CHAPTER III

THEORETICAL CONCEPTS ON SERVICE QUALITY AND

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION

INTRODUCTION

Service quality is about ensuring customers, both internal and external, get
what they want. Business with high service quality will meet customer desires at the
same time as remaining economically competitive. Better service quality will increase
economic competitiveness. This high service quality may be achieved by
understanding and improving operational processes, identifying problems quickly and
systematically and establishing valid and reliable service performance measures for
satisfaction. Service quality contribution is the most significant factor to examine the
outcome of the customer expected and perceived service attributes of any business.
Customer satisfaction is determined by defining customer perceptions of expectations,
quality and preferences. Customer satisfaction is the feeling or attitude of a customer
after usage of a product or service. Satisfaction and service quality are frequently
treated together as functions of customer‟s perceptions and expectations. Service
Quality (SQ) is a comparison of expectations about a service with performance.

MEANING AND DEFINITION OF SERVICE

Service is a healing activity to fulfill some one‟s need in the market. Service
is something, which can be practiced but cannot be touched or seen. Services
proposed by service providers cannot be seen and touched, as they are intangible
activities. The basic difference between service and product is that services are
intangible but products are tangible and are required to follow some standardized
procedures. Service user can specify about that particular service satisfaction only
after availing it for some period of time.1 Retailing, transportation, cell phones,
education, health and hospitality services, BPO are some of the common service
areas. A few of basic definitions are as follows:

“A service is any activity or benefit that one party can offer to another which
is essentially intangible and does not result in the ownership of anything.”

- Kotler, Armstrong, Saunders and Wong

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 “Services are economic activities that create value and provide benefits for
customers at specific times and places as a result of bringing about a desired change
in or on behalf of the recipient of the service.”

- Christopher Lovelock

“Services are the production of essentially intangible benefits and experience,

either alone or as part of a tangible product through some form of exchange, with the
intention of satisfying the needs, wants and desires of the consumers.”

- C. Bhattacharjee

CHARACTERISTICS OF SERVICES

The service literature highlights the product differ from the nature of services.
The services have unique characteristics which make them different from that of
goods.

1. Intangibility

Services are not having a physical existence and it is intangible. Services

cannot be touched, held, tasted or smelt. This is most defining feature of a service and
that which primarily differentiates it from a product. Also, it poses a unique challenge
to those engaged in marketing a service as they need to attach tangible attributes to an
otherwise intangible offering. It is not possible to experience before actual purchase
and consumption. However, what selling in the railway market is its performance
only. Hence, it is intangible.

2. Heterogeneity

In the nature of services, each service offering is unique and cannot be exactly
repeated even by the same service provider. While products can be mass produced
and be homogenous the same is not true of services. It will vary according to the
services. For example services offered by the Railways are different for passengers‟
age, gender and income. However, the same is not true of the service rendered by the
same counter staff consecutively to two passengers.

3. Perishability

Services cannot be stored, saved, returned or resold once they have been used.
Once rendered to a customer the service is completely consumed and cannot be

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delivered to another customer. The services go waste if they are not consumed
simultaneously that is value of service exists at the point when it is required.

4. Inseparability

This refers to the simultaneity of production and consumption. It is the fact

that services are generated and consumed within the same time frame. Moreover, it is
very difficult to separate a service from the service provider. Services can be
experienced by the passengers where and when it is provided by the Railways.

MEANING OF QUALITY

Quality means the standard of something as measured against other things of a

similar kind; the degree of excellence of something. Quality is a key requirement in
every field. In terms of transportation quality plays an important role and so should be
understood and defined properly. 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. In simple words, quality
also means “Meeting the needs of the customer”.

In most generalized way the term quality can be defined as “The inclusion of
all specified features and characteristics as defined for product or service and its
ability to satisfy the given needs as per the requirement of user while using it.”2

“A predictable degree of uniformity and dependability to low cost and suited

to the market.”3
- Dr. Edward Deming
Customer wants to avail different services offered to them by service
providers. Delivered service will become as the quality service if it meets the
customer expectations. But customer expectation depends upon the customer
perception, which may differ from person to person.

