Managing Quality in Hospitality, Tourism and Events

Managing Quality in
Hospitality, Tourism and
Events

INTRODUCTION
British Airways is one of the world’s largest airlines and is also considered as the number
one European airline across the North Atlantic. The company is headquartered in London,
England and is the second largest airline in United Kingdom (Higgins-Desbiolles, 2018). The
company is significantly transforming the customer experience through investment (British
Airways, 2020). The company has been facing a lot of issues, unsatisfied customers being one of
them. The report focuses on one quality issue that the company has been facing and the reasons
behind it. It also provides an understanding of the company’s competencies and capabilities.
Suitable recommendations regarding how can the company improve the quality of its services
are also provided.
MAIN BODY
Quality Issue
British Airways is a world-famous airline company that was earlier known as “the
world’s favorite airline”. But the company has been facing issues relating to poor service and
unsatisfied customers and a record fine of £183m that began in 2018. The company even
increased the number of passengers but the operating profits still remained the same. As a result,
the company has been receiving poor reviews from customers on Skytrax and other online
review websites. A passenger wrote a review regarding the company not returning the refund of
a cancelled flight (British Airways, 2020). The company has been holding on to the money
illegally.
The Gap Model is a business tool that can be used by companies to identify the gap
between the customers’ experiences as well as their expectations (Horner, 2017). The model is
explained below in context to British Airways.
Gap 1: The Knowledge Gap – This particular gap can be a result of the management
having no idea about the expectations of the customers and also a lack of communication
between the employees as well as the management of the company.
Gap 2: The Policy Gap – Poorly defined levels of service, failure to update them
regularly as well as a lack of customer service standard can lead to this gap. It basically arises

when the management of a company fails to understand the needs of customers and provide them
different services instead.
Gap 3: The Delivery Gap – This gap usually arises when a company fails to match the
supply with the demand or there is a lack of teamwork in the company to deliver products or
services.
Gap 4: The Communication Gap – The communication gap is a result of the company
over promising to its customers and then failing to deliver the same to them (Manners, Kruger
and Saayman, 2016). In context British Airways, the company had overpromised its customers
regarding services offered in the flight that it failed to provide them with.
Gap 5: The Customer Gap – Many companies may not identify this gap and can come up
when the customers misinterpret the quality of service they receive. It can also rise because one
of the four gaps stated above.
Illustration 1: Gap Model
Source: Gap Model of Service Quality, 2018