Journal of Business and Policy Research Vol. 8. No. 2. July 2013 Pp.

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Beautification for Female in Bangladesh: Exploring the Service Gap through SERVQUAL Model
Ayesha Tabassum* and Parisa Islam Khan**
With the intensifying effect of globalization, females of a country like Bangladesh become more beauty conscious. Women of different age groups, occupation and socio-economic background are now regularly visiting the beauty parlors of the country. As a result the beauty salons have become one of the flourishing industries of the country. Like any other service industries, service quality is the source of profitability in the beauty parlors too. Thats why an initiative is made in the current study to explore the service quality by identifying service gap in the female segment of beauty care industry. Data were collected through structured questionnaire survey conducted on 100 regular customers of five beauty parlors. The questionnaire was designed on the basis of popular SERVQUAL model of service quality. Results revealed significant gaps in terms of all the dimensions of service quality. The highest level of gap was found in responsiveness and empathy dimension. Reliability and, assurance showed comparatively less gap while tangibles scored the lowest gap.

Field of Research: Marketing, Service Marketing. Keywords: Beauty care industry, female beauty parlor, service quality, SERVQUAL model, service gap.

1. Introduction
Though beauty and business seems to be contrasting terms, a growing interrelation is found between these two concepts. Today, beauty care becomes a big business, which can contribute to an economy significantly (Peiss 2000). Large scale production, global distribution networks, extensive advertisement efforts, scientific marketing and sales at a large scale, all these have contributed to the emergence of beauty as an industry (Peiss 2000). Bangladesh, a South Asian developing country is no exception from this. In this region, beauty is always considered as an important attribute for female. From the ancient time till now, we can trace many descriptions of beauty and beauty care practices in the poetry, literature and arts (Peiss 2000). Beauty is considered as seemingly frivolous, superficial, and female (Peiss 2000, p. 485) and it is expected that beautification would be a womens trait. Previously, women in Bangladesh used to maintain these beautification practices as in-house (domestic) activities. As globalization intensifies, the concept of beauty and the necessity of being beautiful have gone through an evolutionary change. Now women tend to spend more time, energy and money on beautification by visiting beauty parlors or salons (Schwer & Daneshvary 2000; Joy, Sherry, Troilo & Deschenes 2010).

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* Ayesha Tabassum, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Business Administration, Eastern University. Email: tabassum105@yahoo.com ** Parisa Islam Khan, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Business Administration, Eastern University. Email: parisa@easternuni.edu.bd

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It is evident from literature review that physical beauty is an advantage in every sphere of life. Physically attractive people usually income more compared to the less attractive people (Hamermesh & Biddle 1994; Frieze, Ohlson & Russell 1991). Moreover the organizations tend to earn more revenue if they hire physically attractive employees (Bosman, Pfann, Biddle &Hamermesh (1997). Besides, being attractive can increase the possibility of getting married (Young 2011). As a result, beauty care industry in Bangladesh is not something amateur. Rather it is now a USD 10 billion plus industry in Bangladesh, providing employment for an estimated 100,000 women (Akter 2009) through thousands of beauty-care service providers (Akter 2009; Akter 2008). In current study, the researchers consciously avoided the small local parlors and choose the standard and modernized parlors of the country that offered specialized services along with regular services and also equipped with all kinds of modern facilities. These types of parlors set the beauty trends of the industry and usually target the high profile beauty conscious customer segments. They choose and address such industry segment because the service quality issues were more relevant concern for these upscale parlors than for any small local area base parlor. The growing importance and demand of beauty care vigorously raised the question on quality service issues for beauty parlors. As beauty care is a kind of personal service, ensuring service quality is challenging yet unavoidable need for the customers. It has been evident that, when customers perceptions of service quality are positive, the behavioral intentions are favorable, which strengthens their relationship with the organization (Zeithaml & Bitner 2003). On the other hand, when service-quality assessments are negative, the customers behavioral intentions are unfavorable (Kouthouris & Alexandris 2005). For the success of any service organization, quality is imperative and of paramount importance to the service providers (Bebko 2000). As services are becoming commodity-like it can offer a source of competitive advantage for the service providers (Chowdhury, Iqbal&Miah 2010). Since the arousal of importance of service quality issues, researches also demonstrated the strategic benefits of quality in contributing to market share and Return on Investment (ROI), as well as lowering manufacturing costs and improving productivity (Anderson & Zeithaml 1984; Garvin 1982). We know that customers satisfaction with individual service encounters affect the customers satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the overall service experience (Johnston 1995). So, it is important to know whether the clients expectation regarding the service really matches the perceived service in all dimensions of service quality. That is why; this paper takes a first step towards exploring the service gap of the female beauty parlors in Dhaka through the SERVQUAL model. The beauty care service industry in Bangladesh is growing day by day and it is contributing in the economy both in terms of revenue and employment generation. Along with the local firms, many foreign firms and franchise companies like VLCC, Kaya Skin Care, etc. are entering in the industry with professional set up and huge investment. Therefore this is the high time to explore and understand the service gap scenario of the beauty care industry. Previously, researchers had conducted several studies on service quality in different service sectors like hospitality, educational institute, financial institute, airlines, advertising agency and tourism. Many of these studies have shown different patterns of service gap on the five dimensions of service quality. But being a personalized service, beauty care contains different intrinsic and extrinsic cues of quality which are different from the 33

