Scale library · Service quality

SERVQUAL scale: Parasuraman, Zeithaml & Berry (1988)

SERVQUAL was developed by Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry (1988) to measure customer-perceived service quality. The original instrument has 22 pairs of statements: one on expectations of firms in the industry and one on perceptions of the specific firm, with service quality defined as perceptions minus expectations. The 22 items form five dimensions: tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy. It is the foundation of many theses on service quality in banking, hospitals, hotels, telecoms, education and public services; this page gives the 22 perception items exactly as in the 1988 version.

Cite the original, not the blog.

Original English items

Items marked (R) are reverse-coded: recode them before computing reliability or scale scores. Replace bracketed placeholders such as [system] with the name of the system, brand or organization you study.

Tangibles (TAN, 4 items)

Code Item wording Reverse-coded
P1 XYZ has up-to-date equipment. No
P2 XYZ's physical facilities are visually appealing. No
P3 XYZ's employees are well dressed and appear neat. No
P4 The appearance of the physical facilities of XYZ is in keeping with the type of services provided. No

Reliability (REL, 5 items)

Code Item wording Reverse-coded
P5 When XYZ promises to do something by a certain time, it does so. No
P6 When you have problems, XYZ is sympathetic and reassuring. No
P7 XYZ is dependable. No
P8 XYZ provides its services at the time it promises to do so. No
P9 XYZ keeps its records accurately. No

Responsiveness (RES, 4 items)

Code Item wording Reverse-coded
P10 (R) XYZ does not tell customers exactly when services will be performed. Yes
P11 (R) You do not receive prompt service from XYZ's employees. Yes
P12 (R) Employees of XYZ are not always willing to help customers. Yes
P13 (R) Employees of XYZ are too busy to respond to customer requests promptly. Yes

Assurance (ASS, 4 items)

Code Item wording Reverse-coded
P14 You can trust employees of XYZ. No
P15 You feel safe in your transactions with XYZ's employees. No
P16 Employees of XYZ are polite. No
P17 Employees get adequate support from XYZ to do their jobs well. No

Empathy (EMP, 5 items)

Code Item wording Reverse-coded
P18 (R) XYZ does not give you individual attention. Yes
P19 (R) Employees of XYZ do not give you personal attention. Yes
P20 (R) Employees of XYZ do not know what your needs are. Yes
P21 (R) XYZ does not have your best interests at heart. Yes
P22 (R) XYZ does not have operating hours convenient to all their customers. Yes

Response scale

7-point Likert scale (1 = Strongly disagree … 7 = Strongly agree) with only the end points labelled, following the appendix of Parasuraman et al. (1988). Many studies use 5 points.

Recoding reverse-coded items: 1–7 scale: new score = 1 + 7 − score = 8 − score; 1–5 scale: new score = 1 + 5 − score = 6 − score.

Licence and permission

The items are published in the appendix of the original article and widely used in research. Cite the original article; we found no separate licensing conditions for non-commercial academic use.

Sources (APA 7)

Vietnamese translation

A Vietnamese translation of every item, with sample-size advice and studies that used the scale, is on the Vietnamese page for this scale.

Back to all scales