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Journal of Business and Policy Research

Vol. 8. No. 2. July 2013 Pp. 3251

Beautification for Female in Bangladesh:Exploring the Service Gap through SERVQUAL Model

Ayesha Tabassum* and Parisa Islam Khan**

With the intensifying effect of globalization, females of a country likeBangladesh become more beauty conscious. Women of different agegroups, occupation and socio-economic background are now regularlyvisiting the beauty parlors of the country. As a result the beauty salons havebecome one of the flourishing industries of the country. Like any otherservice industries, service quality is the source of profitability in the beauty

parlors too. Thats why an initiative is made in the current study to explorethe service quality by identifying service gap in the female segment ofbeauty care industry. Data were collected through structured questionnairesurvey conducted on 100 regular customers of five beauty parlors. Thequestionnaire was designed on the basis of popular SERVQUAL model of

service quality. Results revealed significant gaps in terms of all thedimensions of service quality. The highest level of gap was found inresponsiveness and empathy dimension. Reliability and, assurance showedcomparatively less gap while tangibles scored the lowest gap.

Field of Research: Marketing, Service Marketing.

Keywords: Beauty care industry, female beauty parlor, service quality, SERVQUALmodel, service gap.

1. Introduction

Though beauty and business seems to be contrasting terms, a growing interrelationis found between these two concepts. Today, beauty care becomes a big business,which can contribute to an economy significantly (Peiss 2000). Large scaleproduction, global distribution networks, extensive advertisement efforts, scientificmarketing and sales at a large scale, all these have contributed to the emergence ofbeauty as an industry (Peiss 2000). Bangladesh, a South Asian developing countryis no exception from this. In this region, beauty is always considered as animportant attribute for female. From the ancient time till now, we can trace manydescriptions of beauty and beauty care practices in the poetry, literature and arts(Peiss 2000). Beauty is considered as seemingly frivolous, superficial, and female

(Peiss 2000, p. 485) and it is expected that beautification would be a womens trait.Previously, women in Bangladesh used to maintain these beautification practices asin-house (domestic) activities. As globalization intensifies, the concept of beautyand the necessity of being beautiful have gone through an evolutionary change.Now women tend to spend more time, energy and money on beautification byvisiting beauty parlors or salons (Schwer & Daneshvary 2000; Joy, Sherry, Troilo &Deschenes 2010).

___________________________* Ayesha Tabassum, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Business Administration, Eastern University. E-mail: tabassum105@yahoo.com** Parisa Islam Khan, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Business Administration, Eastern University. E-mail: parisa@easternuni.edu.bd

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It is evident from literature review that physical beauty is an advantage in everysphere of life. Physically attractive people usually income more compared to theless attractive people (Hamermesh & Biddle 1994; Frieze, Ohlson & Russell 1991).Moreover the organizations tend to earn more revenue if they hire physicallyattractive employees (Bosman, Pfann, Biddle &Hamermesh (1997). Besides, beingattractive can increase the possibility of getting married (Young 2011). As a result,

beauty care industry in Bangladesh is not something amateur. Rather it is now aUSD 10 billion plus industry in Bangladesh, providing employment for an estimated100,000 women (Akter 2009) through thousands of beauty-care service providers(Akter 2009; Akter 2008). In current study, the researchers consciously avoided thesmall local parlors and choose the standard and modernized parlors of the countrythat offered specialized services along with regular services and also equipped withall kinds of modern facilities. These types of parlors set the beauty trends of theindustry and usually target the high profile beauty conscious customer segments.They choose and address such industry segment because the service qualityissues were more relevant concern for these upscale parlors than for any smalllocal area base parlor.

The growing importance and demand of beauty care vigorously raised the questionon quality service issues for beauty parlors. As beauty care is a kind of personalservice, ensuring service quality is challenging yet unavoidable need for thecustomers. It has been evident that, when customers perceptions of service qualityare positive, the behavioral intentions are favorable, which strengthens theirrelationship with the organization (Zeithaml & Bitner 2003). On the other hand,when service-quality assessments are negative, the customers behav ioralintentions are unfavorable (Kouthouris & Alexandris 2005). For the success of anyservice organization, quality is imperative and of paramount importance to the

service providers (Bebko 2000). As services are becoming commodity-like it canoffer a source of competitive advantage for the service providers (Chowdhury,Iqbal&Miah 2010). Since the arousal of importance of service quality issues,researches also demonstrated the strategic benefits of quality in contributing tomarket share and Return on Investment (ROI), as well as lowering manufacturingcosts and improving productivity (Anderson & Zeithaml 1984; Garvin 1982).

