SERVQUAL
Quality Management
Definition. SERVQUAL is a multi-item scale that measures service quality as the gap between customers’ expectations and perceptions across five dimensions: tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy.
Explanation
Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry developed the instrument for service industries (Parasuraman et al., 1988), and it has been widely adapted to hospitals and primary care.
Criticisms include the reliability of difference scores and the stability of its five-factor structure across settings, which is why many studies use perception-only versions.
Related concepts
Patient satisfaction Patient experience Reliability Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA)
References
Parasuraman, A., Zeithaml, V. A., & Berry, L. L. (1988). SERVQUAL: A multiple-item scale for measuring consumer perceptions of service quality. Journal of Retailing, 64(1), 12–40.
Cite this entry: Kurutkan, M. N. (2026). SERVQUAL. In The Health Topics glossary. https://healthtopic.org/glossary/servqual/
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