Content area
Full text
Keywords
Customer services quality, Performance measurement (quality)
Abstract
Studies of the construct of service quality have traditionally been undertaken from the perspective of the service receiver. More recently, research has focused on both the service provider's perspective and the service receiver's perspective. In addition, there have also been some triadic network approaches to the study of service quality. However, there has been very little research into sequential service quality in service-encounter chains (that is, consecutive service performances in a series of service encounters). The incorporation of connected service encounters in services management can improve understanding of sequential service quality in service-encounter chains. This paper provides a customized construct of sequential service quality and highlights the importance of time, context, and performance threshold in service-encounter chains. Furthermore, the paper presents a generic five-phase performance process, and a customized six-dimensional construct of sequential service quality.
Electronic access
The Emerald Research Register for this journal is available at www.emeraldinsight.com/researchregister
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at www.emeraldinsight.com/0960-4529.htm
Introduction
More than two decades ago, Surprenant et al. (1983) stated that service encounters are human interactions. Service quality in all service encounters is thus intrinsically affected by the perspectives of both the service provider and the service receiver. In a similar vein, Czepiel (1990) concluded that research on service quality must always include the perspectives of both the provider and the receiver. However, most research on the service quality construct has been restricted to one perspective: that of the service receiver (Parasuraman et al., 1988; Dabholkar et al., 1996; Bienstock et al., 1997). A few have applied dual perspectives and considered interactive features of service quality in service encounters (Dedeke, 2003; Svensson, 2001, 2003; Chow-Chua and Komaran, 2002; Tam and Wong, 2001; Athanassopoulos, 1997). But, in general, little research in services management has gone beyond the single perspective or the interactive perspective. At best, triadic network approaches have been explored (Svensson, 2002).
It is apparent that there is substantial scope for research in terms of sequential service quality in service encounter chains. The title of this article highlights time, context, and performance thresholds in service encounter chains. The objective is to conceptualize and describe a customized construct of sequential service quality in service...