A Study On The Customer's Expectation and Perception of Service Quality of Retail Grocery Stores Using SERVQUAL Model

Imperial Journal of Interdisciplinary Research (IJIR)
Vol-2, Issue-3 , 2016

ISSN : 2454-1362 , http://www.onlinejournal.in
A Study on the Customers Expectation and

Perception of Service Quality of Retail
Grocery Stores Using SERVQUAL Model
R.Ayyamperumal1 and Dr.B.Senthil Arasu2
1
Associate Professor of Management Studies, VHNSN College, Virudhunagar 626 001.

Tamilnadu, India.
2
Associate Professor of Management Studies, NIT, Trichy. Tamilnadu, India.
Abstract : The purpose of the study is for the

improvement of the retail service quality of grocery
stores in five major cities in Tamilnadu, India. It
covers four retail formats. The grocery stores are
normally open around 8.30 am in the morning.
Sometimes when the respondent needs to purchase
during the opening hours, they need to wait as it
takes some time to setup. First, this study aims to
calculate service quality score of the individual
respondent and based on the SERVQUAL
dimensions, Then study aims at predicting the
customers willingness to wait, to buy grocery with
the contribution of demographics and SERVQUAL
score using binary logistic regression. There are 7
predictors. The important factor that contributes to
the prediction is identified along with the group in
specific. A Few suggestions are given in the
conclusion to build customer relationship and
ultimately improve the service quality.
1. Introduction
Measuring service quality is an interesting task
because
of
its
distinctive
characteristics:
Intangibility, heterogeneity, inseparability and
perishability (Buttle, 1996) [1]. Service quality is
about the concepts of perceptions and expectations of
service (Parasuraman et al., 1985, 1988) [2] .
Customers perceptions of service are the result of a
comparison of the expectations of services with the
actual-service experience. When perceptions exceed
expectations the service has resulted in consumer
surplus; it is adequate, when it just equals with the
expectations; the service will be said as bad, poor or
insufficient, when it does not meet their expectations
and has led to customer frustration (Gitomer, 1998)
[3].
Based on this perspective, Parasuraman et al.
developed a scale for measuring service quality,
which is well known as SERVQUAL. This scale
operationalises service quality by calculating the
difference between Expectations and Experiences of
the respondents in five major places in Tamilnadu,
evaluating both in relation to the 22 items that
represent five service quality dimensions known as

tangibles,
reliability,
responsiveness,
assurance and empathy.
The SERVQUAL scale has been tested and
adapted in a large number of researches conducted in
various service settings, cultural contexts and
geographic locations and it is suggested that they
require customization to the specific service sector in
which they are applied [4]. The researcher has
customized for Grocery retailing. After finding the
SERVQUAL, the researcher aims at predicting the
customer willingness to wait, to buy grocery with the
contribution of demographics and servqual score.
2. Literature Review
It is a universal fact that customer satisfaction is
the base for repeated purchase. For example, when
customers perceive a good product or service, each
one of them will typically share their experience few
people in their circle. It is a fact that nearly one-half
of Indians business is built upon this informal,
word-of-mouth communication. Improvement in
customer retention by even a few percentage points
can increase profits by 25 percent or more [5]. The
University of Michigan found that for every
percentage increase in customer satisfaction, there is
an average increase of 2.37% of return on investment
[6]. Most people praise the businesses that service
them the way they like to be serviced; they will even
pay more for that service.
The message is obvious finally that the

customers willingness to wait is an indication that
the customers are satisfied and customers not willing
to wait may not be loyal to the store at present and
chances are there that they might also change.
Customer satisfaction is an asset that should be
monitored and managed just like any physical asset.
This is true for both service-oriented and productoriented organizations [7].
Page 458

Vol-2, Issue-3 , 2016
3. Statement of the Problem
7.1. SERVQUAL Calculation
Research has concentrated on measuring

SERVQUAL for the retail services. In addition, this
study aims Predicting the Customer Willingness to
Wait, during the opening hour with the Contribution
of factors in the Constructs of SERVQUAL. 355
respondents who said that they would not wait for
the shop to be opened and 187 respondents who said
that they would wait when the shop is yet to open.
The below diagram explains the steps in the

calculation of SERVQUAL in two ways to find the
weighted average SERVQUAL score.
4. Scope of the Study