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other industries. And so far, no significant research was done on service quality of this industry in Bangladesh. So, it is expected that the current study would help the industry experts and management of beauty care service providers to improvise their services. And understanding the significance and the implications of each service criteria would help them to prioritize their area of improvement, which would be especially helpful for a growing industry like this. Thus the main objective of this study is to find out the service gap, i.e. the gap between the expectations and perceptions of the customers about the service rendered by the female beauty parlors. Specific objectives of this study are: To find out the expectations of customers regarding service quality in the beauty parlors of Bangladesh. To identify the perceptions about the actual or experienced service quality in the beauty parlors of Bangladesh. To recognize the disparity between the expected and actual service quality in the female beauty parlors of Bangladesh.

To fulfill these objectives, questionnaire was designed based on vast literature review, then data were collected and analyzed with statistical tools, and findings were represented with discussion. The paper is organized into eight different sections. The introduction is followed by the literature review. After that, the methodology part describes the detail design of the research. The result and discussion part reveals the key findings of the research. Managerial implication explains the possible application of the findings. Lastly, the limitation and future research directions are discussed before the final conclusion.

2. Literature Review
2.1 Service Quality In the field of services marketing, service quality grabbed the most attention from the researchers (Wang, Lo & Hui 2003). To define service quality Zeithaml and Bitner (2003) emphasized on the superiority of a service. According to these scholars, perception of service quality arises from the judgment of customers, who define the service as superior. The classic researchers has defined the term service quality as the difference between customer expectations of the service to be received and perceptions of the service actually received (Grnroos 1984; Parasuraman, Zeithaml& Berry 1988). Perception was defined as consumers beliefs relating to the received service (Parasuraman, Zeithaml & Berry 1985). Brown and Swartz (1989) defined perceived service as experienced service. On the other hand, expectation was defined as the desire or want of the consumer about the service (Parasuraman, Zeithaml & Berry 1985). In most of the cases, service quality expectations involve norms and these norms are developed on the basis of previous experiences of the consumers (Carman 1990). Parasuraman and colleagues (1985) definition was based on the concept of disconfirmation, which was defined as the difference between perception and expectation. This disconfirmation in terms of service quality leaded to a service gap. Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry (1988) considered that a customers assessment of overall service quality depends on this service gap.

