Relative importance of service factors

Abstract

This article focuses on two aspects of service, first it discusses the concepts of service quality and service measurement, and second, it analyzes, through numerical data, how the ranking of different service dimensions can be determined. The first section defines the concept of service and what distinguishes it from tangible goods. Measurement of service quality is also discussed and the importance of knowing expectations when measuring service quality is underscored. The second section introduces methods for evaluating the importance of service elements. Based on four studies of customer satisfaction, two methods for assessing the importance of service elements are introduced. The results suggest that both of these methods are needed in order to measure the importance of service elements. They will provide better indications as to which elements are relevant and how they should be ranked.