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* Assistant Professor in Siva Sivani Institute of Management, Kompally, Secunderabad-500014. Department of
Management Studies, SRTM University, Nanded.
A Study on Measurement of Service Quality in a Selected Retail
Sector Outlet, Secunderabad
Jayaram Reddy K*
Abstract
Retail Industry has become a part of every modern day to day activities of urban
population. In this industry, relationship between retailer and customer plays a crucial role
for the success of the retail business. Now-a-days businesses are increasingly depended on
the relationship which ultimately brings long term success of the company in the market.
In this context, the measurement of quality of service is important in order to explore the
extent of customer services being complied and the future course of strategic planning to be
followed by the company. And in this study the quality of desired service by the customers
and the quality of service perceived have been measured in five dimensions viz; physical
aspect, reliability, personal interaction, problem solving and policy issues based on scale
developed by Parsuraman. It is suggested that company has to take many measures in all
the aforesaid dimensions to retain long-term relationship with the customers for greater
business.
Keywords: RSQS (Retail Service Quality Service), DSL (Desired Service Level), PSL
(Perceived Service Level)
1. Introduction
Retail Industry has become a part of every modern day to day activities of urban population.
In this industry, relationship between retailer and customer plays a crucial role for the success of
the retail business. Now-a-days businesses are increasingly depended on the relationship which
ultimately brings long term success of the company in the market. High quality business relationships
with the customers have been recognized as a source of competitive advantages (Palmer, 2002;
Henning-Thurau et.al.,2000). In Asian countries retail trade has gone a remarkable growth and
buyer's seller relationship over the years. Some studies like Etgar and Moore (2007), revealed that
retail sector expansion has been accompanied by numerous retail failures for which more aspects
to be explored in terms of the issues and dimensions pertaining to it. With the liberalization and
growth of the Indian economy since the early 1990s, the Indian customer witnessed an increasing
exposure to new domestic and foreign products through different media. The social changes also
have a positive impact leading to the rapid growth in the retailing industry. Such growth is boosted
by many factors like availability of retail space, rapid urbanization, qualified human resources etc.
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Study by P. Prabha Devi & R. Sellappan (2009) highlight that the Indian retailing industry has been
phenomenal growth and the higher customers' perception on service quality at retail stores will
result in higher customer loyalty. And it has also been mentioned in their study that with the growing
organized retail market and the increasing completion, the customer's perception on the specified
retail company is critical in determining the satisfaction and the loyalty of the customer. Studies
have also shown that the customers are sensitive to recognizing and solving the customer problems
(Finn & Lamb, 1999). In this perspective, the researcher has explored the quality of service provided
by a retail sector company.
1.1. Quality of the Service
The quality of service is considered through satisfy the customers. The quality and satisfaction
is based on customers perceptions of the service what it is or should be. The assessment of the
service quality focuses specifically on different dimensions of service to be provided to the customers.
It is a focused evaluation which reflects the customer perception of elements of service like interaction
quality, physical environment quality, problem-solving ability, policy measures and service reliability.
Finn and Lamb (1991) stated about the importance of service quality in retailing which is different
based on service product and service environment. Parasuraman, Zeithml and Berry (1998) have
defined service quality as "a global judgment or attitude relating to the overall superiority of the
service". Parikh (2006) stated that customer perceived service quality is considered as one of the
key determinants of business performance. Cronin and Taylor (1992) mentioned that service quality
is a multi dimensional and multi attribute construct. Parikh (2006) mentioned that good service
quality means the customers' perception on service performance should meet or exceed their
expectations of what the retail sector firm should provide. Donthu and Yoo (1998) have found
cultural orientation as one of the factors in determining service quality. Several research studies
emphasize on the customer perception with regard to the service quality which has to be worked
out to improve the service quality further. It is quite pertinent to have a mention on the tools to
measure service quality. Wang Suchi (2003) focused that SERVQUAL and RSQS are the most
widely used measurement tools in retail service management area. Many scholars have done
exploratory studies on measuring the service quality. In this study, RSQS a variant of SERVQUAL
approach is adopted.
1.2. SERVQUAL Scale
SERVQUAL approach is more than 30 years old and still more relevant for understanding
the quality of services offered in various service organisations today and various new types of
service organisations in the years to come. Some of the reasons for adopting SERVQUAL approach
are:
1. Managers in the service sector are under increasing pressure to demonstrate that their services
are customer-focused and that continuous performance improvement is being delivered.