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The importance of measuring service quality can be well apprehended from the vast literature. Quality is the key factor for the sustainable competitive advantages in for any business, and thus it is considered as the cornerstone of success for any business by Hampton (1993). Bebko (2000) posited that quality is a critical and of paramount importance for the success of any service organization. This emphasis can be realized easily as service quality is positively related with customer loyalty (Baker & Crompton 2000; Bloemer, Ko de Ruyter & Wetzels 1999; Zeithaml, Berry & Parasuraman 1996). In fact, perceived service quality can influence customers behavioral intentions, such as purchase intention, paying a price premium for the service, positive word-of-mouth communications, etc. (Alexandris, Dimitriadis & Kasiara 2001; Zeithaml, Berry & Parasuraman 1996). It is also found that positive perception about service quality is related with increased customer satisfaction (Cronin & Taylor 1992; Boulding, Kalra, Staelin & Zeithaml 1993). Thus service quality is regarded as a driver of corporate marketing and financial performance (Buttle 1996). Because increased customer retention rate is associated with financial benefits of the service organizations (Kouthouris & Alexandris 2005). Thats why if the gap exists between expectation and perception of service quality according to the disconfirmation theory, the service organizations become concerned to fill the gap, otherwise the customers intend to quit (Kouthouris & Alexandris 2005). 2.2 Dimensions of Service Quality Service quality is widely accepted as a multi-dimensional concept today (Kouthouris & Alexandris 2005). Grnroos (1982) and Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry (1985) has defined service quality in terms of multiple dimensions. But no general agreement is found on the nature or content of the dimensions (Brady and Cronin, 2001). At first, Lehtinen and Lehtinen (1982) defined service quality in terms of physical quality, interactive quality and corporate quality. The tangible aspect of the service is referred as physical quality. Interaction quality emerges from the nature of interaction between customer and service provider. Lastly, corporate quality refers to the image of a service provider by different entities, such as, its current customers, potential customers, other publics, etc. According to Grnroos (1982) there are two service quality dimensions, the technical aspect and the functional aspect. The technical aspect indicates what service is provided, whereas the functional aspect indicates how the service is provided. Later on, Parasuraman and colleagues (1985) suggested that the quality evaluation involve evaluations of the service delivery process. Based on this concept these scholars developed SERVQUAL model with ten components (see Parasuraman, Zeithaml & Berry 1985). Thus Parasuraman and colleagues (1985) emphasized only on the functional aspect of service quality. Cronin and Taylor (1992) identified several limitations of SERVQUAL scale and proposed their own scale named as SERVPERF based on the term performance -only measures. This model has the focus on service quality measurement that is based only on consumers perceptions of the performance of a service provider. Later on, the researchers tried to explore the strengths and limitations of the classic ideas about service quality dimensions and adapted accordingly.

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2.3 SERVQUAL Model The instrument used to explore service quality in this study was adapted from SERVQUAL model (Parasuraman, Zeithaml & Berry 1988). In their original formulation Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry (1985) identified ten components of service quality. These are (1) reliability, (2) responsiveness, (3) competence, (4) access, (5) courtesy, (6) communication, (7) credibility, (8) security, (9) understanding/knowing the customer, and (10) tangibles. Later on, these scholars published a modified version of this model with only five components; reliability, assurance, tangibles, empathy and responsiveness (Parasuraman, Zeithaml & Berry 1988). SERVQUAL model is a 22-item instrument with which to measure customers expectations (E) and perceptions (P) of the five rater dimensions. The instrument is administered twice in different forms, firstly, to measure expectations and secondly, to measure perceptions. Definitions of each dimension along with the number of item statements are represented in Table 1. Table 1: SERVQUAL dimensions
Dimensions Reliability Definition Items in scale 4 The ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately The willingness to help Responsiveness customers and to provide prompt service The knowledge and courtesy of Assurance employees and their ability to convey trust and confidence The provision of caring, Empathy individualized attention to customers The appearance of physical Tangibles facilities, equipment, personnel and communication materials Source: Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry (1988).

Table 2: Relative importance of SERVQUAL dimensions

Reliability Responsiveness Assurance Empathy Tangibles Total Source: Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry (1989). 32 22 19 16 11 100

Among these five dimensions, reliability has received the highest attention among the customers in terms of service quality measurement, as Zeithaml, Berry and Parasuraman (1989) asked more than 1900 customers to rate the relative importance of the five dimensions by allocating 100 points among them (see Table 2). The measurement of service quality through SERVQUAL model can be expressed with the following equation (Parasuraman, Zeithaml & Berry 1986).

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According to Buttle (1996, p. 10), 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. Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry (1988) define five gaps from their research data: Gap1. The discrepancy between customers expectations and managements perceptions of these expectations. Gap2. The discrepancy between managements perceptions of customers expectations and service quality specifications. Gap3. The discrepancy between service quality specifications and actual service delivery. Gap4. The discrepancy between actual service delivery and what is communicated to customers about it. Gap5. The discrepancy between customers expected service and perceived service delivered. The first four gaps contribute to Gap 5, that is, the gap between customer expectations and customer perceptions of service received- and it is this last gap which has been the main focus of this research. The figure of the gaps of SERVQUAL Model is represented in Figure 1.

