Quality In A Service Industry

Extract from :TAKING A USER-BASED DEFINITION OF QUALITY, EXPLAIN WHAT IS MEANT BY QUALITY IN A SERVICE INDUSTRY. HOW CAN QUALITY BE MEASURED?

Quality in a Service Industry

Murdick, Render & Russell (1990) define quality of a service as the degree to which the bundle of service attributes as a whole satisfies the customer. These attributes can include both tangibles and intangibles, and so service quality is assessed by the customer's perception.

The user-based definition of quality, therefore, involves a comparison between customer expectations (their desires and wants - what they feel should be offered) and reality (what is actually offered). Moores (1989) points out, this definition is really a measure of customer satisfaction, but as Lawton (1989) states, quality in a service exists only so long as customers are satisfied.

Managers wanting to deliver high service quality must conform to customer expectations on a consistent basis, otherwise they could lose customers. If expectations do not match the perceived level of service received, a gap is said to exist.

Parasuraman et al identified five gaps between perceptions and expectation that determine service quality. Gaps need to be reduced in order to create customer satisfaction and therefore service quality.

If a gap is negative, it implies that there is customer dissatisfaction and those involved are less likely to use the service again. If someone receives a bad service they are likely to notify family and friends.

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Moores (1989) says that we tell at least four times as many people about a bad experience than we do about a good one. Customer dissatisfaction is usually caused by unfulfilled expectations. It is important to manage the image of the service carefully and to set acceptable standards, e.g. there is no point in using a picture of a beach in a holiday brochure when the hotel is not situated near one.

Over promising should be avoided, since it is easy to raise expectations but difficult to lower them if the service provider cannot meet them. Managers need to identify customer needs carefully and plan the level of service as close to these as they can…