EVALUATING THE SERVICE QUALITY OF “MI” INSURANCE COMPANY (MELLAT IRAN) FROM PERSPECTIVE OF CUSTOMERS AND EMPLOYEES THROUGH SERVQUAL MODEL (CASE STUDY ON “MI” INSURANCE, GUILAN)

Abstract

Today regarding the vital importance of insurance industry roles in economicaldevelopment of countries, the need to it is inevitable .Yet the indicator of insurancedevelopment including insurance precipitate, Gross Domestic Product (GDP), etc.In Iran which suggests progress in this industry not only are not comparable with thedeveloped countries but also are lower than the developing countries. One of the reasons asproposed by the theorist in the field suggests that insurances coverage in Iran is notcompatible with that is expected by the insurers .In the present research the quality of theservices offered by the largest organization of MA insurance in Iran, Social Securityorganization(SSO), is evaluated.Among the models applied in evaluating service quality in various service sections, in thisstudy, SERQUAL model is in used. So research is to consider and evaluate the extent ofthe gap in the five dimensions of service quality in SSO. In theoretical frame work of theresearch concepts related to quality, service, service quality, different component ofservice quality and in the end the review of literature are discussed. The present research isbased on the methods and the nature of descriptive- survey research and the populationsunder question include all the activeinsurers and clerks of branches 1 and 2 of SSO in Guilan Province in Iran. The questionnaire used to access the extent at the gap ofservice quality is the standard one used in SERQUAL model and Cronbach’s Coefficientalpha for the questionnaire under question is calculated as 90% for insurers and 91% forclerks.In results of testing the hypothesis of the research through Paired Students t-test,Independent Students t-test, Wilcoxon Nipper Tests and Mann-Whitney Nipper Tests showsthat: At the point of view of insurers and clerks, services offered by SSO have not fulfilledthe expectation of the insurers. Also expectations of the insurers and clerks about qualityof services offered by SSO are equal but their understanding is different. The smallest gapbetween the expectations of the insurers and their understanding and opinions is related totangible factors and assurance components, and the biggest one is related toresponsiveness component. The smallest gap between the expectations of the clerks andtheir understanding and opinions is related to assurance component, and the biggest one isrelated to responsiveness component. The results of Friedman test to set the priority atcomponents indicate that at the point view of the insurers of SSO, the component atempathy has thehighest and tangible factors have the lowest priority. Also at the pointview of the clerks of SSO, the component at assurance has the highest and tangible factorshave the lowest priority