THE EFFECTIVENESS OF SERVQUAL IN MEASURING SERVICE QUALITY AND THE IMPACT OF TECHNOLOGY ON CUSTOMER SATISFACTION

Abstract:

Quality is increasingly becoming a strategic issue in the Western world (Bergman and Klefsjo, 2003). One of the main reasons for the successes of Japanese industry in the 1970s and 1980s was that the Japanese realised early that quality concept should emanate from the requirements and expectations of the customers (Bergman and Klefsjo, 2003). This perception played a vital role in bringing about success (Bergman and Klefsjo, 2003). Today service quality become more vital than ever before because service providers have realised that they have to provide customer-perceived value, if they want to stay in business. As global competition increases, customers have more varieties to choose from and of course service quality will become their priority when spending their (customers) money, especially as they try to maximise the value in return as well as satisfaction for every unit of money spent. However, to achieve service quality, we must be able to measure it so that improvements required can be determined and made. In this regard, the SERVQUAL instrument is one of the tools used today in order to measure service quality. But is it effective in measuring service quality? How effective is this instrument in measuring the quality of something that is abstract like services? In this thesis, we examine the effectiveness of SERVQUAL in measuring service quality and its ability to indicate the impact of quality drivers like technology on customer satisfaction. Technology is transforming the way services are offered today because it has made it possible for customers to become co-producers and co-creators of services, thus transforming the role and perception of the customer in service creation.In this thesis, we used the public transportation company specifically Karlstad city bus and SWEBUS as a base to determine the effectiveness of SERVQUAL in measuring service quality. We used the SERVQUAL instrument to measure the Gaps in different areas of the service in public transportation. We described the SERVQUAL instrument and stressed its importance and appropriateness in measuring service quality. Through this instrument, we were able to determine the level of perceived service performance of the bus companies and then used these measurements to determine the Gaps in each area of the service. The difference between the service performance (perceived service quality) and the highest possible rating a customer could rate a service (Customers‟ expectation) was the amount of quality improvements the customer still expects from the company on that particular area of service. It must be noted that is service quality is low it might trigger a customer complaint behaviour.