A combined fuzzy AHP and fuzzy TOPSIS based strategic analysis of electronic service quality in healthcare industry

Service sector is under pressure to deliver continuing performance and quality improvement while being customer-focused. In recent terms, there exists web based or electronic service quality (e-sq) concept. With the birth of electronic commerce, it has become important to be able to monitor and enhance e-sq. Therefore, this study will examine the e-sq concept and determine the key components of e-sq. The e-sq framework is employed by the aid of service quality (SERVQUAL) methodology as the theoretical instrument. Finally, proposed e-sq framework is illustrated with a web service performance example of healthcare sector in Turkey by using a combined multiple criteria decision making (MCDM) methodology containing fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and fuzzy technique for order performance by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS). The work presented in this paper shows the applicability of the e-sq framework in explaining the complexity of aspects observed in the implementation of healthcare services via internet. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.