Study of Service quality in a B-School with SERVQUAL Model Page 1
Study of Service quality in a B-school with SERVQUAL Model
-Mohammed Rashid
ABSTRACT Customer satisfaction and service quality are often treated together as functions of customer’s
perceptions and expectations. Research has shown that high service quality contributes significantly to
customer satisfaction and customer delight. This study empirically explores the relationship between
Institution’s Quality management and Service quality performance for a sample of Students of a B-
School in Noida. SERVQUAL model has been adopted to capture various aspects of service quality. The
Study has been undertaken to demonstrate the Gaps for measuring Students’ Perception-Expectation of
Academic quality in a B-school.
The purpose of the research is to provide review of the SERVQUAL research in measurement of a B-
school service quality. To measure the Students Expectations before joining the college and their
Experience/Perception after spending time in college.
Keywords:
Service, Gaps, SERVQUAL, Perceptions, Expectations
INTRODUCTION The growth of B-school in India has been phenomenal in the last decade. Many new B-schools started
their operations to serve students and provide them quality education. This unprecedented growth
(more than 2000 B-schools) has raised concern about the quality of B-school. The last decade has seen
many changes in the way B-schools and Private institutes as a whole deal with the student’s expectation
with regards to the quality of services the educational institute provides- this is especially evident in the
B-school domain. Furthermore when a student takes an admission in a college he has some expectation
from the college. It is College’s duty to meet students’ expectation with optimum service in terms of
both academic and administrative. Various challenges faced by institutions are, dearth of quality faculty,
Infrastructure, research and development, quality of students, admission process etc. Measuring quality
of an educational service is important to achieve higher involvement of students and improve their
overall performance.
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LITERATURE REVIEW Quality is difficult to implement and capture in a meaningful sense. Given the force that place intense,
sometimes conflicting pressures on the providers of MBA/PGDM degree program, it becomes
incumbent upon us to reflect on what quality means in today’s world. (Rapert et al, 2004)
There are increasing demands for quality in education institutions, and many Institutes have realized
that quality is central to differentiating themselves from other institutions and gain a competitive edge.
The experience of other industries has shown us that the key to long term growth, profit, brand value
and success may be embedded in the philosophy of “quality first” and the effective management of
quality within an organization.
Unlike a manufacturing product, where quality can readily be assessed, service quality is an elusive and
abstract concept that is difficult to define and measure and more so in education domain. Service in
educational institutes is intangible because quality assessments of a service are not one-dimensional.
The nature of service performance diverges from one transaction to another. This “heterogeneity” can
occur because the service experienced by student depends deeply with the students’ expectation from
the institutions.
The ultimate goal service quality measurement is to assist management in ensuring service quality and
students satisfaction. If service quality is to become the cornerstone of marketing and branding strategy
of the Institution the institute must have a mean to measure it. Measurement is necessary step towards
devising any action plan. So as to identify the bottle necks in the service delivery and try to overcome it.
SERVQUAL is one method which can be used to identify the Expectation-Perception Gap in service
delivery of an institution.
SERVQUAL- The Yardstick
SERVQUAL was developed in 1985 by the marketing research team of Berry, Parasuraman and Ziethaml
and is one of the most widely used instruments to measure service quality (Brown et al., 1996, in Buttle,
1996). SERVQUAL measures the gap between customer’s expectations for excellence and their
perceptions of actual service delivered. The development of SERVQUAL was a significant contribution
made towards the development of a quantitative yardstick for assessing the quality of a firm's service by
measuring customers' perceptions of quality. The resulting multiple-item scale for measuring service
quality, SERVQUAL, lists five dimensions or determinants of service quality: tangibles, reliability,
responsiveness, assurance and empathy (Parasuraman et al 1985).
SERVQUAL provides a means of measurement for researchers to determine how well service level is
delivered and how it matches customer expectations on a consistent basis. SERVQUAL provides a
technology for measuring and managing service quality (SQ). Since 1985, when the technology was first
published, its innovators Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry, have further developed, promulgated and
promoted the technology through a series of publications (Parasuraman et al., 1985; 1986; 1988; 1990;
1991a; 1991b; 1993; 1994; Zeithaml et al., 1990; 1991; 1992; 1993).Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry
Study of Service quality in a B-School with SERVQUAL Model Page 3
continued their pioneering work in service quality through the introduction of the SERVQUAL instrument
in 1988 as a questionnaire to measure consumer perception of service quality. In 1988 work,
Parasuraman collapsed components of service quality into five dimensions: reliability, assurance,
tangibles, empathy and responsiveness.
