Correspondence: Ugur Yavas, Department of Management and Marketing, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, TN 37614, USA. Tel: +1 (423) 439 5382; Fax: +1 (423) 439 5661; e-mail: raxyavas@etsu.edu

¹(PhD, Georgia State University) is a professor of marketing at East Tennessee State University. Besides the Journal of Financial of Services Marketing, Dr. Yavas has contributed to such journals as the Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Service Research, Journal of Business Research, International Journal of Research in Marketing, European Journal of Marketing, International Marketing Review, Journal of World Business, Journal of International Marketing, Management International Review, Journal of Services Marketing, International Journal of Service Industry Management, and Long Range Planning.

Received 16 August 2006; Revised 16 August 2006.

Abstract

This study investigates to what extent underlying configurations of customer evaluations of service quality as perceived by frontline employees and as reported by customers match. Surveys of two groups of female bank customers (151 students and 83 adults) and 68 female bank employees in Turkey serve as the study setting. The SERVQUAL instrument is used in measuring employees' and customers' perceptions of service quality. The factor congruency technique is employed to determine the extent of similarities and disparities among the groups. Results show that the underlying configurations of service quality perceptions decompose into three factors in the cases of both customer groups and five factors in the case of employees. Overall, customers' and employees' service quality perceptions do not correspond. This discrepancy underscores the need for accurate assessment of customer perceptions of service quality and training of employees to look at service quality from the perspective of customers by using customers' definitions. Avenues for future reasearch are offered.