Two key models in services marketing are the service gaps model and Essay

Two key models in services marketing are the service gaps model and the service profit chain. Discuss the ethos and elements of - Essay Example t, majority of research scholars including Parasuraman et al (1985 and 1988) have devoted their time in order to develop a replicable but reliable instrument with witch service quality gap can be measured. Fortunately, Parasuraman et al (1991, 1994) were successful in developing â€Å"SERVQUAL† scale which is one of the most commonly used scales for measuring the gap in the service quality. In the proposed SERVQUAL scale by Parasuraman et al (1985 and 1988), twenty two items have been incorporated in order to measure service gap in five service settings such as maintenance and repair of electrical appliances, telephone services (long distance), brokerage services, credit card services and retail banking services. However, modern marketers apply the SERVQUAL model to measure service quality gap in almost every service sector. Although the concept of service quality gap is widely accepted but there are research scholars such as Jabnoun and Khalifa (2005) and Landrum et al (2007) who have raised question over the validity service quality gap in service sectors which are categorized by involvement of high degree of psychometric properties. Managerial Implication In modern world, marketing managers of a service firm repeatedly use marketing jargons like customer driven service offering, continuous performance improvement and others, but interesting fact is that only few of them understand the practical implication of service quality gap Landrum et al (2007). Challenge for the marketing managers is to identify the gap in the service delivery and then allocate both financial & non-financial resources to reduce the gap. Any gap in the service delivery should be identified in terms of customer’s perspective by the managers. It is critical for marketing managers of a service...Challenge for the marketing managers is to identify the gap in the service delivery and then allocate both financial & non-financial resources to reduce the gap. Any gap in the servic e delivery should be identified in terms of customer’s perspective by the managers. It is critical for marketing managers of a service firm to identify the most cost effective way to close the service quality gaps.Service Quality. Discussion on service quality gap will be incomplete without shedding light on concepts like service quality. Wisniewski (2001) has pointed out that service quality is a relative term in context to industrial and organizational dimensions, for example, service quality indicators for a hospital cannot be equivalent with service quality indicators for a bank; hence one universally accepted definition of service quality is not possible. In such context, it can be said that although it is difficult to define service quality but the problem can be solved by identifying the gap in the service quality. According to Parasuraman et al (1985), service quality is the ability of the service firm to provide service according to expectation of customers; service quality gap is the difference between expected service quality by customers and perceived service. If perceived service quality is lower than the expected service quality, then customers get dissatisfied.