High service quality is imperative and important for competitiveness of service industry. In order to provide much quality service, a deeper research on service quality models is necessary. There are plenty of service quality models which enable managers and practitioners to identify quality problems and improve the efficiency and profitability of overall performance. One of the most influential models in the service quality literature is the model of service quality gaps. In this paper, the model of service quality gaps has been critically reviewed and developed in order to make it more comprehensive. The developed model has been verified based using a survey on 16 experts. Compared to the traditional models, the proposed model involves five additional components and eight additional gaps.

PurposeThe purpose of this research is to propose a systematic and integrative approach for evaluating, assessing, analysing, and improving service quality and effectiveness.Design/methodology/approachA new approach is proposed, in which SERVQUAL and overall administration effectiveness (OAE) are integrated. The recycling pavilion service process of Isfahan municipality is examined. By distributing 120 questionnaires containing the 22 questions of the SERVQUAL instrument developed by Parasuraman et al. in four pavilions of four different regions of the city of Isfahan, the services quality gap was measured and the OAE indicator performance was calculated. In OAE, the quality ratio was measured based on the quality gap, and performance and availability ratios were measured based on the characteristics of the recycling pavilion services.FindingsThe empirical findings imply that the application of the proposed approach has resulted in a reduction of 0.59 of the gap average and a 36 per cent improvement of the OAE indicator.Research limitations/implicationsWhile a general approach is proposed for service application, the results of the case study may not be generalisable.Originality/valueThe proposed approach of this study presents a method for simultaneous analysis of service quality and effectiveness.