SERVICE QUALITY AND

CUSTOMER
SATISFACTION
 WHAT IS SERVICE QUALITY?

“ A service is any activity or benefit that one party can offer to another which is
essentially intangible and does not result in the ownership of anything.”

As per Parasuraman, Zeithaml & Berry the service quality is defined as :

Service Quality = Customer Perception – Customer Expectation

 CUSTOMER EXPECTATION VS.
CUSTOMER PERCEPTION 
Customer Expectation represents the actual expected service &
Customer Perception revels the actual received service. 

Customer
 Customer Perception
Expectation SERVICE GAP
(Actually
(Expected Received
Service) Service) 
SERVQUAL
 INTRODUCTION
 Service quality is an approach to manage business processes in
order to ensure full satisfaction of the customers & quality in
service provided. It works as an antecedent of customer
satisfaction.
 If expectations are greater than performance, then perceived
quality is less than satisfactory and hence customer
dissatisfaction occurs.
 SERVQUAL is a service quality framework, developed in the
eighties by Zeithaml, Parasuraman & Berry, aiming at measuring
the scale of Quality in the service sectors.
 SERVQUAL was originally measured on 10 aspects of service
quality: reliability, responsiveness, competence, access, courtesy,
communication, credibility, security, understanding the customer,
and tangibles, to measure the gap between customer expectations
and experience.
 KEY SERVICE DIMENSIONS
 The five SERVQUAL dimensions are: R-A-T-E-R:
1. RELIABILITY - Ability to perform the promised service dependably
and accurately
2. ASSURANCE - Knowledge and courtesy of employees and their
ability to convey trust and confidence
3. TANGIBLES - Appearance of physical facilities, equipment,
personnel, and communication materials
4. EMPATHY - Caring, individualized attention the firm provides its
customers
5. RESPONSIVENESS - Willingness to help customers and provide
prompt service
ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF SERVQUAL

ADVANTAGES
 Enables assessing service
quality from the customer’s
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.
DISADVANTAGES
 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.
 Does not measure outcome
perceptions service
 USES OF SERVQUAL 
 To assess a company's service quality along each of the 5 SERVQAL
dimensions. E.g. XYZ Events Ltd carries out the servqual survey to
know where it stands in the perception of customers.
 To track customer's expectations and perceptions over time. E.g. XYZ
Events Ltd wants to compare its score of last year against that of the
current year to know whether it has improved or has to improve
 To compare a company's SERVQUAL scores against competitors. E.g.:
XYZ Events Ltd wants to compare its score against that of 1570 Events
Ltd to see who is the best.
 To identify and examine customer segments that differ significantly in
their assessment of a company's service performance.
 To assess internal service quality (interdepartmental comparison)
 Gap 1- The Gap between Customer Expectation
and Management Perception
Commonly known as the management perception gap
Gap 1 results from a difference between what customers expect and
what management perceives these expectations to be.
It indicates a problem with the understanding of the market. This can
occur, as a result of insufficient research or communication failures.
E.g. : Management of ABC Dry cleaning Ltd perceives that a
particular segment simply expects low prices on its service, when in fact,
the expectation is a value-for-money service. Expected Service
 CAUSE FOR THE GAPS

GAP 1 - not knowing what customers expect

E.g. : XYZ Events Ltd organised a wedding with
the usual white and blue decorations, when the
customer had expected something new and
original.

Causes:
 Lack of a marketing orientation to quality
 Poorly interpreted information about
customer’s expectations
 Research not focused on demand quality
 Too many layers between the front line
personnel &
 top level management
 Gap 2- The Gap between Service Quality
Specifications and Management Perception

Commonly known as quality specification gap.

Gap 2 results from a difference between management perceptions of
what customers expect and the specifications that management draws up
when detailing the service quality delivery actions that are required.
Service design and performance standards are prerequisites for
bridging this gap.
E.g. : Most hotels do not do housekeeping in a room on the day the
customer is checking out. But has management realised that the
customer who is doing a late checking out wants a clean room during
that day?
GAP 2 - The wrong service quality standards
E.g. : XYZ Events Ltd perceived that the
customer wanted a very nice reception with at
least 2 waiters at each table, but management
eventually decided otherwise to reduce costs.
Causes:
 inadequate commitment to service quality
 lack of perception of feasibility
 inadequate task standardization
 the absence of goal setting
 Insufficient planning of procedures
 Gap 3- The Gap between Service Quality
Specification and Service Delivery
Commonly known as the Service delivery gap.
Gap 3 results from a mismatch between the service delivery specifications
required by management and the actual service that is delivered by front line staff.
It is the difference between customer-driven service design & standards, and
the service delivery of the provider.
Managers need to audit the customer experience that their organization
currently delivers in order to make sure it lives up to the expected level.
E.g. : Usually, all restaurants need to attend to every request and orders of the
customers. But very often when customers place orders, they either do not receive
the orders at all or the waiter has confused it with that of another customer.
GAP 3 - The service performance gap
E.g. : XYZ Events Ltd had promised the most
exquisite catering and wedding cake, but the food was
not appreciable and the bride didn’t like the cake at all.
Causes:
Poor employee or technology fit - the wrong person
or wrong system for the job Deficiencies in human
resource policies such as ineffective recruitment, role
ambiguity, role conflict
Failure to match demand and supply
Too much or too little control
Lack of teamwork within the organisation
 Gap 4- The Gap between Service Delivery and External
Communication
 Commonly known as market communication gap.
 This is the gap between the delivery of the customer experience and
what is communicated to customers, i.e. the discrepancy between actual
service and the promised one
 All too often organizations exaggerate what will be provided to
customers, or discuss the best case rather than the likely case, raising
customer expectations and harming customer perceptions.
 E.g. A company commercialising slimming products boasts that
customers may lose up to 4-5 kgs/week. But they do not specify that a
strict diet and regular exercise must accompany the treatment for it to
have the desired effect.
GAP 4 - When promises do not match actual
delivery
E.g. : XYZ Events Ltd promised to have a Mercedes
limousine for the entry of the groom, but eventually
the latter was given a simple Nissan Sunny.
Causes:
inadequate horizontal communication
Over-promising in external communication
campaign
Failure to manage customer expectations
Failure to perform according to specifications
given to customers
Gap 5- The Gap between the Expected Service and
Experienced Service.

• Commonly known as the perceived service quality gap.

• Gap 5 may be identified as the overall difference between the expected
service and the perceived service experienced. Gap 5 results from the
combination of Gaps 1 to 4
• Customers' expectations have been shaped by word of mouth, their
personal needs and their own past service experiences.
• Unless Gap 5 is kept under check, it may result in lost customers, bad
reputation, negative corporate image.
GAP 5 - The difference between customer
perception of service and the expectation they
had
Usually the cause is the occurrence of the 4 other
Gaps, which results in a difference between
customer perception and the expectation they had.
Ultimately the groom’s experience was way too far
from what he had expected, and thus results in
dissatisfaction.
Other causes can be:
cultural background, family lifestyle, personality,
demographics, advertising, experience with
similar service information available online
Solution for the Gaps
THANK YOU
DIVYA BAJAJ
RASHI RAMOLA
VIBHA MANCHANDA
MANKIRAT SINGH BHATIA