25 Dimensions of Service Quality

Dr. Puja Waalia Mann

1.0 Introduction

Imagine yourself to be a service marketer, do you feel that you can define the meaning of „Quality‟ objectively to your prospective consumer? On the other hand, if you ask your potential consumer what he expects in a given service that you sell, do you think he can explain you the Quality expectations with a service? Probably not! This is because the seller and the consumer may not be able to clearly put into words what level of service performance can best describe it of a given level of quality. However, even then, as a consumer you must have come across several service sellers claiming to be selling high quality services. Let us look at the various dimensions which needs to be present in a service to be able to qualify itself as a Quality Service.

1.1 Learning Objectives

In this module, you will learn:

a)      Meaning of Service Quality

b)      Quality variable in Goods and Services

c)      Dimensions of Service Quality

d)      Means to offer Quality Dimensions

1.2 Key Words:

Dimensions of Service Quality, Servqual, Service Quality.

1.3 Introduction to Service Quality

One often come across, a number of definitions of Service quality which focus on meeting the consumers needs and expectations. The process of a service being delivered to a consumer defines the level of quality of a service. If any organization intends to be known as a Quality Service provider it must first of all, identify what the consumer wants and what he considers to be a Quality Service. In a business organization, Quality refers to adherence to the highest standards of performance at every step of working and for each unit of production and distribution. Highest standards are usually the Industry benchmarks of performance and universally recognized. A consumer values good quality as much as the management which would like to maintain Quality and save the cost of wastage. Offering Quality goods and services are a strong Brand building technique which ensures a strong pool of loyal consumers.Service Quality refers to the maintenance of certain parameters of service performance and delivery assured by the service marketer to earn itself a competitive edge in the perception of the target consumer. Prior to the formulation of a marketing strategy, it is important to set the internal quality standards keeping in mind the commonly accepted external industry standards of Quality. In defining the standards of Quality, it is significant to first define what Quality mean to an organization. For a Restaurant, Quality could mean delicious food, Quick service or an amicable ambience or all of the three aspects. The service firm needs to focus itself on the quantifiable measure of Quality which is most important for its target consumers and then initiate the process of ensuring the same in each of its service delivery. The International Organisation of Quality Standards (ISO) 9001:2000 defines Quality as “the characteristics of the service that bears upon its ability to meet customer requirements. Customers requirement could be of three types: those stated by the customer; those generally implied and; those obligatory on the part of service provider.” In the above example of a Restaurant, a customer may state that Quality means hygienic and good food; comfortable ambience with good lights and music and courteous service is implied and; it is obligatory on the part of the Restaurant to provide rate cards, bill of the purchase etc.

The meaning of Quality may vary from customer to customer and from situation to situation, and thus may called as dynamic, which varies with types of services, people and environment. Yet, it remains as the most fundamental aspect of Customer satisfaction. Judgment of a low quality service delivery or a high quality service delivery is a function of consumer expectations from the service and his perception of the service performance.

1.4 Quality variable in Goods and Services

The service elements of Quality are difficult to gauge as compared to elements of Quality of goods. Manufactured goods must offer a consistently high standard of conformance of the product to satisfy the needs of the consumers in the most reasonable way to remain competitive. On the other hand, while service must also offer high standards of performance but due to its intangible nature, observing or measuring the level of Quality may be difficult. Further, measurement of Quality standards may not be objectively perceived by all consumers in a uniform manner. For example, in the restaurant, for one consumer playing of retro music is considered as good while the other may perceive it to be boring and feel that new jazzy songs are more enjoyable. Hence Service Quality is a subjective thing and may be difficult to be offered and measured.

However, it does not mean that the service marketer should not gauge the Quality perception of the target consumers. It only means that he should be more alert and careful in assessing what exactly Quality would mean for the set of potential consumers. In doing so, it is important to understand the reason of purchase of a service by a consumer. This provides a clear idea of the desired level of service outcome sought by the consumer when he pays for it. This means the service provider must investigate as to what remains with a consumer after the service is consumed. Secondly, it must also be investigated as to what a consumer expects while purchasing and consuming a service. A marketer who exceeds these expectations of the consumers ensures that the consumer is delighted with the service. For example, for a Restaurant is it the tasty food that will be remembered by a consumer or the courteous staff service or may be the memory of add-on recreation facilities enjoyed by him on his visit at the restaurant will be remembered. An objective assessment like this is very useful in understanding the most important variables for which the service firm must go an extra mile to maintain highest standards of Quality.

