The perceived quality gap in corporate telecommunications services in Sri Lanka

Abstract

The intention of the research was to identify and quantify gaps that the customers perceived to be inherent in the services (taken to mean goods and services) offered by the telecommunication service providers in Sri Lanka.// Existing gap analysis tools were studied. A model developed by Parasuraman et al.(1985), and developed further in subsequent years, was adapted by including additional technical dimensions and the resultant model was found to be suitable for the research.// A hypothesis was developed. The research model was used to then identify perception gaps related to telecommunications services in corporate Sri Lanka, in respect of customers of Sri Lanka Telecom. The proposed model by Parasuraman et al. also included a survey instrument (questionnaire) that consisted of 22 questions which are tested for perceptions/expectations from the customers of the organization. This instrument was also modified, to include technical and other dimensions. The questionnaire was distributed among the 78 corporate customers of Sri Lanka Telecom and thirty three acceptable responses were received. This represented a 42%rate of response.// The gaps in perceived / expected services were then analyzed .. From the results it was seen that the perceptions on all non-technical dimensions was negative, indicating that the non-technical expectations i.e. service oriented customer requirements were higher than what was perceived as being delivered.// This research shows that the hypothesis, "The perceived gap in telecommunications services in corporate Sri Lanka stems mainly from the inadequacy of the telecommunications infrastructure/technology of the telecommunications service provider" is disproved and the null hypothesis holds// At this point, the Extended Gaps Model by Parasuraman et al. (1988) was used as a bas is to construct a model which would lead to filling the gaps 1 - 4 identified earlier. This in turn would result in a closure (or lessening of) gap 5, which was the gap of interest. Solutions internal to the organization CSLT), based on this model, were then suggested for the organization to overcome the gaps.// The implications for the industry in view of these results of the research were looked at in the conclusions.