This book is very useful for it is not just descriptive in its nature but prescriptive too.
It is descriptive in the sense that it describes the process of developing or using a metric in
a problem situation and prescriptive as it clearly prescribes how a beginner can put the
theory into practice. In this globalized economy maintaining quality of products and services
has been the thrust area of interest among academicians and practitioners. Today there are
quite a good number of books and research articles available. Nevertheless service quality
measurement has always posed problems particularly in the context of service industries due to
the difficulty in the measurement of the intangibles and implied needs of the customers. The
research literature is filled with articles on how to quantify the services and there are
several streams of arguments on the choice of the most ideal approach. However the research
gap lies in the answer to the question: Do these measurement instruments concur in their
measurement outcomes or do they give different results in the same situation? This book
primarily makes an attempt to answer this question through a case study approach. Even though
there are several instruments for the measurement of service quality the two most widely used
instruments are SERVQUAL and SERVPERF metrics. Comprehensively this book explains the
systematic procedure of using both the instruments in a service sector and further the
procedure for conducting a statistical analysis so that one will be able to apply the same in
any service sector. It then takes the reader through a series of tests in order to compare the
two metrics and to prove statistically if there is the same outcome in a problem situation.
The results are sure to surprise the reader and trigger the research bent of mind to undertake
a similar study of such metrics and gain mastery over performing an independent research with
very minimal guidance from a professional guide. To conclude this book is sure to provide
adequate inputs for a service quality researcher and answer various questions wriggling in the
mind of a beginner of service quality research such as: How shall I start with service quality
measurement? How to collect data? How to select a sample? How to conduct a literature review?
How to analyse the data? What research methodology is applicable? How to build hypothesis on my
research? How to use statistical procedures? How to present the findings? How to draw
implications from the study results?
