Online published on 28 February, 2020.
Service quality is an important term in service marketing and every service marketers would like to improve the service quality so that it helps to improve the service performance. Nature of the service marketing is such that it differentiates from the traditional physical products. The difference comes mainly in terms of service characteristics, viz. intangibility, perishability, heterogeneity and inseparability. Each of these characteristics makes it a distinct product. Since, the service products are intangible it becomes difficult for the customers to see the product, thus making it difficult for them to purchase. This has also led to creation of extended services marketing mix concept where along with the traditional fours Ps of marketing, three extra Ps are added, i.e. people, process and physical evidence. Most of the researchers tried to explain the service quality with the help of service gap model. The gap model is unique in nature as it helps to identify the gaps that the marketers are able to identify so as to deal with the servicerelated problems. The major gap that exists is between expected service and service provider's perception about customer expectations. If the marketer is failed to identify the customer expectations then there is a high chance that the service may failed to satisfy the customers. It is always better to understand the customer expectations and deliver the service as promised. But problem arises when it comes to understand the consumer mind set. Numerous researches have been conducted and various theories are evolved in this regard. But, still it is out of reach of the service providers to truly understand the mindset of the consumers. In this given environment the present research has been undertaken.
Like any other service industry, airline industry is another sector which comes under the category of service industry. But, airline industry cannot run independently without the support of airport authority. In India, airport authority manages most of the airports but some of them are also operated by Public Private Partnership (PPP) model. Airport authorities are providing basic infrastructure to airline industries. Though, the airports are mainly developed in the main metro cities but slowly the growing importance of air transport make them believe the potential of non-metro cities as well. The growing income, increased affordability and increased competition in the segment helped a lot to increase the air connectivity. Since 1950s, the airline industry has seen tremendous changes and today India becomes one of the important destinations for most of the top airline service providers. The increased business opportunities after opening up of Indian economy also added momentum. It is not the business opportunities but easy mode of transport within a short span of time also helped to improve the sector.
As the customer flow increases over the years, pressure mounted on the airport authorities in India to add or expand its capacity. Considering this increased demand, there is a need to justify the service availability and viability. Most of the airports have adequate and basic services for the customers. But this may not be the end of the entire process. Ample scopes are there for further improvement. This study thus decided to judge the service quality from the perspective of its users. Though, the study was concentrated on the travellers only but it can be further extended to other sectors as well where we can include non-travelers and employees who are working at the airport. Initially an exploratory study has been conducted to identify the variables and after conducting pilot study 14 variables are identified which best describes the airport service quality from the perspective of the customers who are using the services. Two groups are taken, viz. Indian nationals and foreign nationals. These groups are taken into study to understand whether any significant association is there or not between these two groups in terms of the variables that are identified. The study reveals that in some cases the travellers are strongly agree with the statement and in some cases they are having a mixed response. A mixed response suggests that they are not very much sure about the airport service quality with respect to those variables. Some of the important areas where mixed responses are received are mainly behaviour of employees, availability and cleanliness of washrooms, availability of signage, amount of free space, parking space etc. There are the areas where the airport authorities should concentrate so that it may help to improve the performance. In a service industry, customer satisfaction is most crucial and this should be maintained throughout the service delivery time. Any deviation from it should be handled adequately.
So, overall the research is able to identify the key areas where the improvement is necessary. It is important to work on these areas. Unless and until the gaps are not addressed the service providers are failed to understand the specific customer expectations.
