Managing Service Quality in Hospitality Industry

This article discusses the main theories and principles of managing service quality in the hospitality industry. It explores the importance of measuring service quality and provides insights into a customer feedback system framework. The article focuses on the case study of The South Quay Hotel, a four-star hotel near South Quay DLR station.

Service Quality

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAINBODY....................................................................................................................................1
1.Critical evaluation of the main theories and principles of managing service quality..............1
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................6
A critical appraisal of the management of service quality for the given service organisation in
the case study, establishing the impact of its current service delivery practices on the
motivation and engagement of staff............................................................................................6
TASK 3..........................................................................................................................................10
Produce a Customer Feedback System (CFS) framework that the organisation can utilise to
monitor and continually improve service quality......................................................................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
Service quality is generally depends upon output of the service delivery approach, this
factor is considering mainly in pure service systems. Service quality relates with customer
satisfaction and it is a perception of each customer who will going to get that service by an
organisation. Basically its a combination of two words service and quality. The term quality
more focus on specification and standard that involves in the service generating organisation
commitment. In hospitality industry services are having an important role which relates with
interacting with their guests to provide them hotel services in most effective manner here product
of hotel is their best services. It considered with customer's comparison in relation with service
expectations, service quality will relate with company performance on the basis of customer
experiences regarding that particular services of company is that a hotel. Hospitality industry
needs to makes sure about their services as they are completely depend upon their customer
handling and managing their services aspects. Below report is based on hospitality industry” The
South Quay Hotel” is a four star hotel, which is situated near to south quay DLR station. The
hotel consists with 100 modern and stylish en-suites Rooms with categorization in standard,
executive and premier. The report below consists with a topic of theories and principle relates
with service quality, importance of measuring service quality and involves with customer
feedback system framework.
MAINBODY
1.Critical evaluation of the main theories and principles of managing service quality.
In the context of hospitality industry, It considered with customer's comparison in relation with
service expectations, service quality will relate with company performance on the basis of
customer experiences regarding that particular services of company is that a hotel. Hospitality
industry needs to makes sure about their services as they are completely depend upon their
customer handling and managing their services aspects (Mengi 2009). This hotel considered to
be a 4 star hotel, and this ranking is completely depends upon their service quality to their
customers, on the basis of that hotel perform hospitality services. South quay hotel provides the
facilities related to hotel amenities which are prior most in the context of managing and
hospitality business is that services like gym, spa and swimming pool, they are consists with
formal dinning area, where food are serve at the brasserie and kings bar & restaurant opens at
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lunch time. This hotel attracts both business and leisure guests, and operating since 2005 A.D.
This hotel industry are operating in good service standard in quality assurance, attentiveness and
recognition. In this hotel almost 50% of employees are working on part time basis, staff turnover
is increasing day by day due to part time employability in the industry. They are given full time
job to the staff who are working in a management team and supervisor on full time job. Service
quality emphasis with importance
of their quests experience. In this hotel, guests are dealing with the problem of not getting
responses on their feedbacks. Manger working in this hotel are less focused on their guest
responses as they are more engage in the events activities related with conferences and banquet
event booking (Li 1998). Manager in this hotel are less conscious about the customers
experiences and responses towards their hotel management. They just check trip advisor on
monthly basis and instruct their employees to work on any customer responses about their
service quality. As this hotel industry are more likely to induce with hire more staffs into new
business operation of dealing the leisure part more to attract the visitors in large. So here are
some of the theories and principles of managing the service quality in hotel industry is that:
Theory of managing service quality in the context of hospitality industry in which SERVEQUAL
theory works on the principle of analysing the customer perception in the context of hospitality
industry. This theory relates with multi-item scale developed to evaluate guests perception in
relation to service quality in service, here hotel industry are dealing with each guests experience
on the basis of their services provided to them by analysing their responses towards the particular
services. The level of categorising the service quality into five constructs which is tangibles item
considered with touch and feel items, reliability which depends upon the hotel ability to perform
service accurately and dependably, responsiveness in hotel industry depends upon willingness to
help and respond to their guests needs in relation to any service requirement. Assurance element
of service quality depends upon ability of staff to inspire with confidence and trust and the last
one is empathy to them in hotel industry service quality relates with empathy deals in the extent
of caring individualized services given.
