Assessment of service quality of wholesale construction and finishing materials sales companies: case of Lithuania

ENCustomer service is one of the main factors influencing the success of a company’s operations, as it directly determines customer satisfaction, loyalty and the company’s image. High-quality service encourages customers to return and strengthens long-term cooperation. This article analyses customer service principles and their significance, and service quality assessment methods that identify problem areas and ensure high service standards. The main criteria for assessing service quality are discussed, such as employee professionalism, speed of service, clear and polite communication, understanding customer needs and problem-solving effectiveness. The importance of feedback in improving service quality is emphasised, and customer satisfaction measurement methods are discussed, including surveys, feedback analysis and service quality methodologies. The article also underlines that continuous assessment of service quality and customer service improvement is essential to achieving long-term business growth, customer loyalty and competitive advantage. Therefore, this article aims to determine how customers assess the quality of service of wholesale construction and finishing materials sales companies, i.e., their expectations and the actual situation. A systematic analysis of scientific literature and the SERVQUAL method is used to achieve this goal. The results obtained show that companies in this sector, due to the specifics of their activities, pay little attention to meeting customer expectations. However, they still have to assess and consider customer expectations to achieve a high-quality service standard. This is the only way to adapt to market changes and ensure long-term success more effectively. Keywords: customer service, service quality, customer satisfaction, SERVQUAL, customer expectations.