CHECK YOUR PROGRESS

1.       What is the meaning of Quality?

2.       Differentiate between Goods quality and Services Quality, with the help of an example.

3.       Explain the meaning of Service Quality.

1.5 Service Quality Dimensions

In the year 1984, Gronroos identified two major dimensions of the service quality and provided a differentiation of the same. The first dimension was technical in nature and it offered to explain the “what” aspect of a service quality. This means, this aspect of quality dimension was the core benefit being offered to the consumer. The second dimension was the “how” aspect of the service which means that in what process the service was being offered and delivered to the potential consumers.

In the year 1991, Parasuraman et al developed an instrument called as SERVQUAL, which became very popular in measuring the quality of the services. This instrument proved very useful in identifying the service gaps between the customer‟s expectations from the service quality and the consumer‟s perception about the service being delivered. The instrument consists of 22 statements for assessing consumer perceptions and expectations with respect to the quality of the service. The respondent is expected to rate their level of agreement or disagreement with the the given statement related to the service quality. These statements represent the various dimensions of the service quality. There are five different dimensions which are sought to be measured by the Servqual instrument. Let us look at these dimensions one by one:

a) Tangibility

We have time and again discussed that the difficulty in measuring the quality of the services is that these are intangible in nature. However, there are some services which have certain tangible aspects which may be associated with the service, thereby resulting in the evaluation of services along with the perception of the quality of these tangible variables. For example, the hospitality services are intangible in nature. But the measure of its quality is usually done along with the quality of the food, ambience and cleanliness it offers to the consumers. Thus, one of the most important dimensions of Service quality is the tangibility aspect. The aspect of tangibles in the restaurant, therefore, shall include the services and behavior of the service personnel, physical environment and the facilities, equipment and communication material associated with the service.

b) Reliability

The second dimension of Service Quality is the degree of reliability of service quality deliverables it offers to the consumers. Reliability is the ability of the service provider to consistently offer promised services dependably and accurately to eth potential consumers in each of service transactions. To offer reliable services means that the producer is meeting the promises it made related to service delivery, various service provisions, service performance, grievance redressal, service guarantees, and prices or discounts in every service transaction it makes. The dimension of reliability is significant as every consumer prefers dealing with a marketer who keeps his promises, especially the promises which are related to the performance of the services and the pricing structure. It is thus, important for the service marketer to understand about what the consumers expect from the service marketers. If any marketer fails to assess the needs of the consumers or does not come up to the expectations of the consumers, the marketer may fail to allure the target consumers in the most direct way.

c) Responsiveness

The third dimension of Service quality refers to the willingness of the service provider to help the customers in satisfying their most sought after need or benefit in the most economical manner and at the earliest. Being responsive means to be able to react quickly to the requests of the consumers or the complaints put in by the consumers. The consumers may even want a response from the service provider related to the problem or a query that they may face in relation to the service. Let us explain this concept with the help of an example. Consider that you have purchased a new Health insurance policy. You have been given certain amount of benefits in getting the claim of the pathological tests or the expenses of the hospital stay or medicines etc. After a few months of the purchase of the policy, you wish to claim the benefit by getting a cashless medical facility in a particular hospital or path lab. For this, you inquire about the procedure for the same from the health insurer but are unable to get a quick and satisfactory reply, you may be highly dissatisfied. Further, there could be a medical emergency in which a policy holder may like to make use of the cashless services and may be hard pressed for time. In such emergent medical situations it is highly expected that the service provider should be quick in responsiveness. If he fails to respond quickly, the customer may have a very low image of the seller and may not speak good about the service quality of the seller. Hence, responsiveness is related to the length of time taken to assist a customer and also the degree of flexibility on the part of seller to customize a service and satisfy the needs of the customer.

