Customer Relationship

Management
Module – 4
Service Quality
Dr. Pruthvirajsinh Rathod
 Introduction
It is a combination of two words, Service and Quality where
we find emphasis on the availability of quality services to
the ultimate users.
The term quality focuses on standard or specification that a
service generating organisation promises. We can’t have a
clear-cut boundary for quality

Dr. Pruthvirajsinh Rathod

 Definition
service quality is defined as superiority or excellence as
perceived by the customer.
Service quality is generally viewed as the output of the
service delivery system, especially in the case of pure service
systems. Moreover, service quality is linked to consumer
satisfaction.
For example – customers leaving a restaurant or hotel are
asked if they were satisfied with the service they received. If
they answer “no,” one tends to assume that service was
poor.

Dr. Pruthvirajsinh Rathod

Service quality is a measure of how well the service level
delivered matches customer expectation. Delivering
quality service means conforming to customer
expectation on a consistent basis.
Service quality as the ability of an organization to meet
or exceed customer’s expectations.
Service quality is a function of customer’s perceptions
about services.

Dr. Pruthvirajsinh Rathod

 Defining Service
Knowledge about good quality however is insufficient to
understand service quality three well known documented
characteristics of service – Intangibility, heterogeneity
and insuperability .

Dr. Pruthvirajsinh Rathod

 Features of Service
Services are mainly intangible
Services are highly heterogenous.
Production and consumption of many service are
inseparable.

Dr. Pruthvirajsinh Rathod

 Service Quality
Evaluation of service quality is more difficult as
compared to goods quality.
Service quality is a comparison between expectation and
performance.
Service quality evaluation involves outcome & Processes.

Dr. Pruthvirajsinh Rathod

 Types of Service Quality
Objective Service Quality : it is the concrete measurable
conformity of a working result with the previous defined
benefit.
Subjective Service Quality : it is the customer’s perceived
conformity of the working result with the expected
benefit.

Dr. Pruthvirajsinh Rathod

 10 Determinants of Service Quality

Dr. Pruthvirajsinh Rathod

 Dimensions of service quality
Parasuraman, Zeithamel and Berry (1985) defined five
dimensions for service quality, represented by the diagram below:

Dr. Pruthvirajsinh Rathod

Dimension Definition Example
Includes the physical appearance of the physical service facilities,
Cleanliness of the
the equipment, the personnel who do the servicing, the
Tangibles communication materials and all tangible elements of service environment; personnel
uniform; vehicles; flight
provider facilities or surroundings

Differs from the product reliability in that it relates to the ability of

Achieving delivery times
the service provider to perform the promised service dependably
Service reliability and accurately stated on the website

The willingness of the service provider to be helpful, be prompt in The speed of helping
providing services, and to respond to customers’ requests, customer online or by
Responsiveness
problems or complaints telephone

The excellent reputation

The knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to and high levels of trust
inspire trust and confidence – creating trust and confidence will based on previous
Assurance gain the customers’ loyalty experiences with the
company

Employees’ high emphasis

Caring, individual attention paid to customers by the service firm to
Empathy on customer requests to
meet each customer’s demands properly.
achieve higher satisfaction
Dr. Pruthvirajsinh Rathod
 Measuring Service Quality

When it comes to ensuring service quality there are two

important aspects to consider: the
customer’s expectations and the customer’s perception of the
performance. If the perceived performance exceeds
expectations, the customer can be considered satisfied. If
the expectations are not met, the customer will typically be
dissatisfied.
Measuring these dimensions regularly over time can help
business to understand customer expectations, perceptions, and
areas for improvement, as well as track the your progress in
increasing service quality. 
Dr. Pruthvirajsinh Rathod
 Service quality questionnaires

To improve your business’s service, you need to understand how

satisfied customers are and if their expectations are fulfilled. One
of the best ways to do this is by asking customers for their
feedback using service quality questionnaires. 
These questionnaires are typically sent after a customer
interaction, like a store visit or an online help form submission.
They aren’t meant for merely gathering data. If your customer
reports a negative experience or interaction, you should follow up
with them right away to resolve it and report on the action taken. 

Dr. Pruthvirajsinh Rathod

 Sample questions

• The service rep helped to solve my issue (strongly agree to

strongly disagree)
• Which of the qualities of the service rep did you like? (patient,
friendly, responsive, willing to help, empathetic, etc.)
• Was there anything about our service that stood out to you?
• Over the next year, how likely are you to use our product or
service again? (strongly agree to strongly disagree)

Dr. Pruthvirajsinh Rathod

 Advantages of service quality questionnaires

Service quality questionnaires have several advantages. Since

they’re sent immediately after an interaction, the details are still
relatively fresh in the customer’s mind and thus more accurate.
They also offer information quickly so you can take swift action
on the most pressing issues. 

