Internal versus external service quality: reflections of employees and customers in the mirror

Introduction: The purpose of this study to investigate internal service quality (as perceived by employees) and external (customer) perceptions of quality in the context of service profit chain (SPC). Objective: The objective of the study is to evaluate the impact of internal service quality on students’ perceptions of quality and to test the significance of a direct link between internal and external service quality. Methods: We measured the perceived service quality using a SERVPERF instrument and the multilevel modeling approach with HLM 7.01. Results: The empirical findings support a link between perceptions of internal and external service quality. We show that when employees (faculty) perceive university services as being of high quality, it has a positive spill-over effect on students’ overall perceptions of the quality of university services. Perceptions of internal service quality are also positively related to students’ perceptions of reliability, responsiveness and quality assurance. Conclusions: The perceptions of internal service quality by faculty members are positively related to students’ perceptions of quality. Comparing the levels of internal and external service quality will help managers define priorities for allocating resources to improve quality