Application of SERVQUAL Model in Customer Service of Mobile Operators: A Study from the Context of Bangladesh

Abstract

This study tried to explore the dimensions of service quality (SERVQUAL) on the perceived performance of the mobile phone users in the customer service of Bangladesh. Challenges are increasing rapidly in business environment. In last few years the mobile telecom market in Bangladesh has witnessed a substantial growth and rapid changes globally as well as domestically. One of the key challenges of this market is how they satisfy and retain their customers and also manage service quality, which holds a significant importance to customer satisfaction and their perceived performance. When this perceived performance fails to meet the expectation then a gap has been created between them. SERVQUAL model is a widely accepted approach to measure the difference between customer's expectation and perception. Although there are five gaps in the service quality concept, this paper has attempted to concentrates on the most important one, reality gap analysis. The data were collected through a questionnaire survey in which a customer's responded to a series of questions based on four key dimensions tangibles, reliability, responsiveness and empathy. Four hypotheses were taken on the fact that there is a gap existing between expectation and perception in this dimension and all hypotheses are proved significant and they all are accepted after conducting Paired T test. Therefore it is better to conclude that the Customer Care Centers of Bangladesh are not performing up to the satisfaction of the customers and they need to take corrective steps to minimize these gaps as early as possible. The study concludes with some recommendations to improve the satisfaction of the customer.

Keywords: SERVQUAL, Customer Service, Mobile, Gap, Service Quality.