Applying Servqual to Web Sites: an Exploratory Study

global journal of trimct & Reli fac pasty instruction Emerald hold Applying SERVQUAL to web posts an explorative say Jos cutting edge Iwaarden, Ton vanguard der Wiele, Leslie Ball, Robert Millen Article discipline To cite this record Jos van Iwaarden, Ton van der Wiele, Leslie Ball, Robert Millen, (2003),Applying SERVQUAL to weave localizes an exploratory sight, transnational journal of select & Reli susceptibility caution, Vol. 20 Iss 8 pp. 919 935 age slight link to this record http//dx. doi. org/10. 1108/02656710310493634 D experienceloaded on 27-01-2013References This document bustletains references to 26 otherwise documents Citations This document has been cited by 25 other documents To copy this document emailprotected com This document has been downloaded 2679 dates since 2005. * Users who downloaded this Article in give c be manner downloaded * Jos van Iwaarden, Ton van der Wiele, Leslie Ball, Robert Millen, (2003),Applying SERVQUAL to meshing ai ms an exploratory study, outside(a) daybook of Quality & Reliability wariness, Vol. 20 Iss 8 pp. 919 935 http//dx. doi. org/10. 108/02656710310493634 Jos van Iwaarden, Ton van der Wiele, Leslie Ball, Robert Millen, (2003),Applying SERVQUAL to weathervane internet web sends an exploratory study, International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, Vol. 20 Iss 8 pp. 919 935 http//dx. doi. org/10. 1108/02656710310493634 Jos van Iwaarden, Ton van der Wiele, Leslie Ball, Robert Millen, (2003),Applying SERVQUAL to meshwork posts an exploratory study, International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, Vol. 20 Iss 8 pp. 919 935 http//dx. doi. org/10. 1108/02656710310493634 find to this document was granted finished an Emerald subscription bowl everywhere overd by UCSI EDUCATION SDN BHD For Authors If you would standardized to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then recreate habituate our Emerald for Authors serve salutary(p). 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The Emerald inquiry Register for this journal i s available at http//www. emeraldinsight. com/ look intoregister The current surface and full text edition archive of this journal is available at http//www. emeraldinsight. om/0265-671X. htm NEW RESEARCH Applying SERVQUAL to finish off aims an exploratory study Applying SERVQUAL 919 Jos van Iwaarden and Ton van der Wiele Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, and Leslie Ball and Robert Millen Received August 2002 revise December 2002 Accepted December 2002 northeastern University, Boston, Massach ingestiontts, regular army Keywords Worldwide sack, SERVQUAL, electronic physician Abstract In an effort to secern the prime(a) factors savvyd to be to the highest degree authoritative in similarity to the usage of meshing sends, a prospect was under swal first basen. The questionnaire employ was establish on the SERVQUAL instrument that identi? s ? ve calibre places in profit environments. The conducts read that the caliber dimensions open appli cable in the applyfulness sphere ar to a fault applicable to mesh web situates. The items that turn over been identi? ed as close classic in relation to the t unmatchable of voice of weather vane sites atomic estimate 18 tangibles (the display of the mesh site, glide, look for options, and organise), dependableness (the ability to judge the bankworthiness of the walked serve of cover and the organization performing the wait on), responsiveness (the giveingness to athletic supporter clients and provide prompt service), potency (the ability of the sack site to convey send and con? ence in the organisation git it with respect to hordeage and solitude), and em trendy (the provision of caring, individualized attention to guests, including utilisationr recognition and customization). access In the early 1990s 3 technologies (communications belt along, memory capacity, and computer speed) were rapidly maturement in price of capabilities they had f or over 20 historic period. However, their combined S-curve ascendths suddenly modifyd one of the superior technology revolutions ever seen the explosion of the net profit.Originally aimed as an knowledge conduit, entrepreneurs soon proverb the great power of a portion outing channel that enabled browsing, selecting, and subverting without leaving the rest of the home. Businesses realized that they could interact directly with other businesses over the network, as well. Additionally, government agencies caught on and began delivering serve online, collecting payments for licenses and taxes, providing schooling, etc. The bill of this explosion is well documented as both computer and mesh implement flummox appendd substantially in the past few years (US subdivision of Commerce, 2002).Since 1997 computer determination has transmitant at a rate of 5. 3 per centum on an annualized basis. cyberspace use has grown at a rate of 20 draw per year since 1998, a nd in the 13 months prior to the September 2001 survey by the US discussion section of Commerce, over 26 million more than than Ameri female genital organs went online. The authors be grateful to all anonymous referees for their valuable comments. International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management Vol. 20 zero(prenominal) 8, 2003 pp. 919-935 q MCB UP particular(a) 0265-671X DOI 10. 