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Given the financial and resource constraints under which service organisations must manage
it is essential that customer expectations are properly understood and measured and that,
from the customers' perspective, any gaps in service quality are identified. This information
then assists a manager in identifying cost-effective ways of closing service quality gaps and
of prioritizing which gaps to focus on a critical decision given scarce resources.
2. While there have been efforts to study service quality, there has been no general agreement
on the measurement of the concept. The majority of the work to data has attempted to use
the SERVQUAL.
3. One of most dependable approaches to understanding the relationships among users'
perceptions of quality of services and identify the gaps in the quality of services.
The SERVQUAL model is considered as the fundamental instrument to measure service
quality which is used as a diagnostic tool. It is mainly for the measurement of customer service. It
also identifies the customer satisfaction towards the service offered by the company. The first
study on the service quality characteristics was conducted in 1980 and it was found that some
factors like customer care and understanding, responsiveness, problem solving abilities etc. influence
customers perception. Subsequently, A. Parasuraman, Leonard L Berry, Valarie A. Zeithaml (1985)
presented the gaps-model. And they developed the conceptual framework for the SERVQUAL
model which has been refined further in 1991, 1993 and 1994.
Parasuraman, Valarie Zeithaml, Berry (1990) conducted focus group interviews in different
service industries and developed list of service quality attributes to define service quality in general
perspective. Accordingly, five dimensions viz; tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and
empathy are there in the Service Quality.
Finn, Lamb (1991), Gagliano & Hathcote (1994), Dabholkar (1996), Boshoff and Terblance
(1997), Mehta & Lalwani (2000), Kim & Jim (2001) have developed Service Quality Model for the
retail service. It is also known to be Retail Service Quality Scale (RSQS). Brent Mckenzie (2006)
found three factors comprising of physical aspects, personal interaction and problem solving aspects
to measure service quality in retail industry.
The study by M. Ramakrishnan and Dr. Sudharani Ravindran (2012) on Retail Service Quality
focuses that service quality helps the retailers to detect most needed areas within the store and its
resources for improving the service quality. They developed multi-dimensional service quality scale
and used internationally to south Indian retail settings. It was viewed that since the organized retail
stores are growing in India, the focus should also be on finding the customer preferences towards
store, products, employee involvement, stores perceived image in the minds of the customer.
Arun Kumar G., S.J. Manjunath and K.C. Shivashankar (2012) in their study found that the
growth of the retail sector is tremendous from the past few years with the increasing number of
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competitors it has become critical to determine the customer satisfaction. Service quality has become
the basic marketing tool to create competitive advantage. This study has demonstrated the
measurement of service quality in discount stores and the result concluded that all the dimensions
are positively related to customer satisfaction.
The study conducted by K. Abdus Samad and K. Ravichandran (2012) the results found that
the majority of the service quality aspects give a positive impact on the overall Service Quality of
major food retailers. The result extracted from the study is fruitful and helps to take the major
managerial initiatives for improving food retail service quality.
N. Udaya Bhaskar and B. Raja Shekhar (2011), their studied the retailing sector consists of
both tangible and intangible factors while assessing the service quality and measuring service quality
in retailing is different from any other sector or segment. Indian Apparel Retailing is the fastest
growing segment after food and grocery and there are several service deficiencies like long waits
for billing, improper customer treatment and handling of customer complaints. Both studied critical
factors effecting apparel service quality and should concentrate more on Personal interaction and
Reliability of the store in order to enhance their service. The study also revealed that service quality
factors will significantly affect customer satisfaction. It was proved that except policy of the store,
Personal interaction, Reliability, Physical aspects and problem solving are significantly affecting
customer satisfaction.
2. Retail Sector in India
Retail sector is the sale of goods and services from individuals or businesses to the end user.
In these modern days the retail sector is booming in India. The rise in the working population which
is young, pay- packets which are hefty, more nuclear families in urban areas, rise in the number of
women working, more disposable income and customer aspiration, western influences and growth
in expenditure for luxury items. The retail sector in India is growing at a phenomenal pace. According
to the Global Retail Development Index 2012, India ranks fifth among the top 30 emerging markets
for retail. The recent announcement by the Indian government with Foreign Direct Investment
(FDI) in retail, especially allowing 100% FDI in single brands and multi-brand FDI has created
positive sentiments in the retail sector. (Aaditi Isaac reports, 2006).
