An exploratory study in service quality at selected South African vehicle dealerships

Abstract

This research uses the SERVQUAL instrument developed by Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry to evaluate the level of service quality perceived by customers at selected vehicle service dealerships in the country. In general, none of the dealerships’ performance meets or exceeds the customers’ expectation. The hypothesis of “customers view selected South African vehicle service dealerships as having equal levels of service quality” is not disproved. Findings of this research coincide with that of Cronin and Taylor; indicating that measuring perception scores has a higher internal consistency than measuring the difference between expectation and perception scores. In addition, respondents consider “reliability” as the most important aspect in service quality while dealerships perform the worst in this area. Finally, the discrepancy between customers’ expectations and managements’ perception on such expectations contribute partially to the overall service quality gap and further research should investigate the other gaps that broaden the overall service quality gap.