What does SERVQUAL mean?

The SERVQUAL model was developed by A.

Parasuraman and colleges in the USA. Like
SERVQUAL is based on the expectations
disconfirmation approach known as disconfirmation
paradigm.
The model of service quality, which they made,
identifies the reasons for any gaps between customer
expectations and perceptions (see the chart
below). Gap 5 is the product of gaps 1, 2, 3 and 4. If
these four gaps, all of which are located below the
line that separates the customer from the company,
are closed then gap 5 will close. The gaps are as
follows.
• Gap 1 is the gap between what the customer

expects and what the company’s management

thinks customers expect.
• Gap 2 is the gap that occurs when management

fails to design service standards that meet

customer expectations.
• Gap 3 occurs when the company’s service
delivery systems – people, technology and
processes – fail to deliver to the specified
standard
• Gap 4 occurs when the company’s
communications with customers promise a level of
service performance that people, technology and
processes cannot deliver.
The Gap Model
To find the level and extent of the Gap 5, authors
developed 22 or 21 item SERVQUAL scale. The
model’s authors identified five core components of
service quality: reliability, assurance, tangibles,
empathy and responsiveness.
1. Tangibles involve appearance of psychical
facilities, equipment, personnel and
communication materials.
2. Reliability is ability to perform the promised
service dependably and accurately.capturing
 3. Responsiveness means willingness to help
customers and to provide prompt service, whilst
capturing the notion of flexibility and the ability to
customize the service to customer needs
4. Assurance means competence and
courtesy of employees and their ability to convey
trust and confidence. (This category includes this
measured componets: competence, courtesy,
credibility and security)
5. Empathy represents provision of caring,
individualized attention to customers. (Includes
access, communication and understanding the
customer)

The relative importance of these variables is also

measured. This enables you to compute the relative
importance of any gaps between expectation and
perceptions. Management can then focus on
strategies and tactics to close the important gaps.
SERVQUAL can be used or adapted to measure
service quality in variety of service settings. Another
advantage is that it can be used for compare
competitors and wide range of services.
This method could be used for internal marketing. It is
based on the idea that every individual in an
organisation, particularly a service organisation,
should recognise that they have customers to serve.
There is a positive link between internal service
quality and external service quality and hence
customer satisfaction, customer loyalty and the
profitability of the organisation. Market research can
be adopted for use with employees. Personnel can be
given the opportunity to give feedback to
management about working conditions, company
policy in general and workers’ own understanding
about what comprises quality for the customer. The
relationship between organisational subunits and their
relationship to top management are also important.
This can be assessed by a variation of the
SERVQUAL instrument.
Service Encounters: Differing Levels of Customer
Contact
A service encounter is a period of time during which
customers interact directly with a
service.10 in some instances, the entire service
experience can be reduced to a single
encounter, involving ordering, payment, and
execution of service delivery on the spot. In
other cases, the customer's experience includes a
sequence of encounters for entire
service consumption. Although some researchers use
the term "encounter" simply to
describe personal interactions between customers
and employees, realistically we also
need to think about encounters involving interactions
between customers and self-service
equipment.
As the level of customer contact with the service
operation increases, there are likely to be
more and longer service encounters.
So in Figure above, we've grouped services into three
Levels of customer contact,
representing the extent of interaction with service
person service personnel, physical
service elements, or both. You'll notice that traditional
retail banking, telephone Banking
and home banking by Web site are all in different
locations on the chart.
We describe the three levels of contact services as
follows:
1. High-contact services: services that involve
significant interaction among
customers, service personnel, and equipment and
facilities. High-contact services
tend to be those in which customers visit the service
facility in person. Customers
are actively involved with the service organization and
its personnel throughout Created by Philip 27
service delivery (e.g., hairdressing or medical
services). All people processing
services (other than those delivered at home) are high
contact.
2. Medium-contact services entail less interaction
with service providers. They
involve situations in which customers visit the service
provider's facilities (or are
visited at home or at a third-party location by the firm's
employees) but either do not
remain throughout service delivery or else have only
modest contact with service
personnel. The purpose of such contacts is often
limited to: (1) establishing a
relationship and defining a service need (e.g.,
management consulting, insurance, or
personal financial advising, where clients make an
initial visit to the firm's office but
then have relatively limited interactions with the
provider during service production),
(2) dropping off and picking up a physical possession
that is being serviced, or (3)
trying to resolve a problem.
3. Low-contact services involve very little, if any,
physical contact between customers
and service providers. Instead, contact takes place at
arm's length through the
medium of electronic or physical distribution channels
—a fast-growing trend in
today's convenience-oriented society. Both mental
stimulus-processing (e.g., radio,
television) and information-processing services (e.g.,
insurance) fall naturally into
this category.