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Figure 1: Model of service quality gaps

Source: Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry (1985)

SERVQUAL model has been subjected to a number of theoretical and operational criticisms by the marketing researchers (Buttle 1996). Brown, Churchill and Peter (1993) have suggested measurement problems in the use of difference scores. Cronin and Taylor (1992) have posited that service quality can be predicted adequately by using perceptions alone rather than using difference scores. Carman (1990) has suggested deleting or modifying some of the SERVQUAL dimensions or even introducing new ones in specific service industries. This indicates that SERVQUAL model is probably appropriate for service quality measurement in every industry. Moreover, Andaleeb and Basu (1994) confirmed measuring the gap between expectations and performance can be problematic particularly in crosssectional studies. In addition, Cronin and Taylor (1992) conceptualized their own model, SERVPERF, as according to these scholars expectations were not necessary in the measurement of service quality. Several researchers have raised the concern regarding the acceptance of this gap model by questioning the value and meaning of the gaps (see Babakus & Boller 1992; Oliver 1980; Teas 1994). Despite of these criticisms, SERVQUAL model has been widely applied across different service industries. According to Kouthouris and Alexandris (2005) identifying the gaps in customers evaluation can be a very valuable task, as the strategies can be devised to close these gaps that will ultimately benefit the service providers.

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2.4 Application of SERVQUAL Model in Research Though the SERVQUAL model has such numerous limitations, the models framework has guided numerous studies in the service sector that focus on banks, repair and maintenance services, telephone companies, physicians, hospitals, hotels, academic institutions and retail stores (Parasuraman et al. 1988; Carman 1990; Boulding et al. 1993; Kouthouris & Alexandris 2005). In Bangladesh the SERVQUAL model has been used to measure the service gap in different industries such as, private universities (Chowdhury, Iqbal & Miah 2010), advertisement agencies (Khan 2010), SME, retail banking (Siddiqi 2010), hospitals (Siddiqui & Khandaker 2007), luxurious hotels (Tabassum & Rahman 2011; Khan 2008), tourism hotels (Tabassum, Rahman & Jahan 2012), etc. though no study was found on service quality measurement of beauty care industry in Bangladesh. Thus it can be said that SERVQUAL model is still suitable as an assessment tool to measure the service quality perceptions (Siddiqi 2010). 2.5 Beauty Care Industry in Bangladesh In the context of Bangladesh, the beauty care industry for female has started its journey in 1965, when the first beauty parlor in Dhaka was established, named as May Fair. Until 1977, there was no Bangladeshi owned beauty salon in the country. In that year Zerina Asgar, being the first Bangladeshi woman to become a beautician, started her parlor named as Living Doll. Bollywood, the Indian film industry had a strong influence over the Bangladeshi women at the 1980s where the movie actresses created an image of women with complete makeover (Parveen 2006). Since 1990s, the satellite TV channels are spreading the beauty enigma on urban women, which created the establishment of beauty parlors by the second generation beauticians with sophisticated and educated grooming experts (Parveen 2006). Thus the country now has more than 2,000 parlors and salons (Rahman 2010). Women from the age group of 18-40 including mothers, housewives, students, professionals, and brides visit beauty salons and spas regularly for beauty and health care services (Pritom 2009). With the increased service consumption, the customers are now well-informed about the beauty care services. As a result now the beauty care industry in Bangladesh is under pressure to raise the quality of its services (Star Lifestyle 2009). Though service quality has become an important concern in the beauty care industry of Bangladesh, no initiative was taken in academic research arena to explore the customer perception and expectation regarding the service quality of the beauty parlors. The only available research in terms of female beauty parlor clientele in Bangladesh is Khan and Tabassums (2011) study conducted on the high-end beauty parlor customers to explore the relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction. According to these authors findings, customer satisfaction is created by four service quality factors. These factors are support & facility, employee performance, customer relation and communication. 2.6 Conceptual Framework and Hypotheses Development The present research focuses on service quality provided by the beauty parlors in terms of SERVQUAL models five dimensions of service quality measurem ent. So here the variable service quality is dependent on the five dimensions of quality measurement in service sector; reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy, 39

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and tangibility. Service quality in terms of these dimensions is determined with the measurement of service gap in each dimension. This phenomenon is illustrated through the following conceptual framework (see Figure 2). Based on the above conceptual framework, the following hypotheses are developed. H1: There is a gap between expected and actual perception of customers regarding the reliability of service quality in terms of the female beauty care service providers. H2: There is a gap between expected and actual perception of customers regarding the responsiveness of service quality in terms of the female beauty care service providers. H3: There is a gap between expected and actual perception of customers regarding the empathy of service quality in terms of the female beauty care service providers. H4: There is a gap between expected and actual perception of customers regarding the assurance of service quality in terms of the female beauty care service providers. H5: There is a gap between expected and actual perception of customers regarding the tangible of service quality in terms of the female beauty care service providers.

