Boothe, Robert (1990, ASQC) University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, MS
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Statistical quality control in service organizations involves both hard and soft numbers. Actual quality is a hard number that service firms often have measured precisely. It is quality from the point of view of the firm. Perceived quality and expected quality are soft numbers that measure quality from the customer point of view. Perceived quality is the quality of service received by the customer. Expected quality is the quality expected by the customer before receiving the service. These three measures form a service quality model: perceived quality = actual quality - expected quality. To keep perceived quality above zero, managers should: define customer needs through talking with customers; pay attention both to customer desires and expenditures of resources; realize that industrial engineering and human behavior both have impact on service delivery; and emphasize processes that have the flexibility to respond to customer feedback. Although quality is the primary focus of quality efforts, cost factors are important, too.
Customer expectation,Statistical quality control (SQC),Service sector,Customer satisfaction (CS)
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