The study is confined to the following retail store
formats. Format of stores covered: Kirana Stores,
Discount stores, Supermarket, Hyper Market in five
major cities of Tamilnadu. India.
5. Research Objectives
In accordance with the study, the research
encompasses the following objective:
a.
To find the service quality of retail grocery

store based on individual respondent and
then based on the dimensions of
SERVQUAL.
b. Predicting the customer willingness to wait,
to buy grocery with the contribution of
demographics and SERVQUAL score using
Binary Logistic Regression.
6. Methodology
Research study is descriptive in nature. A
descriptive describes the study systematically,
methodologically, rationally and ethically utilizing
opinion, behaviour and its relevance to the
phenomenon being studied [8].
SERVQUAL is calculated using the SERVQUAL
model. A structured questionnaire was constructed
taking into account SERVQUAL dimensions such as
Tangibles, Reliability, Responsiveness, Assurance,
Empathy and demographics. Convenience sampling
Method is employed. The questionnaire is collected
from the 542 people who have grocery shopping
experience.
. Fig. 1: Methods of calculating SERVQUAL score
The above two methods serve its purpose. The

individual method helps the researcher to find the
result of the SERVQUAL score of each respondent.
This is helpful to make a detailed study based on
demographics of the respondents of the research.
Table SA1: Analysis of SERVQUAL Score Based on the
Constructs:
Sl.No.
Constructs
Tangibility
Reliability
Responsiveness
Assurance
Empathy
Average Gap
score of the
Construct
1.29244
1.44465
-1.4774
1.48293
1.49594
SERVQUAL =
Analysis method, First SERVQUAL is calculated

for individual respondent and for the dimensions of
SERVQUAL. Binary Logistic Regression willingness to wait as dependent variable and six
demographic variables and servqual score as
covariates/predictors.
7. Results and Discussion

The results and discussion are as follows in the
two sections.
Average
Weight
totalling
to 100
Weight
for
Score1=
Average
weight/
100
Weighted
Average
of
the
Construct
19.04059
0.190406
-0.24609
23.67159
0.236716
-0.34197
21.64022
0.216402
-0.31971
19.46679
0.194668
-0.28868
16.18081
0.161808
-0.24206
Weighted Average of
the Construct/5
-0.2877
Source: Primary Data
This Analysis is helpful to know the average gap

score that is arrived for each construct. This helps to
understand the gap in each dimension. The above
table SA1 shows the calculation of arriving
SERVQUAL score based on the constructs. Empathy
has high gap score of -1.49594 and the lowest gap
was the tangibility with -1.29244. Reliability has
gained the highest average weight and empathy has
gained the lowest average weight. The gap score was
Page 459

Vol-2, Issue-3 , 2016
multiplied by the weight (converted to 1), to get the
weighted average score in the construct. Then,
calculated the average of Weighted Average of the
Construct to arrive the SERVQUAL score of 0.2877. This score says that the expectation of the
service quality is more than their experience while
shopping grocery. The SERVQUAL score is not
highly negative (-0.2877, the maximum negative
score is -7) which means that the retail service
quality is close to normal. [9]
Table SA2: Analysis of SERVQUAL Score - Individual Respondent
Sl.No
.
Servqual score of a
Respondent
No. of
Respondent
Respondent
s (%)
-1 to -0.75
32
5.90%
-0.75 to -0.5
109
20.11%
-0.5 to -0.25
142
26.20%
-0.25 to 0
177
32.66%
0 to 0.25
75
13.84%
0.25 to 0.5
1.29%
Grand Total
542
100.00%
The above table SA2 shows the servqual score of

the respondent. 5.90% of the Respondents scored
between -1 to 0.75, 20.11% of the respondent scored
between -0.75 to -0.5, 26.20% of the respondent
scored between -0.5 to -0.25, 32.66% of the
respondent scored between -0.25 to 0, 13.84% of the
respondent scored between 0 to 0.25, 1.29% of the
respondents scored between 0.25 to 0.5.
7.2. Prediction - Who Will Wait to Shop