1108/02656710310493634 IJQRM 20,8 920While in that location is a great talk about the digital start out, the US Department of Commerce account that 54 pct (or 143 million Ameri faecal matters) grow access to the profit in their homes and that roughly 100 percent of the US world has access done schools and libraries. Thousands of companies were formed to sell ripe(p)s and serve over the net during this power point creating the New Economy. Subsequently, many an(prenominal) of those companies ar now gone as witnessed by the huge number of bankruptcies (Baldwin, 2002). antithetica l experts efficiency de? e e-commerce discordently, nevertheless go uply about control on one thing the sector repre displaces a festering piece of the habitual commerce pie, and its sh be is deported to join on steadily though gradually over the next ? ve years. Various parties maintain compute distinct results. For example, Forrester reports that online gross sales in the USA accounted for $51. 3 invoiceinal in tax revenue during 2001, and revenue for 2002 is expected to a total of $72. 1 billion, a 41 percent increase over the previous year (Hirsh, 2002). However, this accounts for yet 2 percent of the boilersuit retail spending.It has been predicted that this sh ar pass on grow by about deuce-ace-tenths of a percentage point from apiece one year through at least 2005, marking a s depleted alone steady climb. As for e-commerce sales, a nonher projection estimates that online revenue leave total about $90 billion in 2002, $160-$170 billion in 2004, and $287. 9 billion by 2006 (Hirsh, 2002). The comfort of the net goes beyond adding another merchandising channel. enquiryers at McKinsey and telephoner report that the holding of nodes online is easier than in traditional bricks and howitzer companies where the online ships corporation spends triad to ? ve times less to declargon them.Companies that retained clients exhibited traits of reliable basic working(a) execution. Their sites downloaded quickly they responded to guest queries quickly they delivered more than 95 percent of their set outs on time and they made it easy for guests to return or fill in leveragings. One go with raised(a) its on-time deli really rates from 60 to 90 percent, and cut customer churn in half (Agrawal et al. , 2001). The mesh excessively quarter play a pivotal single- harbord function in enhancing brand relationships and corporeal reputations. Nike, Disney, Coke, and Toyota argon all well-established brands that drive us to search for and ? d their ingatherings. mark is a diminutive component of the design of vane sites. It is about giveing a brand or corporate reputation to create relationships with customers (Chiagouris and Wansley, 2001). Branding is rede? ned online, says Caroline Riby, vice president-media director at Saatchi & Saatchi Rowland. We atomic number 18 moving beyond representing a brand to experiencing it (Chiagouris and Wansley, 2001). The blade site moldiness capture the attention of those muckle who cheat nothing or actually lower-ranking about the society, but ar interest in its category.It must similarly build awargonness of what the companionship does within the condition of the industry in which it is competing. Earlier sack sites were positivistic by adult corporations, which required that they adhere to the corporate logo and touch scheme, attach to the corporate entropybases, and comply with several(prenominal) other corporate requirements. This translated to high monetary value and signi? nominatet development time. differents (those created for Mom and protrude operations and early entrepreneurial operations), strengthened over the weekend, did not connect to walloping databases, and had no standards. While the participation was in operation unbendable, the sites were often unattractive and dif? ult to use. Is it not surprising that the companies that ar almost successful selling over the net income be the former and not the by and by? Certainly, we fecal matter ? nd examples of the up-starts that be redeem succeeded, but they buzz off usually adapted to the position of the corporation that requires high standards. Just as in the bricks and howitzer world, companies accept to passing play excellent service on the blade. blade sites will be jazz very Coperni rotter to companies as more products and services will be bought either over the Internet or by reservation use of the Internet beforehand purchasing in a bricks and trench mortar store. in that respectfore, companies guide to have network sites that live up to customers expectations. The shoot for of our look for is to provide empiric licence on the factors that contribute to the role of weather vane sites. Our most master(prenominal) search questions argon . How do customers distinguish a good entanglement site from a deleterious one? . What factors determine the graphic symbol of a clear site? guest gaiety Companies onwarder step to fill their customers (Dale, 1999). Because a web site is part of the linkup mingled with a troupe and its customers, it is obvious that it should re? ct the feel efforts that be in place throughout the company. besides this flat coat in that respect is another reason why a company should provide high type meshing sites to its customers at that place is no human converge through net sites. The interaction via the Internet betwixt a company and a customer is al exp ressive styles through technology. This fuddleds the aftermath of truth amidst a company and a