2.

Gap Analysis: Mohalla Live

2.1. Executive Summary
Gap analysis in simple words means finding out the difference between the values which customers expect to receive from a service with respect to the perceived values that they actually receive. Gap analysis thus helps organizations to come to par with the customer expectations by realizing how the organization is lagging and in which areas. In this particular case, the problem which the management is facing is their inability to create a brand name for itself. In other words, failing when it came to branding their services. Branding typically is when an idea or image is marketed so that it is recognizable by more and more people, and identified with a certain service or product when there are many other companies offering the same service or product. And branding is only possible when the organization can deliver uniquely positioned value to its customers over a period of time along with marketing its services. So a gap analysis to find out where and how the organization is lacking in terms of enough satisfied customers to promote it to the category of a brand was felt necessary.

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2.2. About the organization

Mohalla Live is a site for Debate and Discussion in Hindi. This website is focused on society, politics, cinema, literature and media. This was started as a first community blog which provided uncensored and equal opportunity for debate and discussion in Hindi. At that time, it was simply known as Mohalla (mohalla.blogspot.com). Soon it became a movement and inspired hundreds, perhaps thousands of bloggers in Hindi language to express themselves. Some of the debates on Mohalla Live became so intense and fierce that many newspapers and magazines published them with courtesy. Mohalla Live has a clear stand; it is always in the support of secularism, the downtrodden, Dalits, women and progressive thoughts. It has disclosed the hypocrisy of media, politics and institutions, perhaps no other mainstream and institutional media ever dared to. It even faced many legal suits for this, but its zeal never dented. Mohalla Live has always encouraged new writers and welcomed old ones with their insightful thoughts. Recently, with Janatantra.com and Yatra Books (Hindi partner of Penguin Books India) it has started a series of discourse in Delhi named Bahastalab. These discourses are held in Delhi but it intends to organize it across India in near future. It has raised and debated issues on social cause, cinema and media in these discourses which saw the participation of eminent personalities of literary, intellectual and cinema world of India. It has tried to fulfil the vacant place of public debates in Hindi world which once used to be the focal points of Coffee House. This initiative of an individual, though with the active support of many youthful persons, is indeed a movement in virtual space.

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2.3. Problem Scenario

Some of the core problems or concerns that Mohalla Live is facing can be summed up in the following points: a) Mohalla Live was started as a blog (mohalla.blogspot.com) by its founders with no clear view as to what it will be developed into in the future. b) The medium of the site is Hindi, making it difficult to attract the larger population of the metropolitans which is more comfortable with English as their mode of communication. c) The chosen medium is making it harder for the site to communicate the value it offers to new readers/bloggers. d) It is heavily dependent on publicity through word of mouth and on personal communication. e) There is no formal structure of the organization. f) No formal records maintained to gauge customer satisfaction levels.

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2.4. Service Gap Analysis using SERVQUAL

The purpose of our research is to provide empirical evidence on the factors that contribute to the quality of Web sites. Our most important research questions are: a) How will readers/bloggers distinguish the website from the others? b) What factors determine the quality of a website? Because a website is part of the connection between a company or organization and its customers, it is evident that it should reflect the quality efforts that are in place throughout the company. Besides this reason there is another reason why an organization should provide high quality websites to its customers: there is no human contact through websites. The interaction via the Internet between an organization and a customer is always through technology. This means the moment of truth between a organization and a customer is the website. Although companies may try to emulate human behaviour with technology, the interaction remains different because some aspects of human interaction cannot be replaced with technology, e.g. courtesy, friendliness, helpfulness, care, commitment, flexibility and cleanliness (Cox and Dale, 2001, 2002). A key aspect in customer satisfaction is the way a customer can attain satisfaction or dissatisfaction with a companys service. If a company wants to satisfy its customers the first question it needs to answer is what it is that satisfies customers and, equally important, what it is that makes customers dissatisfied with the company and its products and services. Satisfying customers depends on the balance between customers expectations and customers experiences with the products and services (Zeithaml et al., 1990). When a company is able to lift a customers experience to a level that exceeds that customers expectations, then that customer will be satisfied. Comparing customers expectations and their perceptions of actual performance can be done by making use of the SERVQUAL scale of Berry, Parasuraman and Zeithaml (Zeithaml et al., 1990). This scale has been developed for the service sector. It has five generic dimensions or factors and are stated as follows: a) b) c) d) Tangibles: Physical facilities, equipment and appearance of personnel. Reliability: Ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately. Responsiveness: Willingness to help customers and provide prompt service. Assurance: Including competence, courtesy, credibility and security. Knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to inspire trust and confidence. e) Empathy: Including access, communication, understanding the customer. Caring and individualized attention that the firm provides its customers.