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Figure 2: Conceptual framework of the study based on SERVQUAL model

Source: Self-developed model by the researchers (2012)

3. Research Methodology
3.1 Procedure The data were collected in Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh by mean of structured questionnaire. Participants were included in the study on a voluntary basis by visiting the standard and modernized beauty parlors. In total 110 questionnaires were distributed in five different parlors, among these 100 were found to be usable in the research. The parlors included in the study were Persona Hair & Beauty Ltd., Farzana Shakils Makeover Salon, Hairobics, Alviras and Womens World. 3.2 Participants Among the 100 female beauty parlor clienteles, 45% respondents were from 20 to 25 years of age range, 36% were from 26 to 30 years of age range and the rest 19% were older than 30 years. In terms of occupation, 20% were students, 15% were entrepreneurs, 36% were service holders, and the rest 29% were housewives.

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Most of these clienteles used to visit the parlors at regular interval, such as weekly, fortnightly, monthly, etc. 3.3 Measures The SERVQUAL scale developed by Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry (1988) was adapted for measuring service quality. As mentioned earlier, there are five dimensions of service quality according to SERVQUAL model. The model contained 22-item instruments which measured customers expectations (E) and perceptions (P) in five grater dimensions of service quality (see Table 1). Thus in total 44 statements were included in the questionnaire, one set for measuring the expectation and the other one for measuring the actual perception of service quality. This study used the original framework of SERVQUAL model without any modification but the 22 items, which were represented by 44 statements, were improvised and designed to address the specific requirements of the beauty industry. The answer format was a 5-point Likert scale ranging from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5). 3.4 Reliability and Validity of Data Reliability is the extent to which a variable or set of variables is consistent in what it is intended to measure (Hair, Black, Babin, Anderson &Tatham 2007). The current study applied internal consistency method because multiple items were used for all constructs. The Cronbach alpha value of at least 0.70 is the basis of reliability (Cronbac 1951) and thus the 0.70 alpha value demonstrates that all attributes are internally consistent (Fujun, Hutchinson, Li &Bai 2007). The Cronbach alpha value for this study was 0.933 that meets the criteria of cut off point. Thus all the attributes of the study were found as reliable. Reliability for each dimension of service quality was also measured, which is presented in Table 5. On the other hand, validity is defined as the degree which measure accurately represents what it is supposed to by Hair et al. (2007). There are three types of validity; content validity, predictive validity, and construct validity (Siddiqi 2010). The current study emphasized on content validity. Content validity was defined as the assessment of the correspondence between the individual items and concept (Duggirala, Rajendran & Anantharaman 2008). In social sciences, the content validity can be verified with the professional knowledge of the researchers. Appropriate and relevant measurements for a study can be identified from literature review and the assistance of experts (Sharafi & Shahrokh 2012). This study concentrated on content validity through the review of literature and adapts instruments which are used in previous research. 3.5 Statistical Tools for Data Analysis The study is based on the data collected to measure the customers expectation and observation of service quality to assess the service gap in beauty parlors. For this purpose 5-point Likert scale was used that is a numerical and more specifically, interval-scaled data. The corresponding probability distribution of this numerical data point will be a continuous distribution but as the data is informing about the opinion of the customers through ranking, it is very likely that the parent distribution will not follow a normal pattern. This pre-assumption was further 42

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confirmed by illustration of the Probability-Probability plot (P-P plot) of items. The central view and the diversity among the views of the respondents have been observed in case of each item individually. The distribution pattern of all the components as a whole expressing all the basic features was observed along with Box-plot diagram. Lastly, Test of Hypothesis was performed to draw a final conclusion about identifying the gap between the customers expectation and observation about the service quality of beauty parlors. In the present study, each of the respondents has been asked about his or her expectation and also observation. As the same person was chosen for both measurements, the samples were related or dependent. Because of the subjective nature of the scores, it was assured that the data does not follow the normal distribution and in consequence the non-parametric Wilcoxon signed-rank test was decided to use. Dissimilarity between the ratings of expectations and also the ratings of observation pattern of the customers were tested through non-parametric Mann-Whitney Test.

