Week 3: Perceived Service Quality and Customer Satisfaction

Criticisms of SERVQUAL

- 5 dimensions may not be applicable to all service contexts - expectations and perceived performance typically assessed at one time - measuring expectations provides no additional info beyond what is obtained from measuring perceived performance alone - does not explicitly include customer inputs in its measurements

Satisfaction/dissatisfaction (SD) and service quality (SQ)

- SD is experience dependent, SQ can be assessed prior to actual experience - SQ is predominately cognitive, SD is both cognitive and affective in nature - SD short term temporal focus (transaction- specific judgement), SQ long-term temporal focus (overall assessment) - SQ ideal expectations used as yardstick, SD will expectations used - SQ is a determinant (input) of SD

Evolution of service quality

- disconfirmation of expectations - nordic model - gapz (PSB) model and servqual

Gaps model (PZB model)

- first four gaps are the result of management's actions - gap 5 occurs at the client level

Servqual

- quantitative technique for measuring service quality known as servqual - based upon 22 generic items on a survey which is designed to cover the 5 broad dimensions of service quality - measures gap 5 in the gaps model - each item is rated on a 7-point Likert scale (1= strongly disagree to 7= strongly agree) - subtract expectations scores from performance perception scores (can be unweighted/weight to the relative importance of each dimension of quality/ different customer groups)

The nordic model

- represents the service experience on the basis of functional and technical elements - technical quality refers to what outcome the customer receives from the service - functional quality refers to the way the service is delivered

Three types of expectations

1. Will: performance levels a customer predicts an offering is going to deliver 2. Should: normative expectation based on perceived equity and fairness assessed 3. Ideal: performance levels that reflect a customer's ideal preferences across all offerings in a category

Dimensions of servqual (5)(RRAET)

1. reliability - ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately 2. responsiveness - willingness to help clients and provide prompt service 3. assurance - knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to convey trust and confidence 4. empathy - provision of caring, individualised attention to clients 5. tangibles - appearance of physical facilities, equipment, personnel and communications materials

GAP 1. Knowledge gap

Client's expectations vs management's perceptions of client's expectations Key contributing factors: 1. Lack of marketing research orientation (interaction, marketing research, use of research of findings incorrect) 2. Inadequate upward communication 3. Too many levels of management

Disconfirmation of expectations

Perceived performance is compared to expectations leading to either: 1. negative disconfirmation (dissatisfaction) 2. confirmation (mere satisfaction) 3. positive disconfirmation (delight)

GAP 5. Perceived Service Quality Gap

The service gap (difference between what customers expect and what they receive (1-4=5) > service experience does not equal service expected This gap results in: - Poor quality - Negative word-of-mouth - Erosion of corporate image, reputation and trust - Lost business

Customer surveys

can be administered to large customer numbers relatively cheaply when compared with the other techniques - satisfaction - service quality

Perceived service quality

consumer's judgement (across multiple service encounters) about an entity's overall excellence or superiority. It is a summary assessment of a performance relative to a reference standard (customer's ideal expectations) - but these can be adaptive to customer learning and change over time

Satisfaction defined

consumer's post consumption judgement of the overall service experience (processes and outcome). Affective state or feeling reaction in which the customer's needs, desires and expectations during the course of the service experience have been met/exceeded - involves both cognitive and affect elements

Expectations

determined by accumulated info - stored customer knowledge accrued from own experience - other customers' experiences - firm strategies e.g. price, advertising, market share and reputation - media reports

GAP 2. Standards gap

difference between management's perceptions of client's expectations and service quality specifications (may not set quality specifications or stipulate them clearly/ may set but appear unachievable by staff) Key contributing factors: 1. inadequate management commitment to service quality 2. perception of infeasibility 3. inadequate task standardisation 4. absence of goal setting

GAP 4. Communications Gap

difference between service delivery intention and what is communicated about the service to customers (promises given by promotion activities are not consistent withs service delivered) Key contributing factors: 1.Inadequate horizontal communication between: - Advertising and operations - Salespeople and operations - HR, marketing and operations - Differences in policies and procedures across branches and departments 2. Propensity to over-promise

GAP 3. Delivery gap

difference between service quality specifications and the service actually delivered (goals/service KPIs exist but are ignored or not adhered to) Key contributing factors: 1. Role ambiguity 2. Role conflict 3. Poor employee job fit 4. Poor technology job fit 5. Inappropriate supervisory control systems 6. Lack of perceived control 7. Lack of teamwork

Questionnaire design

disconfirmation (servqual) and perceived performance (servperf) are strong indicators of satisfaction SERVPERF preferred as it reduces respondent fatigue - includes some measures of outcomes of satisfaction i.e. repurchase intentions or behaviours such as retention

Service quality

general, overall appraisal, but does not need to be experienced unlike satisfaction