d) Assurance

Another dimension of service quality refers to the trust or confidence that a consumer has in the service seller, called as Assurance. This may be defined as the perception about the service seller in its ability to offer consistent level of service performance and an empathetic delivery system to meet the consumer‟s needs in the most reasonable price range. Coming back to the aspect of intangibility of the services, many a times the decision to purchase the services from a given seller may be a result of the trust that the seller may inculcate in its dealing amongst the potential buyers. This confidence in the seller facilitates overcoming the high risk or uncertain buying situations of any service. Assuming, that a consumer wants to make a purchase of a holiday package from a seller, he may be confronted with a number of offers in the market. Since there may be a lot of uncertainty involved in the type of hospitality one receives at holiday destinations and locations as well as the overall entertainment experience may also be uncertain, the consumer may end up choosing a seller who is able to instill a sense of assurance in the consumer and whom the consumer personally has trust on. It is important to note that most of the times, in services marketing this trust may be developed due to the personal dealing of a service marketing employee.

e)      Empathy

Empathy is the fifth dimension of service quality. It refers to the care and individualized attention offered to the consumer for the satisfaction of his needs and expectations by the service seller. A service provider having the perception of a marketer offering customized services to the consumers to cater to their individual requirement is considered to be of a higher quality. Let us take for an example, if a consumer hires an event management organization for the management of an event like a road show for the promotion of its Brand, it may have certain specific requirements and expectations in the arrangement of the show. The event management organization cannot use a standard format of holding an event and will have to have a tailor made show based on the expectations of the outcomes of the potential consumer. It is important for the service marketer to ensure offering creative services to each of its customers so that the ever increasing demands of the consumers can be met.

CHECK YOUR PROGRESS

4.       What are the various dimensions of Service?

5.       Write a short note on:

a)       Tangibility

b)      Reliability

c)       Responsiveness

d)      Assurance

e)       Empathy

1.6 Means to offer Quality Dimensions

Quality is an important variable for all public and private business. It is no more a choice of the seller to maintain high standard of service quality rather it a necessity to offer high level of quality in every service transaction to meet the needs and wants of the consumers. Though the concern for Quality has always been in discussion amongst competitive service organizations, the concept of Quality gained momentum during the 1960‟s across the globe. The free market economy added with the globalization has given impetus to the trend of Quality conscious service marketers. Service marketers use a number of techniques to ensure high quality in each service delivery process like participative management, Positive working culture, Quality circles to name a few.

a)   Participative Management

Participative management refers to the total involvement of the service personnel in the service creation and service delivery at all possible levels of the organization. In most of the service marketing encounters, the delivery personnel would be the only interface between the Customer and the organization and hence these employees make a significant contribution in the development of the organizational competitive advantage. It rests upon the Service delivery employees to ensure that the interaction between them and the customer is consistent with the desired positioning of the Service encounter as conceived by the top management to make the building of the competitive edge exercise successful. Front end executives are considered as the most important asset for any service organization and hence the most capable in achieving and sustaining the competitive advantage.

b) Positive Organisational Culture

If any organization wants to build itself as a Brand, all components of the organization should be committed to the Branding process, including the development of the culture where customers are viewed as central to all the interventions. In such a situation it is pertinent for the service delivery employees to be viewed as playing an important role in creating customer values through their interactions. Therefore it is important for the organization to treat these employees as most important variable in presenting a service, reinforcing a Brand image and ensuring customer satisfaction by coming up to the expectations of the customers at each encounter. The interaction of the frontline employees with the customers will have the lasting impression regarding the reputation of the organization and the perception of the quality of services provided. If the front line executive of an Insurance organization presents the different types of policies to the target customer and is not able to clearly understand the reason of the purchase of the insurance policy during the first fifteen minutes of interaction, it is very likely that the customer will not buy policy from this organization, despite the fact the company has a very appropriate plan meeting the target customer‟s needs. Hence if the frontline employees are able to provide good quality service meeting the needs and expectations of the customers, the customer carries a positive impression about the organization resulting in developing its positive image and reputation.

