Manage your customers' perception of quality.

Most dimensions of quality and the customer's pursuant sense of satisfaction are not permanently established at the time of exchange (transaction point). As the provider maintains post-transactional control over certain dimensions, it is possible to manage the customer's perceptions of quality and value received and therefore, of satisfaction.

Introduction

Quality may be the most critical component in satisfying an organization's customer (2,13,14). The elevation of quality as a component of customer satisfaction started with the teachings of Juran (24), Crosby (11), Deming (12) and Feigenbaum (16,17) and continued with the development of programs such as Total Quality, Continuous Quality Improvement and Total Quality Management (13,14,32). Total Quality Management positioned quality as the "meeting or exceeding of a customer's expectations" (22,23). Further, Garvin (20) and Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry (28) put forth the proposition that while quality was multidimensional in nature, it could be enhanced or lost unidimensionally. While this continued focus on quality contributed to a general improvement in products and services, it did not encompass all phases of a business's competitive position. Quality programs helped define which dimensions contributed to a customer's initial perception of quality (19,28), however, they did not identify how and whether t he importance of those dimensions could vary; from the customer's initial interest in the provider's product through the product's useful life, i.e. the transaction cycle (19,20,26).

In order to successfully compete in the unending race for a customer's business, in an economic manner, an organization and its management must develop a competitive edge (9,27,29,31,34). This edge may come in the form of understanding how a company's customers value a given quality dimension (relative to the other quality dimensions) and when and if that quality dimension can increase (or decrease) in importance over time. Therefore, to clarify understanding of these quality dimensions and their interrelationships, a comprehensive model would provide operational guidelines in these competitive struggles.

In 1987, Garvin proposed a framework to describe overall product quality that consisted of eight separate dimensions. In 1988, Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry identified five generalizable factors (dimensions of quality) for service industries. These quality dimensions became the foundation on which much current quality dimensional research has been founded (30). A review of current literature identifies a continued separation of product and service quality dimension research, an interest in service quality gaps (1,5,25), the relevance of these dimensions in various industries (6,8) and industry-specific interpretations of these dimensions (30). Unfortunately, very little research has been conducted to incorporate these two sets of quality dimensions and, most importantly, no work has been done to determine the effect timing would have on the relative importance of these quality dimensions.

If timing does affect the desirability of these dimensions, then the current quality models are incomplete. This article is an attempt to highlight the importance of managing this comprehensive set of quality dimensions over time.

This paper will integrate the generally accepted dimensions of quality into a general model, which can guide future research related to the interrelationships attributable to a typical transaction cycle. A general model encompassing quality dimensions and their relative importance within the transaction cycle would offer value to both academicians and practitioners. As a last step, a quantitative methodology is offered to operationalize and/or assist in the management of quality.

Dimensions of Quality

Quality has traditionally been viewed as: 1) conformance to requirements (11); 2) fitness for use (24); and 3) innate excellence (28). In 1987, Garvin suggested that product quality is not a single recognizable characteristic; rather, it is a multifaceted characteristic that appears in many forms. He observed eight dimensions of product quality: performance, features, reliability, conformance, durability, serviceability, aesthetics and perceived quality. He also maintained that different users would require different mixes (combinations of varied amounts) of the quality dimensions. In other words, quality is in the eye of the beholder.

In 1988, Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry identified five quality dimensions for service industries: tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy. These dimensions and the SERVQUAL instrument, from which they were derived, have received considerable support from Carman (7) and Fick and Ritchie (18) and some criticism from Crosby and LeMay (10). Crosby and LeMay (10) argued that price should have been added to the quality dimensions derived from the SERVQUAL instrument, thereby forcing choice and stability.

Few transactions can be identified as purely product (no service involved) or purely service (no physical product involved). Rather, most transactions provide a combination of product with accompanying service or service with some product. Goods composed of a combination of both product and service require an evaluation of both product and service quality dimensions (15). It, therefore, seems reasonable to merge the lists of quality dimensions from product- and service-based research (See Exhibits 1 and 2 for definitions).

To assist in operationalizing this dual list of quality dimensions we are suggesting a time- based approach. We, therefore, are grouping the dimensions by stages in the transaction cycle; i.e., distinguishing between those established at the time of exchange (E) and those added throughout the relationship (A) (see Exhibit 3). The transaction cycle for a product and/or service traditionally starts with the perception of demand (customer needs), moves through product/service design, manufacture and/or provision, transaction and/or sales, use of product (including support services) over its useful life and, finally, through the thought processes that may or may not lead to a repeat purchase from the same source. This article will pick up the transaction cycle at the time of transaction ([t.sub.0] in Exhibit 3) and cover the support periods ([t.sub.1], [t.sup.2], & [t.sub.3] in Exhibit 3).

The first group of quality dimensions would be established upon delivery (embedded, as it were), while the second group supports the package of delivered product/services over the usage period in the transaction cycle (supporting). Finally, price, an estimation of the value of all attributes, will cause the customer to choose a level of each quality attribute they need or want, but not more than they want. By including price into the model, a major problem encountered during previous uses of the SERVQUAL questionnaire would be eliminated. The instability introduced into the SERYQUAL factors, due to their desirability and non-cost, would be reduced by forcing choice (10). Price causes the buyer to make tradeoffs between the various quality attributes and money. Exhibit 3 shows (with E's) the embedded dimensions and price to be established at [t.sub.o] while the supporting dimensions (A) can be added from [t.sub.o] to [t.sub.n].

The General Model

As put forward in this configuration (Exhibit 3), three components - those embedded, those supporting and their price -- contribute to customer satisfaction. The provider builds the embedded dimensions into the product before the exchange. This component is divided into two subsets of dimensions. The first subset -- performance, features, conformance, serviceability, aesthetics and perceived quality -- can be determined at the time of exchange and cannot be augmented after the exchange. The second subset -- reliability and durability -- can only be fully established (measured) after waiting long enough to allow the purchaser to evaluate the product's performance.

The second component, supporting dimensions, is explicitly or implicitly part of the transaction. It consists of the package of dimensions that: 1) supports the exchange process itself, and 2) supports the customer's use of the goods over their life, as covered by the initial transaction. This set of dimensions may include the appearance of any facilities where the sale and any support services take place (tangibles), willingness to help customers (responsiveness), knowledge and courtesy (assurance), and apparent degree of caring about the customers (empathy). This set of dimensions can and probably will change over the usage portion of the transaction cycle. The value of this set of dimensions can be increased, held the same, or decreased according to the seller's desires and capabilities.

Price, the third component in this model, is established at or before the transaction, representing the product/service's expected value. Whether the price fairly represents the value received by the buyer cannot be ascertained until much later in the transaction cycle, when value received is compared to value expected. The buyer cannot easily modify price after the exchange, so it is established at the time of the transaction, but value is not.

Dimensions of Quality