SERVQUAL Model:

The SERVQUAL Model is an empiric model by Zeithaml, Parasuraman and Berry

to compare service quality performance with customer service quality needs.
It is used to do a gap analysis of an organization's service quality performance
against the service quality needs of its customers. That's why it's also called the
GAP model.
It takes into account the perceptions of customers of the relative importance of
service attributes. This allows an organization to prioritize.
The main aspects of service quality are RATER: Reliability, Assurance, Tangibles,
Empathy, and Responsiveness.
For each dimension of service quality above, SERVQUAL measures both the
expectation and perception of the service on a scale of 1 to 7, 22 questions in total.
Then, each of the five dimensions is weighted according to customer importance,
and the score for each dimension multiplied by the weighting. Following this, the
Gap Score for each dimension is calculated by subtracting the Expectation score
from the Perception score. A negative Gap score indicates that the actual service
(the Perceived score) was less than what was expected (the Expectation score).
The Gap score is a reliable indication of each of the five dimensions of service
quality. Using SERVQUAL, service providers can obtain an indication of the level
of quality of their service provision, and highlight areas requiring improvement.
Advantages of SERVQUAL Model:
Enables assessing service quality from the customers perspective
We can track customer expectations and perceptions over time, together with
the discrepancies between them
SERVQUAL enables comparison to competitors on common aspects
We can assess the expectations and perceptions of internal customers
e.g. other departments or services we deal with
It allows the firm to classify its customers into different segments based on
their individual SERVQUAL scores
It is a tried and tested instrument which can be used comparatively for
benchmarking purpose.

Disadvantages of SERVQUAL Model:

 The uniform applicability of the method for all service sectors is difficult.
The use of expectations in measuring service quality has currently come
under a lot of criticism
SERVQUAL focuses on the process of service delivery, not the outcomes of
the service encounter.
SERVQUAL five dimensions are not universal
SERVQUAL fails to draw on establishing economic and psychological
theory
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.