IPA

The IPA model is a new tool to categorize the different service attributes and provide specific strategies for attributes in each category. It allows managers to easily grasp the exact perceptions of users of a quality attribute and coping strategies to improve service quality and achieve a competitive advantage.

Despite it judges the quality of a service in terms of customer satisfaction focusing on listening to the voice of thecustomer (VOC) it does not take into account the degree of importance given by the customers to certain quality elements.

IPA stands for Importance-Performance Analysis; it was first proposed and introduced by Martilla and James (1977) to measure client satisfaction according to the importance of the service and the performance of the business in providing that service. The tool is a graph of a pair of coordinate axis: the importance axis (y-axis) and the performance axis (x-axis) of the different elements involved. Thus, we obtain four quadrants and different suggested marketing strategies for each one:

- Quadrant A: high importance, low performance. It suggests concentrating efforts and immediate attention for improvement here as it sets major weaknesses.

- Quadrant B: high importance, high performance. It suggests keeping up with the good work as it indicates strengths; opportunities for achieving and maintaining competitive advantages.

- Quadrant C: low importance, low performance. These are minor weaknesses and do not require additional effort.

- Quadrant D: low importance, high performance. It indicates that business resources committed to this axis would be overkill and should be deployed elsewhere.

IPA Model

Due to its characteristics, IPA model can be useful when investigating the critical service quality attributes in the chain restaurant industry.

References:

Pai, F. et al. (2016) ‘Classifying Restaurant Service Quality Attributes´. Taylor & Francis Online. Available from: https://goo.gl/7Yv3LE

Silva, F. et al. (2010) ‘Importance-Performance Analysis’. Polytechnic Institute of Bragança. Available from: https://goo.gl/Wi3qe3