GAPS MODEL

The gaps model positions the key concepts,

strategies, and decisions in services
marketing in a manner that begins with the
customer and builds the organisations tasks
around what is needed to close the gap
between customer expectations and
perceptions,
The central focus of the gaps model is
customer gap, the difference between customer
expectations and perceptions,
To close this gap the model suggests closing all
other gaps-provider gaps
Gap-1: Not knowing what customers expect
Gap-2: Not selecting the right service designs and
standards
Gap-3: Not delivering to service standards
Gap-4: Not matching performance to promises
Customer perceptions are subjective
assessments of actual service experiences
Customer expectations are the standards of
or reference points for, performance against
which service experiences are compared
Sources of customer expectations
Market controlled factors such as advertising
Factors that marketer has limited ability to affect
such as innate personal needs
Provider gap 1: Not knowing what customers
expect
the difference between customer expectations
of service and company understanding of those
expectations
No interaction with customers, be unwilling to
ask about expectation or be unprepared to
address them
Key factors responsible for gap-1
Inadequate marketing research orientation
Lack of upward communication
Insufficient relationship focus
Inadequate service recovery
Provider gap -2: Not having the right service
quality designs and standards
Key factors leading to provider gap 2
Poor service design
Unsystematic new service development process
Vague undefined service designs
Failure to connect service design to service positioning
Absence of customer defined standards
Lack of customer defined standards
Absence of process management to focus on
customer requirements
Absence of formal process for setting service quality
goals
Inappropriate physical evidence and service
scape

Provider gap 3: Not delivering to service
standards
Key reasons leading to provider gap 3
deficiencies in human resource policies
Ineffective recruitment
Role ambiguity and role conflict
Poor employee technology job fit
Inappropriate evaluation and compensation systems
Lack of empowerment, perceived control and teamwork

Failure to match supply and demand
Failure to smooth peaks and valleys of demand
Inappropriate customer mix
Overreliance on price to smooth demand
Customers not fulfilling roles
Customers ignorance of roles and responsibilities
Customers negatively affecting each other
Problems with service intermediaries
Channel conflict over objectives and performance
Channel conflict over costs and rewards
Difficulty controlling quality and consistency
Tension between empowerment and control
Provider gap 4: when promises do not match
performance
Lack of integrated services marketing
communications
Tendency to view each external communication as
independent
Not including interactive marketing in communications
plan
Absence of strong internal marketing program
Ineffective management of customer expectations
Not managing customer expectations through all forms of
communication
Not adequately educating customers
Over promising
over promising in advertising
Over promising in personal selling
Over promising through physical evidence cues
Inadequate horizontal communications
Insufficient communication between sales and operations
Insufficient communication between advertising and
operations
Differences in policies and procedures across branches
or units
Types of services capes
Based on usage
Self service environment atms, movie tjeaters, golf
online internet services
Remote service environment telecommunications,
utilities, financial consultats, editorial and mail-order
services
Interpersonal services both customer and
employees must be present in the servicescapes
eg: hotels, restaurants, hospitals, educational
settings, banks
Based on complexity
Elaborate environments
Lean

Typology implications
Who should be consulted in making servicescape
and other evidence decisions?
What organizational goals might be targeted
through services cape design?
How complex is the set of decisions regarding the
service scape?
Roles of services cape
Package
Facilitator
Socialiser
Differentiator