DEFINITION OF SERVICE QUALITY

As per Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry, service quality is nothing but the
difference between the service expectation and service actually received by the
customer. Customer has certain expectation about the service. If the customers
experience the same service as they expect then this difference will be zero and

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indicates that the service quality is very good. Higher the difference of equation lower
will be the service quality.
Service Quality = Perception – Expectation4

The customer perception is influenced by various factors, which may result in

change in service quality as well. Various such factors could be like age, gender,
occupation, global competition, and technological changes. The perception of younger
generation of service quality could be different from the older one. Similarly, a
working corporate professional perception could be different from a business person
or from a house maid. That is why the perception should be taken into consideration
by service providers to meet the customer requirements. A business with high service
quality will meet customer needs whilst remaining economically competitive.
Improved service quality may increase economic competitiveness. This aim may be
achieved by understanding and improving operational processes; identifying problems
quickly and systematically; establishing valid and reliable service performance
measures and measuring customer satisfaction and other performance outcome.

E-SERVICE QUALITY

The concept of e-service (electronic service) represents one prominent

application of utilizing the use of Information and Communication Technologies
(ICTs) in different areas. Different researchers have been using different definitions to
describe e-service. It can be argued that they all agree about the role of technology in
facilitating the delivery of services which make them more of electronic services.

Rowley (2006)5 defines e-services as: “…deeds, efforts or performances

whose delivery is mediated by information technology. Such e-service includes the
service element of e-tailing, customer support, and service delivery”. This definition
reveals three main components such as service provider, service receiver and the
channels of service delivery. For example, as concerned to Railway e-service,
Railway authorities are the service provider and passengers are the service receiver.
The channel of service delivery is the third requirement of e-service. Internet is the
main channel of e-service delivery while other classic channels like telephone, public
kiosk, mobile phone are also considered.

The SERVQUAL- service quality model is one of the widely used tools for
measuring quality of the service on various aspects. Measuring electronic service

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quality and service excellence are important in a competitive organizational
environment. e-services are being developed to provide efficient access to services,
electronically.

Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Malhotra (2005)6 define e-service quality as the

“extent to which a website facilitates efficient and effective shopping, purchasing, and
delivery.”

Wolfinbarger and Gilly (2003)7 define e-service quality as “the beginning to

the end of the transaction including information search, website navigation, order,
customer service interactions, delivery, and satisfaction with the ordered product.”

BENEFITS OF SERVICE QUALITY

Customer Service Quality is the key element required for a successful

business. In this customer ambitious market, where competition is becoming harder
day by day and critical time limits are ubiquitous, one cannot think of business growth
without exceptional customer service. In business, getting people in the door is a key
to success. To occupy the market, it is vital for the service provider to deliver
excellent service to the customer and also to maintain long term relationship with the
customer, it is very important to maintain quality to improve the sale.

Focusing on delivering customer service will benefit the business and also customers
in number of ways. Some of the benefits are as follows:

1. Business Promotion

Word of mouth marketing is the best way to promote the business products
and services.

When the customers receive quality services from an organization, they have a
tendency to discuss it in their social network which leads to direct publicity and will
also increase the popularity of the organization.

2. Increased Economic Growth

Satisfactory response from consumers means increased sales, which ultimately

leads to improve the Return on Investment (ROI) of the business. They tend to invest
more in the organization, which may increase the economic status of the country.

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3. Increased Business Growth

Quality service can enhance growth of the business. Quality services can help
to expand the client base but great customer service is the key to retain the clients and
stand out of the crowd.

4. Successful Business Strategies

Encouraging customers for feedback and comments is an integral part of

quality customer service. Analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of the consumers‟
feedback is probably the best way to understand the expectations of consumers and
adopt successful business strategies.

5. Critical Learning Experience

Customer service can provide a chance to business owners for critical learning
experience to understand the dynamics of the corporate world and keep up with the
latest trends.

6. Reduced Risk of Business Failures

Understanding the expectations and mindset of consumers can considerably

reduce the risk of failures and losses of business.

7. Consumer Satisfaction

If customers are happy, investors and business partners will be happy as well,
and this ultimately leads to higher profits. With a strong customer base, can win the
trust of investors and make the most of every viable business opportunity.