The key growth areas of retail industry include the urban, luxury segment on one end of
the spectrum and serving the rural sector on the other. In addition, government policy encouraging
FDI in the segment has resulted in a plethora of international retailers keen on entering the market;
American retail giant Wal-Mart has tied-up with Bharti Enterprises and global coffee giant Starbucks'
has tied up with PVR Limited. In addition, Carrefour, Boots and others are also expected to come
in. With so much action, it is natural that there is a huge scope for employment opportunities, and
experts estimate that the sector will generate employment for 2.5 million people in 2010. The top
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retail companies in India include the Raheja Group, Reliance Retail, Tata Trent, Future Group, RPG
Retail, and Ebony Retail Holdings. All these are the factors for the growth in Indian organized retail
sector. The retail sector is growing at a phenomenal pace leading to job opportunities in different
areas across the country.
It is evident that in the post-liberalization era, retail industry has been going through revolutionary
changes. India is a land of retail democracy- hundreds of thousands of weekly haats and bazaars
are located across the length and breadth of our country by people's own self organizational capacities.
Our streets are bazaars - lively, vibrant, and safe and the source of livelihood for millions. India has
the highest shop density in the world, with 11 outlets per 1000 people (Suja Nayar, 2006). It is also
stated that retail sector in India has started with the concept of weekly markets, where all the
traders gather at one big place to sell their products every week. The people come to these weekly
markets to buy the household items for the next week. Village fairs and melas were also common
as it had more of an entertainment value. Once the people started getting busy with their lives, it
necessitated the emergence of the mom and pop shops and also the kirana in the neighborhood.
After India became independent, Public Distribution System (PDS) came into being for distributing
foods through the ration shops, where food grains, sugar and oil for the daily consumption at subsidized
rates through the government ration shops.
The study by Jayakumar & Geeta (2009) discusses the Comparative Penetration of Organized
and unorganized retail sector in different countries which is given in a tabular form below. When
compared to US, The Indian retail sector is highly fragmented with its business being run by the
unorganized retailers like the traditional family run stores and corner stores. Now, the Indian retail
scenario has gained the attention of the entire new players in the market and there will be huge
opportunity for prospective new players also, result in more employment opportunities. The following
are the major growth factors responsible for modern/organised retail in India.
Table 1: Comparative segmentation of organized and unorganized retail sector
S.No Name of the Country Share of the
Organised Retail
Share of the
Unorganised Retail
1 USA 85 15
2 France 80 20
3 Japan 66 34
4 Malaysia 55 45
5 Brazil 36 64
6 Russia 33 67
7 China 20 80
8 India 5 95

Source: The retailer, Ernst & Young, January 2009; Impact of Organized Retailing on the Unorganized
Sector, ICRIER
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The modern corporate retail formats are of the exclusive brand outlets, hypermarkets and
supermarkets, departmental stores and shopping malls. But still the Indian consumer depends on
the self-organized retail shops for their daily needs. Indian Retail Industry is a derivative of the
growing economy, changing demographics and preferences of the Indian consumers. In the 1990's
all the larger grocery retailers have introduced structural changes in the business, with the specific
goal of acquiring customer attention. The use of structural changes has become so eminent that
retailers offer customers rewards. Retailing industries are becoming increasingly important, especially
for developed economies. Within that, the shopping less than one umbrella concept continues to
emerge as a popular retailing. The Indian retail industry is divided into two sectors- organized and
unorganized. (S. Nayar, 2006).
2.1. Organized Retail Sector
Indian economy witnessed a steady economic growth, ever since the liberalization move in
1990's. With the beginning of new millennium, India was considered as an emerging super power
and in 2009, Indian GDP based on purchasing power parity (PPP) stood at USD 3.5 trillion making
it as the fourth largest economy in the world. Service sector contributes more to the Indian GDP.
