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This study assessed the technical (tangible) and functional (human interaction) quality of services in a first‐class international health resort and related these to service management effectiveness. Service management is effective when customers judge the overall service quality to be good, they are highly satisfied, they are willing to recommend the firm to others and they intend to re‐purchase or are predisposed to purchase additional services from the firm. The technical and functional aspects of services quality and their relation to service management effectiveness, were found to be different between the core and supplementary services, between customers and service personnel and between customers with and without experience. The results support the statement that competitive advantage in this industry can be obtained by improving the functional aspects of services management, by better performance of supplementary services and by reducing the gap in perceptions between customers and contact personnel.

Through a literature review, this paper demonstrates that there is a lack of knowledge about quality management within the mental health services. Ideas about quality from the wider services sector are then discussed, and a case study of a mental health scenario is provided. It is argued that health services generally, and mental health services in particular, have much to gain from becoming more closely aligned with the wider field of knowledge of quality management. Concludes that the wider techniques of managing service quality may prove useful, particularly in mental health services, due to the nature of such services and their inherent variability.

A postal questionnaire was successfully used to determine general practitioner views about the quality of the health care services available to their patients. In the case of hospital services, 75 of the 112 respondents (67 per cent) chose orthopaedics and 52 (46 per cent) chose ophthalmology as services in need of improvement. Other hospital‐based services, chosen by at least ten general practitioners, were gynaecology, gastroenterology/endoscopy, medicine for the elderly, radiology/ultrasound, psychiatry and physiotherapy. Only 74 general practitioners chose community services, with health visiting being chosen by 25 respondents, district nursing by 24, physiotherapy by 20 and chiropody by 18, as being in need of improvement. The survey was intended to provide a basis for a dialogue between clinicians, managers and general practitioners, about how the quality of services could be improved and how they might be developed in the future.

Explores the extent to which consumers perceive various services as quality‐risk purchases. Describes a panel study which indicated that problem is felt by most types of services and therefore should be considered by service managers. Discusses possible strategies for reducing this perception.

Quality assurance is the process of providing confidence that the stated or implied requirements for quality are met. In financial investment services, “quality” is defined as the perception of the investor about achieving satisfactory returns under acceptable and generally accepted risks within a planned time. Investor’s confidence in achieving quality stems from the quality assurance efforts and processes of the investment service provider. In this paper, different types of investment services, from a simple provision of investment information, to a full‐service portfolio management are discussed. Principles of quality assurance in investment services are provided. A realistic portfolio management case indicates that a modern quality management system (ISO 9000) can enhance quality assurance and thus the quality of investment services.

To evaluate the application of one particular quality measurement tool, the SERVQUAL instrument, as a potential mechanism to measure quality in services for children with disabilities

Staff and family of children with an intellectual disability in two organisations providing specialist therapy and day completed an adapted SERVQUAL questionnaire. A total of 81 SERVQUAL questionnaires were distributed and 59 questionnaires were returned (response rate of 73 per cent).

The SERVQUAL instrument can be considered as a useful diagnostic tool to identify particular strengths and areas for improvement in services for people with disabilities as the instrument lends itself for the monitoring of the effectiveness of quality improvement initiatives over time. The findings also showed relatively high customer expectations and the organisations involved in this research are currently not meeting all of these high expectations as significant quality gaps were found in the areas of reliability and responsiveness.

The sample size was relatively small and the measurement of quality using the SERVQUAL instrument remains a challenge, due to the conceptual and empirical difficulties.

The SERVQUAL instrument is probably most be attractive to service managers and funding organisations because of its ability to identify gaps in the quality of the service.

The tool had been used to measure quality in services for people with disabilities and the research has shown that this tool might be an important additional quality measurement tool for services.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of the balanced scorecard methodology in web services quality. A balanced scorecard framework is developed for web services quality by identifying critical success factors that make up the business objectives, measures, targets, and initiatives.

The framework of web services quality applying the balanced scorecard methodology is developed by integrating the theory of balanced scorecard and web services. Then, case studies with two organizations in the agricultural industry are deployed to test the framework of the balanced scorecard.

The findings of the exploratory case studies suggest a cyclic process that was created with the use of the balanced scorecard approach to evaluate the quality of web services applications and in order to integrate quality and to provide a strategic map and indicate how information will be disseminated so that the potential use of web services can be attained.

The study contributes to practitioners as they will have a system which will provide them with timely, cost‐effective, scalable, manageable, and reliable feedback on their strategic performance. Further, the balanced scorecard gives a holistic view of the firms by simultaneously examining its performance from four perspectives; namely learning and growth, internal business processes, customer, and financial perspectives.

Unlike previous research that uses the balanced scorecard to measure the economic impact on the firm. This paper discusses the role of the balanced scorecard methodology in improving the service quality of firms using web services. Further, it provides lessons learned, as in measures that firms can be aware of in the quality of the services they provide.

This study aims to explore the empirical correlation between patient flow issues, quality of green health services and patient satisfaction in specialist medical department factors from patients’ perspectives as service consumers.

This research is a type of nonintervention empirical research that uses an open survey to explore the views and experiences of users of specialist medical department services. The targeted population is hospital patients included in the top five national PERSI (Indonesian Hospital Association) Award 2022 Green Hospital Category, with a total number of respondents of 572 people. This study uses the partial least square-structural equation modeling analysis method with the SmartPLS application.

Patient flow problems generally affect the quality of eco-friendly health services, except for the waiting time problem, which affects service quality. It should be understood as a top priority for patients to receive services from medical specialists without risking time as a core service aspect from the patient’s perspective. In addition, all variables in eco-friendly hospital services affect patient satisfaction, except in the case of visits to specialist medical departments, which do not affect medical support services and hospital practices that are responsive to the delivery of care services resulting from medical support services that are inseparable in integrated services as well as health care following medical ethics.

This study has a novelty in understanding the implications of green practice in determining patient satisfaction in medical specialist department as the epicenter of hospital services and the main object of assessment for the quality of hospital services.

Brand equity has been a topic of interest in consumer goods markets for many years. Several studies suggest that existing consumer‐based measures of brand equity, which have traditionally been used in the consumer goods markets, can also be used to capture brand equity in the services markets. The purpose of this research is to assess the quality dimension in consumer‐based measurers of brand equity in the context of services and to compare it with consumer goods.

A pilot and a main study were conducted. Nine different brands were tested in a consumer‐based experimental online survey. Each participant was assigned randomly to one brand.

In the consumer goods markets customer service can be considered as a marketing instrument. In the services markets customer service is a part of the perceived quality of a service.

The implication leads to the question whether existing measures of brand equity in consumer goods markets should be used without adaptation in services markets. The findings show that the consumer‐based brand equity should be measured different in these markets. Concerning the differences the findings show also that customer service can be seen as a marketing instrument in consumer goods markets and a part of the perceived service quality in services markets.

There is a lack of research in the difference of measuring brand equity between consumer goods and services. This paper explores this difference of measuring brand equity.

Public leisure service providers have become increasingly conscious of the need to improve the quality of their service provision as a result of increasing customer expectations, growing competition and government legislation. This paper presents the findings of a survey carried out in the UK, investigating the role of quality schemes in public leisure services. The study shows that a significant proportion of public leisure service providers are using quality schemes to manage the quality of their facilities. In addition, the findings show that managers are using quality schemes to improve customer satisfaction and improve management effectiveness. Finally, the study provides evidence of the positive effect of quality schemes upon service delivery aspects of these facilities, but little evidence of the financial advantages of such schemes.