8. Reduced Employee Turnover

With the increased sales and higher profits earned, the organisation can offer
good salary packages and additional bonuses to the employees which will reduce
employee turnover.

9. Employee Motivation

Customer satisfaction directly influences the working environment of

organisation. With decreased pressure of meeting targets and financial stability,
employees can work in a comfortable corporate atmosphere, thus encouraging them to
work to their maximum capacity.

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10. Increased Efficiency

The above mentioned benefits lead to overall increased productivity of the

organization. These are the ways through which quality customer service can benefit
to the business, implement creative and innovative strategies to value the customers.

SERVICE QUALITY MODELS

Service is an intangible event, which needs to be experienced before assessing

it. Anything can be measured by measuring their respective service attributes and
factors. There are certain Service Quality parameters as defined by the professional
bodies in order to measure the service quality of related service sector.

In 1985, Parasuraman et al. developed a framework of SERVQUAL model to

measure service quality. In the beginning, there were ten dimensions namely
reliability, responsiveness, competence, access, courtesy, communication, credibility,
security, understanding the consumer and tangibles, which later (in 1988)8 merge into
five. The SERVQUAL model consists of 22 components of five dimensions of
customer perceive service quality namely reliability, responsiveness, assurance,
empathy and tangibles - that create the acronym RATER.

RATER

A complementary analysis of the perception gap is the RATER model

produced by Zeithaml (1990).9 RATER identifies the 5 key areas which together
form the qualities of a service from a customer perspective. RATER focuses on the
dimensions of customers expectations. The research also suggests the relative
importance of each of the factors.

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 TABLE 3.1

RATER DIMENSIONS

RATER dimensions sorted by relative importance (Zeithaml 1990)

Relative
S. No. Dimension Description
importance

Ability to perform the promised service

1 Reliability 32%
dependably and accurately

Willingness to help customers and provide

2 Responsiveness 22%
prompt service

Knowledge and courtesy of employees and

3 Assurance 19%
their ability to convey trust and confidence

Caring individualised attention the firm

4 Empathy 16%
provides its customers

Appearance of physical facilities, equipment,

5 Tangibles 11%
personnel and communication materials

The RATER factors are synthesized from an earlier 10 factor analysis. The
RATER factors facilitates to analyse and measure customer expectations and to offer
specific dimensions.

The simplified RATER model allows customer service experiences to be

explored and assessed quantitatively and has been used widely by service delivery
organizations.

Nyeck, Morales, Ladhari and Pons (2002)10 stated the SERVQUAL measuring
tool “appears to remain the most complete attempt to conceptualize and measure
service quality”. The SERVQUAL measuring tool has been used by several
researchers to examine numerous service industries such as healthcare, banking,
financial services, and education.

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SERVICE QUALITY MANAGEMENT

The management of service quality involves both:

 Processes - to measure or improve quality.

 Measures - to set targets and monitor progress.

Quality management is a complex process. Railway authorities and staff

members must seek to balance the tension between processes, measures and activities
that promote quality enhancement at the same time as responding to expectations,
targets and systems.11

In general, quality is about excellence in service delivery and the way the
organisation is run. When managing service quality, it is important for an organisation
to arrive at a definition that is commonly held across the organization.12 Whatever the
definition of quality is, it is ultimately about making improvements to the service. To
manage service quality, Indian Railways need to:

 Set objectives with precise targets

 Commit resources to achieve those targets

 Measure whether they have met their targets

 Review these targets

IMPORTANCE OF SERVICE QUALITY

Service quality, customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty are the most
important factors in today‟s global economic downward spiral for retention,
productivity and profitability of the business as a whole. Service quality contribution
is the most important factor to investigate the outcome of the customer expected and
perceived service attributes of any service providers. Whether manufacturing, service
or retail, quality of service is of great importance to both customers and providers.

One of the contributions in the field of service quality is by Parasuraman et al.