Grocery
The below is the summary and discussion of the
results of binary logistic regression.
The below is the summary and discussion of the
results of binary logistic regression.
Table 1: Omnibus Tests of Model Coefficients
Chi-square
df
Step 1
Step
65.184
16
Block
65.184
16
Model
65.184
16
Sig.
.000
.000
.000
The Table1 here gives us the omnibus test of

model coefficients. These values give us an idea of
whether or not the model with our independent
variables fits the data better (i.e. Gives us a better
prediction of individual scores) than the baseline
model. We can find significance in the final column
on this table 0.000, and this means (significance is
less than .05) the model is significant, which means
that this model with the 7 predictors is a PERFECT
Fit. It shows the goodness of fit [10].
Table 2: Model Summary

-2Log Cox & Snell Nagelkerke
Step likelihood R Square
R Square
1
633.246a
.113
.156
a. Estimation terminated at iteration number 4 because
parameter estimates changed by less than .001.
The Table2 provides us with the R square

statistics and there are two measures, Cox & Snell
and Nagelkerke. Both these uses a little different
formula, but both are equally valid. In this case, Cox
& Snell is 0.113, and Nagelkerke is 0.156. These
numbers indicate scope for improvement in fit over
the baseline model. The value shows that there is
little scope to contribute to the improvement of the
fit over the baseline model.
Table 3: Hosmer and Lemeshow Test
Step
Chi-square
df
Sig.
1
5.755
8
.675
In Table3, A chi-square statistic is computed by
comparing the observed frequencies with those
expected under the linear model. The significance
value is 0.675. A nonsignificant chi-square indicates
that the data fit the model the best. This test is also to
know the goodness of fit and since the significance
value is 0.675, it fits the Best.
The below table4 helps us to predict the
covariates that aids the prediction of the respondents
those who have the intention to wait to shop grocery
when the shop is yet to open. The equation to find
the probability value to predict is as below. The B
values refer to the log-odds of being willingness to
wait, to buy grocery during the opening hour. We
can insert these into the binary logistic regression
equation as below:
Binary Logistic Regression= + 1X1 + 2X2 + .+
7X7
= -1.905 + (-0.172) (city)
+ 0.534 (gender)
+ 0.584 (education)
+ (-1.192) (occupation)
+0.141 (spending)
+ 0.065 (saving)
+ 0.245 (SERVQUAL)
Table 4: Variables in the Equation
B S.E. Wald
Step City
.772
1a
City (1)
-.029 .308
.009
City (2)
-.143 .310
.212
City (3)
.107 .340
.098
City (4)
-.172 .305
.318
Gender(1)
.534 .255 4.380
Education
11.338
Education(1)
1.044 .326 10.260
Education(2)
.699 .276 6.440
Education(3)
.584 .286 4.167
Occupation
15.355
df Sig.
4 .942
1 .926
1 .645
1 .754
1 .573
1 .036
3 .010
1 .001
1 .011
1 .041
5 .009
Exp(B)
.972
.867
1.112
.842
1.706
2.840
2.012
1.793
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Vol-2, Issue-3 , 2016
Occupation(1)
-.316
Occupation(2)
-1.378
Occupation(3)
-.955
Occupation(4)
-.480
Occupation(5)
-1.192
spending
on .141
grocery
Home savings
.065
SERVQUAL
.245
Constant
-1.905
.425
.515
.369
.449
.451
.110
.553
7.170
6.696
1.144
6.992
1.621
1
1
1
1
1
1
.457 .729
.007 .252
.010 .385
.285 .619
.008 .304
.203 1.151
a.
.132
.245 1 .621 1.067
.094 6.758 1 .009 1.278
.608 9.827 1 .002 .149
b.
a.Variable(s) entered on step 1: City in which you have GROCERY

shopping xperience, Gender, Education, Occupation, spending in rocery,
Home savings, SERVQUALic.
c.
Among the 7 predictors in table 4, the variable

Gender, Education, Occupation and SERVQUAL
score in table4 alone has significance below 0.05
hence these variables alone contributes to the model.
Place, monthly savings and monthly spending on
Grocery do not contribute to this model at large.
8. Discussion and Conclusion