Dr. Pruthvirajsinh Rathod

 The SERVQUAL

The SERVQUAL questionnaire is one of the most widely used surveys

for capturing service quality. Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and
Berry developed this scale in 1988. They found that there was no
measure of service quality.
Therefore, they attempted to developed a measure of service quality.
Firstly, the customer feels the service quality. They also proposed that
it was different from satisfaction. 

Dr. Pruthvirajsinh Rathod

Dr. Pruthvirajsinh Rathod
Dr. Pruthvirajsinh Rathod
 In-app surveys
In-app surveys are another effective mechanism for gathering customer feedback
directly. Instead of sending a survey via email or paper format, in-app surveys pop
up while the customer uses your mobile app. 
You can use these surveys to ask customers one or two quick questions about an in-
store experience they just had, or about the app itself, or another aspect of your
service quality. 
Advantages of in-app surveys 
In-app surveys offer a quick and easy way for customers to give their feedback.
Since the experience doesn’t take them out of the app, they can give a quick rating.
They also allow you to hone in closely on the app experience itself, which can be
useful if that’s one of the primary ways your customers interact with your business. 
It’s best not to ask for long open-ended answers through in-app surveys because
typing detailed responses on a mobile phone can require too much effort for
respondents.

Dr. Pruthvirajsinh Rathod

 Service Quality Scales
Measuring service quality allows you to spot areas for
improvement, assess and compare the performance of team
members, set clear targets to aim for, and improve your 
customer satisfaction .

Dr. Pruthvirajsinh Rathod

 SERVQUAL
This is the most common method for measuring the subjective elements of service
quality. Through a survey, you ask your customers to rate the delivered service
compared to their expectations.
Its questions cover what SERVQUAL claims are the 
five elements of service quality : RATER.
• Reliability. The ability to deliver the promised service in a consistent and accurate
manner.
• Assurance. The knowledge level and politeness of the employees and to what
extent they create trust and confidence.
• Tangibles. The appearance of e.g. the building, website, equipment and employees.
• Empathy. To what extent the employees care and give individual attention.
• Responsiveness. How willing the employees are to offer a speedy service.

Dr. Pruthvirajsinh Rathod

 Critics of Servqual
Dimensions – The SERVQUAL which has five dimensions is not general and it
depends on the context.
 Expectations – It has been argued by some researchers that it is not necessary to
measure the expectations because to evaluate the services expectations are not
used by the customers.
 Item Composition – Within each SERVQUAL dimension just four or five items
cannot capture the inconsistency.
 Polarity – On the SERVQUAL scale there are items of reversed polarity to make
sure that the respondents do not mark the same point for each question which
causes respondent error.
  Gap model - There is no proof which suggests that perception minus
expectation lead to the measurement of service quality by the customers.
 Process orientation - SERVQUAL is focused on the process and not on the
outcome of the service.

Dr. Pruthvirajsinh Rathod

 SERVPERF
SERVPERF (Service Performance) was created on basis of critique
of SERVQUAL by J.J. Cronin and S.A. Taylor in 1994. They claimed
that Parasuraman's study of relations between expected and
experienced quality is not proper approach to quality
assessment.
The SERVPERF measures quality as an attitude, not satisfaction.
However it uses an idea of perceived service quality leading to
satisfaction. But it goes further, and connects satisfaction with
further purchase intentions.
The SERVPERF is a modification of SERVQUAL, and thus uses the
same categories to assess service quality (RATER model):

Dr. Pruthvirajsinh Rathod

 SERVPERF
The SERVPERF scale is known as a perception-only scale.
The same 22 items and 5 dimensions that are applied in
the SERVQUAL scale are used here.

The only difference is that the SERVPERF scale considers

only the perception. As the core of service quality is the
attitude of the consumer, the performance based
measurement approach is more appropriate

Dr. Pruthvirajsinh Rathod

 RSQS
This scale can be used to study the retail business where there
is a combination of services and goods.
The RSQS has a hierarchical factor structure and comprises of
five basic dimensions (Table 2). These dimensions are distinct
but yet highly correlated.
The physical aspect dimension in the RSQS had a much wider
meaning compared to the tangible dimensions of SERVQUAL.
Reliability dimension of SERVQUAL was similar to the reliability
dimension of RSQS.
The personal interaction dimension in RSQS was a grouping of
the dimensions of SERVQUAL (responsiveness and assurance).

