THE GAPS MODEL OF

SERVICE QUALITY
The Gaps Model of Service Quality
 A third model for addressing services
challenges is the gaps model of services
quality.

 The model focuses on strategies and process

that firms can employ to drive service
excellence.

 It is a model that can be used to drive strategy

as well as implementation decisions.
 Expected
Customer
Service
Customer
Gap
Perceived
Service

External
Company Service Delivery Communication
Gap 4 to customers
Gap 1
Gap 3
Customer driven
Service designs and
standards
Gap 2

Company Perception of
Consumer expectation
THE CUSTOMER GAP
 The central focus of the gaps model is the
customer gap, the difference between
customer expectations and perceptions.

 Expectations are the reference points

customers have coming in to a service
experience,

 Perceptions reflect the service as actually

received
 THE CUSTOMER GAP
 The firms will like to close this gap –
between what is expected and what is
received –
 to satisfy their customers and
 to build long term relationships with them.

 To close this all-important customer gap,

the model suggests that four other gaps
– the provider gaps – need to be closed.
 THE PROVIDER GAPS
 The provider gaps are the underlying
causes behind the customer gap:
 Gap 1: Not knowing what customers expect

 Gap 2: Not selecting the right service

designs and standards
 Gap 3: Not delivering to service standards
 Gap 4: Not matching performance to
promises.
THE PROVIDER GAPS
 Gap 1: Not knowing what customers expect

 A primary cause in many firms for not meeting

customers’ expectations is that the firm lacks
accurate understanding of exactly what those
expectations are.

 A gap exist between company perceptions of

customers’ expectations and what customers
actually expect.

 We will try to explore why this gap occurs and

develop strategies for closing it.
THE PROVIDER GAPS
 Gap 2: Not selecting the right service
designs and standards

 Even if a firm does have a clear

understanding of its customers’
expectations, there still have problems if
that understanding is not translated into
customer-driven service designs and
standards
THE PROVIDER GAPS
 Gap 3: Not delivering to service
standards
 Once service designs and standards are in
place, the firm is on its way to delivering
high-quality services. But this is not
enough.

 There must be systems, processes, and

people in place to ensure that service
delivery actually matches (or is even better
than) the designs and standards in place.
THE PROVIDER GAPS
 Gap 4: Not matching performance to
promises.

 Finally with everything in place to

effectively meet or exceed customer
expectations, the firm must ensure that
what is promised to customers matches
what is delivered.
CLOSING THE CUSTOMER
GAP
 The gaps model says that a service marketer
must first close the customer gap.

 To do so, the provider must close the four

provider gaps, or discrepancies within the
organization that inhibit delivery of quality
service.

 The gaps model focuses on strategies and

processes that firms can employ to drive
service excellence.
CLOSING THE CUSTOMER
GAP
CUSTOMER GAP  The figure corresponds
to two concepts –
Expected
Service
CUSTOMER
EXPECTATIONS and
CUSTOMER
Customer PERCEPTIONS
Gap

 It plays a major role in

Perceived services marketing.
Service
CLOSING THE CUSTOMER
GAP
 Customer Perceptions are subjective
assessments of actual service experiences.

 Customer Expectations are the standard of or

reference points for performance against
which service experiences are compared and
are often formulated in terms of what a
customer believes should or will happen.
CLOSING THE CUSTOMER
GAP
 The sources of customer expectations
consist of
 Marketer-controlled factors (price,
advertising, sales promises etc.) and
 Factors which marketer has limited ability
to affect (word-of-mouth communication,
competitive offerings etc)

 The goal of services marketing is to

bridge this gap.
 CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR IN
SERVICES
 Consumer problem: Time Deficiency
 The Solution: Services
 Changing family structure and job profile, dual career
couple, single, atomic family etc. are realising
consumer burning need: TIME.
 The antidote to time deficiency?
 New Services/Innovative features: Wedding
consultants & arrangement, executive meeting
organizer, presentation preparation, home delivery
(retailer, banks, etc.).
 Extending working hours to suit consumer schedules
 Outsourcing various services
CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR IN
SERVICES
 Primary objective of producers and marketers
is identical: to develop and provide offerings
that satisfy consumer needs and
expectations.
 Other words, marketers need to be able to
close the customer gap.
 Therefore it is also important to understand
consumer evaluation process/ decision
process for selection of a service
 SERVICES: Search Vs Experience
Vs Credence Properties
 Categories of properties of consumer
Easy to
products:
evaluate  Search qualities: attributes that can be determined
before purchasing of a product. Ex. Clothing,
Jewelry, Furniture, Houses etc.
 Experience qualities: attributes that can be
identified after purchase or during purchase.
Meals, Vacation, Hair Cut etc.
 Credence qualities: characteristics that consumer
may find difficult/impossible to evaluate even after
Difficult to purchase and consumption. Ex. Medical Diagnosis
evaluate
CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR IN
SERVICES
 Normally the decision process for
goods purchase:
1. Need Recognition
2. Information search
3. Evaluation of alternatives
4. Purchase
5. Purchase outcome or feedback
CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR IN
SERVICES
 In purchase of services:
 Information Search
 Evaluation of alternatives
 Purchase and consumption
 Post Purchase Evaluation
 These do not occur in sequence
CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR IN
SERVICES

INFORMATION SEARCH EVALUATION OF ALTERNATIVES

•Use of Personal sources •Evoked set
•Perceived Risk •Emotion and mood

PURCHASE & CONSUMPTION POST PURCHASE EVALUATION

•Service provision as drama •Attribution of dissatisfaction
•Service roles & scripts •Innovation diffusion
•Compatibility of customers •Brand Loyalty
Information Search
 Use of Personal Sources
 Friends, experts etc.
 Use of Non-personal Sources
 Mass or selective media
 Non-personal sources may not be available if small,
local vendors
 Perceived Risk
 Some degree of risk perceived in all transactions
 Dissatisfied customers may not or rarely come back if
alternatives are available
 They use the strategies to reduce the perceived risk.
Evaluation of Service
Alternatives
 Evoked Set
 Set of alternatives - acceptable options in a given
product category
 Smaller set as two brands of services are rarely
provided in a single institution (bank, dry cleaner,
hair salon etc.)
 Faced with the task of collecting & evaluation
experience qualities, consumer may select the first
one.
 Emotion & Mood
 It influence people (customers) perceptions and
evaluations of their experiences.
 Purchase and Consumption
 Service Provision as Drama
 Both aim to create and maintain a desirable impression before an
audience and required to manage the actors and the physical setting
of their behaviour.
 Service Roles & Scripts
 Each player (both employees & customers) having a role to perform
 Employees need to perform their role as per the expectations of
customers
 Customers are to be informed and educated about the expectations
and requirements of service.
 Compatibility of Customers
 Role of other customers (Restaurants, dances, bars, spectator sports,
movie hall etc.)
 Customers can be incompatible due to many reasons: difference in
beliefs, values, experiences, abilities to pay, age, health etc.
 Post Purchase Evaluation
 Attribution of Dissatisfaction
 May attribute to different sources, producers, retailers, or
themselves
 Customers own decision making error
 Innovation Diffusion
 Rate of diffusion depends on consumer perception of innovation
 Compatible to existing norms, values, and behaviours – more
easily diffuse
 Ex. Novel Day Care Center: providing breakfast to the employee’s
children
 Brand Loyalty
 Committed to particular brands depends on many factor:
switching cost, availability of substitutes, perceived risk, degree
of satisfaction in the past

 ROLE OF CULTURE: Values, attitudes, manners, customs etc