An Empirical Evaluation of Alternative Scales To Measure Service Quality and Assessment Of Service Quality Dimensions

Abstract

In service quality measurement disconfirmation based scale SERVQUAL and performance only scale SERVPERF are being advocated as being the two widely applied service quality measurement scales. There have been historical arguments about comparative appropriateness of SERVQUAL and SERVPERF. Since focus of past studies has been more on methodological and diagnostic power of the scales in developed countries- this study represents an effort towards evaluating the two scales for banking industry in the context of a developing Country- India and particularly Gujarat state. The two alternative scales were compared in terms of reliability, validity, predictive ability to explain variation in Overall service quality, relation ship with customer satisfaction and diagnostic capability for providing directions for managerial interventions. Based on results of this study, SERVQUAL model is identified more appropriate measurement for its diagnostic power, whereas SERVPERF scores on it s predictive capability to explain overall service quality and association with customer satisfaction. The factor analysis indicates a seven dimensional structure instead of five. This study suggest for further research and extensive scale adaptation before scales developed in other countries are applied in Indian Context.