Measuring service quality: Is SERVQUAL now redundant?

Abstract

SERVQUAL, a multiple‐item scale for measuring consumer perceptions of service quality, was introduced in 1988 and revised in 1991 in response to some criticism from researchers who had tested the instrument. Its authors, Parasuraman et al., claim that the 22‐item questionnaire is a measure relevant to a broad spectrum of services and based on five generic quality dimensions—reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy and tangibles. Design of the instrument involved rigorous methodological and conceptual development, where the latter defined perceived service quality as the degree and direction of discrepancy between customer expectations and perceptions. Further, this construct “perceived service quality”, as defined, was differentiated from satisfaction on the basis of differing expectations measures and a temporal dimension—a global view rather than a service encounter. Since 1988, several researchers have conducted studies using SER VQUAL and/or examined various aspects of the methodology. This paper reviews the criticisms made in the literature and, with reference to a recent study which examined the methodology within a health care environment, questions the value of SERVQUAL to practitioners by highlighting the problems involved in the interpretation of the data obtained.