We know that customers satisfaction with individual service encounters affect thecustomers satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the overall service experience(Johnston 1995). So, it is important to know whether the clients expectationregarding the service really matches the perceived service in all dimensions of

service quality. That is why; this paper takes a first step towards exploring theservice gap of the female beauty parlors in Dhaka through the SERVQUAL model.The beauty care service industry in Bangladesh is growing day by day and it iscontributing in the economy both in terms of revenue and employment generation.Along with the local firms, many foreign firms and franchise companies like VLCC,Kaya Skin Care, etc. are entering in the industry with professional set up and hugeinvestment. Therefore this is the high time to explore and understand the servicegap scenario of the beauty care industry. Previously, researchers had conductedseveral studies on service quality in different service sectors like hospitality,educational institute, financial institute, airlines, advertising agency and tourism.Many of these studies have shown different patterns of service gap on the five

dimensions of service quality. But being a personalized service, beauty carecontains different intrinsic and extrinsic cues of quality which are different from the

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other industries. And so far, no significant research was done on service quality ofthis industry in Bangladesh. So, it is expected that the current study would help theindustry experts and management of beauty care service providers to improvisetheir services. And understanding the significance and the implications of eachservice criteria would help them to prioritize their area of improvement, which wouldbe especially helpful for a growing industry like this. Thus the main objective of this

study is to find out the service gap, i.e. the gap between the expectations andperceptions of the customers about the service rendered by the female beautyparlors. Specific objectives of this study are:

To find out the expectations of customers regarding service quality in thebeauty parlors of Bangladesh.

To identify the perceptions about the actual or experienced service quality inthe beauty parlors of Bangladesh.

To recognize the disparity between the expected and actual service quality inthe female beauty parlors of Bangladesh.

To fulfill these objectives, questionnaire was designed based on vast literaturereview, then data were collected and analyzed with statistical tools, and findingswere represented with discussion. The paper is organized into eight differentsections. The introduction is followed by the literature review. After that, themethodology part describes the detail design of the research. The result anddiscussion part reveals the key findings of the research. Managerial implicationexplains the possible application of the findings. Lastly, the limitation and futureresearch directions are discussed before the final conclusion.

2. Literature Review

2.1 Service Quality

In the field of services marketing, service quality grabbed the most attention fromthe researchers (Wang, Lo & Hui 2003). To define service quality Zeithaml andBitner (2003) emphasized on the superiority of a service. According to thesescholars, perception of service quality arises from the judgment of customers, whodefine the service as superior. The classic researchers has defined the termservice quality as the difference between customer expectations of the service tobe received and perceptions of the service actually received (Grnroos 1984;Parasuraman, Zeithaml& Berry 1988). Perception was defined as consumers

beliefs relating to the received service (Parasuraman, Zeithaml & Berry 1985).Brown and Swartz (1989) defined perceived service as experienced service. Onthe other hand, expectation was defined as the desire or want of the consumerabout the service (Parasuraman, Zeithaml & Berry 1985). In most of the cases,service quality expectations involve norms and these norms are developed on thebasis of previous experiences of the consumers (Carman 1990). Parasuraman andcolleagues (1985) definition was based on the concept of disconfirmation, whichwas defined as the difference between perception and expectation. Thisdisconfirmation in terms of service quality leaded to a service gap. Parasuraman,Zeithaml and Berry (1988) considered that a customers assessment of overallservice quality depends on this service gap.

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The importance of measuring service quality can be well apprehended from the vastliterature. Quality is the key factor for the sustainable competitive advantages in forany business, and thus it is considered as the cornerstone of success for anybusiness by Hampton (1993). Bebko (2000) posited that quality is a critical and ofparamount importance for the success of any service organization. This emphasiscan be realized easily as service quality is positively related with customer loyalty

(Baker & Crompton 2000; Bloemer, Ko de Ruyter & Wetzels 1999; Zeithaml, Berry& Parasuraman 1996). In fact, perceived service quality can influence customersbehavioral intentions, such as purchase intention, paying a price premium for theservice, positive word-of-mouth communications, etc. (Alexandris, Dimitriadis &Kasiara 2001; Zeithaml, Berry & Parasuraman 1996). It is also found that positiveperception about service quality is related with increased customer satisfaction(Cronin & Taylor 1992; Boulding, Kalra, Staelin & Zeithaml 1993). Thus servicequality is regarded as a driver of corporate marketing and financial performance(Buttle 1996). Because increased customer retention rate is associated withfinancial benefits of the service organizations (Kouthouris & Alexandris 2005).Thats why if the gap exists between expectation and perception of service qualityaccording to the disconfirmation theory, the service organizations becomeconcerned to fill the gap, otherwise the customers intend to quit (Kouthouris &Alexandris 2005).

