Page 399 - Marketing Management

376 PART 5 SHAPING THE MARKET OFFERINGS

Many product companies have a stronger Web presence than they had before. They must ensure
that they offer adequate—if not superior—service online as well. “Marketing Memo: Assessing
E-Service Quality” reviews two models of online service quality.

Identifying and Satisfying Customer Needs
Traditionally, customers have had three specific worries about product service: 80

• They worry about reliability and failure frequency. A farmer may tolerate a combine that will
break down once a year, but not two or three times a year.
• They worry about downtime. The longer the downtime, the higher the cost. The customer
counts on the seller’s service dependability—the seller’s ability to fix the machine quickly or at
least provide a loaner. 81
• They worry about out-of-pocket costs. How much does the customer have to spend on regular
maintenance and repair costs?

A buyer takes all these factors into consideration and tries to estimate the life-cycle cost, which
is the product’s purchase cost plus the discounted cost of maintenance and repair less the
discounted salvage value. A one-computer office will need higher product reliability and faster re-
pair service than an office where other computers are available if one breaks down. An airline needs
100 percent reliability in the air. Where reliability is important, manufacturers or service providers
can offer guarantees to promote sales.

marketing
Memo Assessing E-Service Quality

Academic researchers Zeithaml, Parasuraman, and Malhotra define You get what you ordered from this Web site.
online service quality as the extent to which a Web site facilitates The product is delivered by the time promised by the company.
efficient and effective shopping, purchasing, and delivery. They identified
11 dimensions of perceived e-service quality: access, ease of navigation, Web Site Design
efficiency, flexibility, reliability, personalization, security/privacy, respon-
This Web site provides in-depth information.
siveness, assurance/trust, site aesthetics, and price knowledge. Some of
these service-quality dimensions were the same online as offline, but The site doesn’t waste my time.
some specific underlying attributes were different. Different dimensions It is quick and easy to complete a transaction at this Web site.
emerged with e-service quality too. Empathy didn’t seem to be as impor- The level of personalization at this site is about right, not too much or
tant online, unless there were service problems. Core dimensions of too little.
regular service quality were efficiency, fulfillment, reliability, and privacy;
This Web site has good selection.
core dimensions of service recovery were responsiveness, compensa-
tion, and real-time access to help.
Security/Privacy
Another set of academic researchers, Wolfinbarger and Gilly, devel-
oped a reduced scale of online service quality with four key dimensions: I feel that my privacy is protected at this site.
reliability/fulfillment, Web site design, security/privacy, and customer ser- I feel safe in my transactions with this Web site.
vice. The researchers interpret their study findings to suggest that the This Web site has adequate security transactions.
most basic building blocks of a “compelling online experience” are relia-
bility and functionality to provide time savings, easy transactions, good Customer Service
selection, in-depth information, and the “right” level of personalization.
The company is willing and ready to respond to customer needs.
Their 14-item scale looks like this:
When you have a problem, the Web site shows a sincere interest in
Reliability/Fulfillment solving it.
The product that came was represented accurately by the Web site. Inquiries are answered promptly.

Sources: Mary Wolfinbarger and Mary C. Gilly,“E-TailQ: Dimensionalizing, Measuring, and Predicting E-Tail Quality,” Journal of Retailing 79 (Fall 2003), pp. 183–98; Valarie A.
Zeithaml, A. Parasuraman, and Arvind Malhotra, “A Conceptual Framework for Understanding E-Service Quality: Implications for Future Research and Managerial Practice,”
Marketing Science Institute Working Paper, Report No. 00-115, 2000.