CUSTOMER SERVICE QUALITY AT RETAIL STORES IN HYDERABAD AIRPORT

Quality is the keyword for survival of organizations in the global economy. Organizations are undergoing a shift from a production-led philosophy to a customer-focused approach. Competitiveness of a firm in the post-liberalized era is determined by the way it delivers customer service. Service quality is a concept that has aroused considerable interest and debate in the research literature because of the difficulties in both defining it and measuring it with no overall consensus emerging on either (Wisniewski, 2001). The goal of airport retailers is to successfully convert all browsers into buyers at the retail outlets. One major challenge that all retailers face is that they do not know how the browsers will be converted into satisfactory purchasers. Another offshoot of this goal is not to lose shoppers to the competitors. In view of the above mentioned goal to be achieved by the retailers, customer service is becoming important since it is one of the differentiating factors. Understanding the perceptions of the customers with respect to the serv ice they receive and their expectations is imperative for retailers to improve their service and cash in on the immense potential available at airport retail outlets. The main objective of the study is to measure service quality of retail outlets in the Hyderabad airport with SERVQUAL model.