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• Module overview
• 1. What is marketing?
  • 1.1 What is marketing?
    • 1.1.1 Different uses of the term 'marketing'
    • 1.1.2 Different levels of marketing
    • 1.1.3 A definition of marketing
  • 1.2 Clarification of the marketing definition
    • 1.2.1 Outputs
    • 1.2.2 Inputs
    • 1.2.3 Exchange
  • 1.3 Development of marketing
  • 1.4 Types of marketing
  • 1.5 What is a service?
    • 1.5.1 Characteristics of services
    • 1.5.2 A service definition
    • 1.5.3 Classifications of services
    • 1.5.4 Services: a growth sector
  • 1.6 Marketing in the maritime industry
  • 1.7 Towards social and ethical responsibility
    • 1.7.1 Common criticisms of marketing
    • 1.7.2 Social impact of marketing
  • 1.8 Summary

• 2. Strategic marketing management

  • 2.1 Introduction
  • 2.2 The environments
    • 2.2.1 External environment
    • 2.2.2 Internal environment
    • 2.2.3 Mission statements and objectives
    • 2.2.4 Resources
  • 2.3 Controllable factors
  • 2.4 The strategic marketing management process
    • 2.4.1 Planning
    • 2.4.2 Implementation and control
    • 2.4.3 Marketing plan
  • 2.5 Types of marketing strategies
    • 2.5.1 Strategic considerations for services
  • 2.6 Summary

• 3. Marketing research and information systems

  • 3.1 Introduction
  • 3.2 The marketing information system (MIS)
  • 3.3 Marketing research
    • 3.3.1 Scope of research
  • 3.4 The marketing research process
    • 3.4.1 Step 1: defining the problem
    • 3.4.2 Step 2: analysing the situation
    • 3.4.3 Step 3: obtaining problem-specific data
    • 3.4.4 Step 4: interpreting the data
    • 3.4.5 Step 5: solving the problem
  • 3.5 Summary

• 4. Consumer and B2B buying behaviour

  • 4.1 Introduction
  • 4.2 Consumer buying behaviour
    • 4.2.1 Psychological influences
    • 4.2.2 Cultural and social influences
    • 4.2.3 The decision-making process
  • 4.3 B2B buying behaviour
    • 4.3.1 Business buying processes
    • 4.3.2 Main types of business markets
  • 4.4 The buying of services
  • 4.5 Summary

• 5. Segmenting markets, targeting and positioning

  • 5.1 Introduction
  • 5.2 Market segmentation
    • 5.2.1 Dimensions used to segment markets
  • 5.3 Target markets
  • 5.4 Market positioning
  • 5.5 Summary

• 6. Product planning and decisions

  • 6.1 Introduction
  • 6.2 Product concepts
    • 6.2.1 The total product concept
    • 6.2.2 Product classifications
    • 6.2.3 The service offering
  • 6.3 The product mix
  • 6.4 Branding
  • 6.5 Packaging
  • 6.6 Product life-cycle
  • 6.7 Product development
  • 6.8 Summary

• 7. Pricing considerations

  • 7.1 What is the 'price' of a product?
  • 7.2 Pricing environments
  • 7.3 Pricing objectives
  • 7.4 Pricing policies
    • 7.4.1 Discount and allowance policies
  • 7.5 Price setting
    • 7.5.1 Cost-oriented price setting
    • 7.5.2 Demand-oriented price setting
    • 7.5.3 The price setting process
  • 7.6 Summary

• 8. Marketing logistics networks

  • 8.1 Introduction
  • 8.2 Definition of distribution
  • 8.3 Channels of distribution
    • 8.3.1 Selecting channels
    • 8.3.2 Main Australian channels
    • 8.3.3 Distributing services
    • 8.3.4 Managing channels
  • 8.4 Managing distribution
  • 8.5 Distribution and ports
  • 8.6 Summary

• 9. Integrated marketing communications

  • 9.1 Communication with a purpose
  • 9.2 Marketing communication process
  • 9.3 The promotional mix
  • 9.4 Managing advertising
  • 9.5 Managing publicity and public relations
  • 9.6 Managing personal selling
  • 9.7 Managing sales promotion
  • 9.8 Summary

• 10. E-commerce and direct marketing

  • 10.1 Introduction
  • 10.2 Direct marketing
  • 10.3 Electronic commerce
    • 10.3.1 Successful e-commerce
  • 10.4 Online marketing
  • 10.5 Using customer databases
  • 10.6 Privacy issues
  • 10.7 Summary

