Abstract
For service companies, one of the most difficult challenges to measure is brand value, considering the subjectivity of the service, given by consumer perception. In this way, the objective of this chapter is to know the elements that provide value to the service company's brand. To carry out the study, the authors deepen the concepts of service and brand considering the SERVQUAL and CSI questionnaires, which allow them to obtain indexes of measurement of the quality of services and brand valuation and apply them in the English language teaching institutes in Guayaquil (Ecuador). The results show that five high-importance schools have valuation elements that build their brand with characteristics that differentiate them, but also with others that resemble them. Understanding each of the brands and variables, they propose an initial model that allows analyzing this industry in which elements relevant to the consumer are observed.
TopIntroduction
The Real Academia Española defines a service as the action of a person to satisfy some social need, not leading to produce any material well. To put it simply, a service is the action of one person towards another in developing any work (Tigani, 2006). From the economic field, service is established as an economic activity that creates value and provides an intangible benefit to the customer at a specific time and place, resulting in acquiring a desired product or service (Lovelock, Patterson, & Wirtz, 2004). Thus, the customer-focused service establishes two crucial characteristics: contact with the customer and the customer-based relationship (Duque-Oliva, 2005). Its concept is based on the fact that organizations achieve their objectives effectively and efficiently through identifying and understanding clients’ needs (Duque-Oliva & Diosa-Gómez, 2014). In other words, how clients meet their needs, so it could be understood that the service is the sum of processes of activities and efforts of organizations to meet the needs of their customers, in an intangible way.
On the other hand, the term quality has evolved according to the time. In the beginning, it was defined towards the product and the industry. Later it focused on the improvement of certain client conditions; and then to satisfy the needs and expectations of the client. For this reason, quality is defined from two approaches: objective and subjective quality. The first one focuses directly on the producer and refers to the inner vision of quality, in terms of production and supply. The second one focuses on marketing with an external vision, where the needs, wishes, and expectations that the client has about a product or service, which are the absolute judges in terms of quality (Vazques, Roríguez, & Díaz, 1996).
In this way, the quality of service is a form of attitude dealing with performance in terms of customer service. For this reason, the quality is evaluated by clients, making a comparison of what he receives to what he wants and expects to receive. Both are experiential associations focused on perceived attention and are not necessarily a natural response of the product or service (Ghobadian, Speller, & Matthew, 1994). For this reason, it is essential to recognize the client’s perception to develop a correct judgment of the value of the experience obtained in the care. It must be understood that this attitude is not a linear process, but is mediated between the interaction of the individual with the society where it is immersed. With all this, we understand that to define the quality of service, it must be referred to the perceived quality of the client, which is subjective and greater concerning the physical element produced. For that same reason, it cannot be measured as a tangible product, but by comparing an expected and perceived service, giving results obtained from the differentiation that the consumer perceives between their expectations and the results obtained (Duque-Oliva & Diosa-Gómez, 2014).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Quality Measure: They are ways to measure the perception of quality from the perspective of the consumer.
CSI (Customer Style Index): It provides a potentially useful instrument to help companies examine the styles of taking consumer decisions understanding some dimensions, and creating consumer profiles.
Perception: It is how the brain detects the environment through the senses forming criteria about its reality.
Brand Personality: Everything that can be represented as the values and cultural beliefs that the consumer mentally adds to a product.
SERVQUAL (Service Quality Index): It is a model of quality measurement that considers five dimensions.
Dimensions: They are variables included in the CSI and SERVQUAL. These variables help build brand and service profiles based on consumer perception.
Brand Value: The brand value refers to how it receives a relevant recognition from the consumer and associates it favorably at the time of purchase choice. The value of the brand can be understood as the differential effect of brand awareness in response to a product or service.