Quality Makes Perfect (1): What is Quality?

According to the study done by Parasuraman, A, Zeithaml, V.A.& Berry L. L. (1985), quality is the difference between expectation and perception. Quality could be measured upon the satisfaction gained by the customer compared to his or her expectation prior of getting the service. If the measurement of the perception is higher than the measurement of the expectation, it shows that the customer is satisfied with the quality of the service and we could simply said that the service is of a high quality. However it is not as simple as ABC in determining the perception and the expectation. It depends on various aspects. Different people would have different perception and expectation. As such, we need to ascertain the standard which is common to everybody. So, those quality scholars have come out with an instrument that could somehow measure the quality in most common way to everybody. The one best and popular instrument created was SERVQUAL. Therefore, in order to increase the quality of the service, the service provider need to know what are the aspects that could make their customers feel satisfied. Most of all, the service provider will depend very much on their customers in giving the quality standard of their company.