Dr. Pruthvirajsinh Rathod

 RSQS - RETAIL SERVICE QUALITY SCALE

 A new dimension of problem solving was proposed by

the authors. It includes service recovery which is a
significant part of goods service.
This dimension differs from the dimension of personal
interaction. The researchers then introduced the
dimension of policy.
Those aspects of service quality are represented by this
dimension that is directly influenced by the policy of the
store.

Dr. Pruthvirajsinh Rathod

Dr. Pruthvirajsinh Rathod
 OTHER SERVICE QUALITY SCALES

RSQS cannot be used to find the real meaning of service

quality in the grocery stores and so more research is
needed.
Many service quality scales have been developed for the
grocery stores that focus on the format of the traditional
supermarket. Different grocery service quality models
have been proposed for the different geographical
markets named GROCERY SERVICE QUALITY SCALE

Dr. Pruthvirajsinh Rathod

 OTHER SERVICE QUALITY SCALES
LIBQUAL is another specific service quality scale which is
used to access the service quality of the libraries. It consists
of dimensions such as service affect, library as a place etc.
Based on the SERVQUAL instrument, the LODGSERV (26
items) was created for the lodging industry.
DINESERV was developed (29 items) for the restaurant
industry.
To be used in the restaurant industry a DINESERV.PER which
is a performance only version is similar to the SERVPERF
(Stevens, Knutson & Patton, 1995)

Dr. Pruthvirajsinh Rathod

 OTHER SERVICE QUALITY SCALES

ES-QUAL and E-RecS-QUAL have been developed

(Parasuraman, Zeithaml & Malhotra, 2005) to calculate
the service quality of the electronic services in the retail
store.
E-RecS-QUAL has 11 items that are organized in 3
dimensions: responsiveness, compensation and contact.
In ES-QUAL there are 22 items that are ordered in four
dimensions: efficiency, fulfillment, system availability and
privacy.

Dr. Pruthvirajsinh Rathod

 Factors influencing customer expectation
and perception
Managing customer perceptions and expectations is one of
the most essential components of a successful customer
service department.
. Customers have their expectations on how these needs and
wants are met and that consistently form impressions about
the actual service offered them in comparing with their
expectations.
Arguably, the performance of every organization depends on
how well it satisfies its sophisticated customers.

Dr. Pruthvirajsinh Rathod

 Factors influencing customer expectation
and perception
Service quality affects the repurchase intention of both existing and
potential customers.
Market research has shown that customers who are dissatisfied
with a service will reveal their experiences to more than there
other people.
Thus, it is reasonable to conclude that poor service will reduce the
potential customer base affecting the bottom line to business
performance.
service quality has been perceived for a long time to be an outcome
of customer cognitive assessment, recent studies confirm that
service quality involves not only an outcome but emotions of
customers.

Dr. Pruthvirajsinh Rathod

 Customer Expectations of Service Quality

Customers develop a certain set of expectations based on a

variety of inputs.
They consider their previous experiences with services in
general and with each specific kind of service they have
encountered.
Customers also develop expectations when they hear about
services from others. If you hear that your friend was
delighted with her stay at a particular hotel, you are more
likely to expect that same level of service if you stay there.
Customers also form expectation based on service provider’s
advertisement and promotion.

Dr. Pruthvirajsinh Rathod

 Levels of Service Expectation
Ideal service level is the highest level of service
expectations defined as the wished for level of service
which a customer hope for received in idealized way.
Desired service level is lower than the ideal service level.
However, it is the level of performance the customer wants
to receive from the service and a blend of what customers
believe can be and should be delivered.
Adequate service level is the lowest level of service
expectations defined as the minimum level of service the
customer will tolerate and accept without being frustrated.

Dr. Pruthvirajsinh Rathod

 Levels of Service Expectation
Zone of tolerance (See Figure 1.1) refers to the gap
between desired service and adequate service levels.
Services performed in this zone will be accepted as
heterogeneity by the customers.
 If the performance is above the ideal service level,
customer will be very pleased.
When the performance falls below the adequate service
level, customers will be dissatisfied and have a negative
impression.

Dr. Pruthvirajsinh Rathod

 Levels of Service Expectation
Predicted service level is the level of service customers
actually expect from the service organisation. The
predicted service level can range from the ideal level of
service to the adequate level of service by modifying the
customer’s expectations accordingly in all circumstances
of service.

Dr. Pruthvirajsinh Rathod

 Customer Expectations of Service Quality

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 1.6. Factors Influencing Desired Service
Expectations

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 i. Factors Influencing Adequate Service
Expectations

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 Factors Influencing both Desired and
Predicted Service Expectations

Dr. Pruthvirajsinh Rathod

Dr. Pruthvirajsinh Rathod