4. Results
Table 3 shows the inter-dimension correlation, mean and standard deviation values for all the dimensions of service quality. It is observed that all the dimensions of service quality were significantly correlated with each other. Table 3: Descriptive analysis and correlations among the dimensions of service quality
Dimensions 1 2 3 4 5 Mean Standard Deviation 0.640 4.175 Correlation 1 Coefficient Reliability Sig. (2. tailed) Correlation 0.736 Responsivenes Coefficient s Sig. (20.000* tailed) Correlation 0.72 Coefficient Empathy Sig. (20.000* tailed) Correlation 0.642 Coefficient Assurance Sig. (20.000* tailed) Correlation 0.48 Coefficient Tangibles Sig. (20.000* tailed) * Correlation is significant at 0.01 level

1 . 0.786 0.000* 0.706 0.000* 0.572 0.000* 1 . 0.728 0.000 * 0.567 0.000 * 1 . 0.588 0.000* 1 .

4.165

0.641

4.181 0.648

4.271

0.598

4.420

0.540

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Table 4: Mean differences for the item instruments of each service quality dimensions
Dimensions Item instruments Delivery of promises Dependability in handling the customers' problems Delivery of services at the time promised Maintenance of error-free records Correct performance of the service the first time Keeping customers informed about when the service will be performed Providing Prompt service to customers Willingness to help customers Responsiveness to customers' requests Providing customers with individual attention Convenient operating hours Dealing with customers in a caring fashion Having the customers' best interest at heart Understanding the customers' requirements Ability of staff to instill confidence in customers Making customers feel safe in their transactions Courteous staff Knowledgeable staff to answer customer questions Actual Mean (P) 3.81 3.83 3.97 3.56 3.81 Expected Mean (E) 4.47 4.61 4.58 4.65 4.47 Gap (P - E) Mean -0.66 -0.78 -0.61 -1.09 -0.66 Z -6.156 -7.171 -5.573 -9.121 -6.156 P-value (2-tailed) 0.000* 0.000* 0.000* 0.000* 0.000*

Reliability

3.69 3.70 3.91 3.54

4.54 4.63 4.76 4.55

-0.85 -0.93 -0.85 -1.01

-7.069 -8.394 -8.023 -8.267

0.000* 0.000* 0.000* 0.000*

Responsiveness

3.80 3.95 3.69 3.61 3.61

4.58 4.59 4.63 4.65 4.7

-0.78 -0.64 -0.94 -1.04 -1.09

-6.590 -5.467 -7.959 -8.282 -8.831

0.000* 0.000* 0.000* 0.000* 0.000*

Empathy

3.74 4.34 4.07 3.52

4.56 4.6 4.68 4.66

-0.82 -0.26 -0.61 -1.14

-7.072 -2.292 -5.712 -8.689

0.000* 0.022 0.000* 0.000*

Assurance

Visually appealing facilities Neat appearance of employees Tangibles Modern-looking equipment Visually appealing materials * Significant at 0.01 level

4.24 4.19 4.12 4.08

4.69 4.72 4.67 4.65

-0.45 -0.53 -0.55 -0.57

-4.370 -4.811 -5.467 -5.198

0.000* 0.000* 0.000* 0.000*

Combining the expectation and observation of customers, the highest mean value was observed for tangibles dimension and lowest mean value was found in 44