Parasuraman et al. developed a 22-item instrument with which to measure customers’ expectations and
perceptions (E and P) of the five RATER dimensions. Four or five numbered items are used to measure
each dimension. The instrument is administered twice in different forms, first to measure expectations
and second to measure perceptions.
Analysis of SERVQUAL data can take several forms: item-by-item analysis (e.g. P1 - E1, P2 - E2);
dimension-by-dimension analysis (e.g. (P1 + P2 + P3 + P4/4) - (E1 + E2 + E3 + E4/4), where P1 to P4, and
E1 to E4, represent the four perception and expectation statements relating to a single dimension); and
computation of the single measure of service quality ((P1 + P2 + P3 ... + P22/22) - (E1 + E2 + E3 + … +
E22/22)), the so-called SERVQUAL gap.
A very short and somewhat rude definition is that it is a methodology to measure the gap between
customers' expectations and their perceptions or experiences with aspects of a given service. A
SERVQUAL study will normally investigate the relationship between users' perception of the quality of a
service and their experience of the quality of the given service. The method essentially involves
conducting sample survey of customers so that their perceived service needs are understood.
The SERVQUAL model used in various service industries is employed to understand and find the
Expectation-Perception Gap of service delivery by the B-school
For measuring their perception of service quality of the B-school in question, students’ were asked to
answer numerous questions within each dimension that determines:
The relative importance of each attribute.
A measurement of performance expectations that would relate to an “Excellent” Institute.
A measurement of performance for the institute in question.
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METHODOLOGY
The present study by providing the Perception-Expectation Gap score will help the B-school in
identifying the deficiencies and excess in quality as regards to various dimensions of quality.
Study Objectives:
To critically examine the quality parameters of services provided by the B-school
To find out the most responsive factor affecting the Perception of students regarding the service
components in the B-school
To find out as to how much these parameters rate are as per the expectations of the Students
Sample:
The present study was carried out in December 2015 in a B-school in Noida. The Institution is operating
since a decade now. A total of 50 students were surveyed. Random sampling was employed to carry out
the survey.
Instrument Used:
This study used the SERVQUAL scale questionnaire designed by Parasuraman et al. (1988) to measure
the expected and perceived quality of services provided by a B-school in Noida. The questionnaire
utilized to gather the data comprised of four main parts.
Part I respondents were required to indicate the importance of each of the five dimensions of service
quality, that is tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy, by allocating a total of 100
points to these dimensions as well as to rank their importance.
Part II dealt with the socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents.
Part III consisted of 22 items to measures students' expectations of college’s services in general
Part IV consisted of a corresponding 22-item scale to measure the student' perceptions of the services
actually offered by the hospital under study.
The scores for each item ranged from "1" for strongly disagree" to "7" for "strongly agree" on a seven-
point Likert scale.
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Data Analysis Approach This study follows closely the steps taken to measure the unweighted average SERVQUAL scores and the weighted average SERVQUAL scored by two other studies (Kaura 1993; Ow 1994). In computing the unweighted average SERVQUAL scores and the weighted average SERVQUAL scores, the 22 items of SERVQUAL (as listed in the Annexure II) in both the expectations and perception statements have been grouped according to the five basic dimensions of tangibles (items 1 to 4), reliability (items 5 to 9), responsiveness (items 10 to 13), assurance (items 14 to 17) and empathy (items 18 to 22). To measure the unweighted average SERVQUAL scores and the weighted average SERVQUAL scores, several steps were taken.
Study of Service quality in a B-School with SERVQUAL Model Page 6
SERVQUAL SCORES Dimension Stateme
nt
Expectatio
n Score
Perception/E
xperience
Score
Gap Score Average
for
Dimension
Tangibles 1 260 226 -34 -0.68
2 273 238 -35 -0.7
3 277 249 -28 -0.56
4 253 237 -16 -0.32
Reliability 5 271 234 -37 -0.74
6 263 218 -45 -0.9
7 261 214 -47 -0.94
8 265 234 -31 -0.62
9 270 236 -34 -0.68
Responsivene
ss 10 269 233 -36 -0.72
11 265 232 -33 -0.66
12 276 222 -54 -1.08
13 264 240 -24 -0.48
Assurance 14 287 258 -29 -0.58
15 274 244 -30 -0.6
16 272 240 -32 -0.64
17 280 225 -55 -1.1
Empathy 18 264 232 -32 -0.64
19 264 240 -24 -0.48
20 260 230 -30 -0.6
21 263 230 -33 -0.66
22 283 225 -58 -1.16
Unweighted Average SERVQUAL score:
-0.706
Table 1: Unweighted SERVQUAL Scores
The above table shows the sum of expectation scores for each question, the sum of Perception score,
the Gap score and the average for the dimension for the sample of 50 students.
