Customer service quality and Customer Satisfaction in hospitality industry

This research paper analyzes the importance of customer satisfaction in the hospitality industry, with a focus on ADGE apartment hotel and Melbourne Marriot hotels. It explores the challenges faced by hotels in maintaining customer satisfaction and loyalty, and offers strategies for improvement.

Running head: Customer Services 1
Tourism and Business Research
Customer service quality and Customer Satisfaction in hospitality industry

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Contents
Background......................................................................................................................................3
Significance.....................................................................................................................................3
Problem Statement and Objectives..................................................................................................4
Scope................................................................................................................................................4
Literature Review............................................................................................................................4
Reference List..................................................................................................................................7
Appendices......................................................................................................................................8

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Background
Customer satisfaction is vital for the hospitality industry as it develops the economic condition of
the particular country. Satisfied customers with products and brands are most likely become
loyal customers and keep spreading good word of the hotel. In case of disappointment from
products and services, they will most likely switch off brands and talk bad about provided bad
services from the hotel. The research is conducted on “Customer service quality and Customer
Satisfaction in hospitality industry”. There are some hotels that apply customer centric approach
and provide the better services to the clients because customer contentment is a crucial
component of their businesses. ADGE apartment hotel and Melbourne Marriot hotels are the
example of them because these hotels are having huge range of services such as dining, fitness
and effective deals. It has been found that all 185 rooms of Melbourne Marriot hotels features in-
room childcare, in-room dining, pillow top beds and premium bedding, free news paper and
supportive staff that help customers instantly. ADGE apartment hotel is situated in 22 Riley
Street, Surry Hillls, Sydney, Australia. It has various features such as kitchen, parking,
restaurant, pool, 24 hour reception and many more that are sufficient to make customer satisfied
(Booking, 2018). The study is being conducted to analyse the importance of customer
satisfaction in hospitality industry. there are various examples of hotels all over the world that
provide high quality of customer satisfaction and customer quality services such as Sporting
Club Hotel which is situated in Italy and adopted the critical incident approach with semi-
structured and unstructured interviews to provide the better services to its customers (Dominici
and Guzzo, 2010). However, there are many hotels in the hospitality industry that are facing
issues to satisfy the customers from the services and it is ongoing due to increase competition in
the industry and demand of the customers.

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Significance
The rationale of the study is to define the role of customer satisfaction in the hotels of Australia.
This study will help service givers such as hotel to know about the significance of care to their
clients in term to know the role of customer satisfaction in the enlargement of the organization.
Management and marketing is the significant part of the hotel industry. This research will
evaluate the various factors regarding hospitality management and marketing which would be
helpful to know the factors that may attract tourist towards organization and along with that there
are various way by which customers can satisfied but there is need to be attentive. The way of
attentiveness will be facilitated reader about which process should be implemented in an
adequate manner to attract customers towards services so that the revenue of the hotel can
increase. In the context of academic interest, this research will facilitates many researchers in the
same filed to do the other research for another concern to the same filed.

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Problem Statement and Objectives
Customer satisfaction is vital aspect for the hotel industry to attain the competitive advantages
but there are so many hotels that may face challenges to satisfy the customer because of
diversity, language difference, human rights and discrimination. Competition has increased
significantly in the hospitality industry that makes it hard to keep maintain their customers.
The major objectives of this research are defined below:
 To determine the level of customer satisfaction in various hotels.
 To explore the challenges faced by their clients for setting up the strategies to improve
customer satisfaction.
 To examine how different hotels can keep maintaining their current customer satisfaction
and loyalty and concurrently attain potential customers to get better margins in profit.
Scope
The scope of the research is wide as the customer satisfaction is vital component for the
hospitality industry. There are many travellers who visit ADGE apartment hotel and Melbourne
Marriot hotel for business purpose and they prefer the age group between 30 to 60 years. The
geographical scope of this research is international because Australia is the place where people
come for business purpose from different countries. International guest is preferred who live
outside from the geographical country border of Australia. The research will be conducted from
June to August 2018.

