Improving the measurement of service quality

Abstract

SERVQUAL, which involves the calculation of the differences between expectations and perceptions on a number of prespecified criteria, is currently the most popular measure of service quality. However, there are some serious problems in conceptualizing service quality as a difference score; these are reviewed and empirically investigated in this paper. An alternative method for measuring service quality is found to have favorable psychometric properties and to be more efficient than SERVQUAL.