2.2 Dimensions of Service Quality

Service quality is widely accepted as a multi-dimensional concept today (Kouthouris& Alexandris 2005). Grnroos (1982) and Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry (1985)has defined service quality in terms of multiple dimensions. But no generalagreement is found on the nature or content of the dimensions (Brady and Cronin,

2001). At first, Lehtinen and Lehtinen (1982) defined service quality in terms ofphysical quality, interactive quality and corporate quality. The tangible aspect of theservice is referred as physical quality. Interaction quality emerges from the nature ofinteraction between customer and service provider. Lastly, corporate quality refersto the image of a service provider by different entities, such as, its currentcustomers, potential customers, other publics, etc.

According to Grnroos (1982) there are two service quality dimensions, thetechnical aspect and the functional aspect. The technical aspect indicates whatservice is provided, whereas the functional aspect indicates how the service isprovided. Later on, Parasuraman and colleagues (1985) suggested that the quality

evaluation involve evaluations of the service delivery process. Based on thisconcept these scholars developed SERVQUAL model with ten components (seeParasuraman, Zeithaml & Berry 1985). Thus Parasuraman and colleagues (1985)emphasized only on the functional aspect of service quality. Cronin and Taylor(1992) identified several limitations of SERVQUAL scale and proposed their ownscale named as SERVPERF based on the term performance-only measures. Thismodel has the focus on service quality measurement that is based only onconsumers perceptions of the performance of a service provider. Later on, theresearchers tried to explore the strengths and limitations of the classic ideas aboutservice quality dimensions and adapted accordingly.

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2.3 SERVQUAL Model

The instrument used to explore service quality in this study was adapted fromSERVQUAL model (Parasuraman, Zeithaml & Berry 1988). In their originalformulation Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry (1985) identified ten components ofservice quality. These are (1) reliability, (2) responsiveness, (3) competence, (4)

access, (5) courtesy, (6) communication, (7) credibility, (8) security, (9)understanding/knowing the customer, and (10) tangibles. Later on, these scholarspublished a modified version of this model with only five components; reliability,assurance, tangibles, empathy and responsiveness (Parasuraman, Zeithaml &Berry 1988). SERVQUAL model is a 22-item instrument with which to measurecustomers expectations (E) and perceptions (P) of the five rater dimensions. Theinstrument is administered twice in different forms, firstly, to measure expectationsand secondly, to measure perceptions. Definitions of each dimension along with thenumber of item statements are represented in Table 1.

Table 1: SERVQUAL dimensionsDimensions Definition Items in scale

ReliabilityThe ability to perform thepromised service dependablyand accurately

4

ResponsivenessThe willingness to helpcustomers and to provideprompt service

4

AssuranceThe knowledge and courtesy ofemployees and their ability toconvey trust and confidence

5

EmpathyThe provision of caring,individualized attention tocustomers

5

TangiblesThe appearance of physicalfacilities, equipment, personneland communication materials

4

Source: Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry (1988).

Table 2: Relative importance of SERVQUAL dimensionsReliability 32

Responsiveness 22

Assurance 19

Empathy 16

Tangibles 11

Total 100

Source: Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry (1989).

Among these five dimensions, reliability has received the highest attention amongthe customers in terms of service quality measurement, as Zeithaml, Berry andParasuraman (1989) asked more than 1900 customers to rate the relativeimportance of the five dimensions by allocating 100 points among them (see Table2). The measurement of service quality through SERVQUAL model can beexpressed with the following equation (Parasuraman, Zeithaml & Berry 1986).

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According to Buttle (1996, p. 10), analysis of SERVQUAL data can take severalforms: item-by-item analysis (e.g. P1 E1, P2 E2); dimension-by-dimensionanalysis (e.g. (P1 + P2 + P3 + P4/4) (E1 + E2 + E3 + E4/4), where P1 to P4, andE1 to E4, represent the four perception and expectation statements relating to asingle dimension); and computation of the single measure of service quality ((P1 +P2 + P3 + P22/22) (E1 + E2 + E3 + + E22/22)), the so-called SERVQUALgap.

Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry (1988) define five gaps from their research data:

Gap1. The discrepancy between customers expectations and managementsperceptions of these expectations.

Gap2. The discrepancy between managements perceptions of customersexpectations and service quality specifications.

Gap3. The discrepancy between service quality specifications and actualservice delivery.