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empathy dimension. The standard deviation values for all the responses were found to be smaller than one. Table 4 shows the mean differences for each item instruments of the service quality dimensions. For all the items, actual or observed mean values were found as smaller compared to the expected mean values. In terms of reliability dimension, there were five items statements and gaps were found in case of all the item statements. The Mann-Whitney U Test confirmed that these gaps were significant (p-value<0.01). Similar results were found for all other dimensions except the dimension, assurance. In case of assurance dimension, significant gap was not found for the item statement making customers feel safe in their transactions (pvalue>0.01). But significant gaps were found all other item statements of this dimension. Thus service gap in all the dimensions of service quality was expected as differences were found between expected and actual perception about all the items of service quality dimensions in the female beauty parlors. Table 5 shows the mean value for expected and actual service across the five dimensions of service quality according to the SERVQUAL model. It was explored that the actual perception about the beauty parlors service were smaller than the expectation of the customers regarding the services for all the dimensions of service quality. Thus a service gap was observed for each service quality dimension. The disparity between expectation and actual service quality thus could be assumed from the differences between mean values. These gaps were further confirmed from the Mann-Whitney U Test results. Table 5: Service gap for the dimension of service quality in beauty parlors
Dimensions Reliability Responsiveness Empathy Assurance Tangibles Actual Mean 3.79 3.71 3.73 3.91 4.15 Expected Mean 4.55 4.62 4.63 4.62 4.68 Gap -0.76 -0.91 -0.90 -0.71 -0.53 Cronbach Alpha value 0.884 0.873 0.875 0.880 0.910

According to the Mann-Whitney U Test results, a significant gap was found between the expected and actual service in terms of reliability dimension (p-value < 0.01) (see Table 6). Thus H1 was rejected, which indicates a significant gap between the beauty parlor customers expectations and observations regarding the reliability dimension of service quality. Similarly, the p-values were found as significant for all other dimensions of service quality, i.e. responsiveness, empathy, assurance and tangibles. As a result, H2, H3, H4 and H5 were rejected, indicating gaps between the expected and observed perception about these four dimensions of service quality. These results clearly demonstrated that disparities are persistent in terms of service quality of female beauty parlors.

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Table 6: Service gap for the dimension of service quality in beauty parlors
Ranks Dimensions N Reliability Expecte d Actual Total Expecte d Actual Total Expecte d Actual Total Expecte d Actual Total Expecte d Actual 100 100 200 100 100 200 100 100 200 100 100 200 100 100 200 130.3 3 70.67 13033 7067 -7.407 0.000* H5 rejected 135.1 5 65.86 13514.5 6585.5 -8.552 0.000* H4 rejected 141.4 2 59.58 14142 5958 10.057 0.000* H3 rejected 142.9 58.1 14290.5 5809.5 10.452 0.000* H2 rejected Mean Rank 138.1 2 62.88 Sum of Ranks 13811.5 6288.5 -9.273 0.000* H1 rejected Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test Statistics P-value Z (2-tailed) Decisions

Responsivene ss

Empathy

Assurance

Tangibles

Total * Significant at 0.01 level

5. Discussion
The hypotheses tests confirmed that there is a significant gap between the customers expectation and actual perception regarding all th e dimensions of service quality of the beauty parlors according to the SERVQUAL model. According to the study, a significant gap exists in the reliability dimension in the beauty parlors. This result is consistent with the past researches conducted in private universities (Chowdhury, Iqbal&Miah 2010), advertisement firms (Khan 2010), tourism hotels (Tabassum, Rahman&Jahan 2012), luxurious hotels (Tabassum&Rahman 2011), Islamic banks (Abdullrahim 2010), airline services (Gilbert & Wong 2003), restaurants (Lee &Hing 1995), and patient meal services of hospitals (Hwang, Eves &Desombre 2003). The highest gap was found in the criteria of maintaining errorfree records, which reflected that wrong or defective service delivery should be reduced and they should be addressed by proper recovery strategy by the parlor authorities. A significant gap also exists in the responsiveness dimension of SERVQUAL model in terms of service quality of female beauty parlors. Responsiveness refers to the willingness and ability of the service provider to meet and adapt to customers needs. Similar result is found in other industries, such as, private universities (Chowdhury, Iqbal&Miah 2010), advertisement firms (Khan 2010), tourism hotels (Tabassum, Rahman&Jahan 2012), luxurious hotels (Tabassum&Rahman 2011), Islamic banks (Abdullrahim 2010), airline services (Gilbert & Wong 2003), 46

