The measurement of service quality by using SERVQUAL and quality gap model

The aim of this paper is to determine the status of service quality based on gap model in the insurance industry. The research method was an applied and Survey –Correlation type. The statistic population includes all managers, employees and customers of Iran's three insurance companies namely Alborz, Iran and Dana. The sample volume of various categories viz. managers, employees and customers are respectively 203, 324 and 356 people that have been selected by simple random and stratified sampling. The data collection tools are five questionnaires related to the five gaps of service quality, whose validity by content method and reliability by Cronbach method have been confirmed and for the first through fifth gaps are respectively 0.877, 0.758, 0.944, 0.878 (two questionnaires 0.916 and 0.959). In order to analyze the data, there have been used Spearman and Pearson correlation methods. Research Findings show that rate of present service quality as % 52/2 from the customers' point of view and also they estimated the rate of five gaps in service quality as -2.5, 2.7, -2.5, -0.2 and -1.6 for the first through fifth gaps respectively; these represent inappropriate service quality in industry. Also the results represent that reliability is the most important and tangible dimensions are the least important factors at delivering an optimal insurance services.