From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Service quality
Service quality
Service quality involves a comparison of expectations as how much the performance matched the customers
with performance. According to Lewis and Booms (1983) wishes.
service quality is a measure of how well a delivered ser-
vice matches the customers expectations.
Generally the customer is requesting a service at the ser-
Criteria of service quality
vice interface where the service encounter is being real- Word-of-mouth, personal needs and past experience cre-
ized, then the service is being provided by the provider ate an expected service (expectation of the service). The
and in the same time delivered to or consumed by the perceived service will be compared with the expected
customer. service by the customer. And leads to the perceived ser-
The main reason to focus on quality is to meet customer vice quality as a result. Between the expected and the
needs while remaining economically competitive in the perceived service can appear a gap if the perceived ser-
same time.[1] This means satisfying customer needs is vice does not match with the expected service. Factors
very important for the enterprises to survive. The out- which influence the appearing of the gap were found by
come of using quality practices is:[2] Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry in 1985.
• Understanding and improving of operational Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry (1985) identified
processes ten determinants of service quality that may relate to
• Identifying problems quickly and systematically any service:
• Establishing valid and reliable service performance • (Possession of the required skills and knowledge to
measures perform the service: knowledge and skill of the
• Measuring customer satisfaction and other contact personnel, knowledge and skill of the
performance outcomes operational support personnel, research capability of
the organization)
• (Politeness, respect, consideration and friendliness
Definition of the contact personnel: consideration for the
Service quality is a business administration’s term and customer’s property, clean and neat appearance of
describes the degree of achievement of an ordered ser- public contact personnel)
vice.[3] • (Trustworthiness, believability and honesty. It
In this connection, objective and subjective service qual- involves having the customer’s best interest at heart:
ity can be distinguished.[4] company name, company reputation, personal
• Objective service quality is the concrete measurable characteristics of the contact personnel)
conformity of a working result with the previous • (Freedom from danger, risk or doubt: physical safety,
defined benefit; since the measurability is financial security, confidentiality)
remarkable dependent on the definition’s accuracy, • (Approachability and ease of contact: Service is
a measurable quality criterion easily can turn out as easily accessible, waiting time to receive service is
a subjective one.[5] not extensive, convenient hours of operation,
• Subjective service quality is the customers perceived convenient location of service facility)
conformity of the working result with the expected • (Informing the customers in a language they can
benefit; this perception is overlayed with the understand and listening to them. It may mean that
customers original imagination of the service and the company has to adjust its language for different
the service providers talent to present his consumers: explaining the service itself, explaining
performance as a good one.[6] how much the service will cost, explaining the trade-
Moreover, a defined result can turn out as unreachable. offs between service and cost, assuring the consumer
Then the best possible achievable result would be the ob- that the problem will be handled)
jective ideal result, but subjective still be an unsatisfacto- • (Making the effort to understand the customer’s
ry result of a service. needs: understanding customer’s specific needs,
Service quality can be related to service potential, providing individualized attention, recognizing the
service process or service result. customer)
In this way for example, potential quality can be un- • (Physical evidence of the service: appearance of
derstood as the co-workers qualification, process quality physical facilities, tools and equipments used to
as the speed of the generated service and result quality provide the service, appearance of personnel and
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Service quality
communication materials, other customers in the on the techniqal quality (what/ outcome) and the
service facility) functional quality (how/process), which are filtered
• (The ability to perform the promised service through the image (who). Both expectations and
dependably and accurately: service is performed experiences can create a perception gap.
right at the first time, the company keeps its • The model says that the expected service is
promises in accuracy in billing, in keeping records influenced by the word-of-mouth, the personal
correctly and in performing the services at the needs, past experience and also by the external
designated time) communication to customers. A perception gap can
• (The willingness and/ or readiness of employees to appear between the expected service and the
help customers and to provide prompt service, perceived service. This gap is called the GAP 5 (also
timeliness of service: mailing a transaction slip called the service quality gap), it occurs if the
immediately, setting up appointments quickly) customer is not satisfied and depends on the other 4
Later they were reduced to five by Parasuraman, Zei- gaps.
thaml and Berry (1988): The perceived quality depends on the external commu-
• (Physical evidence of the service: appearance of nication to customers and the service delivery. The GAP
physical facilities, tools and equipments used to 4 (also called the communication gap) is appearing be-
provide the service, appearance of personnel and tween the external communication to customers and the
communication materials) service delivery. It appears when promises do not match
• (The ability to perform the promised service the delivery.
dependably and accurately: consistency of The service delivery depends on the service quality spec-
performance and dependability, service is performed ifications. If they are not match each other the GAP 3 (al-
right at the first time, the company keeps its so called the service performance gap) appears.
promises in accuracy in billing and keeping records The service quality specifications depends on the man-
correctly, performing the services at the designated agement perceptions of customer expectations, where
time) the management perceptions of customer expectations
• (The willingness and/ or readiness of employees to influence the external communication to customers. The
help customers and to provide prompt service, GAP 2 (also called the standards gap) occurs between
timeliness of service: mailing a transaction slip the management perceptions of customer expectations
immediately, setting up appointments quickly) and the service quality specifications if the wrong quality
• (The knowledge and courtesy of employees and their standards were consulted.
ability to convey trust and confidence: competence The biggest gap, the GAP 1 (also called the marketing in-
(possession of the required skills and knowledge to formation gap) occurs between the management percep-
perform the service), courtesy (consideration for the tions of customer expectations and the expected service.
customer’s property, clean and neat appearance of It appears because the service provider does not know
public contact personnel), trustworthiness, security what the customer expect.
