Service quality, customer satisfaction and loyalty: A comparative study of hotel with retail baking, hospitals and retail services industries

Abstract

This exploratory research aims to determine whether there are perceived and significant differences with respect to service quality (SQ) attributes offered by four different service industries; viz.; Banks, Hotels, Hospitals and Retail stores in Goa. The SERVQUAL model (Parasuraman et al., 1988) was used to measure service quality perception. This study will attempt to validate the relationship between SQ and customer satisfaction and also attempt to validate any potential mediating effect that customer satisfaction may have on the relationship between SQ and Customer Loyalty. The findings of the research indicate that the attributes: perceived tangibility and perceived responsiveness were higher in Hospitals, followed by hotels, as compared to Banks and Retail Stores. Perceived empathy of Hospitals was higher as compared to Hotels, Banks and Retail Stores. The perceived assurance attribute of SQ about Hospitals was higher as compared to Hotels, Banks and Retail Stores. These findings confirm the work of Caruana (2002) and Agus et al. (2007) regarding the relationship between SQ dimensions and customer satisfaction, with the exception of Banks as it was observed that customers associated satisfaction with SQ attributes. The research confirms the mediating role of customer satisfaction between SQ and customer loyalty.