University of Twente Student Theses
Bridging the gap between service expectations- and service perceptions of customers - Conducting a gap-analysis at IVM using the SERVQUAL-method
Thuijsman, Thomas (2017) Bridging the gap between service expectations- and service perceptions of customers - Conducting a gap-analysis at IVM using the SERVQUAL-method.
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| Abstract: | Around the turn of the century businesses have been putting more emphasis on service quality as being their competitive advantage. The aim of this paper is to test the appropriateness of conventional research methods to assess the service quality of a firm, whilst also providing insight into the performance of the same firm regarding service quality. This paper starts with the concept of service quality and continues with presenting the SERVQUAL method that makes use of the service quality gaps. The SERVQUAL method comes with an instrument to measure the difference between service quality expectations and service quality perceptions. This instrument, together with an exploratory study, is applied in this paper to measure the service quality of IVM, a Dutch SME. The existence of six out of seven gaps was found making use of the qualitative measurement, namely the interviews. The SERVQUAL instrument determined a gap between the service expectations and service perceptions of customers. This means, that customers of IVM have higher expectations than perceptions of the service quality of IVM. The study provided IVM with insights regarding their service quality, which can assist them in improving their service. Next to that, this study shows that the SERVQUAL method is very well applicable in a B2B setting. |
| Item Type: | Essay (Master) |
| Faculty: | BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences |
| Subject: | 85 business administration, organizational science |
| Programme: | Business Administration MSc (60644) |
| Link to this item: | https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/73468 |
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