c) Quality Circles

For any service organization delivering Quality service is not an individual task. It is a group task in which personnel doing the same task must jointly prospect the way in which quality can be created, improved, maintained and delivered to the consumer. One such technique is called as Quality circle. A Quality Circle is a group of Service Personnel doing almost a similar kind of service creation and service delivery task, who interact on regular basis to identify, objectively understand and search for an optimum solution to the service process related problems. These Quality circles are often small in size and are led by a mutually accepted leader or a formally appointed supervisor with a clear vision of offering highest standards of Quality to the consumers in each interaction. The Quality circles analyse the problems and reach to a mutually agreeable solution. This solution is presented before the management for final approval of its implementation by the members. Often, in empowered organizations, the Quality circles implement the solutions at their own level wherever possible, resulting in higher level of motivation and improved employee productivity. In the West, the technique of Quality Circles was very commonly adopted during the period of 1980‟s. Even today, this concept is very frequently used to maintain high quality standards in the name of Kaizen groups or Workers participation schemes. The main purpose behind all these intervention is to offer Quality service by keeping the participation and morale of the employee high.

CHECK YOUR PROGRESS

6.      How can the Service Quality be offered to the consumers?

7.      In what way the participative management ensure Quality service?

8.      Explain the role of Quality Circles6 in delivering Service Quality.

Conclusion

Quality is an important aspect of goods and services which may have diverse perspectives for diverse situations. During the initial phase of its introduction during 1960‟s it was seen as a defensive marketing strategy. However, over a period of time it has come to be used more as a competitive strategy especially in newer market spaces. The core meaning of Quality is the satisfaction of the consumer‟s needs and expectations of the service performance, as perceived by the consumer himself. The services being intangible in nature offer a serious problem of quality measurement. There are some dimensions which may be considered while evaluating the service quality. The first such dimension is the tangible aspects of the service. This refers to the various physical support system used for the service production and service transaction. The level of quality of these physical facilities may be used for the measurement of Service Quality. The second dimension is the Reliability of the service. If a potential consumer perceives the service seller to be offering consistently the standard of service performance as promised, it is considered as Reliable. The third dimension is Responsiveness. The service seller is expected to be quick in addressing the concerns of the consumers which may be in the form of consumer‟s queries, problems or doubts. The fourth service dimension is Assurance. This refers to the faith and confidence that the consumers may have in the service delivery systems of the service marketer. The last dimension of Service Quality is the Empathy. This means that if the service seller is expected to be able to understand the needs of the consumers and offer a customize service to delight the consumer at the reasonable price range, the consumers may perceive the seller as offering high quality service.

Summary

Quality is a measure of consumer‟s satisfaction with a given service in comparison to the consumers perception of the service performance. Every marketer aims to offer a high quality service to the consumer so as to gain a competitive edge in the market. The service quality of goods may be easily measured due to its physical presence. But for services the measure of quality may be a difficult due to its intangible nature. To add to the difficulty, the services are produced and consumed at the same time, thereby making it difficult for the service producer to ensure a consistent level of service standards in each of its service transaction. Service sellers look at Quality as a means to increase customer satisfaction to develop customer loyalty, thereby contributing in the development of organizational core competence and strategic advantage. There are Five dimensions used to assess the service Quality are Tangibility, Reliability, Responsiveness, Assurance and Empathy.

Learn More:

a)  Andaleeb, S.S., & Conway, C. (2006). Customer satisfaction in the restaurant industry: An examination of

the transaction-specific model. Journal of Services Marketing, 20(1), 3-11.

b) Gilbert, G.R., & Veloutsou, C. (2007). A cross-industry comparison of customer satisfaction. Journal of

Services Marketing, 20(5), 298-308.

c) Gonzálea, E.A., & Brea, J.A. (2005). An investigation of the relationship among service quality, customer

satisfaction and behavioural intentions in Spanish health spas. Journal of Hospitality & Leisure Marketing, 1

3(2), 67-90.

d) Ishikawa, K., “What is Total Quality Control? The Japanese Way”, Prentice Hall, 198

e) Zeithaml, V.A., Bitner, M.J., & Gremler, D.D. (2006). Services marketing: integrating customer focus across

the firm (4th ed., pp.117). Singapore: McGraw-Hill