Dineserv: A tool for measuring service quality in restaurants

If it's true that restaurant customers vote with their feet (and pocketbooks) when a restaurant doesn't measure up to their standards, how does a restaurant operator determine what guests think of the operation? To gauge consumers' opinions before they desert in droves, a restaurant operator can use the reliable questionnaire, called “Dineserv,” described here.     

Hotel-industry averages: An inaccurate tool for measuring performance

The commonly used average measures of ADR, RevPAR, and occupancy may be insufficient to see what the “typical” hotel's performance is really like.     

Conceptualizing and measuring experience quality: the customer's perspective

Today many customers, managers, and scholars have become aware of the importance of experiences, which are characterized as satisfying customers' psychic or personal needs. For customers, they care more about the experiences that are provided by stores, and they are willing to pay for them. As for managers, attractive experiences are the products they have taken great efforts to create, manage, and sell. For academic researchers, experiences are considered as distinct economic offerings that are different from goods and services. These scholars believe that the focus of the economy has been transferred to experience (O'Sullivan, E.L., & Spangler, K.J. (1998). Experience marketing: Strategies for the new millennium. State College, PA: Venture Publishing), and that experience industries are on the rise (O'Sullivan, E.L., & Spangler, K.J. (1998). Experience marketing: Strategies for the new millennium. State College, PA: Venture Publishing; Pine, B.J., & Gilmore, J.H. (1998). Welcome to the experience economy. Harvard Business Review (July–August), 97–105; Pine, B.J., & Gilmore, J.H. (1999). The experience economy: Work is theatre & every business a stage. Boston: Harvard Business School Press; Schmitt, B.H. (1999). Experiential marketing: How to get customer to sense, feel, think, act, relate to your company and brands. New York: The Free Press). Although experiences have moved to the centre of customers' consumption activities and have become crucial for business success, very few studies have investigated the customers' perceptions of experience quality. In this research, we have conceptually defined experience quality as the customers' emotional judgment about an entire experience with an elaborately designed service setting. We have undertaken multiple phases in conceptualizing and measuring the concept of experience quality.     

e-SELFQUAL: A scale for measuring online self-service quality

The measurement of online self-service quality has become increasingly crucial as firms deliver an expanding array of services through their Web sites. Substantial research examines online services using salient scales primarily developed for personnel-orchestrated, face-to-face services; several recently developed scales that target online services focus on important information and/or system characteristics but do not consider e-retailers' fundamental roles holistically. The reported research synthesizes relevant previous research and proposes a conceptual framework to examine the quality of online self-services in e-retailing. The proposed framework then guides a scale development effort that includes a series of pilot and validation studies. The resulting scale, e-SELFQUAL, provides a means for examining the relationships between online service quality and customer satisfaction, as well as loyalty in e-retailing. This study has several important implications for research and business practice.     

Zone of tolerance for banks: a diagnostic model of service quality

Service quality has become an increasingly important factor for success and survival in the banking sector. Provision of high-quality service aids in meeting several requirements such as customer satisfaction and its consequent loyalty and market share, soliciting new customers, financial performance, and profitability (Cui, C.C., Lewis, B.R., & Park, W. (2003). Service quality measurement in the banking sector in South Korea. International Journal of Bank Marketing, 21(4), 191–201.). This paper presents the bank service quality measurement in its extended form. It deals with the concept of ‘zone of tolerance’ in judgments of service quality proposed by Zeithaml, Berry, and Parasuraman (1993, The nature and determinants of customer expectations of service. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 21(1), 1–12.). The ‘zone of tolerance’ is recognized in the service quality literature as representing a range of expectations and an area of acceptable outcomes in service interactions. The present study describes the zone of tolerance for young customers’ service expectations and determines the customer satisfaction level for banks. The study focusses only on the youth market to formulate long-term strategies because young customers tend to keep themselves up to date with latest technological developments. A conceptual model BANKZOT is presented in this study, and the results demonstrate that evaluation of services can be scaled according to different types of expectations – ‘desired' and ‘adequate’ – and that customers use these two types of expectations as a comparison standard in evaluating bank services. The findings reveal that young customers have a narrow zone of tolerance with regard to the services provided by the banks. The results with respect to gap analysis reveal that there was a shortfall in the service quality provided by the banks in the sample, with the largest gap being found in tangibles and empathy of service quality dimensions. The results of exploratory factor analysis reveal that the SERVQUAL model is found to be uni-dimensional in this study. The results, managerial implications, and future research implications are discussed in detail.     

Understanding hospital quality: the case of cumulative and balanced quality

A more precise way to conceptualize and operationalize hospital quality is needed to increase hospitals’ productivity. This paper investigates how hospitals’ conformance quality (CQ) and experiential quality (EQ), in terms of their combined magnitude (i.e. their interaction) and relative balance (i.e. the absolute difference between them) impact hospital productivity. First, we explore the impact of both the ‘combined dimension of quality’ and ‘balance dimension of quality’ on hospital productivity. Second, we investigate quality dominance to analyze its impact on productivity when CQ is greater than EQ, and vice versa. Secondary data (January 2015 to December 2015) were collected from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and American Hospital Directory (AHD) for US acute care hospitals. The results provide strong empirical support for the benefit of minimizing the gap between the two types of quality. In addition, the results suggest that considering quality dominance (experiential vs. conformance) might be useful in shedding light on the inherent tension that exists when firms are forced to allocate resources to provide different types of quality simultaneously.     

