Diagnostic Assessments of Service Quality in a Continuing Care Retirement Community (CCRC): an Exploratory Study

ABSTRACT

This study assesses service quality and suggests customized strategies for improvement of the service quality in a continuing care retirement community (CCRC). Questionnaires based on the SERVQUAL framework and adapted for CCRCs were distributed to 293 CCRC residents first to measure their perceived importance and subsequently asses the performance of the CCRC on 25 service quality attributes. Descriptive analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, paired-samples t-test, and regression were used to analyze the data from 118 respondents who participated in both surveys. The results indicated that four service-quality attributes (one item in the reliability dimension and three items in the responsiveness dimension) were the priorities for service quality improvement. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed and recommendations are made for future research in the CCRC context.

KEYWORDS:

• Continuing care retirement community (CCRC)
• internal performance ratios
• service quality attributes
• SERVQUAL scale