Five Dimensions of Service Quality for your Small Business

One of the best strategies that business owners have been implementing in any industry is Service Quality. It’s an important factor that determines their competitive advantage. Service quality can help differentiate your business from the competition in the surrounding area. Almost every industry will have some form of service to clients and when the implementation of great quality service is a critical factor for success.

Measuring service quality, though, is something far more complicated because it is not a definitive object. Many factors come into play as to how consumers judge a business’ service quality. This makes it subjective as it can mean differently to different people.

What is Service Quality?

In some studies, service quality generally refers to the extent to which a service fulfills the needs or expectations of the customers. It can also be the overall impression that the customer has from the experience gathered from the business’ performance. A successful business that has high service quality is able to meet the needs of its consumers while remaining competitive.

Five Dimensions of Service Quality

Assurance

Assurance has been defined as employees’ courtesy and product knowledge. This is also their ability to instill confidence and trust to the customers. This indicated the attitudes of the employees and their overall behavior towards the clientele. Their ability to provide quality 

Reliability

Reliability is defined as the quality of the service being trustworthy or of the service performing well adequately and consistently. This shows how the business strives to fulfill promises and pay attention to the outcome. When a brand delivers on the promise, the consumers see them as reliable and thus will have a higher approval rating.

Empathy

Empathy is when you care and give attention to your customer as an individual. Offering a personalized service makes customers feel important and rate highly on service quality and will in turn yield positive reviews. Small brands do well in this since they are able to connect and empathize with clients easily compared to a branded chain.

Tangibility

Tangibility is the appearance of your store or place of business. It’s the physical features and facilities that can be seen and used by both consumers and employees. Employees themselves are also tangibles, along with the equipment that you use and the communication materials.

Responsiveness

Responsiveness is the willingness to assist clients and provide on-time service. This refers to how efficiently you as a business owner respond to your customers. It’s very common for customers to ask a lot of questions. Your ability to answer and cater to them promptly influences their perception of your service quality.

Silicon Harbor Business Services is based in Mount Pleasant, SC.  We provide solid, practical advice to small business owners and select individuals.  We work with Quickbooks Online, Quickbooks Desktop and Quickbooks Enterprise.

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