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restaurants (Lee &Hing 1995), phone company (Bebko 2000), and patient meal services of hospitals (Hwang, Eves &Desombre 2003). The results reflected that responding to customers request and providing prompt service were the two major areas that the parlor should look after to minimize the gap. A significant gap exists in assurance dimension as well. Assurance is the degree of trust and confidence that the customer feels that the service provider is competent to supply the service. Mostly, this stems from the degree of confidence that the customer has in the service providers staff. This result is similar as the previous researches conducted in different industries, such as, private universities (Chowdhury, Iqbal&Miah 2010), advertisement firms (Khan 2010), tourism hotels (Tabassum, Rahman&Jahan 2012), luxurious hotels (Tabassum&Rahman 2011), Islamic banks (Abdullrahim 2010), airline services (Gilbert & Wong 2003), and restaurants (Lee &Hing 1995). The result reflected that the knowledge and the confidence level of the employees of the parlors were not sufficient enough to meet up the queries of the customers and that caters to the level of gap in assurance dimension. Service customers often have expectations with regard to the extent to which the service provider appears to understand and be concerned about their individual needs and wants. The more the service provider can see things from the cus tomers point of view, the better (Siddiqi 2010). Thus the core concept of empathy is to understand the needs of customers and provide individual attention. Employee and customer interactions are reflected through the empathy dimensions. The current study shows that the beauty parlors are not enough sincere to provide individual attention and customer needs. Similar finding is addressed in terms of different industries, such as, private universities (Chowdhury, Iqbal&Miah 2010), advertisement firms (Khan 2010), tourism hotels (Tabassum, Rahman&Jahan 2012), luxurious hotels (Tabassum&Rahman 2011), Islamic banks (Abdullrahim 2010), restaurants (Lee &Hing 1995), pizza shops (Bebko 2000), and patient meal services of hospitals (Hwang, Eves &Desombre 2003). The gap in empathy was mainly resulted by the lack of understanding of customers requirement and interest and lack of caring. So, these areas should be improved According to the current study, a significant gap also exists in the tangibles dimension of service quality. Though tangibility showed the lowest gap among the criteria, the improvement and availability of sufficient modern equipment is still needed. Also the parlors lack in the visual aesthetics and in terms of employee appearance. This finding is consistent with the findings of past researches, such as, private universities (Chowdhury, Iqbal&Miah 2010), advertisement firms (Khan 2010), tourism hotels (Tabassum, Rahman&Jahan 2012), luxurious hotels (Tabassum&Rahman 2011), Islamic banks (Abdullrahim 2010), restaurants (Lee &Hing 1995), and pizza shops and book stores (Bebko 2000).

6. Managerial Implications
The study confirmed significant gap in all the dimensions of service quality according to the SERVQUAL model in the female beauty parlors. The study also suggested that SERVQUAL model is a suitable instrument for measuring the service quality in the beauty parlors of Bangladesh. Therefore, the management of beauty parlors may use this instrument for measuring service quality in terms of 47

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Bangladesh. Moreover, because significant service gap exists in all the dimensions of service quality, the beauty parlors should emphasize on all the service quality dimensions including reliability, responsiveness, empathy, assurance and tangibles in maintaining and improving the service quality that they provide.

7. Limitations and Future Research Directions

Although there are notable contributions from this study especially for customer retention strategies, the results of this study need to be viewed and acknowledged in lights of its limitations. First, the sample size was considerably low. Moreover, the study considers only the beauty parlors of Dhaka city. Therefore, in future researches may be conducted on a larger scale by considering a greater sample size from all over Bangladesh to authenticate the differences between the customer expectation and perception about the female beauty parlors. In future, other variables, i.e. customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, customer retention may be included and related with service quality to validate the importance of service quality in the beauty care industry of Bangladesh.

8. Conclusion
The study assessed the service quality in terms of the female beauty parlors in Bangladesh by using SERVQUAL model. The study revealed considerable difference between the service expectation and service perception of the female clients of the beauty parlors in terms of reliability, responsiveness, empathy, assurance and tangibles dimensions of service quality. So the beauty care providers may try to eliminate the service gaps by improving these aspects of service quality. It is emphasized in literature that service industry managers should work to prevent and minimize gaps in service quality by improving both the customer perceptions and the experiences with the service offerings (Brogowicz, Delene&Lyth 1990). Thus the managers in beauty care industry may monitor and evaluate the actual service quality delivered and the perceived level of service quality by the customers as well. As the businesses are getting more globalize and competitive, customers are now more conscious about the high level of service quality that is associated with several key organizational outcomes, including high market share (Buzzell& Gale 1987), improved profitability relative to competitors (Kearns & David 1992), enhanced customer loyalty, the realization of a competitive price premium, and an increased probability of purchase (Zeithaml, Berry &Parasuraman 1996). Thus the growth and development of beauty care industry in Bangladesh is dependent on the satisfied and loyal clientele.

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