THE GAPS MODEL OF

SERVICE QUALITY
The Gaps Model of Service
Quality
 A third model for addressing services
challenges is the gaps model of services
quality.

 The model focuses on strategies and

process that firms can employ to drive
service excellence.

 It is a model that can be used to drive

strategy as well as implementation
 Expected
Custome
Service
r
Custome
r Gap
Perceived
Service

External
Compan Service Delivery Communication
y Gap 4 to customers
Gap 1
Gap 3
Customer driven
Service designs and
standards
Gap 2

Company Perception of
Consumer expectation
THE CUSTOMER GAP
 The central focus of the gaps model is
the customer gap, the difference
between customer expectations and
perceptions.

 Expectations are the reference points

customers have coming in to a service
experience,

 Perceptions reflect the service as

actually received
 THE CUSTOMER GAP
 The firms will like to close this gap –
between what is expected and what
is received –
 to satisfy their customers and
 to build long term relationships with
them.

 To close this all-important customer

gap, the model suggests that four
other gaps – the provider gaps –
 THE PROVIDER GAPS
 The provider gaps are the
underlying causes behind the
customer gap:
 Gap 1: Not knowing what customers
expect

 Gap 2: Not selecting the right service

designs and standards
 Gap 3: Not delivering to service
standards
 Gap 4: Not matching performance to
THE PROVIDER GAPS
 Gap 1: Not knowing what customers
expect

 A primary cause in many firms for not

meeting customers’ expectations is that the
firm lacks accurate understanding of exactly
what those expectations are.

 A gap exist between company perceptions

of customers’ expectations and what
customers actually expect.

 We will try to explore why this gap occurs

and develop strategies for closing it.
THE PROVIDER GAPS
 Gap 2: Not selecting the right
service designs and
standards

 Even if a firm does have a clear

understanding of its customers’
expectations, there still have
problems if that understanding is not
translated into customer-driven
service designs and standards
THE PROVIDER GAPS
 Gap 3: Not delivering to service
standards
 Once service designs and standards
are in place, the firm is on its way to
delivering high-quality services. But
this is not enough.

 There must be systems, processes,

and people in place to ensure that
service delivery actually matches (or
is even better than) the designs and
THE PROVIDER GAPS
 Gap 4: Not matching performance
to promises.

 Finally with everything in place to

effectively meet or exceed customer
expectations, the firm must ensure
that what is promised to customers
matches what is delivered.
CLOSING THE CUSTOMER
GAP
 The gaps model says that a service
marketer must first close the customer
gap.

 To do so, the provider must close the

four provider gaps, or discrepancies
within the organization that inhibit
delivery of quality service.

 The gaps model focuses on strategies

and processes that firms can employ to
CLOSING THE CUSTOMER
GAP
CUSTOMER  The figure
GAP
corresponds to two
Expected
Service
concepts –
CUSTOMER
EXPECTATIONS and
Custome CUSTOMER
r Gap
PERCEPTIONS

Perceived  It plays a major role

Service
in services
CLOSING THE CUSTOMER
GAP
 Customer Perceptions are subjective
assessments of actual service
experiences.

 Customer Expectations are the standard

of or reference points for performance
against which service experiences are
compared and are often formulated in
terms of what a customer believes
should or will happen.
CLOSING THE CUSTOMER
GAP
 The sources of customer
expectations consist of
 Marketer-controlled factors (price,
advertising, sales promises etc.) and
 Factors which marketer has limited
ability to affect (word-of-mouth
communication, competitive offerings
etc)

 The goal of services marketing is

to bridge this gap.
 CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR IN
SERVICES
 Consumer problem: Time Deficiency
 The Solution: Services
 Changing family structure and job profile, dual
career couple, single, atomic family etc. are
realising consumer burning need: TIME.
 The antidote to time deficiency?
 New Services/Innovative features: Wedding
consultants & arrangement, executive
meeting organizer, presentation preparation,
home delivery (retailer, banks, etc.).
 Extending working hours to suit consumer
schedules

CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR IN
SERVICES
 Primary objective of producers and
marketers is identical: to develop and
provide offerings that satisfy consumer
needs and expectations.
 Other words, marketers need to be able
to close the customer gap.
 Therefore it is also important to
understand consumer evaluation
process/ decision process for selection
of a service
 SERVICES: Search Vs
Experience Vs Credence
Properties
 Categories of properties of consumer
Easy to
products:
evaluate  Search qualities: attributes that can be
determined before purchasing of a product.
Ex. Clothing, Jewelry, Furniture, Houses etc.
 Experience qualities: attributes that can be
identified after purchase or during
purchase. Meals, Vacation, Hair Cut etc.
 Credence qualities: characteristics that
consumer may find difficult/impossible to
Difficult to evaluate even after purchase and
evaluate consumption. Ex. Medical Diagnosis
CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR IN
SERVICES
 Normally the decision process for
goods purchase:
1. Need Recognition
2. Information search
3. Evaluation of alternatives
4. Purchase
5. Purchase outcome or feedback
CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR IN
SERVICES
 In purchase of services:
 Information Search
 Evaluation of alternatives
 Purchase and consumption
 Post Purchase Evaluation

 These do not occur in sequence

 CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR IN
SERVICES

INFORMATION SEARCH EVALUATION OF ALTERNATIVES

•Use of Personal sources •Evoked set
•Perceived Risk •Emotion and mood

PURCHASE & CONSUMPTION POST PURCHASE EVALUATION

•Service provision as drama •Attribution of dissatisfaction
•Service roles & scripts •Innovation diffusion
•Compatibility of customers •Brand Loyalty
Information Search
 Use of Personal Sources
 Friends, experts etc.
 Use of Non-personal Sources
 Mass or selective media
 Non-personal sources may not be available if
small, local vendors
 Perceived Risk
 Some degree of risk perceived in all transactions
 Dissatisfied customers may not or rarely come back
if alternatives are available
 They use the strategies to reduce the perceived risk.
Evaluation of Service
Alternatives
 Evoked Set
 Set of alternatives - acceptable options in a
given product category
 Smaller set as two brands of services are
rarely provided in a single institution (bank,
dry cleaner, hair salon etc.)
 Faced with the task of collecting &
evaluation experience qualities, consumer
may select the first one.
 Emotion & Mood
 It influence people (customers) perceptions
and evaluations of their experiences.
 Purchase and
Consumption
 Service Provision as Drama
 Both aim to create and maintain a desirable impression
before an audience and required to manage the actors and
the physical setting of their behaviour.
 Service Roles & Scripts
 Each player (both employees & customers) having a role to
perform
 Employees need to perform their role as per the
expectations of customers
 Customers are to be informed and educated about the
expectations and requirements of service.
 Compatibility of Customers
 Role of other customers (Restaurants, dances, bars,
spectator sports, movie hall etc.)
 Customers can be incompatible due to many reasons:
difference in beliefs, values, experiences, abilities to pay,
 Post Purchase Evaluation
 Attribution of Dissatisfaction
 May attribute to different sources, producers, retailers,
or themselves
 Customers own decision making error
 Innovation Diffusion
 Rate of diffusion depends on consumer perception of
innovation
 Compatible to existing norms, values, and behaviours –
more easily diffuse
 Ex. Novel Day Care Center: providing breakfast to the
employee’s children
 Brand Loyalty
 Committed to particular brands depends on many factor:
switching cost, availability of substitutes, perceived risk,
degree of satisfaction in the past