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Measuring Service Quality 测量服务质量

Measuring the quality of services might be difficult due to its nature of intangible. Swan and Combs (1976) were among the first to argue that customer will feel satisfied when the service performance fulfills (equal or above) their expectations, and dissatisfaction occurs when service performance is below the expectations. The formal evaluation of service quality firstly appeared in the nineteen eighties, when there is no theoretical basis for the case, people can only directly asked for the customers’ experiences. Christian Gronoroos proposed the “Customer Perceived Service Quality Model” in 1984, in which he first put forward the concept of perceived service quality. He pointed out that customer evaluate the service quality by comparing their service expectation and service performance. Later in 1985, Parasuraman et al. presented the “Five GAP Service Quality Model” that achieved a significant process in measuring the service quality.

In recent years, a growing number of studies have focused on customer satisfaction in the service industry (Cadotte and Turgeon, 1998; Barsky and Labagh, 1992; Gundersen et al., 1996;). Many of researches towards service quality are based on the framework of widely accepted service quality model (SERVUQAL instrument) developed by Parasuraman etal. (1985,1988, and 1991).

Service quality gap model

Representative service quality evaluation models include PZB’s (1985) service quality gap model, SERVQUAL model, Cronin and Taylor's SERVPERF model. The service quality gap model suggests that service quality depends on the contrast between the quality of service that customer expect and the actually perceived service quality. The core of the gap model is the gap between consumers’ expected and perceived service quality. This gap determines levels of service quality, as well as customer satisfaction, so it should reduce or fill up this gap. To fill up the gap, it must fill up the following four specific gaps. Gap 1 is that service providers do not understand consumers’ expectations. Gap 2: service providers do not select correct service design and standards. Gap 3: service providers fail to provide service according to standards. Gap 4: service delivery and external commitments do not match with each other.
Curry (1999), Luk and Layton (2002) were based on PZB’s (1985) model to bring forward 7gapmodel , which supply 5gap model, the content is almost the same as Gap1-gap5.
Gap6: The discrepancy between customer expectations and employees’ perceptions: as a result of the differences in the understanding of customer expectations by front-line service providers.
Gap7: The discrepancy between employee’s perceptions and management perceptions: as a result of the differences in the understanding of customer expectations between managers and service providers.
Curry’s (1999), Luk and Layton’s (2002) 7gap model is more beneficial for exploration on how to improve quality of service from the perspective of management.

SERVQUAL scale
To measure levels of service quality, PZB (1988) developed SERVQUAL scale. The scale divides the major factors that will determine service quality into tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy. According to their estimates, the correlation coefficient between the five dimensions and c