Service Quality

Customer requirement and expectation is a dynamic function, implying that the status of product quality is accepted in a certain time but it does not mean it will be always accepted by customer in the future. So we need continual improvement of the product quality. When societies become wealth, people do not satisfy only on the product but also on the experience of service. Under this situation, the quality of service becomes more and more important. The most famous Service Quality model is a GAP model which was proposed by Parasuraman (1985). Another scholar (Liu, 2002) combined ISO9001 requirement into GAP model is shown as follows.

The various gaps visualized in the model are:
Gap 1: Difference between consumers' expectation and management's perceptions of those expectations, i.e. not knowing what consumers expect.
ISO 9001: 5.2 – Customer focus; 7.2 – Customer-related process

Gap 2: Difference between management's perceptions of consumer's expectations and service quality specifications, i.e. improper service-quality standards.
ISO 9001: 6 – Resource management; 7.1 – Planning of product realization; 7.3 – Design and development

Gap 3: Difference between service quality specifications and service actually delivered i.e. the service performance gap.
ISO 9001: 7.5 – Product and service provision; 8.2 – Monitoring and measurement

Gap 4: Difference between service delivery and the communications to consumers about service delivery, i.e. whether promises match delivery?
ISO 9001: 5.1 – Management commitment; 5.3 – Quality policy; 5.4 - Planning

Gap 5: Difference between consumer's expectation and perceived service. This gap depends on size and direction of the four gaps associated with the delivery of service quality on the marketer's side.
ISO 9001: 8.2.1 – Customer satisfaction; 8.2.4 – Monitoring and measurement of product; 8.5 - Improvement

One of quality principle is to exceed customer expectation. It is very difficult to achieve. However, a book written by Christian entitled “If God is your customer” (in Chinese) shows how you exceed customer expectation. Another book written by MaBelle people entitled “MaBelle is Different” (in Chinese) indicates how MaBelle staff serves their customer. In MaBelle case, they use IT to create value-added services, as well as, their enthusiastic for assisting their customer. It demonstrates that good service quality comes from the heart of service provider (Customer Care!).




Reference:
Parasuraman, A., Zeithaml, V.A. and Berry, L.L. (1985), “A conceptual model of service quality and its implications for future research”, Journal of Marketing, Vol.49, No.3, pp. 41-50.

廖仁傑 (2002) “結合ISO 9001:2000 與 PZB Gap Model 之「顧客滿意」改善方式”, 38th Annual Conference of CSQ & 8th NQMS

MaBelle 人 (2007) “MaBelle is Different”, 樂文出版社有限公司.