Abstract

Background and Aim: A professional real estate agent offers a service that is constructed by the creation and maintenance of the relationship with both sellers and buyers. It's important for the real estate agent´s survival that he performs and delivers the service quality that customers expect. The gap model is a model used to measure various gaps in the customer's expectations in relation to the service. This study aims to investigate how selected gaps from the gap model are practically managed by professional real estate agents. In previous research, the gap - model has been criticized as it is not considered to be a dynamic but static model (McCollin, Ograjenšek, Göb & Ahlemeyer-Stubbe, 2011; Seth, Deshukh & Vrat, 2004). The static nature of the model can be considered to accumulate problems in the analysis of service and service marketing as these, unlike the model, are dynamic. 

Method: The study is based on a hermeneutic scientific tradition and a social constructionist approach where qualitative research strategy has been used. The empirical material is based on semi-structured interviews. In order to understand and analyze the material, an inductive research approach is used.

Conclusion: From the real estate agent´s perspective, three dimensions of communication are important. The study also highlights the importance of choosing the right staff. The real estate agent should be a reflection of the company he/she works for in order to perform as high service quality as possible.  

Contribution of the study: This study makes a practical contribution to the individual real estate agent and to different real estate brokerage companies by highlighting how they should practically address gaps in customer expectations. The study also makes a practical contribution to real estate brokerage companies by highlighting the importance of employing real estate agents who reflect the company's ambitions. 

Suggestion for future research: In this study, it becomes difficult to understand what includes good or poor communication, so it would have been good to design a model to measure the communication between customer and service provider more closely. Another suggestion for further research is to investigate which dimensions of communication other professional groups apply to practically remedy the gap. Investigating the gap - the model in the estate agency profession with a focus on the customers' experience of the service would also have been interesting.