(1988)13, which is the most popular scale to measure the service quality. Service
quality has been described by Parasuraman et al. (1985, 1988 and 1991) as the
companies need to use the technology for gathering data for customer demand and
improve service quality if they want to be competitive. They also said that for a

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better-quality service, it is necessary to understand and take action to the customer‟s
expectation.

According to Caruana (2002)14, service quality is the comparison between

what the customers expect and the perception of the service they received. It is how a
customer receives the service at the end of the final shopping in the store. The
perception of service quality has both positive and negative effects on the shopping
attitude of the consumers. The service quality is the evaluation of what was expected
and what was experienced, by considering the image of an organisation. The theory of
service quality, customer satisfaction and service loyalty are linked to each other.

According to Perez et al. (2007)15, service quality is an important factor for the
firms who want to gain profitability and productivity through the achievement of
differential advantage over their rivals. Service quality enables the organization to
identify its strengths and weaknesses, to deliver quality goods and services thereby
meeting the customer‟s expectations.

Hence, service quality is now recognised as the most powerful competitive

mace in all over the world. In the present business, particularly in the service sector
has to focus on quality service because perceived quality of the service is becoming
the most important competitive factor in today‟s business world. Perceived service
quality indicates the consumer‟s global attitude or judgment of the overall quality or
superiority of the service. So especially perceived service quality plays an important
role on every service sectors to get customer satisfaction.

DETERMINANTS OF SERVICE QUALITY

Service quality is the result of the consumers‟ comparison of expected service

with perceived service. It is rather possible that the relative importance of the ten
determinants in molding consumer expectations (prior to service delivery) may differ
from their relative importance vis-a-vis consumer perceptions of the delivered
services.

1. Reliability

It involves consistency of performance and dependability. It means that the

firm honors its promises. Specifically, it involves accuracy in billing, keeping records
correctly, and performing the service at the designated time.

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2. Responsiveness

It concerns the willingness or readiness of employees to provide services. It

engages timeliness of service like mailing a transaction slip immediately, giving
prompt service (e.g., issuing ticket quickly) and calling the customer back quickly.

3. Competence

It means possession of the required skills and knowledge to perform the service.
It involves knowledge and skill of the contact personnel, knowledge and skill of
operational support personnel, and research capability of the organization. (e.g., train
arrival status)

4. Access

It involves approachability and ease of contact. It means the service is easily

accessible by telephone (lines are not busy and they don't put on hold), waiting time
to receive service (e.g., at station) is not extensive, convenient hours of operation, and
convenient location of service facility.

5. Courtesy

It involves respect, politeness, consideration, and friendliness of contact

personnel (including receptionists, telephone operators, etc.). It includes consideration
for the consumer's property (e.g., no muddy shoes on the carpet), clean and neat
appearance of public contact personnel.

6. Communication

It means keeping customers informed in language they can understand and

listening to them. It may mean that the company has to adjust its language for
different consumers-increasing the level of sophistication with a well-educated
customer and speaking simply and plainly with a novice. It involves explaining the
cost, assuring the consumer that a problem will be handled and service itself
explaining how much the service will cost explaining the trade-offs between service.

7. Credibility

It involves trustworthiness, believability, and honesty. It entails having the

customer's best interests at heart. Contributing to credibility are company reputation,
company name, personal characteristics of the contact personnel, the degree of hard
sell involved in interactions with the customer.

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8. Security

It is the freedom from danger, risk, or doubt. It engages physical safety

(mugged at the train accidents), financial security (theft from thieves), and
confidentiality.

9. Understanding

It indicates making the effort to understand the customer's needs. It involves

learning the customer's specific requirements, providing individualized attention,
recognizing the regular customer.

10. Tangibles

It includes the physical evidence of the service. It can be said that tangibility
has a significant impact on customers' perceptions. Services are intangible, therefore,
customers can only see and experience the tangible services provided by the
company, such as the facilities and equipment, as well as the appearance of the
employees.

MEASURES OF SERVICE QUALITY

Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry developed the SERVQUAL instrument

which has been proved popular for service quality. It is a standard application and is a
practical approach to any area. In this study the SERVQUAL model is applied to
measure service quality. The SERVQUAL instrument measures the five dimensions
of service quality. These five dimensions namely tangibility, reliability,
responsiveness, assurance, and empathy are used in this study.