(safety and confidentiality)) Key factors contributing to the gaps [7]
• (The provision of caring, individualized attention to GAP 1: Not knowing what customers expect:
customers: informing the customers in a language • Lack of marketing research orientation
they can understand, Understanding customer’s • Inadequate upward communication
specific needs, Providing individualized attention) • Too many levels of management
A sixth criterion was proposed by Grönroos in 1988: re- GAP 2: The wrong service quality standards:
covery.
covery It has the same effect as the junk yard strategy, • Inadequate management commitment to service
which is used to support the zero defects strategy. The quality
customer needs to stay happy. Since there are many bad • Perception of infeasibility
services being delivered to the customer and according • Inadequate task standardization
to latest researches 12 good service encounters are need- • Absence of goal setting
ed to make up a bad one, the criterion recovery can play GAP 3: Service performance gap:
an important role. • Employee role ambiguity
• Employee role conflict
Models of service quality • Poor Employee job fit
• Poor Technology job fit
There are two main models: • Inappropriate evaluation and reward systems
• Grönroos says that the expectations of the customer • Lack of empowered service employees
depend on the 5 determinants market • Lack of teamwork
communication, image, word of mouth, customer GAP 4: When promises do not match delivery:
needs and customer learning. Experiences depends • Inadequate horizontal communication
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Service quality
• Tendency to overpromise
GAP 5: customer satisfaction:
Approaches to improve confor-
• depends on gap 1-4 mance quality
• The greater the gap the lower the customer
In order to ensure and increase the conformance quality
satisfaction, because expectation and perception do
of services, i.e. the service delivery happens as designed,
not match.
various methods are available. Some of these [8] are listed
below:
Quality measurement • Guaranteeing
Quality measurement is separated in subjective and ob- • Mystery Shopping
jective processes, at which mostly the customers satisfac- • Recovering
tion is being measured. Measuring the customers satis- • Setting standards and measuring
faction is an indirect way to measure quality. • Statistical process control
Objective processes are being subdivided into prima- • Customer involvement
ry and secondary processes:
• During primary processes, test buyings from silent Realization
shoppers are being made or normal customers are
So, service quality consists in several factors. Enterprises
being watched.
can orientate a determined contingent of their organiza-
• During secondary processes quantifiable enterprise
tion to service, in the organizational department. Exam-
numbers like amount of complaints or the amount of
ples are establishing protest departments or Hotlines.
given back goods are being analyzed, and with this
Furthermore, enterprises can adapt their terms and con-
information conclusions to quality can be drawn.
ditions regarding to service. Goodwill regulations or
Subjective processes are being subdivided into character-
widened replacement regulations.
istic orientated, incident orientated and problem orien-
The function of service quality is competitiveness includ-
tated processes.
ing customer satisfaction (maintain a customer base).
• To the characteristic focused processes counts the
It is not necessary that a firm applies all of the 5 main
SERVQUAL method
quality criteria. Instead the company can emphasize on
• To the incident focused processes counts the Critical
the ones which are important for its strategy.
Incident Theory
• To the problem focused processes counts the
Frequenz Relevanz Analyse (German) See also
The most important and most used process to measure
• ISO 9001
service quality is the SERVQUAL method.
• Quality Management
• Process Quality
Approaches to improve service • Customer focus
• Service Marketing
quality • Mystery Shopping
Generally the service design or the service delivery can • Work Quality
be improved to achieve a high quality service.
The service design consists in:
• Service product design
References
• Service facility design [1] ASQ The Global voice of Quality
• Service process designated [2] ASQ The Global voice of Quality
The service delivery consists in: [3] Peter Kenzelmann. Kundenbindung German, 3.
• Service delivery process Auflage, Berlin: Cornelsen Verlag Skriptor GmbH &
• Service encounter environment Co KG 2008
• Customer-Provider interaction [4] Peter Kenzelmann. Kundenbindung German, 3.
And the following approaches can be used for the im- Auflage, Berlin: Cornelsen Verlag Skriptor GmbH &
provement: Co KG 2008
• Quality function deployment (QFD) [5] Gabriel Schneider, Ingrid K Geiger ve Johannes
• Failsafing Scheuring. Prozess- und Qualitätsmanagement:
• Moving the line of visibility and line of accessibility Grundlagen der Prozessgestaltung und
• Blueprinting Qualitätsverbesserung mit zahlreichen Beispielen,
Repetitionsfragen und Antworten German, s. 194
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Service quality
Verlag: Compendio Bildungsmedien; Auflage: 1., Verlag: Compendio Bildungsmedien; Auflage: 1.,
Aufl. (September 2008) Aufl. (September 2008)
[6] Gabriel Schneider, Ingrid K Geiger ve Johannes [7] Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry. "Studies PBZ90
Scheuring. Prozess- und Qualitätsmanagement: and PBZ 91 1990, cited in George R. Milne, Mark A.
Grundlagen der Prozessgestaltung und McDonald (ed.). Sport marketing: managing the
Qualitätsverbesserung mit zahlreichen Beispielen, exchange process, 1999, p.110-114
Repetitionsfragen und Antworten German, s. 194 [8] Jean Harvey, "Service quality: a tutorial", Journal of
Operations Management, 1998,No. 16, pp.583–597
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Categories:
• Industrial engineering
• Quality control
• Quality management
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