ASSIGNMENT ON SELECTED QUESTIONS

BUS 3211: SERVICE MARKETING

SUBMITTED TO

Mr. Ahmad Bin Yamin

Senior Lecturer
Faculty of Business Administration
Fareast International University

SUBMITTED BY

Md. Tamim Hossain (ID# 18201006)

Faculty of Business Administration
Fareast International University

Fareast International University

December 20, 2019
December 20, 2019

Mr. Ahmad Bin Yamin

Senior Lecturer
Faculty of Business Administration
Fareast International University
House # 50, Road # 11, Block – C, Banani, Dhaka-1213, Bangladesh

Subject: Submission of Assignment

Dear Sir,

This is to inform you that I am, Md. Tamim Hossain, submitting my assignment on “Selected
Questions” to you which is aligned with the course ‘BUS 3211: Service Marketing’.

It is true that it could have been done in better way if there would not be the limitations.
I hope you will assess my report considering the limitations of the study. Hence, I am always
prepared to welcome any further clarification that may require. Your kind
advice will encourage me to do further research in future.

Sincerely Yours,

Md. Tamim Hossain

ID# 18201006
Department: F.B.A.
Program: B.B.A.
 I

Table of Contents.

Section Particulars Page

A What is meant by Service gap? 1

B What are the 5 types of Service gaps? How those service gap can be 2
linked with university as an academic institution providing services
to graduate and undergraduate students.

C How can we understand and solve the service gaps of a university, 4

give solution with examples.
 Service Marketing Fall 2k19 1

A. What is meant by Service gap?

This gap describes the difference between a customer's expectations of the service provided
and the company's actual work to provide the service. In addition, service gap develops due
to the inability of business or organization to identify what the customer wants or needs
correctly.

Expectations
Vs.
Services provided

For instance: In order to attend a Business Conference at Dhaka, Terry booked a hotel
room online using booking.com, which showed clean, well-appointed rooms and plenty of
amenities. Unfortunately, when Terry enters the hotel, he is less than impressed with what
he sees. None of the features he saw on the website are offered and his room is far from the
quality he expected. When those expectations don’t measure up to the service performance,
gaps develop. This makes it essential for a business’s employees and managers to narrow
any gaps between the expectations and the actual delivery of services.
 Service Marketing Fall 2k19 2

B. What are the 5 types of Service gaps? How those service gap can be linked with
university as an academic institution providing services to graduate and
undergraduate students.

The Gap Model of Service Quality is a framework which can help us to understand common
customer satisfaction issues. Within the model there are five common gaps which can
occur:
1. The Knowledge Gap
2. The Policy Gap
3. The Delivery Gap
4. The Communication Gap
5. The Customer Gap

Gap Model of Service Quality

Customer Expectation
Customer GAP 5
GAP 1

Customer Perception

Service Delivery
GAP 3
Company Service Delivery Policies GAP 4 External Communication
GAP 2
Understanding of Customer needs
 Service Marketing Fall 2k19 3

Service Gap Model Example

Fareast International University, as a model example of an Academic Institution, is serving
undergraduate and graduate students.

Parasuraman, A., Zeithaml, V. A., & Berry, L. (1988) determined five dimensions for the
measurement of service quality in different service oriented industries.

Tangible
Reliability
Responsiveness
Assurance
Empathy

In order to link these five gaps, we have developed 22- item SERVQUAL model based on
Parasuraman’s 5 dimensions. These are listed and linked with Fareast International
University as follows:

Service Gaps Linked with Fareast International University

Tangible  Modern Library with better collection
 Modern teaching equipment
 Better accommodation and
healthcare facility
 Transportation facility
Reliability  Better admission procedure
 Regular class
 Transparency of marking system
 Award for meritorious students
 Up-to-date university curriculum
Responsiveness  Carefulness for the students
 Availability of personnel
 Addressing students complaint
 Teachers’ response to students’ requests.
Assurance  Academic credential of Lecturer
 Research efficiency of Lecturer
 Staff knowledge on rules and procedures
 Friendly behavior and courtesy of staff
Empathy  Individual attention to students
 Students’ best interest at heart
 Convenience of computer facility
 Convenience of study room
 Sympathetic and supportive to the need of students
 Service Marketing Fall 2k19 4

C. How can we understand and solve the service gaps of a university, give solution with
examples.

Service gap consists of five gaps such as knowledge gap, policy gap, delivery gap,
communication gap and customer gap. To reduce the service gap, the following
prescriptions are given which will help any university to minimize service gap:

For Knowledge Gap:

 Understand students’ expectation through research, complaint analysis etc.
 Use of good Customer Relationship Management (CRM) techniques to know students’
expectation, need and demand.
 University authority should find out the actual need of students according to the degree
of importance.

Example:
After consulting with faculty member and students, FIU-Authority instructs Top
management to conduct survey prioritizing students’ expectation using various techniques
mentioned above in order to understand their students.

For Policy Gap:

 Management should set a standard performance.
 University authority should set a student advisory panel which can offer feedback and
advice on service performance.
 Trained up teachers to deliver quality services to students.

Example:
Recently, FIU-Authority introduce online portal where students can register and log in with
their student ID. Online portal provides services, i.e., performance report, rapid result
publications, faculty evaluation and suggestions etc.

For Delivery Gap:

 The personnel and staffs in any university should give more time to listen to students
and serve them fast.
 The university authority should early identify the employees’ role.
 Train personnel in interpersonal skills, especially for dealing with students.

Example:
Mr. Tarek Afif, a student of FIU, participated in a seminar named “Communication skills
in 21st century in spirit of liberation war and martyrs” on 16th December, 2019. This might
be a great initiative to solve the delivery gap.
 Service Marketing Fall 2k19 5

For Communication Gap:

 Ensure the advertised messages with the reliable features.
 Use of good communication skills and avoid ambiguous terms to confuse or mislead
the students.
 Offer students different levels of service by explaining the distinctions.

Example:
In order to minimize communication gap and build confidence, Canadian University
Bangladesh uses Facebook advertising platform and boost their programs like MBA and
EMBA and reach the prospective students. It can be said that it is high time for any private
university to introduce lucrative EMBA program as most of the public university are about
to postpone their Evening MBA program from summer 2020.

For Customer Gap:

This gap can only be closed by closing the other four gaps in the model. Once this is done
then customer expectations and customer perceptions should align.

Finally, it is clearly evident that if the above prescriptions are strictly followed by the public
or private university, they can reduce the service gap and can provide better services to
students.

Note that all examples are fictionalized just to develop and support this assignment.