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 FIGURE 3.1

PARASURAMAN, ZEITHAML AND BERRY -

DETERMINANTS OF PERCEIVED SERVICE QUALITY

Reliability

Perceived Service quality

Responsiveness Tangibility
Perceived
Service
quality

Empathy

Assurance

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1. Tangibility

Since services are tangible, customers derive their perception of service quality
by comparing the tangible associated with these services provided. It is the
appearance of the physical facilities, equipment, personnel and communication
materials provided by the organisations.

2. Reliability

It is the ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately.

Reliability means that the company promises about delivery, service provision,
problem resolutions and pricing. Customers want to do business with companies that
keep their promises, particularly their promises about the service outcomes and core
service attributes.

3. Responsiveness

It is the willingness to help passengers and provide prompt service. This

dimension emphasizes attentiveness and promptness in dealing with passenger's
requests, questions, complaints and problems. Responsiveness is communicated to
passengers by length of time they have to wait for assistance, answers to questions or
attention to problems. Responsiveness also captures the notion of flexibility and
ability to customize the service to customer needs.

4. Assurance

It means to inspire trust and confidence. Assurance is defined as employees'

knowledge of courtesy and the ability of the service sector and its employees to
inspire trust and confidence. This dimension is likely to be particularly important for
the services that the passengers perceive as involving high rising and about which
they feel uncertain about the ability to evaluate. Trust and confidence may be
personified in the person who links the consumers to the organisations.

5. Empathy

It means the service sector provides individualized attention in its customers.

In some countries, it is essential to provide individual attention to show to the
customer that the company does best to satisfy his/her needs. Empathy is an additional
parameter that the trust and confidence of the customers and at the same time
increases the loyalty. In this competitive world, requirements of the customers are

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rising day after day and it is the companies' duty to meet the demands of customers,
else customers who do not receive individual attention will search elsewhere.

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION

Customer satisfaction is a term frequently used in marketing. Customer

satisfaction plays a vital role in every organization. It is a measure of how products
and services supplied by an organization meet or surpass customer expectation.
Customer satisfaction is defined as "the number of customers, or percentage of total
customers, whose reported experience with a firm, its products, or its services
(ratings) exceeds specified satisfaction goals."16 It is seen as a key performance
indicator within business and is often part of a Balanced Scorecard. In this
competitive market place, businesses compete for customers; customer satisfaction is
seen as a key differentiator and increasingly has become a key element in business
strategy.17 So, it is essential for businesses to effectively manage customer satisfaction
and firms need reliable and representative measures of satisfaction.

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 FIGURE 3.2

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION MODEL

INTRODUCTION
OF NEW
PRODUCT

SATISFY THE SELL THE

CUSTOMERS PRODUCT

MAKE CHANGES
ASSESS THE
AS CUSTOMER
PROGRESS
NEEDS

GET FEEDBACK

"In researching satisfaction, firms generally ask customers whether their

product or service has met or exceeded expectations. Thus, expectations are a key
factor behind satisfaction. When customers have high expectations and the reality
falls short, they will be disappointed and will likely rate their experience as less than
satisfying. For this reason, a luxury resort, for example, might receive a lower
satisfaction rating than a budget motel-even though its facilities and service would be
deemed superior in 'absolute' terms."18

IMPORTANCE OF CUSTOMER SATISFACTION

Customer satisfaction is important because it provides marketers and business

owners with a metric that they can use to manage and improve their businesses.
(Customer Satisfaction - January 20, 2014 by Ross Beard).19 When a firm has
increased bargaining power, the importance of customer satisfaction will diminish.

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1. Customer satisfaction is a leading indicator of consumer repurchases intentions
and loyalty

Customer satisfaction is the best indicator of a customer will make a purchase

in the future. Asking customers to rate their satisfaction on a scale of 1-10 is a good
way to see if they will become repeat customers or even advocates. Any customers,
who give us a rating of 7 and above, can be considered satisfied and service provider
can safely expect them to come back and make repeat purchases. Customers who give
a rating of 9 or 10 are the potential customer advocates who can be leveraged to
become evangelists for the company.

