Customers’ service quality perception in automotive repair

Purpose - – This purpose of this paper is to investigate the diagnostic abilities and dimensional structure of the SERVQUAL scale within a non-western automotive repair services setting. Design/methodology/approach - – Data collected from a randomly generated sample of 555 participants that produced a 50.63 percent response rate was factor analyzed and tested for internal scale consistency. A one sample Findings - – This study reveals that the SERVQUAL scale is a valid and reliable measure of service quality within the automotive repair services setting in a non-western context. Further outcomes from the assessment show that, even though the original five dimensional SERVQUAL structure was successfully replicated, there were definite differences in items assignment. Empathy also emerged as the most important dimension of service quality. Research limitations/implications - – The outcomes of this study cannot be generalized. As such, the SERVQUAL scale should receive more rigorous research in non-western contexts in two directions. First, the scale should be tested across other services fields to further confirm its diagnostic abilities and dimensional structure. Second, more multi-sectoral as well as cross-cultural studies tested across larger data sets is equally required to enhance generalizability of findings across other non-western environments. Originality/value - – This study demonstrated that the SERVQUAL scale is a valid and reliable measure of service quality within the automotive repair services setting in a non-western context with empathy emerging as the most significant dimension of service quality.

[1]  Maive Suuroja.  Service Quality - Main Conceptualizations and Critique , 2003 .

[2]  C. Grönroos.  A Service Quality Model and its Marketing Implications , 1984 .

[3]  Ike-Elechi Ogba,et al.  Commitment in the workplace: The impact of income and age on employee commitment in Nigerian banking sector , 2008 .

[4]  M. Bhatt.  Service Management and Marketing , 2011 .

[5]  O. Ferrell,et al.  The management of customer-contact service employees: An empirical investigation. , 1996 .

[6]  C. A. Moser,et al.  Survey Methods in Social Investigation , 1958 .

[8]  G. Hofstede.  Culture′s Consequences: Comparing Values, Behaviors, Institutions and Organizations Across Nations , 2001 .

[9]  Judy A. Siguaw,et al.  Best Practices in the U.S. Lodging Industry , 1999 .

[10]  Ashraf Elmayar.  Assessing the perceived service quality levels in the Libyan private and public banking sectors : a customer perspective , 2011 .

[11]  D. E. Headley,et al.  Measuring service quality and its relationship to future consumer behavior. , 1993, Journal of health care marketing.

[12]  Jacques Nantel,et al.  A reliable and valid measurement scale for the perceived service quality of banks , 2000 .

[13]  Christian Grönroos,et al.  Service Management and Marketing: Managing the Moments of Truth in Service Competition , 1992 .

[14]  M. Bartlett.  A Note on the Multiplying Factors for Various χ2 Approximations , 1954 .

[15]  R. Sitgreaves.  Psychometric theory (2nd ed.). , 1979 .

[16]  S. Robinson,et al.  Measuring service quality: current thinking and future requirements , 1999 .

[17]  Heung-Chul Oh,et al.  An empirical study of the relationship between restaurant image and customer loyalty , 1995 .

[18]  A. Parasuraman,et al.  Building a New Academic Field-- The Case of Services Marketing , 1993 .

[19]  Charles A. McMellon,et al.  Exploring the determinants of retail service quality on the Internet , 2004 .

[20]  R. Reidenbach,et al.  Exploring perceptions of hospital operations by a modified SERVQUAL approach. , 1990, Journal of health care marketing.

[21]  J. E. Swan,et al.  SERVQUAL revisited: a critical review of service quality , 1996 .

[22]  C. Grönroos.  Service Management and Marketing: Customer Management in Service Competition , 2007 .

[23]  S. Roy,et al.  Service Quality And Customer Satisfaction: An Empirical Investigation In Indian Mobile Telecommunications Services , 2008 .

[24]  J. Carman.  Consumer perceptions of service quality: an assessment of the SERVQUAL dimensions , 1990 .

[25]  J. J. Cronin,et al.  Performance-only measurement of service quality: a replication and extension , 2002 .

[26]  R. Bagozzi.  Evaluating Structural Equation Models with Unobservable Variables and Measurement Error: A Comment , 1981 .

