Service Gap Analysis in Retail Petroleum Industry

Abstract

In the highly competitive retail sector, the provision and measurement of superior retail service quality is crucial for gaining a newlinesustainable competitive advantage. Service gap is an important strategic weapon in retail contexts, particularly in developing defensive marketing strategies. The measurement of service gap in a retail setting is somewhat different from the measurement of service gap in other pure newlineservice settings. The most widely known and discussed scale for measuring service quality SERVQUAL - has not been successfully newlineadapted and validated in a retail outlet environment. The Retail Service Competencies (RSC) and the service gap exist in service sectors have been validated in the USA, Hong Kong, and Korea, but not in the other newlinecultural settings. Only a limited number of studies have attempted to measure service gap in retail service sectors. newline