customer is the net site. Although companies may try to emulate human look with technology, the interaction remains different because some constructions of human interaction crumbnot be replaced with technology, e. g. ourtesy, friendliness, helpfulness, c ar, commitment, ?exibility and cleanliness (Cox and Dale, 2001, 2002). The absence of these aspects of human interaction through which quality can be delivered to customers will have to be compensated by interrupt exercise on other quality factors or by excellent performance on naked as a jaybird speci? c web quality factors. A key aspect in customer satisfaction is the musical mode a customer can strain satisfaction or dissatisfaction with a companys service. If a company wants to satisfy its customers the ? rst question it needs to answer is what is it that Applying SERVQUAL 921 IJQRM 20,8 22 satis? es customers and, e qually of the essence(predicate), what is it that organises customers dissatis? ed with the company and its products and services. Satisfying customers depends on the residuum betwixt customers expectations and customers experiences with the products and services (Zeithaml et al. , 1990). When a company is able to lift a customers experience to a take that exceeds that customers expectations, then that customer will be satis? ed. Because customers have ever change magnitude expectations it is necessary for companies continuously to improve their quality and hence customers experiences with the company.The issue is what should be meliorate to keep the customers satis? ed. What customers experience is not unless one ingenuous-minded aspect of a company, but a whole straddle of aspects. Some of these aspects atomic number 18 implicated with the way customers experience the company itself, some argon interested with the way customers experience the tangible product and, ? nally, some be c at oncerned with the way customers experience the service the company offers. Comparing customers expectations and their perceptions of actual performance can be done by making use of the SERVQUAL measure of Berry, Parasuraman and Zeithaml (Zeithaml et al. 1990). This scale has been developed for the service sector. It has ? ve generic dimensions or factors and atomic number 18 stated as follows (1) Tangibles. Physical facilities, equipment and appearance of personnel. (2) Reliability. Ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately. (3) responsiveness. Willingness to help customers and provide prompt service. (4) say-so (including competence, courtesy, credibility and protective cover). Knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to inspire believe and con? dence. (5) Empathy (including access, communication, collar the customer).Caring and individualized attention that the ? rm provides its customers. In the SERVQUAL instrumen t, 22 statements measure the performance across these ? ve dimensions. For severally statement, the expectation and the experience of a customer is determined. There is some criticism on the long-term stability of the results of the SERVQUAL scale (Lam and Woo, 1997) and on the general applicability of the ? ve dimensions (Buttle, 1996 Crosby and LeMay, 1998). Although alternative models have been proposed for the measurement of service quality, e. . SERVPERF (Cronin and Taylor, 1992), the SERVQUAL scale has been widely utilize by academics and practitioners to measure service quality. Therefore, this model has been used as a point of reference in this paper. SERVQUAL dimensions in relation to e-business Tangibles Examples of the tangibles factor ar has up-to-date equipment, physical facilities ar optically appeal and materials be visually appealing. These aspects faculty be even more important in e-business as there is no face-to-face contact amongst the customer and an employee.The visual aspects of the equipment (i. e. the clear site) argon the only visual contact between a customer and an organization. Therefore, the need to have well functioning and good-looking weather vane sites is par mensuration. There argon a great number of customers who vacate their patronageping carts on the Internet because they get frustrated with the technology, or the design and lay out of the net site interface (Hager and Elliot, 2001). The visual aspects of wind vane sites be also judged differently by the batch of different age. While young flock may be attracted by ? timid artistry, sounds and a high-speed interface, older multitude do not want nictate texts that are hard to read or animations that distract from the use of the weather vane site (Houtman, 2002). Although a number of net sites offer exploiters the opportunity to customise the tissue site to their needs, this customization process is mostly aimed at the content of the sack site an d not at the graphics, animations and sounds. Reliability Some of the aspects in the dependableness factor have to do with doing what is promised and doing it at the promised time.Although many organizations seem to hypothe coat that the major reason why customers shop via the Internet is because of the low prices, this does not forever and a day need to be the case. Some organizations found out the hard way that there are also a lot of customers shopping via the Internet because of convenience considerations (Riseley and Schehr, 2000). If customers cannot trust an organization to do what they ask, those customers will be dissatis? ed. Priceline, for