The SERVQUAL multidimensional scale is a service quality measurement tool developed by Valerie A. Zeithaml, A. Parasuraman and Leonard L. Berry, under the auspices of the Marketing Science Institute in 1988. It has undergone improvements and revisions and has been validated in Latin America by Michelsen Consulting, with the support of the new Latin American Institute for Quality in Services. The Validation Study concluded in June 1992.
The authors suggest that the comparison between the general expectations of users (Clients, users, patients, students, beneficiaries, etc.) and their perceptions regarding the service provided by an organization, can constitute a measure of service quality, and the gap existing between both and indicator to improve.
measure-the-quality-of-your-service-with-the-scale-servqualCustomer needs, expectations and perceptions
The user or client has certain needs and desires, of which sometimes he is not even aware. These needs and desires must be collected by the organization to design and provide (deliver) services that achieve their satisfaction.
Some systems are able to identify the real needs of the customer, while others only perceive the needs of which the customer is aware. Both perspectives are useful to improve the quality of service and tend to greater satisfaction of the person receiving the service.
The SERVQUAL multidimensional scale measures and relates customer perception and expectations regarding quality of service.
Customer perception
The perception of the client or user refers to how he estimates that the organization is complying with the delivery of the service, according to how he values what he receives.
Customer Expectations
Customer expectations define what the organization's service is expected to be. This expectation is basically shaped by your past experiences, your conscious needs, word of mouth communication and external information. From here a feedback to the system can arise when the client makes a judgment.
The gap between perception and expectations establishes, according to this model, the quality measurement.
As the needs are dynamic and depend on a set of internal and external factors, ultimately this measurement exposes the service quality deficit, indicating certain dimensions in which the organization must work.
As this tool also considers the opinions of customers regarding the relative importance of the qualities of the service, SERVQUAL is useful to know:
- An overall quality rating of the establishment What the organization's customers want (Ideal Benefits) What customers perceive to find (Descriptive Benefits) Specific dissatisfaction gaps The order of quality gaps, from the most serious and urgent to the least serious.
SERVQUAL Dimensions
Since it was created until now, this multidimensional scale has been applied to various social organizations, both public and private, and from governmental, educational, health and community administration entities, to companies in the most diverse sectors of economic activity. This diversity has allowed its review and validation as an instrument for measuring service quality, incorporating constant improvements.
Currently, the scale consists of five dimensions that are used to judge the quality of an organization's services:
- Reliability, understood as the ability to develop the promised service precisely as agreed and with accuracy. Responsibility, such as the willingness to help your customers and provide prompt service. Safety, such as employees' knowledge of what they do, their courtesy, and their ability to convey confidence. Empathy, the ability to provide personalized care and attention to your clients. Tangible or material assets, related to the appearance of the physical facilities, equipment, personnel and communication material. They are the physical aspects that the client perceives in the organization. Issues such as cleanliness and modernity are evaluated in the elements people, infrastructure and objects.
Based on the aforementioned five dimensions, three measurement instruments are structured, which together provide a measure of the quality of service for the client.
1.- Evaluation of service quality expectations
The instrument used in this phase of the study is a questionnaire containing 21 questions regarding the service that an excellent service company is expected to provide.
The questions are written in a general way to apply to any institution; for this reason, for each specific situation it is necessary to adapt the statements to the specific characteristics of the organization in which they are applied. The questions are grouped into the five dimensions described.
This phase of the study consists of a questionnaire in which clients express the relative importance that each of the five service dimensions has for them.
3.- Evaluation of the perception of quality of services
Clients are asked to answer a questionnaire indicating their specific perceptions regarding the service provided by the study organization. Basically, the statements are the same as in phase 1, but applied to the organization under study.
The service quality gap model
The SERVQUAL multidimensional scale is associated with the “Model of gaps in service quality”, developed by Valerie A. Zeithaml and Mary Jo Bitner.
The central idea of this model is that organizations that satisfy their clients and establish long-term relationships with them, are capable of closing the gap that exists between what the client expects and what he receives.
It is also known as the five-gap model since it contemplates the possible existence of five types of discrepancies or "gaps" in an organization's service chain. By identifying these gaps, areas of opportunity in customer service can be located.
