At present, service industries are the major contributors in the economy of many nations. Various

Different research was done on the positive relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction. In the other words, if service quality decreases quickly, customer satisfaction declines dramatically and if service quality grows radically, customer satisfaction rises rapidly

Service quality is one area which was studied extensively for the past four decades. In the field of service marketing, there are many definition for service quality. Parasuraman et al, (1988) defines service quality as a discrepancy between customers’ expectation and perception of a service or service experience and this is basically the perceived service quality. Based on this concept, Parasuraman et al. (1985), developed a model known as the SERVQUAL. The SERVQUAL model is based on 22-item scale and it measures service quality based on five dimensions which are reliability, responsiveness, tangibility, assurance and empathy. According to Parasuraman et. al (1985) these five dimension are generic and they are applicable across the industries. However, there are some critics to this model also such as Gronroos (1990) and Mangold and Babakus (1991) who opines that SERVQUAL solely focuses on the service delivery process while neglecting the outcome of the service. Interestingly, the inventors of SERVQUAL suggested the importance of both the functional and technical aspect of service quality in the model (Parasuraman et.al, 1985). However, they didn’t include the technical aspect but it in the instrument. The emphasis on the functional aspect is basically the American school which was

For different types of companies, quality might refer to quality of products or quality of service. Compares with quality of products, service quality is much more difficult to measure because service is intangible and acts and processes only existing in time. In addition, service has unique characteristic which cannot be found in products, such as customer influence, inseparability of production and consumption, heterogeneity, perishability and labor intensity (Nie & Kellogg, 1999). Even though, there are still many practitioners and academics are keen on measuring service quality because it has already emerged as a key strategic issue. Companies want to better understand service quality, and to establish methods for improving quality to achieve competitive advantage and build customer loyalty (Abdullah, 2006). Based on the importance of service quality, an increasing number of literatures and companies pay attention to measuring

Introduction There appear to be five major debates taking place in the service quality area. One debate concerns the similarities and differences between the constructs of service quality and satisfaction (see e.g. Anderson and Sullivan, 1993; Bolton and Drew, 1991; Cronin and Taylor, 1992, 1994; Oliver, 1993; Parasuraman et al., 1988; Taylor, 1993; Zeithaml et al., 1993). There appears to be a consensus emerging that satisfaction refers to the outcome of individual service transactions and the overall service encounter, whereas service quality is the customer’s overall impression of the relative inferiority/superiority

In order to understand service quality and models proposed to assess it, Seth, Deshmukh, & Vrat (2005) conducted a literature review of the service quality models and examined 19 different service quality models. Their paper summarized different models and highlighted the strengthens and weakness of each model. The authors conclude that while none of models were able to address all aspects of measurements and selection of a model to measure service quality would be dependent on the subject that the researcher wished to measure.

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

To verify the validity of SERVQUAL model in the assessment of service quality, Zeithaml et al (2006, p. 106-107), said that “service quality is a precise assessment that demonstrates the customer’s perception of reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy and tangibility”. Furthermore, they said that “of all the stated dimensions, “reliability” is consistently shown to be the most significant in terms of service quality”.

SERVQUAL is a model used to measure service quality management in relation to customer service quality needs. It analyzes the gap between the two. In measuring service quality, SERVQUAL has been proved to be the most popularly used instrument in the past one decade. Oftenly, it is used to measure service quality of a service providing organizations to compare the expectations of customers beforehand and their perception in regard to the services being offered (Shahin, 2010). The model can be employed to assess the quality of services provided by any service organization, it being universal. Services are economic activities, they provide benefits, and create value for clients. As such, there is a need for measurement of their quality at specific points due to the desire for change, or on behalf of the customers that receive the services (Shahin, 2010).

Considering service sector it is highly depends on the customers. Customer loyalty is influenced by customer-employee relationship. It is important for organizations to know how customers perceive the quality of services and how these perceptions translate into customer satisfaction and behavioral intentions. Moreover, for an effective marketing strategy and organizational development, organizations want to understand the ways of customer satisfaction. Service quality is the difference among consumer expectations and their perceptions of the service that they received.

Customers realize that the current system is not flawless. Companies see that providing better service quality will create and obtain the customers loyalty, continuation of business and enhance the quality of the organization. Service quality is suppose to be consistent, reliable and accountable

There is a market opportunity for the improvement of customer service that will satisfy the customer resulting in revenue improvement. First employees must be trained learning skills in customer service having commitment and confidence in handling customers professionally. Customers will feel that they were treated as an individual and taken care of. It is through the direct experience of customer service with the employee and the customer, showing how important they are and what the company can deliver. Satisfying the needs by delivering what is valuable to the customers will drive them to purchase more products and services, achieving customer loyalty. Good customer service and care is the most essential method for improving customer loyalty. Building loyalty with 5% more customers would lead to an increased average profit per customer of between 25% and 100% (Carter 2014).

In today’s economy, customer needs continue to change. Customers have different expectations and perceptions of service which many organizations struggle to fulfill. Providing exceptional service quality to customers is critical for an organization’s success. This paper will assess the specific elements of customer expectations and perceptions with the alignment to service quality criteria. Moreover, several instances will be reviewed to define appropriate service quality perceptions and customer satisfactions. Finally, gaps between expected services will be reviewed and areas of improvement will be identified.

Customer satisfaction is dependent of one’s intention to perform the decision to purchasing intention. On the other hand, service quality has an appositive impact on customer satisfaction because quality measure the value and this value added the loyalty (Fishbein, & Ajzen, 1975). Finally, customer satisfaction is directly or indirectly connected to customer loyalty if a customer is satisfied to buy something with full of expectation, customers may or may not be loyal to the brand or products.

Engineering Educational Institutes in India are increasing at a rapid rate to meet the growing demand for engineering graduates across the globe. Enrolment in engineering education has also seen a rapid increase in the last decade. According to AICTE report on growth of students intake in Engineering colleges in the last seven years has increased to three times. Whether all these graduates have acquired necessary knowledge and skills to be employable in the real world is a matter of consideration of all stake holders. The need for addressing the issue of quality in higher education is strongly felt when the students are seen struggling in the global workforce market. According to a latest NASSCOM report the the four major challenges which exist today include employability, infrastructure, favourable policies and competition from other low cost countries. 26% of employable engineers in technology services continues to be a major bottleneck. “There is a strong correlation between a country’s competitiveness and the quality of higher education provided within that country”, say Borahan and Ziarati (2002). Hence measuring and improving the quality of higher education becomes an essential role of higher educational institutions. In the industrial context the customer is the ultimate judge of quality, and the same applies in the academic context, where students are considered as the customers who are the recipient of service( acquiring knowledge /information),

Sureshchandra, Rajendran and Anantharaman (2002) identified five critical aspects of service quality from the customers point of view namely core service/service product, human element of service delivery, systematisation of service delivery, tangibles of service and lastly social responsibility in order to conceptualise service quality. Table 1 will further provide an explanation to the five critical aspects of service quality as outlined by Sureshchandra et al (2002).