International Variations in Measuring Customer Expectations

ABSTRACT

ONE OF THE PROBLEMS WITH USING GAP ANALYSIS is our partial understanding of customer expectations. A survey of Chinese university library students' expectations of service quality was compared to a similar survey done previously in New Zealand. Marked similarities in results show that there is perhaps a global set of customer expectations that can be used to measure academic library service quality. Three dimensions that concern staff attitudes, the library environment, and services that help the customer to find and use the library's materials efficiently, are found in both studies. A secondary study investigated national culture as a source of attitudes to customer service. Using Hofstede's dimensions, Library and Information Science (LIS) students in China and New Zealand were compared. Apart from some variation in the role of the manager in setting service standards, little variation appeared. The two surveys both suggest that national culture is not a major precursor of attitudes to service quality, so it will not impede efforts to set international measures of service quality for libraries.

INTRODUCTION

The increased emphasis on customer care seen in the 1980s and 1990s has also affected university libraries around the world and, as a result, the need to understand what library customers expect in terms of service quality is now necessary for good management. Service quality can be defined in different ways, but the most common approach used in libraries is disconfirmation theory that examines the difference between a customer's expectations and the customer's perceived sense of actual performance. Surveys look for the extent that customer expectations of service are disconfirmed in practice; this is also called "gap" analysis. The SERVQUAL model of establishing service quality by employing gap analysis has been used in libraries for several years, and research shows it "offers service providers a diagnostic tool to assess what is important to meet or exceed their readers' expectations for quality service and a monitor of how well they do so" (Nitecki, 1998, p. 190).

Quinn (1997) argued that customer expectations can only be assessed by professionals, yet it has been established that customers and librarians have different expectations of the library, and "If there is a lack of congruence between users' expectations and providers' expectations, service quality will suffer regardless of how well services are planned, delivered, and marketed" (Edwards & Browne, 1995, p. 164). Hernon, Nitecki, and Altman (1999) say the belief that librarians already know what customers want, need, and expect is one reason they have been slow to accept the need to investigate service quality (p. 13). Customers have expectations about the service they will receive from an organization, and it is widely accepted that the key to good service quality lies in providing performance that meets or exceeds customer expectations of the service. That places the onus on library managers to know the expectations of their customers. Separately, but perhaps as importantly, a fuller knowledge of the origins, or antecedents, or customer expectations will provide management with a fuller understanding of the complex nature of service quality.

The twenty-four statements in SERVQUAL have been so thoroughly tested that their reliability and validity is well established (see Zeithaml, Parasuraman, & Berry, 1990). Still, doubts have been expressed about the SERVQUAL's applicability to contexts not close to its original setting (Robinson, 1999, p. 29). Its generality, as opposed to the specific context of a particular service sector such as libraries, has encouraged some LIS researchers to try a variation of gap analysis. Hernon and Altman (1998) pioneered a method of comparing customer expectations with objective indicators of service quality (p. 106) that has been tested in academic libraries in the United States, New Zealand, and Singapore (Calvert, 1997). This method is, in essence, similar to SERVQUAL but uses statements developed in consultation with library staff and customers that cover a wide range of aspects of service quality in libraries, though even the large number of statements generated so far cannot be said to be comprehensive. It also has the merit of being flexible enough to allow individual libraries to frame survey questionnaires to suit their own needs.

SEARCHING FOR GLOBAL DIMENSIONS OF LIBRARY SERVICE QUALITY

A problem with the gap model is that we have an inadequate understanding of customer expectations. Nitecki (1999) has pointed out that most research into library service quality has been case studies and has not produced normative results. She said: "Additional investigation is needed in library settings to draw insights about what library users find important in judging service quality and to speculate if universally prioritized factors exist across all library settings" (p. 225). In this project, it was hoped that, by investigating customer expectations in Chinese university libraries, the results would aid researchers around the world to move toward Nitecki's ideal of a global understanding of customer expectations. Comparisons between the Chinese results and those from a similar survey conducted in New Zealand will add to our understanding of customer expectations.