Service quality and satisfaction

Part 2: Measurement and management

Marketing Services and the Customer Experience
Study unit 5
Difficulties of measurement and management

• Intangibility of services makes quality

difficult to measure. An abstract construct
• Inseparability means that customers co-
produce the service and take some
responsibility for quality
• Variability means no two interactions will
be the same
Levels of measurement

Three sets of measures:

• Customer measures
• Service performance measures
• Financial measures
SERVQUAL and Gaps model
As well as identifying five dimensions of service
quality (RATER), Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry
(PZB) developed:
• the SERVQUAL Questionnaire (PZB, 1991) to
measure service quality
• a framework commonly called the Gaps model
(PZB, 1985) to show the major causes of service
quality shortfalls and how to remedy them
SERVQUAL

• 22 items, across the five dimensions

• P (perception) and E (expectation scores)
scores for each item are compared to
arrive at a quality score for each of the 22
items
• Adapt depending on the industry and
context to reflect different service activities
• Administer on a regular basis to analyse
trends
Criticisms of SERVQUAL
• Is it measuring SQ or satisfaction?
• SERVQUAL dimensions are not generic
• Concentrates on process more than outcome
• Excessively long questionnaire
• Respondents are required to rate expectations and
perceptions at the same time. Expectations will be biased
by experience of service
• No indication of importance of each item to customers
• The fact that what we experienced is better than we
expected (P>E), doesn’t actually tell us much about the
quality of the service
Performance-only questionnaire

• Cronin and Taylor (1992) recommend using

only the performance questions of the
SERVQUAL model
• Resembles typical customer survey
• They also allow for weighting of the 22
items
 Service quality Gaps model

WOM
Expected Service Personal needs
Past experience
Gap 5

Perceived Service
Consumer

Company External
Service Delivery
Communications
Gap 4
Gap 1 Gap 3
Translation of perceptions into
service quality specifications
Gap 2
(Parasuraman, Zeithaml,
Management’s perceptions of and Berry 1985)
customer expectations
Gap 1: Not knowing what customers expect

• The gap between customer expectations

and management perception of customer
expectations
• A misunderstanding of what attributes are
valued by customers
• A market intelligence gap
Causes of gap 1
Gap 2: Inappropriate service standards

• The gap between management perception

of customer expectations and service
quality specifications
• Service designs and standards do not
reflect expectations
• A design standards gap
Causes of gap 2

Lack of management commitment (belief that

customer expectations are unrealistic)
Vague, undefined service designs

Inadequate task standardization

Failure to develop physical environment in line
with customer expectations
Gap 3: Failure to deliver to standards

• The gap between service quality

specification and service delivery
• May lack necessary systems, processes,
and people
• May not encourage and require staff to
meet standards
• A delivery gap
Causes of gap 3

Rigid or complicated specifications

Poor internal marketing

Employee role ambiguity or conflict

Break-down in technology or systems support

Employee/customer unwillingness or inability
to perform
Failure to match supply and demand
Gap 4: Failure to meet promises

• The gap between service delivery and

external communications
• The provider promises one thing and
delivers another
• A communications or ‘promises’ gap
Causes of gap 4

Propensity to over-promise or exaggerate

Lack of integration between marketing and
operations
Lack of horizontal communication within the
firm
Gap 5
• The gap between perceived service and
expected service.
• The customer-perceived gap
• The result of one or more of gaps 1 to 4

SERVQUAL measures gap 5 (perceptions versus expectations)

Having administered SERVQUAL, marketers can examine which of the

four gaps is responsible for gap 5
 Closing the gaps

Gap 1: Market Market research; customer feedback; interaction

intelligence gap between customers and management;
communication between contact personnel and
management

Gap 2: Standards Specify tasks, sequences, and timings as tightly as

gap possible; standardize repetitive tasks to improve
consistency
Gap 3: Delivery Improve recruitment, training, and rewards; clarify
gap roles; empower; improve technology and
equipment; educate customers; monitor
late/inaccurate deliveries; complaints recovery
procedures

Gap 4: Don’t over-promise; seek input from contact

Communications personnel; pre-test advertising; facilitate inter-
gap functional communication
Measuring satisfaction

• Organizations create customized measures of satisfaction to

suit their individual needs
• Attempts have been made to devise generic models. UKCSI
(2022) uses five dimensions:
o customer experience (interaction quality)
o complaint handling (responding and dealing with
complaints)
o customer ethos (perception that company cares)
o emotional connection (company is trustworthy and
reassuring)
o Ethics (company is open and transparent; does the right
thing)
 Sainsbury’s

58 statements across seven categories to rate on a Likert scale.

Checkout Trolleys Products Deli and Staff Pricing Misc.

and fish
baskets counter

Help at Easy to Wide Quick Always Clearly Baby-

checkouts steer range of service available marked changing
trolleys on shelf facilities

Enough Strong Quality High Helpful Good Not

time to bags fresh fruit quality and offers crowded
pack and veg product courteous
purchases
Research techniques

• Questionnaires (SERVQUAL surveys; exit surveys)

• Critical incident technique
• Customer panels
• Mystery customers
• Complaint (and compliment) analysis
• Employee research
• Ethnographic research
• User-generated content
• Lost-customer follow-up
 Setting service standards

Q: How far should a firm go in

improving service quality?

A: As far as customers are

prepared to pay for the
enhanced level of quality
References
• Cronin, J. and Taylor, S. (1992) Measuring service quality: a re-examination and
extension. Journal of Marketing. 56 (3), pp. 55-68.
• UKCSI (2022) The State of Customer Satisfaction in the UK. Available
at: https://www.instituteofcustomerservice.com/product/ukcsi-the-state-of-
customer-satisfaction-in-the-uk-january-2022/{Accessed 31 May 2022]
• Parasuraman, A., Zeithaml, V., and Berry, L.L. (1985) A conceptual model of
service quality and its implications for future research. Journal of Marketing.
49 (Fall), pp. 41-50.
• Parasuraman, A., Zeithaml, V., and Berry, L.L. (1988) SERVQUAL: A multiple-
item scale for measuring consumer perceptions of service quality. Journal of
Retailing. 64 (1), pp. 12-40.
• Parasuraman, A., Zeithaml, V., and Berry, L.L. (1991) Refinement and re-
assessment of the SERVQUAL scale. Journal of Retailing. 67 (4), pp. 420-450.