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Literature Review
As per Jana & Chandra (2016), customer satisfaction is considered as a vital component of the
hotel industry. Customer retention is the major point for prospering the hotel industry. Basically,
the faithfulness of the clients is dependent on the quality given by the hotel industry.
Furthermore, the industry of hospitality has experienced of many new entrants who are
enthusiastic to meet all requirements of their clients. On the other hand it has been stated by
Clemes, Gan and Ren, (2011), that customer satisfaction can be done by marketing efforts which
should be guide to emphasize the environmental features of the area in order to draw attention of
new customers. According to Tsiotsou & Goldsmith, (2012), there are various reasons of
lagging behind in comparison of others hotel and one of them is customer loyalty. Customer
loyalty is considered as an element that reflects the effectiveness of the management and entire
stakeholders.
Customer service quality and satisfaction are the major aspects that are the cause of the
marketing theory and practices. In today’s era, competition has increased day by day and the key
to a sustainable competitive benefit remains in providing upper quality of services those
outcomes in satisfied customers. It has been evaluated from the research of Ladhari, (2009), that
there are many customers of hotel that face challenges in the form on inadequate services from
hotels such as improper guidance, lack of greetings, unhygienic facilities, inappropriate
infrastructure and many more (Bharwani and Butt, 2012). These challenges are being the biggest
reason for customer dissatisfaction that reduce the goodwill of the company. Along with that
there might be potential challenges such as professionalization of hotel workers, government
requirements and competition among hoteliers have to be faced by the hotels for developing the

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competitive advantages and retain profit in operating the business of hotel in Australia (Rivera
and Upchurch, 2008).
It has been found that ADGE apartment hotel and Melbourne Marriot hotel are come under top
most hotels of Australia that provide number of services to the clients. International tourists
come to stay in these hotels for business purpose. Melbourne Marriot hotel is situated in the
central business district and other well known places for visiting is situated nearby which helps
to attract customers to visit this hotel in comparison of others (Marriott, 2018). As per Pearce and
Robinson, (2011), the relationship between price, value and service quality is enormous. Price is
the major factor of every hotel all over the world that is regarding to service excellence and in
specific behavioural purposes. Bai, Law and Wen, (2008), acknowledges that the hotel services
has the nature of intangible and therefore customers of the hotel cannot determine for what they
are paying, which in revolve makes it hard for the factor of price to be obvious. According to
Hu, Kandampully and Juwaheer, (2009), if the perception of customers for value is positive only
then customer will buy the services due to acceptable prices. If customer recognize the price of
same product is too low, in such case they may refrain to buy things due to suspicious of the
quality. Other researchers have different perception regarding above mentioned description that
customers are enthusiastic to pay more money in order to get high quality services (Chand,
2010). Thus, the customers of Melbourne Marriot hotel are satisfied as they are getting high
quality services from the hotel while they have to pay more money in comparison of average
hotels. It has been analysed that branded services has high rate in comparison of others.
In the context of ADGE apartment hotel, it can be stated that the service of this hotel is different
from other one. It has the customer centric approach which makes it top most hotel of the
Australia. The property of this hotel is situated in one of the best location in Sydney (Booking,

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2018). It has been defined by Jahanshahi, Gashti, Mirdamadi, Nawaser and Khaksar, (2011), the
major input to quality of services is by the supervisors who direct hotel employees. The role of
the manger influence to the employees’ role, service delivery system and greatly impact
organizational cultures. All of these factors have huge influence on the interactions between
service employees and customers. The mangers of these hotels are entirely responsible for the
activities of the staff as they guide them how to treat customers in what way. It is essential for
hotels to offer training and development program to the staff after analysing the amending
demands of the customers towards the services (Rivera and Upchurch, 2008).
It has been found that the customer service is the keystone of any blooming business and in
today’s era people lives in a service economy where it has been demonstrated that it expenses
more than thrice times to get potential customers in comparison to sustain the satisfaction and
customer loyalty of an existing customers. There is various reason of customer dissatisfaction in
the hospitality industry such as improper training, amendments in government policies,
inadequate staff, lack of infrastructure and lack of managerial skills within the organization. it
has been found from the article of Chand, (2010), that in the highly competitive environment
where the expectations of the customers should be exceeded, managers require to increase in
information collecting, action taking and decision making, mangers of both hotels should be
engaged in planning, organizing, staffing, leading and controlling in the activities. It is very hard
to manage the hotels in an adequate manner because the sector is fragmented and includes a huge
number of contacts. On the other hand the employees’ role is in service quality is as important as
managers’ role. It is vital for the employees of the hotel to provide the full respect to a customer.
Personality is the dimension that refers in the form of behavioural pattern that constrains staff to
be with people in continuous manner and enjoy that interaction. Skills are the major capability of