Gap4. The discrepancy between actual service delivery and what is

communicated to customers about it.Gap5.The discrepancy between customers expected service and perceived

service delivered.

The first four gaps contribute to Gap 5, that is, the gap between customerexpectations and customer perceptions of service received- and it is this last gapwhich has been the main focus of this research. The figure of the gaps ofSERVQUAL Model is represented in Figure 1.

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Figure 1: Model of service quality gaps

Source: Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry (1985) SERVQUAL model has been subjected to a number of theoretical and operational

criticisms by the marketing researchers (Buttle 1996). Brown, Churchill and Peter(1993) have suggested measurement problems in the use of difference scores.Cronin and Taylor (1992) have posited that service quality can be predictedadequately by using perceptions alone rather than using difference scores. Carman(1990) has suggested deleting or modifying some of the SERVQUAL dimensions oreven introducing new ones in specific service industries. This indicates thatSERVQUAL model is probably appropriate for service quality measurement in everyindustry. Moreover, Andaleeb and Basu (1994) confirmed measuring the gapbetween expectations and performance can be problematic particularly in cross-sectional studies. In addition, Cronin and Taylor (1992) conceptualized their ownmodel, SERVPERF, as according to these scholars expectations were notnecessary in the measurement of service quality. Several researchers have raisedthe concern regarding the acceptance of this gap model by questioning the valueand meaning of the gaps (see Babakus & Boller 1992; Oliver 1980; Teas 1994).Despite of these criticisms, SERVQUAL model has been widely applied acrossdifferent service industries. According to Kouthouris and Alexandris (2005)identifying the gaps in customers evaluation can be a very valuable task, as thestrategies can be devised to close these gaps that will ultimately benefit the serviceproviders.

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2.4 Application of SERVQUAL Model in Research

Though the SERVQUAL model has such numerous limitations, the modelsframework has guided numerous studies in the service sector that focus on banks,repair and maintenance services, telephone companies, physicians, hospitals,hotels, academic institutions and retail stores (Parasuraman et al. 1988; Carman

1990; Boulding et al. 1993; Kouthouris & Alexandris 2005). In Bangladesh theSERVQUAL model has been used to measure the service gap in different industriessuch as, private universities (Chowdhury, Iqbal & Miah 2010), advertisementagencies (Khan 2010), SME, retail banking (Siddiqi 2010), hospitals (Siddiqui &Khandaker 2007), luxurious hotels (Tabassum & Rahman 2011; Khan 2008),tourism hotels (Tabassum, Rahman & Jahan 2012), etc. though no study was foundon service quality measurement of beauty care industry in Bangladesh. Thus it canbe said that SERVQUAL model is still suitable as an assessment tool to measurethe service quality perceptions (Siddiqi 2010).

2.5 Beauty Care Industry in Bangladesh

In the context of Bangladesh, the beauty care industry for female has started itsjourney in 1965, when the first beauty parlor in Dhaka was established, named asMay Fair. Until 1977, there was no Bangladeshi owned beauty salon in the country.In that year Zerina Asgar, being the first Bangladeshi woman to become abeautician, started her parlor named as Living Doll. Bollywood, the Indian filmindustry had a strong influence over the Bangladeshi women at the 1980s wherethe movie actresses created an image of women with complete makeover (Parveen2006). Since 1990s, the satellite TV channels are spreading the beauty enigma onurban women, which created the establishment of beauty parlors by the second

generation beauticians with sophisticated and educated grooming experts (Parveen2006). Thus the country now has more than 2,000 parlors and salons (Rahman2010). Women from the age group of 18-40 including mothers, housewives,students, professionals, and brides visit beauty salons and spas regularly for beautyand health care services (Pritom 2009). With the increased service consumption,the customers are now well-informed about the beauty care services. As a resultnow the beauty care industry in Bangladesh is under pressure to raise the quality ofits services (Star Lifestyle 2009). Though service quality has become an importantconcern in the beauty care industry of Bangladesh, no initiative was taken inacademic research arena to explore the customer perception and expectationregarding the service quality of the beauty parlors. The only available research in

terms of female beauty parlor clientele in Bangladesh is Khan and Tabassums(2011) study conducted on the high-end beauty parlor customers to explore therelationship between service quality and customer satisfaction. According to theseauthors findings, customer satisfaction is created by four service quality factors.These factors are support & facility, employee performance, customer relation andcommunication.

