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SERVQUAL
Model
By Group-3
Section-C
PGDM- Ist Year
Introduction
Service quality is an approach to manage business processes in
order to ensure full satisfaction of the customers & quality in
service provided. It works as an antecedent of customer
satisfaction.
If expectations are greater than performance, then perceived
quality is less than satisfactory and hence customer dissatisfaction
occurs.
SERVQUAL is a service quality framework, developed in the
eighties by Zeithaml, Parasuraman & Berry, aiming at measuring
the scale of Quality in the service sectors.
SERVQUAL was originally measured on 10 aspects of service
quality: reliability, responsiveness, competence, access, courtesy,
communication, credibility, security, understanding the customer,
and tangibles, to measure the gap between customer
expectations and experience.
SERVQUAL as a Measuring Tool
In 1988 the 10 components were collapsed into five dimensions
(RATER). Reliability, tangibles and responsiveness remained distinct,
but the remaining seven components collapsed into two aggregate
dimensions, assurance and empathy.
Parasuraman et al. developed a 22-scale instrument with which to
measure customers expectations and perceptions (E and P) of the
five RATER dimensions. Four or five numbered items are used to
measure each dimension.
The instrument is administered twice in different forms, first to
measure expectations and second to measure perceptions.
Dimensions Scale
Reliability 4
Assurance 5
Tangibles 4
Empathy 5
Responsiveness 4
The Key Service Dimensions
The five SERVQUAL dimensions are: R-A-T-E-R:
1. RESPONSIVENESS - Willingness to help customers
and provide prompt service
2. ASSURANCE - Knowledge and courtesy of
employees and their ability to convey trust and
confidence
3. TANGIBLES - Appearance of physical facilities,
equipment, personnel, and communication
materials
4. EMPATHY - Caring, individualized attention the firm
provides its customers
5. RELIABILITY - Ability to perform the promised
service dependably and accurately
Conceptual Model of Service Quality
Gap 1 Perceptions
of Customer
Expectations
Service
Gap 2 Quality
Specifications
Perceptions
of Customer
Expectations
Causes:
inadequate commitment to service quality
lack of perception of feasibility
inadequate task standardization
the absence of goal setting
Insufficient planning of procedures
Causes for the Gaps
GAP 3 - The service performance gap
E.g. : XYZ Events Ltd had promised the most exquisite
catering and wedding cake, but the food was not
appreciable and the bride didnt like the cake at all.
Causes:
Poor employee or technology fit - the wrong person or
wrong system for the job
Deficiencies in human resource policies such as
ineffective recruitment, role ambiguity, role conflict
Failure to match demand and supply
Too much or too little control
Lack of teamwork within the organisation
Causes for the Gaps
GAP 4 - When promises do not match actual delivery
E.g. : XYZ Events Ltd promised to have a Mercedes limousine
for the entry of the groom, but eventually the latter was
given a simple Nissan Sunny.
Causes:
inadequate horizontal communication
Over-promising in external communication campaign
Failure to manage customer expectations
Failure to perform according to specifications given to
customers
Causes for the Gaps
GAP 5 - The difference between customer perception of
service and the expectation they had
Usually the cause is the occurrence of the 4 other Gaps, which
results in a difference between customer perception and the
expectation they had. Ultimately the grooms experience was
way too far from what he had expected, and thus results in
dissatisfaction.
Other causes can be:
cultural background, family lifestyle, personality,
demographics, advertising, experience with similar service
information available online
Solution for the Gaps
No Solutions as such, but rather, measures that can be taken to minimize the gaps
Gap Definitions Measures
1 Customers expectations Use of good Customer Relationship Management Techniques to profile & know
versus management customers expectations, tastes and needs
perceptions E.g: XYZ Events Ltd should conduct sample surveys to know what customers expect
nowadays
2 Management perceptions Managers need to make sure the organization is defining the level of service they
versus service specifications believe is needed.
E.g.: XYZ Events Ltd could have offered pre-set wedding packages at different prices
with different services set.
3 Service specifications versus Managers need to audit the customer experience that their organization currently
service delivery delivers in order to make sure it lives up to the expected level.