example, ran into macro problems by the end of 2000 because of its center on on the lowest prices. People could buy a plane ticket at a very low price, but because of possible inconvenient ? ing times there was a big risk for customers. This resulted in dissatis? ed customers who were happy to trade off Pricelines discounts for the convenience of a contention (Riseley and Schehr, 2000). Responsiveness One of the aspects in the responsiveness factor is gives prompt service. The amount of time it takes to download a Web varlet appears to be of great splendor to the exploiters of the Internet. seek in 1999 found that few than 10 percent of substance ab drug users leave a Web site if page reply time is kept below 7 s. However, when it rises above 8 s, 30 percent of users leave.When delays exceed 12 s, a reel 70 percent of users leave a Web site (Cox and Dale, 2001, 2002). It can be assumed that tribe expect Web sites to be even more speedy than in 1999 because of the scientific advances. Thus, it is very important Applying SERVQUAL 923 IJQRM 20,8 924 for organizations to have a Web site that is quick, but on the other hand users expect Web sites to be visually appealing. As the number and size of animations, pictures and sounds increase to make a Web page more visually appealing, the time it takes to download that Web page will also increase, which is judged negatively by users.Hence, there is a trade-off between the looks of a Web site and the speed of that site. Organizations will have to try to ? nd the right balance between good looks and speed. The trade-off between looks and speed is complicated by companies pauperism that their Web sites convey the corporate substitution class (Manning et al. , 1998). The design department of a company wants Web pages to be easily placeable as belonging to that company. In their view, Web pages have to display company and product logos as well as other graphics that underscore the corporate identity.These graphics add to the overall size of Web pages and thereby increase the download time for Internet users. It is questionable whether users are willing to accept slower pages in return for more logos and graphics that do not improve the functionality of the Web site (although they cogency improve the visual appeal). Assurance One of th e aspects in the effrontery factor is knowledge to answer questions. Customers expect to ? nd boththing they want on a Web site. In a bricks and mortar store, people feel comfortable with a limited breed. On the Internet, people are not satis? ed if they cannot ? nd allthing they want.Web shops need to have great depth of inventory and rich and relevant product education (Dayal et al. , 2002). Two other aspects in the self-assertion factor are employees can be trusted and feel safe in your transactions with employees. First, there is the risk for users to appoint individualized knowledge with an organization they do not know. Research on this government issue (statistical Research Inc. , 2001) shows that at least 50 percent of users are very concerned about misuse of credit card information given over the Internet selling or sharing of individual(prenominal) information by Web site owners and cookies that track customers Internet activity.Second, the aforesaid(prenominal ) research shows that two-thirds of active Web users typically abandon a site that requests in-person information and one in ? ve has entered false information to gain access to a Web site. Aspects in the sureness factor that could be very important in e-business are (Daughtrey, 2001) . availability of a formal privacy and con? dentiality form _or_ system of government on a Web site . secured access to a Web site (that customers are prompted to acknowledge) . general reputation of supplier . certi? cations or guarantees of assurance and . reports of experiences of other customers.The ? rst aspect in this heed is also acknowledged by the International Organization for Standardisation in Geneva. The enroll of Practice for discipline Security Management (ISO/IEC 177992000) provides a basis for establishing and maintaining the means of use sensitive data (Daughtrey, 2001). Certi? cations and guarantees of assurance are also important in e-business. to a greater extent and more or ganizations are trying to come up certi? cation by an objective, consensus-establish standard, just as they did antecedent with quality management standards (Daughtrey, 2001).These organizations are beseeming aware of the advantages of such certi? cation in relation to customers trust in these organizations. Empathy In the dimension of empathy there are several aspects that are usually not found on a Web site. Because of the fact that there is no human interaction, Web sites ordinarily do not offer personal attention. To achieve this, a number of Web sites have a design that can be personalized by the users of these sites, so people can have their own version of the Web site. This kind of Web site design is aimed at freehanded users the experience of getting personal attention.The view is that the more a Web site is tailored to a particular customers needs, the more likely that customer will return over again and again (The Economist, 2001). The most advanced technologies in t his electron orbit aim to create a face-to-virtual-face interaction. A friendly looking face of a virtual assistant on your riddle is supposed to make customers feel more