Evaluation of the e-service quality in service encounters with incidents: Differences according to the socio-demographic profile of the online consumer

Abstract

This study starts out from two premises. Firstly, previous studies show that the quality of traditional services can be perceived differently by different customers. Secondly, in the electronic services area some researchers have used the sociodemographic profile of the Internet user to explain the differences in their online behavior. In the light of this, our study analyze whether the perceived quality of electronic services can vary depending on the sociodemographic and web-graphics characteristics of the online consumer (age, gender, level of education, and frequency of Internet use). The responses were obtained from 267 online consumers who have experienced a problem during the online service delivery (service encounters with incidents). The results show (1) the reliability dimension is that which is best valued, while the service recovery has the worst performance, (2) the perceived quality of service is relatively homogenous between the different groups of online buyers, and (3) the measurement invariance of the measurements is demonstrated.