Using the Gaps Model of Service Quality to Understand and Manage Service Quality Essay Example

the Gaps Model of Service Quality of the 20 century to understand and manage service quality in today.

Using service quality conception to measure the service is popular trend in the world. Service quality has been accepted as the conception which provided to customer will influence the international business performance and determine the level a firm will approach, and it becomes the important strategy in a company (Huang, et al. 2003) As we know the determining factors of the service quality, it is focused on the customer perception reflections of the service delivery to evaluate the dimensions of service.

Outcomes, process and physical environment are the three key factors of quality that will effect on the customer’s perception. For example, when customer comes into a bank to ask for finance service, the hall, counter, the waiting zoon and decorative style are the physical environment of the banking service environment that will affect customer’s perceptions at first sight; then how to deal with the customer’s requirement of investment or saving, answer the questions and the way to communicate with customer is the process of banking service delivery; and the outcome is the degree that the service achieve customer’s expectation.

Although it is pointed the elements, customer’s manner is the most changeable, it can be affected by other customers, memories, and experiences. If the performance doesn’t approach customer’s expectation, services provided less quality than the satisfaction, it leads customer dissatisfaction happens (Shahin 2010). That’s why service quality should be taken in to consideration and measured if marketers want to locate problems build distinct standard of the service delivery.

Therefore, it is necessary to

introduce the gap model of service quality to make a clear outlook of the gap between customer’s expectation and service performance. The gap model of service quality includes numbers of gaps, and the important gaps are the customer gap and provider gaps. Customer gap is to identify the difference between what customers expect and what do them percept (Zeithaml, Bitner & Gremler 2013). Using this gap is to help servicer makes a clear understanding of customer’s demand and improve marketer- control factors. The provider gaps suggest four gaps which occur with the service delivery from organizations.

The provider gaps include gap 1: the listening gap which between expectation of customer’s and the understanding of this expectation by service deliver; gap 2: the service design and standards gap which is the difference between specification and standard of the provided service and the perception of marketer of customer expectation; gap 3: the service performance gap which between the service standard development and service actually performanced and gap 4: the communication gap which is illustrated the difference between the service delivery and communications with customers about the delivery of service.

According to Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry (1985), there are ten dimensions has been identified to evaluate the quality of service and to measure these gaps. They are reliability, responsiveness, competence, access, courtesy, communication, credibility, security, understanding/knowing the customer, and tangibles. This conceptual model is established as a framework in measuring service quality. It gives a model of analysis in the service marketing which is focusing on the “discrepancies or gaps relating to managerial perceptions of service quality” and works in delivery of service in different focused

group customers (Shahi 2010).

Parasraman generalized situations in that time to the gaps, is to give a perspective to analyses from both customers and providers in service marketing. He mentioned that the expectation and perception gap (customer gap) is related to gaps in provider’s side. Before this theory, marketer always ask for the way to understanding customer’s expectation, so they feels hard to catch up with the expectation of customers and confused with it.

The customer’s perception of service quality is associated with not only market- controlled factors such as standard of service, the performance, advertising, but some restrictive factors such as provider competition, improvement of customer’s expectation as well. Gap 2 is the result of variation between the way how an organization understands customers’ expectation and the way how it satisfies those demands through design services and their quality standards.

According to Parasuraman et al. (1985), the critical component of service quality in identifying the expected service is influenced by the shape of communication between customer and provider with word-of-mouth, individual requirements and experiential background. However, it is defined in literature of satisfaction that the customer’s expectation is the customers would predict the quality they are going to provided (Parasuraman et al. 1988). It is difficult to follow the customers’ behaviors to understand what the expectation of customer is based on, because with the improvement of society, customers always unsatisfied with they have been provided and require more.

Even after the service quality which manager has given, the existence of this gap is still confirmed. The model is established for identify the gap of customer’s expectation and perception, and guide service

marketer to narrow the gap. In consequence of social development, the customer gap becomes complicated and diversified. In addition, the service provider has found they have limited ability to gather information of what customer real needs, so that they provide new conceptions and methods to lead the requirement of customer.

