Importance of Service Quality in Business: A Literature Review

Running head: MARKETING
Marketing
Name of the Student
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Author Note

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Introduction
The term service quality referred to the comparison of expectations of a service with the
alleged performance which in turn has lead the equation SQ=P-E. Service quality is considered
to be a highly crucial part of a business. An organization whose management which provides
high service quality has the potential to meet consumer expectations while remaining
competitive economically. The chief aim of conducting the literature review on service quality is
to understand the factors that should be considered by the management of an organization to
ensure high service quality (Ali and Raza 2017). Conducting a literature review will help the
research to gain effective knowledge on the impact of service quality on business. The different
factors of service quality that will be analysed include the impact of the SERVQUAL model on
service quality of businesses and how service quality is related to consumer satisfaction. For
ensuring the authenticity of the literature review, 10 academic articles relevant to the research
topic has been selected. For ensuring the relevancy of the literature review to contemporary
service quality issues, research papers published within after 2015 will be considered eligible for
the literature review. The organizational pattern that will be selected for the literature review
includes Theoretical review.
Discussion
Historical Backgrounds
The first model based that was developed based on service quality of an organization was
the Nordic model. Gronroos was the first who developed Nordic Model and found that the
dimension of the service quality in the global terms is consists of both functional as well as
technological quality. In his model, Goonroos had recognized two dimensions of service quality

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dimensions, namely, the technical quality as well as the functional quality. While the technical
quality is found to be focused on the result from the respective service with the help of
interaction with the service providers, the functional quality has been found to be associated with
the process dimension which possesses the potential to evaluate the manner of the delivery of the
respective services from the service provider.
In the year 1988, Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry proposed the second perspective
associated with the service quality, popularly known as the SERVQUAL model (Ngo and
Nguyen 2016). The term SERVQUAL model refers to a multidimensional research instrument
which is designed for capturing the expectation of the consumers as well as the perceptions
associated with the service and the five dimensions which are believed to representing the
service quality. The five dimensions associated with the SERVQUAL Model include reliability,
assurance, tangibles, empathy and responsiveness. Reliability in business refers to the ability of
performing the promised service in an accurate way as well as dependably. When it comes to
assurance, it can be defined as the courtesy as well as knowledge of the employees that helps
them to gain the confidence and trust of the consumers. Tangibles are referred to the appearance
of physical facilities, personnel, equipments as well as communication materials that helps the
management to enhance the organization’s service quality. Empathy can be defined as the
provision of caring a well as individualized attention to the consumers. Finally, responsiveness
of an organization is measured by the willingness of the same to help the consumers provide
prompt action.
Nguyen et al. (2018) have pointed out that the term quality and satisfaction can be used
interchangeably in business and service quality is nothing but one of the components associated
with consumer satisfaction. According to the SERVQUAL model there exist three well