Indian services sector's share in the country's GDP has increased from 43.69% in 1990-1991 to
around 51% in 1998 -1999. In terms of FDI in service sector, India was unable to attract the
attentions of investors during August 1991 to December 1999. In the second phase of India's
economic reforms between Jan 2000 to March 2009, service sector accounts 27% of total FDI in
India and stood first rank in attractive sector for foreign investors. It has been identified India as the
second most attractive retail destinations in the world. Among thirty emerging markets, India has
tremendous potentiality for the retail sector (AT Kearney, 2010).
2.2. Major Retail Sector Companies in India
The top ten retail sector companies operating in India are as follows:
1. Pantaloon Retail
It is headquartered in Mumbai with 450 stores across the country employing more than
18,000 people. It can boast of launching the first hypermarket Big Bazaar in India in 2001. One of
their recent innovations include e-commerce' hybrid format of 'small' shops , the area for these
stores will be 150 sq. ft. fitted with 40 digital screens. Customers will be encouraged to browse
through the entire range of products on digital screen. They will be able to place the order, the
delivery of which will be arranged by the shop to their homes within a few hours.
It is not only the largest retailer in India with a turnover of over Rs. 20 billion but is present
across most retail segments - Food & grocery (Big bazaar, Food bazaar), Home solutions (Hometown,
furniture bazaar, collection-i), consumer electronics (e-zone), shoes (shoe factory), Books: music
& gifts (Depot), Health & Beauty care services (Star, Sitara and Health village in the pipeline),
e-tailing (Futurbazaar.com), entertainment (Bowling co.)
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One of their recent innovations include e-commerce' hybrid format of 'small' shops , the area
for these stores will be 150 sq. ft. fitted with 40 digital screens. Customers will be encouraged to
browse through the entire range of products on digital screen. They will be able to place the order,
the delivery of which will be arranged by the shop to their homes within a few hours
2. K Raheja Group
They forayed into retail with Shopper's Stop, India's first departmental store in 2001. It is the
only retailer from India to become a member of the prestigious Intercontinental Group of Departmental
Stores (IGDS). They have signed a 50:50 joint venture with the Nuance Group for Airport Retailing.
Shoppers Stop has 7, 52, 00 sq ft of retail space with a turnover of Rs 6.75 billion.
The first Hypercity opened in Mumbai in 2006 with an area of 1, 20,000 sq. ft. clocking gross
sales of Rs. 1 bn in its first year.
3. Tata group
Established in 1998, Trent - one of the subsidiaries of Tata Group - operates Westside, a
lifestyle retail chain and Star India Bazaar - a hypermarket with a large assortment of products at
the lowest prices. In 2005, it acquired Landmark, India's largest book and music retailer. Trent has
more than 4 lakh sq. ft. space across the country.
4. RPG group
One of the first entrants into organized food & grocery retail with Food world stores in 1996
and then formed an alliance with Dairy farm International and launched health & glow (pharmacy
& beauty care) outlets. Now the alliance has dissolved and RPG has Spencer's Hyper, Super, Daily
and Express formats and Music World stores across the country.
RPG has 6 lakh sq. ft. of retail space and has registered a turnover of Rs 4.5 billion in
2006.An IPO is also in the offering, with expansion to 450+ Music World, 50+ Spencer's hyper
outlets covering 4 million sq. ft. by 2010.
5. Landmark group
It was launched in 1998 in India. Lifestyle is spread across six cities, covering 4.6 lakh sq. ft.
with a turnover of Rs 3.5 billion in 2005. A new division named Lifestyle International has emerged
for their international brands business comprising Bossino, Kappa and Springfield in their portfolio.
6. Piramal Group
In September 1999, Piramal Enterprises announced their arrival into retail with the launch of
three retail concepts: India's first true shopping mall of international standards, called Crossroads; a
lifestyle department store named Piramyd Megastore; and a family entertainment centre known as
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Jammin. Piramyd Megastore and Jammin were anchor tenants for Crossroads (recently sold to
Pantaloon for Rs 4 billion). In 2001, the group entered the business of food & grocery retail with the
launch of TruMart supermarkets in Pune.
7. Subhiksha
Subhiksha is a Chennai-based, decade old, no frills, food, grocery, pharma and telecom,
discount retail chain. ICICI Venture Capital holds 24% in the equity capital of Subhiksha. It has
more than 500 stores across the country covering a retail space of more than 1 million sq ft with a
registered turnover of Rs 3.34 bn in 2006.