SERVQUAL considered with service quality as discrepancy between guests expectations for
particular service offers and the guest's experience on service received by the hotel industry.
These are the theory which will assist the hotel industry in relation of their quests betterment.
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In the context of hotel industry like south Quay hotel, they are having an operation of managing
both leisure and business guests, as all the conference and meetings of executive members and
quests are conduct by South Quay hotel. This theory depicts that requiring respondents to answer
on both their perception and experience. In hotel industry it is quite important for hospitality
hotel to take responses by their guests on the basis of providing them with services according to
their requirement of them. South Quay as there manager are more focus on events and
conferences due to that problem , there management is struggling to find the time to respond to
their guest feedbacks. This hotel has to emphasis on specific recruitment structure through hire
the staffs on the basis of their Hotel management background this will going to assist this hotel
industry to work effectively with skilled staffs in the hotel. Staffs with having proper knowledge
of dealing with each quests will impact the hotel in positive responses from their guests.
Service quality in hotel industry: Customer satisfaction is a psychological concepts that relates
with the feeling of well-being and pleasure which results in obtaining what one will hope for and
expects from an appealing services related with hotel. Guests satisfaction is completely based on
expectation of them from their chosen hotel services. In hotel industry like south Quay they are
operating both leisure and business class people so they depends upon quests review and their
experiences (Lewis and et. al., 1994). Before going for any product and services, guests are
always have their personal expectation regarding particular product and services. After getting
these services, guests will respond hotel industry about positive and negative feedbacks.
Service quality: In the context of hospitality industry like South Quay, they are consists with
three dimensions of elements is that physical facilities, materials and staffs. It basically divides
into two aspects like functional quality and technical qualities. The approach of service quality
depends upon assurance, reliability, empathy, responsiveness and tangibility. In context of South
Quay hotel, they are having with 100 modern and stylish en-suite rooms includes with executive,
standard and premier. So they have to be make sure about their hospitality on prior basis,
manager should takes regular checks on their Trip advisor reviews by their guests regarding their
services and facilities to them.
Principles of managing service quality in hotel industry is that systematic management in
relation to quality improves the overall growth of a hotel. These benefits are highly lucrative and
can help in boosting the hotel brand value,. Guests will satisfy only when they received the best
possible services by their hotel brand in which they are staying. In context of hotel industry like
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South Quay they are having with principle of managing their services quality through the process
of benchmarking, measurement and rating. Hotel mangers will drives by customer satisfaction to
ensure that quality should by provided in best possible way to their guests. Service quality will
be determine by guests feedbacks, hospitality strategies should be made on the basis of dealing
with guests for their particular services.
Measurement: This hotel industry depends upon the measurement to identify the standard of
their service delivered and will determine problem related to quality of the same. In hotel
industry there is aspect of measuring the quality of services and by satisfaction level of guests
can benefits the hotel through both qualitative as well as quantitative approach (Oldfield 2000).
By measuring the performance of hotel South quay will going to attain with customer loyalty and
also improves ROI, Market share and cost reduction and having with employees satisfaction etc.
Rating: Every hotel industry are having with aim of securing the top position on ranking based
on hotel indexes. Its officially certified with high level of quality in relation with services offered
by reputed hotel. Rating helps on the basis of providing assistance to the travellers on searching
for the best service providing hotel through giving them rating on their particular service quality
and responses by their visitors in past. In context of hospitality of South Quay operates on taking
feedbacks and responses through their guest by checking onto their particular travelling website
Trip advisor. They are currently having with problems relates to managing the customers
feedbacks as their manager are not completely focus on guests satisfaction, they do not check on
their hospitality service to the guests on trip advisor on regular basis. This hotel are trying to to
get into leisure operations in large. The management team are struggling to deals with customers
feedbacks as, this will result in poor growth and value of industry will going to be affected, if
manager will not respond in fast manner. A high rating will motivates management team to
improve their operations and will deliver an accurate level of service management.
