Service industries are characterised by… Intangibility Heterogeneity BS3016 Quality Management in the Public Sector 5: The SERVQUAL Questionnaire Service industries are characterised by… Intangibility Heterogeneity Inseparability of production from consumption Services cannot be ‘stored’ in inventories A lack of symmetry in the power relationships i.e. who can judge the work of a professional save a fellow professional ?

The Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry model.. BS3016 Quality Management in the Public Sector 5: The SERVQUAL Questionnaire The Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry model.. Originally identified 10 dimensions of quality and developed a list of 97 items on a seven point scale… After testing and subsequent refinement (i.e. factor analysis) the list was collapsed into a 22-item questionnaire covering 5 dimensions..) called SERVQUAL

Tangibles (environmental factors) Reliability Responsiveness Assurance BS3016 Quality Management in the Public Sector 5: The SERVQUAL Questionnaire Tangibles (environmental factors) Reliability Responsiveness Assurance Empathy These factors would differ in importance from service to service e.g. reliability is more important in a bank, empathy in a hospital!

The questionnaire is divided into 2 main sections: BS3016 Quality Management in the Public Sector 5: The SERVQUAL Questionnaire Gap analysis The questionnaire is divided into 2 main sections: Expectations measures what is anticipated in an ideal service (on a 7-point scale) Perceptions then measures those aspects of the service as actually delivered or experienced Satisfaction (S) is conceptualised as the gap between expectations and perceptions So.. S=P-E

How are expectations formed ? BS3016 Quality Management in the Public Sector 5: The SERVQUAL Questionnaire How are expectations formed ? Frequency and length of use of the service- the gap will narrow over time Services affect consumers differently (house repair differs from an operation for cancer) Expectations are influenced by knowledge held by producers/consumers about what is feasible Attitudes (formed by previous bad experiences) may indicate lower expectations Feelings are important (e.g. at times of grief)

Three common mismatches are: BS3016 Quality Management in the Public Sector 5: The SERVQUAL Questionnaire Three common mismatches are: Consumer expectations v. management expectations of what the service should be Actual service delivery v. information about the service Expected service v. perceived service

BS3016 Quality Management in the Public Sector 5: The SERVQUAL Questionnaire USA General Sample [1990] Dimension Weight Perceptions Expectations Gap ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Tangibles 0.11 5.54 5.16 +0.38 Reliability 0.32 5.16 6.44 -1.28 Responsiveness 0.22 5.20 6.36 -1.16 Assurance 0.19 5.50 6.50 -1.00 Empathy 0.16 5.16 6.28 -1.12 Weighted averages [n=1936] 5.28 6.27 -0.99  (Source: calculated from from Zeithaml, Parasuraman and Berry [1990] )

East Midlands, UK Outpatients [July 1995] BS3016 Quality Management in the Public Sector 5: The SERVQUAL Questionnaire East Midlands, UK Outpatients [July 1995] Dimension Weight Perceptions Expectations Gap ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Tangibles 0.13 5.21 5.24 -0.03 Reliability 0.26 5.52 6.31 -0.79 Responsiveness 0.21 5.88 6.17 -0.29 Assurance 0.20 5.98 6.39 -0.41 Empathy 0.20 5.66 6.16 -0.50 Weighted averages [n= 72] 5.67 6.15 -0.48

Vaasa,Finland Outpatients [Jan-Feb 1996] BS3016 Quality Management in the Public Sector 5: The SERVQUAL Questionnaire Vaasa,Finland Outpatients [Jan-Feb 1996] Dimension Weight Perceptions Expectations Gap ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Tangibles 0.18 5.64 6.03 -0.38 Reliability 0.21 5.51 6.04 -0.54 Responsiveness 0.20 5.73 6.12 -0.39 Assurance 0.22 5.83 6.23 -0.40 Empathy 0.19 5.74 6.08 -0.35 Weighted averages [n= 135] 5.72 6.14 -0.41

General problems with satisfaction scores BS3016 Quality Management in the Public Sector 5: The SERVQUAL Questionnaire General problems with satisfaction scores People bring differing expectations into a situation and have different starting points To measure quality just through a satisfaction score may have a limited value Is it the role of e.g. public services (such as a probation service) to provide satisfaction ?

Applicability in the public sector BS3016 Quality Management in the Public Sector 5: The SERVQUAL Questionnaire Applicability in the public sector In education it is possible that a teacher get high scores for satisfaction (whereas in practice the course was not sufficiently demanding) In social services you could (in theory) put ‘good’ tenants in one estate and ‘undesirable’ tenants in another and this could increase the satisfaction scores (whilst being discriminatory!)

BS3016 Quality Management in the Public Sector 5: The SERVQUAL Questionnaire Measurement scales… ───────┼───────────────┼─────────────────────┼──────┼───── D C B A we can say that the distance __ __ __ __ AD = AB + BC + CD If these scales are genuinely ordinal, we cannot add, subtract, multiply, divide…

Not as producer-led as some surveys BS3016 Quality Management in the Public Sector 5: The SERVQUAL Questionnaire Reactions to SERVQUAL Used in a large number of studies and therefore some comparability over time/between studies Not as producer-led as some surveys BUT does need to be combined with other measures (as authors admit) Gap analysis may map imperfectly onto quality Some doubts remain on a technical level as to what is actually being measured

Calculating SERVQUAL scores… This can be done in 3 ways… BS3016 Quality Management in the Public Sector 5: The SERVQUAL Questionnaire Calculating SERVQUAL scores… This can be done in 3 ways… Manually, for small survey Using a spreadsheet for a larger scale model Utilise the SERVCALC program which mechanises the process (but needs the preparation of an ASCII data file first)