Scores of 6 and below are warning signs that a customer is unhappy and at risk
of leaving. These customers need to be put on a customer watch list and followed up so
service provider can determine why their satisfaction is low.

2. Customer satisfaction is a point of differentiation

In a competitive marketplace, where businesses compete for customers;

customer satisfaction is seen as a key differentiator. Businesses who succeed in these
competitive environments are the ones that make customer satisfaction a key element
of their business strategy. Not only can customer satisfaction help to keep a finger on
the pulse of existing customers, it can also act as a point of differentiation for new
customers.

3. Customer satisfaction reduces customer churn

An Accenture Global Customer Satisfaction Report (2008) found that price is

not the main reason for customer churn; it is actually due to the overall poor quality of
customer service. Customer satisfaction is the metric service provider can use to
reduce customer churn. By measuring and tracking customer satisfaction service
provider can put new processes in place to increase the overall quality of customer
service.

4. Customer satisfaction increases customer lifetime value

Successful businesses understand the importance of Customer Lifetime Value

(CLV). Customer lifetime value is a beneficiary of high customer satisfaction
and good customer retention. So, the customer satisfaction increases customer lifetime
value.

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5. Customer satisfaction reduces negative word of mouth

Customer satisfaction is tightly linked to revenue and repeat purchases. If the

customer were unhappy, it is one thing to lose a customer. It‟s another thing
completely to lose customers because of some bad word of mouth. To eliminate bad
word of mouth, service provider need to measure customer satisfaction on an ongoing
basis. Tracking changes in satisfaction will help the provider to identify if customers
are actually happy with the product or service.

6. Customer satisfaction to retain customers than acquire new ones

This is probably the most publicized customer satisfaction statistic out there. It
costs six to seven times more to acquire new customers than it does to retain existing
customers. Some of the customer retention strategies are

 Use blogs to educate customers

 Use email to send special promotions

 Use customer satisfaction surveys to listen

 Delight customers by offering personalized experiences

So, customer satisfaction plays an important role in the business. Not only it is
the leading indicator to measure customer loyalty, identify unhappy customers, reduce
churn and increase revenue; it is also a key point of differentiation that helps to attract
new customers in competitive business environments.

CUSTOMERS‟ NEEDS AND EXPECTATIONS

Customers buy goods and services to meet specific needs. Needs are often
deeply rooted in people's unconscious minds and may concern long-term existence
and identify issues. When people feel a need, they are motivated to take action to
fulfill it. In many instances, purchase of a goods or service may be seen as offering
the best solution to meeting a particular need. Subsequently, consumers may compare
what they received against what they expected, especially if it cost them money, time,
effort that could have been devoted to obtaining an alternative solution.

Customer expectations embrace several elements, including desired service,

adequate service, predicted service and a zone of tolerance that falls between the
desired and adequate service levels.

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Desired and Adequate Service Levels

The type of service customers hope to receive is termed as desired service. It

is a wished-for level: a combination of what customers believe can and should be
delivered in the context of their personal needs. However, most customers are realistic
and understand that companies can't always deliver the desired level of service which
is defined as the minimum level of service customers will accept without being
dissatisfied. Among the factors that set this expectation are situational factors
affecting service performance and the level of service that might be anticipated from
alternative suppliers. The levels of both desired and adequate service expectations
may reflect explicit and implicit promises by the provider, word-of-mouth comments,
and the customer's past experience, if any with this organization.

Predicted Service Level

The level of service that customers expect receiving is known as predicted

service, which directly affects how they define "adequate service" on that occasion. If
good service is predicted, the adequate level will be higher than if poorer service is
predicted. Customer predictions of service may be situation specific.

Zone of Tolerance

The inherent nature of services makes consistent service delivery difficult

across employees in the same company and even by the same service employee from
one day to another. The extent to which customers are willing to accept this variation
is called the zone of tolerance. A performance that falls below the adequate service
level will cause frustration and dissatisfaction, where as one that exceeds the desired
service level will both please and surprise customers. Another way of looking at the
zone of tolerance is to think of it as the range of service within which customers don't
pay explicit attention to service performance. When service falls outside the range,
customers will react either positively or negatively. The zone of tolerance can
increase or decrease for individual customers depending on such factors as
competition, price or importance of specific service attributes. These factors most
often affect adequate service levels which may move up or down in response to
situational factors where as desired service levels tend to move up very slowly in
response to accumulated customer experiences.

