Customers Satisfaction and Service Quality

1. Service Quality Dr. Amitabh Mishra 1
SATISFACTION
AND
SERVICE QUALITY

2. Customer
Satisfaction
Dr. Amitabh Mishra

3. Customer Satisfaction
“Customer satisfaction is the customer’s
fulfillment response. It is a judgment that a
product/service feature or product/services
itself provide a pleasurable level of
consumption related fulfillment”.
Oliver
Dr. Amitabh Mishra

4. Customer Satisfaction
“Customer satisfaction is the individual
customer’s perception of the performance of
the goods/services in relation to his or her
expectations”
Schiffman & Kanuk
Dr. Amitabh Mishra

5. • Consumer buy goods and services to meet specific
needs. In many instances, purchase of goods or
services may be seen as offering the best solution to
meet particular need.
• Consumers may compare what they received against
what they expected, especially when it cost them
money, time or effort that could have been
developed to obtaining an alternative solution.
Dr. Amitabh Mishra 5

6. Determinants of Customer
Satisfaction
• Following factors influence the customer
satisfaction-
1) Product and service features.
2) Customers emotions.
3) Attributes for service success or failure.
4) Perception of fairness or equity.
5) Other consumers, family and co-workers.Zeithmal & Bitner
Dr. Amitabh Mishra, giBS Rohini

7. Service Quality Dr. Amitabh Mishra, giBS Rohini 7
• Some authors use satisfaction and quality interchangeable.
• Although, satisfaction and quality have certain things common,
but satisfaction is generally viewed as a broader concept.
• Whereas, service quality assessment focus specifically on
dimensions of services quality.
• Based on this view,
“perceived service quality is a component of customer
satisfaction”

8. Service Quality Dr. Amitabh Mishra 8
TECHNICAL
OUTCOME
QUALITY
SERVICE
QUALITY
PHYSICAL
ENVIRONMENT
QUALITY
INTERACTION
QUALITY
PRODUCT
QUALITY
PRICE
SITUATIONAL
FACTOR
CUSTOMER
SATISFACTION
PERSONAL
FACTOR
RELIABILITY
RESPONSIVE-
-NESS
ASSURANCE
EMPATHY
TANGIBLES

9. Service Quality
(What customers evaluate in judging the quality?/Service
based components of quality)
Dr. Amitabh Mishra

10. • Service quality is critical component of customers
perception
• As a result of the intangible nature of many services
and the customers involvement in service production it
may be harder to evaluate the quality of service than
goods
Zeithmal & Bitner
Dr. Amitabh Mishra

11. Service Quality Dr. Amitabh Mishra 11
SERVICE BASED COMPONENT OF QUALITY
(What customers evaluate in judging the quality?)
• Research suggest that customer do not perceive the
quality in unidirectional way, but rather judge quality
based on multiple factors.
• According to Michael Brady and Joseph Cronin,
customers judge the quality of services based on
following-
– Technical out come quality (Actual output delivered)
– Interaction/functional quality (Process of delivery) and,
– Physical environment quality (Physical surroundings) Zeithmal & Bitner

12. • Example of a restaurant:
– Customer’s perception of the meal (Technical outcome
quality)
– How meal was served and how the employees interact with
customer (Interaction Quality)
– The décor and surroundings (Physical environment quality)
Service Quality Dr. Amitabh Mishra 12

13. Service Quality Dr. Amitabh Mishra 13
• In some cases all the three aspects of the services are likely to
be important to overall assessment of quality (such as
Restaurant).
• But in few cases only two or one aspect play role.
• Technical outcome quality is not always evident, because the
technical outcome of many services are highly complex and
some times ambiguous. As technical outcome of lawyers,
engineers, doctors, etc.

14. Dimensions
of
Service Quality
Dr. Amitabh Mishra

15.  Consumer evaluate service quality on few quality
dimensions.
 Parasuraman, Zeithmal & Berry identified five
specific dimensions of service quality that apply
across the variety of service industries.
1) Reliability
2) Responsiveness
3) Assurance
4) Empathy
5) Tangibles
Service Quality Dr. Amitabh Mishra 15

16. 1. Reliability: Delivering on promises
• Reliability is defined as
“the ability to perform the promised services dependably and
accurately.”
• Company must deliver on its promises about-
– Delivery
– Service provision
– Problem resolution and
– Pricing
Service Quality Dr. Amitabh Mishra 16

17.  Of the 5 dimensions, reliability has been constantly shown to
be the most important determinant of perception of service
quality.
Dr. Amitabh Mishra

18. 2. Responsiveness: Willingness to help/ promptness
• Responsiveness means-
“the willingness to help customers promptly”
• This dimension emphasizes on attentiveness and
promptness in dealing with customer’s request, questions,
complaints, & problems.
Service Quality Dr. Amitabh Mishra 18

19. • Responsiveness is communicated to customers by-
– The length of time they have to wait for-
• Assistance
• Answer to questions or
• Attention to problems
Service Quality Dr. Amitabh Mishra 19

20. 3. Assurance: Inspiring trust & confidence.
• Assurance is defined as-
“employees knowledge, courtesy and the ability of the
firm & its employee to inspire trust & confidence”.
• This dimension is particularly important for services
that-
– The customers perceive as involving high risk. and/or
– About which they feel uncertain about the ability to evaluate.
Service Quality Dr. Amitabh Mishra 20

21. Service Quality Dr. Amitabh Mishra 21
• Example-
• Banking
• Insurance
• Medical
• Legal services
• Trust and confidence may be embodied in the
person who link the customer to the company.
Such as-
• Insurance agent
• Lawyers
• Consultant

22. Service Quality Dr. Amitabh Mishra 22
• In other situation, trust and confidence are embodied
in the organization itself.
• Visible evidence of degree, honors, awards and
special certificates may give a new customer
confidence in professional service providers.

23. 4. Empathy: Treating customers as individuals.
• Empathy is defined as “the caring, individualized attention the
firm provides its customers”
– The essence of empathy is conveying, through personalized or
customized services, that customers are unique.
– Personnel at small service firms often know customers by name & build
relationship that reflect their personal knowledge of customer
requirement and preferences. When such small firms compete with
larger firms, the ability to be empathic may give small firm clear
advantage.
Service Quality Dr. Amitabh Mishra 23

24. 5. Tangibles: Representing the service physically.
“Tangibles are defined as the appearance of the physical
facility, equipment, personnel and equipment.”
• All of these provide physical representation or image of the
service that customers (particularly new) will use to
evaluate quality.
• Appearances
• Physical facilities
• Equipment, People and materials.
Service Quality Dr. Amitabh Mishra 24

25. Service Quality Dr. Amitabh Mishra 25
• Service industries that emphasize tangibles in their
strategies are-
– Hospitality services where the customers visit the
establishment to receive the services, such as-
• Restaurant & Hotels,
• Retail stores &
• Entertainment companies.

26. Service Quality Dr. Amitabh Mishra 26
• Some times the customers will use all the dimensions
to determine service quality perception, at other times
not.
– In remote encounter such as with ATM empathy is not
likely to be relevant dimension.
– In a phone encounter tangibles will not be relevant.