Benchmarking: In this hotel industry benchmarking plays an important role, to enhance the
quality of customer satisfaction, many hotels are adopting the benchmarking strategy. This
approach will assist the management to determine their potential competitors and what strategies
they are inducing with to work in competitive environment (LeBlanc and et. al., 1988). Hotel
new innovative approach to deal their customers will separates them from poor facilities and low
rating hotels. Benchmarking depends upon the performance of a hotel. To ensure service quality
in proper manner they have to adopt the benchmark approach as an performance tool.
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These principle allows the customer to feel satisfied in relation to their particular services,
through increased satisfaction will shows increased customer loyalty. In case of hotel industry,
service quality plays an important role as this aspect will impact the customer experience and
through the help of proper service quality management, manager will having ease in determines
the loyalty of customers on their brand (Ostrowski and et. al., 1993). By making efforts in
interacting with customers and staffs manager will adopt the value of guest oriented approach
while working in hotel industry.
Physical perception also plays an crucial role in determining the customer experience, by hotel
infrastructure and ambience this will leads to show brand value of hotel industry in quite
effective manner.
In enhancing the service quality hotels are more likely to invest for security reason through
which customer will feel safe and it will impact on brand reputation of particular business.
Service quality management will ensure about customers should feel more relaxed through
proper safety and security facilities for them. In context of hotel South Quay they have to focus
on security basis as this is a current need of every hotel industry to work according to the guests
responses towards particular service. In this highly competitive scenario, to manage the service
quality is crucial for obtaining sustainable competitive advantage and confidence of customers in
brand. South Quay hotels are basically depends upon hospitality services by having the visitors
with executive staying room facility as they are more focused on events and conferences so they
deals their all operations on the basis of dealing their guests on traditional approach as they are
not mainly focuses on recruitment process they are just hiring on the basis of ad-hoc basis.
Importance of measuring the service quality approach by a hotel industry is that:
In context of hotel industry like South Quay, they are having an approach to deal in both leisure
and business class customer as they are relatively engage in providing with best staying facilities.
They have to work according to the proper service quality management is that importance of
measuring the service quality will leads to provide better service in comparison with other hotel
services (Hernon 2010). By monitoring the quality of staff- customers interaction in relation to
across multiple channels, it will leads to provides with effective decision making, processes and
services through
having proper customers interaction between them.
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 It is quite important for the hospitality staffs is to gather all the customer feedbacks
channels,and through applying the same quality standard which is use for calls to text
based-interactions in form of chats and e-mail. By measuring the feedbacks records will
effectively provides hotel industry an edge to work on their service quality performances
through past experiences and interaction level with them.
South Quay needs to measure the recruitment process of their hotel, and have to work
accordingly (Schvaneveldt and et. al., 1991). As they are not having any approach of recruiting
plans so by work on recruitment process through hiring the candidates on the basis of
qualification and skills of specific internship value. This approach will leads to provide better
growth through attaining skilful staffs in this hotel.
 In hotel industry, customer satisfaction is a metric, industry can use in overcoming the
gaps related to any services related scenario. By measuring and tracking customer
satisfaction, hotel industry will put new processes as per the responses by their guests on
particular service approach through this hotel.
 By measuring service quality, will leads to provide with information about what sort of
requirement that a hotel industry really needed in serving the value to their customers.
Every organisation relates wit hospitality industry works on the principle of providing
with excellent services to their guests according to their demand in respect of particular
service.
 Service quality management deals with all aspects related with providing services in
relation of safety and security basis, customer will feel relaxed with this hotel facilities
commitment to them, this will leads to improves the brand image of this hotel industry.
TASK 2
A critical appraisal of the management of service quality for the given service organisation in the
case study, establishing the impact of its current service delivery practices on the
motivation and engagement of staff
From the given case study, it can be concluded that the staff of The South Quay Hotel was facing
problems related to their wages or salaries because of lack of rewards and incentives. It gave
result in the less interest of employees towards the organisation, high employment turnover and
higher unemployment (Herington 2009). Because of not following any planned approach in the
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given Hotel is resulting in the dissatisfaction of employees towards their work or job profile.
While they are planning to do something innovation in their services, management of The South
Quay Hotel contracted with a service quality consultant which is trying to analyse the current
situation and the organisation standard. This quality service check will provide the complete
report to the Hotel which state the quality of services which they provide to their customers and
suggest various changes. The South Quay Hotel had made various modifications in the last one
year and those implements were seen on all the functional departments.