Although all the new ways make customer satisfied by the freshness, it leads customer’s expectation diversified. For example, the telecommunication industry offers the mobile service is not the same between 1985s and today. At that time, it was not common to have a mobile phone even the telephone individually, people can not expect the service of telecommunication provided professional and personal. They had a low requirement that the massage would be received and the service provider was easy to catch their needs to satisfy.

However, after the revolutionary development of mobile technology, the customer has experienced pager, mobile phone and internet massage, the requirement of instant massaging is not only for the massages or businesses, they need entertainment and interaction. Based on the network development, customer need telecommunication service more personalized and intelligentized. Customer expects high quality service, but the quality of service is difficult to evaluate the intangibility.

In the theory of gap model, the service-perceived gap depends on the gaps in the providers’ side (Parasuraman et al. 1985), but designed standard in service plays a role in establishing new requirements of customer. As Parasuman et al. (1985) mentioned in their research, the consumer always share different expectation, the technology progress offers a great need and chance to explore instruments of standard to evaluate consumer’s perception in service quality. With the service

sector shared increasingly in the global economy, service providers have tried to practice the best service to customers around the world.

As the service market involves relationship interactions, the problems is relevant to the service quality is not only marketers and customers, but the “real provider” – employees. From this notion, the marketers should take consideration in both the relationship between satisfaction of customers and employees (Xu, Goedegebuure 2005). The gap model focus on the provider and customer, and this “provider” includes both marketers and employees. However, today’s service around the world leads the marketer and employees separate as two parts in the service quality management.

In the view of customer, the performance of employees is the service, but in the side of employees, the service is the role they play with some standards (Xu, Goedegebuure 2005). In this opinion, the subject of service is employees’ performance which has influence impact on customer satisfaction. In addition, information collection of customer from stakeholders and customer is not enough, the marketer also need employees to reflect concerns and needs.

So, it is advised the marketer needs to focus on the link between employee’s satisfaction and customer’s satisfaction (The Social Security Administration 2000). In that situation, there should have a gap between the marketer and employees which represent the different understanding in service delivery standard. Employee’s perception of internal service quality which perceive from organization would impact on customer’s perception, and then determine the customer satisfaction and loyalty.

The research argues that a better understanding of service design and standard from organization can enhance the satisfaction and loyalty of employees, and it leads to

provide a better service to make customer satisfaction (Xu, Goedegebuure 2005). Thereby, the gap model has shortage of the view of employees. For example, the hotel service, in 1990s people living in hotel has the low requirement of clean and quiet environment, safety and also the relatively low price. The hotel service standard is also simple and focused which the employee is easy to understand and practice.

With the customers expectation and demands become complicated and diversified, the hotel managers need to provide service individually. In order to make customer perceive a high quality service, the gap 3 mentioned the understanding of standard and design by employees would influence the outcomes of the service, but there has not clear argument in employee satisfaction from what the service standard impact on the employees. The characteristic service is difficult for managers to control the standard and measure from the employees.

The question “How does employee empowerment impact on service quality and customer satisfaction” has been mentioned in that field. To make satisfaction of employees is an important sector to enhance the perception of service quality from customer. As we have seen, the gap model of service quality has made great effort to make help the service providers to understanding customer’s perception of the service quality, and it has established a conceptual framework in the service marketing.

As a result, marketers and researchers have an increasing awareness to focus on the different between customer and service provider which are efficient and powerful to tackle the issues in measuring the service quality. But as Parasuman said in their study, this conceptual model is a foundation to

establish a conception which is focusing on the relevant influence of element on expectation and perception of customer.

Furthermore, the model is established in 1985 and it has not been completed. With the following research in that field, there are many issues have been concerned and models and gaps have been founded. Ultimately, the major target through this model suggest a way to analysis the behavior relationships between customer and service provider and as a framework of the service quality model, it still needs further empirical research to complete this theory.