What is Quality? Quality has been defined in different ways by different people and institutes.

In general, it is the conformance to specifications. It is the continuous process of anticipating, analyzing and fulfilling the needs for building and sustaining relationships. These

conformances could be from the viewpoint of different stakeholders or sources. We can identify few different dimensions or viewpoints of quality in which the word Quality has been or can be defined. 1. Customer "Quality consists of the capacity to satisfy wants."(C.D. Edwards, "The Meaning of Quality", in Quality Progress Oct.1968) "Quality is fitness for use." (J.M. Juran, ed. Quality Control Handbook 1988) Simply stated, quality from the viewpoint of the customer is fulfilling and satisfying the needs and wants of the customers and his anticipations related to the product belonging to a particular category. A customers views the quality of any product as the extent to which it means his expectations regarding what attributes a product from a specific category must entail. 2. Manufacturing "Quality is the degree to which a specific product conforms to a design or specification" (H.L. Gilmore: Product Conformance Cost. Quality progress June 1974) "Quality [means] conformance to requirements." (P.B. Crosby: Quality Is Free) Quality from the manufacturing perspective is the degree or the extent to which the outcome conforms or meets the design and specification.

3. Product "Quality refers to the amount of the unpriced attributes contained in each unit of the priced attribute." (K. B. Leifler: Ambiguous Changes in Product Quality, American Economic Review Dec.1982) Product quality is the value added features that a product holds that exceed the customers expectations. It is a major source of customer delight, in turn, causing customer delight. 4. Value - based "Quality is the degree of excellence at an acceptable price and the control of variability at an acceptable cost." (R. A. Broh: Managing Quality for Higher Profits, 1982) 5. Service "Service quality is a focused evaluation that reflects the customer's perception of specific dimensions of service: Reliability - ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately Responsiveness - willingness to help customers and provide prompt service Assurance - knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to convey trust and confidence Empathy - individualized attention and care Tangibles - physical facilities, equipment and appearance of the staff and personnel (Zeithaml & Bitner (2003: 85)) Service quality is all about providing customer with an experience. It is giving them a combination of tangible and intangible offerings that delight the customer and provide him with a soothing experience.

Impact of Service Quality on Customer From the previous researches we can identify three major areas related to customer that are impacted by service quality. Customer Satisfaction Customer Loyalty Trust

1. Customer Satisfaction Customer satisfaction is a well known and established concept in several areas like marketing, consumer research, economic psychology, welfare-economics, and economics. The most common interpretations obtained from various authors reflect the notion that satisfaction is a feeling which results from a process of evaluating what has been received against what was expected, including the purchase decision itself and the needs and wants associated with the purchase (Armstrong & Kotler, 1996). Bitner & Zeithaml (2003) stated that satisfaction is the customers evaluation of a product or service in terms of whether that product or service has met their needs and expectations. When customers buy a product or service, they do so with a set of expextations associated with it. These expectations arise from their past experience, perception, information from other people and sources etc. Based on these, customers sketch a picture of what to expect from the product or service in their minds. According to Boselie, Hesselink, and Wiele (2002) satisfaction is a positive, affective state resulting from the appraisal of all aspects of a partys working relationship with another. Impact of Service Quality on Customer Satisfaction Over the past few years there has been an increasing emphasis on service quality and customer satisfaction in business. Sureshchandar et al, (2003) have identified that strong relationships exist between service quality and customer satisfaction while stressing on the fact that these two are conceptually distinct constructs from the customers point of view.

Spreng and Mackoy (1996) also showed that service quality leads to customer satisfaction while working on the model developed by Oliver (1997). In a study conducted by Ribbink et.al (2004) showed that this relationship also exists in the e-commerce industry. Customer Loyalty As identified by the researchers that customer loyalty is comprised of both customers attitudes and behaviors. Customers attitudinal component represents notions like willingness of recommending the company to others, repurchase intention or purchasing additional products or services from the same company, Exhibition of commitment to the company by exhibiting a resistance to switching to another competitor (Cronin & Taylor, 1992; Narayandas, 1996; Prus & Brandt, 1995), and willingness to pay a price premium (Zeithaml, Berry, & Parasuraman, 1996). On the other hand, the behavioral aspect of customer loyalty represents actual repeat purchase of products or services. It includes purchasing more and different products or services from the same company, recommending the company to others, and reflecting a long-term choice probability for the brand (Feick, Lee, & Lee, 2001). It can be summed up that customer loyalty expresses an intended behavior related to the product or service or to the company. Pearson (1996) has defined customer loyalty as the mindset of the customers who have favorable attitudes toward a company, commit to repurchase the companys product or service, and recommend the product or service to others. Customer loyalty is the retention of customer. It is keeping the current customer to reap benefits, achieving more sales, achieving a positive word of mouth a and safeguarding against negative word of mouth.

Impact of Service Quality on Customer Loyalty In different studies the relationship between service quality and customer loyalty has been examined (Boulding, Kalra, Staelin, & Zeithaml, 1993; Cronin & Taylor, 1992). In their study Cronin and Taylor (1992) focused solely on repurchase intentions, whereas Boulding et al. (1993) focused on the elements of repurchasing as well as the willingness to recommend. In the

study by Cronin and Taylor service quality did not appear to have a significant (+ ive) effect on repurchase intentions (in contrast to the significant positive impression of satisfaction on repurchase intention), whereas Boulding et al. (1993) found positive relationships between service quality and repurchase intentions and customers readiness to recommend. It is of utmost importance to retain the existing customers. According to a study: It costs 70% more to attract a new customer than it costs to retain an existing customer 80% of the revenue comes from 20% of the current customers 30% of the people who have a negative experience will propagate negative word of mouth about the product or service. A satisfied customer in turn will share their positive experience with others and cause sales growth and market share expansion. Trust In business trust is viewed as one of the most relevant backgrounds of stable and collaborative relationships. Researchers had established that trust is crucial for building and maintaining long-term relationships (Rousseau, Sitkin, Burt, & Camerer, 1998; Singh & Sirdeshmukh, 2000). Morgan and Hunt (1994) had stated that trust exists only when one party has confidence and trust in an exchange partners reliability and integrity. In their efforts in defining trust Moorman, Deshpande, and Zaltman (1993) referred to the willingness to rely on an exchange partner in whom one has confidence. According to Lau and Lee (1999), if one party trusts another party that eventually engenders positive behavioral intentions towards the second party. From Anderson and Narus (1990) it can be securely extracted that if one party believes that the actions of the other party will bring positive outcomes to the first party, trust can be developed. Doney and Cannon (1997) added that the concerned party also must have the ability to continue to meet its obligations towards its customers within the cost-benefits relationship. So, the customer should not be able to only foresee the positive outcomes but also believe that these positive outcomes will continue in the future.

Relationship between trust and customer loyalty A number of researchers have showed that trust is fundamental in developing customer loyalty (Moorman, Deshpande, & Zaltman, 1993; Morgan & Hunt, 1994). The importance of trust in explaining loyalty is also supported by authors like Lim and Razzaque (1997), Garbarino and Johnson (1999), Chaudhuri and Holbrook (2001), Singh and Sirdeshmukh (2000), and Sirdeshmukh, Singh, and Sabol (2002). However, in a market with suitable alternatives lack of trust might lead to negative loyalty. Corbitt, Thanasankit, and Yi (2003) have pointed out that a strong positive effect of trust on customer loyalty in case of telecommunications sector.

A model of Impact of Service Quality

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