Advantages and Disadvantages of the SERVQUAL
Model
Marketing Essay
Table of Contents
Advantages and Disadvantages of the SERVQUAL Model........................................................1
Marketing Essay......................................................................................................................1
Advantages and Disadvantages of the SERVQUAL Model........................................................5
Introduction............................................................................................................................5
In this chapter, you will learn about the SERVQUAL model, its strengths and weaknesses, the
components of the model, the independent and dependent variables, and the chapter will conclude
with some thoughts on the model's usefulness..................................................................................5
The goal of providing excellent customer service is to create, provide, and communicate greater
value to the client(s). To be successful, the service or product must satisfy the customer's
requirements. The customers are the most valuable part of any business. These assets are crucial to
the company's operations and future growth. Not only can customers' actions have a ripple impact
throughout an organization, but understanding them is essential for making informed marketing
decisions. Keeping the following in mind (Christ, 2009) on the value of customers is helpful:............5
Client retention is the lifeblood of any organization. It's important because it helps bring in money
and ensures the company's stability; businesses can't function without their clients. Customers
might easily be lost if the company doesn't work on fostering loyalty and happiness among its
clientele..............................................................................................................................................5
Concern over customer wants and needs for a variety of goods and services is a topic of discussion
in many facets of business. Providing a wide range of services is essential in the security sector
because customers desire a wide range of options. However, the tastes and inclinations of these
consumers vary greatly from one individual to the next. In light of these distinctions, it is
challenging for security services providers, and other businesses more generally, to meet the needs
of their customers. Therefore, one of the most important features in satisfying clients and
exceeding their expectations is familiarity with their tastes and preferences about the items and
services offered..................................................................................................................................5
Given the foregoing, it is clear that having a reliable metric for gauging the quality of a company's
services would be quite useful. Such a metric would allow them to assess how well they're doing in
meeting their goals and make adjustments as needed (Guar & Agrawal, 2006).................................5
Service Quality (SERVQUAL)....................................................................................................5
History................................................................................................................................................5
The authors Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry identified ten aspects of service quality as early as
1985. These aspects are: dependability, responsiveness, competence, access, courtesy,
communication, credibility, security, understanding/knowing the customer, and tangibles.
, Reliability, Assurance, Tangibles, Empathy, and Responsiveness were originally 10 separate factors,
but were combined into a single scale in 1988. Only three of the original ten factors remain; these
are the factors of reliability, tangibles, and responsiveness. The remaining seven factors have been
aggregated into the two factors of assurance and empathy. With the intention of gauging service
quality in a variety of settings, SERVQUAL was created (Guar & Agrawal, 2006). Measurement
enables before-and-after comparisons, the identification of quality-related concerns, and the
formulation of transparent service-delivery standards (Shahin, 2006)...............................................5
The SERVQUAL model..............................................................................................................6
Figure 2-1: Conceptualization of the SERVQUAL model......................................................................6
Figure 2-2: SERVQUAL Gaps-Model.....................................................................................................7
Source: Zeithaml, V. & Parasuraman, A. (2004)..................................................................................7
The customer gap is shown to be the primary focus of the gaps model in the upper half of the
diagram. The model shows that four other gaps, the provider gaps, need to be filled in order to
close this crucial consumer gap. The gaps are labeled with numbers from 1 to 5, which stands for
the recommended order of events for developing new service processes (market research > design
> compliance > communication > customer satisfaction)....................................................................7
SERVQUAL Gaps......................................................................................................................7
The pricing of the service is a crucial issue, and one that should naturally be included in the
supplier's external communication collection. Customer expectations, especially those of the
organization's potential new clients, are strongly influenced by this aspect.......................................8
Advantages and Disadvantages of SERVQUAL.........................................................................8
Advantages.........................................................................................................................................8
The use of SERVQUAL and the measurement of customer perception and expectation of service may lead to
increased customer retention, loyalty, and positive word of mouth, as well as benefits for employees, an
enhanced company image, increased profits, and better financial performance. But if measurements are
taken too frequently, consumers may lose interest in providing accurate responses (Shadin, 2006).................9
Disadvantages....................................................................................................................................9
Theoretical.........................................................................................................................................9
Operational......................................................................................................................................10
To begin with, Predictions, There are many other meanings that can be attached to the word
"expectation," and consumers often use metrics besides expectations to assess the quality of a
service..............................................................................................................................................10
Second, in terms of item composition, although the authors of SERVQUAL admit that context-
specific items can be used to supplement SERVQUAL, the "new" item should have a form similar to
that of the existing SERVQUAL item in order to capture the variability and specific context meaning
within each service quality dimension;.............................................................................................10
When it comes to the third Moment of Truth (MOT), customers' opinions on the quality of the
service may differ. When a service is provided, it is typically done so over the course of multiple
MOT or Encounter between the service provider and the customer. There is evidence to suggest
that customers use these multiple touchpoints to form opinions about the quality of the service
they receive......................................................................................................................................10
, Polarity, Respondent mistake is caused by the rewording (reverse polarization) of scale items. There
are 22 questions in the SERVQUAL, 13 of which are paired with upbeat statements and 9 with
downbeat ones. All remarks expressing receptivity and empathy make up the negative set. The
wording of items causes issues with data quality and raises doubts about the reliability of the
instrument........................................................................................................................................10
The Likert scale, with its seven options, has some serious flaws. Several arguments have been made
against using the Likert scale, none of which are directly related to SERVQUAL but do have an
indirect impact on the quality of the ratings it produces. The lack of linguistic labels for points 2–6
has been cited as a major criticism. Because of this, respondents will be more likely to rely on the
extremes of the scale. Furthermore, giving the same instrument to respondents twice will lead to
fatigue and confusion. The data quality will be jeopardized if the E and P versions of the SERVQUAL
are administered simultaneously, as respondents may become confused. In addition to the
administration times, another potential source of error is having respondents complete both
questions in one sitting (Buttle, 2006)...............................................................................................10
SERVQUAL Independent Variables.........................................................................................10
Figure 2-3: 5 dimensions of SERVQUAL.............................................................................................11
Figure 2-4: SERVQUAL Total Relationship of Variables......................................................................12
SERVQUAL Dependent Variables...........................................................................................12
Service Quality..................................................................................................................................12
Because it concerns something so fundamental to our existence, the concept of quality is
tremendously important. "quality" comes from the Latin word "Qualitas," which meaning "nature."