Satisfying the customer in terms of quality of service implies, on the one hand, closing the customer gap, that is, the gap between their perceptions and expectations, and on the other hand, closing the gap of the service provider or causes that cause the customer gap. By this they mean not knowing what the customer (user) expects, not selecting the correct design or service standards, not delivering the service to the appropriate standards, not matching performance with promises. These gaps are mainly produced by differences between:
- Customer expectations and perceptions of the organization regarding these expectations. Perceptions of the organization regarding customer expectations and the quality specifications of the service. The quality specifications of the service and the service currently being provided to customers. The service currently being provided to customers and what customers communicate regarding that service. Expected service and perceived service.
The formalization of quality measurement through the comparison of expectations with perceptions is carried out through the SERVQUAL scale, which conceptualizes this difference as a multidimensional variable.
The scale determines the quality of service through the difference between expectations and perceptions, evaluating both through a 21-item questionnaire, divided into the 5 dimensions, that is, reliability, responsibility, security, empathy, and material goods.
Each one of the items is measured through a numerical scale that goes from a rating of 1, for a very low perception or expectation for the service in question, to a rating of 7, for a very high perception or expectation of the same service.
Once the information from the questionnaires has been tabulated, to obtain the value of the gaps, the respective means are calculated for each statement and dimension. The respective standard deviation is also calculated in each case, to ensure that the mean values are representative of the responses from the set of processed questionnaires.
For each dimension and each statement included in them, the absolute gap is calculated, which is obtained by subtracting the respective average value corresponding to expectations of the statement or dimension, as the case may be, from the respective average value corresponding to perceptions. (P - E). If said value is positive (P> E), it means that the perception exceeds the expectation and therefore there is satisfaction in that item. On the contrary, if said value is negative (P <E), it means that the expectation is not met and therefore there is dissatisfaction.
Although the absolute gap indicates whether expectations are being met or satisfaction is not being achieved, it places all the dimensions and specific aspects contained in them on the same level of importance, so the results obtained in this measurement do not help to prioritize aspects that require more attention, or to apply resources to specific aspects that are priorities for the client.
To solve this impasse, what is called relative gaps is calculated. These are calculated by multiplying the (P - E) results for each dimension and the factors that comprise it, by their respective preponderance (percentage assigned for each statement in the respective questionnaire). In this way, the corresponding gap is relativized in importance and indicators are obtained that allow allocating resources and efforts as a priority, in order to improve the satisfaction of the portfolio of clients (users), according to their indication of which elements are most important to them to feel satisfied with the quality of the service.
Currently SERVQUAL is the most used research model to measure the quality of services, however, this methodology is not without criticism, which are summarized by BUTTLE (1996) in the following points:
1.- From a theoretical point of view
- SERVQUAL is based on an inappropriate comparison model (expectations - perceptions) rather than an attitudinal model regarding quality of service. The operationalization of perceptions and expectations (P - E) has been criticized because there is very little evidence of Consumers evaluate the quality of service based on the gap between perceptions and expectations. SERVQUAL focuses its attention on the service delivery process rather than on the result of the service provision, that is, the provider's meeting with the customer. consumer.The number of dimensions proposed by the SERVQUAL instrument and its stability when the context in which they were developed is changed. - From an operational point of view. Expectations do not play a fundamental role in the quality of services.Respondents show great confusion when asked based on expectations and perceptions.
These controversies regarding the validity, conceptualization and operationalization of the measurement of service quality and its relation to consumer satisfaction are nothing more than evidence that further research on these issues is still necessary.
In any case, the Service Quality Gaps Model provides methodological support to the SERVQUAL Scale, and makes it an instrument of great utility and use to measure quality of service and satisfaction of clients (users), increasingly sensitive issues. for private and public organizations, given the changing reality of interactions with them in increasingly competitive contexts and greater demands on quality.
Bibliography
- Babakus, E. and Boller, GW (1992). "An empirical assessment of the SERVQUAL scale". Journal of Business Research, Vol. 24. Pages. 253-268.Carman, JM (1990). "Consumer perceptions of service quality: An assessment of the SERVQUAL dimensions". Journal of Retailing, Volume 66. Pages. 33-55 Parasuraman, A.; Zeithaml, VA and Berry, LL (1988). SERVQUAL: A Multiple Item Scale for Measuring Consumer Perceptions of Service Quality. Journal of Retailing, Volume 64, No. 1, Spring. P. 12-40.Teachers: Ricardo Montoya - Rodrigo Niño, Market Research, October 3, 2002.Myrta Mireya Rodriguez Sifuentes, A tool to evaluate the service: SERVQUAL, ITESM Campus, Mazatlan, Mexico. [email protected], VA and Bitner, MJ, "Marketing de Servicios", (2002), Ed. Mc Graw-Hill Hispanoamericana, Mexico.