Online service quality: Content and process of analysis

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to build a comprehensive model of online service quality that confirms both the content of, and process of measuring, this higher-order construct. While the past decade has seen the Internet become a key channel for service delivery, there remains uncertainty around many aspects of both the content of, and process of how to measure, online service quality. We use a large sample of European consumers (n = 3399) of four companies (two pure play and two multichannel) to develop a new nine-dimension model of online service quality. We validate importance as a disconfirmation standard. We find trust in the company to be the most important dimension of online service quality, with customer service also highly rated. Issues of personalisation/customisation were very low rated. We find the online pure-play companies in the sample delivering better performance than multichannel retailers, despite having customers who are actually more demanding. We discuss the practical and research implications of these findings.     

Public service quality and customer satisfaction: exploring the attributes of service quality in the public sector

Beyond the existing SERVQUAL-based research, the authors develop an alternative model of public service quality. The various sources of public service quality are explored and a new classification scheme formulated by using critical incidents technique. Four main qualities of public service are identified: process quality, outcome quality, design quality, and relationship quality. The findings suggest that the critical attributes of public service quality for customer satisfaction differ according to the types of customers in the public sector. Final customers (beneficiaries) give priority to the process and outcome qualities, whereas intermediary customers (social workers) have high regard for the design and relationship qualities.     

Multigroup validation of the service quality,customer satisfaction and performance links in higher education

The notion of ‘students as customers’ continues to be prominent, yet is insufficiently explored, especially from the standpoint of various stakeholders. To address this inadequacy, the present study employs a multigroup analysis of the service profit chain (SPC) model in higher education (HE). Its purpose is to examine the complete SPC model regarding stakeholder perceptions in order to inform its validation and implementation. A cross-sectional survey was employed in order to enable multigroup comparison of a comprehensive research model on subsamples of employees and students by means of structural equation modeling (SEM). Results provide support for the proposed SPC model within the sample of vocational colleges. Besides strongly linked constructs (quality–satisfaction–loyalty), some notable weaknesses (cracked ‘satisfaction mirror’) are found. Multigroup analysis also indicates some important differences between employees and students. Implications are provided for strategic service management in HE, which should acknowledge the differences among stakeholder perceptions.     

Loyalty toward online food delivery service: the role of e-service quality and food quality

This study assesses the direct influence of food quality and e-service quality on customer loyalty toward online food delivery (OFD) service and its indirect influence through the mediation of customer satisfaction and perceived value. This study uses a survey of 405 OFD service customers from Bandung, Indonesia. By applying variance-based partial least squares to evaluate the proposed model, this study confirms the direct effect of food quality on online loyalty, but not e-service quality. Further, this study discloses the partial mediation role of customer satisfaction and perceived value on the relationship between both food quality and e-service quality on online loyalty toward OFD services.     

Managing for customers and employees in Hong Kong: The quality and teamwork challenges

Service marketing, total quality management, and human resource management researchers have proposed that employee teamwork is a foundation for service quality. North American research suggests that developing cooperative relationships and constructive controversy among employees can empower employees to serve customers and to strengthen their work relationships and commitment to the organization. Chinese employees in an American-style restaurant in Hong Kong were interviewed on specific incidents that affected service quality. Correlational and structural equation results support the hypotheses that cooperative goals help employees discuss their diverse views open-mindedly and that this constructive controversy results in quality customer service. Competitive and independent goals were largely negatively correlated with dynamics and outcomes. Results were interpreted as suggesting that service teams should develop strong cooperative goals and the skills and procedures of constructive controversy. Deutsch's theory of cooperation and competition, although developed largely through North American research, seems useful for understanding and developing service quality teamwork in Asia.     

Managerial approaches towards service quality: the case of three service organisations

Using a multiple case study, this paper is concerned with assessing the impact of senior management's approach and attitudes on service quality and its implications for middle and firstline managers. Date from 52 semi-structured interviews representing a variety of managerial levels suggests that there exist many conflicts and differences in senior management's orientation and approach towards quality management (QM) with that of middle and firstline managers. The results further indicate that getting such consistency appropriate to the needs of top, middle, and firstline management, and of the QM itself, is one of the key problems of current management of service quality. However, the findings highlight that where there is consistency between senior managers' underlying approaches towards service quality goal with that of middle and firstline managers, service quality programmes will highly likely produce expected results. Finally, the implications of these findings as well as future research are put forward.     

