The Servqual Model – The Gap Model of Service Quality | Quality G (2024)

For the product quality, Garvin provided eight dimensions of quality.

The Servqual model (also called the gap model) was developed by American authors A. Parasuraman, Valarie A. Zeithaml and Len Berry. In general, the SERVQUAL model identifies the principal dimensions of service quality.

Initially, there were ten dimensions of service quality identified. However, later these were reduced to 5 as some of these dimensions were auto-correlated. These five dimensions of service quality are Reliability, Assurance, Tangibility, Empathy, and Responsiveness.

RATER Framework - Elements of Service Quality

According to the SERVQUAL model, a service provider must be able to provide five critical elements of service: reliability, responsiveness, tangibility, assurance, and empathy.

These five elements can be abbreviated as RATER.

1. Reliability

Reliability means the degree to which a service can be relied upon to produce the desired result or outcome at any given time. This measures the consistency of services provided by an organization. If an organization offers consistent services, then it will have high reliability.

2: Assurance

Assurance means the level of confidence that a customer has about the quality of service.

3: Tangibility

Tangibility means the physical appearance of the product or service provided by the organization. It includes things like cleanliness, neatness, and appearance.

4. Empathy

Empathy means the ability of an organization to understand what its customers want and need.

5: Responsiveness

Responsiveness refers to how quickly a service responds to customers' needs.

In general, these five dimensions are considered representative of the dimensions of service quality for different types of services.

SERVQUAL Model: 5 Gaps

In order to provide services, companies must be aware of what their clients expect from them. Therefore, the SERVQUAL model identifies five gaps that can occur between the client's expectations and the services provided by the organization. These include:

Gap 1. Knowledge gap

A gap in the service arises if the organization is not aware of what customer wants. If the organization fails to understand customers' expectations, it will prevent them from serving customers better.

Gap 2. Standards gap

The organization has already formulated its ideas about what kind of services the customer wants. These ideas do not match up with what customers really want. There is, therefore, a high chance that the organization will translate them incorrectly into a quality policy and set of rules.

Gap 3. Delivery gap

Let's assume that the organization has clearly understood what the customer wants (no knowledge gap) and has appropriately formulated the customer's needs into their policies and work processes (no standard gap). Still, there is a possibility that the organization might fail to deliver the service in the planned way. This will be the delivery gap.

Gap 4. Communications gap

To avoid creating false expectations or misleading promises, organizations should ensure that their external communications accurately reflect what they can deliver. Over-promise and under-delivery could raise customer expectations high, and the organization fails to deliver at that standard. This will be the communication gap.

To reduce the risk of communication gaps, organizations should ensure that they communicate clearly about their products or services.

Gap 5. Satisfaction gap

Customers are unhappy because they expect a certain level of service but get something different. Eventually, customers will be dissatisfied with the product or service they receive.