E,g.: XYZ Events Ltd needs to ask customers to give their post experience feedbacks
4 Service delivery versus Use of good Communication skills and avoid ambiguous or fraudulent terms to
external communication: confuse or mislead the customer.
E.g.: XYZ Events Ltd should clearly inform the customer about something that will
not be possible to implement
5 The discrepancy between Application of all the above measures to make sure the service delivered meets the
customer expectations and expectations of the customer
their perceptions of the
service delivered
Criticisms to SERVQUAL
It has been criticized that SERVQUAL's 5 dimensions (RATER)
are not universals, and that the model fails to draw on
established economic, statistical and psychological theory.
There is little evidence that customers assess service quality
in terms of Perception / Expectation gaps.
SERVQUAL focuses on the process of service delivery, not
the outcomes of the service encounter.
There is a high degree of intercorrelation between the five
RATER dimensions, thus the scores obtained cannot be
exact.
SERVQUAL; Good or Bad???
SERVQUAL remains the most complete attempt to
conceptualize and measure service quality Nyeck, et al.
(2002)
The main benefit to the SERVQUAL measuring tool is the
ability of researchers to examine numerous service industries
such as healthcare, banking, financial services, and education
Nyeck et al. (2002) reviewed 40 articles that made use of the
SERVQUAL measuring tool and discovered that few
researchers concerned themselves with the validation of the
measuring tool, which means it is well anchored as a trusted
model.
Service Quality is widely regarded as a driver of corporate
marketing and financial performance
Advantages of Disadvantages of
SERVQUAL SERVQUAL
Enables assessing service The uniform applicability of the
quality from the customers method for all service sectors is
perspective difficult.
We can track customer The use of expectations in
expectations and perceptions measuring service quality has
over time, together with the currently come under a lot
discrepancies between them of criticism.
Servqual enables comparison to Does not measure service
competitors on common outcome perceptions.
aspects
We can assess the expectations
and perceptions of internal
customers e.g. other
departments or services we
deal with.
Methodology of SERVQUAL
The method essentially involves conducting a sample survey of
customers so that their perceived service needs are understood.
For measuring their perceptions of service quality for the
organization in question, customers are asked to answer
numerous questions within each dimension that determines:
The relative importance of each attribute.
A measurement of performance expectations that would relate to
an excellent company.
A measurement of performance for the company in question.
This provides an assessment of the gap between desired and
actual performance.
This allows an organization to focus its resources where necessary
and to maximize service quality whilst costs are controlled
Uses of SERVQUAL
To assess a company's service quality along each of the 5
SERVQAL dimensions. E.g. XYZ Events Ltd carries out the servqual
survey to know where it stands in the perception of customers.
To track customer's expectations and perceptions over time. E.g.
XYZ Events Ltd wants to compare its score of last year against that
of the current year to know whether it has improved or has to
improve
To compare a company's SERVQUAL scores against competitors.
E.g.: XYZ Events Ltd wants to compare its score against that of
1570 Events Ltd to see who is the best.
To identify and examine customer segments that differ
significantly in their assessment of a company's service
performance.
To assess internal service quality (interdepartmental comparison)
Applications of SERVQUAL
Service quality has become an important research topic
because of its apparent relationship to costs, profitability,
customer satisfaction, and customer retention
SERVQUAL has been a keyword in 41 publications which
incorporate both theoretical discussions and applications of
SERVQUAL in a variety of industrial, commercial and not-for-
profit settings.
Some of the published studies include :
Hotels ,travel and tourism
Car servicing, business schools
Accounting firms, architectural services
Airline catering
Mobile Telecommunications in Macedonia
Conclusions
SERVQUAL is considered very complex, subjective and
statistically unreliable. The simplified RATER model however is
a simple and useful model for qualitatively exploring and
assessing customers' service experiences
It is an efficient model in helping an organization shape up
their efforts in bridging the gap between perceived and
expected service
SERVQUAL is used to track customer's expectations and
perceptions over time to compare the company's SERVQUAL
scores against competitors.
Although SERVQUAL's face and construct validity are in doubt,
it is widely used in modified forms (RATER) to measure
customer expectations and perceptions of service quality.