AN EMPIRICAL-ASSESSMENT OF THE SERVQUAL SCALE

The definition and measurement of service quality as a 5-dimensional c onstruct, as in SERVQUAL, appears to suffer from a number of methodolo gical shortcomings. A review of the potential problems and the finding s from an empirical study are presented in this article. The findings suggest that the dimensionality of service quality may depend on the t ype of services under study. The use of mixed-item wording and the cur rent operationalization of service quality on the basis of gap scores appear to be 2 major problems in the measurement of the construct. For researchers in the process of using SERVQUAL, the results of this stu dy suggest to exercise caution. Suggestions are provided with implicat ions for theory development and measurement in the services marketing area.