The Unweighted Average SERVQUAL score is -0.706. This score is in negative zone meaning thereby that
the students’ expectations are more than their experience. They perceived the services provided to
them as a poor quality.
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Dimension Average Gap Score
Average Importance Point
Average weighted Dimension
Tangibles -2.26 23.59 -0.53313
Reliability -3.88 20.56 -0.79773
Responsiveness -2.94 19.34 -0.5686
Assurance -2.92 19.36 -0.56531
Empathy -3.54 17.15 -0.60711
Weighted Average SERVQUAL score: -3.07188
Table 2: Weighted SERVQUAL Scores
The above table exhibits the Weighted SERVQUAL scores.
When importance weights were also taken into consideration the resultant weighted SERVQUAL
Score (-3.0718) was also negative.
The average Importance point for the 5 factors; Tangibility (23.59) was allocated maximum weight
followed by Reliability (20.56) which is then closely followed by Assurance (19.36) and Responsiveness
(19.34). Empathy ranked last with 17.15. The score of -3.071 for weighted average SERVQUAL score is an
alarm sign for the Institute.
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Figure 1: Unweighted SERVQUAL Score
Figure 2: Weighted SERVQUAL Score
The above figure illustrates the weighted SERVQUAL Scores for the 5 dimensions namely; Tangibility,
Responsiveness, Reliability, Assurance and Empathy.
The figure shows the Unweighted
SERVQUAL scores for the sample of
50 students.
The negative score for Reliability is
highest followed by Responsiveness,
Assurance, Empathy and Tangibility.
Further analysis on Reliability can be
done to understand the reason for
such a high negative score.
The Figure exhibits the
weighted SERVQUAL Scores for
the 5 dimensions. Weighted
Reliability scored the highest
negative. This is an alarming
sign as students perceive
college as unreliable.
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Figure 3: SERVQUAL Score: Gender
Figure 4: SERVQUAL Score: 1st year V 2nd year
The Figure exhibits the
SERVQUAL score for
Male vs Female. It is
quite evident from fig.
that Female perceives
college as more
unreliable compared to
Male counterpart. In
addition to this there is a
huge difference in the
Responsiveness score
between Male and
female.
Figure illustrates the
SERVQUAL Score for 2nd
year students is
comparably higher than
the 1st year student. This
is probably because
they’ve spend more time
in college and hence the
higher negative score is
quite justifiable as more
time spent will lead to
more dissatisfaction.
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CONCLUSION The findings of this study have important practical implications to the management of quality of
education institutions. This study demonstrates the usefulness of the SERVQUAL approach as a measure
of service quality. SERVQUAL can highlight area for specific action and address perceived service
shortcomings. Consequently, systematic students’ feedback so that steps can be taken by the institute
to be more reliable to students. The results of this study can further be explored to understand the
underlying reasons for such large Gap between the students’ expectation and their perception.
The SERVQUAL is an important study as it provides the students perspective of the level of service
quality. Such a study will help the college/service provider to anticipate students’ requirement rather
than reacting to students’ dissatisfaction. One such way for management is to look for improving on
aspects such as improving Physical facilities, training staff and communicating precise information on all
activities.
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Bibliography Berry, L. (1980). Service Marketing is Different. Business Week , pp. 24-29.
J, B. (1990). Creating a service culture. Canidian Banker.
Johnston, R. (2008). Service Operations Management. PEARSON.
Markanday, D. (n.d.). Study of Service quality in GOVT/NGO's Eys Hospital in Haryana with SERVQUAL
Model: An Empirical Study.
Parasuraman, A., Zeithamal, V. A., & Berry, L. (1991). Refinement and reassessment of SERVQUAL Scale.
Journal of retailing , 420-449.
Study of Service quality in a B-School with SERVQUAL Model Page 12
Annexure-1
Table 1 - Calculation of SERVQUAL Scores
SERVQUAL Dimension
Score from Table 1 Weighting from Table 2 Weighted Score
Tangibility
Reliability
Responsiveness
Assurance
Empathy
Average Weighted score:
Table 2 - Calculation of Weighted SERVQUAL Scores
Dimension Statement Expectation Score
Perception Score
Gap Score
Average for Dimension
Tangibles 1
2
3
4
Reliability 5
6
7
8
9
Responsiveness 10
11
12
13
Assurance 14
15
16
17
Empathy 18
19
20
21
22
Unweighted Average SERVQUAL score:
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Features Points
The appearance of the Colleges physical facilities, equipment, personnel and communication materials.