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2.5. Research Methodology

The research was conducted by means of a questionnaire survey. Employment of this approach provides a relatively easy means to study the perceptions and opinions of a large group of people in a limited time frame and at low costs. The survey was undertaken by sending the readers/bloggers an e-mail with a hyperlink to the website containing the questionnaire allowing them to respond to the questionnaire electronically and to submit by clicking a button. The purpose of the questionnaire survey was to develop empirical evidence on the quality factors of website that are important to people who are familiar with Mohalla Live and frequent visitors of the site. The survey comprised the following questions: a) Personal information (gender, age, academic discipline). b) Respondents use of Internet (equipment, frequency of use). c) Specific websites that are visited by respondents (a predefined list of 20 categories of websites). d) Aspects of website quality (a predefined list of qualities). The core of the questionnaire consisted of the list of aspects of web quality. For every aspect we asked the respondent to indicate the importance of that aspect and at the same time we ask for their satisfaction with that aspect. The structure of the questions is based on the SERVQUAL scale (Zeithaml et al, 1990). The aspects have been defined according to the categories of the model developed by Cox and Dale (2001, 2002) and are as follows: a) b) c) d) e) f) g) h) i) j) Clarity of purpose. Design. Communication. Reliability. Service and frequently asked questions. Accessibility and speed. Service choice. Service confirmation. User recognition. Extra service.

For each of these categories a number of aspects have been defined in the questionnaire.

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2.6. Data Analysis

THE SERVQUAL INSTRUMENT

EXPECTATIONS This survey deals with your opinions of social discussion websites. Please show the extent to which you think these websites should posses the following features. What we are interested in here is a number that best shows your expectations from these websites. Strongly Disagree 1 2 Strongly Agree 6 7

PERCEPTIONS The following statements relate to your feelings about the Mohalla Live website. Please show the extent to which you believe mentioned website has the feature described in the statement. Here, we are interested in a number that shows your perceptions about Mohalla Live website. Strongly Disagree 1 2 Strongly Agree 7

(E) Tangibles E1. Good social platforms will have modern looking websites. E2. The features of the websites will be visually appealing. E3. Good websites will have speed of access. E4. Good websites will give the luxury of finding what one is looking for with ease. Tangibles P1. Mohalla Live website has modern looking website.

(P)

Gap Score P-E -1

P2. The features of Mohalla Live website are visually appealing. P3. Mohalla Live website has speed of access. P4. It is easy to find what one is looking for in the Mohalla Live website. Average Tangibles SERVQUAL score

-3

7 7

6 5

-1 -2

-1.4

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E Reliability E5. When an organization promises to do something by a certain time, they do. E6. When a customer has a problem, excellent organizations will show a sincere interest in solving it. E7. Excellent organizations will perform the service right the first time. E8. Excellent organizations will provide the service at the time they promise to do so. E9. Excellent organizations will insist on error free records 7 Reliability P5. When Mohalla Live promises to do something by a certain time, it does so. P6. When you have a problem, Mohalla Live shows a sincere interest in solving it. 3

P -4

P-E

-1

P7. Mohalla Live performs the service right the first time.

P8. Mohalla Live provides its service at the time it promises to do so. P9. Mohalla Live insists on error free records

-1

Average Responsiveness SERVQUAL score Responsiveness E10. Employees/people concerned of excellent organizations will tell readers/bloggers exactly when services will be performed. E11. Employees/people concerned of excellent organizations will give prompt service to readers/bloggers. E12. Employees/people concerned of excellent organizations will always be willing to help readers/bloggers. E13. Employees/people concerned of excellent organizations will never be too busy to respond to readers/bloggers requests. Responsiveness P10. Employees/people concerned of Mohalla Live tell readers/bloggers exactly when services will be performed.

