Journal of Applied Sciences1812-56541812-5662Asian Network for Scientific Information10.3923/jas.2009.4258.4262KeshavarzS. YazdiS.M. HashemianK. MeimandipourA. 122009924This study highlights the important dimensions of service
quality from customers perspective in car service agencies. Additionally,
it aimed to identify differences between expectations and perceptions
of customers from service quality dimensions and compares differences
across agencies. The objectives of this study were achieved by using the
SERVQUAL questionnaire. A cluster sampling technique was also used for
collecting the data. The questionnaires were distributed amongst 400 customers
who had Peugeot 206, Peugeot 405 or Peugeot Persia in four Iran Khodro
car service agencies. The results demonstrated that there was a gap between
expectations and perceptions of customers from dimensions of service quality.
The negative gaps were related to the intangible dimensions. Additionally,
in the comparison amongst four agencies related to the level of expected
service quality, significant differences were found for tangibles and
reliability dimensions. Furthermore, the analysis of variance revealed
that the differences in customers perceptions of the level of provided
service quality across four agencies was only for the dimension of tangibles.
Lastly, the findings demonstrated that there were significant (p<0.05)
negative and positive relationships between expectation and perception
means with the gap score means, respectively. The results suggest that
car service agencies should not exaggerate their quality of services and
increase employees' attitude training to close the gap between customers
expectations and perceptions of services.]]>Bowen, D.E. and B. Schneider,19851985pp: 127-47pp: 127-47Caruana, A.,200236811828Chase, R.B. and D.E. Bowen,1991Cronin, Jr. J.J. and S.A. Taylor,1992565568Dabholkar, P.A., C.D. Shephers and D.I. Thrope,20007139173Van Looy, B., R. Dierdonck and P. Gemmel,2003Gilbert, G.R., C. Veloutsou, M.M.H. Goode and L. Moutinho,200418371383Guiry, M.,199219666672Harris, B.L.,2002Homburg, C., W.D. Hoyer and M. Fassnacht,20026686101Jain, S.K. and G. Gupta,2004292537Johns, N., T. Avci and O.M. Karatepe,20042482100Johnston, R.,19956407427Kohli, A.K. and B.J. Jaworski,199054118Lee, S., Y. Kim, N. Hemminglon and D. Yun,200447584Legcevic, J.,200814123130Lewis, B.R.,199174762Newman, K.,200119126139Parasuraman, A., L. Berry and V. Zeithaml,1985494150Parasuraman, A., L.L. Berry and V.A. Zeithaml,199167420450Ramsaran-Fowdar, R.R.,2007131927Ruiqi, Z. and P. Adrian,2009987107