GAP MODEL OF SERVICE QUALITY

The Gap Model of Service Quality is a framework which can help us to understand customer
satisfaction.
 
The model shows the five major satisfaction gaps that organizations must address when
seeking to meet customer expectations. The model was first proposed by A. Parasuraman,
Valarie Zeithaml and Leonard L. Berry in 1985.
 
In the Gap Model of Service Quality, customer satisfaction is largely a function of
perception. If the customer perceives that the service meets their expectations then they
will be satisfied. If not, they’ll be dissatisfied. If they are dissatisfied then it will be because
of one of the five customer service “gaps” shown below.
GAP 1: KNOWLEDGE GAP

The knowledge gap is the difference between the customer’s expectations of the service and
the company’s provision of that service.
Essentially, this gap arises because management doesn’t know exactly what customers
expect.

There are a number of reasons this could happen, including:

 Inadequate marketing research orientation

Insufficient marketing research.

Research not focus on service quality.

Inadequate use of market research.

 Lack of upward communication.

Lack of interaction between management and customers.

Insufficient communication between contact employees and managers.

Too many layers between contact personnel and top management.

 Insufficient relationship focus

Lack of market segmentation.

Focus on transaction rather than relationship.

Focus on new customers rather than relationship customers.

 Inadequate service recovery.

Lack of encouragement to listen customer complaints.

Failure to make amends when things go wrong.

No appropriate recovery mechanisms in place for service failures

 KNOWLEDGE GAP IN H&M

CUSTOMER’S EXPECTATION FOR MORE VARIATION

H&M is more about clothing essentials. They have a wide range in elevated basics
that usually remains the same in almost all fashion seasons and customer is expecting
more options and design in their collections

The cut at H&M is poor, that is because they chose to do it this way. H&M mostly
specialize basic street style in their collections but as the trend goes on customer
expectations are increasing. Now they are expecting more variations in style.

LOOKING MORE CHOICES FOR MEN’S COLLECTION

Their men’s selection to be pretty basic and unadventurous. Customer are looking for
better stuff for man collections.
Customers are not getting more choices in shirt, t-shirt, sportswear, jackets, formal
wear and accessories.

Customers are looking for more collections for men’s wear which are recent in trends
like bold suits, patterned pants and classy formal wear.

AVERAGE RETURN POLICY

Their return policy states 30 days being given from a purchase date to when a return
will no longer be accepted. While there are stores who have policies much longer and
shorter than this, their policy falls right in the middle of the road as far as valuable
return policies are concerned. If we talk about GAP, they offer 45 days return policy
to their customers.

Another unfortunate feature is you can’t return items purchased online in the physical
store nor can you mail in store items in order to get a refund. This makes the return
process frustrating for some customers.

Items such as swimwear, underwear, pierced earrings and cosmetics cannot be

exchanged & refunded due to hygiene reasons. Customers are expecting new refund
policy from H&M where they can get refund on these products also.

H&M OFFER FREE SHIPPING AFTER A MINIMUM PURCHASE

Customers can get free shipping in all online order of $40 or more but customers are
expecting free shipping in less than this purchasing amount.
 H&M has clearly decided that covering costs is more important, and its delivery costs
may deter some customers. When rival fast-fashion retailers like Zalando are offering
free delivery and returns, with no minimum order rule. H&M’s delivery offering will
lack appeal for many price-conscious shoppers.

GAP 2. THE POLICY GAP: THE GAP BETWEEN MANAGEMENT

PERCEPTION AND SERVICE QUALITY SPECIFICATION

According to Kasper, this gap reflects management’s incorrect translation of the service
policy into rules and guidelines for employees. Some companies experience difficulties
translating consumer expectation into specific service quality delivery. This can include poor
service design, failure to maintain and continually update their provision of good customer
service or simply a lack of standardisation. This gap may see consumers seek a similar
product with better service elsewhere.

There are a number of reasons this could happen, including:

 Poor service design

Unsystematic new service development process
 Vague, undefined service design

Failure to connect service design to service positioning.

 Absence of customer- driven standards.

Lack of customer-driven service standards.

Absence of process management focus on customer requirements.

Absence of formal process for setting service quality goals.

 Inappropriate physical evidence and services cape.

Failure to develop tangibles in line with customer expectations.

Services cape design that does not meet customer and employee needs.

Inadequate maintenance and updating of the services cape.

POLICY GAP IN H&M

USER EXPERIENCE NEEDS SOME IMPROVEMENT IN ONLINE SHOPPING

To be competitive online, H&M needs to match and even beat its rivals for user experience.
Mobile is especially important, as H&M’s target market of under 25s are heavy mobile users.
H&M’s mobile site is usable, but there are a few areas for improvement. For example, the
navigation is sometimes confusing.  
H&M’s previous landing pages, when we selected ‘men’ from the home page, and would
expect to see some other navigational options for product categories – shirts, jeans etc.
Instead, we found this page with no obvious way to find products.

NOT PROPER DETAIL ABOUT DELIVERY AND PAYMENT

Information on product pages of H&M can be relatively sparse. People will be expecting
some detail on delivery costs and timescales, as this impacts on their decision to buy or not.
In case of H&M this doesn’t help at all, and customers have to add items to their basket
before finding out costs and options.
Around two-thirds of consumers consider poor delivery standards to be the worst thing that
can go wrong with online shopping. Most customers use e-commerce services for ease, but if
deliveries are late or inaccurate it may prevent them returning to buy more, damaging trust
and impacting on reputation.
Recently, it looks as though H&M has made some positive changes to their mobile site,
including more links on home pages and delivery FAQs. However, after navigating to
‘Ladies’ customers are now presented with an extensive list of different products laid out in
one long list. And although there are some good FAQs for delivery, finding them can be
tricky as customer have to navigate to the ‘Customer Service’ area which is a much smaller
option in the main menu. 
SLOW PAGE SPEED

A look at Google’s Page Speed Insights tool shows that the retailer needs to work on the
mobile experience.
The H&M UK mobile site scores just 20% for mobile load speed. Page speed affects both
user experience and search rankings, so this is an area H&M needs to address. Fashion
shoppers, more than any other retail sector, tend to shop via smartphones, so H&M really
needs to ensure its target audience can browse and buy easily on mobile.

CUSTOMERS ARE EXPECTING MORE SUSTAINAIBLITY & BETTER QUALITY

H&M group are assessed on the basis of sustainability objectives, which are just as important
as any other benchmark. But they are entirely dependent on their partnerships with experts
from other fields to really drive our sustainability work forward.

H&M probably talks about sustainability more than any other fast-fashion brand. It
produces a Conscious collection made using sustainable and recycled materials, creates
glossy ad campaigns to encourage garment recycling, and has a voucher program offering
discounts to those who donate their old clothes at its stores.

 H&M staggering to consider: The quantity of cheap t-shirts, jeans, dresses, jackets, and
everything else it produced and sold reached about $25 billion in global sales  in 2015. To
grow the materials, dye and finish them with chemicals, manufacture, and ship all those
clothes puts a tremendous strain on the environment and consumes vast resources. That
volume is the primary sustainability challenge H&M faces.

57% of H&M products confirmed as sustainable and recycled but Customers are now
expecting more sustainable and better quality products from this brand.