SERVICE QUALITY GAP

PRESENTED BY :BLESSY MARIAMMA PHILIP

S2 MBA AVISHKAR

SERVICE QUALITY GAP

• Service quality is a comparison of expectations with performance.

Improved service quality may increase economic competitiveness. This may be achieved by understanding and improving operational processes; identifying problems quickly and systematically; establishing valid and reliable service performance measures and measuring customer satisfaction and other performance outcomes.

• A customer's expectation of a particular service is determined by factors such as recommendations, personal needs and past experiences. The expected service and the perceived service sometimes may not be equal, thus leaving a gap.

Determinants of service quality gaps

• Competence is the possession of the required skills and knowledge to perform the service.

• Courtesy is the consideration for the customer's property and a clean and neat appearance of contact personnel, manifesting as politeness, respect, and friendliness.

• Credibility is the factors such as trustworthiness, belief and honesty. It involves having the customer's best interests at prime position.

• Security is the customer feeling free from danger, risk or doubt including physical safety, financial security and confidentiality.

• Access is approachability and ease of contact.

• Communication means both informing customers in a language they are able to understand and also listening to customers.

• Knowing the customer means making an effort to understand the customer's individual needs, providing individualized attention, recognizing the customer when they arrive and so on.

• Tangibles are the physical evidence of the service, for instance, the appearance of the physical facilities, tools and equipment used to provide the service;

• Reliability is the ability to perform the promised service in a dependable and accurate manner.

• Responsiveness is to the readiness and willingness of employees to help customers in providing prompt timely services.

FIVE ‘GAPS’ THAT CAUSE UNSUCCESSFUL DELIVERYMODEL’ DEVELOPED BY A GROUP OF AUTHORS- PARASURAMAN, ZEITHAML AND BERRY

• GAP 1:• Gap between consumer expectation and management perception : This gap arises when the

management does not correctly perceive what the customers want.

GAP 2 :• Gap between management perception and service quality specification : Here the

management might correctly perceive what the customer wants, but may not set a performance standard.

GAP 3:• Gap between service quality specification and service delivery : This gap may arise owing to

the service personnel. The reasons being poor training, incapability or unwillingness to meet the set service standard.

GAP 4 :• Gap between service delivery and external communication : Consumer expectations are

highly influenced by statements made by company representatives and advertisements. The gap arises when these assumed expectations are not fulfilled at the time of delivery of the service.

GAP 5:• Gap between expected service and experienced service : This gap arises when the consumer

misinterprets the service quality.

SERVICE QUALITY GAPS IN THE FOLLOWING AREAS:BANKING SERVICES

PUBLIC TRANSPORT SERVICEELECTRICITY DISTRIBUTION

AIRLINES

BANKING SERVICE

Banking sector• With regards to credibility and tangibles, service delivery far exceeds

expectations.• With regards to security and responsiveness, service delivery exceeds

expectations.• With regards to access, service delivery is on par with expectations.• With regards to communication and reliability, expectations far exceeds

service delivery and hence, depicts areas for drastic improvement.• With regards to courtesy and understanding the customer, expectations

exceeds service delivery and hence, depicts areas for improvement.• With regards to competence, expectations exceed service delivery by a

small margin and hence, slight improvement will be beneficial.

• If these areas are improved, Gaps 1 to 5 will be addressed especially since:

• Communication and understanding the customer affects Gap 1.

• Communication and reliability affects Gaps 2 and 4.

• Communication and courtesy affects Gap 3.• Communication, understanding the customer,

reliability and courtesy affects Gap 5.

PUBLIC TRANSPORT SERVICE

Public transport

• TANGIBLES • Adequate equipment & infrastructure at stations • Physical Facilities like Lighting, seating and Toilets are OK

• APPEARANCE • Time Tables, Display Boards etc are visually appealing.

• REALIABILITY • accurate in Record keeping • Does not perform Service Correctly

• RESPONSIVENES

• staff does not tell exactly when services will be performed • Railway employees are not always willing to help • Employees are too busy to respond

• ASSURANCE • are trustworthy • safety measures are not adequate

• EMPATHY • are not convenient to all passengers • Does not give personnel attention • It is easy to plan a journey

• Gap 1 -not enough interaction with the top level -employees not willing to help always -staffs are not well informed.• Gap 2 -inadequate service -standards are low -staffs are lazy

• Gap 3 - does not provide service correctly. - misunderstanding• Gap 4 - not good as expected - misinterpretation by customers• Gap 5 - convenient to travel for some.

ELECTRICITY DISTRIBUTION

Electricity distribution• 1. There is a clear gap between the quality of service in these two categories,

Domestic Consumers and Public Organization consumers. The Domestic consumers are relatively satisfied with most of the services where as the consumers in the Public Organization are much more dissatisfied.

• 2. The major factor for the low level of satisfaction of the domestic consumers is due to the very poor rating for the advance information and notices which shows that the power distribution company is complacent and in future it needs to be more alert and inform the consumers in advance so that the consumers can plan according to the information.

• 3. Both the categories of consumers have given a relatively high rating for the utility service workforce and the availability of electricians for maintenance and rectification which shows that the company has enough resources and is competent to handle the existing complaints and capacity.

• 4. In case of public organization consumers the high rating for the last two indices show that the company is handling personal complaint and issues (Decisions and steps taken concerning a single person) relatively well.

AIRLINES

Gap 1 –not knowing what customers expect

• Insufficient marketing research• Inadequate use of marketing research• Lack of interaction between managers and

customers• Insufficient communication between contact

employees and managers

• Lack of market segmentation• Focus on transaction rather than relationship• Focus on new customer rather than old

customer.

Gap2- not selecting the right service designs and standards

• Inadequate standardization of service behaviors and designs

• Absence of formal process for setting service quality goals

• Lack of customer defined standards• Inadequate service leadership

Gap 3- not delivering to service standards

• Ineffective recruitment• Poor employee technology job fit• Inappropriate evaluation and compensation

system• Lack of empowerment and teamwork

Gap 4 – not delivering proper communication

• Over promising in advertisement and personal selling

• Difference in policies in branches• Insufficient customer education

Gap 5 – service experience

• Over caring of customers.• Frequent disturbance by employees