Examines the assessment of service quality as perceived by consumers. Identifies and ranks the attributes for good and poor quality of five selected types of services. The five types of services considered in this study are physician service, retail banking, auto maintenance, college/university, and fast food. The findings indicate that consumers have well‐conceived ideas about service quality, and that certain quality attributes are considered important for most types of services. Interestingly, finds that some attributes seem to have effects similar to Herzberg′s hygiene factors, i.e. the absence of certain attributes may lead consumers to perceive service quality as poor. However, the presence of these attributes may not substantially improve the perceived quality of the service. Also suggests that most customers would be willing to trade some convenience for a price break, and that the behaviour, skill level and performance of service employees are key determinants of perceived quality of services. This is a major challenge for service operations managers, who seek to improve or maintain a high level of service quality.