2.6 Conceptual Framework and Hypotheses Development

The present research focuses on service quality provided by the beauty parlors interms of SERVQUAL models five dimensions of service quality measurement. So

here the variable service quality is dependent on the five dimensions of qualitymeasurement in service sector; reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy,

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and tangibility. Service quality in terms of these dimensions is determined with themeasurement of service gap in each dimension. This phenomenon is illustratedthrough the following conceptual framework (see Figure 2).

Based on the above conceptual framework, the following hypotheses aredeveloped.

H1: There is a gap between expected and actual perception of customers regardingthe reliability of service quality in terms of the female beauty care service providers.

H2: There is a gap between expected and actual perception of customers regardingthe responsiveness of service quality in terms of the female beauty care serviceproviders.

H3: There is a gap between expected and actual perception of customers regardingthe empathy of service quality in terms of the female beauty care service providers.

H4: There is a gap between expected and actual perception of customers regardingthe assurance of service quality in terms of the female beauty care serviceproviders.

H5: There is a gap between expected and actual perception of customers regardingthe tangible of service quality in terms of the female beauty care service providers.

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Figure 2: Conceptual framework of the study based on SERVQUAL model

Source: Self-developed model by the researchers (2012)3. Research Methodology

3.1 Procedure

The data were collected in Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh by mean ofstructured questionnaire. Participants were included in the study on a voluntary

basis by visiting the standard and modernized beauty parlors. In total 110questionnaires were distributed in five different parlors, among these 100 werefound to be usable in the research. The parlors included in the study were PersonaHair & Beauty Ltd., Farzana Shakils Makeover Salon, Hairobics, Alviras andWomens World.

3.2 Participants

Among the 100 female beauty parlor clienteles, 45% respondents were from 20 to25 years of age range, 36% were from 26 to 30 years of age range and the rest19% were older than 30 years. In terms of occupation, 20% were students, 15%

were entrepreneurs, 36% were service holders, and the rest 29% were housewives.

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Most of these clienteles used to visit the parlors at regular interval, such as weekly,fortnightly, monthly, etc.

3.3 Measures

The SERVQUAL scale developed by Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry (1988) was

adapted for measuring service quality. As mentioned earlier, there are fivedimensions of service quality according to SERVQUAL model. The model contained22-item instruments which measured customers expectations (E) and perceptions(P) in five grater dimensions of service quality (see Table 1). Thus in total 44statements were included in the questionnaire, one set for measuring theexpectation and the other one for measuring the actual perception of service quality.This study used the original framework of SERVQUAL model without anymodification but the 22 items, which were represented by 44 statements, wereimprovised and designed to address the specific requirements of the beautyindustry. The answer format was a 5-point Likert scale ranging from stronglydisagree (1) to strongly agree (5).

3.4 Reliability and Validity of Data

Reliability is the extent to which a variable or set of variables is consistent in what itis intended to measure (Hair, Black, Babin, Anderson &Tatham 2007). The currentstudy applied internal consistency method because multiple items were used for allconstructs. The Cronbach alpha value of at least 0.70 is the basis of reliability(Cronbac 1951) and thus the 0.70 alpha value demonstrates that all attributes areinternally consistent (Fujun, Hutchinson, Li &Bai 2007). The Cronbach alpha valuefor this study was 0.933 that meets the criteria of cut off point. Thus all the attributes

of the study were found as reliable. Reliability for each dimension of service qualitywas also measured, which is presented in Table 5.

On the other hand, validity is defined as the degree which measure accuratelyrepresents what it is supposed to by Hair et al. (2007). There are three types ofvalidity; content validity, predictive validity, and construct validity (Siddiqi 2010). Thecurrent study emphasized on content validity. Content validity was defined as theassessment of the correspondence between the individual items and concept(Duggirala, Rajendran & Anantharaman 2008). In social sciences, the contentvalidity can be verified with the professional knowledge of the researchers.Appropriate and relevant measurements for a study can be identified from literature

review and the assistance of experts (Sharafi & Shahrokh 2012). This studyconcentrated on content validity through the review of literature and adaptsinstruments which are used in previous research.

3.5 Statistical Tools for Data Analysis

The study is based on the data collected to measure the customers expectationand observation of service quality to assess the service gap in beauty parlors. Forthis purpose 5-point Likert scale was used that is a numerical and morespecifically, interval-scaled data. The corresponding probability distribution of thisnumerical data point will be a continuous distribution but as the data is informing

about the opinion of the customers through ranking, it is very likely that the parentdistribution will not follow a normal pattern. This pre-assumption was further

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confirmed by illustration of the Probability-Probability plot (P-P plot) of items. Thecentral view and the diversity among the views of the respondents have beenobserved in case of each item individually. The distribution pattern of all thecomponents as a whole expressing all the basic features was observed along withBox-plot diagram.

