The SERVQUAL model
When developing SERVQUAL, Parasuraman et al. (1985) proposed that
the consumer’s opinion of quality was formed by an internal comparison
of performance with expectations. Through in-depth interviews and
focus group discussion with firms in four different service industries, they
identified ten determinants of service quality: access, communication,
competence, courtesy, credibility, reliability, responsiveness, security,
tangibles and customer knowledge. Parasuraman et al. (1988) reduced
these ten determinants to five dimensions using factor analyses. The five
dimensions (Table 1) are tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance
and empathy. That led to the development of the 22-item SERVQUAL
instrument for measuring service quality.
The SERVQUAL instrument has been tested for its validity and reliability
(Bolton & Drew 1991; Babakus & Boller 1992; Cronin & Taylor 1992)
and applied to different industries, such as professional services (Freeman
& Dart 1993), health care (Lam 1997), tourism (Tribe & Snaith 1998),business schools (Pariseau & McDaniel 1997) and information systems
(Kettinger & Lee 1994).
Table 1 The five dimensions of the SERVQUAL model1. Tangibles: physical facilities, equipment and appearance of personnel
2. Reliability: ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately
3. Responsiveness: willingness to help customers and provide prompt service
4. Assurance: knowledge and courtesy of employees, and their ability to inspire trust and confidence
5. Empathy: caring, individualised attention the firm provides its customers
Table 2 The five dimensions of the RSQS model
1. Physical aspect (six items)
• The store has modern-looking equipment and fixtures
• The store layout at this store makes it easy for customers to find what they need
2. Reliability (five items)
• When this store promises to do something by a certain time, it will do so
• This store insists on error-free sales transactions and records
3. Personal interaction (nine items)
• Employees in this store have the knowledge to answer customers’ questions
• Employees of this store treat customers courteously on the telephone
4. Problem solving (three items)
• This store willingly handles returns and exchanges
5. Policy (five items)
• This store offers high-quality merchandise
• This store accepts most major credit cards
• This store has convenient parking places
• This store has convenient store hours
• The store credit card is available at this store
Measuring Retail Service Quality using SERVQUAL
A retail store experience significantly differs from a non retail store
experience in terms of customers negotiating their way through the store,
finding the merchandise they want, interacting with several store personnel
along the way, and returning the merchandise, all of which influence
customer’s perceptions of service quality. The uniqueness of the services
offered by a retailer makes it mandatory that care be taken while
selecting and using scales for measuring service quality in retail store
context. Though the absence of alternate measures of service quality in a
retail environment has often meant that SERVQUAL be used for this
purpose; researchers (Finn and Lamb 1991) have cautioned that care
must be taken when applying SERVQUAL in retail setting. Given below
is the review and discussion of some of the instances where SERVQUAL
has been applied in a retail context (summarized in Table 1).