Service quality in retailing: relative efficiency of alternative measurement scales for different product‐service environments

Abstract

Current measures of service quality do not effectively capture customers' perceptions of service quality for different types of retail stores. Explores the usefulness of SERVPERF, the perceptions component of SERVQUAL and a retail service quality scale (the DTR scale) in measuring the service quality of different product-service retail environments. Specifically, investigates the relative performance of two scales measuring the service quality of retailers where goods purchase is the primary focus, against another where both goods and services are equally important. Results showed that the DTR scale was superior within the context of a``more goods and less services'' environment, i.e. a supermarket, while SERVPERF was better for a retailing context where the service element becomes more important, i.e. an electronic goods retailer. This modified scale measured the service quality of an electronic goods retailer more effectively than either the DTR scale or the SERVPERF. Implications for retailers are discussed

Retailer Service Quality and Customer Loyalty: Empirical Evidence in Vietnam

“…RSQS (Dabholkar et al, 1996) The findings supported the applicability of Retail service quality scale in the context of department stores, specialty stores and hypermarkets Mehta et al (2000) Singapore Customers of electronic goods retailers and supermarkets RSQS (Dabholkar et al, 1996) and SERVPERF (Cronin & Tailor, 1992) RSQS was found to be fit in a supermarket environment. SERVPERF was better for measuring retail service quality because the service element is more prevalent.…”

“…Retail Service Quality Scale was carefully developed, validated and refined by Dabholkar et al (1996) and demonstrated being reasonable fit for retail context in many countries, namely South Africa (Christo & Terblanche, 1997), Singapore (Mehta et al, 2000), Kazakhstan (Das et al, 2008). However, this scale was proven being inappropriate for application in Indian retail (Kaul, 2007).…”

Building Customers’ Re-Patronage Intention through Service Quality of Community Mall in Bangkok

“…Dabholkar, Thorpe and Rentz (1996) developed RSQS and suggested hierarchical structure of five dimensions known as physical aspects, reliability, personal interaction, problem solving and policy. RSQS has been used to replicate the study in a retail sector such as in supermarket (Mehta, Lalwani, & Han, 2000), in department store chain (Siu & Cheung, 2001) and in discount stores (Kim & Jin, 2002) and concluded that it was suitable for setting with less services, and rather more goods like in hypermarket.…”

Assessing Service Quality: A Combination of SERVPERF and Importance-Performance Analysis

“…The results are shown in Table 3, respect to each item statement and each section: importance and perception. The weighting factors are calculated using Equation (2) and the performance of service quality is computed using Equation (1).…”

“…Service quality currently has been considered as a strategic tools for positioning and means of attaining operational efficiency, improving business performance [1], as well as a key factor for the success of service providers. The improvement of service quality will result in the satisfaction improvement of service customers [2]- [4].…”