8. Bharti-Walmart
Their plans include US$ 7 bn investment in creating retail network in the country including
100 hypermarkets and several hundred small stores. They have signed a 50:50 percent joint venture
agreement with Walmart. Wal-Mart will do the cash & carry while Bharti will do the front-end.
9. Reliance
India's most ambitious retail plans are by reliance, with investments to the tune of Rs. 30,000
cr ($ 6.67 bn). There are already more than 300 Reliance Fresh stores and the first Reliance Mart
Hypermart has opened in Ahmedabad. The next ones are slated to open at Jamnagar, followed by
marts in Delhi / NCR, Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Pune and Ludhiana.
10. AV Birla Group
They have a strong presence in apparel retailing through Madura garments which is subsidiary
of Aditya Birla Nuvo Ltd. They own brands like Louis Phillipe, Van Heusen, Allen Solly, Peter
England, Trouser town.
The acquisition of Trinethra (food & grocery) chain in the south has moved their tally to 400
stores in the country. Their "More" range of 15 supermarkets are opened at Nashik, Pune and other
tier II cities in Western India.
3. Significance of the Study
In today's competitive environment, companies face many challenges for retaining their
business and to lead the market. The retailing sector is not an exception to it. With the growing
importance of services, the retailing sector companies have to emphasize different strategies to
improve the quality of service. How the companies can grow, expand its business, bring more
customers and eventually to run the business successfully is quite pertinent area, which need to be
studied. And more specifically, how to provide quality of service to the customers is a relevant
question to be answer. Therefore, the studies conducted on the service quality on retail sector are
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of great use for both practitioners as well as academicians. In this light, the present study has its
relevance. Customers also benefit from this study because the companies will provide better service.
4. Scope and Objectives of the Study
The study is conducted to measure the quality of services in retail industry for which the
researcher has taken one retail outlet of RPG Group namely Spencer's located in Secunderabad,
Andhra Pradesh. The study was conducted from November 2010 to March 2012. It is quite pertinent
to mention the period of study as the facilities provided by the companies to the customers gradually
get changed.
The objectives of the study are:
1. To measure the desired quality of service by customers in the select retail outlet.
2. To assess the perceived quality of services by the customers in the organization.
3. To study and analyze the gaps in the quality of services in the aforesaid company.
4. To provide suggestive measures for the improvement of quality of services in the select retail
outlets.
5. Research Methodology
Descriptive research design is adopted in order to conduct this study. And such design was
found to be most suitable for understanding the customer satisfaction with the quality of services
provided by the select retail outlets. Survey, Questionnaire, sampling methods have been used
conduct this study. The response given by the respondents have been collated, tabulated, analyzed
and interpreted. The hypothesis formulated for the study has been tested by suitable tests appropriate
for this research. The study is conducted in a retail outlet (Spencer's) and data from 100 respondents
have been collected. Both primary and secondary sources have been explored for collecting data.
Secondary data is collected from the actual records available at the respective books, journals,
magazines, literature, web sites.
The SPSS 17.0 is used as statistical tool for analyzing the data.
6. Hypotheses
Three sets of hypothesis have been formulated and finally tested by using the appropriate
statistical tool.
Set-I:
H0: There is no variation in quality of services perceived by the customers.
H1: There is variation in quality of services perceived by the customers.
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Set-II:
H0: There is no variation in quality of services desired by the customers.
H1: There is variation in quality of services desired by the customers.
Set-III:
H0: There is no gap between the perceived and desired quality of services in the select retail
outlets.
H1: There is a gap between the perceived and desired quality of services in the select retail
outlets.
7. Data Analysis and Interpretation
The data comprising necessary relevant information from one hundred customers have
been collected and analyzed and their response constitutes the base of this study. Their view points
and comments help the researcher in providing suggestive measures. The formulated hypotheses
have been tested. The computed value shows that it is greater than the tabulated value. Hence, the
alternative hypotheses are accepted. There is also a gap in the desired level of the services from
the retail outlets and the perceived level of the services currently provided by Spencer's.
Status of Hypotheses
It was hypothesized that there is no variation in quality of services perceived by the customers.
