5- The Gap Model of Service Quality

The Gap Model of Service Quality:

Effective service marketing is a complex undertaking involving many strategies, skills and tasks. Executed of service organisations have long been confused about how to approach this complicated topic in an organised manner. The Gap model of service quality positions the key concepts, strategies and decisions in service marketing and will be used to guide the structure of the services.

-The Customer Gap:

The customer gap is the difference between customer expectations and perceptions. Customer expectations are Standards or reference points that customers bring into the service experience. Customer perceptions are subjective assessments of actual service experiences. Customer expectation often consists of what a customer believes should or what will happen. For example, a visit to an expensive restaurant creates a higher level of expectation for service than a visit to a fast food restaurant. Closing the gap between what customers expect and perceive is critical to delivering quality service. It forms a basis for the gap model.

Because customer satisfaction and customer focus are critical to firms’ competitiveness, any company interested in delivering quality service must begin with a clear understanding of its customers.

– The provider Gaps:

The gaps model suggests that mother gas (the provider gaps) needs to be closed to close all the important customer gaps. The organisation providing the service hence is termed as provider gap and includes:

– Gap 1: The Listening gap

– Gap 2: The service Design and Standards gap

– Gap 3: The service performance gap

– Gap 4: The communication gap

Let us understand in detail:

– Gap 1: The Listening gap

It is the Difference between customer Expectations of service and the company’s understanding of those expectations. The primary cause of many firms not meeting customer expectations is that the firm lacks an accurate understanding of exactly what those expectations are. Many reasons exist for managers not to be aware of what customers expect, such as:

1. They may not interact directly with customers.
2. They may be unwilling to ask about expectations.
3. They may be unprepared to address them.

When people with the authority and responsibility for setting priorities do not fully understand customer service expectations, they may trigger a chain of bad decisions and sub-optimal resource allocation, resulting in perceptions of poor service quality. This gap is large when management employees do not require accurate information about customer expectations. Another key factor that is related to listening is the lack of upward communication. The listening also occurs due to a lack of relationship marketing and service recovery.

– Gap 2: The service Design and Standards gap

Accurate perception of customers’ expectations and accessories is insufficient for delivering superior service. Another prerequisite is service design and performance standards that reflect those accurate perceptions. Gap 2 The service design and standard gap exist in the service organisation for a variety of reasons, such as:

1. People setting the standards (management) sometimes believe that customer Expectations are reasonable and realistic.
2. They may also believe that the degree of variability in service defines standardization, and therefore, setting standards will not achieve the desired goal.
3. Because service is intangible, they are difficult to describe and communicate.

There are various ways to avoid Gap 2:

– to design service without oversimplification, incompleteness, subjectivity and bias.

– blueprinting of services.

– develop standards properly.

– The focus was made on physical evidence of servicescape.

-Gap 3: The service performance gap

Gap 3 is the discrepancy between the development of customer-driven service standards and actual service performance by the company’s employees. Even when guidelines exist for performing services well and treating customers correctly, high-quality service is not specific. Standards must be backed by corporate resources(people, systems, technology), and B was forced to be effective. When the level of Service Delivery falls short of the standard, it also falls short of what customers expect.

The gap can be narrowed by ensuring all the resources needed to achieve the standards are in place. Research has identified many critical inhibitors to closing the service performance gap.

The factors include:

1. Employees:

who do not clearly understand the roles they are to play in the company. who experience conflict between customers and the Company, management, employee selection, inadequate Technology, inappropriate compensation and recognition, and lack of empowerment and teamwork. This involves internal practices search such as recruitment, training, feedback, job design, motivation, and organizational structure for delivering better services.

2. Customer:

Lack of cooperation for customers negatively influences the quality of service and does not perform them appropriately.

3. Intermediaries (retailers, franchisees, agents, brokers):

Most service companies face an even more formidable task of attaining service excellence and consistency in the presence of intermediaries who interact with the customers yet are not under the direct control of the service provider. Another issue, along with the service performance gap, is the need for service firms to synchronize demand and capacity.

–Gap 4: The communication gap

Gap 4 illustrates the difference between service delivery and the provider’s external communication. The service company makes promises through its media advertising, salesforce, etc. May raise customer’s expectations. The discrepancy between the actual promise made and the service provided can widen the customer gap. Broken Promises can occur for many reasons, such as:

– over-promising in advertising and personal selling.

– inadequate coordination between operations and marketing.

– differences in policies and procedures across service outlets.

– Failing to educate customers on how to use service appropriately.

Interactive marketing must be coordinated with the conventional types of external marketing used in product and service firms. Effectively coordinating actual Service Delivery external communications narrows the communication gap and favourably affects the customer gap.

Another issue in gap 4 is associated with the pricing of services. In the case of packaged goods, customers possess enough price knowledge before purchase to judge whether the price is fair or in line with competition. With services, customers have no internal reference points for price before purchase and consumption. Techniques for developing prices for services are more complicated than those for pricing tangible goods.

Putting it all together: Closing the gaps

The full conceptual model conveys that the key to closing the customer gap is to close providers’ gaps 1, 2, 3, and 4 and keep them closed. The gap model of service quality serves as a framework for service organisations to improve quality service and service marketing.

The Gap Model positions the key concepts, strategies, and decisions in service marketing in a manner that begins with the customer and builds the organisation’s tasks around what is needed to close the gap between customer expectations and perceptions.

Case study: IKEA

Putting customers in the ‘ wish mode’ is an innovative approach to closing gap 1 that was successful for IKEA, the world’s largest furniture retailer. When it opened its Chicago retail outlet using this approach, nine groups of a dozen customers were asked to dream of their ideal IKEA shopping experience. They were told to pretend that all IKEA stores had been destroyed and that new ones had to be designed from scratch. How would the store look? What would the shopping experience be like?

Customers are asked to draw up a design for a story that would satisfy their needs. Based on that, IKEA designed and created

– A multi-storage octagonal building.

– atrium in the centre to find items easily.

– items of the group together with related products.

– cafeteria-style restaurant on the upper floor that serves Swedish food.

– supplier network provided quality and consistency.

– Reduce long wait times by using handheld technology to implement ‘line busting’.

– employee training, hiring and culture.

– educating customers thoroughly with its script-like catalogues.

All these helped to close all 4 gaps in service and led IKEA to become a leading retailer.