-0.4

P11. Employees/people concerned of Mohalla Live give prompt service to readers/bloggers.

P12. Employees/people concerned of Mohalla Live are always willing to help readers/bloggers.

P13. Employees/people concerned of Mohalla Live are never be too busy to respond to readers/bloggers requests.

-1

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Average Responsiveness SERVQUAL score

-0.2

E Assurance E14. The actions of excellent organizations which come forth in their website will instill confidence in readers/bloggers. E15. Readers/bloggers will feel safe while putting their content in an excellent organizations website. E16. Employees/people concerned of excellent organizations will be consistently courteous with readers/bloggers. E17. Employees/people concerned of excellent organizations will have the knowledge to answer readers/bloggers questions. 6 Assurance P14. The actions of Mohalla Live which come forth in their website instill confidence in readers/bloggers. 7

P 1

P-E

P15. Readers/bloggers feel safe while putting their content Mohalla Lives website. P16. Employees/people concerned of Mohalla Live are consistently courteous with readers/bloggers.

P17. Employees/people concerned of Mohalla Live have the knowledge to answer readers/bloggers questions.

-1

Average Assurance SERVQUAL score Empathy E18. Excellent websites will give readers/bloggers individual attention. E19. Excellent websites will have operating hours convenient to all their readers/bloggers. E20. Excellent websites will have employees who give readers/bloggers personal attention. E21. Excellent websites will have their customers Empathy P18. Mohalla Live website gives readers/bloggers individual attention. P19. Mohalla Live website has operating hours convenient to all their readers/bloggers. P20. Mohalla Live website has employees who give readers/bloggers personal attention. P21. Mohalla Live has its customers best interest at heart.

0.2

-1

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best interests at heart. E22. The employees of an excellent website will understand the specific needs of their readers/bloggers. 6 P22. The employees of an Mohalla Live website understand the specific needs of their readers/bloggers. 6 0

Average Empathy SERVQUAL scores

TABLE 1: CALCULATIONS TO OBTAIN UNWEIGHTED SERVQUAL SCORE

Average Tangible SERVQUAL score Average Reliability SERVQUAL score Average Responsiveness SERVQUAL score Average Assurance SERVQUAL score Average Empathy SERVQUAL score TOTAL AVERAGE (= Total / 5) UNWEIGHTED SERVQUAL SCORE -1.4 -0.4 -0.2 0.2 0 -1.8 -0.36

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Table 2: SERVQUAL IMPORTANCE WEIGHTS

Listed below are five features pertaining to Mohalla Live website and the services they offer. We would like to know how much each of these features is important to the customer. Please allocate 100 points among the five features according to how important it is to you. Make sure the points add up to 100.

1. The appearance of the Mohalla Live website physical facilities, equipment, personnel, and communication materials. _____30 _____ points

2. The Mohalla Live website ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately. ____15________ points

3. The Mohalla Lives willingness to help readers/bloggers and provide prompt service. _____10________ points

4. The knowledge and courtesy of the Mohalla Lives employees and their ability to convey trust and confidence. _______25______ points

5. The caring, individual attention the bank provides its readers/bloggers. _______20______ points

Total:

100

points

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Table 3: SERVQUAL WEIGHTED SCORES

SERVQUAL Dimension Score from Table 1 -1.4 -0.4 -0.2 0.2 0 X Importance Weight from Table 2 30 15 10 25 20 TOTAL AVERAGE (= Total / 5) WEIGHTED SERVQUAL SCORE = Weighted Score

Average Tangible Average Reliability Average Responsiveness Average Assurance Average Empathy

-42 -6 -2 5 0 -45 -9

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2.7. Conclusion
As is evident from the above calculations, we can conclude that Mohalla Lives Website is lacking in the aspect of Tangibility the most. So we need to improve this aspect at the earliest. We can do this by increasing the ease of navigation on the website and by improving the overall looks and content of the website. Another area where Mohalla Live is found wanting, though marginally, is in the areas of Reliability and Responsiveness. It has met expectation of the readers on Empathy. An interesting aspect is that it has exceeded expectation in Assurance. Hence this is one aspect which we can leverage upon and build more on the confidence shown by the readers of the website, to make the website more beneficial for the general public, while working on the factors were it is below the expectation of the readers.

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