The College's ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately
The Colleges willingness to help Students and provide prompt service.
The knowledge and courtesy of the College's employees and their ability to convey trust and confidence.
The caring individual attention the College provides its Students.
Total: 100
Table 3 - SERVQUAL Importance Weights
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The SERVQUAL Questionnaire
Thank you for agreeing to take part in this important survey. This survey should take 4-5 minutes to complete. The survey is for academic purpose and the responses will be kept confidential. There are no 'right' or 'wrong' answers to any questions The Survey The questionnaire below is in two sections. The first section asks you to rank all
Colleges according to your expectations i.e. what you expect all Colleges to provide. The second section asks you to rank the College you chose for the survey according to your experiences and perceptions.
SERVQUAL Importance Weights
Listed below are the five sets of features pertaining to Colleges and the services they offer. We would like to know how much each of these sets of features is important to the Student. Please allocate 100 points among the five sets of features according to how important it is to you. Make sure the points add up to 100.
Features Points
1. The appearance of the Colleges physical facilities, equipment, personnel and communication materials.
2. The College's ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately
3. The Colleges willingness to help Students and provide prompt service.
4. The knowledge and courtesy of the College's employees and their ability to convey trust and confidence.
5. The caring individual attention the College provides its Students.
Total: 100
1. What is your gender?
Male
Female 2. Which state do you belong to? _______________________ 3. What was your Majors In Graduation?
BA
B.Com
B.Tech/B.Sc
Others 4. What is your ANNUAL household income (INR)?
2- 3 Lakhs
4-6 Lakhs
7-9 Lakhs
9 Lakhs and Above
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Expectations This section of the survey deals with your opinions of Colleges. Please show the extent to which you think Colleges should possess the following features. What we are interested in here is a number that best shows you expectations about institutions offering their services. You should rank each statement as follows: Strongly Strongly Disagree Agree 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Statement Score
1. Excellent Colleges will have modern looking equipment.
2. The physical facilities at excellent Colleges will be visually appealing.
3. Employees at excellent Colleges will be neat in their appearance.
4. Materials associated with the service (pamphlets or statements) will be visually appealing at an excellent College.
5. When excellent Colleges promise to do something by a certain time, they do.
6. When a Student has a problem, excellent Colleges will show a sincere interest in solving it.
7. Excellent Colleges will perform the service right the first time.
8. Excellent Colleges will provide the service at the time they promise to do so.
9. Excellent Colleges will insist on error free records.
10. Employees of excellent Colleges will tell Students exactly when services will be performed.
11. Employees of excellent Colleges will give prompt service to Students.
12. Employees of excellent Colleges will always be willing to help Students.
13. Employees of excellent Colleges will never be too busy to respond to Students' requests.
14. The behaviour of employees in excellent Colleges will instil confidence in Students
15. Students of excellent Colleges will feel safe in transactions.
16. Employees of excellent Colleges will be consistently courteous with Students.
17. Employees of excellent Colleges will have the knowledge to answer Students' questions.
18. Excellent Colleges will give Students individual attention.
19. Excellent Colleges will have operating hours convenient to all their Students.
20. Excellent Colleges will have employees who give Students personal service.
21. Excellent Colleges will have their Students' best interest at heart.
22. The employees of excellent Colleges will understand the specific needs of their Students.
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Perceptions/Experience The following statements relate to your feelings about the particular College you have chosen. Please show the extent to which you believe this College has the feature described in the statement. Here, we are interested in a number from 1 to 7 that shows your perceptions about the College. You should rank each statement as follows: Strongly Strongly Disagree Agree 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Statement Score
1. The College has modern looking equipment.
2. The College's physical features are visually appealing.
3. The College's reception desk employees are neat appearing.
4. Materials associated with the service (such as pamphlets or statements) are visually appealing at the College.
5. When the College promises to do something by a certain time, it does so.
6. When you have a problem, the College shows a sincere interest in solving it.
7. The College performs the service right the first time.
8. The College provides its service at the time it promises to do so.
9. The College insists on error free records.
10. Employees in the College tell you exactly when the services will be performed.
11. Employees in the College give you prompt service.
12. Employees in the College are always willing to help you.
13. Employees in the College are never too busy to respond to your request.
14. The behaviour of employees in the College instils confidence in you.
15. You feel safe in your transactions with the College.
16. Employees in the College are consistently courteous with you.
17. Employees in the College have the knowledge to answer your questions.
18. The College gives you individual attention.
19. The College has operating hours convenient to all its Students.
20. The College has employees who give you personal attention.
21. The College has your best interests at heart.
22. The employees of the College understand your specific needs.
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