<p>The purpose of this study is to analyze and evaluate the suitability of the three instruments SERVQUAL, SERVPERF and Zone of tolerance to measure service quality, from the respondents' perspective. This study has been carried out by a quantitative method in which respondents answered three questionnaires, which was based on the three instruments. The SERVQUAL instrument is a revised version based on criticism by Carman (1990). It is based on the five dimensions; reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy and tangibility, with 22 items in which each dimension is associated with a number of items. SERVPERF is the instrument most similar to SERVQUAL and is also composed of the same five dimensions. The Zone of tolerance instrument is based on a three-column format of SERVQUAL, where each items is answered in the form of respondent's minimum service level, desired service level, and the perception of SL's service performance. The Zone of tolerance questionnaire consists of eight dimensions, including three new ones (convenience, connection, comfort) and 38 items.</p><p>The theoretical frame of reference that includes Grönroos model of service quality, and the three instruments form the basis of the results, analysis and conclusion. In this study, we concluded that Zone of tolerance is the most suitable instrument for measuring the quality of service in public transport according to the respondents, thus it best describes the feelings that the respondents feel about the service quality of SL. There was however no significant difference between the Zone of tolerance and the SERVPERF instrument in this regard. The Zone of tolerance instrument was the most specific of the three, but we found that the instrument may undergo additional changes to make it more suitably. Although most respondents felt that the Zone of tolerance instrument was the best descriptive of how the respondents felt regarding the service quality of SL, a large proportion of respondents (49 %) found this instrument as the one that worst describe the feelings they felt regarding the service quality of SL. A large proportion (72 %) of respondents believe that the Zone of tolerance instrument is the most difficult to understand. This may be because it includes many items and that every item must answer three times, a rather unusual format. The fact that this instrument was the last one in the scheme may have a negative effect. Since respondents in the assessment of the last instrument certainly became bored and therefore may have led to the instrument not receiving as much attention as the two previous instruments.</p>

The purpose of this study is to analyze and evaluate the suitability of the three instruments SERVQUAL, SERVPERF and Zone of tolerance to measure service quality, from the respondents' perspective. This study has been carried out by a quantitative method in which respondents answered three questionnaires, which was based on the three instruments. The SERVQUAL instrument is a revised version based on criticism by Carman (1990). It is based on the five dimensions; reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy and tangibility, with 22 items in which each dimension is associated with a number of items. SERVPERF is the instrument most similar to SERVQUAL and is also composed of the same five dimensions. The Zone of tolerance instrument is based on a three-column format of SERVQUAL, where each items is answered in the form of respondent's minimum service level, desired service level, and the perception of SL's service performance. The Zone of tolerance questionnaire consists of eight dimensions, including three new ones (convenience, connection, comfort) and 38 items. The theoretical frame of reference that includes Grönroos model of service quality, and the three instruments form the basis of the results, analysis and conclusion. In this study, we concluded that Zone of tolerance is the most suitable instrument for measuring the quality of service in public transport according to the respondents, thus it best describes the feelings that the respondents feel about the service quality of SL. There was however no significant difference between the Zone of tolerance and the SERVPERF instrument in this regard. The Zone of tolerance instrument was the most specific of the three, but we found that the instrument may undergo additional changes to make it more suitably. Although most respondents felt that the Zone of tolerance instrument was the best descriptive of how the respondents felt regarding the service quality of SL, a large proportion of respondents (49 %) found this instrument as the one that worst describe the feelings they felt regarding the service quality of SL. A large proportion (72 %) of respondents believe that the Zone of tolerance instrument is the most difficult to understand. This may be because it includes many items and that every item must answer three times, a rather unusual format. The fact that this instrument was the last one in the scheme may have a negative effect. Since respondents in the assessment of the last instrument certainly became bored and therefore may have led to the instrument not receiving as much attention as the two previous instruments.

The induction of the tuition fee for higher education in Sweden for students arriving from outside the European Economic Area will affect Swedish universities and in particular Jönköping University considering its position on the educational market as one of the most international universities in Sweden. This, in combination with the BRIC countries’ expanding economies, has inspired the researchers to examine how these four countries experience the educational service quality offered by Jönköping University. With the new legislation of the introduction of the tuition fee, a major change affecting the Swedish educational system has taken place and it is therefore significant to examine the possible effects this might have. This research has used Jönköping University as a case, and the collection of data will be concentrated on international and exchange students attending the university. The reason behind the choice of Jönköping University is because of its strong international profile with many partner universities worldwide, which has resulted in a high rate of international and exchange students arriving to the university (Educations.com, 2011). Due to the nature of a service, the measurement tool of SERVQUAL has been used. Qualitative interviews were conducted to increase the reliability of the quantitative findings, where one student from each country was interviewed. In order to gain sufficient samples for the questionnaire, the researchers have used Geert Hofstede’s theory on cultural dimensions to compensate for the groups missing satisfactory population but also to examine whether students from the covered dimensions experience services differently. Due to the inability to measure the expectations of the students, the zone of tolerance was used in order to indirectly identify expectations of future students. The Total Perceived Quality model was used to demonstrate the connection between experience and expectation of a service in order facilitate the understanding of future expectations.  Descriptive- and factor analyses were used in combination with the zone of tolerance when examining the findings. The quantitative data imply that there is a gap in the educational service provided by Jönköping University and there were strong indications of the students being very satisfied with the educational quality however the qualitative data showed that the students who were interviewed were not willing to pay the fee. In the discussion part, the researchers argue for reasons why the quantitative data may be misleading since it was only implemented on students who had been at Jönköping University for free with an already established perception of the education being tuition free.

This thesis is focused on evaluation of the service quality in selected retail outlets or shops. The main goal of this thesis was to evaluate the level of customer service while engaged in the transaction of selling pre-selected goods in selected retail outlets. Based on the results of this evaluation, a sub-goal of this thesis was to either validate or to disprove the given hypotheses. As an introduction I define basic terms of service quality, customer satisfaction with a service, marketing Research and mystery shopping. . After depicting the basic theoretical principles of mystery shopping, I moved on to the practical (hands-on) portion of my thesis where I evaluate retail outlets for pre-selected company. Evaluation is carried out by using mystery shopping. After conclusion of mystery shopping, the data was analyzed and synthesized, which allowed me to evaluate the results and draw appropriate conclusions, proposal and recommendation to the pre-selected company.