Service Quality towards Customer Satisfaction

Submitted By:Anish Tulshyan 12810009Nishita Singh 12810058Rahul Paul 12810068Sharad Srivastava 12810076

Contents

Background of Study Executive Summary Research Objective Literature Review Service Quality and SERVQUAL Research Methodology Data Collection Data Analysis and Interpretation Recommendations Conclusion References

Background of StudyThe trend towards eating in canteens is on the rise in the colleges.A similar trend has been seen in IIT Roorkee CanteensThe reason can be stipulated towards ease of food, better timings, location factor or perhaps more pocket money!!!Among this, is the most centrally located canteen i.e. BRU

Executive SummaryService quality has been the most important consideration for any service provider. Effectiveness of service quality audit can be measured through research.

SERVQUAL is a widely accepted tool for measuring service quality. It measures a total of 21 service attributes grouped into five service dimensions of Reliability, Responsiveness, Assurance, Empathy and Tangibility.

We have collected a total of 33 responses for service quality using the SERVQUAL survey method. The data are collected using convenience sampling and included 21 males (63.64%) and 12 females (36.36%).

Executive Summary Contd..Data analysis is done using both descriptive as well as inferential statistical techniques with the help of SPSS package.

For descriptive statistics, we have used basic techniques like mean, median, mode and standard deviation for interpretation.

For inferential statistics, basic hypothesis testing using t-test is used to check whether there are any major differences as reported by male respondents and female.

In addition to survey method, we also employed direct observation of service delivery at the canteen and also interviewed service provider. These inputs helped us to understand the service delivery mechanism and creating blueprints.

Research ObjectiveThe study was to determine the overall service quality from the consumer’s perspective. The research would also expose the deficiency in the system and how to fill them.

The objectives can be listed down as:To understand about the service delivery mechanism at IIT Roorkee CanteenTo finalize point of contacts in the service deliveryTo identify the service gaps of the canteen businessTo analyse those gaps and come up with recommendationsTo evaluate overall quality of service in the customer’s eyeTo establish whether gender plays a role in consumer’s satisfaction

Literature ReviewServices, as opposed to the products, possess features like tangibility, perishiability, heterogeneity and inseparability (Bateson, 1995).

To show the possible gaps in the service delivery, one of the widely accepted model is the service quality gap model which envisages a total of 5 gaps in the service delivery. It was developed by Parasuraman, Zeithaml and LL Berry in 1985.

SERVQUAL (Parasuraman et. al., 1988) is used to quantify and measure all 5 service quality dimensions by these evaluating gaps along 21 attributes.

Studies reveal the fact that service quality gaps are associated with customer satisfaction and therefore SERVQUAL can also be leveraged to evaluate customer satisfaction (Andaleeb & Conway, 2006).

Service Quality and SERVQUALGap 1 – Listening Gap: Difference between customer expectation of the service and service provider’s understanding of them.Gap 2 – Design Gap: Difference between service provider’s understanding of the customer’s expectation and development of customer driven services design & standards.Gap 3 – Delivery Gap: It is the discrepancy between development of customer driven services design and standards and actual service performance.Gap 4 – Communication Gap: It is the difference between service delivery and service provider’s external communicationCustomer Gap: It is the difference between customer’s expectation and perception of the service quality.

Service Quality and SERVQUALReliability

Responsiveness

Assurance

Empathy

Tangibles

Expected and

Perceived Service

Ability to perform services accurately and accurately

Willing to help and respond to customer needs

Ability of employees to inspire confidence and trust

The extent to which caring individualized services is

given

Physical facilities, staff appearance, equipments

SERVQUAL

Research MethodologySERVQUAL technique was employed to collect responses about the service quality provided by BRU

The survey contained 21 questions and all the responses were taken on a 7-point ordinal scale.

The sampling was done though convenience sampling techniques

The research type is of the quantitative nature where the primary data source was used to carry out the analysis

Research MethodologyThe data was put through descriptive as well as inferential statistical analysis through the SPSS software package.

Basic statistical techniques such as mean, standard deviation and z-value are calculated to observe the pattern and gaps.

The data are analysed on gender basis and for each service dimension. The difference between the expectation and perception scores would give us the unweighted gap scores.

Research MethodologyFor inferential statistics, hypothesis testing (t-test) are used to see if there is any significant difference in gaps between genders.

Null Hypothesis (H0) : There is no difference in gaps on gender basis (μ1 = μ2)Alternate Hypothesis (H1) : There is a significant difference in gaps on gender basis (μ1 ≠ μ2)

We also interviewed the service provider and direct observation techniques enabled us to create the service blueprint of the service delivery mechanism which helped us in identifying the critical points of contact and find the gap so that recommendations was made.

Data CollectionThe profile of the respondents for survey were:

Direct observations as well as interview of the service provider’s representative (BRU staff in our case) was carried out as well.

We also had an informal communication with some of the customers which aided into the information. Additionally, we also acted like a customer to check the overall quality of service from our own experience (direct observation).

