DEFINING AND MEASURING THE QUALITY OF CUSTOMER SERVICE

By
Muhammad Amir Aizat Bin Suhaidi
Universiti Teknologi MARA Kampus Puncak Perdana, Shah Alam, Malaysia

INTRODUCTION

The role of service quality is an indicator of customer satisfaction is now widely

acknowledged. This article pays attention on the growing important of customer service and
service quality. It focus on, the existent of service quality gaps and the various dimensions of
service quality which have been claimed by academic and practising. The most well know
service quality measurement tools are SERVQUAL.

CUSTOMER SERVICE AND SERVICE QUALITY.

Customers are becoming more aware on the alternative on offer and rising standard of
service by competitive trends. It increases customer’s expectation. Customers are becoming
more critical of the quality of the service they experience. (Albrecht and Zemke, 1985)
Expectation are what they feel a service product should offer which are formed on the
previous experience with a company which includes physical evidence, proses and people
(Booms and Bitner, 1981). The physical environment prises facilitating goods. “Proses”
refers to service delivery system and “people’ comprises service personal both customer
contact and people who are integral to the production of the service.

Management to are more aware now of the customer’s needs and advances in
technology have enable organization to facilitated the customer company exchange at the
point of contact, for example ATM. These also have allowed management to implement
some customer oriented ideas which would impossible ten years ago.

As a consequence of these trends, most service industry considers the quality of

service they provide to be a critical factor in achieving a differential advantage over their
competitors. Leonard ad Sasser (1982), claim that “quality have become a major strategy
variable in the battle for market share”. Thus, quality is often a key variable in strategy
planning and organization which are becoming leaders in quality service.
 Before moving on to defined service quality, we should know the notion of “service
encounter”. Service encounter is the interaction between service organization and its
customers/client. This may take various forms: face to face, over the telephone, letter or
automated means (ATM). Every time a customer’s comes in contact with the organization
he/she has an opportunity to form an impression of the service provided. Interpersonal
interaction have a high “impact” the customer and the quality of service encounter thus a vital
ingredient overall quality of service experienced by customers.

They are known clear cut definition of quality. Many of the definition focus on
meeting customer needs and requirement. For example Louis and Bombs, (1983) believe that
service quality is a measure on how well the service level delivered matches customer’s
expectations. The terms “expectation” as used in service quality defers from the way it is
used in the customer’s satisfaction. In the satisfaction literature, “expectation” is viewed as
“prediction” made by the customers about what is likely to happen. In contrast the service
quality literature “expectation are viewed as desires of what consumers want. i.e. example
what they feel a service provider should offer rather than woods offers.

DIMENCTION OF CUSTOMER SERVICE

There dimension of service quality have been propose by Sasser et al. (1978). These
are levels of materials facilities and personal. Letinen and Lehtinen, (1982) suggest that
cooperate image/ quality is a dimension in its own right. They refer to three quality
dimension: physical quality, cooperate quality and interactive quality. Lehtinen and Lehtinen
also divide service quality into process two qualities – judged by consumers during the
service and output quality after the service is performed. Recently LeBlack and Nguyen
(1988) have suggested that cooperate image, internal organization physical support of the
service producing system, staff – customer’s interaction and degree customer satisfaction
contributed to service quality.

However, the most widely reported set of service quality determinants is that of
Parasuramant et al (1885). They suggested that the criteria used by consumers that are
important in moulding their expectation and perceptions of delivered service. There are five
dimension (Parasuramant et al, (1988).

 Tangibles – physical facilities, equipment, appearance of contact personal.

  Reliability – ability to perform the promised service dependably and
accurately.
 Responsiveness – willingness to help customers and to provide a prompt
service.
 Assurance – knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to inspire
trust and confidence.
 Empathy – caring, individualised attention the company provides its customer.

FACTOR THAT COULD LEAD TO IMPROVE CUSTOMER SERVICE

In the business customers are extremely important. They are the ones that give you
income and revenue. The establishment of your business depends on them. The fact that
customers have a number of choices has to be face a significant among of competitions from
other companies doing the same things they may be providing products/services that very
similar to what you provide. For you to stand out from the crowd it is to provide outstanding
customer service. Since every company functions on different line you have to decide which
service strategy would best for your company.

 Training – your employees should be trained well enough to handle customer

queries in and effective and efficient manner. Your employees have to be
engaging, responsive, professional and friendly. When your employee’s
knowledge and customer service is good it helps to ensure that your customer
will have a good experience every time they come in contact with your
company.
 Knowledge – Information and knowledge are extremely important and usually
successful company invents a significant among of time, effort and money into
collecting information. They are proactive in conducting surveys and
customers feedback. Thus, it will improve their customer service.
 Responsiveness – priority should be done to make your customers service very
responsive by ensuring that your customers have multiple communicate
channels open to them to stay in touch with you. It can be done by adding
“contact us” and “feedback forms” to your side. Displaying your customer
service number on your business website and adding life chat to your site.
 Listen to your customers – successful companies always listen to what their
customer are saying that ensure they are aware what the letters experience’s
 and sentiment are. It is important to apply a high level of attentiveness to any
instruction with your customers. Pay attention to what they are saying and
value their feedback and opinions.

CONCLUSION

It is hope that the review of customer service quality have provided the reader with a
flavour of the current service quality issues. The important of quality service is now well
accepted, and service – based organization are increasing their attention to service excellent
in their cooperate strategy and planning. This is a differential advantage over their
competitor. The most widely adopted instrument used the access service quality has been
presented together with a number of observation. Several modification and potential
improvement to these measurement procedures has been suggested but the proposed new
method has not yet been tested or shown to provide more accurate data in empirical studies.

REFERENCES

Albrecht, K. and Zemke, R. (1985), Service America: Doing Business in the New Economy, Dow
Jones- Irwin, Homewood, Illinois.

Blout, W.F. (1988), "AT&T Service: Quality & Renewal", AT&T Technology, Vol. 3 No. 1, pp. 2-7.
Booms, B.H. and Bitner, M.J. (1981), "Marketing Strategies and Organisational Structures for
Service Firms", in Donn

Leonard, F.S. and Sasser, W.E. (1982), "The Incline of Quality", Harvard Business Review, Vol. 60,
SeptemberOctober, pp. 163-71.

Lewis, R.C. and Booms, B.H. (1983), "The Marketing Aspects of Service Quality" in Berry, L.,
Shostack, G. and Upah, G. (Eds.), Emerging Perspectives on Services Marketing, American
Marketing Association, Chicago, pp. 99-104

Lehtinen, U. and Lehtinen, J.R. (1982), "Service Quality: A Study of Quality Dimensions'',
unpublished working paper, Helsinki: Service Management Institute, Finland

LeBlanc, G. and Nguyen, N. (1988), "Customers' Perceptions of Service Quality in Financial

Institutions", International Journal of Bank Marketing, Vol. 6 No. 4, pp. 7-18.