• 11. Managing the service encounter

  • 11.1 Introduction
  • 11.2 Participants
    • 11.2.1 Customers
    • 11.2.2 Service personnel
  • 11.3 Managing the service encounter
    • 11.3.1 Role theory
    • 11.3.2 Script theory
  • 11.4 Process
    • 11.4.1 Operations management and services
    • 11.4.2 Manufacturing efficiency
    • 11.4.3 Improving services efficiency
    • 11.4.4 Matching supply and demand
  • 11.5 Physical evidence
    • 11.5.1 Types of physical evidence
    • 11.5.2 Space demarcation
    • 11.5.3 Atmospherics
    • 11.5.4 Servicescapes
  • 11.6 Summary

• 12. Customer relationship management

  • 12.1 Introduction
  • 12.2 Customer relationship management
  • 12.3 Customer satisfaction
    • 12.3.1 Benefits of customer satisfaction
  • 12.4 Service quality
    • 12.4.1 Conceptual model of service quality
    • 12.4.2 SERVQUAL
  • 12.5 Summary

12.4 Service quality

Service quality is a recent concept in the services marketing literature. In fact there was little academic research in service quality until the 1980s. However, the area of service quality is now one of the largest areas of research.

From your understanding of the characteristics of services you will no doubt also appreciate that achieving consistent, high quality delivery of services is not a simple matter. The interactive nature of the service experience effectively precludes it, quite aside from whether or not we could reach agreement on just what service quality actually means.

Activity 12.4

Write down now what you think 'service quality' means; firstly:

1. Write down the key words which you think identify characteristics of the meaning of service quality.
2. Then write down what you think the definition of the term might be.

Most of the definitions of quality are derived from manufacturing environments where it is easy to determine which products are suitable for sale or rejected. However, these are not always suitable for services as manufacturers do not have to contend with the customer being a participant in the production process.

Definitions of service quality have included:

'[Service] quality refers to the extent to which a service is what it claims to be and does what it claims to do' (Mudie and Cottam 1993, p. 77).

'Service quality is . an intuitively integrated value of the appropriateness of the service offerings to the customers' (Sasser et al. 1978, p. 177).

'Quality can be defined only by customers and occurs where an organisation supplies goods and services to a specification which satisfies their needs' (Palmer 1994, p. 174).

'Service quality is a measure of how well the service level delivered matches customer expectations. Delivering quality service means conforming to customer expectations on a consistent basis' (Lewis and Booms 1983, cited in Parasuraman et al. 1985, p. 42).

In contrast to the first definition that is goal oriented, the last three have a customer focus, which is now seen as being a necessity when discussing service quality. Service quality then can be defined as the extent to which any service meets customers' needs requiring the focus of the entire organisation and being ongoing.

If service quality is defined by the customer, AND we know that customers require services to satisfy different wants and needs, AND customers have different expectations of the service experience, it becomes clearer then that service quality will mean different things to each customer.

When we then consider that achieving consistent high quality is difficult due to the interactive nature of the service experience (remember the servuction model and the heterogeneity characteristic), it becomes clearer why Parasuraman et al. (1985) claim service quality is elusive and indistinct.

If you are beginning to think this is all beginning to sound like customer satisfaction, well do not be too concerned because the two concepts are related. Customer satisfaction is a short-term measure and is the outcome of the customer's evaluation of a specific transaction. Service quality can be differentiated because it is an attitude that pertains to the customer's global evaluation of the service offering. That is, the evaluation is formed from a series of evaluated service experiences.

You may find Parasuraman et al.'s (1985) definition useful in clarifying service quality as being:

consumer's judgement [across multiple service encounters] about the firm's overall excellence or superiority . it is a form of attitude related, but not equivalent to satisfaction.

Read now what your text has to say about quality, noting that where we have approached quality from the perspective of service quality, your text examines quality from a broader approach. This will provide an introduction to the much deeper discussion on quality that you will gain in the Quality Systems and Customer Service unit during your studies. We will come back to Parasuraman et al's (1985) view of service quality shortly.

In your text

Kotler et al. (2004) Chapter 2, pp. 61-66, 'Implementing total quality marketing' and 'Summary'.

Activity 12.5

Compare the definitions of service quality you have now read with the characteristics and definition you provided in Activity 12.2. How similar are they? What are the main differences between all the definitions and yours ¾ can you suggest a better definition?

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