Measuring Service Quality in Indian Departmental Post Offices : An Application of SERVQUAL Tool

Department of Posts is in existence since 1854 and is the Government Department in India taking care of the mailing, insurance and savings bank needs of its people at affordable rates.Time has come to learn from and stand against the stiff competition from organised and unorganised players and retrieve the lost ground besides discovering new areas to increase the revenues.Improving the service quality is the differentiator and India Post need to relook at its processes and its people orientation towards enhaced service quality.Documented Studies on Indian Postal Department on its service quality measurement are almost not available.This research was undertaken across India to study three different segments,namely,the experimental group of post offices where structural and process interventions made, second group where no such interventions made and the third group consisting of the cross section of its employees from the point of sale to the Board level policy makers.Rigourous testing of data were done and a service measurement model devised which will add to the knowledge on service management and benifit researchers,academicians,marketing students and postal operators worldwide.