One of the best models on service quality has been presented by three persons viz. Valerie A. Zeithaml A. Parasuraman and Leonard L . Beery.
The gaps that are shown in figure below indicate the key discrepancies between the firms perceptions and actions and the customers expectations. These gaps need to be closed in order to improve the service quality. Given below is an explanation about these gaps:
Gap: this gap depicts that the managements perceptions of customers expectations are different from what the customer actually expects. This could happen due to:
a. Insufficient market research or inadequate use of the available market research information.
b. Inadequate interaction with the customers.
c. Communication gaps within the organization due to various reasons for example, too many levels of management.
Gap ) this gap represents the extent to which the service quality standards have gone wrong. This can happen because of
a. Inadequate task standardization.
b. Absence of goal setting.
c. Inadequate management commitment to service quality