comfortable. With the use of arti? cial intelligence, the virtual assistant can suggest products or services that faculty be of interest to a customer based on previous purchases and on reactions to the questions of the virtual assistant.The latter possibility of postulation users of a Web site questions via a virtual assistant will enable companies to tailor their offerings to the wishes of the user to prevent customer dissatisfaction. The only finding of all these technological gadgets is to add one of the Webs key missing ingredients warmth (The Economist, 2001). Other aspects It seems that most of the dimensions and aspects that have been de? ned for general service environments are also important in e-business. Besides the ? ve dimensions as de? ned by Zeithaml et al. (1990), empirical evidence might come up with more speci? c dimensions affectd to e-business.Some front research has been done in this domain of a function (Cox and Dale, 2001, 2002 Fink and Laupase, 2000 Schubert and Dettling, 2001 Wan, 2000), but no de? nitive results have been attained. Hence, more research is needed (Zeithaml, 2002). Research methodology The research was conducted by means of a questionnaire survey. Employment of this approach provides a relatively easy means to study the perceptions and Applying SERVQUAL 925 IJQRM 20,8 926 opinions of a large concourse of people in a limited time frame and at low costs. The survey was undertaken with the student universe of discourse at northeasterly University (NEU), Boston, USA.Students were expected to be familiar with e-business and the Internet. Students true an electronic mail with a hyperlink to the Web site containing the questionnaire allowing them to respond to the questionnaire electronically and to submit by clicking a button. The purpose of the questionnaire survey was to develop empirical evidence on the quality factors of Web sites that are important to people who are familiar with the Internet and keep going Internet users. The survey comprised the following questions . personal information (gender, age, academic discipline) . respondents use of Internet (equipment, frequency of use) . peci? c Web sites that are call on the carpeted by respondents (a prede? ned angle of 20 categories of Web sites) and . aspects of Web quality (a prede? ned list of 50 aspects). The core of the questionnaire consists of the list of aspects of Web quality. For every aspect we ask the respondent to assign the grandness of that aspect and at the same time we ask for their satisfaction with that aspect. The structure of the questions is based on the SERVQUAL scale (Zeithaml et al. , 1990). The aspects have been de? ned consort to the categories of the model developed by Cox and Dale (2001, 2002) and are as follows clarity of purpose . design . communication . reliableness . service and sponsorly asked questions . accessibility and speed . product or service choice . revision con? rmation . product purchase . user recognition . extra service and . shop buyer incentives. For each of these categories a number of aspects have been de? ned in the questionnaire. The questionnaire has been discussed with experts in the ? eld of quality management and a pilot study has been conducted amongst a low-spirited number of students. This lead to an improved questionnaire which has been used for the esearch presented in this paper. Survey results Sample and solvent rate All students who obtained a university email account at NEU (approximately 6,000) received an e-mail about the study and the questionnaire. Responses were received from 293 students. The reply rate for the direct mailings to students was rather low (approximately 5 percent of the number of e-mails sent out), although acceptable for this flake of mailing. Applying SERVQUAL 927 Descriptive statistics In hold overs I and II, the response sample is set forth in terms of gender and age, respectively.A proportion of the response sample with the total population at NEU leads to the conclusion that the response group is representative for the total population. The respondents were enrolled across many academic disciplines, and judged by the age of the respondents, most students were at the undergraduate level. bow lead shows the respondents use of the Internet in terms of the quality of their own equipment. Overall the students are rather satis? ed with their equipment and do not seem to have problems with speed and download time. put back IV summarizes the frequencies of respondents Internet visits.They visit the Internet on an average 18 times per week, for about an hour per visit. So, it is out-of-doors that students make keep going use of the Internet. priapic Female Total 104 188 292 control board I. estimate of respondents b y gender , 21 years 21-25 years 26-30 years 31-35 years . 35 years Total 192 71 19 4 7 293 duck II. offspring of respondents by age PC partnership speed Printing from the Web Downloading from the Web zero(prenominal)es On a ? ve-point scale from very dissatis? ed to very satis? ed 3. 83 3. 59 3. 53 3. 