Barbara R. Lewis

Defining and Measuring the Quality of Customer Service

The importance of service quality as an indicator of customer satisfaction and organisational performance is widely acknowledged and has led to a major research thrust which has focused on a number of industries within the service sector. Some of the research relating to defining and measuring service quality is reviewed and a number of suggestions are made as to how measurement instruments such as SERVQUAL might be improved.

Service failure and recovery: evidence from the hotel industry

This paper is focused on service failure and recovery in the hotel industry in the UK. The objectives of the research were to: assess the types and magnitude of service failures experienced by hotel guests; evaluate the service recovery strategies used by hotels and their effectiveness; and discover whether or not there were differences in attitudes and behaviour between business and leisure guests. Data were collected from a sample of guests in a four‐star hotel. Discussion of the findings leads to some suggestions for improvements for hotel management.

Service quality: An international comparison of bank customers’ expectations and perceptions

In this article, empirical research findings are presented from an investigation of consumer expectations and perceptions of service quality. Customers of banks, in the UK and US, indicated the importance of a range of elements of service quality and their perceptions of the service actually received. A number of similarities and differences between UK and US respondents are highlighted together with evidence of the success to date of the banks in their delivery of service quality.

Service Quality Management in the Banking Sector in South Korea

There have been numerous studies on measures of service quality, such as SERVQUAL and SERVPERF, in a variety of contexts, but the validity of these instruments in Asian markets is under‐researched. The present study was focused in South Korea and data on expectations, perceptions and importance measures were collected from 153 bank customers. Confirmatory factor analyses revealed that the measurement scales lacked validity with the South Korean sample, and principal component analyses revealed that SERVQUAL and SERVPERF were not uni‐dimensional. An amended SERVQUAL type scale showed three factors similar to the original SERVQUAL analysis, and an amended SERVPERF type scale showed two factors, with most of the original items converged on different conceptual dimensions.

A broadened conception of internal marketing

Internal marketing has been of interest to practitioners and academics, in marketing and other disciplines of management, for some years, and published papers focus on definitions, the role of internal marketing in organisations, and various empirical investigations. Discusses the elements of a broadened concept on internal marketing, which emerges from: a systematic review and examination of the existing literature; case study material; “expert” opinion from leading academics; and interviews with managers.

Quality in the Service Sector: A Review

Quality in the service sector is of increasing concern to both academics and practitioners. Previously published material is reviewed and attention is focused on the importance of people and internal marketing in the changing environment of service industries, definitions and measurement of service quality, and the service quality/customer care programmes presently being developed and implemented.

Service failures and recovery in retail banking: the customers’ perspective

Focuses on an empirical investigation of service failures and service recovery in retail banking. Different types of failures, and the recovery strategies used by Greek banks to respond to them, were identified using the critical incident technique. A survey questionnaire was then developed to measure customers’ perceptions of the magnitude of service failures and the effectiveness of service recovery strategies. A number of research hypotheses were tested relating to customers’ evaluations of particular banking failures and recovery strategies, their previous experience of failures, demographic variables, and relationships with their banks. Service failures were found to be of varying importance and different service recovery strategies more effective for particular failures; further, customers with long relationships or high deposits with their banks were more demanding with respect to service recovery.

Service Quality: Recent Developments in Financial Services

Banks and other financial services providers are increasingly developing service quality initiatives. In this article some of the research literature on service quality is considered to include definitions, determinants and measurement of quality. Attention is also given to research applications which focus on management, employee and customer perspectives. In addition, a number of continuing service quality concerns are highlighted, relating to changing customer expectations, the need for an integrated approach to service quality and the development of service quality measurement tools.

Internal marketing : directions for management

Bringing together contributions from leading writers in the field of service marketing and management, this book represents a much-needed source of current research and conceptual development in internal marketing. Key themes and issues explored include: * the social model of marketing * the human resource management perspective * marketing and service management * quality management * organizational development * corporate identity, image and reputation * corporate communication. Comprising new theoretical and empirical work, this book also features in depth case studies covering a wide range of sector and industry applications.

The Youth Market for Financial Services

Findings are presented from an empirical investigation among the youth market for financial services. Attention is focused on account ownership and use of services, together with attitudinal data pertaining to banks and building societies and the services they provide; of particular interest is evidence of split banking and bank switching. Overall, the heterogeneity of the youth market with respect to needs, attitudes and behaviour is highlighted, and a number of implications for the marketing strategies of banks and building societies are suggested.