QUALITY GAPS
To manage the perceived quality of a service one has to match the expected service and perceived service to each other so that consumer satisfaction is achieved. To keep the gap between expected service minimal, two things are critical: –
- The promises about how the service will perform given by traditional marketing activities and communicated by word-of-mouth, must not be unrealistic when compared to service received by the customer.
- Managers have to understand how the technical and functional quality of a service is influenced and how the customers perceive these quality dimensions.
In order to develop greater understanding of the nature of service quality and how it is achieved in an organization, ‘A Gap Model Of Service Quality’ was developed. The model clearly indicated that the consumer’s quality perceptions are influenced by a series of five distinct gaps occurring in the organizations, which are as follows: –
Gap1 (Marketing Information Gap) : Difference between consumer expectations and management perceptions of  consumer expectations arising due to inadequate or inaccurate management understanding of customers’ service expectations
Gap2 (Standard gaps) : Difference between management perceptions of consumer expectations and service quality specifications arising due to Management’s failure to develop performance specifications reflecting customer’s expectations.
Gap3 (Service Performance Gap) : Difference between service quality specifications and the service actually delivered.
Gap4 (Communication Gap) : Difference between service delivery and what is communicated about the service to consumers resulting in discrepancy between communications to customers describing the service and the service actually delivered.
Gap5: Difference between the perceived service and expected service. This gap depends on the size and direction of the first four gaps associated with the delivery of service quality.
These Gaps develop due to the following reasons
GAP 1 :
- ØLack of adequate market research
- ØLack of upward communication between front line staff and Management
- ØLack of interaction with the customers
- ØLack of segmentation to identify specific needs of the customers
GAP 2 :
- ØLack of commitment from Management (they may perceive that customer expectations are un reasonable)
- ØLack of Goal setting
- ØLack of resources
GAP 3 :
- ØIneffective recruitment
- ØRole ambiguity
- ØLack of training/incentives to perform to the staff
- ØLack of training to customer on use of service and their roles
- ØLack of pre-testing when new procedures are introduced
- ØLack of understanding of customer habits – how they prefer to consume a service (a customer may prefer a slow delivery of food in an exclusive restaurant compared to an Udipi restaurant)
GAP 4 :
- ØExaggerated promises
- ØIneffective communication
- ØLack of Horizontal communications with in the organization
GAP 5
- ØToo much of Gaps (1 to 4)
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