A Conceptual Model of Service Quality and Its Implications for Future Research

Service quality is referred to a valuation of how good a delivered service meets the customer’s expectation. Upper management

Service quality is defined as a comparison of customer expectations with service performance. The organizations with high service quality meet the customer needs and also remain most economical in terms of competition as improved service quality also makes the firm more competitive. High service quality is achieved by knowing operational process through identifying problems in service and defining measures for service performances and outcomes as well as level of customer satisfaction (Suneeta & Koranne, 2014).

Service quality - refers to difference between the level of service that is expected from consumers and the perception of the service that is actually received. (Caruana,

Source : Adapted from A. Parasuraman, Valerie Zeithaml, and Leonard Berry, “A Conceptual Model of Service Quality and Its Implications for Future Research,” Journal of Marketing, 49 (Fall 1985)

Customer satisfaction and service quality are the two important components that direct anyone’s attention in every concept related to marketing, services, etc. (Spreng and Mackoy, 2006). In today’s competitive era, the success lies in

This chapter will look to the literature review of quality service, customer satisfaction and intention to revisit including Thomassen satisfaction theory. This research will also discuss what theory is best suited to Health care.

Dr. Klinger, the Chief Resident at the Metro Hospital, just bought a house and is expecting a baby soon. His most difficult patient is his moody pregnant wife. He is also teaching rounds to resident doctors at the hospital. Dr. Klinger was aware of patient non verbal cues and appeal to the emotional needs of the pregnant patient, Lila Gonzales. This behavior closes the listening gap. Gaining trust is important to patient care, patients are more likely to open up to providers if they know that they are not going to be judged. When Mr. Collins, patient with alcohol withdrawal, had some concerns about his work, Dr. Klinger used honest and compassion to create open communication instead of being blunt. He also listened to Mr. Collins’ complaints and guilt-ridden admissions. This closes the listening gap. He learned to recognize his individual patient’s needs. Clearly there is a service design gap at the Metro Hospital because Dr. Klinger does not even have time to sit down and eat. Metro Hospital should hire more physicians to meet the demand of the patients. Before performing a lumbar puncture, Dr. Klinger rush through the explanation using terms the patients cannot understand. His busy schedule has affected his service delivery and performance negatively.

Quality of the service is the degree of conformance of all the relevant features and characteristics of service to all the aspects of the consumers’ needs limited by the price and delivery s/he will accept. Quality can be viewed from two perspectives:

Service quality represents a fundamental aspect of delivery, which strongly influences consumer satisfaction and, as a result, loyalty. In today’s global market a customer’s service expectation has to be met and exceeded eventually in order to retain customers as well as achieve success. Perceived quality of a product or a service is becoming one of the major competitive factors in the business world and has led to the innovation of the ‘Quality Era’ (Peeler, 1996). In simple words, the comparison of customer expectations with service performance is service quality. On the other hand, customer satisfaction is defined as a pleasurable fulfilment response toward a good, service, benefit, or reward (Oliver, 1997). Both of these

In today’s world, the service sector dominates the different economies of developed and developing nations. Services require different management activities, “it differs a lot from the marketing of goods” (Berry, 1980). Indeed, services are considered as intangible, variable and perishable (marketingteacher.com). Thus, we can say that the traditional 4 p’s are not sufficient anymore. Indeed, the service marketing mix should now include three other elements, which are the physical evidence, the people and finally, the service process (learnmarketing.net). In addition, we can say that the marketing of goods is not as critical as the management of services quality, which occurs through the monitoring of customer satisfaction. In contrary to the marketing of goods which is more focused on the physical product component, services require a certain customer loyalty, this implying having good service marketing skills.

This literature review will provide an overview of the literature which surrounds service quality and customer satisfaction, it will also provide key definitions of terms discussed. An overview of Training and Development as well as a background of the company will also be provided.

Service quality is a comparison of expectations with perfomance. A business with high service quality will meet customer needs whilst remaining economically competitive. The best way to measure the user satisfaction is to assess the relationship between customer satisfaction and service quality. Service quality has different definitions. To what extent a service meets customers’ needs or expectations is called service quality. Service quality is the difference between customers' expectations of service and perceived service (Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry, 1985).

The purpose of Marlene Amorium and Fatemeh Bashashi Saghezchi’s study was to take the research of Vazquez et al. (2001) and Dabholkar et al. (1996) further and deeper analyze service quality in terms of physical aspects, personal interactions, reliability, and policies from the point of view of the consumer to find what keeps a customer loyal, and how the expected quality may differ between supermarkets and hypermarkets in Portugal.

Measuring the quality of a service can be a very difficult exercise. Unlike product where there are specific specifications such as length, depth, width, weight, colour etc. a service can have numerous intangible or qualitative specifications. In addition there is there expectation of the customer with regards the service, which can vary considerably based on a range of factors such as prior experience, personal needs and what other people may have told them.

There are several business organizations operating around the world, competition is at its peak, products and services offered are so closely similar that identifying the difference between them is difficult, but there is only one way differentiation is made in today’s market, in the larger prospective, and that differentiation is the difference in quality offered. Ali et al., (2010) points, out that the properties of a service or product that the buyer or user purchases and the value given to it by them is the quality of that product or service. Koch (2003) suggests that quality is a process of developing a product or service, building relationship through assessment, anticipation and the fulfillment of the stakeholders implied needs. It is here where the real market is, real competition, customers, profits, market share and success lies. Organizations that deliver quality are always desired by their customers. In order to survive in this