GAPS MODEL

As the volume of customers making use of a particular service expands, it often becomes
a routine challenge to synchronize customer expectations with perceptions. The more renowned
or popular a particular service-providing organization is, the lesser flaws are anticipated by the
target customer base from the service performance. And, Sundarban courier service is no
different from most other firms in the same industry of Bangladesh when it comes to bearing
inconsistencies in their line of delivering the performance standards which are coherent with
those in the minds of their customers. Hence, the customer gaps present in Sundarban courier
service are as follows:

Gap 1: Not knowing what customers are expecting

This specific gap entails the difference between what customers expect from the service
and how the company comprehends those expectations. The key factors of the company
leading to this gap are:
[1] Insufficient relationship focus-

➢ Sundarban’s corporate management lacks the adequate level of direct interaction

with customers, where employees mostly conduct the package delivery via calling
the intended recipients of the package over the phone and informing them to
receive it from their branch, without asking for feedbacks or how they could
enhance the scale of customer satisfaction.

➢ They’re solely fixated on transactions without giving emphasis to customer

relationships, and often behave unprofessionally with the customers themselves.

[2] Lack of upward communication and inadequate service recovery-

➢ During any event where customers need additional information regarding their
packages or face inconvenience in receiving them, contact employees are unable
to directly communicate with the upward management system due to excessive
layers between staffs and supervisors, and resolve the situation. This results in
incompetent service recovery efforts.

➢ Sometimes the employees in charge of calling customers aren’t well-informed

about which specific branch the customers’ packages are delivered to and thus
fail to notify them about the location they should go to for pick-up.

These phenomena trigger a chain of irrational decision-making and suboptimal resource

allocations, generating perceptions of poor service quality and customer dissatisfaction
in the process.
Gap 2: Not selecting the right service design and standards

This gap is attributed to the difference between management’s perceptions of customer

expectations and the translation of those perceptions into service quality specifications
and designs. The key factors leading to this gap are:

[1] Poor service design and absence of customer-driven standards-

➢ The entire system of customer transaction is overly outdated, with a shortage of

sufficient automation and digitalization in the processes involved. Customers
have to fill in a lengthy paperwork in order to just hand over their packages at the
counter, which is time-consuming. Also, a lot of recipients don’t receive the SMS
code from the company on time, which has to be shown in order to receive any
packages from the branch.

➢ Most of the employees at the counter aren’t equipped with a mainframe computer
in order to speed up transactions with the aid of a database system. Hence, they
have to perpetually seek the aid of other employees for information and manage
the transactions manually.

➢ Owing to the absence of customer-driven benchmarks, the firm always relies on

phone calls as the primary means of notifying customers about the status of their
packages instead of a more fitting approach such as email or text. This can be
inconvenient if the customers are out of network coverage or preoccupied at the
time of the call. Furthermore, in major cases the employees don’t receive the
phone if a customer calls back.

[2] Inappropriate physical evidence and services cape-

➢ The environment of Sundarban’s branches is inaptly designed in a manner which

isn’t congruent with customer needs, where customers frequently have to wait in
long queues before reaching the counter. Also, there are no seating
accommodations for waiting customers to relax, and the place is always
overcrowded.
 ➢ Recipients sometimes have to hand over a token to an employee for him to find out
and give the recipients’ intended packages to them. But the branch’s storage is
always crammed with hundreds of packages in a small space. This hinders the
employee from locating the correct one swiftly without making the recipients wait
longer than they need to. A lot other times, the recipients are neglected by the
employee.

➢ The branches don’t have any car parking facilities which makes it difficult for
different customers to park their vehicles in a suitable spot before heading over to
the counter. Thus, they have to resort to keeping their vehicles far away and carry
their packages over a long distance from the counter to their rides.

These elements make the service design incompatible and the services cape inhospitable
for the customers, who’d in turn regard the service as unfriendly and unsuitable to
address their convenience.

Gap 3: Not delivering to service standards

This stage indicates the difference between specifications or standards of service quality
and the actual service delivered to the customer. The key factors leading to this gap are:

[1] Deficiencies in human resource policies-

➢ Sundarban bears a fragile corporate image for recruiting individuals who are
generally inexperienced and have low emotional intelligence. They’re not
rigorously trained by the firm and encounter role ambiguity as result of not
receiving prompt information regarding the status quo of the service, in addition
to not possessing enough skills to perform their tasks proficiently.

➢ Frontline employees face persistent role conflict as a single employee is engaged

in multiple tasks at the same time. For instance, a particular operative sitting at the
counter and serving a customer often has to go and check on the workers sorting
 out the packages in the storeroom. This inhibits the customer being served and
wastes his time.

➢ There are significant discrepancies in the empowerment of employees, where they

are made to work on a tight schedule with little to no break from work. Rather
than being delegated new responsibilities or opportunities, employees perform the
same task on a daily basis which makes their work monotonous and static.
Moreover, having to serve a massive wave of customers at a time with no breaks
impairs an employee’s mental health, and this in turn degrades their performance.
Thus, they turn dissatisfied and behave rudely with the customers.

[2] Failure to match supply and demand-

➢ Employees aren’t trained to handle the overwhelming demand for the company’s
services and thus can’t supply enough time and resources to customers and make
them fully satisfied.

➢ Sundarban’s branches are ineffective at smoothing supply and demand. When

demand for the service peaks, the firm doesn’t expand its capacity by, for
instance, increasing the quantity of frontline staffs and delivery trucks of a
specific branch to address the escalated number of customers. Inversely, when
demand drops, the firm doesn’t shrink its capacity, which could be carried out by
temporarily laying off employees so as not to waste resources.

Not paying proper attention to the functioning and improvement of employees would lead
them to making more mistakes and dissatisfying customers as well as themselves,
which’d eventually reduce the company’s overall performance. This, in turn, would cause
both customers and employees alike to switch to other, rival firms.
Gap 4: Not matching performance to promises
This phase portrays the difference between the services delivered to customers and the
promise of the firm to customers about its service quality. The key factors leading to this
gap are:

[1] Lack of integrated services marketing communications and overpromising-

➢ Sundarban doesn’t execute any strong internal marketing program via activities
across multiple dimensions, which’d allow customers to put more trust in the
organization and grant them additional publicity or public relations.

➢ The firm makes statements on their website that it incorporates the best quality of
services in the market and adheres to a professional operational policy, whereas in
reality this is not the case, given the poor employee performance and constant
flaws in their processes. So, this act of overpromising through advertising is not
consistent with the organization’s actual attributes.

[2] Inadequate horizontal communications-

➢ The firm comprises an insufficient communication between advertising and

operations, where the message exhibited in the advertisement regarding their
services doesn’t accurately align with their actual line of work. The message
implies Sundarban is favored by all over their competitors and that they engage
customers with hospitality. But, the benchmark of operations set by the firm
doesn’t integrate with the message.

➢ There are differences in policies and procedures across various branches of

Sundarban, notably the SMS code system that is followed in the Lamabazaar
branch but not in the Kodomtoli branch.

Delivering services that don’t coincide with the promises made by a firm could create a
firm barrier between the service organization and customer trust, as the target customers
might easily develop negative impressions and regard the brand as fraud. This could have
an immense impact on the brand image because customers would spread these words to
others, causing further damage to the firm.