The Basis of the Servqual Model
The Gaps
The Key Service Dimensions
Causes & Solutions to Gaps
The Make-up of Servqual
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What are the Servqual Gaps?
Gap1: The difference between management
perceptions of what customers expect and
what customers really do expect
Gap 2: The difference between management
perceptions and service quality specifications -
the standards gap
What are the Servqual Gaps?
Gap3: The difference between service quality
specifications and actual service delivery - are
standards consistently met?
Gap4: The difference between service delivery
and what is communicated externally - are
promises made consistently fulfilled?
What are the Servqual Gaps?
Gap 5: The difference between what
customers expect of a service and what they
actually receive
– expectations are made up of past experience, word-
of-mouth and needs/wants of customers
– measurement is on the basis of two sets of
statements in groups according to the five key
service dimensions
The Five Key Service Dimensions
TANGIBLES - the appearance of physical
facilities, equipment, personnel and information
material
RELIABILITY - the ability to perform the service
accurately and dependably
RESPONSIVENESS - the willingness to help
customers and provide a prompt service
The Five Key Service Dimensions
ASSURANCE - a combination of the following
– Competence - having the requisite skills and
knowledge
– Courtesy - politeness, respect, consideration and
friendliness of contact staff
– Credibility - trustworthiness, believability and
honesty of staff
– Security - freedom from danger, risk or doubt
The Five Key Service Dimensions
EMPATHY - a combination of the following:
– Access (physical and social) - approachability and
ease of contact
– Communication - keeping customers informed in a
language they understand and really listening to
them
– Understanding the customer - making the effort to
get to know customers and their specific needs
Conceptual Model of Service Quality
CUSTOMER
Word-of-mouth
Personal Needs Past experience
Communications
Expected Service
Gap 5
Perceived Service
PROVIDER Service External
Gap 4
Delivery Communications
Gap 3 To Customers
Gap 1 Service Quality
Specs
Gap 2
Management
Perceptions of
Customer Expectations
Reasons for the Gaps
GAP 1 Not knowing what customers expect
GAP 2 The wrong service quality standards
GAP 3 The service performance gap
GAP 4 When promises do not match actual delivery
GAP 5 The difference between customer perception and expectation
Reasons for the Gaps
GAP 1 - not knowing what customers expect
– lack of a marketing orientation
– inadequate upward communication (from contact
staff to management)
– too many levels of management
Reasons for the Gaps
GAP 2 - the wrong service quality standards
– inadequate commitment to service quality
– lack of perception of feasibility - ‘it cannot be done’
– inadequate task standardisation
– the absence of goal setting
Reasons for the Gaps
GAP 2 - the wrong service quality standards
– inadequate commitment to service quality
– lack of perception of feasibility - ‘it cannot be done’
– inadequate task standardisation
– the absence of goal setting
Reasons for the Gaps
GAP 3 - the service performance gap
– role ambiguity and role conflict - unsure of what your
remit is and how it fits with others
– poor employee or technology fit - the wrong person
or system for the job
– inappropriate supervisory control or lack of
perceived control - too much or too little control
– lack of teamwork
Reasons for the Gaps
GAP 4 - when promises made do not match
actual delivery
– inadequate horizontal communication - between
departments or services
– a propensity to overpromise
Servqual Data - How Useful is it?
We can assess service quality from the
customer’s perspective
We can track customer expectations and
perceptions over time and the discrepancies
between them
We can compare a set of Servqual scores
against those of competitors or best practice
examples
Servqual Data - How Useful is it?
We can compare the expectations and
perceptions of different customer groups - this
is particularly useful in the public sector
We can assess the expectations and
perceptions of internal customers - eg other
departments or services we deal with
Servqual Data - What can we do
with it?
We can use data on customer priorities to feed into
the House of Quality (QFD)
Quality function deployment (QFD) is a “method to
transform user demands into design quality, to
deploy the functions forming quality, and to deploy
methods for achieving the design quality into
subsystems and component parts, and ultimately to
specific elements of the manufacturing process.”
Customer priorities and their ranked order of
importance can become the WHATS
These WHATS can then be compared with the
HOWS (key business processes) and
relationships matched to check service design
and provision according to key requirements
conclusion
Just as the servqual model is extensively used
to assess external service quality ,the
instrument can can also be modified to assess
the quality of the internal service provided by
departments and divisions within a company to
employees in other departments and division.
