Scale library · Service quality

E-S-QUAL scale: Parasuraman et al. (2005)

E-S-QUAL was developed by Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Malhotra (2005) to measure the service quality customers perceive when shopping on websites. The core scale has 22 items in four dimensions: efficiency, system availability, fulfillment and privacy. The recovery scale E-RecS-QUAL has 11 items in three dimensions (responsiveness, compensation, contact) and is answered only by customers who have had a problem or query. It is widely used in theses on e-commerce marketplaces, food delivery apps, online retail and digital banking.

Cite the original, not the blog.

Original English items

Items marked (R) are reverse-coded: recode them before computing reliability or scale scores. Replace bracketed placeholders such as [system] with the name of the system, brand or organization you study.

Efficiency (EFF, 8 items)

Code Item wording Reverse-coded
EFF1 This site makes it easy to find what I need. No
EFF2 It makes it easy to get anywhere on the site. No
EFF3 It enables me to complete a transaction quickly. No
EFF4 Information at this site is well organized. No
EFF5 It loads its pages fast. No
EFF6 This site is simple to use. No
EFF7 This site enables me to get on to it quickly. No
EFF8 This site is well organized. No

System Availability (SYS, 4 items)

Code Item wording Reverse-coded
SYS1 This site is always available for business. No
SYS2 This site launches and runs right away. No
SYS3 This site does not crash. No
SYS4 Pages at this site do not freeze after I enter my order information. No

Fulfillment (FUL, 7 items)

Code Item wording Reverse-coded
FUL1 It delivers orders when promised. No
FUL2 This site makes items available for delivery within a suitable time frame. No
FUL3 It quickly delivers what I order. No
FUL4 It sends out the items ordered. No
FUL5 It has in stock the items the company claims to have. No
FUL6 It is truthful about its offerings. No
FUL7 It makes accurate promises about delivery of products. No

Privacy (PRI, 3 items)

Code Item wording Reverse-coded
PRI1 It protects information about my Web-shopping behavior. No
PRI2 It does not share my personal information with other sites. No
PRI3 This site protects information about my credit card. No

Responsiveness (RES, 5 items)

Code Item wording Reverse-coded
RES1 It provides me with convenient options for returning items. No
RES2 This site handles product returns well. No
RES3 This site offers a meaningful guarantee. No
RES4 It tells me what to do if my transaction is not processed. No
RES5 It takes care of problems promptly. No

Compensation (COM, 3 items)

Code Item wording Reverse-coded
COM1 This site compensates me for problems it creates. No
COM2 It compensates me when what I ordered doesn't arrive on time. No
COM3 It picks up items I want to return from my home or business. No

Contact (CON, 3 items)

Code Item wording Reverse-coded
CON1 This site provides a telephone number to reach the company. No
CON2 This site has customer service representatives available online. No
CON3 It offers the ability to speak to a live person if there is a problem. No

Response scale

5-point Likert scale (1 = Strongly disagree … 5 = Strongly agree), as in the original appendix. The items are randomly ordered on the questionnaire, not grouped by dimension.

Licence and permission

The items are published in the appendix of the original article and in MSI Working Paper 04-112, and are widely used in research. Cite the original article; we found no separate licensing conditions for non-commercial academic use.

Sources (APA 7)

Vietnamese translation

A Vietnamese translation of every item, with sample-size advice and studies that used the scale, is on the Vietnamese page for this scale.

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