SERVICE QUALITY

Presented by Ranit Kundu BBA 5TH SEM

Meaning of Service Quality

Service
A service can be thought of as the persistent availability of a delivery capability which may be leveraged via transactional exchanges or subscription that may or may not result in physical deliverables and/or tangible and intangible benefits to the entity utilizing the service.

Quality
Quality must be defined simply and unambiguously as Conformance to requirements if we are to ever improve our delivery capability and consistently satisfy and delight our customers.

What is Service Quality

Service quality refers to a number of inter-related factors including the way in which individuals are treated by providers, the scope of services and contraceptives available to clients, the quality of the information provided to the clients and quality of the counseling skills, the promotion of individual choice, the technical competence of providers, and the accessibility and continuity of services.
Service quality assessments are formed on judgments of:

outcome quality

interaction quality physical environment quality

Dimensions of Service Quality

Reliability: The ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately. Example: receive mail at same time each day. Assurance: The knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to convey trust and confidence. Example: Insurance, medical services, etc. Tangibles: The appearance of physical facilities, equipment, personnel and communication materials. Example: food Empathy: The provision of caring, individualized attention to customers. Example: being a good listener. Responsiveness: The willingness to help customers and to provide prompt service. Example: avoid keeping customers waiting for no apparent reason.

What is SERVQUAL
SERVQUAL is basically gap analysis instrument. It provides a
technology for measuring and managing service quality (SQ). It is founded on the view that the customers assessment of SQ is paramount. This assessment is conceptualized as a gap between what the customer expects by way of SQ from a class of service providers (say, all opticians), and their evaluations of the performance of a particular service provider .SQ is presented as a multidimensional construct. In their original formulation Parasuraman (1985) identified ten components of SQ:
(1) reliability; (2) responsiveness; (3) competence; (4) access; (5) courtesy; (6) communication; (7) credibility; (8) security; (9) understanding/knowing the customer; (10) tangibles.

Explain components
1) Reliability involves consistency of performance and dependability. It also means that the firm performs the service right first time and honors its promises. Specifically, it may involve: accuracy in billing; performing the service at the designated time. (2) Responsiveness : It concerns the willingness or readiness of employees to provide service. It may involve: mailing a transaction slip immediately; calling the customer back quickly; giving prompt service (e.g. setting up appointments quickly). (3) Competence means possession of the required skills and knowledge to perform the service. It involves: knowledge and skill of the contact personnel; knowledge and skill of operational support personnel; research capability of the organization.

Continued.
(4) Access involves approachability and ease of contact (5) Courtesy involves politeness, respect, consideration, and friendliness of contact personnel (including receptionists, telephone operators, etc.). It includes: consideration for the consumers property; clean and neat appearance of public contact personnel. (6) Communication means keeping customers informed in language they can understand, and listening to them. It may mean that the company has to adjust its language for different customers. It may involve: explaining the service itself and how much the service will cost; explaining the trade-offs between service and cost; assuring the consumer that a problem will be handled. (7) Credibility involves trustworthiness, believability, honesty. It involves having the customers best interests at heart. Contributing to credibility are: company name and reputation; personal characteristics of the contact personnel; the degree of hard sell involved in interactions with the customer.

Continued..
(8) Security is the freedom from danger, risk, or doubt. It may involve: physical safety; financial security and confidentiality. (9) Understanding/knowing the customer involves making the effort to understand the customers needs. It involves: learning the customers specific requirements; providing individualized attention. (10) Tangibles include the physical evidence of the service: physical facilities and appearance of personnel; tools or equipment used to provide the service; physical representations of the service, such as a plastic credit card.

SERVICE GAP

Service gap is the difference between what customer expected and what they perceive was delivered. The Gap model helps a marketer to locate service failure, isolated them, measure their intensity and attempt service recoveries. These are the Service gap: 1. Knowledge gap 2. The standards gap 3. The delivery gap 4. The internal gap 5. The perception gap 6. The interpretation gap 7. The service gap

Types of service gap

1.Knowledge gap: Difference between what service provider believe customer expect and customer actual needs and expectation. 2.The standards gap: Difference between managements perception of customer expectation and the quality standards established for service delivery. 3.The Delivery gap: Difference between specified delivery standards and the service providers actual performance on these standards.

Types of service gap

4.The internal communication gap: Difference between what the company's advertising and sales personnel think are the product s features, performance and service quality level and what the company is actually able to deliver. 5.The perceptions gap: difference between what is, in fact, delivered and what customer perceive they have received (because they are unable to accurately evaluate service quality) 6.The interpretation gap: Difference between what a service providers communication efforts (in advance of service delivery) promise and what a customer thinks was promised by these communications. 7.The service gap: Difference between what customers expect to receive and their perceptions of the service that is delivered.

Thank You