Journal of Management Research

Open Access Open Access  Restricted Access Subscription Access
Open Access Open Access Open Access  Restricted Access Restricted Access Subscription Access

Customer Expectations and Service Quality Dimensions Consistency


Affiliations
1 Bhagini Nivedita College University of Delhi, Delhi
2 Faculty of Management Studies University of Delhi, Delhi
     

   Subscribe/Renew Journal


Service marketers bemoan what they perceive as an unprecedented increase of customer expectations in many service industries. Customer expectations are on rise with each competitive advance. While at most everybody has an intuitive sense of what expectations are, service marketers need a far more thorough and clear understanding of expectations in order to comprehend the concept of service quality and to measure and manage it. A literature review suggests that the measurement of service quality is full of controversy associated with many issues, of which an important few are : the type of expectations customers hold in the evaluation, important manageable service quality dimensions / attributes that define it in its full framework and dimensional consistency across the service categories. The paper examines these aspects in select services. The results suggest that (1) Customer 'would' and 'should' expectations differ significantly at most of the times, (2) 'would' expectations are comparatively closer to the service performance, (3) all the suggested dimensions of service quality are important, and (4) service quality may not always be the same five-factor structure as proposed by Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry from time to time.

Keywords

Service Quality, should Expectation, would Expectation, Quality Dimensions
User
Notifications

  • Anderson, Carl and Carl P. Zeithaml (1984), Stage of the Product Life Cycle, Business Strategy and Business Performance, Academy of Management Journal 27 (March): 5-24.

  • Babakus, Emin and Gregory W. Boller (1992), An Empirical Assessment of the SERVQUAL Scale, Journal of Business Research 24: 253-268.

  • Bolfing, Claire P. and Robert B, Woodruff (1998), Effects of Situational Involvement on Consumers’ Use of Standards in Satisfaction / Dissatisfaction Processes, Journal of Consumer Satisfaction/Dissatisfaction and Complaining Behavior, pp. 16-24.

  • Bolton, Ruth N. and James H. Drew (1991a), A Longitudinal Analysis of the Impact of Service Changes on Customer Attitude, Journal of Marketing 55(January): 1-19.

  • Boulding, William, Ajay Kalara, Richard Staelin, and Valarie A., Zeithaml (1993), A Dynamic Process Model of Service Quality: from Expectations to Behavioral Intentions, Journal of Marketing Research 30 (February): 7-27.

  • Brown, Stephen N. and Teresa A. Swartz (1989), A Gap Analysis of Professional Service Quality, Journal of Marketing 53 (April): 92-98.

  • Buzzell. R.D., and Gale, B.T. (1987), The PIMS Principles, Free Press, New York.

  • Carman, James M. (1990), Consumer Perceptions of Service Quality: An Assessment of the SERVQUAL Dimensions, Journal of Retailing 66(Spring): 33-55.

  • Cronin, J. Joseph, Jr. and Steven A. Taylor (1992), Measuring Service Quality: A Re-examination and Extension, Journal of Marketing 56(July): 55-68.

  • Crosby, Phillip B.(1979), Quality is Free: The Art of Making Quality Certain, American Library, New York.

  • Garvin, David A. (1983), Quality on the Line, Harvard Business Review 61(Sept–Oct): 65-73.

  • Lietcht, Margeret G. and Gillbert A. Churchill, Jr. (1989), Conceptual Insights into Consumer Satisfaction with Services, in Neil Beckwith et. al. (Eds), Educator’s Conferences Proceedings, Series 45, American Marketing Association, Chicago, pp.509-15.

  • Miller, John A. (1977), Studying Satisfaction Modifying Models, Eliciting Expectations, Posing Problems and Making Meaningful Measurements, in H. Keith Hung (Ed), Conceptualization and Measurement of Consumer Satisfaction and Dissatisfaction, pp. 72-91, Marketing Science Institute, Cambridge, MA.

  • Oliver, Richard L. (1980), A Cognitive Model of Antecedents and Consequence of Satisfaction Decisions, Journal of Marketing Research 17(November): 460-469.

  • Parasuraman, A., Valarie A. Zeithaml, and Leonard L. Berry (1985), A Conceptual Model of Service Quality and the Implications for Future Research, Journal of Marketing 49(Fall): 41-50.

  • Parasuraman, A., Leonard L. Berry and Valarie A. Zeithaml (1988), SERVQUAL: A Multiple – Item Scale for Measuring Customer Perception of Service Quality, Journal of Retailing 64(Spring): 12-40.

  • Parasuraman, A., Leonard L. Berry and Valarie A. Zeithaml (1990), An Empirical Examination of Relationships in an Extended Service Quality Model, Marketing Science Institute, Cambridge, MA.