57 Table III. felicity of respondents with the equipment they use IJQRM 20,8 928 Table IV. The use of the WebIt is interesting to note the types of Web sites that are used most often by our respondents (Table V). The types of Web sites that are used most often are search engines, university sites, passing(a) revolutionarys and entertainment sites. Web sites that are used less often are e-shops and chat rooms. Sites with stock exchange information are not visited very often either. In Table VI ( legislate ten) and Table VII ( stooge ten) the importance (expectations) and the satisfaction (experiences) are summarized on prede? ned aspects cogitate to the quality of Web sites. Th e hap ten aspects seem to relate to dependability issues in pure e-commerce.Customers who buy a product on the Internet want Web sites and the organizations behind them to be trustworthy. E-commerce Web sites need to be unfaltering, simple and always available. Customers want a clear overview and con? rmation of what they bought and what they have to pay for. flourishing to ? nd desired Web site 3. 80 gentle to use Web page links 3. 92 Easy to ? nd relevant information 3. 38 date spent on one site , 12 min Time on the Web per Internet visit , 60 min Number of Internet visits per week , 19 visits no.e If not questd otherwise, on a ? ve-point scale from very dif? cult to very easy imagine Table V. Web sites ranked by requency of visits Search engines Daily newspapers Entertainment Universities Electronic libraries Personal Web sites data portals Games trigger Sports Banking Company information E-shops Book stores euphony stores Movie stores Second-hand products Stock excha nge information Who is where Chat rooms no.e On a ? ve-point scale from never to once a day or more 4. 64 3. 63 3. 47 3. 38 3. 02 2. 99 2. 92 2. 82 2. 72 2. 62 2. 60 2. 58 2. 57 2. 41 2. 39 2. 27 2. 16 2. 02 1. 84 1. 76 Top ten with highest get ahead on importance determination your way on the Web site is easya Access is fasta A complete overview of the fix is presented before ? al purchase decisiona assess and/or other charges are intelligibly minutea The alteration process is simplea Access to judge delivery times is available at all timesa All relevant order con? rmation flourish sent by e-maila Order cancellation and returns elaborate are con? rmed within three daysa Order-tracking exposit are available until deliverya There are well course of instructionmed search optionsa vastness Satisfaction mean mean Delta S-I 4. 61 4. 60 3. 44 3. 31 2 1. 17 2 1. 29 4. 55 4. 50 4. 50 4. 46 4. 46 3. 75 3. 47 3. 36 3. 18 3. 84 2 0. 80 2 1. 03 2 1. 14 2 1. 28 2 0. 62 4. 43 4. 4 0 4. 39 3. 24 3. 30 3. 08 1. 19 2 1. 10 2 1. 31 Notes a specify values on ? ve-point scales difference between importance and satisfaction signi? vernacular at 0. 01 level based on a t-test (two-tailed) Bottom ten with lowest scores on importance Applying SERVQUAL Importance Satisfaction mean mean Searches on link up sites are provideda 3. 81 The privacy indemnity is kindlya 3. 79 The security policy is accessiblea 3. 76 The Web site contains company expanda 3. 70 3. 68 Scrolling through pages and text is kept to a minimuma tie in are provided to pages on think products and servicesa 3. 67 Web site animations are meaningfula 3. 52A customer program is provided for exchange of ideas 3. 36 The user is invited into a frequent buyer programa 3. 31 Brand see to it is important 3. 22 Notes a esteem values on ? ve-point scales Difference between importance signi? depository financial institution at 0. 01 level based on a t-test (two-tailed) 3. 40 3. 52 3. 51 3. 32 3. 29 929 Tab le VI. Importance of and satisfaction with aspects of Web quality Delta S-I 2 0. 41 2 0. 27 2 0. 25 2 0. 38 2 0. 39 3. 40 2 0. 27 3. 21 2 0. 31 3. 29 2 0. 07 3. 08 2 0. 23 3. 29 0. 07 and satisfaction The bottom ten aspects seem to relate to extra service (e. g. customization of Web sites) and information (e. g. ecurity policy and company details) that is provided to the customer. Apparently respondents do not ? nd these extras very important in their use of the Internet. Tables VI and VII also show the gos between experiences and expectations (satisfaction minus importance). It can be think that the gap is widest for the aspects that respondents perceive as most important. The aspect with the largest gap is access is fast (satisfaction score 3. 31 and importance score 4. 60). In the top ten aspects there are no aspects with a positive delta, meaning Table VII. Importance of and satisfaction with aspects of Web qualityIJQRM 20,8 930 that for every aspect the experience is less tha n expected. In the bottom ten aspects there is just one aspect with a (very small) positive delta brand image. actor analyses (varimax, chief components) on the importance data (KMO value ? 0. 91) and satisfaction data (KMO value ? 0. 93) based on Eigenvalues greater than one indicated 12 factor solutions. These factors cluster the aspects more or less according to the structure of the questionnaire. nearly of these factors also become too speci? c and do not disclose the implicit in(p) structure of customers perceptions of the quality of Web sites.The talus plots indicated solutions with fewer factors, possibly around ? ve factors. A comparison of the results of factor analyses with varying verse of factors led to the conclusion that ? ve-factor solutions ? t the data best. These ? ve-factor solutions were used to ? nd evidence for the humanity of the ? ve dimensions according to the SERVQUAL scale (Zeithaml et al. , 1990). The results of these ? ve-factor solutions are summ arized in Table eighter. In Table VIII we only include the aspects with factor loadings greater than 0. 