- Introduction
- The container terminal handling is a service sector, which renders “quality” a very important aspect.
- Quality is critical to satisfaction of the customers, who are very important stakeholders in the sector.
- The importance of an effective tool for the assessment of the quality is evident in research and practice (Konings, 2008).
- SERVQUAL is proposed as one of the most effective tools in measuring the quality of service within the container terminal handling.
- Background
- Ports have an important role to play in a country’s economy
- Unreliability of failure has major costs associated with it because of influence on the customers
- Investigation of port service quality (PSQ).
- Use of SERVQUAL model as the proposed framework for measuring for the quality of port services (Yeo, Thai & Roh, 2015).
- The model measures quality by assessing the difference between expectations and observations of the customers.
- Lack of quality occurs whenever the expectation is greater than the observation of the customer (Sayareh, Iranshahi, & Golfakhrabadi, 2016).
- When expectation is at the same level with the expectation, quality abounds (Konings, 2008)
- If the observation is greater than expectation, there is delivery of more quality.
- The Pros to your Concept
- Measurement of the quality of port service is an important indicator for possible improvements (Konings, 2008)
- The tool is critical to indicating the level of quality.
- The tool is founded on the identification of the customer’s desire in evaluating quality of services that they receive.
- It provides dependable data for use in making a decision on the necessary changes.
- The quality expectations of the customers are transformed into performance statements as well as targets for the desired level of quality (Konings, 2008)
- Validation of the model using research findings, presenting a statistically valid tool for the measurement of service quality at the ports.
- The model is used in measuring real attributes relating to the quality of port service from the customer’s point of view (Sayareh, Iranshahi, & Golfakhrabadi, 2016).
- It indicates the dimensions that the customers use in evaluating the quality of the services they receive.
- Getting the dimensions right is the basis for earning customer loyalty (Yeo, Thai, & Roh, 2015).
- The five SERVQUAL dimensions include:
- Tangibles: how the equipment, physical facilities, personnel and materials for communication appear;
- Reliability: capability to deliver the desired quality as promised.
- Responsiveness: readiness to offer customer support as well as offer prompt service;
- Assurance: the courtesy and level of understanding of the employees and their capacity to relay confidence and trust; and
- Empathy: Caring and the personal attention provided to the customers
- The opposing points of view
- The tool might not be an actual measure of quality because of the inconclusive results on what makes up quality port service (PSQ) (Sayareh, Iranshahi, & Golfakhrabadi, 2016).
- As opposed to capturing quality, the tool captures customer satisfaction.
- The customer should not be used as the only basis for determining the quality of service provided by a port (Yeo, Thai, & Roh, 2015).
- The expectations are subjective aspects of measuring quality, indicating the need to use aspirations instead.
- Conclusion
- Service providers are always in search of the knowledge about what the customers want in terms of
- The quality of service is an indicator of the need for change to a higher level of quality.
- SERVQUAL is a widely used model for the assessment of quality in the ports.
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