Theory of the Gaps Model in Service Marketing |

| | Theory Of The Gaps Model In Service Marketing | | History of the Gaps Model The gaps model of service quality was first developed by a group of authors, Parasuraman, Zeithaml, Berry, at Texas A&M and North Carolina Universities, in 1985 (Parasuraman, Zeithaml & Berry). Based on exploratory studies of service such as executive interviews and focus groups in four different service businesses the authors proposed a conceptual model of service quality indicating that consumers’ perception toward a service quality depends on the four gaps existing in organization – consumer environments. They further developed in-depth measurement scales for service quality in a later year (Parasuraman, Zeithaml, Berry, 1988). Theory of the Gaps Model Perceived service quality can be defined as, according to the model, the difference between consumers’ expectation and perceptions which eventually depends on the size and the direction of the four gaps concerning the delivery of service quality on the company’s side (Fig. 1; Parasuraman, Zeithaml, Berry, 1985). Customer Gap = f (Gap 1, Gap 2, Gap 3, Gap 4) The magnitude and the direction of each gap will affect the service quality. For instance, Gap 3 will be favourable if the delivery of a service exceeds the standards of service required by the organization, and it will be unfavourable when the specifications of the service delivered are not met. |

Fig. 1: The Integrated Gaps Model of Service Quality
(Parasuraman, Zeithaml, Berry 1985)

The key points for each gap can be summarized as follows:  Customer gap: The difference between customer expectations and perceptions – the service quality gap.  Gap 1: The difference between what customers expected and what management perceived about the expectation of customers.  Gap 2: The difference between management’s perceptions of customer expectations and the translation of those perceptions into

Citations: Berry L., Parasuraman A. & Zeithaml V. (1988), The Service-Quality Puzzle, Business Horizons, Sep-Oct, pp 35-43. Parasuraman A., Zeithaml V. & Berry L. (1985), A conceptual model of service quality and its implications for future research, Journal of Marketing, Vol 49, pp 41-50. Parasuraman A., Zeithaml V. & Berry L. (1988), SERVQUAL: A Multiple-Item Scale for Measuring Consumer Perceptions of Service Quality, Journal of Retailing; Vol. 64 Issue 1, pp12-40 Zeithaml V., Berry L. & Parasuraman A., (1988), Communication and control processes in the delivery of service quality, Journal of Marketing, Vol 52, pp 35-48.   Application Areas Management, service marketing, consumer behaviour