AssignmentAssignment quesons (a) Discuss the concept of service quality in a given sector of your choice XXXXXXXXXXwords) Your answer should consist of the following: (i)An introduction to the...

QUALITY MANAGEMENT
Table of Contents
(a) Concept of Service Quality    3
(i) Introduction to the Concept of Service Quality    3
(ii) Literature Review on Service Quality    3
Background    3
Relationship Quality    4
Service Quality    5
Customer Satisfaction    5
(iii) Tools to Measure Service Quality    6
SERVQUAL Model:    6
Post-Service Ratings:    8
Social Media Monitoring:    8
Follow-Up Surveys    8
(iv) Conclusion    8
(b) Various Stages of the Evolution of Quality and Characteristics of Each Stage    10
Introduction    10
Various Stages and Their Characteristics    10
Evolution of Quality    10
Industrial Revolution    10
Quality in 20th Century    11
Quality Management    11
Process    11
Process-based Quality Management System    12
Quality Assurance    12
Quality Control    12
Defect    13
Root Cause Analysis/Corrective Action    14
Principles of Quality Management    14
Conclusion    15
References    16
(a) Concept of Service Quality
(i) Introduction to the Concept of Service Quality
Service quality is a concept also known as GAP model was introduced in 1985. Service quality is a customer’s perception, which is a final out of delivery systems. The definition of service quality is not predictable. Customers compare the service provided with company’s performance. Organizations providing high degree of service quality are like to meet customer expectations and loyal customer base. They are able to do customer retention due to happy customers. Service quality is often used at present in every sector. With the aim of understanding the concept, the automobile sector is chosen for the study.
(ii) Literature Review on Service Quality
Background
Marketing is a field, which aims at reaching customers and offering products to them to suit their needs and requirements. About a century ago, Economics stream gave birth to the concept of marketing. The demand and supply concept is well related with the product, which covers entire range of industries under its umbrella (Mizuno and Bodek, 2020). Earlier selling products were the main motive but with industrialization followed by globalization and digitalization it became equally important to offer services, which ensures that customers is satisfied with the product. After 1970s, it was seen that there was a paradigm shift from goods to services. Customers began to look for value addition to their purchases, which is in form of services. When a customer plans to buy a car, he goes to showroom and interacts at inquiry desk. The service delivery starts right from there itself. Service quality is also responsible for maintaining customer relationships. This aspect of business has gained attention from experts all over the world. It has significant impact on performance of the business and profitability. By investing in improving and enhancing service quality, it increases the purchase consumption of the enlarged clientele (Jain, Singh and Kaushik, 2019). While reviewing literature, which is available in form of journals and articles, written by researcher and experts it is evident that service quality in context of manufacturing is limited.
The main driving force of Malaysian economy is automobile industry. Different manufacturers from all over the world are competing in the local market. As the industry contributes significantly to GDP, the Malaysian government works closely with the sector to strengthen the competiveness of local brands (Famiyeh, Kwarteng and Asante-Darko, 2018). It is required that automobile industry takes actions against challenges such as entry of foreign brands and penetration in the local market. It is required to enhance the service value and improve the brand perception so that effective relation between relationship quality and service quality can be established.
Relationship Quality
A brand is a representation of the organization and has theoretical value in brand research. It involves customers, employees and the organizations as a system, which survives on long lasting relationships. The key to successful relationships is creating and sustaining competition while maintaining brand vale of the product. Indeed, it can be said that product and services can be imitated but the customer relationships cannot.
There are several indicators, which explain the dimensions of relationship quality. Brand awareness, trust and satisfaction with the brand and the commitment of brand are most used as well as most cited terminologies in the literature available. The capacity of the brand to identify the expectations of the customers and delivering the value while leveraging competitive advantage is what matters most. The marketing strategies trust and commitment helps the customer to analyze that what is promised is delivered.
· Brand trust: When employees reflect their knowledge and responsiveness in their interaction with customers, the trust towards brand is generated. Brand trust has resulted in driving new business, which is able to show receptiveness towards market, create loyalty and contributes in building client advocacy (Alfalah, 2017). This will help business in sailing through strongest of the storms.
· Brand commitment: Commitment is explained as a desire, which encourages continuing a relationship (Kostikova et al. 2020). Brand commitment is a relationship between customer and a brand, which ensures that customers feel enjoyable, satisfied and warm. When brand commitment was investigated, it was found that it has direct impact on customer commitment. It motivates supplies and customers to continue their relationship with the brand in the future. It is also accompanies with brand loyalty. It means when a customer choses a particular brand among others and continue to do so for his or her every purchase. It explains that customer feels strong commitment towards brand. Through their behavior of repeated purchases, they exhibit loyalty. Repurchase intentions are governed by the factors- there is no other brand in the market or it is cheaper.
· Brand value: Marketing tactics of business influences customers, impacts its performance in the marketplace and the value perceived by financial community (Gupta and Singh, 2017). In order to make brand recognizable it is important to educate customers by spreading awareness about the brand, indulge into a meaningful communication with customers, influence their thinking and feeling about the brand and build a deeper connections with them.
Service Quality
The concept of service quality is mainly recognized by the SERVQUAL model, which helps in comparing customer perceptions and expectations of the customer from the organizations. The literature suggests that numerous studies have been conducted in this direction, which directs positive effect on dimensions of quality and satisfaction of customers regarding their brand (Famiyeh, Kwarteng and Asante-Darko, 2018).
Superior service is essential in present times because organizations need to fight for their survival in the competitive environment. As per literature, studied service quality is a tool to gain differentiation among products and services offered. This can be done by acquiring more customers and increasing market share. It also ensures that customers become less-price sensitive and more brand loyal when they perceive service quality as best in the industry.
This is the result of their experiences with the brand and with the product, they purchased. Scholars believed that service quality has direct relationship with buying behavior and brand loyalty. Researches have shown immense support towards positive relationship between service quality and relationship quality. Managers at position of repute are under continuous pressure to prove that they offer best services in the industry (Gupta and Singh, 2017).
They are customer centric who values their feedback and who determined to improve consistently. They also manage resources such as finance, human talent and operational efficiency by understanding the customer requirements accurately. This also helps in identifying the gaps in current and expected quality. Gaps are prioritized to search cost-effective measure so that service quality is not compromised even if the resources are scarce.
Customer Satisfaction
If a company wants to be competitive in the market it will always look for ways by which perception of the customer about brand and the products can be turned positive. Service quality and satisfaction are interrelated to each other. In today’s time, service quality is not a part of product. It is a deliverable, which is influenced by price, features of the product, market opportunity and ability to grow as well as diversify by the company. Customer satisfaction is customer does not want beyond that. They are satisfied with the value and its performance. They are recommending others and influencing their buying decisions.
(iii) Tools to Measure Service Quality
SERVQUAL Model:
It is a model suggested by Zeithaml, Parasuraman and Berry in 1988. It is used to measure customer perceptions and satisfaction level on five dimensions namely, tangibles, reliability, assurance, responsiveness and empathy. It analyzes the gap between service quality performance and the customer needs.
Tangibles: It deals with...