Determinants of service quality in software: an empirical analysis

Mayuram S. Krishnan e-mail: [email protected] Ph : 412-268-5799 PhD Student Graduate School of Industrial Administration Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh PA 15206. Abstract Once a software product is delivered to a customer, the quality of service provided plays an important role in retaining that customer. In this paper, we identify certain key factors that impact the service quality in commercial software products. Our analysis is based on data collected from over 1000 customers of one of the leading software vendors. Our results show that quick response to service calls and the quality of the solution provided to the customer are dominant drivers of service quality. We also find that the effect of these factors depends on the service providers and on the business area of the customer.