CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1. Service Quality The definition of the quality of service was

13. Which of the following characteristics makes it EASIER to measure the quality of a service, relative to that of a product or facilitating good?

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

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

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,

Wang (2010) defined service quality as global judgement or an attitude towards the superiority of a service. Bitner and Hubbert (1994) also define service quality as “the customer’s overall impression of the relative inferiority and superiority of the organization and its services”. Moreover, Zeithaml and Bitner (2003) define “service quality is a focused evaluation that reflects the customer’s perception of specific dimensions of

The second dimension is tangibles which are things like physical facilities, equipment, personnel, communication materials, etc. The third dimension is responsiveness, as the company needs to make sure they are giving the customer the most adequate service, as well as promptly giving that service. The fourth dimension is assurance, which is when a company conveys trust and confidence so the consumer does not have to worry about their service being completed. The last dimension is empathy; because consumers do not want an uncaring person handling a mistake when they are stressed enough, but much rather have a caring employee deal with the matter. All of the quality dimensions are really focused around keeping your product or service where it has been without raising costs, as well as keeping a healthy customer service sector on board to work through troubling economic times where consumers do not want to worry about services that have been loyal to them in the past. (Hartlet et al., 2008, p. 34,36,121) (Hollis, 2008, p. 3-4)"

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

The dimensions of service quality are listed in the text as reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy, and tangible.

In what ways specifically did each of the five-service quality dimensions contribute to your perceptions of poor service? Be as specific with your examples as you can.

Hung, Y. H., Huang, M. L., & Chen, K. S. (2003). Service quality evaluation by service quality performance matrix. Total Quality Management and Business Excellence.

Dimensions of service quality include tangibles (facilities, equipment, and tools fit for the task), reliability (desired results every time), responsiveness (quick and accurate responses), assurance (capability and competency), and empathy (caring service and individualized attention). Each constraint is classified under one of six categories: market, material, capacity, logistical, managerial, and behavioral (Bramoraski, 1997). Market constraints deal with geographic and socioeconomic factors. Material constraints deal with shortages of office supplies, such as forms. Capacity constraints deal with inadequate labor and equipment. Logistical constraints are related to the movement of material, such as processing paperwork. Managerial constraints deal with strategies and policies that affect system performance. Behavioral constraints involve employee actions aimed at pleasing management that adversely affect customers.

The key to ensuring good quality service is meeting or exceeding what the customers expect from services. Judgements of high and low quality depend on how customers the actual service performance in the context of what they expected. Service quality, as perceived by the customers, can be defined as the extent of discrepancy but customers’ expectations or desires and their

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)

Quality is the degree to which customers prefer a particular product over its competing products, such as people prefer a particular brand of T.V, toothpaste,

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