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Courtesy
concern politeness friendliness, respect, consideration of personnel
(including receptionist, telephone operator, etcetera.). It involves:
−
Clean and neat appearance of public contact personnel;
−
consideration for the customer’s property (e.g., no muddy shoes on
the carpet).
Communication
involves keeping customers informed in language they can
understand and listening to them. It means that the company has to adjust its language
for different consumers. Increasing the level of sophistication with a well-educated
customer and speaking simply and plainly with a novice. It involves:
−
Explaining how much the service will cost
−
Explaining the service itself.
Credibility
is about trustworthiness, honestly and believability. It involves having the
customer’s best interests at heart. Contributions to credibility are:
−
Company name
−
Company reputation
−
Personal characteristics of the contact personnel
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−
The degree of hard sell involved in interactions with the customers.
Security
is the freedom from danger, doubt or risk both financially and physically. It
involves:
−
Physical safety ( will I get mugged at when I am sleeping in my hotel
room)
−
Financial security (does the company know where my stock
certificates are?)
−
Confidentiality (are my dealings with the company private?).
Understanding/knowing
the customer involves making the effort to understand the
customer’s needs. It involves:
−
Learning the customer’s specific requirements
−
Providing individualized attention
−
Recognizing the regular customer.
Tangibles
concern the physical evidence of the service and includes:
−
Physical facilities
−
Appearance of personnel
−
Tools or equipment used to provide the service
−
Physical representations of the service, such as a plastic credit card or
bank statement
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Attachment 2 – Theoretical constructs and variables of the four gaps according to
Zeithaml et al. (1988, 38-45)
GAP 1: Difference between consumer expectations and management perceptions of
consumer expectations
The size of GAP1 is dependent to be a function of Marketing research orientation,
Upward communication and Levels of management.
Marketing research orientation
−
Amount of marketing research
−
Usage of marketing research
−
Degree to which marketing research focuses
on service quality issues
−
Extent of direct interaction between
managers and customers
Upward communication
−
Extent of employee-to-manager
communication
−
Extent to which inputs from contact
personnel are sought
−
Quality of contact between top managers and
contact personnel
Levels of management
−
Number of layers between customer contact,
personal and top managers.
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GAP 2: Management perception – Service quality specification GAP
Regularly, managers in service firms experience difficulty in attempting to match or
exceed customer expectations.
The size of GAP2 in any service firm is proposed to be a function of management
commitment to service quality, goal setting, task standardization and perception of
feasibility as shown below:
Management commitment to quality
−
Resource commitment to quality
−
Existence of internal quality programs
−
Management perceptions of recognition
for quality commitment
Goal setting
−
Existence of a formal process for
setting quality of service goals
Task standardization
−
Use of hard technology to standardize
operations
−
Use of soft technology to standardize
operations
Perception of feasibility
−
Capabilities/systems for meeting
specifications
−
Extent to which managers believe
consumer expectations can be met
GAP 3: Service quality specification – Service delivery GAP
This gap concerns the specifications for the service and the actual delivery of the
service. GAP 3 occurs when employees don’t perform to the expected levels or are
unwilling to carry out procedures according to standards. This GAP is highly
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dependent on teamwork, ability to fit to job, control systems, control of management
and confliction between what is desired and what actually occurs.
Teamwork
−
Extend where employees view other
employees as customers
−
Extent to which contact personnel feel upper
level managers genuinely care for them
Employee job fit
−
Ability of employees to perform work
−
Effectiveness of selection process
Technology job fit
−
Appropriateness of tools and technology for
performing work
Perceived control
−
Extent to which employee perceives they are in
control of their job
−
Extent to which customer-contact employee
feel they are flexible in dealing with customers
−
Predictability of demand
Supervisory control systems
−
Extent to which employees are evaluated on
what they do rather than on their performance
in relation to output
Role conflict
−
Perceived conflict between expectations a
customer has and expectation of the
organization
−
Extent of conflictions between management
policy and specifications
Role ambiguity
−
Perceived clarity of goals and expectations
−
Perceived level of competence and confidence
in product and employees
GAP 4: Difference between service delivery and external communications
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Communications in different way by a firm can affect consumer expectations such as
media advertising or other events. The difference between external communications
and service delivery can occur when the promises and/or the absence of information
about service delivery aspects intended to serve consumers in a good way.
The size of GAP 4 is affected by two factors, horizontal communication and
propensity overpromise within an organization.
Horizontal communication
−
Extent of input by operations in regards to
planning of advertisements and execution of
plans
−
Extent of awareness of external
communication to customers by operations
employees prior to service
−
Communication between Sales and Marketing
departments to all operational departments
−
Similarity in procedures across departments
Propensity to overpromise
−
Extent to which a firm feels pressure to
generate new business
−
Extend to which a firm perceives that
competitors overpromise
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Attachment 3 – Attachment 3 – Interview guide
Interview Guide
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