What are the various dimensions of product quality or service quality? Please give examples.

In business and marketing products marketed by a company
may be classified broadly as goods and services. The quality of goods is generally
defined in terms of the physical characteristics of the product or the goods marketed.
However, it is not possible to define quality of services in terms of physical
characteristics alone. Quality of service is judged by the customers on many different
dimensions in addition to the physical characteristics associated with the service.
There are five aspects or dimensions of service which are found to be very important in
determining customer perception of service quality. These
are:

Reliability: The extent to which the service performed
matches implicit or explicit promises made by the service provider regarding the nature
of service. For example, the basic quality of room decor, food, and facilities provided
in a hotel.

Responsiveness: The willingness to help the
customer promptly in case of special and unforeseen requirements. For example helping a
customer who fall sick when staying in the
hotel.

Assurance: The extent to which the service provider
and the staff is able to inspire trust and confidence. For example the customer dining
in a restaurant may not be able to directly judge the level of hygiene maintained by the
restaurants. Here it is not only important to actually provide hygienic food but also to
inspire confidence that the food is hygienic. The assurance is regarding giving the
customer peace of mind that everything will be taken care of as required, rather than
just actually taking care when the need arises. For example a doctor with MD degree may
inspire more assurance than a doctor with just an MBBS degree, although the basic
treatment provided by them may be of same quality.

Empathy:
This is being able to understand the needs of the customer as an individual and meet the
special requirements of the customer. This is more about customizing the service and the
general service provider behavior for each customer, rather than providing a uniform
high quality treatment to all. Many companies try to create this sense of empathy by
employing tactics like addressing each customer by name. However, true empathy means
understanding the special characterises and needs of individual customer, and modifying
service to them accordingly.

Tangibles: This is the
parallel of physical characteristics of quality of goods. This refers to the physical
characteristics of facilities, equipments, consumable goods and personnel used in or
associated with the service provided. However here also the quality is judged not by
some uniform specifications in terms of physical characteristic, but by the impact these
physical characteristics have on customer assessment of the service
quality.