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the employees of the hotels that offer effective services to the customers and make them
connected with the hotel for a long period.
From the above overview, it can be concluded that the role of managers and employees in both
hotels ADGE apartment hotel and Melbourne Marriot hotels are major as they are responsible to
provide the effective services to the customers in order that they can get satisfied from the
provided services. It is vital for the hospitality industry to consider customer satisfaction on prior
basis. It has been found in the term of argument that employees are a vital component of the
services provided, but it is essential to be balanced with the perception of the customer of what
represent affordable prices of the services for the specific location with huge facilities that should
be able to satisfy the customers

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Reference List
Bai, B., Law, R. and Wen, I., 2008. The impact of website quality on customer satisfaction and
purchase intentions: Evidence from Chinese online visitors. International journal of hospitality
management, 27(3), pp.391-402.
Bharwani, S. and Butt, N., 2012. Challenges for the global hospitality industry: an HR
perspective. Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes, 4(2), pp.150-162.
Booking, 2018. Adge Apartment Hotel. Available on: https://www.booking.com/hotel/au/adge-
apartment.en.html?aid=311984;label=adge-apartment-
5YUBTZla7kkO9wgYq42AcQS166829471225:pl:ta:p1:p2300,000:ac:ap1t1:neg:fi:tiaud-
146342138710:kwd-
48714706803:lp9061783:li:dec:dm;ws=&gclid=CjwKCAjwiPbWBRBtEiwAJakcpA32mC6TbZ
Lefg0ljDto7JJYJXD6ZbTKqCfPJI5kLpSNrCmMssisgxoCW00QAvD_BwE. Accessed on 23rd
April, 2018.
Chand, M., 2010. The impact of HRM practices on service quality, customer satisfaction and
performance in the Indian hotel industry. The International Journal of Human Resource
Management, 21(4), pp.551-566.
Clemes, M.D., Gan, C. and Ren, M., 2011. Synthesizing the effects of service quality, value, and
customer satisfaction on behavioral intentions in the motel industry: An empirical
analysis. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research, 35(4), pp.530-568.
Dominici, G. and Guzzo, R., 2010. Customer satisfaction in the hotel industry: a case study from
Sicily. International Journal of Marketing Studies , Vol. 2(2). pp-

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Hu, H.H., Kandampully, J. and Juwaheer, T.D., 2009. Relationships and impacts of service
quality, perceived value, customer satisfaction, and image: an empirical study. The service
industries journal, 29(2), pp.111-125.
Jahanshahi, A.A., Gashti, M.A.H., Mirdamadi, S.A., Nawaser, K. and Khaksar, S.M.S., 2011.
Study the effects of customer service and product quality on customer satisfaction and
loyalty. International Journal of Humanities and Social Science, 1(7), pp.253-260.
Jana, A., & Chandra, B., 2016. Mediating Role of Customer Satisfaction in the MidMarket
Hotels: An Empirical Analysis. Indian Journal Of Science And Technolo-gy, 9(1).
Ladhari, R., 2009. Service quality, emotional satisfaction, and behavioural intentions: A study in
the hotel industry. Managing Service Quality: An International Journal, 19(3), pp.308-331.
Marriott, One Program. Endless Inspiration. Available on: https://www.marriott.com/default.mi.
Accessed on 23rd April, 2018.
Pearce, J. A. and Robinson, R. B., 2011.Strategic Management: Formulation, Implementation,
and Control.(12th Ed.).Boston Burr Ridge: McGrawHill/Irwin
Rivera, M.A. and Upchurch, R., 2008. The role of research in the hospitality industry: A content
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Management, 27(4), pp.632-640.
Tsiotsou, R., & Goldsmith, R., 2012. Strategic marketing in tourism services. Bingley: Emerald.

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Appendices
Figure 1: ADGE apartment hotel

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Figure 2: Melbourne Marriot hotel

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Figure 3: Customer Satisfaction model