Lastly, Test of Hypothesis was performed to draw a final conclusion aboutidentifying the gap between the customers expectation and observation about theservice quality of beauty parlors. In the present study, each of the respondents hasbeen asked about his or her expectation and also observation. As the same personwas chosen for both measurements, the samples were related or dependent.Because of the subjective nature of the scores, it was assured that the data doesnot follow the normal distribution and in consequence the non-parametric Wilcoxonsigned-rank test was decided to use. Dissimilarity between the ratings ofexpectations and also the ratings of observation pattern of the customers weretested through non-parametric Mann-Whitney Test.

4. Results

Table 3 shows the inter-dimension correlation, mean and standard deviation valuesfor all the dimensions of service quality. It is observed that all the dimensions ofservice quality were significantly correlated with each other.

Table 3: Descriptive analysis and correlations among the dimensions ofservice quality

Dimensions 1 2 3 4 5 MeanStandardDeviation

ReliabilityCorrelationCoefficient 1

4.1750.640

Sig. (2-tailed)

.

Responsiveness

CorrelationCoefficient

0.736 1 4.165 0.641

Sig. (2-tailed)

0.000* .

Empathy

CorrelationCoefficient

0.72 0.786 1 4.181

0.648Sig. (2-tailed)

0.000* 0.000* .

Assurance

CorrelationCoefficient

0.642 0.706 0.728 1 4.271 0.598

Sig. (2-tailed)

0.000* 0.000*0.000

*.

Tangibles

CorrelationCoefficient

0.48 0.572 0.567 0.588 1 4.420 0.540

Sig. (2-tailed)

0.000* 0.000*0.000

*0.000* .

* Correlation is significant at 0.01 level

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Table 4: Mean differences for the item instruments of each service qualitydimensions

Dimensions Item instrumentsActualMean

(P)

ExpectedMean (E)

Gap(P - E)Mean

ZP-value

(2-tailed)

Reliability

Delivery of promises 3.81 4.47 -0.66 -6.156 0.000*

Dependability in handlingthe customers' problems

3.83 4.61 -0.78 -7.171 0.000*

Delivery of services at thetime promised

3.97 4.58 -0.61 -5.573 0.000*

Maintenance of error-freerecords

3.56 4.65 -1.09 -9.121 0.000*

Correct performance ofthe service the first time

3.81 4.47 -0.66 -6.156 0.000*

Responsiveness

Keeping customersinformed about when theservice will be performed

3.69 4.54 -0.85 -7.069 0.000*

Providing Prompt serviceto customers 3.70 4.63 -0.93 -8.394 0.000*

Willingness to helpcustomers

3.91 4.76 -0.85 -8.023 0.000*

Responsiveness tocustomers' requests

3.54 4.55 -1.01 -8.267 0.000*

Empathy

Providing customers withindividual attention

3.80 4.58 -0.78 -6.590 0.000*

Convenient operatinghours

3.95 4.59 -0.64 -5.467 0.000*

Dealing with customers ina caring fashion

3.69 4.63 -0.94 -7.959 0.000*

Having the customers'best interest at heart

3.61 4.65 -1.04 -8.282 0.000*

Understanding thecustomers' requirements

3.61 4.7 -1.09 -8.831 0.000*

Assurance

Ability of staff to instillconfidence in customers

3.74 4.56 -0.82 -7.072 0.000*

Making customers feelsafe in their transactions

4.34 4.6 -0.26 -2.292 0.022

Courteous staff 4.07 4.68 -0.61 -5.712 0.000*

Knowledgeable staff toanswer customer

questions

3.52 4.66 -1.14 -8.689 0.000*

Tangibles

Visually appealingfacilities

4.24 4.69 -0.45 -4.370 0.000*

Neat appearance ofemployees

4.19 4.72 -0.53 -4.811 0.000*

Modern-lookingequipment

4.12 4.67 -0.55 -5.467 0.000*

Visually appealingmaterials

4.08 4.65 -0.57 -5.198 0.000*

* Significant at 0.01 level

Combining the expectation and observation of customers, the highest mean valuewas observed for tangibles dimension and lowest mean value was found in

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empathy dimension. The standard deviation values for all the responses were foundto be smaller than one.

Table 4 shows the mean differences for each item instruments of the service qualitydimensions. For all the items, actual or observed mean values were found assmaller compared to the expected mean values. In terms of reliability dimension,

there were five items statements and gaps were found in case of all the itemstatements. The Mann-Whitney U Test confirmed that these gaps were significant(p-value0.01). But significant gaps were found all other item statements of thisdimension. Thus service gap in all the dimensions of service quality was expectedas differences were found between expected and actual perception about all theitems of service quality dimensions in the female beauty parlors.