The t-test analysis revealed that there was significant variation in the mean scores in perceived
quality of services in the retail companies as respondent by the subjects. Therefore, the null hypothesis
is rejected and the alternative hypothesis 'there is variation in quality of services perceived by the
customers' is accepted.
It was also hypothesized that 'There is no variation in quality of services desired by the
customers'. The paired t-test analysis revealed (See Table- 2 & 3) that there was significant variation
in the mean scores in desired quality of services in the retail companies as respondent by the
subjects. Therefore, the null hypothesis is rejected and the alternative hypothesis 'there is variation
in quality of services desired by the customers' is accepted.
It was also hypothesized that 'There is no gap between the perceived and desired quality of
services in the select retail outlets'. The paired t-test analyses revealed that there was significant
variation in the mean scores in perceived and desired quality of services in the retail companies as
respondent by the subjects. Therefore, the null hypothesis is rejected and the alternative hypothesis
'There is a gap between the perceived and desired quality of services in the select retail outlets'.
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Table 2: Paired Samples Statistics
Mean N Std. Deviation Std. Error Mean
Pair 1 PhysicalFacilityDesired 3.9100 100 .88871 .08887
PhysicalFacilityPerceived 3.2200 100 .90543 .09054
Pair 2 StorePromiseDesired 3.7800 100 1.05964 .10596
StorePromisePerceived 3.1500 100 .93609 .09361
Pair 3 EmployeesKnowledgeDesired 3.9900 100 1.06832 .10683
EmployeesKnowledgePerceived 3.1300 100 .98119 .09812
Pair 4 ReturnsExchangesDesired 3.8400 100 1.11663 .11166
ReturnsExchangesPerceived 2.9300 100 1.00760 .10076
Pair 5 QualityMerchandiseDesired 3.8500 100 1.00880 .10088
.09502

Table 3: Paired Samples Test

Paired Differences

95%
Confidence
Interval of the
Difference
Mean
Std.
Deviation
Std.
Error
Mean Lower Upper t df
Sig.
(2-
tailed)
Pair 1 PhysicalFacilityDesired
PhysicalFacilityPerceived
.69000 1.16076 .11608 .45968

.000
Pair 2 StorePromiseDesired
StorePromisePerceived
.63000 1.32310 .13231 .36747 .89253 4.762 99 .000
Pair 3 EmployeesKnowledgeDesired
EmployeesKnowledgePerceived
.86000 1.18935 .11893 .62401 1.09599 7.231 99 .000
Pair 4 ReturnsExchangesDesired
ReturnsExchangesPerceived
.91000 1.37873 .13787 .63643 1.18357 6.600 99 .000
Pair 5 QualityMerchandiseDesired
QualityMerchandisePerceived
.66000 1.20789 .12079 .42033 .89967 5.464 99 .000
8. Findings of the Study
1. The service quality measurement is based on physical aspects, reliability, personal interaction,
problem solving and policy dimensions. All these are followed by the satisfaction level of the
customers with regard to twenty six valid items which include transport convenience, open
time, parking convenience, spacious, attitude, initiative, goods price, attractiveness, quality,
arrangement, and allied service quality parameters.
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2. The satisfaction level of customers for Spencers' retail outlet has shown that there is a
variation among the different age groups. For this young, middle and old aged; like three
categories are being taken.
3. It is found that the old aged customers are more satisfied with three facilities like transport
convenience, goods price, super markets, goods price compared to young and middle aged
customers. The young are more satisfied with the delivery & installation items in comparison
to their counterparts. In the remaining twenty one items viz; open time, parking convenience,
leaving goods convenience, spacious, merchandising, cleanness, atmosphere, rest space, water
room, attitude, trustful, manners, initiative, capabilities, in time, attractiveness, promise, repair,
categories, quality and arrangement aspects; middle aged customers are more satisfied than
young and old aged respondents.
4. The difference is significant between different age groups with regard to transport convenience,
spacious, rest space, water room, service attitude, manners, initiative, in time & categories.
5. The difference is significant between the occupations. The employed persons (customers)
are more satisfied in twenty items than other categories among different occupations. The
house wives are more satisfied with transport convenience, cleanness, atmosphere, trustfulness,
manners, supermarkets, promise of goods return and exchange items than others. The
difference is significant in four items viz; transport convenience, open time, trustfulness, and
goods price comparison, among different occupations.
