2.  GAPS model of service quality
 Useful framework for understanding service
quality in an organization
 Critical service quality gap- customer gap-
diff b/w customer expectations and
perceptions

4.  It is the difference b/w
customer expectations and
perceptions
 Customer expectations
are stds or ref pts that
customers bring into
service experience. often
consist of what a customer
believes should or will
happen
 Customer perceptions are
subjective assessments of
actual service experiences
 Eg service levels at diff
types of hotels
Expected Service
Perceived Service
Customer Gap
Closing gap b/w what customers expect and
what they perceive is critical to delivering
service quality- forms basis for GAPS model

5.  Customer satisfaction and focus- are critical
to competitiveness of firm- any firm wishing
to deliver quality service must begin with
clear understanding about its customers

6. The Listening
Gap
The Service
Design and
Standards Gap
The Service
Performance
Gap
The
Communication
Gap
Occur within the org providing the service- need to be closed

7. The Listening Gap

8.  It is the difference b/w
customer expectations of
service and company
understanding of those
expectations
 Main cause of not meeting
Customer expectations is that
firm lacks accurate
understanding as to what
expectations are
 Why companies are unaware:
no direct interaction with
customers, are unwilling to ask
or unprepared to address them
 This leads to bad decisions and
suboptimal resource allocation
 Changing org- empowered
teams
Customer
expectations
Company perceptions
of customer
expectations
Gap 1

9. Customer Expectations
Company Perceptions of Customer
Expectations
 Inadequate marketing research orientation
Insufficient marketing research
Research not focused on service quality
Inadequate use of market research, need to remain in touch with cust-
interviews, panels and surveys
 Lack of upward communication
Lack of interaction between management and customers
Insufficient communication between contact employees and managers
Too many layers between contact personnel and top management
 Insufficient relationship focus -lack of co. strategy to cust
retention- relationship mktg
Lack of market segmentation
Focus on transactions rather than relationships
Focus on new customers rather than relationship customers
 Inadequate service recovery
Lack of encouragement to listen to customer complaints
Failure to make amends when things go wrong
No appropriate recovery mechanisms in place for service failures
Gap
1

10. The Service
Design and
Standards Gap

11.  Presence of service designs and
performance stds which reflect accurate
perceptions- are imp
 Service cos- main difficulty is to translate
customer expectations into service quality
specifications that their employees can
understand and execute
 this gap is the difference b/w company
understanding of customer expectations
and development of customer driven
service designs and stds
 Customer driven stds are operation stds
set to correspond to customer
expectations and priorities rather than co
concerns such as productivity or efficiency
 Mgt feels customer stds are unrealistic
/unreasonable
 Technology changes and improvements
are useful in closing this gap
Customer driven
service stds and
designs
Management
perceptions of
customer expectations
Gap 2

12. Customer-Driven Service Designs
and Standards
Management Perceptions of
Customer Expectations
 Poor service design
Unsystematic new service development process
Vague, undefined service designs
Failure to connect service design to service positioning
 Absence of customer-driven standards
Lack of customer-driven service standards
Absence of process management to focus on customer
requirements
Absence of formal process for setting service quality goals
 Inappropriate physical evidence and servicescape
Failure to develop tangibles in line with customer expectations
Servicescape design that does not meet customer and
employee needs
Inadequate maintenance and updating of the servicescape
Gap
2

13. The Service
Performance
Gap

14.  Is the discrepancy b/w development of
customer driven service stds and actual
service performance by company
employees
 Inspite of guidelines and designs exist –
high quality service performance is not
certain
 Stds must be backed by suff resources:
people, systems and technology and also
must be enforced to be effective
 Employees must be measured and
compensated on basis of performance
along these stds
 Thus if co fails to provide support for this
stds-facilitate,encourage or support these
stds- stds do no good
 When level of service delivery falls short of
stds,it falls short of what customers expect
as well
 Thus narrowing the performance gap- by
ensuring that all resources needed to
achieve stds are in place- will narrow this
gap
Customer driven
service stds and
designs
Service delivery
Gap 3

15. Service Delivery
Customer-Driven Service
Designs and Standards
 Deficiencies in human resource policies
Ineffective recruitment
Role ambiguity and role conflict
Poor employee-technology job fit
Inappropriate evaluation and compensation systems
Lack of empowerment, perceived control, and teamwork
 Customers who do not fulfill roles
Customers who lack knowledge of their roles and responsibilities
Customers who negatively impact each other
 Problems with service intermediaries
Channel conflict over objectives and performance
Difficulty controlling quality and consistency
Tension between empowerment and control
 Failure to match supply and demand
Failure to smooth peaks and valleys of demand
Inappropriate customer mix
Overreliance on price to smooth demand
Gap
3

16. The
Communication
Gap

17.  Is the difference b/w service
delivery and service providers
external communications
 Promises made by the org thro
media, advt,sales force etc may
raise customer expectations ,the
stds against which customers
assess service quality.
 Thus discrepancy b/w actual and
promised service will widen the
customer gap
 Broken promises: overpromises
in advt or personal selling,
inadequate coordination b/w
operations and mktg and diff in
policies and procedures across
service outlet
Service delivery
External
communication to
customers
Gap 3

18. Service Delivery
 Lack of integrated services marketing communications
Tendency to view each external communication as independent
Not including interactive marketing in communications plan
Absence of strong internal marketing program
 Ineffective management of customer expectations
Absence of customer expectation management through all forms of
communication
Lack of adequate education for customers
 Overpromising
Overpromising in advertising
Overpromising in personal selling
Overpromising through physical evidence cues
 Inadequate horizontal communications
Insufficient communication between sales and operations
Insufficient communication between advertising and operations
Differences in policies and procedures across branches or units
External Communications to
Customers
Gap
4

