According to Gronroos (1984), “the perceptions of customers for the process of service have two dimensions” (Suuroja 2003 p.12). The first dimension is the technical quality which is the outcome dimension for the service process. For example, the results of withdrawal service in the bank is to get an access to your money when you need it. Whilst the other one is known as the functional dimension which is often called the process dimension, and it refers to the quality of the service process. For instance, in a withdrawal service process the procedures quality and experiences involved in accessing the money (completing of forms, waiting time, queuing, etc.) constitute function quality dimension.
Suuroja (2003) noted that Gronroos’s point of view of service quality is basically based on “what” customers get and “how” they get it. However,Gronroos (1984) indicated that
These ten dimensions were identified as “credibility, , accessibility, reliability ,security communication, knowing the customer, responsiveness, competence, courtesy, and tangibles” (Parasuraman et al 1985, P. 46).Thus customers’ perception about the quality of service is used to appraise of all the ten components.
In later work, these ten dimensions were collapsed into only five factors. These dimensions are shown in table 2.1 below Table 2.3: Five Broad Dimensions of Service Quality (Source: Zeithaml et al. 1990) Dimension _Description _ _Tangibles _Appearance of equipment , physical facilities, written Materials and personnel.
_ _Reliability _Ability to do the promised service reliably and percisely. _ _Responsive _Willingness to assist and afford swift service for the consumers. _ _Assurance _Employees’ courtesy and knowledge and their capibilty in giving trust and confidence. _ _Empathy _Caring, easy access, good communication, customer understanding and individualized attention given to
Zeithaml, V., Parasuraman, A., & Berry, L. (1990). Delivering quality service: balancing customer perceptions and expectations. New York, New York: Simon and Schuster.
Taylor∗, S.A. (1994). An assessment of the relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction in the formation of consumers' purchase intentions. Journal of Retailing, Volume 70, (Issue 2).
The dimensions of service quality was later reduced to 5 dimensions, encompassing: Tangibles (physical facilities, equipment and appearance of personnel), Reliability (ability to perform the services accurately and dependably), Responsiveness (willingness to help customers and provide prompt services), Empathy (caring and individualized attention given to customers, which includes both access to and understanding of the customers and Assurance (providers’ knowledge, courtesy and ability to convey trust and confidence) (Parasuraman et al., 1991).
According to Business Studies ‘’Customer service is one of the most important ingredients of the marketing mix for products and services. High quality customer service helps to create customer loyalty. Customers today are not only interested in the product they are being offered but all the additional elements of service that they receive from the greeting they receive when they enter a retail outlet, to the refund and help that they receive when they have a complaint about a faulty product that they have paid for’’ (Business Studies, n.d).
In the service industry, products are produced to satisfy the needs and wants of the target market. The production and consumption of the product are simultaneously done. Besides that, the product is different, intangible, and unstable. Moreover, the product should meet consumers’ needs or how they want it for. Additionally, it should perform and it should be what the consumers are expecting to get (Turnbull, 2012).
The original SERVQUAL model was identified into ten elements of service quality; however these elements were collapsed into five factors in the later work, they are reliability, assurance, tangibles, empathy, and
Strombeck, SD, Wakefield, KL 2008, ‘ situation Influences on Service Quality Evaluations’ Journal of Services Marketing, vol. 22, no. 5, pp. 409-419.
The five dimensions of the SERVQUAL model in the evaluation of service quality was tasted by many researchers in order to prove the model’s validity. To begin with, Zeithaml et al (2006), claimed that, “service quality is a focused evaluation that reflects the customer’s perception of reliability, assurance, responsiveness, empathy, and tangibles”. Additionally, they pointed out that among the five dimensions, “reliability” it has been reported to be one of the most important factors.
a) Good customer service is a critical component of a quality product. Collier (2011) states that service needs to be consistent, continuous, thoughtful and available. These are crucial in meeting and exceeding customer expectations. Collier also continues on to state that staff providing customer service must have appropriate skills, knowledge and personal attributes to execute a high standard of service. These skills have been identified by Collier as listening skills, punctuality, courtesy, integrity and grooming. The skills and qualities identified are reflected by the five key components of customer service tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy. The five components have been provided by the SERVQUAL service measuring
According to Kotler et al (2013), there are four characteristics involved in services that marketers must consider when designing marketing programmes. These include intangibility, perishability, variability and inseparability. These characteristics are vital for producing services and differ to those required for products.
