Comparison of service quality between a public library and a bookshop

Abstract

A valid way to assess service quality in a public library is to look at a comparable organisation in the private sector. The research project compares service quality between a public library and a bookshop. The purpose is to identify where the focus of service quality lies in each organisation. A duel approach was chosen to examine service quality in the two organisations. A questionnaire assesses customers' views of service quality; and, interviews with managers identify their beliefs about service quality, and the organisational policies and staff training programmes in customer service that exist in their organisation. The theoretical basis for this research was drawn from the disconfirmation method or P-E approach. The basis of the theory is a comparison between expectations of a service and the actual performance delivered. A development was the "gaps model" devised by Zeithmal, Parasuraman and Berry (1990). Hernon and Calvert (1996) provided a set of statements especially suited to analyse customers' expectations and perceptions of service quality in libraries. A selection of these statements provides the basis for the questionnaire. The research showed that the focus of service quality in the public library appears to lie in its staff training and staff selection procedures. The focus of service quality in the bookshop appears to lie in its written policies and customer service standards; and in the reinforcement of individual staff commitment to these standards in regular documented coaching sessions and in staff performance appraisal.