Managing Service Quality: A Differentiating Factor for Business Firm

Abstract

Todays world economy is becoming more of service oriented. This situation can be attributed to the increased importance and significance being witnessed in the service industry by both the developed and the developing economies of the world. In fact, growth in the service sector is often used as an indicator to measure a countrys economic growth. The service industry has since become the main stay of the economy of many nations. The service industry offers services to customers. These customers often expect value for their money. Customer satisfaction is of equal importance in the service industry just like in the product related business. Three forces dominate the prevailing marketing environment in the service sector increasing competition from private players, changing and improving technologies and continuous shifts in the regulatory environment, which has led to the growing customer sophistication. Customers have become more and more aware of their requirements and demand higher standards of services. Their perceptions and expectations are continually evolving, making it difficult for the service providers to measure and manage services effectively. The key lies in improving the service selectively, paying attention to more critical service attributes/dimensions as a part of customer service management. It is an imperative to understand how sensitive the customers are to various service attributes or dimensions. Allocating resources in the fashion that is consistent with customer priorities can enhance the effectiveness in the service operations. In addition, customer service attribute priorities need to be fully explored in service specific contexts. This paper is an attempt to explore relative importance of service quality dimensions across a select service context.