The Gaps Model of Service Quality and its Impact on Customer Satisfaction

The Service Quality or Gap model (SERVQUAL) has been recognised as an essential tool in identifying service quality and further than this the relationship between a company and its customers. This is vital for firms in sustaining existed advantage and ability to grow further. The purpose of this paper is to identify how applicable the model can be in the context of family owned restaurants and its implications. To this extent, research was conducted involving customers of two family owned restaurants in the Bournemouth area, South West of England. The dimensions of SERVQUAL fulfilled the purpose of research investigation, especially in the context of a narrowly defined sector as the family owned restaurants. The fact that customers were critical with certain aspects of the offered service indicates a higher degree of expectations in comparison with what they received. There were two major limitations in this study: a) the rather small number of completed questionnaires; and b) the somehow introductory to SERVQUAL process of data analysis. Both were dealt with by emphasising on gains of its applicability. The research pointed out that management of family owned restaurants should take into account a wide range of issues if they anticipate their business to survive in a world of financial recession. To this extent, attention to detail is necessary in order to satisfy contemporary customer service demands. As application of SERVQUAL has been so expanded, the real value of this study lies on its actual application. Its biggest asset lies upon identification of pockets of non-efficient service practices that could be of practical use.