6. The female category has more satisfaction in most of the items in campaign to the more
customers.
7. The difference is significant in transport convenience, initiative, attractiveness & delivery
items.
8. For the different categories of respondents there is a significant difference among the groups
for other demographic parameters. It is also there for the Spencer's in terms of findings.
9. In general it is found that majority of the respondents are not satisfied with promise of goods
change, parking convenience items. These have to be developed further by the respective
retail outlets to attract more customers in future and to grow their business more.
10. The service quality values for the select retail outlets on different items reveal that there is
gap between the desired service level and perceived service level. The perceived service
performance value is less than the desired service level value. This difference is statistically
significant which has been obtained based on the analysis. It is essential on the part of the
select retail outlet to improve their service quality to the customers In order to satisfy
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customers, the companies have to emphasize on different dimensions like physical aspects,
problem solving, policy reliability and personal interaction.
11. Similar studies in future can explore many services quality aspects and pertinent measures
for the growth of the retail industry as well as for the larger benefit of the customers. And
finally a long - term relationship can be built between the industry and the customers providing
more scope for new customers to be covered in this retail outlet.
9. Suggestions
The researcher visited the selected retail outlet and interacted with the customers and the
respective managers working in the Spencer' outlets located in Secunderabad. Based on
this, the following suggestions are provided.
1. The store has modern-looking equipment and fixtures. However, the materials associated
with these stores service such as shopping bags, catalogs, statements need to be improved
further. The store layout needs to be improved more. It would make customers more
convenient with regard to the physical aspects of the retail outlets.
2. The stores promise and mostly do. But, they do not provide the services at the time it promises
to. The error free sales transactions and records need to be emphasized further. Sometimes,
the customers wait long to get those error free sales as the dealing personnel have to take
the permission from the manager concerned.
3. All the employees in the retail outlets especially dealing with the customers should have the
knowledge to answer the customer's queries. The behavior of the employees needs to be
developed more as the customer's frequency of visiting the stores depend on it. Sometimes
the employees are rigid which need to be improved.
4. In these retail outlets, sometimes, they don't willingly handle returns and exchanges of the
goods or products sold to the customers. Their response to the refund of the defective
products or poor quality food items is very rigid which discourages the customers.
5. The policy measures need to incorporate certain aspects like offering of their own credit
cards and lay outs. Most of the customers responded that they are not provided with plenty
of convenient parking. They face difficulties and are dissatisfied.
6. The employees of the retail outlets handle customer complaints directly. But, it is observed
that it is a time taking process. In other words, their complaints are not considered with due
importance. In this regard, effective measures should be taken.
7. Most of the customers are facing difficulty with regard to the parking facilities. Some measures
need to be taken to overcome such problems.
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10. Limitations of the Study
No study is a complete one without having any limitations. This study is not an exception to
it. The present study has following limitations:
1. Out of one hundred and fifty questionnaires being administered to the respondents, sixty six
per cent of them (100) responded and the data is based on their response.
2. Some of the respondents felt difficulty in understanding few items. However enough care
has been taken by the researcher to make them understand while filling the questionnaires.
It has been observed that some respondents responded and filled the questionnaire with less
time. By this process, some bias might have been crept in to this study.
3. The study is limited to one retail sector outlet only. By covering more number of the outlets,
the study findings would have been more generalized.
4. All the above limitations can be overcome by conducting further studies as no research is
end in itself. Every research has a scope for further studies.
11. Conclusion
The measurement of service quality is important for the retail sector companies. Different
dimensions being identified and measured in the study need to be periodically evaluated and
concomitant measures to be taken by the respective companies not only to have better profit but
also to retain customers. Never the less, each dimension of the retail service quality viz; physical
aspects, reliability, personal interaction, problem solving, policy; is vital. The customer satisfaction is
the need of the day. More professionalism, employment of the suitable competent and efficient
human resources followed by proper training can pave new avenues for the retail sector companies
for greater managerial and organizational effectiveness. Greater the quality better is the company's
sustenance in the current scenario of competition in the business. The perceived level of service by
the customers essentially to be fulfilled by the respective retail companies which has to be strategically
planned and effectively executed. Similar studies can be conducted to explore more aspects of
quality service in retail sector.
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