Assessing service quality in the South African advertising industry

Abstract

Service excellence is recognised as a valuable company asset and an ideal way for service organisations to achieve competitive differentiation. For the most part, the fast paced and continuously changing business environment has forced many companies to reconsider service quality as a potent tool to enhance customer relationships, increase employee morale and productivity. However, due to the nature of services, attempts to achieve service quality require ongoing effort and commitment. The research objective was to examine service quality in the South African advertising industry, identify the quality dimensions that are most important to advertisers, rank the dimensions in order of importance and make recommendations thereof. From the literature review, four research questions were identified and answered, through a modified SERVQUAL questionnaire, which was sent via e-mail to 100 marketers in the top 100 companies in terms of media spend. The conclusion was that the advertising industry is not delivering the required service quality to advertisers in terms of their expectations as measured against the service quality dimensions. Advertising agencies should therefore devote more effort to improving service quality levels throughout the advertising industry in South Africa.