GAPS MODEL

IN SERVICE DESIGN
AND DELIVERY
THE GAPS MODEL OF SERVICE QUALITY
CUSTOMER
Expected
Service
Customer
Gap
Perceived
Service

COMPANY External
Service Delivery Communications to
Communi- Customers
Listening Performance
cation Gap
Gap Gap Customer – driven service designs and
standards
Service designs and standards gap
Company perceptions of
consumer expectations
 ❑ The ‘customer gap’ is the difference
between ‘customer expectations’ and ‘
perceptions’.
❑ Customer expectations are standards or
The reference points that customers bring to the
service experience, whereas customer
Customer perceptions are subjective assessments of
Gap actual service experiences.
❑ Closing the gap between what customers
expect and what they perceive is critical to
delivering quality service, it forms the basis
for the gaps model.
 Customer Expectation
Gap
1
❖ Inadequate customer research orientation
❑ Insufficient customer research
❑ Research not focused on service quality
❑ Inadequate use of market research
❖ Lack of upward communication
❑ Lack of interaction between management and customers
The Listening Gap

❑ 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 to customer complaints.
❑ Failure to make amends when things go wrong.
❑ No appropriate recovery mechanisms in place for service failures

Company perceptions of
customer expectations
Strategies for Closing the
Listening Gap (Gap 1)

✓ Listen to customers in multiple ways

through customer research and
employee communication.
✓ Build relationships by
understanding and meeting
customer needs over time.
✓ Know and act on what customers
expect when they experience a
service failure.
Gap
2

Customer-driven service
design and standards

❖ Poor service design

❑ Unsystematic new service development process
and Standards Gap
The Service Design

❑ 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 to focus on customer requirements
❑ Absence of formal process for setting service quality goals
❖ Inappropriate physical evidence and servicescape
❑ Failure to develop tangibles in line with customer expectations
❑ Servicescape design that does not meet customer and employee needs
❑ Inadequate maintenance and updating of the servicescape

Management perceptions of
customer expectations
Strategies for Closing the Service
Design and Standards Gap (Gap 2)

❑Employ well-defined new service

development and innovation
practices – “services R&D”.
❑ Understand the total customer
experience through service
blueprinting.
❑ Measure service operations via
customer-defined rather than
company-defined standards.
 Customer-driven service
Gap design and standards
3
❖ Deficiencies in human resource policies
❑ Ineffective recruitment
❑ Role ambiguity and role conflict
❑ Poor employee-technology job fit.
❖ Customers not fulfilling roles
❑ Customers’ lack of knowledge of their roles and responsibilities.
Performance Gap

❑ Customers negatively affect each other

❖ Problems with service intermediaries
The Service

❑ Channel conflict over objectives and performance

❑ Channel conflicts over costs and rewards.
❑ Difficulty in controlling quality and consistency
❑ Tension between empowerment and control
❖ Failure to match supply and demand
❑ Failure to smooth peaks and valleys of demand
❑ Inappropriate customer mix.
❑ Overreliance on price to smooth demand.

Service Delivery
Strategies for Closing the Service
Performance Gap (Gap 3)

❑Align human resource practices

(hiring, training, support systems
and rewards) around delivering
service excellence.
❑ Define customers’ roles and help
them to understand and perform
effectively.
❑ Integrate technology effectively
and appropriately to aid service
performance.
 Service Delivery
Gap
4 ❖ Lack of integrated service marketing communications
❑ Tendency to view each external communication as independent
❑ Not including interactive marketing in communications plan
❑ Absence of strong internal marketing programme.
❖ Ineffective management of customer expectations
❑ Not managing customer expectations through all forms of communication.
❑ Not adequately educating customers.
The Communication Gap

❖ Overpromising
❑ Overpromising in advertising
❑ Overpromising in personal selling
❑ Overpromising in physical evidence cues.
❖ Inadequate horizontal communication
❑ Insufficient communication between sales and operations.
❑ Insufficient communication between advertising and operations
❑ Differences in policies and procedures across branches or units.
❖ Inappropriate pricing
❑ High prices raise customer expectations.
❑ Prices that are not connected to customer perceptions of value.

External communications to
customers
Strategies for Closing the
Communication Gap (Gap 4)

❑Employ integrated service marketing

communication strategies around
everything and everyone that sends
a message or signal to the customer.
❑ Manage customer expectations
effectively throughout the
experience.
❑ Develop mechanisms for internal
communication to avoid
overpromising and ensure successful
delivery.