Table 5 shows the mean value for expected and actual service across the fivedimensions of service quality according to the SERVQUAL model. It was exploredthat the actual perception about the beauty parlors service were smaller than theexpectation of the customers regarding the services for all the dimensions of servicequality. Thus a service gap was observed for each service quality dimension. Thedisparity between expectation and actual service quality thus could be assumedfrom the differences between mean values. These gaps were further confirmed fromthe Mann-Whitney U Test results.

Table 5: Service gap for the dimension of service quality in beauty parlors

Dimensions Actual Mean Expected Mean GapCronbach

Alpha value

Reliability 3.79 4.55 -0.76 0.884

Responsiveness 3.71 4.62 -0.91 0.873

Empathy 3.73 4.63 -0.90 0.875

Assurance 3.91 4.62 -0.71 0.880

Tangibles 4.15 4.68 -0.53 0.910

According to the Mann-Whitney U Test results, a significant gap was found betweenthe expected and actual service in terms of reliability dimension (p-value < 0.01)(see Table 6). Thus H1 was rejected, which indicates a significant gap between thebeauty parlor customers expectations and observations regarding the reliability

dimension of service quality. Similarly, the p-values were found as significant for allother dimensions of service quality, i.e. responsiveness, empathy, assurance andtangibles. As a result, H2, H3, H4 and H5 were rejected, indicating gaps betweenthe expected and observed perception about these four dimensions of servicequality. These results clearly demonstrated that disparities are persistent in terms ofservice quality of female beauty parlors.

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Table 6: Service gap for the dimension of service quality in beauty parlors

Dimensions

RanksWilcoxon Signed

Ranks TestStatistics Decisions

NMeanRank

Sum ofRanks

ZP-value

(2-tailed)

Reliability Expected 100 138.12 13811.5

-9.273 0.000* H1 rejectedActual 100 62.88 6288.5

Total 200

Responsiveness

Expected

100 142.9 14290.5-

10.4520.000* H2 rejectedActual 100 58.1 5809.5

Total 200

Empathy Expected

100141.4

214142

-10.057

0.000* H3 rejectedActual 100 59.58 5958Total 200

Assurance Expected

100135.1

513514.5

-8.552 0.000* H4 rejectedActual 100 65.86 6585.5Total 200

Tangibles Expected

100130.3

313033

-7.407 0.000* H5 rejectedActual 100 70.67 7067Total 200

* Significant at 0.01 level

5. Discussion

The hypotheses tests confirmed that there is a significant gap between thecustomers expectation and actual perception regarding all the dimensions ofservice quality of the beauty parlors according to the SERVQUAL model. Accordingto the study, a significant gap exists in the reliability dimension in the beauty parlors.This result is consistent with the past researches conducted in private universities(Chowdhury, Iqbal&Miah 2010), advertisement firms (Khan 2010), tourism hotels(Tabassum, Rahman&Jahan 2012), luxurious hotels (Tabassum&Rahman 2011),Islamic banks (Abdullrahim 2010), airline services (Gilbert & Wong 2003),restaurants (Lee &Hing 1995), and patient meal services of hospitals (Hwang, Eves&Desombre 2003). The highest gap was found in the criteria of maintaining error-free records, which reflected that wrong or defective service delivery should bereduced and they should be addressed by proper recovery strategy by the parlorauthorities.

A significant gap also exists in the responsiveness dimension of SERVQUAL modelin terms of service quality of female beauty parlors. Responsiveness refers to thewillingness and ability of the service provider to meet and adapt to customersneeds. Similar result is found in other industries, such as, private universities(Chowdhury, Iqbal&Miah 2010), advertisement firms (Khan 2010), tourism hotels

(Tabassum, Rahman&Jahan 2012), luxurious hotels (Tabassum&Rahman 2011),Islamic banks (Abdullrahim 2010), airline services (Gilbert & Wong 2003),

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restaurants (Lee &Hing 1995), phone company (Bebko 2000), and patient mealservices of hospitals (Hwang, Eves &Desombre 2003). The results reflected thatresponding to customers request and providing prompt service were the two majorareas that the parlor should look after to minimize the gap.

