Service quality: gaps in the Malaysian telemarketing industry Norizan Mohd Kassim a, * , Jamil Bojei b a Faculty of Management, Multimedia University, Cyberjaya, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia b University Putra, Malaysia Abstract Facing many rapid changes and challenges in the dynamic information technology environment, and the ever-increasing competitive pressures, many firms in telemarketing services have employed service quality as a principle competitive weapon. This study investigates the discrepancy between customer’s expectation and perception towards the quality of services. Using the SERVQUAL instrument, this study uses simple random sampling to collect data from 100 users of telemarketing services throughout Malaysia. The results indicate that the sample population has perceptual problems with their telemarketing service experiences. Finally, strategic implications for the telemarketing companies involved and suggestions for future research are provided. D 2002 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Since the 1980s, the delivery of quality goods and services has become a marketing priority (Leonard and Sasser, 1982; Rabin, 1983). Service quality is generally perceived to be a tool that could be used to create a competitive advantage that would assist telemarketing ser- vice providers in dealing with the new environment. For the customer, the observable symptom is decreasing quality in what has been termed the ‘‘service encounter’’ or ‘‘the moment of interaction between the customer and the firm’’ (Czepiel et al., 1985; Lovelock, 1988; Shostock 1985; Solomon et al., 1985; Suprenant and Solomon, 1987). 2. Service quality Gronroos (1984) and Parasuraman et al. (1985) devel- oped conceptual models of service quality and identified possible determinants of perceived quality. Parasuraman et al. (1985) suggested that consumers’ perception of service quality offering is a function of the following five separate quality perceptions: (1) tangible; (2) reliability; (3) respon- siveness; (4) assurance; and (5) empathy. Parasuraman et al. (1985) hypothesized that these five dimensions are related to the discrepancy between consumers’ expectations and per- ceptions. Specifically, they considered that service quality, as perceived by consumers, stemmed from a comparison of what consumers felt the service firm should offer (i.e., from their expectations) with their perceptions of the performance of firms providing the services. Service quality is consis- tently viewed in the literature as a unique construct of customer satisfaction. The conceptual definition of service quality developed by Parasuraman et al. (1988) has been largely employed as a comparison to excellence in the service encounter by the customer (Rust and Oliver 1994; Cronin and Taylor, 1992, 1994). Bitner et al. (1990) proposed to define ‘‘service quality’’ as the consumers’ overall impression of the relative inferiority/superiority of the organization and its services. He observed that in most services, the customer formulate his perception of actual service quality during his interaction with the contact personnel of the firm. Hence, service quality is highly dependent on the performance of employees. Bitner et al. (1990) further suggested that both service quality and service satisfaction affirm the importance of the quality of customer/employee interactions with services. A close exam- ination of the scale items for each service quality dimension reveals that a majority of all the items are related directly to the human interaction element of service delivery. However, the only shortfall in the above-mentioned studies is that none concentrate on understanding custom- ers’ expectation for service quality. Services, by defini- tion, are intangible and easily duplicated. Quality is 0148-2963/02/$ – see front matter D 2002 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved. PII:S0148-2963(00)00224-1 * Corresponding author. E-mail address: norizan.kasim@mmu.edu.my (N.M. Kassim). Journal of Business Research 55 (2002) 845 – 852