  • Parasuraman, A., Leonard L. Berry and Valarie A. Zeithaml (1991), Understanding Customer Expectation, of Services, Sloan Management Review (Spring): 39-48.

  • Parasuraman, A., Leonard L. Berry and Valarie A. Zeithaml (1991), Refinement and Reassessment of the SERVQUAL Scale, Journal of Retailing (Winter): 420-50.

  • Parasuraman, A., Leonard L. Berry and Valarie A. Zeithaml (1991e), Perceived Services Quality as a Customer Based Performance Measure: An Empirical Examination of Organizational Barriers using an Extended Service Quality Model, Human Resource Management 30(3): 335-64.

  • Parasuraman, A., Zeithmal, Valarie A. and Berry, L. (1994), Reassessment of Expectation as Comparison Standard in Measuring Service Quality: Implications for Future Research, Journal of Marketing 58(January): 11-24.

  • Philips, Lynn, W., Dae R. Chang and Robert D. Buzzell (1983), Product Quality, Cost Position, and Business Performance: A Test of Some Key Hypotheses, Journal of Marketing 47(Spring): 26-43.

  • Pratibha A. Dabholakar, C. David, Shepherd and Dayle L. Thorpe (2000), A Comprehensive Framework for Service Quality: An Investigation of Critical Conceptual and Measurement Issues Through a Longitudinal Study, Journal of Retailing 76(2): 131-132.

  • Reichheld, F.F. and Sasser, W.E. Jr. (1990), Zero Defections: Quality Comes to Service, Harvard Business Review (Sept–Oct): 105-77.

  • Rust R.T. and Zahorik, A.J. (1993), Customer Satisfaction, Customer Retention and Market Share, Journal of Retailing 69(2): 193-215.

  • Teas, R. Kenneth (1993), Consumer Expectation, Journal of Professional Services Marketing, pp. 33-54.

  • Teas, R. Kenneth (1994), Expectations as a Comparison Standard in Measuring Service Quality: An Assessment of a Reassessment, Journal of Marketing 58(January): 132-139.

  • Teas, R. Kenneth and Kay M. Palan (1997), The Realms of Scientific Meaning Framework for Constructing Theoretically Meaningful Nominal Definitions of Marketing Concepts, Journal of Marketing 61(April): 52-67.

  • Terry Grapentine (1998-99), The History and Future of Service Quality Assessment, Marketing Research (Winter/Spring): 5-20.

  • Tse, David K. and Peter C. Wilton (1988), Models of Consumer Satisfaction Formation: An Extension, Journal of Marketing Research 25(May): 204-12.

  • Woodruff, Robert B., Ernest P. Cadotte, and Roger L. Jenkins (1983), Modelling Consumer Satisfaction Processes Using Experience Based Norms, Journal of Marketing Research 20(August): 296-304.

  • Zahorik, A.J. and Rust R.T. (1992), Modelling the Impact of Service Quality on Profitability: A Review, in Swartz, T.A., Bowen, D.E. and Brown, S.W. (Eds.), Advances in Services Marketing and Management, pp. 49-64, JAI Press, Greenwich, CT.

  • Zeithaml, V., Parasuraman, A. and Berry, Leonard L. (1993), The Nature and Determinants of Customer Expectations of Services, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science (Winter): 1-12.

  • Zeithaml, Valarie A., and Bitner, Mary Joe (1996), Customer Expectations of Services, Services Marketing, pp. 75-79, McGraw Hill.


Abstract Views: 430

PDF Views: 1




  • Customer Expectations and Service Quality Dimensions Consistency

Abstract Views: 430  |  PDF Views: 1

Authors

Sheetal B. Sachdev
Bhagini Nivedita College University of Delhi, Delhi
Harsh V. Verma
Faculty of Management Studies University of Delhi, Delhi

Abstract


Service marketers bemoan what they perceive as an unprecedented increase of customer expectations in many service industries. Customer expectations are on rise with each competitive advance. While at most everybody has an intuitive sense of what expectations are, service marketers need a far more thorough and clear understanding of expectations in order to comprehend the concept of service quality and to measure and manage it. A literature review suggests that the measurement of service quality is full of controversy associated with many issues, of which an important few are : the type of expectations customers hold in the evaluation, important manageable service quality dimensions / attributes that define it in its full framework and dimensional consistency across the service categories. The paper examines these aspects in select services. The results suggest that (1) Customer 'would' and 'should' expectations differ significantly at most of the times, (2) 'would' expectations are comparatively closer to the service performance, (3) all the suggested dimensions of service quality are important, and (4) service quality may not always be the same five-factor structure as proposed by Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry from time to time.

Keywords


Service Quality, should Expectation, would Expectation, Quality Dimensions

References