Technology’s Impact on the Gaps Model of Service Quality

www.gremler.net/personal/research/2010_Technology_in_Services_in_IBM_Handbook.pdf

Technology’s Impact on the Gaps Model of Service Quality

Mary Jo Bitner: W. P. Carey School of Business, Arizona State University

Valarie A. Zeithaml: Kenan-Flagler School of Business, University of North Carolina

Dwayne D. Gremler: College of Business Administration, Bowling Green State University

Presents a foundational framework for service science – the Gaps Model of Service Quality. For over two decades the model has been used across industries and worldwide to help companies formulate strategies to deliver quality service, to integrate customer focus across functions, and to provide a foundation for service as a competitive strategy. It was developed at a time when most services were delivered interpersonally and in real time without the advantages (and sometimes disadvantages) of technology infusion. In the intervening years, technology has profoundly changed the nature of service(s) and at the same time it has influenced strategies for closing each of the service quality gaps. Thus, this chapter has a dual purpose: to provide a general overview of the Gaps Model of Service Quality and to demonstrate how key aspects of the model have changed and evolved due to advances in technologies. We begin with background on the Gaps Model and a discussion of the role of technology and services in general. We then discuss strategies for closing each gap in the model and illustrate the influence of technologies on these fundamental management strategies.

P.P. Maglio et al. (eds.), Handbook of Service Science, Service Science: Research and Innovations in the Service Economy, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4419-1628-0_10, © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2010