According to Kiran (2010), reliability refers to the ability to perform the promised services dependably and accurately. Ghobadian, Speller and Jores (1994) stated the reliability is the ability to provide the pledged service on time, accurately and dependably. It involves consistency of performance and dependability. It means that the firm performs the service right the first time and also the degree to which a service is fault-free. It also means that the firm honors its promises (Edwards & Browne, 1995). Study by Ho and Crowley (2003) uses a focus group method to explore user perceptions of the reliability of Texas A&M University library services. They found that the reliability on various services including prompt re-shelving of books, accuracy of catalogue records and timeliness of notifications may determine users’ perceptions of how easy or difficult it is to use the library. Five items on the SERVQUAL instrument assess reliability based on providing services at the promised time, maintaining error-free customer and catalogue records, providing services as promised, dependability in handling customer service problems and performing services right the first time. Other SERVQUAL dimensions include assurance, responsiveness, empathy and tangibles. While there have been no studies focusing exclusively on reliability, past SERVQUAL research shows it to be an important influence on customer perceptions of service quality in different settings. Zeithaml, Parasuraman, and Berry (1990) found that customers ranked reliability as the most important criterion in judging service quality regardless of service industry.
It's very well known that a companies success is not only dependant on the possession of a good product or service, but the key aspect to a successful business is excellent customer service. As the market grows, now more then ever companies are emerging, they are offering very similar types of products and services. Successful customer service can be a way a business becomes original and unique, it can be the key to attracting and maintaining loyal customers. Good customer service can start-up a business while bad customer service can harm a company. An average customer that experiences an issue will complaint to 9-10 people about the problem. A customer that received support to their problem and a potential solution will tell at least five
We recommend Vikram to use service quality framework (SERVQUAL) as a scale to measure and manage hotel guest’s perception of service quality in terms of five dimensions (session2 slide#45), which are (i) Reliability – OV employee’s ability to dependably and accurately perform the promised service to consistently delight its guests (ii) Assurance – Knowledge and courtesy of OV employees, and their ability to convey trust and confidence. (iii) Empathy – OV’s individualized attention and customized care it offers to its guests and understanding the customer to anticipate guest needs, wants and desires to enlighten the service. (iv)Tangibles – Refers to OV’s lavish tents and other physical facilities, equipment, pleasant appearance of OV personal, etc. (v) Responsiveness – OV’s willingness to help customers and provide prompt
The dimensions of service quality refer to the attributes which contribute to consumer expectations and perceptions of service quality, thus serving as the determinants of consumers’ quality assessment (Rowley, 1998). The most well-known, commonly used service quality scale is the SERVQUAL, a general instrument for measuring service quality developed by Parasuraman et al., (1988). It includes five dimensions of service quality: (1) tangibles: appearance of physical facilities, equipment, personnel and communication materials; (2) reliability: ability to perform the promised services dependably and accurately; (3) responsiveness: willingness to help customers and provide prompt service; (4) assurance: knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to convey trust and confidence; and (5) empathy: caring, individualized attention that a firm provides its
A service encounter is defined as a moment when a customer interacts with a service or product for the first time. It is the customer’s actual interaction with a service company. It is identified as a key component of the current agenda for service marketers. More than half of the world’s multinational corporations employ in providing services, thus the scrutiny of service encounters is becoming increasingly significant. Research evidence indicates that customers generally compare their expectations with the performance of service industries and they are influenced by the quality of service they receive. The scope of this essay is to discuss about the view that customers don’t buy products they focus on solutions and also about the consumer’s behaviour pattern regarding services provided. Further, it will be noted how businesses are trying to improve the service quality to attract customers leading to an increase in the economic competitiveness.