Customer Gap

the difference between customer expectations and perceptions.

Customer Expectations

beliefs about service delivery that serve as standards or reference points against which performance is judged

Customer Perceptions

how they assess whether they have experienced quality service and whether they are satisfied.

Provider Gap 1: the listening gap

the difference between customer expectations of service and the company's understanding those expectations.

Provider Gap 1: causes

lack of understanding of expectations, inadequate customer research orientation, lack of upward communication, and lack of service recovery.

Closing Provider Gap 1

research strategies, build relationships, and recover strategies.

Provider Gap 2: the service design and standards gap

the difference between company understanding of customer expectations and the development of customer driven standards.

Provider Gap 2: causes

intangible, poor service design, absence of customer driven standards, and inappropriate physical evidence and servicescape.

Closing Provider Gap 2

customer-defined service standards

Provider Gap 3: the service performance gap

the discrepancy between the development of customer-driven service standards and actual service performance by company employees.

Provider Gap 3: causes

deficiencies in human resource policies, failure to match supply and demand, customers not fulfilling roles, and problems with service intermediaries.

Closing Provider Gap 3

ensuring that all the resources needed to achieve the standards are in place

Provider Gap 4: the communication gap

illustrates the difference between service delivery and the service provider's external communication.

Provider Gap 4: causes

lack of integrated services marketing communication, ineffective management of customer expectations, over-promising, inadequate horizontal communications, and inappropriate pricing.

Closing Provider Gap 4

effectively coordinating actual service delivery with external communications.