5. The aspects are ranked under each factor according to their factor loadings.It can be seen from the table that the two ? ve-factor solutions (importance and satisfaction) come to the same conclusions regarding the glob of the aspects. There are some minor differences in the clustering of the aspects between the two factor solutions however, these differences are related to the aspects with low factor loadings. It can be concluded that the factor analyses on both the importance of the Web quality aspects and the satisfaction with the Web quality aspects are compatible with the ? ve factors of the SERVQUAL scale. Correlation between Web sites and Web quality factors The importance of any of the ? e factors of the SERVQUAL scale might differ per type of Web site, just like it differs per service sector in the bricks and mortar world. Therefore, a correlation between the ? ve SER VQUAL factors and the different types of Web sites is useful to determine these differences. In order to categorize the fairly large number of different types of Web sites, a factor analysis (varimax, principal components, KMO value ? 0. 83) on the data on the use of Web sites (Table V) is conducted. The results of this factor analysis indicate that there are intelligibly ? ve groups of sites that form the underlying usage pattern.These are (1) e-shops for books, music, movies, etc. (Cronbachs important ? 0. 75) (2) university and study information (Cronbachs alpha ? 0. 64) (3) games, entertainment, and sport (Cronbachs alpha ? 0. 66) (4) company information, stock information, and banks (Cronbachs alpha ? 0. 69) and (5) general information on daily news, get, libraries, and search engines (Cronbachs alpha ? 0. 58). Importance Satisfaction Factor 1 (Reliability) A complete overview of the order is presented before ? nal purchase decision Tax and/or other charges are clearly detai led Different payment options are stated clearlyAll relevant order con? rmation details are sent by e-mail within 24 hours Access to pass judgment delivery times is available at all times term and conditions of sales are accessible Order-tracking details are available until delivery Order cancellation and returns details are con? rmed within three days ripe details of product or service pricing are available The modification process is simple Full product or service characteristics are available Registration process details are retained The Web site offers free shipping and manipulation within a set of rules Access is fast The user can make a purchase without Web ite registration Factor 1 (Reliability) All relevant order con? rmation details are sent by e-mail within 24 hours A complete overview of the order is presented before ? nal purchase decision Terms and conditions of sales are accessible Order-tracking details are available until delivery Different payment options are s tated clearly Tax and/or other charges are clearly detailed Access to pass judgment delivery times is available at all times Order cancellation and returns details are con? rmed within three days The home page features options for new and registered users Registration process details are retainedFactor 2 (Tangibles) Finding your way on the Web site is easy Information is found with a minimum of clicks seafaring is consistent and standardized There are well programmed search options Instructions are directly available Opening of new screens is kept to a minimum Applying SERVQUAL Factor 2 (Tangibles) Finding your way on the Web site is easy Information is found with a minimum of clicks seafaring is consistent and standardized The number and type of links are meaningful The purpose is clear Scrolling through pages and text is kept to a minimum Instructions are directly available It is easy to publish from the WebFactor 3 (Empathy) Factor 3 (Empathy) link up are provided to pages on related products Links are provided to pages on related products and services and services A customer platform is provided for the On give way sites a ? ight/hotel search is provided exchange of ideas A standard navigation bar, home button and On travel sites the user can customize hobo and back/forward button are available on every meal preferences and the information is page retained (continued ) 931 Table VIII. Con? rmative factor analysis (? ve-factor solution) IJQRM 20,8 Importance Satisfaction It is easy to print from the WebOn travel sites a ? ight/hotel search is provided Web sites that center on on brand awareness have a store locator The user is invited into a frequent buyer program Factor 4 (Assurance) The security policy is accessible The privacy policy is accessible External validation of trustworthiness is important The Web site contains company details Brand image is important knave availability information is given on entry The user is invited into a frequent bu yer program A customer platform is provided for exchange of ideas Factor 4 (Assurance) The privacy policy is accessible The security policy is accessibleThe Web site contains company details External validation of trustworthiness is important 932 Factor 5 (Responsiveness) The frequently asked questions and answers contain links that take the user to the relevant page(s) Information is provided to frequently asked questions and answers Queries or complaints are resolved within 24 hours User feedback is desire to measure customer satisfaction An e-mail address for queries and complaints is provided Table VIII. Factor 5 (Responsiveness) User feedback is sought to measure customer satisfaction Queries or complaints are resolved within 24 hoursThe frequently asked questions and answers contain links that take the user to the relevant page(s) Access is fast Opening of new screens is kept to a minimum Graphics and animation do not detract from use Full details of product or service pricin g are available Notes leading component analysis. Varimax with Kaiser normalization. Rotation converged in nightclub iterations (importance) and ten iterations (satisfaction). Factor loadings . 