A significant gap exists in assurance dimension as well. Assurance is the degree of

trust and confidence that the customer feels that the service provider is competentto supply the service. Mostly, this stems from the degree of confidence that thecustomer has in the service providers staff. This result is similar as the previousresearches conducted in different industries, such as, private universities(Chowdhury, Iqbal&Miah 2010), advertisement firms (Khan 2010), tourism hotels(Tabassum, Rahman&Jahan 2012), luxurious hotels (Tabassum&Rahman 2011),Islamic banks (Abdullrahim 2010), airline services (Gilbert & Wong 2003), andrestaurants (Lee &Hing 1995). The result reflected that the knowledge and theconfidence level of the employees of the parlors were not sufficient enough to meetup the queries of the customers and that caters to the level of gap in assurancedimension.

Service customers often have expectations with regard to the extent to which theservice provider appears to understand and be concerned about their individualneeds and wants. The more the service provider can see things from the customerspoint of view, the better (Siddiqi 2010). Thus the core concept of empathy is tounderstand the needs of customers and provide individual attention. Employee andcustomer interactions are reflected through the empathy dimensions. The currentstudy shows that the beauty parlors are not enough sincere to provide individualattention and customer needs. Similar finding is addressed in terms of differentindustries, such as, private universities (Chowdhury, Iqbal&Miah 2010),

advertisement firms (Khan 2010), tourism hotels (Tabassum, Rahman&Jahan2012), luxurious hotels (Tabassum&Rahman 2011), Islamic banks (Abdullrahim2010), restaurants (Lee &Hing 1995), pizza shops (Bebko 2000), and patient mealservices of hospitals (Hwang, Eves &Desombre 2003). The gap in empathy wasmainly resulted by the lack of understanding of customers requirement and interestand lack of caring. So, these areas should be improved

According to the current study, a significant gap also exists in the tangiblesdimension of service quality. Though tangibility showed the lowest gap among thecriteria, the improvement and availability of sufficient modern equipment is stillneeded. Also the parlors lack in the visual aesthetics and in terms of employee

appearance. This finding is consistent with the findings of past researches, such as,private universities (Chowdhury, Iqbal&Miah 2010), advertisement firms (Khan2010), tourism hotels (Tabassum, Rahman&Jahan 2012), luxurious hotels(Tabassum&Rahman 2011), Islamic banks (Abdullrahim 2010), restaurants (Lee&Hing 1995), and pizza shops and book stores (Bebko 2000).

6. Managerial Implications

The study confirmed significant gap in all the dimensions of service qualityaccording to the SERVQUAL model in the female beauty parlors. The study alsosuggested that SERVQUAL model is a suitable instrument for measuring theservice quality in the beauty parlors of Bangladesh. Therefore, the management ofbeauty parlors may use this instrument for measuring service quality in terms of

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Bangladesh. Moreover, because significant service gap exists in all the dimensionsof service quality, the beauty parlors should emphasize on all the service qualitydimensions including reliability, responsiveness, empathy, assurance and tangiblesin maintaining and improving the service quality that they provide.

7. Limitations and Future Research Directions

Although there are notable contributions from this study especially for customerretention strategies, the results of this study need to be viewed and acknowledgedin lights of its limitations. First, the sample size was considerably low. Moreover, thestudy considers only the beauty parlors of Dhaka city. Therefore, in futureresearches may be conducted on a larger scale by considering a greater samplesize from all over Bangladesh to authenticate the differences between the customerexpectation and perception about the female beauty parlors. In future, othervariables, i.e. customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, customer retention may beincluded and related with service quality to validate the importance of service quality

in the beauty care industry of Bangladesh.

8. Conclusion

The study assessed the service quality in terms of the female beauty parlors inBangladesh by using SERVQUAL model. The study revealed considerabledifference between the service expectation and service perception of the femaleclients of the beauty parlors in terms of reliability, responsiveness, empathy,assurance and tangibles dimensions of service quality. So the beauty careproviders may try to eliminate the service gaps by improving these aspects ofservice quality. It is emphasized in literature that service industry managers should

work to prevent and minimize gaps in service quality by improving both thecustomer perceptions and the experiences with the service offerings (Brogowicz,Delene&Lyth 1990). Thus the managers in beauty care industry may monitor andevaluate the actual service quality delivered and the perceived level of servicequality by the customers as well.

As the businesses are getting more globalize and competitive, customers are nowmore conscious about the high level of service quality that is associated withseveral key organizational outcomes, including high market share (Buzzell& Gale1987), improved profitability relative to competitors (Kearns & David 1992),enhanced customer loyalty, the realization of a competitive price premium, and an

increased probability of purchase (Zeithaml, Berry &Parasuraman 1996). Thus thegrowth and development of beauty care industry in Bangladesh is dependent on thesatisfied and loyal clientele.

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