Question

Garvin has developed eight dimensions that can be used in the assessment of the quality of a product. Similarly, some other authors have worked on the dimensions that can be used in the evaluation of the quality of a service.

1. Identify five main dimensions that can be used in the assessment of service quality. [10 marks].

2. As part of the ISO 9001:2015 requirements, a company has to measure the level of service quality offered to its customers. Using the dimensions listed in (a), describe fully a method that your company can employ to assess its service quality as perceived by its clients. Illustrate the tool or model that you will use. [20 marks]

Answer 1

Service Quality

As the quality of products, it is not possible to define the quality of services in terms of physical and functional characteristics alone. Quality of services is judged by customers on many dimensions in addition to the physical and functional characteristics associated with the service.There are various dimensions of service quality:

1. Tangibles:

Tangibles refer to a service's look and feel. Tangibles are similar to the physical characteristics of the quality of products. This refers to the physical characteristics of facilities, equipment, consumable goods and personnel used in associated with the service provided.

Examples: Does the equipment appear modern? How clean is the waitress's apron? etc.

However the quality is judged, not by some uniform specifications in terms of physical characteristics, but by the impact, these physical characteristics have on customer assessment of service quality.

2. Reliability:

Reliability refers to the dependency of service providers and their ability to keep their promises. It is the extent to which the services performed match simplicity or explicitly promises made by the service provider regarding the nature of service.

For example, the basic quality of room decor, food, and the facilities provided in a hotel.

3. Responsiveness:

Responsiveness refers to the response time of the service. It is the willingness to help the customer promptly in case of special and unforeseen requirements.

For example, helping a client who falls ill while staying in a hotel.

4. Assurance:

Assurance refers to the level of certainty regarding the quality of service of the customer. It is the extent to which the service provider and the staff is able to inspire trust and confidence.

For example, a customer dining in a restaurant cannot directly judge the level of cleanliness maintained by the restaurant. Here it is important not only to provide truly hygienic food but also to inspire the belief that food is hygienic.

Assurance is about giving the client peace of mind that everything will be taken care of rather than genuinely cared for when needed. For instance, a doctor with an MD degree may inspire more assurance than a doctor with just an MBBS degree, although the basic treatment provided by them may be of the same quality.

5. Empathy:

Empathy is being able to understand the needs of the customers as an individual and meet the special requirements of the customer. This is more about customizing the service and the general service provider behavior for each customer, rather than providing uniformly high-quality treatment to all.

Many companies try to create a sense of empathy by adopting a strategy like addressing each customer by name. However, true empathy means understanding the special characteristics and needs of the individual customers and modifying service to them accordingly.

The method that a company can employ to get service quality:

Various measurement criteria are required for various concepts such as service quality, customer comfort, customer perceptions, expectations, and commitment. When evaluating these theories, they will need to use different measuring scales, the scope of views, attitudes, and behaviors.

GAP Model:

Parasuraman et., Developed a conceptual model of service quality, where he identified five gaps that could affect consumer quality assessment in four different industries:

• Credit Card
• Retail banking
• Securities Market
• Product Repair and maintenance

Gaps were:

​​​​​​​1. Consumer Expectation - Management Perception Gap:

Service firms do not always understand what features a service should have to meet the needs of the consumer and what those characteristics may perform in order to provide a high-quality service. This affects the way consumers evaluate service quality.

2. Management Perception – Service Quality Specification Gap:

This difference arises when the company identifies what consumers want but does not have the means to meet expectations. Some factors influencing this difference may be resource scarcity, market conditions, and management apathy. These can affect the consumer's service quality perception.

3. Service Quality Specifications – Service Delivery Gap:

Companies may have guidelines for doing good service and satisfying customers appropriately but this does not mean that great service quality fulfillment is assured. Employees perform a crucial part in ensuring good service quality insights and their execution cannot be graded.

4. Service Delivery – External Communications Gap:

External communications can not only affect consumer expectations of service but also consumer perceptions of distributed service. Companies may ignore to notify consumers of special efforts to ensure quality that they do not see and this may change thoughts of service quality by consumers.

5. Expected Service – Perceived Service Gap:

Their study showed that the key to ensuring good service quality is the services consumers receive or exceed, which are judged by the high and low service quality decisions consumers expect to make. What does the actual performance look like in terms of expected performance?