Evolution and Conceptual Development of Service Quality in Service Marketing and Customer Satisfaction

Abstract

IntroductionThe origination of service marketing has contributed to the core importance of customer satisfaction through the delivery of service quality (Lee, 2013; Gummesson & Gronroos, 2012; Mosahab, Mahamad & Ramayah 2010). The concept of service quality has arguably developed the subject of marketing and service management for companies' sustainable competitive advantage with customer satisfaction and retention (Lee, 2013; Freitas & Costa, 2012; Mosahab et al., 2010; Ismail, Alli, Abdullah & Parasuraman, 2009; Ruiz, Castro & Diaz, 2012; Skalen, 2009). Service quality is the primary factor for business success (Ismail et al., 2009; Mosahab, 2010). Business success and competition has shifted the paradigm of service quality to the customer as value co-creator through service dominant logic in the context of service marketing customer satisfaction, whereby the firm works out value proposals and the customers are the individuals who create value from the consumption of the products or services (Vazquez et al., 2013; Gronroos, 2008).Service MarketingGronroos (2008) suggested that the service perspective on business marketing is merely an activity of value creation rather than market offering. The activity itself has an inbuilt ability to transform the potential value, generally referred to as utility for a particular customer, into actual value. The concept of service encompasses at least three different aspects: service as an activity; service as a standpoint of the customer's value creation; and service as a viewpoint with provider's activities (Gummesson & Gronroos, 2012; Gronroos, 2008). In business, the concept of service is more important as a perspective than as an activity. Business innovations, specifically the development of new and improved technology, bringing the requirement for technical knowledge, have made a major contribution to the market economy, particularly in the development of service businesses with an integrative service paradigm as a service-dominant logic based on a stakeholder-centric definition (Vazquez et al., 2013; Gummesson & Gronroos 2012; Gronroos, 2008; Choy et al., 2012; Unissa, 2012; Skalen, 2009).Lovelock and Wirtz (2007) mention that service is an economic activity between two parties, implying an exchange of value between seller and buyer in the marketplace. They describe services as performances that are most commonly time-based and believe that purchasers buy services because they are looking for desired results. The service component of today's market economy is similar in importance to and there has been a noticeable increase in service quality (Eraghi & Atharinejad, 2012; Gronroos, 2008).A similar view prevails in the education industry and institutions of higher education are now having to embrace this concept, as students' satisfaction and education quality are viewed as a crucial point for their success and survival (Vatta & Bhatara, 2013). When customers purchase physical goods, they become the owners of these because ownership is transferred from the vendor to the customer: this is referred to as ownership utility (Ebert & Griffin, 2007).Service differs, in that a customer receives the right to that service for only a specified amount of time (Ebert & Griffin, 2007) and it is commonly said that a service bought cannot be returned. This service element is further interpreted by Gronroos (1998) as a process of consumption where the consumer perceives the production process as part of the service consumption and not just the outcome, as in the traditional marketing of physical goods.Further to the above, Gronroos (2001) claims that that the most important difference between and services is that service is indicated as an act which involves processes, whereas goods are things (Gronroos, 2001). In this context, a service is a process rather than a thing and businesses in the service sector can be regarded as having no products, but only interactive processes (Gronroos, 2001). …