Internal versus external service quality: reflections of employees and customers in the mirror

Emir Ganic,Maja Arslanagic-Kalajdzic,Vesna Babic-Hodovi

doi:10.29352/mill0204.02.00154

Abstract

Introduction: The purpose of this study to investigate internal service quality (as perceived by employees) and external (customer) perceptions of quality in the context of service profit chain (SPC).Objective: The objective of the study is to evaluate the impact of internal service quality on students’ perceptions of quality and to test the significance of a direct link between internal and external service quality.Methods: We measured the perceived service quality using a SERVPERF instrument and the multilevel modeling approach with HLM 7.01.Results: The empirical findings support a link between perceptions of internal and external service quality. We show that when employees (faculty) perceive university services as being of high quality, it has a positive spill-over effect on students’ overallperceptions of the quality of university services. Perceptions of internal service quality are also positively related to students’ perceptions of reliability, responsiveness and quality assurance.Conclusions: The perceptions of internal service quality by faculty members are positively related to students’ perceptions of quality. Comparing the levels of internal and external service quality will help managers define priorities for allocating resources to improve quality.

Highlights

The purpose of this study to investigate internal service quality and external perceptions of quality in the context of service profit chain (SPC)
The present study contributes to service literature by conceptualizing and empirically examining the direct link between the internal and external service quality in the higher education services setting
Unlike previous studies, which focused their attention either on internal or on external service quality and which assessed several potential mediators between them (Hogreve et al, 2017), this study establishes a direct cross-level link between internal service quality perception of employees, that is, faculty grouped in departments, and external service quality perception of customers, that is, students

Summary

Introduction

The purpose of this study to investigate internal service quality (as perceived by employees) and external (customer) perceptions of quality in the context of service profit chain (SPC). 2) note that research on this topic still offers “...fragmented, partially ambiguous knowledge” It is against this background that our study aims to explore the link between employee and customer perceptions of service quality by assessing the level of quality perceived by employees and finding out how it relates to the level of quality perceived by the customer. We empirically test the link between employee and customer perceptions of service quality at a university, using students and faculty members in different departments and assess the effect of department-level employee perceptions of quality on students’ perceptions. A university is reliant on its faculties who act in a similar way as ‘branded goods’ for the university, creating and sustaining its reputation, so in such a setting we can discover whether there is a transition from employee perceptions of quality to customer perceptions of quality

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion