TY  - JOUR
AB  - Purpose The purpose of this paper is to discuss the need to evaluate perception-based quality in service encounters. It sets out to diagnose potential mismatches in how customers and front-line employees perceive quality in high-involvement service settings, based on the premise that any initiative toward quality enhancement in service encounters is advisable only when employees and customers evaluate quality utilizing common perceptual structures.Design/methodology/approach The study utilizes invariance analysis. The survey involved 165 bank branches and 1,522 respondents (463 front-line employees and 1,059 customers) and operationalized the same set of questions for both groups of participants. Multisample confirmatory factor analysis tested a series of measurement models.Findings Results revealed equivalence for tangibles, responsiveness and assurance but also mismatches between customers and front-line employees perceptions of reliability and empathy.Practical implications Findings add to current knowledge of how both groups of participants evaluate quality in service encounters and are discussed with reference to managerial consequences for perception-based quality mismatches.Originality/value So far only a few studies have simultaneously examined front-line employees’ and customers’ perceptions of service quality in service encounters. Unlike previous research designs, this study addresses the critical aspect of potential mismatches in how customers and employees perceive service quality, and presents a methodological procedure to detect them.
VL  - 34
IS  - 9
SN  - 0265-671X
DO  - 10.1108/IJQRM-04-2016-0049
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1108/IJQRM-04-2016-0049
AU  - Alexiadou Chrysi
AU  - Stylos Nikolaos
AU  - Andronikidis Andreas
AU  - Bellou Victoria
AU  - Vassiliadis Chris A.
PY  - 2017
Y1  - 2017/01/01
TI  - Quality in bank service encounters: Assessing the equivalence of customers’ and front-line employees’ perceptions
T2  - International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management
PB  - Emerald Publishing Limited
SP  - 1431
EP  - 1450
Y2  - 2024/04/24
ER  -