The servqual score of the majority of 32.66% of
the respondent is between -0.25 to 0 shows that the
majority of the respondents expects an incremental
care to improve the service quality. The negative
SERVQUAL score is about 84.87% of respondents.
It clearly shows that the expectation of the
respondents during buying grocery is higher and
hence the retailer should put effort. Respondents
forgot that the increment in service quality is going
to cost more in the products they buy.
The cutoff value is 0.5 to predict whether a
respondent will wait or not. The respondent with a
probability greater than 0.5 is predicted to have the
intention to wait to shop grocery.
Table 5: Binary Logistic Regression Classification
Tablea
Predicted
Will
you
wait to purchase
when they are
opening
the
store/yet
to
open in the
Morning?
Percentage
Observed
No
Yes Correct
Step Will
you No 308
47
86.8
1 wait to purchase Yes 125
62
33.2
when they are
opening
the
store/yet
to
open in the
Morning?
Overall Percentage
68.3
a. The cut value is .500
Based on the results obtained by the researcher,
the following are the conclusions:
d.
e.
In predicting the factors that contribute to

the prediction of the intention to wait, from
the table4 the researcher found that Gender,
Education, Occupation and SERVQUAL
score are the factor that contributes to the
decision on the intention to wait is correct in
reality too.
Predicted that among 105 respondents, 88
respondents are male and 17 respondents
are female. So males have the chance to
wait more than female. (Appendix A)
respondents are graduates and below. This
shows that the higher educated mostly do
not wait. So when our customers are of
higher education, we should understand that
they do not have time or patience to wait to
shop and look for alternatives. (Appendix
B)
respondents
are
Businessman
and
professional, this shows that these
professions have flexibility in time and have
patience. None of the student waits shows
that they have to be timid. (Appendix C)
respondents have SERVQUAL score
between -0.25 to +0.25 and none from the
SERVQUAL score between -0.75 and -1.
The conclusion is that the males, businessman,

Professionals, Graduates & below and those who
have SERVQUAL score between -0.25 to 0.25 has
the chance to wait to shop grocery. Hence need to
train the employees to focus on them better [11]. The
emotions of the buyer are to be valued [12] Since
these people have the patience to wait it should be
encouraged. The researcher suggests offering a token
at the entry when these people enter immediately
after opening. This token bears a discount of 4% or
free grocery of their brand. This might also attract
the buyers to wait. A healthier approach is to focus
on consistently providing the dimensions and levels
of quality that customers expect [13].
9. References
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
F. Buttle, SERVQUAL: review, critique,

research agenda, European Journal on
Marketing, vol. 30, no. 1, pp. 832, 1996.
A. Parasuraman, Consumer Perceptions of
Service Quality, Spring, vol. 64, no. 1,
1988.
J. H. Gitomer, Customer Satisfaction is
worthless, Customer loyalty is priceless:
How to make customers love you, keep them
coming back and tell everyone they know.
Austin: Bard Press, 1998.
D. W. Finn and C. W. Lamb, An Evaluation
Page 461

Vol-2, Issue-3 , 2016
[5]
[6]
[7]
[8]
[9]
[10]
[11]
[12]
[13]
ofthe SERVQUAL Scales in a Retailing

