer expectations
3. Gap between specification of quality and the delivery of
service. Another potential area for customer dissatisfaction
relates to the failure of efficiently specified quality service due
to various reasons, including incompetent workforce, and
inefficient working conditions.
4. The gap between the delivery of service and external
communications. In cases where service company employees
have relevant skills and willingness to offer efficiently specified
quality service, still customers may be left unsatisfied due to
external factors
5. Gap between perceived and expected service. Lastly, one of
the common causes for customer dissatisfaction in service
sector relates to the gap between what customers expect from
the service and what they think they have received
6. Johnson and Clark (2008, p.47) also inform that four Ps of
marketing can be expanded to eight Ps if it is to include the
elements of services product: product, process, place, physical
evidence, people, productivity and quality, price and promotion.
References
Parasuraman, A, Zeithaml, VA, Berry, LL, 1985, “A Conceptual
Model of Service Quality and its implications for Future
Research”, Journal of Marketing
Parasuraman, A, Berry, LL & Zeithaml, VA, 1991,
“Understanding Customer Expectations of Service”, Sloan
Management Review, Issue: 32(3)
