An integrative approach to diagnosing service quality of public parks

Purpose – Aims to examine the services and facilities provided by public parks revealing that the attributes corresponding to performance of service delivery involve the interaction between non‐human aspects of physical environment and emotional experience of users which differ from common human aspects of service quality. Also, a service quality programme without reference to other service providers can easily lead to misguided or counterproductive service improvement strategies. Design/methodology/approach – The present study suggests an integrative approach to diagnosing service quality of public parks that comprises an assessment of performance outcomes and desires to obtain a more comprehensive understanding of service quality and visitor satisfaction as regards frequent users and low users of public parks. Measures pertaining to this approach were examined by a survey of nine public parks in the county of Derbyshire in the UK. Findings – The results show the effect of individual attributes on visitor satisfaction and their diagnostic value for service improvements. The analysis of desires highlights the differences of pre‐visit (prepurchase) evaluation variables between frequent users and low users. Research limitations/implications – The integrative approach of service quality analysis proposed by this study accounts for the limitations of relying on a single conventional measure of service quality. Originality/value – The differences may help identify new dimensions for further research and suggest future behavioural intentions such as loyalty and repeat visits. With the knowledge of individual service components that affect overall visitor satisfaction, managers can pin‐point areas for improvement to overcome service shortcomings, and allocate scarce resources more effectively.