[27]  Len Tiu Wright,et al.  The Marketing Research Process , 1981 .

[28]  Riadh Ladhari.  Alternative measures of service quality: a review , 2008 .

[29]  Adele Berndt,et al.  Investigating service quality dimensions in South African motor vehicle servicing , 2009 .

[30]  Emin Babakus,et al.  An empirical assessment of the SERVQUAL scale , 1992 .

[31]  B. Tabachnick,et al.  Using Multivariate Statistics , 1983 .

[32]  S. Kandasamy,et al.  An Investigation Of Service Quality And Customer Satisfaction Among Hotels In Langkawi , 2011 .

[33]  Darren Lee-Ross,et al.  An exploratory study of the contextual stability of SERVQUAL amongst three retail clusters in far North Queensland , 2008 .

[34]  Panagiotis Trivellas,et al.  Investigating the impact of service quality and customer satisfaction on customer loyalty in mobile telephony in Greece , 2010 .

[35]  D. Lyth,et al.  A Synthesised Service Quality Model with Managerial Implications , 1990 .

[36]  Cornelius Ogbodo Anayo Agbo,et al.  RECYCLE MATERIALS POTENTIAL OF IMPORTED USED VEHICLES IN NIGERIA , 2011 .

[37]  R. Teas,et al.  Consumer Expectations and the Measurement of Perceived Service Quality , 1993 .

[38]  Sanjay K. Jain,et al.  Measuring Service Quality: Servqual vs. Servperf Scales , 2004 .

[39]  Geetika,et al.  Determinants of Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality: A Study of Railway Platforms in India , 2010 .

[40]  M. Hsu,et al.  A typology analysis of service quality, customer satisfaction and behavioral intentions in mass services , 2006 .

[41]  C. Grönroos.  The perceived service quality concept – a mistake? , 2001 .

[42]  Y. V. Hui,et al.  An empirical assessment and application of SERVQUAL in a Mainland Chinese department store , 2002 .

[43]  Harsh V. Verma,et al.  RELATIVE IMPORTANCE OF SERVICE QUALITY DIMENSIONS: A MULTISECTORAL STUDY , 2004 .

[44]  G. Svensson.  New aspects of research into service encounters and service quality , 2006 .

[45]  A. Parasuraman,et al.  A Conceptual Model of Service Quality and Its Implications for Future Research , 1985 .

[46]  Joseph Coughlan,et al.  The Effect of Different Inputs to Factor Analysis: an Example using Service Quality in UK Branch Banking , 2007 .

[47]  Steven A. Taylor,et al.  Measuring Service Quality: A Reexamination and Extension , 1992 .

[48]  J. J. Cronin,et al.  Some New Thoughts on Conceptualizing Perceived Service Quality: A Hierarchical Approach , 2001 .

[49]  S. G. Deshmukh,et al.  Service quality models: a review , 2005 .

[50]  A. Parasuraman,et al.  SERVQUAL: A multiple-item scale for measuring consumer perceptions of service quality. , 1988 .

[51]  Thabet A. Edris.  Services considered important to business customers and determinants of bank selection in Kuwait: a segmentation analysis , 1997 .

[52]  C. Fornell,et al.  Evaluating structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error. , 1981 .

[53]  B. Schneider,et al.  Service Quality: Research Perspectives , 2003 .

[54]  W. Mangold,et al.  Adapting the SERVQUAL scale to hospital services: an empirical investigation. , 1992, Health services research.

[55]  G. Mcdougall,et al.  Determinants of customer satisfaction in retail banking , 1996 .

[56]  C. Lymperopoulos,et al.  Service quality effect on satisfaction and word of mouth in the health care industry , 2009 .

[57]  T. Brown,et al.  Exploratory Factor Analysis: A Five-Step Guide for Novices , 2010 .

[58]  M. Bartlett,et al.  A note on the multiplying factors for various chi square approximations , 1954 .

[59]  Jörgen Sandberg,et al.  Service Quality and the Consumer's Experience: Towards an Interpretive Approach , 2002 .

[60]  L. Eboli,et al.  Service Quality Attributes Affecting Customer Satisfaction for Bus Transit , 2007 .