Key service drivers for high-tech service brand equity: The mediating role of overall service quality and perceived value

Abstract

This study investigates how different aspects of service quality could have effects on overall perception of service quality, perceived value, and service brand equity. Based on a survey of active users of mobile telecommunications services in Taiwan, we obtained the following findings. First, we found that empathy, network quality, reliability, and assurance, but not tangibles and responsiveness, have a significant effect on service quality and value perception. Second, the effect of overall service quality on brand equity is partially mediated by perceived value. Third, overall service quality has differential mediation effects on the relationships between specific service quality dimensions and perceived value. Finally, empathy and network quality have direct effects on brand equity. For managers, our study suggests the importance of identifying key service drivers for building strong service brand for high-tech service firms. The identification of key service drivers could then enable these firms to make strategic decisions on services investments. It also demonstrates the importance of the humanisation of technology for services firms. This study is original in that it explores the path from specific services qualities to service brand equity.     

Consumer overindebtedness: a review of the quality of money advice services in Scotland

Levels of consumer borrowing and debt in the UK and globally continue to rise. Credit makes a vital contribution to the success of the UK economy by driving economic activity and allowing consumers flexibility in how they choose to access the marketplace and manage their finances. Although most consumers manage their borrowing effectively, for a minority, the ease of access to credit results in overindebtedness. As a consequence, the need for money advice is prevalent. In the UK in recent years, services have been developed to assist consumers in financial difficulty. In Scotland, additional funding has been made available to enable further service developments in local government or voluntary sector provision. This paper reviews the literature on consumer overindebtedness, the development of money advice services and discusses the quality of these services in Scotland. It is likely to be of interest in other countries where consumer overindebtedness is rising and where money advice services are being developed to assist those experiencing problems. The review found that the rising levels of overindebtedness justify the case for developing money advice services but that there are many quality issues which require to be managed. Implications for the money advice profession were identified together with suggestions for the development of services in other countries.     

Learning from the past and present: measuring Internet banking service quality

The Internet has played a pivotal role in transforming banking services into e-services. While several studies have examined the effective measurement of e-banking service quality, their lack of a holistic view has hindered the accumulation of past knowledge. To address this issue, this study first reviews and summarizes the methodology, service quality dimensions, suggestions and limitations of seven e-banking service quality studies conducted in seven countries. An empirical study is then conducted to derive the first robust and comprehensive measure of e-banking service quality in Taiwanese context by compensating three shortcomings of a prior Taiwanese study. To improve our understanding of e-banking service quality, a comprehensive scheme is proposed that has managerial implications. The primary contribution of this study is to present a holistic view of e-service quality for e-banking with embedded cultural factors and to provide a rigorous measurement scale development procedure applicable to areas other than e-banking.     

Measuring Internet retail service quality using E-S-QUAL

Abstract

Despite its acknowledged importance, there are few rigorous empirical studies examining Internet retail service quality. An exception is the development of the E-S-QUAL scale by Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Malhotra (2005 Parasuraman, A., Zeithaml, V.A. and Malhotra, A. 2005. E-S-QUAL: A multiple-item scale for assessing electronic service quality. Journal of Service Research, 7(3): 213–233. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Whilst E-S-QUAL demonstrated good psychometric properties in the original study, the scale lacks external validation. This paper presents a reassessment and validation of the E-S-QUAL in the context of the Internet grocery sector. Data were collected via a web-based cross-sectional survey using self-administered questionnaires distributed to online grocery shoppers. A total of 491 usable questionnaires were received. The results show that there are potential discriminant validity problems with the Efficiency and System Availability dimensions of E-S-QUAL. Further analysis shows that a second-order, three-factor model of E-S-QUAL, consisting of Efficiency, System Availability, and Fulfilment, provides the best fit to the data in this study. Privacy is shown to be the least important dimension for the data set in this study.     

Importance of offline service quality in building loyalty of OC service brand

Customer management becomes increasingly important as consumers have more flexible shopping process and options and competition become intensified in omni-channel (OC) retail environment. OC retailer can facilitate customer communication of OC service with OC service brand. This study evaluates an OC service brand (i.e. SSG OC service brand) to explore the effectiveness of integrated OC service platform which has a standing brand identity, and to determine the importance of selected offline characteristics of OC service on loyalty of OC service brand. Survey of 127 respondents was collected to test Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). Findings show that tangibility and empathy of offline OC service directly affect customer satisfaction and attitude toward overall OC service brand, confirming the importance of offline service quality of OC in the OC service brand management.     

Gender differences in consumer evaluations of service quality: self-service kiosks in retail

This study investigates the effect of consumer characteristics on service quality for self-service kiosks, which, in turn, leads to the actual use of self-service kiosks. In addition, the authors attempt to explore gender differences in two aspects. First, it is investigated if the evaluation process of service quality differs by gender. Second, the moderating effect of gender on the relationships in the conceptual model is examined.     

Assessing primary healthcare services quality in Spain: managers vs. patients perceptions

This paper measures the perceptions of the service quality by both the users and the health centre managers in Spain. With this information, it was possible to calculate the size of Gap-6, proposed by Lewis of discrepancy among the customers' perceptions and the perceptions of health centre managers. Using factor analysis and multiple regressions, significant associations were found between the service quality dimensions and patient satisfaction. Implications and future research issues are discussed.