The intrinsic qualities of a person or an object can be described in this way. The idea is regarded as
a potent resource for any business. The immediate need to establish new service organizations and
enhance current ones also makes it crucial to keep tabs on service quality. The word "service
quality" is used to describe a business management strategy with the ultimate goal of achieving
100% customer satisfaction. Maintaining satisfied customers is essential for every business, but
service providers in particular must focus on doing so in order to succeed (Rahaman, Abdullah &
Rahman, 2011). The need for objective criteria to evaluate service quality has grown in response to
the rising importance of the service industry in global economies and in countries like Curacao,
where it is the principal source of income. Many campaigns aimed at keeping existing customers
around focus on improving service quality. Parasuraman and Zeithaml argue that a company's long-
term success depends on its capacity to provide superior customer service. A customer's
satisfaction and loyalty are proportionate to the quality of service they receive. The quality of a
company's offerings is crucial to its success in today's open market. Nevertheless, due to difficulties
in defining and evaluating it, the concept of service quality is a modern one. Businesses that
regularly exceed customer expectations are hard to beat. We restate our definition of service
quality as the discord between customer anticipation and actual delivery. Dissatisfaction among
consumers arises when there is a mismatch between their preconceived notions and the quality
they receive (Rahaman, Abdullah & Rahman, 2011).........................................................................12
Service Delivery Process.........................................................................................................13
Figure 22-4 further shows that any business with customer satisfaction as an objective will have
some sort of service delivery procedure to ensure that services are rendered in accordance with
specified requirements. This means that the importance of process design and performance cannot
, be overlooked in any investigation of the efficacy of service organizations. Guidelines and processes
for providing services are also available via CSS, including a "alarm-opvolging" approach.
Organizational competitiveness is heavily dependent on the design and implementation of service
delivery processes, as these have a direct bearing on customer satisfaction and service quality. One
way to evaluate a company's efficiency is to examine how effectively it converts inputs into
products. The process through which these inputs are turned into outputs, however, is frequently
disregarded. In other words, businesses are often viewed as black boxes, where resources are
simply fed in and products are spit out without much thought given to how those inputs and
outputs are transformed. According to the findings of numerous studies, the design of the
transformation process itself has a significant role in a company's success. To improve corporate
results, the service delivery process must detail how process capabilities and people contribute to
results. With the groundwork they've laid, we can now discuss what proportion of a process's
inefficiency may be attributed to poor execution versus poor design. In order to make actionable
managerial recommendations and boost customer happiness, it is important to fully investigate and
include the design of the transformation mechanism, or the process design, into performance
analysis (Frei & Harker, 2008)...........................................................................................................13
Customer Satisfaction............................................................................................................13
In the 1980s, customer satisfaction emerged as a hot topic in marketing, and it has continued to be
a contentious issue through both economic booms and busts. Most discussions about customer
happiness center on the service provider's ability to provide the promised experience. Nonetheless,
in this cutthroat market, lasting competitive advantages can be won by providing services of a high
enough quality to ensure consumer pleasure (Mohammad & Alhamadani, 2011). The results on
whether or not there is a causal relationship between service quality and customer happiness are
inconclusive. The question is whether high quality service results in happy customers or if customer
contentment precedes service quality. Perceptions of service quality are defined as a result of
satisfaction, according to recent research. Only after seeing a service firsthand may customers give
an opinion on it (happy or displeased). Culiberg and Rojek (2010) cite a plethora of research
showing that the quality of service provided is the decisive factor in whether or not a client would
return. This supports the findings of figure 22-4, which shows that the level of customer satisfaction
is affected by both Service Quality and the Service Delivery method. Customers are happier with
businesses that offer better service overall. Further, the authors state that the real services
experience is evaluated as part of the service operations' continuous improvement process
(Mohammad & Alhamadani, 2011)...................................................................................................13
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................13
References.............................................................................................................................14
