Provider–Customer Perceptions in Service Quality: A Gap Analysis at Ishik University, Sulaimani, Iraq

It is known that the service quality is the main parameter of every service providing organization for survival. Therefore, the organizations must evaluate their service quality periodically and plan for improvement. While evaluating their service quality, companies should rely not only on the end users’ evaluations but also on the gap between theservice providers’ perception and the customers’ perception about the service quality level. The study aims to compare the service providing perceptions of department/unit managers and the service quality evaluations of students at private universities. For this purpose, we used the ServQual survey questionnaire to assess all service providingacademic and administrative units of Tishk International University (formerly known as Ishik University). The data have been collected in two phases; first, we gave the ServQual survey questionnaire to managers and employees of each department/unit. The survey contained questions about the opinions of managers and employees about how qualityservice has been delivered in their unit. In this context, cafeteria, students’ affairs, dean of students, academic department of student, and accounting unit were evaluated. Second, ServQual was modified for the students to evaluate the service quality that they perceive in those units. Finally, the evaluated results of the managers and the students were subtracted from each other, and the gap was determined. Based on the results, we gave some suggestions to the administration.