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CUSTOMER EXPECTATION AND PERCEPTION TOWARDS SERVICE

As per the Gap model given by Parasuraman and Zeithaml there exists a gap
between the customer perception and customer expectation.20 This gap is called as the
consumer gap.

FIGURE 3.3

CUSTOMER EXPECTATION AND PERCEPTION

EXPECTED
SERVICE

CONSUMER GAP

PERCEIVED
SERVICE

Customer expectation represents the actual expected service by the customer

and customer perception reveals the actual services received. Customer expectations
are the standards against which the perceived services are checked in order to assess
the quality of a service. Basically, it gives what is expected and what is actually
received. If any difference exists between the expected service and actually received
service then that difference is called as a gap, which needs to be reduced.

CUSTOMERS EXPRESSING DISSATISFACTION

When customers are dissatisfied, they can undertake different kind of action
as well. One can express dissatisfaction in many ways, for example by complaining to
the service provider or to a customer union, another action can be to never visit the
service provider again; two models exist in explaining the ways to express
dissatisfaction, the economic model and behavioural model. The economic model,

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basically the perceived cost, the perceived benefits and the probability of success
determine whether consumers will express their dissatisfaction. In the behavioural
model, this is determined basically by ability and motivation to do so.

SERVICE QUALITY AND CUSTOMER SATISFACTION

Service quality and customer satisfaction are two closely related terms. Service
quality can be assessed in two ways namely, whether it is meeting the standard and
whether it is satisfying the customer.

As defined by Oliver “Satisfaction is the consumer‟s fulfillment response. It

is a judgment that a product or service feature, or the product or service itself,
provides a pleasurable level of consumption - related fulfillment.”21

Customer satisfaction is related with the type of service quality, if the quality
of service provided by the service provider is good then this leads to the higher
customer satisfaction. As defined by Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry the service
quality depends upon customer perception and customer expectation. To measure the
service quality, it is necessary that the service provider, with respect to the customer
expectation as well as the customer perception, should understand the service quality
parameters. This will help in getting the better service quality and hence higher level
of customer satisfaction.

The customer expectation with reference to various service quality parameters

differs from person to person. Such change in perception can affect the customer
satisfaction. Quality is defined, as meeting customer needs. Meeting customer needs
requires that those needs be understood. VOC “Voice of Customer” is one of the ways
for understanding the customers need and so measuring the service quality. The
"Voice of the Customer" is the term used to describe the stated and unstated customer
needs or requirements.

The only measure of acceptable quality is customers satisfaction, which takes

into account both objective and subjective interpretations of the needs and
expectations of customers. If the customers are satisfied with the products and
services offered, the organization has not only correctly interpreted customer needs
and expectations but it is also providing products and services of acceptable quality.

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SERVICE QUALITY AND PASSENGER SATISFACTION

India is the second highly populated country of the world and its rapid
population growth also contributes to an increase of people‟s travelling demands.
Indian railway is one of the fast growing service sectors which operate trains in and
around different places of the country. Balanced with other transportation, Southern
Railways are expedient mode of transportation. Service quality of Southern Railways
is highly influenced by its Passenger satisfaction. Passengers are depend on rail mode
of transportation with many motive of which safety, convenience and economy
service factors of railways are well-known. Passengers‟ satisfaction and withholding
is one of the foremost determinants to measure the quality of services. So, passenger
satisfaction is one of the main influencing factors of service quality of Southern
Railways. It offers various amenities to the passengers and makes genuine effort to
enrich and improve the infrastructure arrangement in the respective railway divisions.
These days passengers expect quality in their journey, passengers desire to enjoy a
relatively better quality or availing superior quality services. Hence, the benefits of
new technology and advancement of automization have been considered for providing
various services to the passengers.

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END NOTES

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