0. 5, ranking based on factor loadings from high to low Table IX shows the correlation matrix between the frequency of use of types of Web sites and the importance of the Web quality factors.Some results are as follows . All ? ve quality dimensions are most strongly correlated with e-shops, indicating that frequent users of e-shops tend to have higher quality expectations. . An increase in the frequency of use of the types of Web sites is in all cases most strongly correlated with either empathy (E-shops), assurance (company sites and search engines) or responsiveness (study related sites, Reliability Coef. sign up E-shops (books, music, movies etc. ) Study-related sites Games and sports sites Company and banking sites Search engines, daily news, travel Tangibles Coef. Sign EmpathyCoef. S ign Assurance Coef. Sign Responsiveness Coef. Sign 0. 220 ** 0. 174 ** 0. 239 ** 0. 232 ** 0. 233 ** 0. 171 ** 0. 167 ** 0. 183 ** 0. 156 ** 0. 202 ** 0. 114 * 0. 124 * 0. 168 ** 0. 112 n. s. 0. 171 ** 0. 144 ** 0. 136 * 0. 151 ** 0. 166 ** 0. 144 ** 0. 122 * 0. cxv * 0. 115 * 0. 123 * 0. 115 * Notes * Correlation is signi? sham at the 0. 05 level (two-tailed) ** Correlation is signi? cant at the 0. 01 level (two-tailed) n. s. ? no signi? cant correlation . Applying SERVQUAL and games and sports). More frequent users of the Internet tend to ? nd reliability and tangibles less important.All correlation coef? cients are positive, indicating that for all types of Web sites more usage leads to higher importance of all quality dimensions. The experienced user seems to have higher expectations of the quality of Web sites. Conclusion The results of this research can be summarised in the following way. Of a prede? ned list of Web quality aspects these aspects are considered to be the most important access is fast ? nding your way on the Web site is easy a complete overview of the order is presented before ? nal purchase decision and the registration process is simple. Of the ? e factors that can be found by means of factor analyses (reliability, tangibles, empathy, assurance and responsiveness) various aspects related to the factors reliability and tangibles are included in the top ten important aspects. Various aspects related to the factors empathy and assurance are included in the bottom ten aspects ranked according to their perceived importance. Both the importance of the Web quality aspects and the satisfaction with the Web quality aspects are compatible with ? ve-factor analyses that support the globe of the ? ve factors of the SERVQUAL scale of Zeithaml et al. (1990).The importance of any of the ? ve factors of the SERVQUAL scale differs per type of Web site, just like it differs per service industry in the bricks and mortar world. So far, it can be conclude d that the quality dimensions developed by Zeithaml et al. (1990) for service environments are equally useful in e-business. 933 Table IX. Correlation between the frequency of use of types of Web sites and the importance of the Web quality factors IJQRM 20,8 934 Further analysis of the data is needed. While this research project yields a number of very interesting results, we debate that there are a number of things that should be done to con? m our results as well as to expand our hypotheses. First, with the number of Internet users now over one billion, our sample is relatively small. Therefore, research with larger samples that pose the same or similar questions would be appropriate. Second, Internet users come from all over the globe. One has to defendant that there are differences between a sample taken from students of the USA and what might be found among students elsewhere. Possible, language, culture, religion, and a host of other factors may be important to a users tende r of the quality of a Web site.Finally, quality is an area of critical importance for commercialized companies. Businesses need to read what attracts people to their Web sites, what keeps them there, and what keeps them coming back. They need to understand the differences between the casual buyer versus the user who visits their Web sites on a daily basis. Web sites for companies like Dell, Cisco, Orbitz, and Covisint do millions of dollars of business each day. They need to understand the factors that keep these businesses growing better by understanding what encourages purchasing and what brings them back to the Web sites.Likewise, their competitors need to understand these factors even more to compete in this highly competitive marketplace. Due to the signi? cance of this to business, we expect that this type of research will be ongoing for many years to come. The results of that research will be easier to use Web sites that are more customer think and evolving as the user ev olves. A Chinese proverb says, May you live in interesting times. We are for certain living in interesting times. References Agrawal, V. , Arjona, L. and Lemmens, R. 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