Current practises
The South Quay Hotel adopted current practices which is related to the recognition of those
changes which the employees of hotel undertake to provide best services to the customer so that
they can feel satisfy by spending money (Svensson 2006). Customers or clients are in direct
contact with the front office executive or front office department. So they have responsibility to
establish relationship with them. By making a relationship with customers, they can know about
the inconvenience faced by the customer while staying in their hotel in a early manner. Also by
this, they can make good communication with customer and make them comfortable so that they
can get desired ratings on various social media. Along with this, managing the tasks as well as
handling the customers for attaining higher attention and minimising waiting time of guest, this
will help them to attract the guest towards their services. It can also be said that assigning the
tasks to various employees for removing any confusion or making clarity of tasks is also a major
responsibility of front office department. It is necessary for front office department to follow
some steps in regarding to handle tasks in a different way, some of them are given below:
 Each and every customer and employee should be behaved as indistinguishable and a
very polite way. For learning the employees about the behaviour and way of treating in
front of customer, organisation arranges various sessions, so that their employees get to
know about how to treat the guest.
 If the customer is facing any problem, it is the responsibility of front desk officers to
solve the problem as soon as possible. If they are not able to handle the situation, they
should inform about the same to their higher authority so that they can solve the issues
faced by the customers.
Customers of The South Quay Hotel are facing the high waiting problem during check in and
check out. It is also in the hand of front office department to manage all the activities in such a
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way so that they can handle the guests in a good and impressive manner (Fischer and et. al.,
1997). It is the responsibility of front office department that they should serve the customer on
time for minimising the waiting time.
If The South Quay Hotel wants to provide higher satisfaction, it is necessary for them to
follow above mentioned steps. These steps will help the organisation in providing best
services to their guests. From the given case study it is analysed that the customers are facing
various problems while check in, check out and stay, and because of this they are rating very
poor on various social media platforms.
Managerial Implications
It is necessary for management of organisation to make some efforts for reducing the
problems which are related to the staff members of organisation. It is only possible by the
proper coordination among all the departments and employees of organisation. Following are
the various aspects that are beneficial for organisation:
 Providing Customised Services- Motivation plays an important role in the
employees while they are serving to customers and guest’s requirement are dynamic.
So it is necessary for the management of The South Quay Hotel to motivate their
employees, so that they can fulfil the changeable requirement of customers in a
satisfactory manner. Management have to motivate employees for laying excellence
among the complete organisation for performing their work with the reason of
satisfying consumers.
Employment of employees- Workforce is an essential element in any business and it
is necessary for the success of business that all the employees shouls be motivated
with the complete workforce aspects.
From the given case study, it is found that The South Quay Hotel is not managing some aspects
of employees motivation i.e. Monetary Rewards, incentives etc. This indicate that the employees
of organisation are not motivated toward the goal of organisation (Dabholkar 1996). If the hotel
start the distribution of some incentives, rewards, it will motivate the employees towards their
work performance because it will satisfy the needs of individuals which gives result in the higher
satisfaction of customers.
It is necessary for all organisations to do some work for the employees which will
motivate them towards their work as it will help the organisation to achieve the desired goals and
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objectives. Also, it will be easy for the organisation to adopt some changes in their services to
provide unforgettable experience to the customers.
It is well known that employees of any organisation can be motivated in two ways: first
one is monetary and second one is job related threats. Along with the basic pay of employee,
providing some extra rewards in the terms of money is known as motivation in the term of
monetary. It can be incentives, some rewards etc. It helps the employees to satisfy personal need.
For gaining monetary rewards they improve their work performance at work place. Monetary
rewards are the aspects in the given case study to motivate workforce of The South Quay Hotel.
Engagement of Workforce and employee’s
An emotional commitment which can be used to complete all the works as per the
requirement of leader is known as Employee’s engagement. It is also a useful aspect in
organisation which helps in the contribution of employees in the desired goals and objectives.
For managing and completing all the tasks of organisation, it is necessary for leaders to motivate
their subordinates in order to improve their performance and to reach on the desired position of
organisation. Mainly it is used by leaders so that the tasks should be completed in an accurate
manner as it drives the performance.
