Measurement of Consumer's Perception of Service Quality in Organized Retail Using Servqual Instrument

Retail sector is one of the fastest growing sectors in the world today. India is seeing a growth of about 15-25 percent per annum in its retail business. The government is also looking forward to open up foreign direct investment in the Indian retail industry. The paradigm shift in Indian retail industry can be accounted to many factors; the growth of Indian economy, the change in consumer's attitude, the increase in per capita income and overall household income, and the influence of western culture, being a few of them. These factors have led to a major change in the buying habits and purchasing behavior of the Indian consumers and thus the retail industry has become one of the key industries to look forward to in the coming years. Many corporates are looking forward to enter the organized retail segment, seeing the enormous growth potential there. But despite the big players entering the retail sector, and the boom in retail industry, organized retailing in India can be still said to be in a very nascent state. People still do not find it very convenient to go to a mall to shop for their daily needs and the local general store or kirana shop is preferred for daily shopping.

This paper tries to analyze the service quality gap between the expected and delivered service of the organized retail stores in Lucknow. The aim of this paper is to find out whether the organized retail stores are actually performing according to customers expectations or are there any gaps between the expected and perceived service quality. This assessment of difference between expected and perceived service quality would be done with the help of the SER VQUAL instrument.