Setting, Advances in Consumer Research,
vol. 18, no. 1986, pp. 483490, 1991.
D. Grace and D. Griffin, Conspicuous
donation behaviour: scale development and
validation, Journal of Consumer Behaviour,
vol. 25, pp. 1425, 2009.
T. L. Keiningham and T. G. Vavra, The
customer delight principle: Exceeding
customers expectations for bottom-line
success. Chicago: McGraw-Hill, 2001.
G. S. Sureshchandar, C. Rajendran, and T. J.
Kamalanabhan, Customer perceptions of
service quality: A critique, Total Quality
Management, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 111124,
2001.
R. Ayyamperumal, Research methodology
Research types, Google Drive, 2015.
[PowerPoint].
Available:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1sKhveHr
EvqCMcYI_BRbZAhtTHI190X7z1o0Y61KK7w.
L. L. Berry, SERVQUAL: A MultipleItem Scale for Measuring Consumer
Perceptions of Service Quality, Spring, vol.
64, no. 1, 1988.
F. C. Pampel, Logistic Regression: A Primer,
Illustrate. NEWDelhi: SAGE Publications,
2000.
T. A. Clottey, D. A. Collier, and M.
Stodnick, Drivers Of Customer Loyalty In
A Retail Store Environment, Journal of
Service Science, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 3548,
2008.
D. Spanjaard and L. Freeman, The hidden
agenda: emotions in grocery shopping,
Internationa Review of Retai,. Distribution
Consumer Research, vol. 22, no. 5, pp. 439
457, Dec. 2012.
J. M. Getty and R. L. Getty, Lodging
quality index (LQI): assessing customers
perceptions
of
quality
delivery,
International Journal of Contemporary
Hospitality Management, vol. 15, no. 2, pp.
94104, 2003.
Appendices
Appendix A
Predicted group * Will you wait to purchase when
they are opening the store/yet to open in the
Morning? * Gender Cross tabulation
Will you wait
to
purchase
during opening
hours?
Gender
Male
Predicted group No
Yes al
74
239
36
52
88
5
Yes
Tot
No
16
Total
20
1
Female
Predicted group No
14
5
Yes
9
15
Total
4
Total Predicted group No
31
0
Yes
45
35
Total
5
126
327
53
198
17
61
215
127
437
60
105
187
542
Appendix B
Morning? * Education Cross tabulation
Will
you
wait
to
purchase
during
opening
hours?
Education
No Yes Total
12th grade or Predicted No
22
15
37
less
group
Yes 21
31
52
Total
43
46
89
Predicted No
76
39 115
Graduate
group
Yes 14
22
36
Total
90
61 151
Post-Graduate Predicted No
67
32
99
Degree and
group
Yes 8
7
15
Higher
Total
75
39 114
Professional
Predicted No 145
41 186
Degree
group
Yes 2
0
2
Total
147
41 188
Total
Predicte No
12
310
437
d group
7
Yes 45
60 105
Total
18
355
542
7
Appendix C
Morning? * Occupation Cross tabulation
Will you
wait
During
opening
hours
Ye Tota
Occupation
No s
l
Business
- Predicte No 10
9
19
Trading,
Own d group Ye
25 36
61
Manufacturing
s
Total
35 45
80
Government
Predicte No 51 10
61
Sector
d group Ye
0
1
1
s
Page 462

Vol-2, Issue-3 , 2016
Private Sector
Total
Predicte
d group
51
14
0
11
62
No
56
196
Ye
s
13
64
209
25
73
52
30
82
51
16
67
51
10
16
11
67
21
11
10
21
21
31
0
21
12
7
42
No
Ye
s
45
60
105
35
5
18
7
542
Total
Homemaker/Hous
e Wife
Student
Professionals
Total
Predicte
d group
Total
Predicte
d group
Total
Predicte
d group
Total
Predicte
d group
Total
No
Ye
s
No
No
Ye
s
14
5
48
437
Appendix D
Morning? * SERVQUAL Cross tabulation
Will you wait
to purchase
during
opening
hours
SERVQUAL
Score
No
Yes Total
-1 to
Predicted
No
29
3
32
- 0.75
group
Total
29
3
32
-0.75 to Predicted
No
71
21
92
-0.5
group
4
13
17
Yes
Total
75
34
109
-0.5 to Predicted
No
92
39
131
-0.25
group
1
10
11
Yes
Total
93
49
142
-0.25 to Predicted
No
96
42
138
0
group
28
21
49
Yes
Total
124
63
187
0
to Predicted
No
20
19
39
0.25
group
12
14
26
Yes
Total
32
33
65
0.25 to Predicted
No
2
3
5
0.5
group
0
2
2
Yes
Total
2
5
7
Total
Predicted
No
310
127
437
group
45
60
105
Yes
Total
355
187
542
Page 463

A Study On The Customer's Expectation and Perception of Service Quality of Retail Grocery Stores Using SERVQUAL Model

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Vol-2, Issue-3 , 2016