To allow customers about their views- It allows the employees of organisation to work
according to the suggestions made by their leaders as they are highly motivated by the
performance of their leader. Also, formulating various strategies will help the hotel in the
reduction of challenges faced by the employees. Also this will help the employees for making a
good communication relation with customers which leads in the interaction of customers with
organisation and this will also create the participative culture in the organisation which gives
result in the long term involvement of employees (Broderick 2002). This will reduce the training
cost. Moreover, it helps the recruitment team in finding the capable employees for their
organisation.
 Design Mentorship program- Another way of motivating employees which helps
in the involvement of employees in the management by inspiring them towards the
goals and objectives of organisation is Mentorship Program. A motivated employee
always perform their tasks in effective and efficient way which leads not only the
organisational growth, but it also result in the personal growth of employees. It can be
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suggested to all business organisation to involve their employees in the management
to improve the productivity level.
Given case study shows that because of lack of motivation the employees of The South Quay
Hotel are not so active and good in their work. This result in the negative employer and
employee relation, along with this it gives negative impact on the customers. Because of this, the
customers are not satisfied with the services of Hotel. They should keep their employees or staff
happy by providing action involvement of employees, monetary rewards, incentives etc. so that
they can achieve higher consumer satisfaction.
TASK 3
Produce a Customer Feedback System (CFS) framework that the organisation can utilise to
monitor and continually improve service quality.
To know about the feedbacks of customers, CFS tool is used which gives the methods to do the
same. The South Quay is a four star hotel, having 100 modern and stylish en-suit rooms. It is
necessary to know about the feedback of their customers in order to make services best for them.
The managers of hotel are trying to develop CFS for getting the ideas of problems faced by their
customers:
Why to collect customer feedback- Consumer feedback model is the process of collecting the
information about services which the organisation provide to any customers. It helps in knowing
about the reasons behing the factors which cause dissatisfaction to customers. The South Quay
Hotel have to know the reasons why they are getting negative feedback (Bojanic and et. al.,
1994). They collect the feedbacks from a number of customers and it is found that many negative
feedbacks are because of high waiting time, some other issues because of under staff etc. For
solving the issues, it is necessary that the feedback should be clear and error free.
Create efficient customer feedback loop- As mentioned above that, to solve the problems of
customers it is necessary to have proper error free and clear feedbacks. Various major aspects are
given below:
Ask- While collecting feedback from the customer, the management should ask the verified
questions related to their products and services. The management should know about the need
and expectations of customers so that they can adopt some changes which can remove the
problems of customers. Also, management should keep the record of all customers, their
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requirements, their expectations etc. so that they can provide service according to their
preference.
Distribution of customer feedback- For providing clear meaning to the organisation,
management try to divide the feedback among the various sections of the organisation, so that
they can remove the problems of customers by coordinating with all the departments and
employees. This will help the organisation to solve the problems in time effective and efficient
way which will provide the satisfaction to the customers regarding the services (Alanezi and et.
al, 2010). It is also found that the tools of collecting feedbacks like live chat sessions, knowledge
based articles etc. are adopted by the managerial team for making interaction with customers so
that they can enhance the quality of services according to the need or requirement of customers.
Actions on the customer feedback- At this step, customer’s feedback are analysed and actions
are undertaken in order to solve the problems of customers. In hospitality industry, it is necessary
to collect feedback of customers and work on it for getting a positive reputation in the market
also it leads to the positive feedback on various social media platforms. Also the organisation
should examine all the decisions twice from the customer’s point of view. For establishing a
good relation with customer and making a good position of organisation in the market, it is a
huge step which the hotel have been to undertaken for ensuring the customer comfortability.
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CONCLUSION
It has been concluded from the above report is that every organisation in relation to hotel
industry have to work on the principle of providing the customers with proper satisfaction. Hotel
industry are more likely to invest in their service quality management as they are completely
depends upon the customers feedbacks and responses. Hotel industry are relatively focuses on
customer feedbacks system which is based on travelling websites where customers mentions
responses and experiences like on Trip advisor and Rezlive etc. Hotel industry have to work on
their services according to the customer responses towards how they really feel while visiting
into that particular hotel. They should be work according to customer oriented approach as well
as maintaining service quality management.
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