Services Marketing,

Integrating Customer Focus

Across the Firm
2e
by Wilson, Zeithaml, Bitner and Gremler

Chapter 5
Conceptual Framework of the Book: The
Gaps Model of Service Quality

© The McGraw-Hill Companies, 2012

Figure 5.2: Key factors leading to the provider gap 1
Gap 1: not knowing what
customers expect
Figure 5.3: Key factors leading to the provider gap 2

Gap 2: not having the right service

designs and standards
Figure 5.4: Key factors leading to the provider gap 3
Gap 3: not delivering to service standards
Figure 5.5: Key factors leading to the provider gap 4
Gap 4: not matching performance to
promises
Figure 5.6: Gaps model of service quality
Figure 5.1: The customer gap
Services Marketing,
Integrating Customer Focus
Across the Firm
2e
by Wilson, Zeithaml, Bitner and Gremler
Chapter 3
Customer Expectations of Service
Chapter 4
Customer Perceptions of Services
Chapter 6
Listening to Customers through Research
© The McGraw-Hill Companies, 2012
Figure 3.1: Possible levels of customer expectations
Figure 3.7: Factors that influence desired and predicted
service
Lasting service intensifiers
= individual, stable factors that
lead to a heightened
sensitivity to service
(accountability, philosophy)

Temporary service intensifiers = short-term, individual

factors that make a customer more aware of the need for
service (responsiveness in an emergency)
Figure 4.1: Customer perceptions of quality and customer
satisfaction

Expectations
vary by quality
dimension)
 5 διαστάσεις της ποιότητας όπως την αντιλαμβάνεται ο
καταναλωτής SERVQUAL
 Reliability: consistency and certainty in terms of
performance.
 Responsiveness /Responsibility: The degree to which
company employees are helpful and capable of
providing fast service
 Security / Assurance: the company employees’
competence, courtesy and precision in delivering the
service
 Empathy: The capacity a person providing the service
has to experience the customer’s feelings.
 Tangibles: physical evidence
Tangibles
Poplar Kid’s Republic, Πεκίνο, Κίνα

Selexyz Bookstore, Μάαστριχτ, Ολλανδία

Consumer Research approaches
 Complaint solicitation
 Critical incident studies
 Researching customer needs
 Customer satisfaction and SERVQUAL
surveys
 Database marketing research
 Exit surveys
 Service expectation meetings and reviews
Research approaches (continued)

 Market-oriented ethnography
 Monitoring user-generated content
 Netnography
 Mystery shopping
 Customer panels
 Lost customer follow-up
 Future expectations research