Service

SERVICE QUALITY INDICATORS FOR BUSINESS SUPPORT SERVICES

HERMEN JAN VAN REE

A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS

FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON, AUGUST 2009

I confirm that the work presented in this thesis is my own. Where information has been derived from other sources, I confirm that this has been indicated in the thesis.

Hermen Jan van Ree

SERVICE QUALITY INDICATORS FOR BUSINESS SUPPORT SERVICES

1

ABSTRACT

Quality is critical to corporate success as it plays a vital role in improving organisational productivity. It can be defined as ‘the totality of inherent characteristics of a product or service that bear on its ability to increase the demand for that product or service at a fixed price’ and can best be measured by capturing customer perceptions of the performance of those characteristics. Customising the SERVPERF methodology to measure service quality in a business-to-business context and subsequently testing it on both customers and suppliers of cleaning, catering and security services, the research led to a number of important and valuable insights concerning the service quality construct in a business-to-business environment. First, service quality in relation to cleaning, catering and security services consists of nine clear dimensions: reliability, clout, reputation, awareness, competitiveness, collaboration, accessibility, competence and assurance. The nine-dimensional construct identified shows high reliability and good validity in statistical terms. Furthermore, eight of the nine service quality dimensions are strongly or moderately yet significantly related to customer perceived service quality and customer satisfaction - clout being the exception. The same eight dimensions are significantly, but moderately related to purchase intention - suggesting that that there might be other constructs important in making a purchase decision (e.g. the costs of service...