Male Female Course Total

MBA 14 6 MBAs = 20

Others 7 6 Others = 13

Gender Total Males = 21 Females = 12 Grand Total = 33

Data Analysis and InterpretationService delivery blueprint for IIT Roorkee canteen

Mean score of expectation and perception

Responsiveness has the highest expectation score across all segments. This leads us to believe that customers do not want delay in service delivery and other responses.

Assurance takes the second spot which gives us a hint that trusted brands are preferred.

On the other hand, Tangible aspects are least important in the eyes of customers as compared to others.

Expectation Scores Perception ScoresMale Fem

aleMBA Othe

rsTotal Male Fem

aleMBA Othe

rsTotal

Reliability

6.05 5.71 5.81 6.10 5.92 5.00 3.92 4.74 4.40 4.61

Responsiveness

6.27 5.98 6.04 6.37 6.17 4.83 4.27 4.53 4.79 4.63

Assurance

6.13 5.90 5.89 6.29 6.05 4.82 4.63 4.59 5.00 4.75

Empathy

5.83 5.50 5.61 5.86 5.71 4.18 4.10 4.09 4.25 4.15

Tangibles

5.80 5.40 5.71 5.56 5.65 4.29 3.71 4.09 4.06 4.08

Overall

6.01 5.69 5.80 6.03 5.89 4.60 4.12 4.39 4.49 4.43

Gap analysis on the basis of z-score for total sample

We find that maximum z-scores occurs at Responsiveness and Empathy. This means these factors are having least efficiency as far as meeting customer’s demand is concerned.The standard deviation of Responsiveness is least which means almost everyone is rating its performance at similar level.

Avg Expectation

Avg Perception

Avg Gap Standard Deviation

z-score

Reliability 5.92 4.61 -1.32 1.00 -1.32Responsiveness

6.17 4.63 -1.54 0.94 -1.64

Assurance 6.05 4.75 -1.30 1.10 -1.18Empathy 5.71 4.15 -1.56 1.02 -1.53Tangibles 5.65 4.08 -1.58 1.14 -1.39Overall 5.89 4.43 -1.46 0.91 -1.60

Inferential Statistics

Case 1: Test to check whether the gap is significantly largeNull Hypothesis: There is no significance gap in service quality,Alternate Hypothesis: There are significant gaps in service quality.

As we see that test statistics is -10.914 which is to be compared with theoretical values. The critical value at 95% confidence interval is -1.96 is which is less than the calculated one. Hence the Null hypothesis is rejected and we can say that there is significant gaps in the service quality.

Case 2: Test to check whether there is any difference between males

and female populationNull Hypothesis: There is no significance difference in gaps reported by males and femalesAlternate Hypothesis: There are significant differences in gaps reported by males and females

As we see that Levene’s test has significance level more than 0.05 hence we assume the equal variance. Also the Sig. (2-tailed) or p-value is higher than 0.05 hence we accept the Null hypothesis and conclude that there is no significance difference between the gaps reported by male and female.

Case 3: Test to check whether there is any difference between MBA

students vs. OthersNull Hypothesis: There is no significance difference in gaps reported by MBA students and othersAlternate Hypothesis: There are significant differences in gaps reported by MBA students and others

As we see that Levene’s test has significance level more than 0.05 hence we assume the equal variance. Also the Sig. (2-tailed) or p-value is higher than 0.05 hence we accept the Null hypothesis and conclude that there is no significance difference between the gaps reported by MBA and other students.

RecommendationsWork on Reducing the delay: This is one of the crucial factors and directly associated with the Responsiveness part of service quality. As we have seen that this dimension was given highest expectation rating, it makes perfect sense to work on this.

Be pleasant with the customers: we have already seen from the statistical analysis that Empathy is one of the most negatively rated item of service quality. Therefore this calls for a complete transformation of the staff attitude.

Improve the physical setup: Apart from acquiring intangible assets, a service provider should also focus on updating its physical assets which become part of overall service delivery and consumer satisfaction.

ConclusionAs we have seen, service delivery of high quality takes a paramount place for effective service delivery. We did analysis on IIT Roorkee Canteen and found that the canteen is having issues with delivering quality services, especially on the front of Responsiveness, Empathy and Tangibles. The service provider should make efforts to mitigate them.

References Research paper

Parasuraman A., Zeithaml V. A, Berry L. L. (1985), A Conceptual Model of Service Quality and Its Implications for Future Research, Journal of Marketing, Vol 49 (Fall 1985), p41-50

Parasuraman A., Zeithaml V. A., Berry L. L. (1988), SERVQUAL: A Multiple-Item Scale for Measuring Customer Perception of Service Quality, Journal of Retailing, Vol 64 (Spring 1988), p12-40

Books

Zeithaml V. A., Bitner M. J., Gremler D. D., Pandit A., Services Marketing: Integrating Customer Focus across the Firm, McGraw Hill, 6e, 2013