19. Perceived
Service
Expected Service
CUSTOMER
COMPANY
Customer
Gap
Gap 1
Gap 2
Gap 3
External
Communications to
CustomersGap 4
Service
Delivery
Customer-Driven Service
Designs and Standards
Company Perceptions of
Consumer Expectations

20. 7 GAPS MODEL BY CHRISTOPHER LOVELOCK

22. • is the difference b/w what the service providers believe
customers expect and customers actual needs and
expectations
The Knowledge Gap
• is the difference b/w management perceptions of customer
expectations and quality stds expected for service deliveryThe Standards Gap
• is the difference b/w specified delivery stds and the service
providers actual performance on this stdsThe Delivery Gap
• Is the difference b/w what the company`s advt and sales personnel think
are the products features, performance, and service quality level and
what the company is actually able to deliver
The internal
communications Gap

23. • is the difference b/w what is in fact delivered and
what customers perceive they received
The Perceptions
Gap
• is the difference b/w what service providers
communication efforts (in advance of service delivery)
actually promise and what customer thinks was
promised by these communications
The
Interpretation
Gap
• is the difference b/w what customers expect to
receive and their perceptions of the service that is
actually delivered
The Service Gap

24.  Knowledge, perceptions, interpretation and
service gap : represent the external gap b/w
customer and organization
 The standards, delivery and internal
communication gap : internal gaps that occur
b/w various functions and depts within the
organisation
 The service gap is the most critical gap :
ultimate goal is to close this gap

25. Prescriptions for closing the seven service quality gaps

26.  Sharpen market research procedures, including
questionnaire and interview design, sampling, and
field implementation, and repeat research studies
periodically.
 Implement an effective customer feedback system
that includes satisfaction research, complaint content
analysis, and customer panels.
 Increase interactions between managers (middle and
top management) and customers.
 Facilitate and encourage communication between
front-line employees and management.

27.  Get the customer service processes right: Use a rigorous,
systematic, and customer-centric process for designing and
redesigning customer service processes.
 Standardize repetitive work tasks to ensure consistency and
reliability by substituting hard technology for human contact and
improving work methods (soft technology).
 Set, communicate, and reinforce measurable customer-oriented
service standards for all work units:
 Establish for each step in service delivery a set of clear service
quality goals that are challenging, realistic, and explicitly designed
to meet customer expectations.
 Ensure that employees understand and accept goals, standards,
and priorities.

28.  Ensure that customer service teams are motivated
and able to meet service standards
 Improve recruitment with a focus on employee-job fit;
select employees for the abilities and skills needed to
perform their job well.
 Train employees on the technical and soft skills
needed to perform their assigned tasks effectively,
including interpersonal skills, especially for dealing
with customers under stressful conditions.
 Clarify employee roles and ensure that employees
understand how their jobs contribute to customer
satisfaction; teach them about customer
expectations, perceptions, and problems.

29.  Build cross-functional service teams that can
offer customer-centric service delivery and
problem resolution.
 Empower managers and employees in the field
by pushing decision-making power down the
organization.
 Measure performance, provide regular
feedback, and reward customer service team
performance as weII as individual employees
and managers for attaining quality goals .

30.  Install the right technology, equipment, support
processes, and capacity:
 Select the most appropriate technology and equipment
for enhanced performance.
 Ensure that employees working on internal support jobs
provide good service to their own internal customers, the
front-line personnel.
 Balance demand against productive capacity.
 Manage customers for service quality:
 Educate customers so that they can perform their roles
and responsibilities in service delivery effectively.
 Educate, control, or terminate jay customers who
negatively affect other customers, employees, service
processes, or facilities.

31.  Educate managers responsible for sales and marketing
communications about operational capabilities:
 Seek inputs from front-line employees and operations personnel
when new communications programs are being developed.
 Let service providers preview advertisements and other
communications before customers are exposed to them.
 Get sales staff to involve operations staff in face-to-face meetings
with customers.
 Develop internal educational and motivational advertising
campaigns to strengthen understanding and integration among
the marketing, operations, and human resource functions, and to
standardize service delivery across different locations.
 Ensure that communications content sets realistic customer
expectations.

32.  Develop service environments and physical
evidence cues that are consistent with the level
of service provided.
 For complex and credence services, keep
customers informed during service delivery on
what is being done, and give debriefings after
the delivery so that customers can appreciate
the quality of service they received.
 Provide physical evidence (e.g., for repairs, show
customers the damaged components that were
removed).

33.  Pretest all advertising, brochures, telephone scripts, and web site
content prior to external release, to determine if the target
audience interprets them as the firm intends (if not, revise and
retest):
 Ensure that advertising content accurately reflects those service
characteristics that are most important to customers.
 Let customers know what is and is not possible-and the reasons
why.
 Offer customers different levels of service at different prices,
explaining the distinctions. identify and explain in real time the
reasons for shortcomings in service performance, highlighting
those that cannot be controlled by the firm. Document precisely:
Upfront, what tasks and performance guarantees are included in
an agreement or contract. Afterward, what work was performed
in relation to a specific billing statement.

34.  Gap 7 is the accumulated outcome of all
preceding open gaps. It will be closed when
Gaps 1 through 6 have been addressed.